FIFTEEN

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Seokjin was cursed.

Staring at Yoongi sitting across from him at the dining table, it was the only explanation he could come of with. He was cursed. The curse that came when you could look at, stare at, talk to the person you loved, all the time, yet you could never touch them. Seokjin was cursed with knowing Yoongi inside and out, with loving him inside and out, but he was also cursed with a broken heart, inside and out.

They were all eating in the dining room, yet Seokjin wasn't really hungry. Rather, his eyes were stuck on Yoongi. From the way Yoongi was staring down at his soup, from the way his lips were pouting a little, from the way he would shift his spoon back and forth more than two times before taking another sip, Seokjin could tell the boy was miserable. 

Seokjin didn't know how it came to him, being able to tell all of Yoongi's emotions and thoughts only through the way he moved and the slight shifts in his actions. It had been a while now, he would stare at Yoongi and know what the boy was thinking. Perhaps it was a sign that he was staring at Yoongi too much. But no matter what he did, his gaze would be drawn to the boy, and no matter how much he fought, he'd always end up staring for a while too long at the boy he loved. 

So much staring was obviously unhealthy, but could you blame him? Yoongi was a beautiful, ever-changing, fascinating sight. The way his arms moved as he explained his thoughts, the way his lips parted when he was cold, the way his fingers twitched as he wrote down things, Seokjin knew it all. He knew exactly what each movement meant, what each breath held. 

And right now, Yoongi was miserable.

"The last thing I expected was Jungkook being in love with Hobi. I swear to God, this boy cannot be read like a book," Taehyung abruptly ended the silence as if it wasn't overwhelming him like it had been overwhelming everybody. 

Seokjin tore his gaze away from Yoongi.

"That's not a saying, Tae," he said softly, because that was the only answer he could come up with that didn't involve Jungkook or Hoseok, the two things he did not want to talk about while Yoongi was there. Yoongi who had lost the boy he loved and who had just learnt that another boy loved him, too.

Taehyung blinked.

"It is though? Read someone like a book, people say it all the time," he argued, waving his fork in the air.

Seokjin resisted the temptation to roll his eyes. "That's a saying, yes, but the negative form 'cannot be read like a book' isn't. It just isn't. Because you could still read someone like, I don't know, a newspaper or a flyer." 

Taehyung waved his fork dismissively. "Whatever," he pointed at Yoongi with it, some noodle threatening to fall from it. "Hyung, could you imagine if Hobi wasn't dead? Maybe he would've left you for Jungkook. Isn't that insane? Jungkook and Hobi, together, in love. If that isn't the weirdest thing I've heard today." 

Yoongi raised his eyes from his bowl and narrowed them at the younger. "It would've never happened." 

Taehyung blinked in surprise. "Why not? Kookie's a hottie. Eleven out of ten, would bang." 

Jimin scoffed in amusement. Seokjin didn't react, and Yoongi shook his head.

"Hoseok would've never."

"I think he would've. He's a man, and Kookie's Kookie. Have you seen those abs? I bet my money that it would've happened," Taehyung concluded loudly as he grabbed another bite. 

"How much would yo-" Jimin began curiously, but he was cut off by Yoongi.

"Shut up. He loved me, not Jungkook. We were supposed to be together for the rest of our lives. It was us forever, nothing could have set us apart," Yoongi said harshly, and Seokjin's heart sank a little. 

Nothing could have set us apart. Seokjin knew it. He knew it very well. So why was he still trying? Why was he still hoping that Yoongi would see him, rather than Hoseok, one day? Why couldn't he set Yoongi and Hoseok apart back then, and why couldn't he set them apart now that Hoseok was dead

What was it about Hoseok that made Yoongi so drawn to him, that made it so hard for Seokjin to make Yoongi look at him, to pull Yoongi his way? And why, why did it feel like loving Yoongi was a competition that had already its winner before it even started? The winner had died, but even dead he still won over Seokjin.

"Yeah but what if he had liked Jungkook, too? He would've dumped you," Taehyung wiggled his eyebrows at Yoongi who scoffed in return.

"He didn't like Jungkook, so it would've never happened. He told me so, that he didn't like Jungkook."

"Yeah, maybe, but that was before Jungkook confessed to him. Maybe it would have changed his mind, to know that Jungkook loved him," Taehyung argued.

"No, he told me after Jungkook confessed, that he didn't love him. So just shut up, Hoseok and Jungkook would've never happened."

Taehyung stopped his fork right before it entered his mouth and blinked.

"But Hyung, Jungkook confessed the night Hobi was killed, so it couldn't have been after."

Yoongi froze indiscernibly. And no one noticed, except for Seokjin, because Seokjin knew Yoongi by heart and could tell every emotion that would radiate from Yoongi, even if the ray was weak and invisible to the others. Seokjin could see it, he could always see it. And right now, the ray of uneasiness that shone from Yoongi made Seokjin slightly nervous.

"You're right, it was before... Before Jungkook confessed," Yoongi replied smoothly as he lowered his eyes back to his soup. 

Taehyung stared at him, eyes wide.

"Well, then why would he say that he doesn't love Jungkook?" 

Yoongi shrugged nonchalantly, eyes still stuck on his soup. 

"I don't know. He didn't like him." 

"That's weird... You didn't see him, that night?" 

Yoongi blinked. "No. I didn't." 

He looked away, dropping his spoon into his bowl and letting his right hand rest on the wooden table.

"When was the last time you saw him, by the way?" Jimin inquired curiously. 

"When we were all at dinner, before Hoseok went to bed," Yoongi replied without missing a beat. 

"Oh. You didn't see him after? Since he was your boyfriend, didn't you guys see each other sometimes during the night?" It was an innocent question that Jimin had asked, in an innocent tone, and Seokjin wouldn't have paid special attention to the answer if his gaze hadn't been stuck on Yoongi. 

He wanted to look away, he wanted to look away so bad but he couldn't. 

"No, I didn't see him after," Yoongi repeated, looking away and moving his finger on the table. 

And as Yoongi denied, as Yoongi looked away from Taehyung and Jimin, as he repeatedly smoothed over the table with his ring finger, Seokjin knew. He had spent years in love with Yoongi, years spent watching the boy from afar and getting to know him perfectly. 

When he was happy, Yoongi closed his eyes and smiled without showing his teeth. When he was sad, Yoongi wore an extra shirt to keep himself warm, and moved slower than he usually did. And when Yoongi lied, he looked away and nervously moved his ring finger back and forth on something soft.

And Seokjin stared as Yoongi's ring finger caressed the wooden table, he stared as Yoongi's eyes focused on the bowl in front of him, he stared as Yoongi repeated, for the third time, that he had not seen Hoseok that night. 

He stared as Yoongi caressed the wood some more, he stared as Yoongi raised his eyes again and met his, he stared as the dark gaze of the boy he loved so deeply turned into one that seemed cold and unforgiving, one that he couldn't deny was hiding something. 

And as he looked behind the dark pupils he loved so much, he saw the truth.

Seokjin's eyes were stuck on Yoongi as the realization dawned upon him and his whole world came crashing down.

Yes, Seokjin was definitely cursed.

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