Ships in the Night | BxB

29. Things Fall Apart

29. Things Fall Apart

The following weekend, Hoseok's team earned a place in the national championship finals.

It was what everyone had been anticipating all term, and it was finally happening.

However, I noticed that instead of being ecstatic about it, Hoseok was tensed.

I guessed it was fine to get nervous at that point. After all, he had once mentioned how everyone's expectations made it harder on him.

Not only was he going to the competition with his team, but he also had a solo dance. While winning the national championship would make Beachwood's dance team the top in the country, him winning his solo would make him the best dancer, three years in a row.

As dance captain of the school team too, it meant that the pressure on him was twofold.

I tried my best to make him less tensed, but the smiles he gave weren't all that convincing. To make matters worse, I didn't think him and Jimin were on the best terms.

It seemed that I wasn't the only person Jimin was avoiding.

He rarely came by our room, but I thought that had everything to do with the fact that Hoseok was always at practice. Also, exams were a week away, so maybe he was spending more time studying.

But, whatever it was, I wished he didn't abandon Hoseok like that. After spending two months around them, I could tell when they were in good terms, and when they weren't.

Sometimes when I worried too much about Hoseok, I thought about confronting Jimin. I know it was not my place, but I couldn't help feeling like that.

Seeing Hoseok all alone and frustrated made me mad. But I couldn't do anything about it. After his revelation that he had more-than-friendly feelings towards me, our relationship was never the same.

He didn't share his frustrations with me, and he didn't get too close either. In a way, I had lost him too.

When I thought it couldn't get worse, Hoseok injured his ankle during one of his nightly practices.

An assessment by the school nurse showed that it was a minor injury, with only minimum stretching.

Which meant that with extra care, his ankle could heal within a week or two.

But it was already Wednesday, and the national competitions were beginning that Friday.

At first, Hoseok was in denial.

The nurse told him that he needed to give his ankle a rest and avoid walking as much as possible, but he was determined to attend the competition.

On the first night, I was awoken by a series of grunts in our room.

"Hyung?" I called, thinking he was in pain and couldn't sleep. I reached for my phone and lit the torch, leaning over my bunk.

But he wasn't on his bed.

He was on the floor, one hand clutching his injured ankle. My heart sped up as it occured to me that he must have been trying to work his ankle.

I went down the bed and switched on the lights before kneeling beside him.

"Seok," I mumbled, reaching for his ankle. I brushed my fingers lightly over it so that I wouldn't hurt him. "Can I get your painkillers?"

He shook his head. His eyes were shiny, as if tears were begging to flow.

The sight of him that way clenched my heart, and I couldn't stand it. But there was nothing I could do.

He had prepared so hard for the competition, but now he wouldn't be able to participate. He wouldn't be able to defend his crown.

Instead, he had to think of how to modify his team's choreography so that they could go on without him.

Knowing how passionate he was about dancing, I couldn't fathom how he was feeling.

I shifted so that I was sitting beside him. I wrapped one arm around his shoulder and rested his head on mine.

We sat like that for a while before he began crying. His tears wet my top, while his one hand clutched my side.

I could only hope that I was a comfort to him in the same way he was to me when I first got to Beachwood.

"Tae," he muttered when he pulled away and wiped his face with tissues that I handed him.

"Yeah?"

"Can you...," he hesitated, staring hard at the floor. I squeezed his hand in assurance.

"Please hand me my phone, I need to talk to Jimin."

I don't know what I had expected him to say, but that request seemed to deflate some unidentified desire.

Maybe I wanted him to lean on me when he needed someone. It just happened that I wasn't his someone.

Letting go of him, I stood and reached for his phone that was on the table.

"Thanks," he muttered when I handed it to him.

A few minutes later, he informed me that he was going to spend the night in Jimin's room.

I offered to accompany him to the other dorm so that he wouldn't hurt himself, but he said that Jimin was coming to get him.

So I stayed and watched him leave.

I couldn't tell why my heart felt so heavy at that moment.

***

Hoseok didn't get better as the days went by.

He did come to accept that there was no way his ankle was going to be fine in time for the championship.

But that didn't mean that it made his situation less painful.

He threw his weight behind his studies, getting ready for the exams. That must have been his way to stop thinking about what had happened because dancing wasn't an option.

The championships came and went. The dance team made changes to their dance, but it wasn't the same as before.

Not only had they lost their star dancer, but they also had to make major changes in a limited time.

They got second place, which I thought was a good feat given the circumstances.

The end terms began, and I too got quite busy and didn't think much about all the things that had gone wrong.

As the days came and went, I began rethinking my request to my parents about leaving Beachwood.

I couldn't find it in me to leave Hoseok behind, not when he was walking around like everything in his life was falling apart.

His ankle healed in about two and half weeks, but he never went to the dance practice room again.

On the rare occasions that I came across Jimin, he didn't look much better either. He appeared as if he wasn't getting enough sleep, and each time, he walked past me with a blank stare.

I spent most of my time during the school day with Jungkook, preparing for our papers and hanging around his dorm.

Maybe I would stay in Beachwood for Jungkook too.

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Thanks for reading. :) Do you think Tae will stay at Beachwood?