"Hey" the black hair boy call out, leaning forward to Taehyung, making sure he's not mumbling or something. "Don't just keep quiet, say something Taehyung!"

Taehyung refuse, staying quiet and look down at the floor, biting onto his bottom lip harder. Hoping that it won't bleed or burst a vessel inside his lip.

"Do you hear me!?" the black hair boy snap and grab Taehyung's shoulder, hard.

A hand reach out and grab the black hair boy's arm, prying it off Taehyung's shoulder. "Stop it" Jeongguk said, un-amuse expression follow with a serious tone, "Although I'm not sure what happened back then, but he's obviously troubled by this"

"Che.. What!? This has nothing to do with you at all, Jeongguk!" the black hair boy yank his arm out of Jeongguk's grab.

"Seriously, Namjoon. Just cut it out!" Jimin interrupt with an shaky voice.

Namjoon. The arrogant boy is named Namjoon.

Namjoon glance back at Jimin, "Well, maybe it doesn have something to do with you.." he trail off and fix his attention onto Jeongguk, "Jeongguk let me tell you this" Jeongguk raise an eyebrow confuse.

"Taehyung used to carry a torch for this guy" Namjoon blurt out, point at Jimin whose just flinch at the sentence and look taken aback.

'This.. guy' taehyung thought mortified with his face darken in rage and anger.

"..Huh" was all Jeongguk said, it was quiet, more like to himself.

"And so that's how it is" Namjoon smile like nothing happen and wave, "You two have a good time together!"

"Hey that's enough already, let's go.." Jimin angrily yank Namjoon's sleeve, forcing him to walk toward the exit.

"Okay, okay I got it"

As the two walk out of the store, Jimin turn around and give a slight bow with his head as an apology for Namjoon before exiting.

Jeongguk stares at the two before they're completely disappear and turn back to look at Taehyung.

'No, don't use..' Taehyung thought run wild, 'those eyes.. to look at me.' Can't handle the pressure of being stare at, Taehyung squeeze his eyes shut.

"Good morning" Hoseok chirp walking toward Jeongguk and Taehyung.

Taehyung flinch at Hoseok voice and take this as an opportunity, he turn away and run back to the storage room.

"Ah-" Jeongguk call out but Taehyung ignores him.

Taehyung run to the corner of the storage room, near the empty boxes he place before and crouch down next to it. Hands covering his ears and his breathing become unsteady, 'He know.. Jeongguk, he.. knows' Taehyung try to take a deep breath, trying to calm himself. 'Those eyes..' Jeongguk's confuse and suspicious stare from earlier cross his mind.

"Arge" he groan, cover his ears harder.

'No,' he shake his head violetnly, 'I don't want to experience that kind of thing again..'

As Taehyung freaks out about the whole situation and trying to calm himself down, the storage door flew open and he jolt. A person standing in front of the entrance, holding the door knob and looking down at him. He thought it would be Hoseok but he was so wrong.

The person have raven red hair and dark chocolate eyes.. no one else could've own that hair, Jeongguk.

"Uh- um.. You've worked hard!" Taehyung force himself to talk, standing up and forcing a smile.

"That.. just now" Jeongguk start, finding the right words to say.

"Oh yeah, thank you for just now.. Really thank you" Taehyung look down on the floor, keeping his fake force smile, "I guess I'm not too good at it. I've always been bad at dealing with people like that. Since before..." he trail off, not wanting to stay anything.

"..Does that mean.. the reason you dont go to school is because of this?"

Taehyung look up letting out a small chuckle, a forceful and painful one. "N-No" he wave his hand around, "Of course not! I-I just didn't want to go.. That's all"

Jeongguk doesn't say anything after that, he just stare at Taehyung with an emotionless expression. Not a suspicious one, not too serious and not a playful one either.

Taehyung really doesn't want Jeongguk to know, but he don't know why, he doesn't want to lie to the younger either.

Letting out a sigh, "Just now.. Those things that he said" Taehyung look away from Jeongguk and stare at his shoes. His lips quirk downward replacing the fake smile, "..It got spread around the school... Then going to school every day became a torment" Taehyung closes his eyes so that the tears won't escapes. "And after that ----"

Taehyung grip his hands together hard as the memories flood back into his mind. Getting ready to be hated by Jeongguk, receiving the disgust stares and whispering rumors.

"So that's it?" Jeongguk said nonchalant as if nothing happened. Taehyung eyes fling open and look up at the younger, surprise and absolutely did not expect Jeongguk would say that.

"So.."

"What 'so that's it/.. ?! I-"

"That is to say. The fact that the person you liked was a guy was exposed. So what?" Jeongguk stated, "Its not like you did anything wrong! So wouldn't it be alright if you just admit it honestly"

Jeongguk stop for a few minutes before starting again, "Come to think of it, I do know someone like this as well. And he takes care of me a lot.. A really good person" Jeongguk nod in confirmation, "So it doesn't really matter. Don't worry"

Noticing Taehyung not saying anything and just stares at Jeongguk in awe. Jeongguk whack the latter in the back, snapping him back to reality. "Do you get it now?"

"Anyway, our shift's not over yet" Jeongguk raise his hand up and gesture the exit door of the storage, "So let's hurry up and get back to work"

With that, Jeongguk makes his way out of the storage room.

'Saying 'so that's it' and 'just admit it honestly.' All these are such irresponsible words' Taehyung thought to himself with a small smile creep on his face, replacing the frown he had earlier.

"It's not like you did anything wrong!"

"Pfft" Taehyung laugh whole heartedly to himself, feeling ten time lighter and stress free. "So it was such a simple thing"

Jeongguk is really amazing. Just a few simple words from him and it can put Taehyung at such ease..

--

"I'm the same as you.. We're both saved by him" Taehyung said the kitten head as it purr happily.

Taehyung look outside his window, leaning his head against his arm.

'Just those few words,' he thought in ecstasy, 'Makes me want to work harder tomorrow'

--

"Then I'll be off for my break!" Hoseok wave his hand up in the air and head toward the staff room, dragging the grocery basket with expire food inside. "Take care of things"

"Okay" Jeongguk reply as the front door open and he turn his attention back to work, "Oh welcome"

"Hello~" the customer greet heading the cashier counter.

"I'm here again" a boy wave, with black hair and slightly tall.. Namjoon. The one and only Namjoon. "Jeonggukie, you even have to work on a Sunday? That's real tough!"

Jeongguk face drop from a business gentle smile to an annoy expression. Not wanting to see Namjoon again, not in his workplace anyway.

"Eh... Namjoon, you brought different people here with you today?"

"They're my middle school friends. I told them that Taehyung was working here, then they all wanted to come over and take a look" Namjoon explain with a excitement in his eyes, "So is he here today?"

"...He's not in" Jeongguk reply coldly, just wanting to go elsewhere and let Hoseok deal with this.

'Luckily we're on staggered shifts today' Jeongguk thought and sigh in relieve.

"Is that so..?"

"What a pity!"

"Hey, hey you're Jeongguk? Namjoon's classmate?"

"Heard that you're pretty nice to Taehyung, eh?" one of the guy said. He had blonde hair and long face, like a fish stick but with cat eyes. "Be careful thought" he warn.

"Huh? What do you mean by that?"

"Well, what I'm saying is that guy might have his eyes on your !!" the blonde guy point at Jeongguk and shiver.

"You heard that thing about Taehyung, right?" another boy standing next to the blonde one comment, with chestnut light brown hair.

"...Are you guy being stupid?" Jeongguk sigh and cross his arms in front of his chest.

"Don't you find it freaky!?" Namjoon blurt out, "When we were in middle school, we had to take our showers together. and back then, we didn't even know about it yet! That was really so dangerous"

"Actually.. Taehyung's quite pitiable"

"Yeah~ he thought he was a friend at first but turn out.."

"Yeah, that's right"

Each comments makes Jeongguk blood boil, making him more and more irritate each time. "Excuse me, if you guys are not here to buy anything, please leave soon" he said instead, wanting all of these boys to leave before he use his fist to send them out the exit door.

"Eh?" the blonde whine in disappointment.

"Forget it, we'll come again another day" the chestnut brown hair boy pat the blonde one on his back.

'Don't ever come again, idiot' Jeongguk scrunch his face up in disgust sa the three boys walk toward the exit slowly.

"Hey, wanna try sending him a message? This time we can use Jeongguk's name instead"

"I wonder if he'll fall for the same trick again"

"Hey!" Jeongguk call out, not having a good feeling about this, "What are you guys talking about? Using my name and all"

Namjoon glance at the chestnut hair and the blonde one, they return the glance and nod.

"The incident back in middle school.." Namjoon start but was interrupted by the blonde hair boy.

"You know how Taehyung liked Jimin back then? Well everyone eventually noticed and suspected something because he was pretty obvious about it"

Namjoon continue, "Then everyone said they wanted to try testing him"

"To confirm their suspicions" the chestnut hair add.

"So later we sent a message to his phone.. using Jimin's name" the blonde one said with a shrug as if it's no big deal. Namjoon search his pocket and fish out his phone, turning it on and show Jeongguk a screenshot of the message.

[Taehyung, I want to tell you that you actually mean a lot to me.. So if you feel the same about me. I hope you will come and meet me at the courtyard beside the flower bed.]

As soon as Jeongguk finish reading the message, the front door of the store slide open and there's Taehyung.

"Ah! Taehyung-sshi!" the blonde one chirp.

'These guys--' Taehyung thought and stop his humming, his face gone pale within a second.

"You're here right on time, we were just talking about you" the blonde one smile and wrap an arm around Taehyung's shoulder, making him jolt at the contact.

"Yeah, we were talking about that incident back then in middle school~" the chestnut hair nod in agreement.

Namjoon glance over at Taehyung whose face gone paler than before, in complete shock.

"And so.. he really that that Jimin sent it and totally fell for the bait" Namjoon continue with a slight devil grin on his face.

"Don't say anymore!" Taehyung yell loudly.

"Anyway, it seems that someone in our group let the cat out of the bag," he continue ignoring Taehyung like he's not even there. "Cause the story was suddenly spread all over the school, and there was actually a whole crowd of students who gathered at the sceen to watched"

Flashback of Taehyung in his middle school uniform, standing there confused and horrified at a group of students, both boys and girls snickering at him.

Taehyung look down on the floor, closing his eyes and bite on his lower lip again, hard. Hoping that all of this is fake, a nightmare, an hallucination.

"I gotta say the whole thing really went overboard" Namjoon admit and turn over to look at his friends and a pity Taehyung in the middle. "But I wonder who was the one who leaked it though.. cause it sure wasn't me"

"I didn't do it" the blonde one shake his head.

"Not me either" the chestnut boy shake his head also.

"Well it was around that time that you started not coming to school, right?"

"Now that I think about it, I can't really blame you for it"

"But! --- The teachers somehow got wind of the whole thing and we were seriously screwed man!"

"You shouldn't have refused coming to school, Tae"

"That was just so damn petty of you"

"Yeah! Yeah! You totally landed us all into hot soup because of that!" Namjoon agree, "So I guess that's makes us even now"

Before anyone can comment on anything, Jeongguk jump over the cashier coutner and land a kick on Namjoon's groin. Everyone pause staring at the racket Jeongguk cause as Namjoon lost his balance completely and fall down hitting his on the floor.

"What the-" Hoseok said in an angry tone opening the staff door. As soon as he sees the scene, his face gone pale, "Jeongguk!? Waht are you doing?!?"

"You dare say you're even? Do you think that is something you have a right to say?!" Jeongguk growl and his voice is low, standing in front of Namjoon whose coughing and gasp for air, holding his crotch in pain. "Your brains have seriously all gone mad. SO let me tell you all"

Jeongguk step back and grab Taehyung by his wrist, yanking him forward and out of the blonde guy arm. Pulling Taehyung into his embrace with one arm and point at Namjoon with the other, "The one who are truly rotten are you guys! This guy here did nothing wrong at all!!!"

"who do you think you guys are, callously trampling all over other people's feeling?!"

Taehyung was still shock over the sudden commotion, a tears escape out of his eyes without him realizing.

"You better start kneeling and begging for forgiveness now! Cause if you don't do it, I'm going to kill you right here!" Jeongguk raise his voice.

"Jeongguk!!" Hoseok call out, holding Jeongguk's by his shirt and yank him backward. "You idiot!"

"Oi! Don't run you bastards!"

Taehyung grab onto Jeongguk's arm that wrap around him tightly and the tears roll down his cheeks increases, and soon he was sobbing.

--

"Sheesh! The manager will be here soon, so just wait here!" Hoseok scold pointing at Jeongguk angrily, "Why aren't you saying anything?!" Jeongguk shrug and Hoseok sigh in defeat, "In any case jeongguk, you better explain it properly to the manager what exactly happened"

With that Hoseok turn around and walk out of the manager office, shutting the door behind him. Jeongguk exhale in exhaustion, not because of the long day, but because of all the the boys said brought.

Jeongguk glance over at Taehyung whose still sobbing violetnly, not planning to stop anytime soon.

'Jeongguk.. Jeongguk' Taehyung repeatedly thought the other's name, wiping his tears and let out a hiccup.

"Eh, stop crying already. Seriously~" Jeongguk whine, not knowing what to do and cross his arms over his chest. "Ah.. what a headache.."

'I-' Taehyung wipe his tears one more time before new ones fall, 'I like you'