My Professor Agent

chapter 22

Chapter 22: Wounds That Words Leave Behind

The car moved steadily through the night, its engine humming softly against the suffocating silence that stretched between them. Streetlights passed in fleeting blurs of gold and white, painting shadows across Taehyung's face, but his gaze wasn't on them. His eyes were fixed on the darkness outside the window, as if searching for an escape from the storm raging within him.

His hands gripped the steering wheel far too tightly, knuckles pale from the pressure, as though letting go would make him crumble. His throat ached with words that pressed violently against his chest-words that wanted to break free but instead drowned in silence. His mind wasn't here, not on the road, not in the car. It was still trapped back in the dining room, replaying the moment over and over again like a cruel, unending film.

"Why don't you go and ask your real mom for a hug?"

Those words had slipped out of Jungkook's mouth like daggers, sharp and merciless, but they landed inside Taehyung like boulders-crushing, heavy, irreversible. The echo of that sentence reverberated in his skull, cutting deeper each time.

Jungkook had spoken them so casually, as if they were nothing, as if they were harmless. But to Taehyung, they weren't just words. They were the cruelest wound he had ever received.

A single tear slipped down before he could stop it, hot against the coldness of his cheek. He wiped it away quickly, almost angrily, but it was too late. The flood had already begun. More tears followed, slipping past his trembling lashes, warm and relentless, dripping down to stain the shirt pressed beneath his chest. One hand clutched the wheel desperately, holding on as though it was the only anchor keeping him from breaking apart completely.

He hated himself. Hated the weakness that tears revealed. Hated the fact that no matter how much he tried to bury the pain, Jungkook still had the power to break him with a single sentence.

And yet, beneath that self-hatred, another truth whispered-he hated Jungkook more in that moment for saying it... but he hated himself even more for still loving him despite it.

The silence in the car thickened, every passing second louder than words could ever be.

Meanwhile, in his room, Jungkook sat on the edge of his bed, body bent forward, elbows digging into his knees, head buried in his hands. The dim light of the lamp threw broken shadows across the walls, but the room felt darker than it had ever been.

His chest rose and fell unevenly, every breath scraping like glass down his throat. The silence wasn't peaceful-it was punishing. It echoed with his father's voice, every syllable cutting into him, forcing him to face the truth he'd been too blind to see.

"...because Taehyung doesn't have parents like you... he lost them when he was a teenager..."

Jungkook's eyes squeezed shut, the sting behind them unbearable. He hadn't known. God, he hadn't known. He thought it was just a careless jab, something sharp enough to get under Taehyung's skin, to push him the way he always did. He hadn't realized. He hadn't thought.

And now the weight of it was crushing him.

He tilted his head back, a hollow laugh tearing past his lips. "Fuck..." he whispered, voice trembling, cracking. His hands shook as he reached for his phone, scrolling desperately to Taehyung's name like it was his last chance at air. He pressed call, his heart begging silently for an answer.

The line rang. Once. Twice. Three times. Nothing.

"Please, Tae..." Jungkook muttered, biting down on his lip so hard he tasted blood. He called again. And again. And again. Each unanswered ring was another nail hammered into his chest.

Finally, he dropped the phone onto the mattress, dragging his hands through his hair, tugging until his scalp burned. Regret coiled around his throat like a noose, suffocating.

He couldn't erase it. The look on Taehyung's face when he said it-that fleeting smile shattering into something wounded, fragile, betrayed. That image branded itself onto Jungkook's memory, and he knew it would never leave him.

"Why the fuck did I say that..." he choked out, tears spilling hot and fast down his cheeks. He hadn't cried in years, but tonight, he couldn't stop.

For the first time, Jeon Jungkook hated himself more than anyone else.

Because if there was one person he had sworn never to hurt, it was Taehyung. And yet he'd done it-not once, but twice. Both times in the cruelest way possible.

And now, sitting in the suffocating silence of his room, Jungkook realized something terrifying. Words could never be taken back. He didn't know if Taehyung would ever forgive him for this.

Just when everything between them had begun to feel possible, just when Taehyung seemed ready to lower his walls and forgive him for that shitty prank, Jungkook had destroyed it all with a single sentence.

This time, he hadn't just messed up.
This time, he had fucked up too big.

To be continued.............