Jungkook
It started with silence.
Then the world cracked open.
Jungkook's hands trembled as he clutched the photo Elias gave him. The image—Taehyung and the boy he'd tried so hard to forget—burned itself into his vision. Into his soul.
Same eyes. Same smile. Same everything.
He was never loved for who he was.
He was loved for what he reminded Taehyung of.
A ghost.
A memory.
An echo of someone gone.
His knees gave out.
The floor hit him harder than expected, but not harder than the ache in his chest.
"Jungkook," Taehyung said, voice strained, stepping closer.
But he couldn't hear it. Not clearly.
All he could hear was the sound of his own heart breaking.
"I was never enough for you," Jungkook whispered. "I was never me to you. Just… a shadow."
Taehyung froze.
Guilt sank into his face like blood draining from a wound.
"I didn't mean to—"
"Didn't mean to what? Use me? Replace him with me? Look at me like I'm a body, not a person?!"
Jungkook was yelling now, tears blurring his vision, throat raw.
"I loved you, Taehyung."
His voice broke.
"And you… you just needed someone to help you sleep at night."
The weight crushed him.
Emotion. Confusion. Longing. Betrayal. Heartbreak.
His chest heaved — breathing was like swallowing glass.
"I hate you," he choked out.
"But I love you more."
And that's when it snapped.
His body collapsed.
His vision blurred, darkened — fading to black as the pain pulled him under.
The last thing he saw was Taehyung falling to his knees beside him.
The last thing he heard was his name, whispered like a prayer.
"Jungkook—"
And then, nothing.
He woke up to cold air.
No warmth. No fire. No scent of cologne. No soft sheets.
Just the dull hum of a city he'd forgotten.
His old apartment.
Bare walls. Empty shelves. And the hollow echo of loneliness.
Jungkook sat up slowly, heart aching like a bruise that wouldn't heal.
He was alone.
Taehyung was gone.
He really left.
Reality crashed in with the silence.
Tears came suddenly—aggressively.
His chest heaved as he curled into himself, arms wrapped tight, rocking slightly.
The pain was unbearable.
Worse than the night Namjoon left.
Worse than anything he'd ever known.
Because this time, it wasn't just abandonment.
It was the cruel realization that maybe—
He was never truly loved.
Only wanted.
Only used.
And now?
He was nothing.
No match.
No kiss.
No Taehyung.
Just a broken boy in a cold apartment… longing to be wanted.
Longing to be held.
Longing to be enough.
End of Chapter 15