the rules of love and war.

10

I nearly choked on my saliva as I somehow managed to return the gesture. His older brother? How was it that we had been dating for three years and not once had I ever heard of the fact that he had a sibling?

"Well," Namjoon grimaced, the amusement now gone as he turned his gaze to his younger brother who was still staring in shock at me, "it appears that my dear brother never told you about me. I'm a little disappointed, I must say. I'll leave you two alone; clearly, there are a lot of issues you guys need to figure out." He let out a low whistle and backed away.

"You don't even know the half of it..." I grumbled under my breath as Taehyung stepped out of the house, shutting the door behind him. "Taehyung, what the hell is going on? Why didn't you ever tell me you had a brother?"

"You tell me first how you found me." He interjected, running a hand through his hair. Was his brother part of the reason why Jungkook and Taehyung were always fighting? Was this the connection? After all, Taehyung kept anything related to Jungkook separate from me and hiding something as significant as a brother had to be something huge. It was probably also why Taehyung looked like he was about to get an embolism; he really didn't want me involved in that part of his life. "How did you know to come here?"

"I-" I hesitated briefly, unsure of what to do. How was he going to react if he realized that Jungkook was the one that had driven me here in his car? But still, he did owe Jungkook a favor and honestly, I liked him more at this moment for giving me a slice of the whole truth as opposed to Taehyung who consistently gave me nothing in return. "Jungkook drove me here."

Taehyung immediately froze, his jaw clenching at the sound of his name. His piercing eyes focused over my shoulder and I knew who he was staring at. He began to take a step forward, but this time I quickly reached out to grab his arm and hold him back. At that moment, I was reminded briefly at what had happened in the hallway only a few days ago. I knew Taehyung could see the fear in my eyes because I knew it was there.

I was terrified by my own boyfriend.

"Lisa..." he said slowly, for once choosing to ignore his arch nemesis standing a few meters away. He trailed the back of his fingers down my face and I flinched unintentionally at the contact. I saw the pain in his eyes and suddenly, guilt filled my body. Whether or not he wanted to admit it, Jungkook was breaking us apart. "Shit, Lisa." He sighed and finally pulled me into a tight hug. His arms wrapped around my shoulders as I reveled in the familiar warmth of his body.

I sighed contently and leaned my cheek against his chest. There were so many unanswered questions and I knew they could all be answered inside this house. But now was not the time to ask those particular questions, not when Taehyung was still so emotionally fragile. "Why did you disappear?" I asked, my voice muffled by his shirt.

"What I almost did to you... I couldn't believe I had done that." He said after a moment. "Losing Hoseok, losing Chaeyoung... but most importantly losing you; I don't think I can stand that. I just need to know..." he pushed me back a little bit so that he straightened his arms as he held my shoulders. "Why is Jungkook here?"

"Because we were all worried about you. Not Jungkook." I added hastily when I saw Taehyung choking on air. "He just said he knew where you were and I believed him. After all, it seems that he knows you the best out of all of us, despite the fact that you say you hate him so much. You guys-"

"No." he quickly cut me off, dropping his hands away from my shoulder. "Don't you dare even say it." He shook his head, the usual anger he displayed when talking about Jungkook noticeably gone. Instead, he seemed somber and more careful about his reaction. Maybe all it took for Taehyung to return was a reality check. "Listen, I don't want you to miss class on my account. I can't believe I'm about to fucking say this." Taehyung groaned and ran a hand through his hair. "You should head back to class with Jungkook."

Without waiting for a response, he grabbed my hand and began pulling me towards Jungkook, who was still leaning against the passenger side of his car, his legs crossed casually. He was fiddling around with something on his phone, his head bent down until he heard us making our way towards him. He looked up and the brief shock written on his face was impossible to miss. But just as quickly, it was replaced with the usual stoic expression he had when staring down Taehyung. "Taehyung. Life was starting to get dull without you around."

"Didn't realize you cared that much." He replied, the hold he had on my hand getting tighter. I flinched a bit from the excessive pressure, but Taehyung didn't seem to notice. I knew he was focusing on trying to not get too angry towards Jungkook while in my presence. Jungkook, on the other hand, seemed to notice straightaway.

"You might want to be more careful around your girlfriend." Jungkook said, gesturing towards the hand he had a death grip on. At his words, Taehyung quickly let me go as I felt the blood rush back into my fingers. "There's a lot of shit going around at school right now. I suggest you watch what you do. Staff is going to be all over us. Don't do anything stupid."

"Then don't do anything that's going to fucking piss me off, Jeon."

Fear filled my body when I realized what was happening. Maybe it wasn't a good idea for me to have come searching for Taehyung with Jungkook. Clearly I knew they had issues that no therapist was capable of fixing, yet here I was, willingly throwing the two together and thinking nothing bad was going to happen. Only this time, they weren't hidden in the halls of the school; they were in broad daylight in the middle of suburban paradise.

While Taehyung was too busy glaring at Jungkook, I couldn't help but notice the fact that Jungkook continued to gauge my reaction. His eyes flitted back and forth between Taehyung and me, scanning the situation. I knew he could tell I was starting to feel uncomfortable, but there was no way he knew the precise reason. Sure, he must have known that Taehyung had been okay at first and was now slowly beginning to revert back to his old way. But no, that wasn't it. It was because of how conscious Jungkook was of me and my concerns. He clearly was able to tell when I was upset, disturbed, hurt... and Taehyung? Even despite feeling apologetic about what had happened a few days ago, he wasn't as in tune with my feelings as Jungkook was.

And that was what terrified me to my very core.