Hustlers || Taekook

Chapter 33

"What? Boss, what happened? Are you being serious?" Jungkook lowered his phone as Jinwoo's shocked voice chattered through, and he pressed the end call button. He'd explain later.

Taehyung just stared at him mutely, lips stuttering and mouthing nonsensical words.

"Why are you looking at me like that? Who was it that promised me that I could kill you if I wanted?" Jungkook growled and Taehyung flinched, what looked like a mixture of shock, pain and nausea slapping across his face.

"You still want to kill me?" Taehyung got out, sounding strangled by disbelief and hopelessness, and Jungkook just could not sympathise.

"Are you saying you were never serious about it? You swore that as long as I chose to live, you wouldn't care no matter what I did to you or Bangtan. That was just a lie? Or you were hoping that as time went by you'd change my mind? Well, you had. But now we've gone back to square fucking one." Jungkook replied harshly, the memory of Taehyung cradling him against his body and tearfully begging him to choose life flashing through his mind. Taehyung's lips parted, looking like Jungkook had just hit him. Then like a switch had been flipped, his posture hardened, anger and a sharply enraged disbelief flooding in his eyes and spreading through his stiff frame.

"I was serious. I was still serious until a few seconds ago. Am I not even allowed to fucking ask?" Taehyung hissed, bitterness and resentment sparking in his hard stare. Jungkook curled his fingers into fists, a touch of wariness lending an unnecessary burst of irritation to his voice.

"What?"

"I..." Taehyung exhaled slowly, controlled and careful as if he was trying his best to stay composed, flicking his eyes up to the sky for a second, gleaming with unshed tears. "I know I killed your close friend. I know you're grieving and I know how much she meant to you. But I am never, ever going to apologise. You know why?"

Jungkook narrowed his eyes and waited.

"Because you did this to me. You- You kept choosing her over me, you prioritised her, you let her push me around and told me to just suck it up when I had complaints about her, you cared about her feelings but not about mine-" Taehyung paused and seemed to choke down a sob, swallowing and letting out a frustrated hiss of a sigh. Jungkook almost scoffed at the childish reasoning for something so, so serious and extreme.

"All I'm hearing is that you were jealous that I was paying someone else attention. You're a grown man, yet you couldn't handle feeling left out or some shit?" Jungkook spoke through gritted teeth, the absurdity of Taehyung's hurt feelings somehow being a justifiable reason for murder making his head reel.

"Fucking listen to me. You keep expecting me to just follow your every order without giving me anything in return. I... I used to not care about reciprocation because I have never once forgotten what I did to you, I-I'm still paying for all that. But not only am I not allowed to demand anything of you, and can't even dream of controlling you in any way that's even close to how you control me... You don't even stand up for me. You don't stand up for your own boyfriend, but you tell him to back down. You haven't once respected my feelings about Myunghee one bit, in fact you practically told me I was being unreasonable for not liking her when you know she was provoking me and flirting with you." Tears fell down Taehyung's cheeks as he spoke, shrill voice weak and broken in a way that had Jungkook wanting to snatch back everything he'd said and gather Taehyung's trembling body in his arms again. But he couldn't. He saw Taehyung's point there. It stabbed at his conscience and churned his stomach with guilt as the reality of exactly how he'd treated Taehyung slapped him across the face now that it was put into words... But maybe he didn't want to face that reality. Maybe he didn't want to admit to himself that this was partially his fault. And whatever Taehyung said didn't change the fact that Myunghee's cold, dead body lay at their feet.