Behind My Back ✓ tk

F O R T Y

»»——CHAPTER FORTY——««
CLOSING THE GODDAMN DOOR

A door. A fucking door. That's what kept Taehyung from speaking to Jeongguk.

It both symbolized the barrier between them & the last thing heard after their discussion a few weeks ago – which was the door being slammed shut by Taehyung after he walked out of that dorm and into the manipulative arms of Youngjae.

And now, he couldn't even gather the courage to merely lift up his hand and knock. "Just fucking knock", he whispered angrily to himself as he almost burned holes in the door by just glaring at it, "You can't just keep standing in the hallway like a fucking idiot".

Lucky for him though- the door opened on itself. Taehyung took a surprised step back as his first instincts to think were both 'demons' and 'magic!' until he saw a person standing in the doorway, ready to walk out. But of course, something, or someone, blocked his path. In particular: a stunned & frightened Taehyung.

"What are you doing here?"

To his disappointment, Taehyung wasn't met with neither demons nor a wizard. No, the blonde hair and the taller posture belonged to someone else, someone he hadn't expected to see here.

"Yugyeom?", Taehyung said in surprise, "What are you doing here?"

The said guy tsked and leaned against the doorway with his arms crossed, "I live here. And I asked you the same question first. You can't just answer a question with a question you know".

"You- live... here?", the red head was very confused, "I thought-"

The blonde rolled his eyes, "Why do you care? You moved out, remember, so you made space for someone to move in, which was me. It's not that confusing".

Taehyung blinked at the blank face of the other and decided to leave the topic and focus on what he was supposed to be doing here. He balled the sleeve ends of his sweater in his hands and looked at the ground, feeling the other burn holes into his head.

He swallowed the lump in his throat and said, "I uh am actually here-"

"To see Jeongguk", Yugyeom continued, cutting off the other's trembling words, "Well sadly for you, he isn't here at the moment so fuck off".

Taehyung frowned as he looked up, not really appreciating the other's need to cut off his sentences, "But-"

"I don't care whatever you are planning on telling me but let me just get this straight. You are Youngjae's boyfriend and anyone close to Youngjae should be as far away as possible from Jeongguk", the blonde stated, "So bye". The door was closed in front of his nose with a slam that resonated through the entire hallway.

Now you might think that this encounter has unmotivated Taehyung to try and talk to the younger. But nothing is less true. You see, when Yugyeom told him that Jeongguk wasn't there at the moment, he knew the blonde was lying

He has lived with Jeongguk for a while, and when you live together with someone you pick up their traits.

Like how Jeongguk likes to place a fresh set of clothes on his bed when he goes to shower. Or how he likes the room to be extra warm whenever he gets out of the bathroom. Or that he takes his bathrobe, that always hangs next to his jackets on the hanger, to the bathroom. He had spotted all of those things inside of the room while having his (not so friendly) conversation with Yugyeom (with almost no speaking from his side but oh well).

All those things, and the fact he actually spotted the younger peeping from behind the bathroom door as he eavesdropped on Taehyung's & Yugyeom's conversation, were a sign that Jeongguk was indeed not out.