Hustlers || Taekook

Chapter 17

The other end of the line was silent for a good minute or so, save for the deep, ragged and unsteady breathing. The sobs had died away almost immediately, though the breathing still hitched on tremulous ripples every now and then. Jungkook didn't even twitch, waiting in dead silence for Jimin to answer.

"This is... Jungkook, isn't it?" Jimin eventually spoke, voice thick and almost unrecognisable, quiet in a defeated way.

Jungkook replied shortly, voice a little terser than he'd meant for it to be. "Yes."

"Well. How have you been?" Jimin's voice was filled with reluctance and the resignation in his tone pricked at Jungkook's nerves. He quite obviously did not want to talk to Jungkook.

"Better than you, by the sounds of it." Jungkook replied flatly without missing a beat and Jimin gave a dry laugh.

"That's not hard to achieve. Where's Taehyung?"

"He's asleep. If you've broken your wrist you should go to the hospital, why bother Taehyung?" Jungkook asked a little frostily, fingers tightening around Taehyung's arm. Jimin didn't reply immediately, breathing gradually steadying bit by bit. Jungkook thought perhaps he shouldn't speak so coldly to his former best friend who was currently obviously dealing with some pretty serious issues, but the whole suddenly losing all contact for months without an explanation thing put a bit of a damper on his reconciliatory mood.

"I... I just wanted to talk to someone. Conversations are grounding, you know." Jimin replied quietly and Jungkook leaned back against the headboard of the bed, eyebrow raising a little. He still knew Jimin well enough to hear the unspoken "let me talk to Taehyung" loud and clear through his tone, but he wasn't going to oblige. He wanted answers, after all.

"Talk to me. Taehyung needs a lot of rest right now, but I'm wide awake. I've got all night." Jungkook stated airily, a lot lighter than he felt, and Jimin's silence blared out what he thought about that. But at least he didn't end the call. Perhaps he needed a prompt. "You said it was Yoongi, "again"? He broke your wrist? How do you even know that dickhead?"

"Don't call him that." Jimin's tone took a sudden steep dive down into threatening seriousness, and Jungkook twitched, a little taken aback at the stone-hard imperative. Looked like there was a bit of a story to tell.

"Why? What is he to you?" Jungkook asked a little sharply, a little provocatively, and Jimin clicked his tongue, drawing an audible breath in through his nose and exhaling slowly.

"He's my... boyfriend."

"Yikes. That asshole actually has a boyfriend? Not to mention well, you. How did you get yourself into an abusive relationship, Jimin? What have... you been up to? Why did you suddenly disappear from my life? That was back around when I first met Taehyung. Was it because of him? Or was it something that I did?" Jungkook couldn't stop the questions once they'd started, needing to bite the inside of his cheek to pause. He couldn't pinpoint any exact emotion within the swirling mess in his head, and wasn't sure how he was meant to feel, or how he should react towards his previously close friend's predicament, when he had no idea where he stood with said friend.

"Don't start labelling my relationship with him when you don't even know shit about it. I stopped picking up your calls and replying to your texts because I didn't need to stick around anymore. You met Taehyung who could babysit you instead." Jimin replied coldly, harshly, voice taking on a wholly unfamiliar scathing edge that shocked Jungkook. He grinded his teeth, fingernails digging into Taehyung's skin as anger began to simmer in his chest and burn at his throat.

"...What the fuck?" Jungkook spoke lowly, quickly releasing Taehyung's arm as he squirmed and made a small distressed sound. He hastily stroked his arm apologetically, running light fingers over the small indents in his skin and kissing the top of his head.