HE CONSUMED THE SUN

Jeon Jungkook - Math Professor

Kim Taehyung - The Teaching Assistant

"I hate you. I hate the way you look at me like I'm nothing. I hate the way you speak to me like I'm beneath you. I hate that I ever thought there was something worth saving in you." Taehyung's voice cracked on the last word.

Jungkook didn't flinch.

"Good," Jungkook said. Low. Slow. Like a blade dragging across skin. "Hate me. Hate every word I've ever said to you. Hate the way I make your jaw clench and your hands shake. Hate the sound of my voice, the sight of my face, the way I breathe in the same room as you."

His hand came up not to touch. Never to touch.

"I will break you, Kim Taehyung," Jungkook whispered, and his voice was not cruel it was certain. It was the voice of a man who had already seen the end and chosen it anyway. "Piece by piece. Layer by layer. Until every part of you every breath, every heartbeat, every thought hates me till the day they bury you in the ground."

Silence.

Then Taehyung laughed.

"You want me to hate you because that's the only way you know someone's still there." His voice dropped. Not a whisper. Something worse. Something that cut cleaner than any shout. "That's the only kind of staying you understand someone who stays because they can't leave. Not someone who stays because they choose to."