Sinners Never Sleep ✓ tk

Chapter thirty four

Taehyung went out that afternoon. He was tired of everyone's assumptions, telling him it was wrong to miss Jungkook and wrong to feel certain feelings.

They didn't understand. He didn't even have the courage to pray, knowing God wouldn't get him out of this sticky situation.

Was he messed up? Maybe. But he believed to be the good kind of messed up, the teenager who was plainly in love with another boy and didn't know what to do with himself after the boy left him.

He took a seat on one of the swings in the small park nearby his house. A few kids were playing in the sand and another one was atop of the slide. Parents chattered with each other while a little dog ran around, chasing a giggling girl who tripped over her own feet.

It was a beautiful day with weather that was equally as delightful as the mood on the playground. Taehyung smiled and started to move his feet a little so the swing's chains creaked softly.

If he hadn't been so depressed about all of the things that happened the past months, nothing could have stopped him from smiling.

Fuck it, he was grinning for the first time in three weeks of being back home and his heart almost let out a sigh at the lightening feeling overwhelming him. Maybe he could get over this, even if it was only for a while.

But even that short time wasn't given to him when a sudden voice startled his bright mood.

"Taehyung".

The swing abruptly froze and the creaking wasn't able to be heard anymore.

"You're not real", Taehyung chuckled to himself, giggling at his stupid imagination playing tricks on him.

"Tae-"

"Maybe I should go to that psychiatrist my parents advised me", the redhead mumbled to himself, "Because I've never heard things so clearly. It almost sounds real".

"That's because I am real".

This stopped Taehyung's rambling and he slowly turned his head until he could look behind him. There, slightly hidden in the bushes behind the swings stood a figure he recognized all too well.

"No", he croaked out, stepping off the swing while shaking his head, "You can't be here".

A hurt expression flashed on Jungkook's face when he stepped out of his hiding. A black face mask hid half of his face but Taehyung recognized the gang leader just by looking in those pitch black eyes.

"Babe-"

"Don't call me that!", Taehyung yelled angrily, his voice cracking a little at the end. Balled fists trembled by his side as he told himself not to look at the pitiful expression on the older's face. He didn't realize this was catching a lot of people's attention, who warily glanced between the masked stranger and the eighteen year old teen who seemed to be on the verge of crying.

"We need to talk", Jungkook stepped a bit closer and spoke in a hushed whisper, aware of the looks they were getting.

"Why would I want to talk to you?", Taehyung growled, though his tough demeanor was quickly shattered when a rough and larger hand slipped in his.

"You're still in danger", Jungkook told him, "And I'm the cause of that. Please. I don't want you to get hurt".

The redhead scoffed at this and quickly tried retracting his hand but he winced when the grip on it tightened.

"Taehyung", Jungkook sighed, his other hand caressing the other's jawline, "I didn't want to lie to you. But believe me when I say that everything I told you in the car that night was a mistake. Yes, your parents paid us ransom. My father told me I could get to keep you with me if we could at least get money out of it. Of course I obliged, I didn't want to lose you".

Taehyung narrowed his eyes and hissed in a low voice, "You don't know how much my parents needed that money".

"And I needed you", the raven head retorted.

"And I want my baby sister to be alive! But now her treatment got canceled because my parents were busy paying your rich and powerful gang money to keep me alive! You made them fucking choose between their children!"

With this he retracted his hand sharply, catching Jungkook in a moment of weakness before running away with tears blinding his sight.

"Jeon Jungkook, I don't want to love you anymore".