Between Truths ║Dahkook║K.DH J.JK

secrets and lies

CHAPTER XVIII

He paused from walking into the room. The carved wooden screen hid him, but he could see snatches of faces and movements through the lattice. Jaehyun. Yugyeom. Yein.

She was not supposed to be here.

"I hope you don't mind. I don't know where she lives," Yugyeom said.

"I don't," Jaehyun—whose connection allowed him and the boys to use the private lounge of a café anytime they wanted, for however long they wanted—shrugged. "But I can't vouch for the rest. Mingyu especially."

"I'll figure this out quickly," Yugyeom promised.

"Will you tell me who she is too?" His attention on the unconscious girl on the couch, small against the fine-grained leather while Yugyeom placed his jacket over her; covering her modest, and arranging it carefully so. He had always been a gentle man, but that soft gaze which he was looking at Yein with was woven with a silver spool of vow—he would give her everything her heart desired. More. It was clear for anyone to see that Yugyeom was already half mad in love with the girl.

But, "A friend," he said.

Jaehyun cocked his brow at the word chosen, his smile dubious. "Has she no friend that knows where she lives?"

"She probably does."

"And?"

"I don't know them."

"What were you doing drinking alone with her?" he asked again, clearly unsatisfied with Yugyeom's one-word answers.

"I wasn't."

"Why is she here then?"

"I saw her by herself. Already out of it. I couldn't leave her there," Yugyeom explained. Next to him, she burrowed deeper into herself. "Can we do something about the temperature? She's cold. It's not a central system, is it?"

Jaehyun sighed, "No, it's not. I'll get the AC."

In return, he swore, "I'll ask around. I know someone who might know her friends. She'll be gone before the rest gets here."

"Don't try too hard, Yugyeom. They're your friends," severe.

"I know," Yugyeom offered him a quick smile. A peace-maker. He would never put someone in uncomfortable situations; avoided them well himself. It was why Jungkook could not quite broach the subject of Yein with him. But he need not to anymore. Jungkook had all the answer he needed.

"How long have you been standing there?" Jaehyun was accusing when he rounded the corner for the controls and saw Jungkook.

"Only just," he lied, but Jaehyun was harder to fool than that.

"Something's bothering you. You've been acting weird lately."

"You're overthinking," Jungkook dared Jaehyun to push. He didn't. But he was not letting it go easy either.

"I hope I am. And I hope you frown less around him. He sees things; he just doesn't say them."

Lies were his currencies, and he had many of them. People would take them readily when given. But they were weighted in dusts among concerned friends who paid attention to his eyes and the tick of muscles.

"What are you guys talking about? Looked serious. Keeping secrets from me?" Yugyeom walked into them, eyes teasing.

"If we are, we're not telling so it's useless for you to ask," Jungkook's banter was as heavy with truth as it was light with humour.