no regrets 。taekai 。

xvii

"fuck off." was the first thing jongin said when he saw sehun and baekhyun.

even though everyone stood there with shocked faces and especially baekhyun seemed to shut his gaping mouth to gulp. whatever anyone was expecting, it really wasn't this.

"okay, now. calm down, we're here to have a talk." soo man forced a smile and urged the boys to sit down on the couches face one another. baekhyun and sehun on one side and the others right in front of them, separated only by the ceo's fancy glass coffee table.

"so after almost a year, baekhyun and sehun are back! yipee... ?" soo man cleared his throat before finally settling down on his chair, "the atmosphere is really tense right now, i'm going to leave this room and get some coffee from the café downstairs, i hope that by the time i'm back, you guys have settled all of this with a peaceful and mindful discussion." he stood up and grabbed his wallet from his desk.

everyone watched their ceo leave, refusing to make any eye-contact with one another. jongin sat on the edge of the couch, arms crossed and a relaxed pose, looking up at spider web on the corner of the room, refusing to pay a single attention to the matter in hand.

"uh... welcome guys." junmyeon said, his voice a little quivery, probably because the room was too quiet, "hope you guys had a nice... year."

sehun smiled awkwardly, reaching his arm up to rub the nape of his neck. jongin finally looked at the boy and stared at him. sehun's smile quickly died down, replaced by a frown.

"i guess it was good, took the pressure away." baekhyun smiled brightly, the way he used to.

"while we worked our asses off, you guys went out on a nice holiday. great." jongin commented, recahing forward to take a sip of his coffee. it was too early for him to deal with all the emotions within himself.

baekhyun's smile faltered a bit but nonetheless he was able to maintain it.

"we're sorry for everything. we-... i-..." baekhyun stuttered.

before any of the other members could utter anything else, jongin leant forward and rested his elbows on both of his knees.

"let's go through parts, shall we?" jongin fakely smiled.

"jongin-" jongdae tried.

"no." jongin put a hand up, a sign for everyone to shut up and let him talk, "something inevitable happened, that we can all agree on, love is inevitable. but the problem here is, we are a team- we were a team. for a team to work, we have to trust each other, we have to communicate so our bonds become stronger. we have been in this together since the beginning, we all have spent more time with each other than with our own families. so i have the right to say that, personally, i felt betrayed."

"jongin..." sehun and baekhyun mirrored the same pained and desperate expression.

"i thought we were close enough that you could confide in us- no, in me. we all promised each other, through thick and thin, we were in this until the end, together. but i guess i was wrong, huh? i have to find out through the news that you guys were dating and that you guys left the country. amazing, isn't it? after all those years of training together, of struggling together, i guess that was for fucking nothing, right?" jongin had such a big headache, he didn't even notice the first tear roll down his cheek.

"jongin, you're making this a personal issue-"

"hell yeah i'm making this a personal issue, kyungsoo. aren't we supposed to say what we're feeling? well, i feel like shit, i feel like shit that has been stepped on and scraped off someone's shoe. happy?" jongin briskly stood up, slamming his left knee on the corner of the coffee table.

"jongin, sit down! we can sort this out."  junmyeon tried to reason, his voice getting louder.

"i can't-... i just... fucking hell." jongin sniffed as the tears started to fall like a cascade, "i need to cool down, i can't do this now. you guys sort it out amongst your selves, i'll deal with it later."

before anyone else had the chance to talk, jongin had already rushed out of the office and slammed the door behind him. he kept his head down as he speed-walked down the corridors, looking down and avoiding any of the nearby staff's stares.

he went to make a sharp turn when his body slammed against another body. taemin and jongin went flying to the ground side by side. taemin, as soon as he noticed it was jongin who bumped against him, was about to make a joke about how clumsy the younger one was but as soon as he looked up he saw the redness of jongin's eyes and how the boy had left all his pride and was full on wailing like a toddler in the middle of the company's corridor.

"hey." taemin scooted closer to the crying boy and patted his back, "it's fine, whatever it is, it's going to be fine."

taemin rapidly rubbed jongin's cheeks with his thumbs in an attempt of making the boy stop crying but there was no avail.

the two boys just sat there out on the open, ignoring the staff who constantly rushed past them.