Between Truths ║Dahkook║K.DH J.JK

aftermaths and guilt

CHAPTER IX

"I knew it. Most of my bets did make the team." Jungkook heard the boast, galling and nettlesome. It came from the boy in the floral print shirt. Chanwoo—Jungkook had only ever seen him in a neon jersey, so the image was a little jarring. 

"Mingyu and Jaehyun don't count. They were going to make team anyways, everyone knew that. The coaches didn't bother hide it." A second argued. Taeyang. They stood in a loose circle around the pinboard.

"I don't just mean the two of them. I was right about the rest too."

"Except Hayden didn't make it. Jungkook didn't either." While Taeyang's tone had been hard, his eyes shifted, furtive, in Jungkook's direction. Jungkook finished tying his laces to watch them openly from the bench, lips thinned.

"Well sucks that they don't take in freshmen."

"Who said they don't?" Jaehyun swooped in the conversation. They turned to him in surprise. No one heard him approach.

"They never did."

"None was good enough."

"Come on, Jaehyun. Even you have to agree that Jungkook is as good as the rest of the team."

"Ask him why he wasn't there for the try-outs." Jaehyun said, eyes hardening to ice. Jungkook sensed storms from him. He was the wind that would pull in white clouds, ready to shape them into monsters.

"I couldn't make it that day; I was out sick," Jungkook explained to the eyes that had shifted onto him; remembering Hayden's lies for him.

"Pity. I don't see Hayden's name on the list either. I saw him play. Had always thought he was good too." Chanwoo said while Jaehyun stayed grimly quiet next to him.

"Pity? You couldn't be more insincere if you tried. You probably only made the team because they didn't," his friend called him out, his joke rough.

"Not when Hayden played sloppy. Who was he hoping to impress like that?" Jaehyun said before Chanwoo could retort, unapologetic.

"It was just one game; he had always played well otherwise," Chanwoo said instead. Conciliatorily. A little uncomfortable too. Because it never meant to be that serious.

"You only get one game to win the championship. So, what if he does well every time during practice? He still couldn't perform when it matters," Jaehyun replied, cutting.

"He is your friend," Jungkook said, already in front of Jaehyun in the heart of the circle before he knew it.

"The way he isn't yours?" Jaehyun jumped at him then.

"I'm not the one to insult him."

"Oh I would have believed you." Jaehyun became chipper. There was a smile on the corner of his mouth too. They were too sharp to have been friendly. "Except you've done worse to insult him."

"You're talking shit."

"I was there, I heard everything you said, Jungkook."

The reminder of his sins broke the quiet water under the bridge as if it were a drowning man finally breaking through the surface for air. Jungkook had been pushing the thoughts down for the weekends. He was surprised it lived as it did, screaming and wreaking havoc. He should have done something sooner; should have looked for Hayden to clear this up sooner. He had never been one to avoid problems before, but he also had never been the one at the hilt of a bloodied blade before. "You know I don't mean that."