on opposite ends | vsoo

THE TRUTH FROM YOUR LIPS

CHAPTER NINETEEN.

"Should we tell Jisoo?"

"She's not going to believe it, even if it does come from us. He's just done so much."

"I think we should tell her, give her a heads up. She'll be in shock."

"She's stronger than you think, Seulgi. We should let her find it out herself. From him."

"She doesn't deserve this. It's unfair."

"No, she doesn't. But she'll only believe it once it comes from him."

•─────⋅☾ ☽⋅─────•

The prospect of sitting face to face with Taehyung with nothing but a table keeping them apart terrified her. Her stomach churned and she held her breath when she sat down, looking at everywhere other than his eyes. He was shackled by the wrists and ankles. She may be in his prison cell but she still had to be cautious. She can't allow herself to be so comfortable at the fact that he was chained and there were a dozen guards outside. Even though he was unarmed and looked helpless, he was still dangerous.

It took her two hours to calm herself down when she woke up this morning. She had read Jinyoung's letter, it was practically a summons, and the first thing she thought of was that she didn't want to talk to Taehyung at all. She wanted out. It was like a slap to her dead parents' face and to Bona's.

Jisoo figured that capturing Taehyung would be the end of it. She would finally be at peace with her retched past, but it left a huge hole in her chest instead. A feeling of emptiness that stuck to her skin, and it went all the way down to her bones. This wasn't enough. She had questions about that night, and Taehyung was the only one who could answer them.

He looked like he had been beaten up despite the lack of physical evidence to attest such. She could just feel the lack of energy from him. He wasn't physically tortured, but she could tell that Jinyoung had not been forgiving with his interrogation either. He must have done a total overhaul in Taehyung's mind. Taehyung was stripped off his fancy robes and cloaks into nothing but a brown monochromatic pair of shirt and pants. He still managed to look ten times more menacing though, which made Jisoo feel even more jumpy but she managed to glance at him from the corner of her eyes.

He was already staring at her and she wanted to run away right then and there. His eyes held emotions in them this time, emotions that Jisoo does not want to linger on because there's a spark of familiarity in them. She sees eyes that once belonged to a boy she loved. This is a version of him that comes closest to the Taehyung she once knew. It's why she just can't bare to look at him, to be this close to him, because despite everything he's done and would have continued to do if she hadn't stopped him, she still sees him as the boy who once offered her his heart. Part of the reason why she's scared of confronting him is because she sees all the memories of her past in every line of his face: the good ones, the evil ones, the ones that pieced her together and the ones that broke her apart.

Jisoo suppresses a sob breaking out from her. She shouldn't be this easily swayed at the fact that his eyes seemed more familiar now, that he seemed more familiar somehow. From an Auror's perspective, a feeling of suspicion tugs at her guts. There was something wrong with him and she was about to find out what it was right now.

"You're going to drink this." Her voice was firm and forceful, mustering all the courage she had, but her hands were shaky as she placed a small vial of veritaserum in between them, giving away her fear. She did not look up at him, she found that she couldn't stare into his eyes for more than five seconds because if she did, the fear would continue to nurture inside of her and she couldn't afford that. Even if he didn't use magic, he'd still be able to pick her apart just by looking at her eyes and that thought was enough to keep her fear alive.