Empty Space | Jeon Jungkook

Part 10

**

You enjoy Friday night closing because as the greeting to the weekend, customers flock for dates, post-school or work stresses, family bonding, or chill drink nights because yes, your other boss Yoongi insisted on spiked coffee drinks to sell.

He accompanies you during closing hours - being around people and tiring himself helps with the insomnia, he says - and you're thankful for another older brother you can trust.

It's almost 11PM and the last customer has left, leaving you clearing out the counter and Yoongi checking the inventory. Jimin clocked out half an hour ago after the kitchen's last call, and you're just about to imagine spending the night with a good book under your thick covers until the door opens and in comes jacket-clad Officer Jeon, breathing heavily as he stands at the cafe's entrance.

"____," he calls out.

Your eyes turn to him with a glare, partly out of frustration and partly out of nervousness. Yeonjun kept on insisting that this is bound to happen and you know that, too, but you can never be prepared for confrontations like this.

"Officer Jeon, we're closed," you say, with emphasis on his title because you're petty and bitter that way.

He turns to the man sitting on one of the tables then checks his watch. "It's 10:58. I still have time."

"No, you don't," you insist, walking towards him to try to escort him out.

"Please, ___. Just, hear me out."

You turn to your boss who's telepathically asking you if you're okay and you nod. He steps out and tells you he'll be back when you're done and you nod again, then you turn to the other man, your eyes cold and unblinking.

All the emotions you've been feeling the last four years meld together and come out in huffed out breaths.

"What do you want, Jungkook?"

"I... Uhm, I just wanted to..." He fidgets, suddenly going blank and suffering from amnesia over what he wants to tell you, what he wants you to know that he should've said all those years ago.

"For fuck's sake, Jungkook, what the hell do you—"

"I'm sorry," he breathes out.

Your nose flares because that was literally the last thing he said to you before he left. I'm sorry about us. You don't know how much of it he meant then and how much of it he means now.

"Is that all?"

"I... I'm so, so sorry, I—"

"Is that fucking all, Jungkook?" You cross your arms across your chest to build an invisible wall and to hold yourself together because you feel the tears start to form.

"I trusted you and you betrayed me. You got close to me just so you could get information and because of you, my best friend is gone! Do you know how much that hurts, Jungkook? To lose someone you love? Someone you care about?"

"I—" I do, more than you know.

"And even after she died, you just fucking left. I needed you even if I hated you but you didn't care! You disappeared, didn't bother to stay around and I'm—" you're breathing heavily even more and the tears start to fall— "I exposed all my layers to you - my heart, my soul, my body and you didn't care! You needed a successful mission under your belt and a good fuck while you were at it because that's all I was other than your key to success, right? Someone you could fuck every night after a full day of being a complete shit and you treated me like your little whore because it wasn't enough that you used me to get to them, you had to use me for your own sick pleasure, too."

You're heaving, head hurting from all the emotions that you've kept for so long and that have decided to spill out.

"___, no, please. You have to listen to me. I—"

"I hate you. Get out."

You stand in front of you Jungkook, tears trickling down your face and he wants to wipe them away.

In the deepest crevice of your heart, you want him to but you can't.

You're angry, upset, humiliated - you're feeling everything you felt all those years ago after your world fell apart all over again. That includes all the adoration and desire and longing you had for him, and you hate yourself. You hate yourself for being vulnerable in front of him like you always were, afraid he'll take advantage like he did before. He can't see you break even more; you won't let him.

But you do, just a little. With closed eyes that cause a waterfall down your face, you beg him.

"Please, Jungkook. Please leave."

And with a sigh of defeat, he does just that.

At his departure, Yoongi comes in and catches you before you fall to the ground. You grip on his arm - all the strength you had disappears in an instant - and continue to cry, the most you've done in front of anybody since that day.

"I've got you, ___. It's okay, I'm here."

**