✔️ 𝐈𝐧𝐤𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐟 𝐅𝐚𝐭𝐞 | 𝐓𝐚𝐞𝐠𝐠𝐮𝐤

Chapter Twenty-Six.

Jeongguk

When Jeongguk awoke on the seventh morning of his stay in Tokyo, he groaned and forcefully pulled his pillow down over his ears. The birds outside had awoken him, calling to their kin to rejoice over the first sunny day in a week. It was a lovely reprieve for the birds, but for Jeongguk, their call simply meant that he would have to get up and face another day at the scrutiny of Yuito Fujita, the famed tattoo artist who had invited Jeongguk to study under him.

It was but a moment before Jeongguk's thoughts wandered to Taehyung, which didn't surprise him considering the fact that all of his dreams were about him. It was hard not to think about him, after all. The way things had ended in Seoul before Jeongguk left still made his stomach churn, and he silently cursed himself every waking moment for what he had done. He knew he should've told Taehyung sooner, but something had possessed him during those few weeks that had made him only think of himself. He would've been lying to himself if he said he hadn't hated himself for it.

He waited everyday for Taehyung to call him, but to his dismay, Taehyung never did. Jeongguk knew that he had told Taehyung not to contact him, but part of him wished that Taehyung wouldn't listen and call anyway. He missed his boyfriend's husky voice and intoxicating laugh.

After a minute of simply sitting in his own misery, Jeongguk sighed deeply before pushing the pillow off of his head and onto the ground, where it made a soft thud when it met the carpet. He opened his eyes and noticed that the soft sunlight was filtering through a crack in the blackout curtains he had closed in exhaustion the night before, and he watched as the dust particles throughout the room met the sunbeam, creating an odd yet beautiful wall of light. If Jeongguk were in his normal, happy state, he may have stopped to appreciate this normal yet interesting occurance, but he was not in that state at all. It had been many months since he felt as low as he currently did.

It took a moment for Jeongguk to convince himself to roll out of bed, but once he did, he realized that he only had thirty more minutes until he was expected at the tattoo parlor. "I guess I can't shower," he muttered to himself, stifling a rather large yawn.

Instead, Jeongguk made his way towards the bathroom, where he noticed his phone laying atop the counter. He picked it up, powered it on, and when the notifications began to appear, he cursed himself quietly. Taehyung had called him twice during the night—once at 03:27, and a second time at 04:06.

Jeongguk quickly dialed Taehyung's number, raising the phone to his ear as it began to ring. Jeongguk dared to lift his eyes to the mirror while he waited for Taehyung to answer, and he took in the image of the hollow looking person who stared back at him. He looked exhausted, and he felt exhausted. Yuito had been working him to the bone at the parlor, and Jeongguk often worked for 16 hours a day just to face extremely harsh criticism.

The phone rang for what felt like forever until Taehyung's voicemail came through the receiver: "Hey, you've reached Kim Taehyung. Please leave your name and message so I can get back to you ASAP! Also, if this is Jimin calling me, I already told you where I keep the keys, so check our text messages. Thanks!" Beep.

Jeongguk chuckled lightly at what Taehyung had said to Jimin before realizing that the phone was recording his message. He then cleared his throat and turned around, sitting on the counter.

"Hey, Taehyung... it's me. I saw that you called me last night, so I thought I'd call you back, but you're probably asleep, so I'm not really sure why I thought 6 am was the right time to call," Jeongguk laughed lightly. "Anyway, I miss you like crazy, and I wanna apologize for everything that happened before I left. Please call me as soon as you can because I... I love you, and I can't live knowing that you're upset with me—" The phone then beeped, letting Jeongguk know that his message had been cut off there. He sighed, pressing the red hang-up button, before placing his phone on the counter.