from me to you. → kth | ✓

23.

chapter twenty-three: i hate him

I CLUTCH MY phone close to my chest. It's been over three hours, so, where could he be? Surely it doesn't take that long to drop off a portfolio?

I shake my head. Even if does, he said he'd call me.

Why hasn't he called me?

More hours pass by. It's late at night and I'm stuck staring at the television screen to stop my mindless worrying when my phone's ringtone goes off.

I rush to the hospital as fast as I can, calling Taehyung also so he knows I've left the house.

I walk up to the bed and slowly pull the sheet down.

So it's true. He really is dead.

Dead. Just like that. Gone.

The area he visited was apparently suffering a lot of shootings between gangs lately and he happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time.

My gut tells me otherwise. Yoongi is a lot of things, but he isn't stupid. He wouldn't just "walk into it".

I want to cry. I wish I have the strength to, but the tears just don't come.

He was with me just hours ago. I guess I'm startled? I don't even know.

It's just so hard to have to accept. There's so much we didn't do. So much I didn't get to say.

I hear footsteps behind me and find Taehyung dressed rather warmly in a large trench coat and a large scarf hiding everything from the nose down. I conclude from the slippers on his feet, that he's coming straight from home or at least a place where he was at comfort.

"Such a shame." He mutters, coming closer to inspect the body. They took care of the gunshot wounds on his forehead, but Taehyung still seems drawn to them.

I watch him trace each stitch with a grave look on his face.

"What's wrong?" I ask weakly.

"This definitely can't be a gang riot or whatever they said it was." He says, turning to me. "And from the look on your face, I can tell you don't think so either."

I shrug. "Just a hunch."

"But is it? My guess is this was done by a professional."

"What are you saying?"

"This was set up. He walked into his own death."

I turn back to face his lifeless body and feel a tug at my heart. Death doesn't affect me. I should know, I've killed a man. We're human, we aren't supposed to live forever, but Yoongi? He was too young. Way too young.

If his death is affecting me in this way, then I'm even more certain I'm more fond of him than I should be.

"Like I was saying," Taehyung says, clearing his throat so I can pay attention to him. "He was either killed before or after he visited this mystery person."

"Isn't there anything else we can do?" I ask.

"What else could we possibly do? I don't even know him."

"Investigate this, maybe? You and I both have the power to do so, do we not?"

"Just because we can doesn't mean we should. To authorities, it would just be a hunch."

"That's why I want you to help me," I say.

He scoffs. "Don't make me laugh, Aera. Help you? What if everybody you get to know for five minutes suddenly dies? Would you investigate each death?"

"I knew him for more than five minutes, Taehyung, so I suggest you speak of him with respect. He was important to me and now he's gone. If there is anything I know for sure, it's that he'd fight to investigate my death more than I am now."

He rolls his eyes at me just as he always does. "What makes you so sure?"

"Because you wouldn't." The realisation that Yoongi truly was right about everything regarding Taehyung dawns upon me now and I rest my hands on the metal rim of the bed. "That's how you've been since I met you. You only ever care about yourself. It's always about you!"

He's taken aback by my words but it's too late for me to stop now.

"I know you don't want to go through with what we're doing. I know you don't even want to be near me. I know, I know, I know! YOU make it known to me every single day. You talk down to me, you insult me and to make matters worse, you can't even give a little piece of respect to someone dear to me whose dead body is right in front of us!"

"I get that you dislike or even hate me, Taehyung, but the least you can do for me right now is sort yourself out. From this point onwards there will be changes effective immediately." I conclude. It's time for me to take charge. "If you decide not to abide by them, I have no problem permanently removing you from my life."~

"Is that a threat?" He asks calmly.

"One that can be fulfilled," I respond, grabbing my bag and taking my car keys out. "If you'll excuse me."

I push past him and feel the adrenaline rushing through my blood as I drive away from the hospital. Yoongi's death has been a wake-up call and I can't wait to put my words into practice. Before that, however, I visit his apartment.

It's been left open when the authorities attempted to clean it out. Nothing's been touched. His furniture is exactly where it was when I last visited this place and all the lights are off.

The atmosphere only faintly smells like him. Somehow, it's less than I remember it being, but it's enough for all the feelings I buried to rise to the surface.

I hug one of his pillows and breathe in as tears fall.

I refuse to accept it. I refuse to believe he's gone. It just doesn't make any sense, he was with me a few hours ago.

I just feel so angry, but I won't use that to blame how I feel about Taehyung now. I hate him. I hate him from the bottom of my heart.

I hate his stupid face. I hate his stupid voice but most of all, I just hate his whole being.

I wish it was he who was taken from me. Not Yoongi.

I actually loved Yoongi.