UNCHOSEN ONES | TAEKOOK

𝟶𝟿 ☾ 𝚒𝚝'𝚜 𝚊𝚕𝚕 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚛𝚜 (𝚙𝚊𝚛𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚛𝚎𝚎)

𝟶𝟿

☾

Eventually, Jeongguk settled in one of the guest rooms on the second floor.

Seojun's mother had seemed very reluctant to let him stay there, but in the end, she had to give in. Taehyung had asked Jeongguk where he would stay otherwise, but Jeongguk had merely shaken his head and beckoned to him in the direction of Seojun's parents, who were watching them.

Since Jeongguk had entered the house, everything had become more feverish. Tenser. Seojun had almost suffered a heart attack when she saw Jeongguk sitting at the table with their whole family in the kitchen – she had looked at Taehyung, stunned, and Taehyung had simply shrugged.

He didn't know why Jeongguk was there too.

Seojun seemed more deeply troubled, and something in her gaze hinted that it wasn't just a matter of concern. There was more. Other than Taehyung understood it only because everyone seemed to treat Jeongguk like a stranger, even his own father.

Taehyung and Seojun had settled in Seojun's bedroom. As soon as Taehyung entered the room, there was no doubt that it belonged to his girlfriend. The style was the same as his apartment in Seoul: light wooden floor, walls painted gray and light blue, polaroid photos attached to the frame of the bed.

Taehyung recognized some people in the photo, including Jae and Minjun – her friends for years who also lived in Seoul. Most Saturday evenings Seojun spent her time with them. Taehyung had met them and recognized them only because Jae had her hair dyed blue, while Minjun bleached blond. If they had similar hair, Taehyung wasn't sure he would be able to recognize them. They incredibly resembled each other even though they weren't related.

"Want me to show you around?"

Taehyung turned to Seojun, sitting on the bed. "There's something interesting to see?"

Seojun shrugged. "Not really, no. But I could show you the places I used to go when I was little."

"If you want," said Taehyung, "then it's all right."

"No, if you want," replied she. She pointed to the space next to her on the bed and Taehyung walked until he found himself sitting next to her. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing it's wrong," lied Taehyung. There was something wrong but Taehyung couldn't pinpoint what.

It was just... the fact that the day before everybody looked so pissed off when Jeongguk showed up. Or maybe it was the way everybody treated him like shit. Or they didn't consider him.

Taehyung could see the hurt on Jeongguk's face when they acted like he wasn't there. They asked Taehyung a lot of questions – about his family, what he studied, and so on. All practical questions that Taehyung didn't give a shit about. Then, they talked about Seojun or to Seojun.

Nobody had asked anything about Jeongguk. To Jeongguk.

A ghost. That was what Jeongguk was to them. At first, Taehyung thought it was because they didn't think he would come. Then, he discovered that that wasn't the reason. They simply ignored him. Taehyung couldn't understand how they were able to do so. Ignoring Jeongguk was hard. Challenging.

And they wanted Taehyung to pretend that Jeongguk wasn't there. Every time Taehyung tried to talk to Jeongguk or at least include in him the conversation, they tried to catch his attention by asking him something, anything.