Wheels Have Each Other

16. Monster

"I'm sorry," Taehyung apologized for the fifteenth time that night, and the reaction was the same as always. Jeongguk would stop what he was doing and throw Taehyung a glare and then get back to his work. 

Taehyung finally had enough of hoping Jeongguk would talk to him and burst into tears. "That day when you a-asked me not to follow him, I just th-thought it was a small matter between you two and s-so I thought I could maybe do something for both of you seeing as y-you two were such good friends," he cried as he explained. He didn't care if Jeongguk ignored him. He just wanted to get it off his chest. 

Jeongguk looked up at him with a glare as usual, but this time, he didn't get back to his work. He kept glaring at Taehyung, who kept cowering further into the couch because of the intense glare. 

"This is what I told you the first day. You have no respect whatsoever to my words," Jeongguk said after a while. "What is the use of me working so hard to keep you safe if you go behind my back and do exactly what I asked you not to do?" 

"I'm sorry, I'm really sorry, I know you said not to open the door to anyone I didn't know and I technically knew this man as your best fri-"

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME RIGHT NOW?!" Jeongguk thundered and Taehyung flinched hard. 

"Did I ever introduce him to you?!" 

Taehyung looked down at his lap and shook his head. 

"Did I ever tell you that he is my best friend?"

Taehyung shook his head again. 

"Did I ever post about him recently?"

"No."

"Or did he post about me recently?!"

"No."

"Did you see him at our wedding?"

Taehyung shook his head again, hating the present situation from the bottom of his heart.

"Then how does that make it a small matter between us? Do you not use your brain before doing something?! There are so many people working hard to keep us safe right now! There were days when Seokjin hyung worked overnight without even paying attention to Dohyeon to make this happen. Getting a restraining order on a man twice is not an easy thing, Taehyung. Don't throw all of their efforts to waste by doing something I tell you NOT to do again," Jeongguk scolded. 

Taehyung nodded wordlessly. For a man who was highly closed off, Jeongguk was surely great at making someone feel like shit for their mistakes. 

Jeongguk got back to his laptop, but he couldn't concentrate anymore. Not when his husband was crying as silently as he possibly could on the other couch. 

He sighed and shut his laptop down and got off the couch. He stuffed his hands into his pockets and walked to Taehyung. "Come with me," he said. 

Taehyung looked up at him, his eyes bloodshot and swollen. Jeongguk gulped at the sight, feeling bad for having scolded him too hard. He took a hand out of his pocket and held it out in front of Taehyung. "Come," he said, this time a lot softly than earlier. 

Taehyung, however, didn't take his hand. Instead, he broke down harder, crouching as he brought his hands up to hide his face. "I hate you, I hate you so much," he mumbled, his shoulders shaking as he cried. 

Jeongguk gulped harder. He wasn't surprised. He knew he was giving Taehyung a hard time, but he didn't know how to not do that when all Taehyung was doing was to go against him every single time he tried to mend their relationship a little.