One Small Step|| Taekook

Fate wants to play a game

"Fate is like a strange, unpopular restaurant filled with odd little waiters who bring you things you never asked for and don't always like."
― Lemony Snicket

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"Taehyung-" Jeongguk says, almost as a whisper, stumbling back, and there is the helpless agony in his voice that Taehyung hears. He hates it. Jeongguk should not feel helpless. He should not sound so broken.

"What Jeongguk? Tell me? Aren't you ashamed?" Taehyung almost screams, forgetting they are in school, forgetting about anything else at that moment, as he enters the room. Jeongguk stumbles back, trying to get away from his approaching form.

"Aren't you ashamed?" He almost doesn't recognize his own voice. It was as if the teen Taehyung was speaking from within him. That Taehyung who had finally found his voice, finally found his power to confront.

"How could you Jeon Jeongguk? How could you preach all of that to that child, when you yourself are the most vile disgusting human I have ever seen?" Jeongguk's eyes glaze, and his jaw hardens, but Taehyung? He only feels the flames consuming him. "How could you even utter those words Jeongguk? You ruined my life, you ruined my everything. How could you preach kindness and sympathy when day after day, you suffocated me for your sick pleasures?"

Jeongguk's back hits the wall, and Taehyung stops in front of him, cowering him, looking straight at him. Taehyung feels Jeongguk's erratic breathing, Taehyung sees the fear in his eyes, but the pain dripping from his cut doesn't let him stop. He pushes him by his chest, ignoring how his hand burns. His head is spinning, he likes the power he feels.

It feels like all those dreams, all those times, he had plotted this entire scenario in his head. Him confronting Jungkook, making him cower in fear.

"How could you Jeon Jeongguk-" he tries to push him again, but Jungkook grasps his wrist this time. Jungkook looks at him, as if he had seen him for the first time.

"Taehyung-" Jeongguk creates distance between them, by pushing him away from himself. If Taehyung hadn't known Jeongguk from his core, he wouldn't have been able to notice how fast he slipped his mask on. The dead eyes were back again, but Taehyung knew that he had shaken Jeongguk.

"Why did you help Junghoon? Why did you help him even after knowing he was my son?" He almost whispers. Taehyung steps back further, almost towards the door, as he watches Jeongguk.

He hears someone's footsteps approaching the room. He turns back to leave, wants to leave Jeongguk on the hook, but stops himself. He turns around one last time, and their eyes meet.

"I don't want another me to be created, Jeon Jeongguk."

When Jimin steps into the room, his eyes curiously dart from Jeongguk to Taehyung. There was some history between them. Jimin could sense the tension. Taehyung smiles at him politely before he leaves, and Jeongguk...he looks shaken. Jimin had never seen him this disheveled.

-

"Gguk? You okay?" Jimin hurries to Jeongguk, who was standing still as if in a daze. "Jeongguk?" He pats his shoulders and Jeongguk flinches, coming back to reality.

"Yes- Yes hyung I am fine." He mumbles, but Jimin doubts it. Jeongguk doesn't look fine at all. His hands were shaking. Before Jimin could say anything more, Jeongguk hurried out of the room, with a murmur of "I have to go hyung.." and Jimin could only watch his back frame, with utter confusion. Exactly what had transpired in this room?

-

"You are the most vile, disgusting human I have ever seen..."

The words keep ringing inside Jeongguk's head. He feels sick as he drives back home. He feels sick to his stomach as he watches himself in his bathroom mirror. He doesn't like the ugliness he sees. Taehyung was right. He was the most vile, disgusting person to exist. He ruined Taehyung's life, he ruined the lives of so many people before him. Those people will never forgive him. The traumas they face still today for that, they would never forgive Jeongguk.