Investigation

Chapter 16

Author

"W-What?" Jihyun said while furthering herself away from Taehyung. "D-Did you just say you loved me?"

He cleared his throat, almost as if he blurted the words out without any realization. "Ever since I kissed you on that day when we went undercover, I couldn't get rid of you off my mind."

"Why would you say that, Tae?" she asked. "Please tell me that was the wine speaking and not you."

Taehyung looked at the shock in her eyes and it would be a lie if he said it didn't hurt him. He wanted to laugh it off and told her that he was drunk, but he couldn't, he did love her.

"I stand by what I said, Jihyun," he said. "I don't know when it happened or how it did, but I'm in love with you. I really am."

Instead of smiling like how people usually reacted when someone confessed their love to them, she teared up.

"You shouldn't have said that to me," she said. "You're my best friend, Tae. Best friends shouldn't fall for each other. Now that you're in love with me, what am I supposed to do? Be in love with you back?"

Everything that she said caused Taehyung's heart to shatter to pieces. He then scoffed. "Wow, Jihyun, calm down. I only said I love you, not asking you to marry me."

Jihyun took a deep breath before wiping her tears away. "I-I know. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to say that," she said, "but you have to understand why I freaked out, Tae."

"No. No, I don't," he said. "You were getting serious with Jungkook so I thought you'd moved on from your past. Is the idea of you being loved by someone else that terrifying to you?"

"No, it's not that," she said before avoiding any eye contact with Taehyung to think of anything that wouldn't hurt him more. "If you love me, that means I'm gonna hurt you, Tae, and I don't want to hurt you."

Taehyung raised an eyebrow. "Why do you think you would hurt me?"

Jihyun looked at him and trembled a bit. "Because I don't think I could fall for my best friend."

He scoffed once again before shaking his head and looking back at her with obvious pain in his eyes. "Best friend, huh? That's all you will forever see me as, isn't it?" he asked and cut her off when she wanted to apologize. "J-Just... save it, okay? I'm leaving now."

Taehyung then hurriedly grabbed his things before he slammed the door behind her.

---

"Babe, why are you ignoring me?" Jungkook asked while Jihyun still had her eyes on the paperwork on her computer.

It was early in the morning and Jihyun definitely didn't enjoy being annoyed in the morning like that.

"I'm not ignoring you, Kook," she said. "I'm doing my job."

"I know, but you seem really distracted these last few days," he said. "We rarely spend time together now."

"Well, I'm sorry but I'm working on a case that has been on that white board for months," she said. "Please, I need to work."

She then noticed that he started to pout. "What's going on, babe? What's bothering you?"

"Nothing, Kook. I'm fine."

He crossed his arms on his chest. "What makes it even weirder is that I don't see you cracking jokes with your best friend Taehyung. Where is he anyway?"

"None of your concern, Kook."

"Is something wrong between you guys? Are you guys fighting? I never see you two fight before. Who did the other wrong? What seems to be the problem? It's not like everyday you two have issues. Is there something I can do? Are you-"

He kept on asking her things to the point it annoyed the hell out of her, so she cut him off by telling him the truth, which was apparently a very bad idea.

"He told me he loved me, Kook," Jihyun said. "Can that make you stop asking me questions?"

He widened his eyes for a second before he started furrowing. "He what?!"

"It's not a big deal. I told him that he's just a best friend of mine and we got into a fight. That's it."

Jungkook suddenly stood up and started yelling before he went looking for him. Just as that happened, Taehyung and Seokjin came out of the elevator and Jungkook saw them.

He immediately approached Taehyung and Jihyun didn't expect him to actually hit him on the face. She gasped and then rushed to stop the fight.

"I KNEW YOU HAD FEELINGS FOR MY GIRLFRIEND," Jungkook yelled before he landed another punch on Taehyung's cheekbones. He was about to throw another punch when the latter grabbed his wrist and hit him back.

It was chaos. Jihyun wanted to stop them, but none of them listened to anything she was saying, until Captain Kim came out of his office and saw the mess.

"YOU TWO. MY OFFICE. NOW."

Jungkook let go of Taehyung's collar harshly and they both were giving each other a death glare before going into the captain's office.

After around an hour or so of the precinct feeling a little bit intense after the whole messy situation and both of the guys going into their boss' office, the door was finally opened. Jihyun stood up and waited... for who? Was it Jungkook or Taehyung? Who knows.

Jungkook was the one who went out first and approached Jihyun. "I'm sorry you had to witness that."

"What were you thinking?" she asked with her voice raised. "You're not a teenager anymore, Jungkook. You could've talked this out as adults."

"I know, I'm sorry," he said, looking down. "Captain Kim suspended me for a few days, so I'll just call you tonight, okay?"

Jihyun sighed, then she nodded. Jungkook gave her a peck on the cheek before he left. Taehyung then came out and walked past Jihyun without even looking at her.

"T-Taehyung," she called and grabbed him by his wrist. "I'm sorry I told Jungkook about it."

He warded her hand. He looked at her with much anger before he scoffed. "You really can't get enough of embarrassing me, can you? You just had to tell your boyfriend about it and let him hit me in the fucking face."

"No!" she exclaimed. "Taehyung, please, I'm sorry. I feel really bad about last night and I want to fix this. Tell me how I can fix this so I can have my best friend back."

Taehyung once again scoffed. "If you can only see me as a best friend and not as a man who just told the woman he loved that he's in love with her, then I don't think I can be your friend anymore, Jihyun."