STILL INTO HIM | VKOOK

CHAPTER TEN

***

one year ago

"You're going off to college soon?", Aylie lifted her brows while looking at Taehyung for a while. They were all sitting around a campfire they had lightened up at the beach this evening. One of their last nights all together-, it was somehow melancholic yet sad and happy at the same time. It all reminded them of how school ended, how they sat around a fire after graduation and realized how things would never be the same again.
And they really weren't.

It was crazy how one summer can change a person.

As the days got longer, the sun brighter and the smiles more genuine, the conversations between Jungkook and Taehyung happened to be shorter and the nights felt more lonely than they felt before. Things were off even though their surroundings had never been happier. Summer felt like vacation all the time but with fall arriving, one thing got closer as well; Taehyung going off to college soon. He had applied for scholarships for the winter term, which wasn't exactly what they had planned. Jungkook wanted to go to college with Taehyung but the older simply didn't feel comfortable in their hometown, he wanted to finally start over-, somewhere else.
While Jungkook thought with a new start Taehyung would mean a new partner as well-, the two fell apart. It wasn't obvious at first but both just knew that once Taehyung left it wouldn't be the same again.

Countless nights they had spent fighting over this. Jungkook getting mad because Taehyung wouldn't wait for him until he would graduate as well. "It's just one semester later", was the sentence that Jungkook said almost daily.
Not once he asked for the reason why Taehyung wanted to leave so badly.

"I guess I am", Taehyung replied to Aylie after looking into the fire for a while, watching the flames dancing around happily.

"You guess?", she asked.

No one knew that Taehyung had denied his spot at his university of his dreams.
And as for now, Taehyung didn't know how to tell them. Especially Jungkook. He had been staying away from Tae a lot lately, hanging out with Jimin all the time and not showing much interest in Taehyung and his choices.
The older understood why, but he hated the way things turned out to be. Yes, it was just one semester he would have to wait until Jungkook graduated as well and they could go off to college together, but it was also just one semester they would be apart.

Jungkook looked over to Taehyung, shaking his head as he always did. Disappointment-, that was the one thing that Taehyung got to see on his boyfriend's face all the goddamn times.
If only he knew that he had denied the spot just today. He would apply to public colleges around here for summer term, just like Jungkook. He knew that the younger wanted to stay close to home, so Taehyung gave up his dream of heading off to America.
But Jungkook didn't know that yet.

Maybe if he did, this whole night would have never took turns as they took now thanks to this conversation.

"Yeah, he's leaving me in a few days", Jungkook interrupted, his voice being sharp and filled with anger. "I'm not leaving you", Taehyung let out in frustration, "I never intended to leave you."

"You know-", Jungkook inhaled deeply, "Maybe it's for the best. You and me, we're not forever anyways. I mean, who stays with their first love? No one does. You leaving makes it easier to break up."

"You want to break up once I go?", Taehyung gasped, heart sinking down to his knees. "Come on, Kook, don't be like this!"

"What choice do I have?", Jungkook snapped. The others were going silent, watching the couple get heated in their argument. "You will be surrounded by tons of pretty people. Girls, boys, whatever. You will forget me the second you leave this town."