Jaehyun’s POV

I was right. It wasn’t difficult to find Taeyong. I could hear the music blaring as I stood in front of one of the practice rooms. Taeyong would always come here and dance to blow off some steam. I was simply glad that he hadn’t run off in the spur of the moment.

I quietly opened the door and entered the room. The look on Taeyong’s face told a thousand words. He didn’t want to see or talk to anyone at this moment, but I didn’t care.

I walked towards the sound system and turned off the music. Taeyong continued to ignore me and kept on dancing even without music.

‘Taeyong,’ I called his name.

He still didn’t react.

‘Taeyong, stop!’

Nothing.

‘TAEYONG!’ I yelled and he finally snapped. He turned around in a blink of an eye and before I knew it he was standing right in front of me.

‘What do you want?!’ he yelled in my face. I flinched slightly. ‘You already took Y/N. There’s nothing left to take from me. Just leave already. Leave me alone,’ Taeyong said, his voice laced with anger and a hint of sadness.

‘I’m sorry. I know you hate my guts right now, but I can’t leave. I’m here to fix things between you and Y/N,’ I tried to explain.

‘And how are you going to do that? I saw you with your filthy hands all over her and she didn’t bother to push you away either,’ Taeyong sneered.

I shook my head. ‘That’s not what happened, Taeyong. Could you please listen to what I’ve got to say?’ I asked carefully.

Taeyong tried to steady his breathing. I wasn’t sure if he was breathing loudly because of his dancing or because of all the emotions that were raging inside of him. I felt like it was a combination of both.

‘Well? What is it?’ he asked after a couple seconds of silence.

‘I was simply trying to comfort her, because she was crying her heart out and it hurt me to see her like that. You just caught us at the wrong moment. It’s all a huge misunderstanding, okay?’ I said.

‘Then what were all those pictures about?’ he asked skeptically.

‘Taeyong, Y/N isn’t cheating on you. Better said, Y/N and I aren’t involved with each other at all. Not anymore at least,’ I said.

‘What do you mean?’ Taeyong asked confused.

I took a second to think about how I would tell him everything. I had come here in a rush after all and didn’t really prepare a speech or anything like that. I cleared my throat after a while.

‘Y/N and I dated each other about a year ago. Obviously, we had to keep things a secret, so I never told you guys about her. Those are old pictures and apparently someone managed to get a hold of them and decided to release them only now,’ I explained.

It took him a couple seconds to process this new piece of information. ‘So why did you break up?’ he finally asked.

I stayed quiet for a moment to think about the answer.

Images of her cute smile and laughter flashed across my mind, but they were quickly replaced with images of her tearstained face as she screamed at me when I broke her heart.

‘It wasn’t quite… mutual. I broke up with her, because we were preparing for our debut and I got so busy that I didn’t have time to see her anymore. Knowing her, she would’ve waited for me no matter how long it would take for me to come back, but I couldn’t do that to her. She deserved her freedom, so I had to let go of her,’ I said quietly.

Silence filled the room once again.

‘Do you still love her?’ he whispered.

I sighed. I could feel something tugging on my heartstrings.

‘I do, but that doesn’t matter anymore. She has moved on and I can tell she’s happy with you,’ I said as I forced a smile on my face.

‘How can you tell?’ Taeyong asked. He was still slightly skeptic.

‘She isn’t in love with me anymore. I can tell by the way she looks at you, because she used to look at me like that,’ I said with pain in my heart. It hurt to admit this.

Taeyong sat down on one of the benches to process all of this. ‘I can’t believe you guys used to date…’ he quietly said to himself. ‘I know it’s a lot to take in, but I can promise you that I’m not lying. Before you took her to the practice room, we hadn’t spoken to each other in months. Y/N and I cut ties a long time ago. There’s really nothing going on between us anymore,’ I said.

‘Well… I guess I have no choice but to believe your story. Just don’t come near her again, okay?’ Taeyong said protectively. I laughed out of relief.

‘I won’t. There’s just one last thing that I want to ask of you: please take care of her. Even though we’re not together anymore, she will always have a special place in my heart. I wish her the best in this entire world, so please give her all the things that I was never able to give her. Please don’t break her heart.’

Instead, I could feel my heart break a little, because this meant that I finally had to let her go. I struggled to hold back the tears. This wasn’t the moment to cry.

I felt Taeyong put his arm around my shoulder and give me a hug. ‘I promise I will take care of her,’ he whispered. A single tear escaped. I quickly brushed it away and was grateful that he couldn’t see my face.

‘I have to go back to Y/N now. I have to apologize to her,’ he said hurriedly as he gathered his belongings. ‘I’ll talk to you later, Jaehyun.’

He had already left the room before I could say goodbye.

I’m glad you found someone who loves you dearly, Y/N.