Truth Or Love || Taekook

38

The dinner table was heavy with silence. Hyuna and Daehyun exchanged worried glances, their eyes flickering toward Taehyung, who sat at the end of the table, picking at his food but barely eating.

His face was expressionless, as it had been for the last five days since he arrived home. His normally warm presence had grown cold, detached, and unrecognizable.

Hyuna couldn't take it any longer. Her son had barely spoken, barely smiled.

"Taehyung, baby," she began softly, her voice trembling with concern. "Is everything okay? At the university?"

Daehyun chimed in, leaning forward, his brows furrowed in worry. "Yeah, son, you know you can tell us anything. Is someone bothering you? Or... is something wrong at uni?"

Taehyung lifted his head slightly, his expression unreadable. "Don't worry, guys," he mumbled, his voice flat, lifeless. "Everything is fine."

With that, he pushed back his chair and stood up, leaving the table before either of his parents could respond.

He disappeared upstairs to his room, leaving Hyuna and Daehyun staring after him in helpless silence.

As the door clicked shut behind him, Taehyung lay down on his bed, staring up at the ceiling. His mind was a storm of thoughts, emotions tangled up in knots he couldn't begin to untangle.

The hours stretched on, and midnight came. Taehyung's eyes flickered toward his hands resting on his chest, and something caught his attention.

His gaze landed on the small silver object on his finger... a ring. Well, not exactly a ring- but an earring.

Jungkook's earring.

The earring that Taehyung had never gotten the chance to return. Instead, he had started wearing it as a ring.

Why?

Because he loved that damn boy so much... that even his fucking earring gave Taehyung a sense of belonging to him.

It was pathetic, he knew it. But somehow, slipping that small, silver piece onto his finger made him feel closer to Jungkook, as if holding onto it could keep some part of him alive, even after everything.

Suddenly, the weight of everything hit him like a fucking freight train. The memories, the betrayal, the pain-it all came crashing down on him, suffocating him, drowning him.

His chest tightened, and the emotions he had been suppressing for days came flooding back all at once. He squeezed his eyes shut, but the pain was too overwhelming.

Before he realized it, a single tear slipped down his cheek, then another.

And then the fucking dam broke.

A loud, guttural sob tore from his throat, and suddenly he was screaming-screaming like his heart was being ripped out of his chest.

"Why?" he cried, his voice raw, filled with anguish. "Why?! Why?" He repeated it like a broken mantra, each scream louder than the last.

His hands clawed at his hair, pulling at it desperately, his body shaking with the force of his sobs. His chest heaved as the weight of everything he had bottled up for the last week came crashing down.

Downstairs, Hyuna was on a video call with Tessa, her face strained with worry.

"Tessa," she whispered urgently, her voice breaking. "He's not my Taehyung anymore. I'm so worried about him."

Tessa's face on the screen mirrored her mother's distress. "I know, eomma," she said softly, biting her lip. "He won't even talk to me."

Daehyun sighed heavily, his eyes dark with concern. "Do you think something happened to him at university? Did anyone say anything to him?"