Misery /✔/ Taekook

Chapter Seventeen

"Hey, look that's the boy that was with King Jungkook," someone whispered as Taehyung walked past them, eyeing a booth that was selling bright red tomatoes.

"Really? Him?" Another person asked.

"Yeah, they were really close with each other and I heard his mother is searching for a spouse for him, maybe that boy is a lucky candidate."

"I never suspected King Jungkook was...like that."

"Nothing wrong with it, I suppose."

Taehyung reached for a tomato and examined it close to his face. He glanced at the two women near him who were loudly talking about him with no shame or worry that he could hear them. The woman that initiated the conversation looked foreign with naturally curly red hair and robust with breasts so large they begged to push out of her shirt. She was like a hentai character and Taehyung quickly looked away so he wouldn't get called out for staring though he wasn't staring there. The second woman was much smaller in both height and size with jet black hair pulled in a ponytail.

"I heard his mother was going to hold another ceremony for eligible brides and husbands," the smaller girl said.

Taehyung frowned and shook his head. 'Rumours'.

"It's rumoured he's a charity case," the redhead said, "him and his family, you know he already has a son."

The petite woman gasped. "Is his son illegitimate?"

Taehyung realized he was squeezing the tomato and looked up at the seller and apologized. He placed the squeezed tomato and two more in the weigher.

"He was supposedly married to deceased King Dongwook."

Taehyung flinched at the name and turned around before he could even process his actions, he yelled, "STOP!"

The two women stared at him with wide eyes and some passersby stopped as well to look.

"You know nothing about me," Taehyung snapped. He felt both the heart-dropping sensation and his heart speeding up at the same time as he glared at the two gossiping women. "You don't even know my name, so just stop, have some respect."

The two women gawked at him as he turned back around to face the seller. His heart was beating out of his chest with sudden anxiety telling him he had done the wrong thing. If they continued dating, Jungkook would eventually introduce Taehyung to the kingdom and what if people remember this day? The day Kim Taehyung screamed at two women for apparently no reason? Taehyung's heart constricted. 'You're ruining your image already'

He quickly paid for the fruit and without looking at anyone, quickly walked away, trying to control his breathing. He never knew he had so much anxiety until now even when he snapped at that princess, he didn't feel the way he felt now. It was an awful feeling, like the younger sibling to dread. He just wanted to hide away and hope they'd forget what happened.

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'How did that rumour even start...?' Taehyung wondered, staring at the ocean and moving his feet forward as the tide crept over the rocks and watching the water cover his feet.

'Well, there was a war...was it a war?' Taehyung shook his head 'still, people must have started rumours about me after word got out...but who told who?'

Had someone told someone that Jungkook had saved Taehyung? He sighed and leaned down to pick up a pebble. It just dawned on him that people will start throwing his past up in his face, they'll think that he will try to turn their kingdom into what Dongwook's kingdom once was. No matter how hard he tried to forget that name, it would be carelessly thrown into his face again and again. And because he's a 'charity case', Jungkook's people won't take him seriously. He didn't want to make Jungkook look bad.

Taehyung sighed again and brought his knees up to his chest, wrapped his arms around his legs, and buried his face in his arms. Jungkook hasn't even announced his relationship with Taehyung and Taehyung was already feeling insecure, all the dark memories of him making public appearances with his ex-husband and the kingdom whispering and bullying him crawled out of their space and Taehyung just wanted to be washed away by the tide.

What would Jungkook's people think of him knowing he already had a son who had the Lee blood running in his veins?

"Knew I'd find you here."

Taehyung gasped and jerked back before whipping his head in the direction of the voice. He stared at the man sitting down beside him with wide eyes before processing that it was Jungkook.

"Your mom said you just left," Jungkook explained, "assumed you would be here."

"I needed somewhere to think."

"Penny for your thoughts?" Jungkook asked, taking a penny out of his pocket and flicking it onto the palm of Taehyung's hand.

Taehyung looked down at it before flicking it back to Jungkook, a smile playing on his lips.

"I'm worried," Taehyung said, "and nervous."

Jungkook hummed, moving closer to the younger male. "About?"

"What if your people don't like me?"

Jungkook frowned and tilted his head in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"Eventually, you will have to tell them we're together, right?" Taehyung asked, "they're not going to like me."

"Why do you think that?"

"Because they know about my marriage with Dongwook and they see me as a charity case," Taehyung responded, "I have a son that doesn't even belong to you - I'll make you look bad."

Jungkook sighed and took Taehyung's face in his hands. Taehyung's eyes slightly widened as he thought Jungkook was going to try and kiss him and he reflexively moved his head back but Jungkook kept him in place.

"What they think doesn't matter to me, they have the ability to leave this kingdom and move somewhere else," Jungkook said, "you would never make me look bad, I love Hanseok as if he were my own and I love you and if they're not happy with my decision to be with someone that makes me happy then fuck them. My kingdom will still prosper and it'll prosper even more with you by my side. Just stop caring about what other people will think of you plus once they find out what you're like - how amazing you are - they'll love you and accept you."

He smiled and pressed his lips against Taehyung's forehead. Taehyung closed his eyes and leaned into the kiss, glad Jungkook didn't try to go in for the lips. Jungkook moved his head back and pulled Taehyung into a side hug, rubbing Taehyung's shoulder with his thumb.

"You shouldn't be worrying about that right now anyway, we're still long away from me announcing our relationship - we haven't even labelled ourselves yet," he said, leaning his head onto the younger male's head.

"Right...right, I'll try not to think too much about it," Taehyung said, "I think I'm ready to meet your parents now though."

"Good, that's what I was here for, my brother is coming back from Africa next week and he wants me to ask if we can all meet then."

"Next week?"

"Yeah, any day after Monday."

"Okay..." Taehyung said, "are you sure they'll like me-"

"Stop caring about what people think," Jungkook said with mock anger, squishing Taehyung's cheeks, "it doesn't matter."

They continued talking before their conversation came to a slow halt, watching the sun slowly kiss the horizon. Taehyung's head was rested against Jungkook's chest and Jungkook's head on Taehyung's with his arm wrapped around his back. Both completely unaware of the man just a little ways behind them holding a camera.

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Word Count: 1276

Ah shit, here we go with the unnecessary drama 🙃