𝐒𝐂𝐀𝐑𝐒

ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ⁴⁰

I love the way he calls me darling; I feel my heart skip a beat at the sound. I smile at him, and then we pull away. Looking over across the hall to Yoongi and Jimin's lockers, I notice them talking together. Then, so fast I can barely process it, I see their hands brush past each other and Yoongi gives Jimin's hand a slight squeeze.

My mouth drops open.

"Did you see that?" I ask Jungkook.

He's also looking over, eyes crinkling as he grins. "I did indeed. I think those bastards finally got together!"

"Wait, you thought something was going on between them?"

"Hell yeah. I've known it forever."

"And you didn't think to tell me?" I squeak, slightly hurt

He smiles down at me. "I knew you'd figure it out eventually. Besides, it was fun with me being the only one knowing why Jimin always ran into things when Yoongi walked by."

I gasp. "So that's why he does that!"

He laughs a bit. "Exciting, isn't it? I wonder how long it'll take them to tell us. The poor things probably think we have no idea." He pauses for a moment before looking down at me with a bit more serious face.

"How're your arms doing, by the way?"

I bite my lip. "Um. Okay, I guess. They still hurt."

"Can I look?"

I shrug. "If you want."

The next thing I know, I'm being pulled into the nearest bathroom. Jungkook takes the big stall and sits me down, instructing me to hold my arms out. He gently unwraps the bandages covering them and slips them off, uncovering the skin of my forearms.

He looks at the damaged skin with a somber face, and again I fell awful. The wrist of my right arm wasn't too bad, the long cut going up my wrist was already mostly healed, overlapping with the rest of the small white scars going the other way.

The left was awful. The stitches were still there, going all the way up to my elbow. The skin around the cut was puffy and an angry red, and it hurt like a bitch.

I watch Jungkook's face as his jaw clenches and his eyes turn sad.

"I'm sorry," I whisper.

"Don't be," he says back, looking up at
me. "This is my fault."

"Don't say that." My voice cracks. "It's my fault, all my fault, okay? I made this choice."

"But I caused it." He stands up, running his hands through his hair.

I rewrap my arms in their bandages and watch him pace around. "Kook," I say, "What good will it do to blame yourself? It happened. You can't change that anyway."

"But I should hav-"

"Don't." I interrupt him. "I don't want to hear that. We have to get past this."

Jungkook tugs on a piece of hair. "I know. I'm sorry, you're right." He sighs, and then then hold out his hand so I can stand up as well.

"I love you, Tae," he says softly.

"I know." I smile. "I love you too."

~~~~~~~