Tragic, Unsent, Love Letters [VKook]

Letter 9

"Hey, Jin. Have you seen Tae?"

"No, sorry, Jungkook. Haven't seen him much. I'm a bit worried." Jungkook frowned. Jin smiled at the girl clinging to Jungkook's arm. "Hello, Tzuyu."

The girl nodded politely at him, smiling brightly. "Hey." Three weeks had passed since Jungkook accepted her confession. It's been nearly a week without Tae. To be frank, Jungkook noticed Tae's absence more than he's noticed his new girlfriend. There was no note, no explanation, nothing.

"Ah..." Jungkook said disappointingly. His heart ached for the familiar warmth and the contagious laugh of his best friend. He wondered where he could have gone. He checked his home, but nothing. He got a key from Taehyung long ago, but when he ventured into the apartment, there was no sign of Taehyung.

"Tae?"  Called Jungkook, cautiously pushing the door open. "It's me."

"Don't worry, Jeon," Jin told the youngest as he looked for something in his bag. He rumaged through the contents, sparing Jungkook a glance and another smile. After a few minutes, he found what he was looking for- a container of what looked like soup and rice. "Joonie and I will find Taehyung and bring him home. Also, I made this. I know it's your favorite."

The apartment was dark and still. Jungkook flipped the light switch, and light flooded the room. Jungkook looked around at what he expected to be familiar surroundings, instead being met with the opposite of familiar.

"Home? He wasn't in his apartment last I checked."

The room was dirty, unclean. Clothes were strewn everywhere and the curtains were tightly bound together, almost as if guarding the darkened room from the light of the outside world. Soda cans and plates of food were on the coffee table, the food seemingly untouched and rotten by this point. Jungkook knew this place like the back of his hand, which meant that he knew that there was one picture that wasn't present on the shelf nearby.

"Maybe he went back," Tzuyu suggested, looking up at Jungkook with shiny and innocent eyes. "We can check again today. I'll come with you this time, Kookie."

He gazed at the pictures. They were mostly of Taehyung and his friends, and Jungkook was present in most of them. He realized that the one that was taken during Jungkook's 14th birthday party was missing. It seemed so long ago, since Jungkook was just starting high school then, and now already two years have gone by. In the picture, Jungkook was soaking wet; Taehyung just jumped in the pool while he was giving Jungkook a piggy back ride. Jungkook smiled at the memory- it was one of his favorites. Taehyung was holding him bridal style in the photo, smiling sweetly at the camera with his unique rectangular shaped smile. Jungkook, not realizing that a picture was being taken, was smiling up cutely at Taehyung, adoration and love twinkling in his eyes, his bunny-like smile making the picture even cuter than it already was.

"Nah. I didn't mean that kind of home."

Jungkook wondered where the picture went, but his mission to find Taehyung was not forgotten. He shuffled down the hallway, stopping outside of Taehyung's door. He's been in that room plenty of times- why was he so hesitant to go in?

"What? What do you mean?"

He pushed the door open lightly, the door making a prolonged, high pitched creaking noise. The room was  how he remembered it, if not a little messier. The curtains, of course, were drawn. The bed was messy, the sea green sheets messy and half falling off the bed. The pillow lookedas disheveled as the bed sheets, the pillowcase halfway off of the pillow itself. The trash can was full, trash littering the floor around it. But even so, the white pristine walls and hardwood floors were not damaged.

"Home...it's where one feels welcomed and comfortable. People look forward to coming home. But..."

"What happened here...?" Jungkook murmured, surveying the room. He realized that some of the trash on the floor were not tissues, but crumpled pieces of paper. Walking to it slowly, Jungkook knelt down and picked one up.

"...that place, without all the memories of those he dearly loves, it's just the house where he sleeps and eats and showers."

Uncrumpling the paper, Jungkook very carefully read the unusually messy handwriting.

'Dear ----
I hate it I hate it I hate it.'

"Huh? What're you getting at, Seokjin...?"

He picked up another. The name in the letter was viciously crossed out, enough so that he couldn't read it.

'Dear -----
Please stop. Make it stop. I can't do it. I can't do it anymore. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. Why?'

"You have a 4.0 GPA, Jungkook..."

Feeling sick, he threw that one to the ground. With shaky hands, Jungkook tried another.

'Dear -----
I hate how much I love you. Maybe I am to blame for this?'

"...how can you not realize that you're home to Taehyung?"

Jungkook's vision was blurred- he didn't dare blink in fear that the crystalline drops of water would fall from his eyes and ruin the paper.

'Dear -----
I need to get out of here. I can't look at you anymore. It hurts too much. It's selfish. All the emotions I have been suppressing are coming out all at once. Not even Hoseok can help me- I can't do it.'

"...Me?"

'Dear ----
I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

I'm sorry that I am not good enough.'

"Yes, you. You two have a very rare friendship. One that is near indestructible. Taehyung...he loves you, you know? That's how close you two are. You've been over to his hosue countless times, way more times than us. You've known him longer, and it's rare to see a Kim Taehyung without a Jeon Jungkook by his side. Without you, that place would not be considered as home-y as it is to Taehyung. No matter where, when he's with you, he feels at home. And, we will find him. We'll bring him to you. We'll bring him home."

A tear fell from his eye, staining the crumpled paper. Jungkook let the paper down, not bothering to wipe the stream of tears running down his cheeks. Taehyung- his Taehyung- was in such anguish and pain and he had failed to notice it. The cheerful and happy, crazy and adorable, Kim Taehyung had been holding such darkness within him.

And Jungkook, his supposed best friend and partner in crime, hadn't noticed, hadn't done anything to stop it due to his ignorance.

"I..."

He was supposed to notice, he was supposed to stop this from happening. Yet, he was absolutely clueless. And now, Taehyung was gone. He didn't know where, but he was gone. He was no longer by Jungkook's side, and Jungkook didn't know how much longer he could bear being without his best friend- his family. Even so, Taehyung and Jungkook were somehow closer than family.

"Kookie? Hey...don't cry...!" Tzuyu squeezed Jungkook's hand.

Jungkook wodered if Taehyung was even alive- was he lying in a ditch somewhere, mouth agape and eyes wide open with flies and worms crawling over his lifeless body? It was crazy to think such a thing, but Jungkook always went for the worst scenario possible. Jungkook put his head into his hands and weeped, leaning against the wall behind him.

"P-Please..." Jungkook whispered to Jin, who was comforting the crying boy while Tzuyu patter his back, hugging him from behind.

Taehyung's gone...

"...Bring him home..."

And it was because of his ignorance.

yoyo so im back
and i literally get like 0 comments and notifs on this story so i dont even know if anyone reads this, but if some miracle someone is please leave a comment about the chapter. a review would be gr88