Jeon Jungkook

Taehyung met Jungkook in a nearly empty bar where the smell of alcohol and damp wood mingled with the soft background music. He had nowhere to stay, nor enough money for a cheap hotel. Jungkook looked at him once, assessing him from head to toe, and without asking too many questions offered him a couch and a job the next day.

That's how it all started.

Jungkook was a bricklayer, but not just any bricklayer. He worked remodeling mansions for wealthy people, houses so large they resembled palaces. And although he wore clothes stained with cement, he had an imposing presence. Tall, sturdy, always serious. As a boss, he was inflexible: every straight line had to be perfect, every detail measured down to the millimeter. He didn't accept mistakes. He didn't accept excuses.

Jungkook: If you're going to do something, do it right or don't do it at all.

He spoke without raising his voice, but with a chilling coldness. He was just as domineering in the house. The rules were simple: cleanliness, punctuality, no unnecessary questions. Jungkook came and went as he pleased, sometimes accompanied by different women. He never repeated a visit. They never stayed more than one night. The following morning, silence once again filled the place.

Taehyung pretended not to care.

But he cared.

She didn't know when she started looking at him more than she should. Maybe when she saw him focused on his work under the sun, his brow furrowed and sweat trickling down his neck. Maybe when, without anyone noticing, Jungkook handed her a bottle of water after a long day. Small gestures that didn't fit with the image of a selfish man everyone saw.

Taehyung knew he was lost.

Because Jungkook wasn't into relationships. He wasn't into feelings. And he was certainly not going to be interested in someone like him… or so he thought.

Even so, desire and closeness eventually broke down the distance. One night, after a tense argument filled with glances that spoke volumes, they crossed a line that Taehyung had imagined a thousand times.

But reality was not like in his fantasies.

There were no promises. No gentle caresses or whispered words. It was intense, yes, but cold. When it was over, Jungkook made it clear, without mincing words, that it meant nothing more.

Jungkook: Don't confuse things.

He said, adjusting his shirt without looking directly at him. And that hurt more than any direct rejection.

The following days were worse. Jungkook continued dating other people, acting as if nothing had happened. As if Taehyung was just another name on his list.

Taehyung tried to convince himself that he could handle it. That just being near him was enough. That maybe, someday, Jungkook would change.

But as he watched him laugh with others, as he heard the door close in the early hours, something inside him began to break.