Forbidden Love ➸ Taekook ✓

- Eleventh -

"What?" asked Hyeri, her eyebrows furrowed.

"Jungkook stole my flower!" Jongsu repeated, continuing to cry.

Hyeri turned to Jungkook, who was standing there silently watching them, his eyes wide.

"Jungkook, what does this mean? Why did you do that?"

"Huh? B-But I didn't do anything, I'm the one who found the flower..."

"Jungkook stop lying!"

The boy was startled by his mother's authoritarian tone. He felt tears welling up in his eyes, but tried to hold them back. His gaze automatically fell on his twin, and what he saw terrified him. With his back to his mother, he didn't hesitate to give Jungkook a satisfied smile, with a hint of sadism as the tears continued to roll down his cheeks.

Jungkook felt his world crumble. As his brother blatantly lied, the hard, angry look in his mother's eyes showed him that he wouldn't get justice today either. His mother would never believe him, not when poor little Jongsu was in the balance. Jongsu was sick, he was fragile, so he had to be protected. Jongsu was weak, so Mom would protect him from all dangers. She would attack anyone who attacked him. Even her own children. This was something Jin had understood a long time ago, so he stopped fighting.

Jungkook, on the other hand, had only just realised it.

"Jungkook, give Jongsu his flower back." Hyeri ordered, her voice full of anger.

The boy shuddered. Surely he wasn't going to be punished for something he hadn't done? He turned instinctively to Jin, who was sitting a few metres away with his friends. He knew the truth, he could defend him. If Jin, at the age of eighteen, took his side, his mother would be forced to reconsider the situation.

But Jungkook froze when he didn't find the young man. In fact, his brother had slipped away a few minutes earlier to show Jimin the bathroom. Jungkook didn't stand a chance. He never stood a chance against Jongsu. Because when Jin wasn't around, he was alone against everyone. He had absolutely no allies apart from himself.

He quickly looked back at his mother and his twin, who were both waiting for Jungkook to obey. It was unfair, so unfair. All he'd done was pick a flower, because nobody ever looked after him. Why did Jongsu want to take away what little he had? He already had the love of their parents, wasn't that enough for him? Did he really have to take everything from him? Even a poor little flower?

"But he's lying! I'm the one who found it!" Jungkook suddenly exclaimed, on the verge of tears. "I didn't take anything from him! How could he have found it, since he's always glued to you!"

The boy's accusatory tone didn't seem to please his mother at all, whose features hardened and her eyes darkened. It was then that he realised that he had really lost. He could lay the truth at her feet and she'd never believe him. Jongsu couldn't lie. Jungkook could.

"So you want to be insolent, Jungkook?" asked Hyeri. "Why do you always have to hurt your brother? Don't you think he suffers enough as it is? I'm not asking you to do anything, just to be wise, kind and honest! Why does it always have to end like this with you?!"

'Always'? Be good and honest? He'd spent his life being wise and honest. Eight years of being ignored, sometimes even treated like an outcast by his own family, and yet he had always been wise and honest. He had always tried to make them proud. And yet he was never rewarded. When was the last time his mother hugged him? A kiss on the cheek or forehead? Not in months, but certainly in years.

He was just fed up with being treated like this.

"Give him back the flower, Jungkook. And leave it at that."

Jungkook bit his cheek, holding back the tears. He felt his heart break into little pieces as he walked towards his twin. He gently handed him the flower as a victorious smile played across his lips. For some reason, Jongsu hated him. Whereas Jungkook had always tried to love his twin despite all the horrors he put him through, Jongsu had never forced himself. On the contrary, he seized every opportunity to make him suffer.

Jungkook didn't understand. But he wouldn't be fooled again. From now on, he too would hate Jongsu. And he wouldn't be shy about making it known.

Jongsu grabbed the flower, almost snatching it out of Jungkook's hands. The poor boy pulled away almost immediately, as if by instinct of survival. Jongsu was dangerous for him.

"There, that wasn't complicated." Hyeri sighed.

Jungkook felt like he was suffocating. He knew it wouldn't be long before he burst into sobs, so he hurried off, away from these two people who didn't seem to want anything to do with him. He went and hid a few metres away, behind a flowerpot. From there he could watch all the guests, but nobody would notice him.

What he didn't know, however, was that a certain person hadn't taken his eyes off him for a moment and had witnessed the whole scene.

***

While the party was in full swing, all the guests laughing and chatting amongst themselves, a stranger burst into the garden. His arrival immediately caught Hyeri's attention, and she stood up and approached the man. At first she thought he was a neighbour (although that was unlikely), but changed her mind when she noticed that he was wearing delivery clothes.

"Can I help you?" she asked the man.

He looked a little lost, and his eyes lit up as he finally found someone who could help him.

"Yes, I have a delivery for Mr Kim Taehyung."

Hyeri frowned. He was one of Jin's friends, and also the son of one of the most influential men in the country.

"Yes, I'm here."

The woman turned to see a boy of about fifteen coming towards them, a cheeky little smile on his lips.

"But actually, this order isn't for me, it's for Jeon Jungkook." he explained.

This information only made Hyeri wonder even more.

"For Jungkook, what do you mean?"

Hearing his name, the little boy stepped out from behind his flowerpot and shyly stepped forward, curious to know what was going on. It was only then that Hyeri noticed what the delivery boy was holding in his hands. And when Taehyung stepped aside to let Jungkook pass, so that he could collect his present, the little boy froze, his eyes widening. Even Jongsu, who had been watching from a distance, couldn't believe his eyes.

The man was holding a huge bouquet of poppies in his hand. There must have been a hundred of them, each more splendid than the last, nothing like the poor flower Jongsu had asked for a few minutes earlier.

Jungkook stared first at the bouquet, then at the delivery boy, and finally at Taehyung, whom he didn't know, his eyes filled with incomprehension.

"So, what are you waiting for?" Taehyung asked. "It's for you."

"R-Really?"

"Of course it is. Since you lost that flower I saw you picking earlier, I thought you might like to have another one. Or lots of them."

Jungkook felt his cheeks redden, turning the same colour as the poppies in the bouquet. Someone had bought him a bouquet of flowers? Just for him?

Jungkook stepped forward and gently picked up the bouquet from the delivery boy. He hugged them tightly, like the most precious of gifts, as Taehyung looked at him in satisfaction.

"Thank you..."

Hyeri felt extremely ashamed. And Jongsu, who hadn't taken his eyes off them for a moment, was seething with rage.

~🍁~

Poor Jungkook🥺 But don't worry kookie, Taehyung have your back now!✊🏻💕