in time | taekook

Past Time

When morning rolled by, Taehyung was still asleep on the couch when Jungkook woke up and went into the main room to get more water.

"You stayed?" Jungkook noticed Taehyung on the sofa, but speaking woke him up.

"Uh yeah sorry, I thought you'd need some help with your hangover because I've never seen you drink." Taehyung answered, Jungkook looked at him with a disappointed look. "Why do you look like that?" Taehyung asked.

"Look like what?" Jungkook said, scratching his head.

"Like you're disappointed in me." Taehyung finished.

"I'm not disappointed in you ... I'm disappointed in myself." He said, while walking over to the sink and filling up his glass.

"Why are you disappointed in yourself? It's okay to let some things out and have a drink." Taehyung tried to comfort him.

"I'm disappointed because ... of my mom. She's had her fair share of problems with alcohol and I told her I'd never go down the same path, I made a promise to her which I've broken." Jungkook opened up to Taehyung, hoping to be comforted once again.

"You made one small mistake, I'm sure she won't think twice about it, you're her son and she loves you." Taehyung faced Jungkook, who had finished filling up his glass. He walked over to sit across from Taehyung.

"But sh-she ... she almost died from her mistakes." Silence fell through the room, as they just looked at each other.

"It's not that serious, trust me. You just needed to let things out." Taehyung got up to sit next to him, he put his arm around Jungkook who was wrapped up in blankets like he was unwell. "Thank you for telling me this."

"There's more." Jungkook continued. Taehyung sat there, willing to listen to him. "When I was like 15 she got herself into such a mess that she would do anything to get the money to buy alcohol. I locked myself up in my room and hid the little money I had saved up to get a game. but she crashed through the door and fell on the floor, but she didn't get up, she didn't move. I walked over to her and tried to wake her up, I moved her a little hoping it would get her to open her eyes, but she just laid there, still. I took the money I hid and ran out the door." Jungkook explained his hard times.

"You left her?" Taehyung asked, unsure it was the right thing to ask.

"I left her." Tears started to fall down Jungkook's cheek, he wiped them trying to hide it, but Taehyung had already noticed.

"You were 15. A child yourself, trying to look after your mother." Taehyung consoled him as he sat wrapped up in his blankets.

"It doesn't end there. I had a friend who I'd go to whenever I had to get away, he lived a few streets down and I never really knew his name, but we'd just play video games inside his house for a couple of hours and I'd go home. But when bad things happen I'd always turn to him. So I went to his house after I ran out, but it was empty, like they moved out. There was a note that he wrote and put it on the door, saying 'If you're the boy--"

"-who comes over to play video games, I've left the games in the basket." Taehyung finished.

Jungkook was shocked to hear Taehyung say the words written on the note that he had kept.

"You're... him." Jungkook looked at Taehyung intensely, looking at every feature. "But you don't look anything like him."

"I hoped I looked different." Taehyung said jokingly.

"Did you know? That I was the boy?" Jungkook asked him.

"Not until you said about you going to his house just to play video games. I'd heard off my parents there was a boy who was struggling at home, I assumed that you were that boy back then so I let you play." Taehyung answered, smiling at Jungkook.

"So all that time we were together, we had no idea?" Jungkook asked, laughing at both of them.

Taehyung nodded and laughed along with Jungkook, putting his hand on his. Jungkook either didn't notice or he didn't mind.

"I heard things were bad, I just didn't know they were that bad." Taehyung said to him, still holding his hand.

"You didn't ask though." Jungkook said.

"Even back then, I was a little smart, I knew it wasn't my place, you came to me when you needed to get away and I wasn't gonna drag the pain with you and bring it up." Taehyung answered. 

"Thank you.. I find myself being more thankful to you now we've broken up than I did before." Jungkook said, but that made Taehyung's smile disappear.