Make me eat my words || Taegyu

Chapter 11

The divide between them didn't really sink in until Seulgi showed up.

As Beomgyu already knew well, Taehyun was great at making himself scarce when he wanted to; for the first few days after they'd talked, he woke up to see Taehyun's bed empty, the younger prince long gone. He found himself reverting back to the schedule he'd had when he'd first moved in; eat, spend his entire day in the library, chill with Soobin for a bit, repeat. Soobin and Kai were attached at the hip these days, but they never made it awkward, which Beomgyu was thankful for. In fact, he found a bit of solace in watching them interact, happy that his best friend had been able to find someone that made him smile so brightly.

He was in the library with them and watching them flirt from behind one of his books when Seulgi approached him, sitting down next to him in a way surprisingly reminiscent of the way she had weeks before. "Choi Beomgyu," she said firmly, using her finger to lower his book from his face. Her eyes widened a bit when she saw the bags under his eyes, but she pushed on. "What did you do?"

"Huh?" Beomgyu said weakly, attempting to raise his book again.

Seulgi resorted to taking the book out of his hands and placing it face down on the table she'd kicked her feet up on. "What did you do?" she repeated, raising both of her eyebrows. "Taehyun's been in a shitty mood for days. I thought it was temporary, but he lashed out at Mom today, and he never does that. So, what did you do?"

Soobin and Kai had gone quiet. Beomgyu reached back for the book, snatching it off of the table with a pointed glare. "Why are you assuming it's my fault?" he bit out, flattening the book on his lap. "He's his own person. Ask him."

"I did," Seulgi groaned, draping an arm over her face. "And he's being just as annoying as you are right now, so I know it's something to do with you. So just tell me before I lose it and lock you two in a room together."

Beomgyu felt a fleeting urge to bite her finger as it poked his face, but it passed as soon as it came. "What did I do?" he repeated, not missing the worried look Soobin sent him. "I basically told him I had feelings for him, and he told me that he 'couldn't handle being wrong' about love again." He used air quotation marks for emphasis, then picked up his book again as Seulgi flinched back in obvious shock. "Is that all?"

"You're avoiding him," she immediately accused, snatching the book out of his hand. "He's miserable without you."

Beomgyu made the executive decision to give up on the book. "And who in their right mind, Kang Seulgi, wouldn't avoid someone after getting blatantly rejected by them?" he asked instead, folding his hands in his lap. Kai had started to look extremely uncomfortable.

"All you're doing is hurting him more! He obviously didn't 'blatantly reject' you if he's this upset over it!" Seulgi slammed her hands on the table, making Soobin flinch. "Do you not care about his feelings even a little bit?"

"What do you want from me?" Beomgyu half-laughed, awestruck by how ridiculous she was being. "Do you want me to go hold his hand and walk him through his feelings after he hurt mine? I feel like you're forgetting that he's a grown adult. He knows what he said, he can deal with the consequences, and I'm not going to let him keep pretending to care about me the way I want him to."

He stood up abruptly, snatching the book out of Seulgi's hands. "You're selfish, you and him both. I shouldn't have expected anything different from the fucking Kang siblings." He walked as quickly as he could towards the library doors, blood rushing in his ears. Seulgi didn't follow. He heard Kai say something to her before the doors shut behind him.

So, yeah, it was safe to say Beomgyu wasn't dealing with things very well. He should've expected it, he'd realized a couple of days back as he was talking with Soobin. Taehyun was a good actor. Of course he'd know all of the things to say, all of the things to do to make someone fall for him. Beomgyu was just the idiot that believed him. Maybe he'd been playing with Beomgyu's heart this whole time as some kind of sick game, first using him as an excuse to get Jongin to stay away, then as a source of comfort when the guilt of getting his first love banished from the kingdom set in. For what other reason would he have to avoid Beomgyu with such determination now?