FACING THE SAME FACE | JINKOOK

CH20

The morning light fell gently over the table of the small café, where Jin and Hoseok sat facing each other. The stillness of the place seemed like a grotesque contrast to the storms raging inside their hearts. Hoseok, with his face marked by sorrow, kept staring at Jin, as if in every corner of his being he could find a clue, an explanation, a hint of what had really happened.

"I know this must be hard for you," Hoseok said quietly, his gaze fixed on his cup of coffee, which trembled slightly due to his hands that, from gripping it so tightly, could not stop expressing his anxiety.

Jin didn't respond immediately. His eyes remained low, his face impassive, but his mind was far away, trapped in the whirlwind of thoughts that suffocated him. JungHyun's death had left him marked in a way he couldn't explain. There was too much pain to comprehend, too many missing pieces in the puzzle.

Hoseok gently set his cup down, his voice laden with a mixture of suffering and what seemed like a desperate need to be understood.

"What I want most is for you to understand... that even though you and JungHyun had something... he was also my everything. I don't want you to think I'm here just because of jealousy or pride..." Jin finally looked at him, his eyes wavering between confusion and scepticism.

"And how do you expect me to believe you?" The question came out harsher than intended, his chest tightening and the words feeling like a dagger thrown uncontrollably. "After everything that happened between us, now you come to do this? To share your pain with me?" Hoseok didn't flinch, despite Jin's harsh words. Instead, his gaze softened, and a shadow of guilt appeared on his face.

"I know I failed you. I know people think I was part of... what happened with JungHyun. But that's not what you think, Jin. It never was." The atmosphere between the two grew thick with palpable tension. Jin watched Hoseok as though trying to read his thoughts, as if searching for some hidden truth behind that façade of pain and regret.

"If all this isn't what you think..." Jin paused, his breath growing heavier. "Then why didn't you tell me before? Why now, after everything that's happened?" Hoseok shuddered. The pain was evident on his face, but there was something else too: an internal struggle, a battle being fought within him.

"Because I didn't know how..." he said quietly, as though those words burned to leave his mouth. "Because... I was dying inside, Jin. And now that JungHyun is gone, I realise I could have done more. That maybe I shouldn't have let things break between us." The air in the room seemed to grow denser as the words fell heavily between them. Jin felt trapped, as though everything he had believed about Hoseok was slowly crumbling. The truth, which had been a spectre, always present but never reached, was now beginning to materialise before him. Could he trust someone who had been part of his pain? Or was it all part of a lie that kept falling apart?

Jin suddenly stood up, the sound of the chair scraping across the floor echoed through the small café, interrupting the silence that enveloped them.

"I don't know if I can believe any of this, Hoseok." His voice was almost a whisper, but so full of emotion that it felt like a muffled scream. "All this is... confusing. You make me doubt everything. JungHyun, you, myself." Hoseok remained where he was, motionless, watching Jin walk away. His face reflected deep pain, but also a decision he had made in that moment. He couldn't escape his own truth, even if it cost him everything.

"All I want, Jin, is for you to know that I never did it with bad intentions. What happened... wasn't what you thought." Hoseok said, his voice trembling, but filled with a heartbreaking sincerity.

Jin didn't answer, but his face showed that Hoseok's words had reached him, though not in the way he had expected. One last look, one last unsaid word floated between them, but the chasm of confusion remained, growing with each second.