Wheels Have Each Other

33. Drunk

Italics - Past Jeongyeon's POV
Normal words - Present Jeongyeon's POV

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"He's right. We aren't close. I was only close with someone else. His best friend's sister was my best friend."  

".....Yugyeom-ssi's sister?" 

Jeongyeon nodded. "Jeongguk was the one who introduced us to each other, of course, because we went to the same school and he wanted to make sure I would keep her safe."

Taehyung frowned and made a face. Jimin, on the other hand, rolled his eyes at her. "How about you kindly start from the starting?" he asked. 

Jeongyeon crossed her legs and arms, fixing the two of them with a stare that painfully reminded Taehyung of a certain someone. 

"I'm not here to narrate a movie. If you want the details, go to your husband, but I doubt he would ever tell you. How could he, when he is ashamed to even think of it," she said scornfully. 

"Cut straight to the point, Jeongyeon-ssi," Taehyung said. "Okay. Yugyeom oppa's transgender sister, my best friend, killed herself after Jeongguk insulted her publicly in the worst way possible."

Taehyung and Jimin's jaws dropped. ".....what?!" they exclaimed together. 

Jeongyeon shrugged, "you asked me to cut straight to the point." 

"No....I mean...I'm sorry, start again. This time with details," Taehyung said, but his voice was already starting to go dry. Because, what?!

Jeongyeon sighed and looked down. "Her name was Jigyeong, but she changed it to Jiyeon. Yugyeom oppa's younger brother by birth. It became pretty obvious to her parents as she grew that she wasn't really a boy in her mind. That she was finding it hard and increasingly disturbing to identify herself as a boy. 

Amidst all of that chaos and her inner turmoil, Yugyeom oppa once brought Jeongguk to his house for a sleepover. And Ji really liked him. Really. Not romantically, of course, but as her brother's best friend. Jeongguk took to her too, and so they started talking to each other as well. And within no time, Jeongguk became her role model. Like, she really, really, really looked up to him a lot."

Taehyung's face fell. He could see where this was going. And he would be lying if he said he wasn't starting to feel a little disappointed, but he decided to wait. It was too early to judge, after all.

"After a few weeks of talking to each other, Ji confided in Jeongguk enough to tell him her secret. And Jeongguk had been nothing but a great friend about it. He had been nothing but supportive. He was the one who did the research about the gender transformation and informed Yugyeom oppa and his parents about it and then encouraged Ji to go for it as well."

Okay, this wasn't what Taehyung expected. He thought Jeongguk insulted Jiyeon after he came to know that he was trans. But in a way, this felt worse. He felt bad for those tears that were now rolling down Jeongyeon's face. 

"He slowly became her mentor. Her only go-to, really. Any matter, any problem, anything at all, she went to him. It was always Ggukie oppa this, Ggukie oppa that....I should have known she was starting to feel something for him."

Both Jimin and Taehyung took sharp breaths. They absolutely hated where this was all going. 

"Of course, after the gender transformation surgery, Jeongguk was even more nice to her. And she fell for him more, like the fool that she was...." Jeongyeon bit her lower lip down, but of course, that did nothing to stop the sobs that were starting to tear through her mouth.