Stay l Taekook

-30-

I entered the theater room to rehearse the play for the last time until the official play that was next week. I greeted Wendy and Haechan before going to sit by myself on the stairs that led to the stage. I remembered all the times I had played and goofed around with Jungkook on those stairs as we waited for the crew to change set or for the other actors to rehearse their part. Today I sat alone.

The doors opened and most of the dancing crew entered, I saw Minghao, Lay and Jackson busy talking about a particular move that most of the others had trouble with and whether or not they should change it. I kept on staring at the doors, hoping I would see Jungkook walk past them.

"Alright everyone to their places, from the top!!" Wendy shouted.

Everyone got up and started moving around to find their positions. I still had about ten minutes before coming in, so I stood behind the curtains and kept watch on the door, Jungkook still hadn't arrived. Jackson said his lines and left, that was my cue. I entered and walked straight up to Shuhua as we conversed our rehearsed lines.

"Oh, Jaehyuck! What would I do without you" Shuhua wrapped her hands around my waist and hugged me tight as my hand ran across her hair in a gentle way.

The doors opened and my head whipped to the side as Jungkook made his way inside the room. His eyes landed on me for a fraction of a second and at that time I was very aware I was currently holding another girl close to me.

"Taehyung, let go" Shuhua whispered.

"Huh? Oh, yeah. Sorry" I let go of her and finished our conversation before making my exit off the stage.

The play went on as Jinyoung played the part of the perfectly nice guy even though she was never interested in him. At some point, I made another appearance as Shuhua and I sat down on the bench and her lips softly pecked mine. I placed my hands on her shoulders and gently pushed her away before explaining to her why I wasn't the man she was looking for. As I repeated my text, my eyes wandered off to where Jungkook was. His eyes were staring right at us and in that instant I would have given everything to be able to read his mind.

I left and Jackson appeared to comfort her, the kind friend that she had never really noticed that suddenly became everything she could ever hope for. Traditional music started as Jackson and all the other dancers started their choreography. Watching them gracefully move to the sound of the appeasing flutes and other instruments was beautiful.

Like spellbound, I kept on staring at Jungkook as he moved his body with ease and elegance. When they were done and Shuhua and Jackson talked some more. Jinyoung entered the stage once more as Shuhua explained that she truly couldn't love him back for her heart had been taken by someone else. Jackson made his entrance and Jinyoung threw the first "punch". With a swift dim of lighting and passing behind a prop wall, Jungkook became Jinyoung as he acted out the fight sequence he and Jackson had been preparing for so long.

I stayed behind the curtain and looked at Jungkook, when our eyes met it was as if he froze and Jackson once again landed an actual punch. I felt my heart tighten in my chest as my hand went to cover my mouth. The two handled the situation with a professionalism that shocked us all as they went on with the fight until Jackson won and Jungkook stayed down, unconscious.

The lights were dimmed once more and the set changed before Shuhua and Jackson ended the play with an elegant traditional dance and a heart felt confession of their feelings for each other.

"Cut!" Wendy yelled. All the extras and crew started cleaning the stage and taking off the costumes.

"Taehyung, why did you hug Shuhua for so long? It was almost awkward, just hug her for a normal amount of time, alright? Otherwise it gets kind of creepy"

"Sorry, Wendy. I got distracted. It won't happen again"

"Better not. And Jungkook, no more freezing, okay? That's already twice that's happened"

"No more, Wendy" Jungkook answered.

I looked over to him as he did the same. We maintained eye contact for a while until he turned around and walked off the stage. I went to change back into my school uniform and returned the costume before going to find Jungkook.

"Hey" I say as I come up to him. He was sitting down and looked up to me, taking break from putting on his shoes. "Are you okay? That hit looked pretty hard"

"I'm fine, I'm used to getting hit. But then again, you know that" He went back to his shoes as I stood there, not knowing what to say.

"Well it still looked painful"

"It's always painful getting punched, that's why you learn to punch back" He got up and looked at me. "What are you doing here, Tae?"

"I wanted to make sure you weren't hurt. It seemed as if you got distracted when you saw me"

"Whether it was or wasn't you, it shouldn't matter. You broke up with me remember? You don't get to worry about me anymore" I saw Jungkook was about to leave so I grabbed his arm.

"Yes, I do. Of course I still worry about you. Truth is..." I looked down wondering if I should say this next part or not. "Truth is I thought my principles were more important than my feelings for you and maybe I was wrong"

"I don't care" He took his bag and walked away as I stood there feeling like a hundred needles were slowly poking my heart.

My knees gave out as I let myself fall down on the bench where he was previously sitting. Did he really not care? Was it that he had no feelings for me? I noticed everyone around me was helping clear the stage and instead of staying put and wallowing in my misery I decided to go help out in hopes it would take my mind off what just happened.

Once we were done it was already eight o'clock, I had never stayed so late in school. Namjoon and Yoongi had probably already left as well as Jungkook. I walked over to my locker to leave some notebooks before going to the bathroom. When I opened the door I saw one of the mirrors was cracked, as if someone had thrown a punch. Looking down I saw a black back pack with a football pin.

"That's Jungkook's backpack" I whisper.

Was he still here? He wouldn't have left without his back pack so did that mean he was still here in the bathroom? And was he the one that had smashed the glass mirror?

I heard shuffling inside the room and rushed to close the door and walk away. I made my way to the parking lot and saw a bunch of cars were still there as well as two motorbikes. One was white and red, and the other was black, Jungkook's.

"So it was him...But why would he do that?" I got in my car and waited to see if Jungkook would come out but after fifteen minutes I decided to leave and head home. Should I ask him about it tomorrow? Something told me he wouldn't want me to.