It took the whole of a week but Jungkook eventually found himself cornered at his locker by his friends. 

He was only putting a book into his locker when, upon closing it, he perceived to his right, Baekhyun leaning a shoulder against the neighboring locker, arms crossed over his chest, looking about ready to launch into a confrontation. 

"Heard you're going on a vacation, Jungkook," he remarked casually, though if anyone knew Baekhyun, the tone indicated that it was anything but casual. When Jungkook did not respond, Baekhyun went on, "A really long one." 

"Make that permanent," Chanyeol spoke up, leaning his back in turn on the locker across the one Baekhyun was leaning against and effectively blocking Jungkook's escape route to the left. He, too, had his arms crossed. 

With Yoongi and Namjoon flanking him, Jungkook saw no way out of it. 

"How did you hear about it?" he asked, not looking at Baekhyun.

Baekhyun shrugged and waved a hand about as he replied, "You know the business world. Your grandfather...my dad...word gets around."

"Hmm." And Jungkook tried to squeeze past Chanyeol and Yoongi.

Chanyeol lashed out a hand and yanked Jungkook back by the shoulder so hard that his back banged into the locker behind him. Chaneyol then pressed an arm down on Jungkook's chest, pinning him to the locker, as Baekhyun drew in close. 

"So this is how it is, huh?" Baekhyun demanded, not taking his eyes off Jungkook who still wasn't looking at him. "You with us and then you just walk out without telling us anything? What are we? Business connections?" 

"I can't help but agree, Jungkook." Namjoon spoke up in that mild way of his, not budging from his spot.

"Yeah, we're friends, aren't we? We're even teammates on the soccer team," said Yoongi. "If you really need to go away, then the least you could have done was tell us and not just plan on buggering off at the end of the week."

"Let go of me," Jungkook told them through his gritted teeth.

"We're friends, Jungkook," Yoongi reiterated after a while and after Jungkooks was freed of Chanyeol's grip. "We're sorry we kind of overreacted, but we only wanted to know what was going on in your life. You never mentioned anything about going away or what your grandfather's expectations were of you... So much about your life is a mystery because you don't talk about things that matter." 

Jungkook looked at Yoongi and folded his arms. 

"There is nothing to tell." 

"You did not make this decision on your own," Baekhyun said. 

Jungkook whipped his head around and snapped, "Just leave me alone, Byun!" 

"That is a fine way to treat a friend! I'm sure!" Baekhyung hissed into Jungkook's face. "You just want to get through all of this and go be the next great Jeon regardless of who the people in your life are...were. I was right; you have always been your grandfather's -er." 

Jungkook tucked his book under his arm, pushed his fists into the pockets of his blazar and started to walk away. However, Baekhyun was not quite done with his lecture. He lashed out a hand and grabbed Jungkook by the nearest elbow. Jungkook was tugged back a bit but easily pulled himself forward and broke the contact. He grabbed his book and didn't know why he broke into a run, but run he did. 

Baekhyun was calling out behind him. "Hey, Jungkook! Come back here! I am not done with you!" 

But Jungkook kept running. 

For the rest of the day, Jungkook skipped his classes, spending his time lying on his back on the rooftop of the school building instead. He was surprised to find a cat there, a front paw before rubbing it against its ear. It did this systematically, first with the right paw to the right ear, then later with the left paw to the left ear, and Jungkook watched. 

In time it looked up and he called out, feeling pleasantly surprised when it actually trotted up to him and mewed. Thinking that it was hungry, Jungkook snuck down for a while to buy a cartoon of mile and managed to fashion a bowl out of the lunchbox he had lying around in his locker. The cat lapped up the milk hungrily and Jungkook watched.

There was something serene about watching animals feed. They completely ignore you, choosing instead to focus all their attention on their food. Watching the cat feed, Jungkook felt himself relax. He reached out a hand and tried to pet the cat. It jumped back and with an annoyed mew, it darted out of his sight. 

Caught off guard, Jungkook was not able to say anything at first, but then seeing it poking its head out from its hiding place, Jungkook fell back to staring at the sky, saying, "Huh! What a grouch!" 

In time the cat came back to feed and Jungkook didn't try to touch it. Not everyone was like Taehyung, who could be disturbed from his food and still be cheerful. 

Taehyung. 

Jungkook didn't know how both Taehyung and himself were reacting to that day's episode. Surely, Taehyung had not missed the fact that Jungkook had tried to kiss him. Jungkook had not missed the fact that Taehyung had responded in kind. Despite it being what it was-- the kiss that never happened-- Jungkook held onto it like it was something precious, like it was his only glimmer of hope.  But who could forget that all hope was gone, had been gone right from the start? Jungkook did not know what to make of anything, what to do. Jungkook did not even know what he wanted. 

He was bad with words, to the point that everyone around him became used to taking physical cues--a nod here, a grunt there-- to decipher what he was trying to communicate. He was happy to just let them. 

Strangely, the only other person besides Henry, who could read Jungkook's cues almost perfectly, was Taehyung, even though the boy was not physically close with Jungkook for a good part of their lives. When they met again, Taehyung seemed only to pick up where he left off and they settled into a friendly familiarity so easily. 

Jungkook knew, at least he knew this for sure, that he was not going to be satisfied with mere friendship, but to bring it any further was impossible. 

He tried to push it all away, but Taehyung's magnetism was not to be taken lightly. Jungkook had found himself spiraling down, down, down and was spiraling down still into that well of emotion, heartfelt, but to which he could attach no name. Yet, the only tangible end he could foresee for himself was a life married to some rich " pretty girl" he didn't care for and sitting at the head of the Jeon business empire, slowly aging into the next iron-fisted, perpetually frowning elder Jeon. This was the future that he had been told was for him since he was a child and it seemed like it was all going in that very direction. 

Jungkook did not want to go to school the next day. He didn't feel like it. However, he had a choice between staying at home with his grandfather, and going to school and facing everyone else. He chose the latter. At least, he could give people in school his famous glare and trust them to leave him alone. He couldn't do that to or with his grandfather. 

He opted to set out early and walk to school instead of being driven. His grandfather thought it was a preposterous idea for how could the future heir to the biggest business empire around walk like a commoner! Jungkook slipped out without his grandfather knowing. 

Jungkook had fully planned on taking the longer route in order to avoid passing by Taehyung's house, for the fear that maybe Taehyung was on his way to school already or was outside his gate doing stretching exercises. (Jungkook didn't know Taehyung's morning routines, so he was only guessing.) However, the moment Jungkook spotted the familiar roof from a distance, his legs carried him to it and he did not try to stop himself. It was as if this constituted his morning routine: passing by that house and looking at it, never mind if he didn't see anyone, just look at it and be content knowing that Taehyung still lived within it. 

As he neared the house, his steps slowed to an amble and Jungkook looked up at the house. No one seemed to be up. Perhaps he was expecting to hear the sound of running feet upon the wooden floor and a familiar voice frantically crying out how late he would be. The house was still and Jungkook felt strangely disappointed. 

He didn't realize that he had stopped right outside the gate until it was pushed open, creaking quietly on it hinges, startling him out of his thoughts. 

"Jungkook?" 

Jungkook cursed himself inwardly at the sound of that voice. Taehyung stood just outside the gate, staring at him. His hair was still a little wet, probably from a morning shower. Taehyung had his usual bag slung over his body and in one hand, he had a textbook. 

For a moment none of them so much as breathed. Since the incident of that day, they had not spoken to each other in school. While Jungkook sometimes stole furtive glances at Taehyung's back from where he sat in class, Taehyung always sat rigidly, keeping his eyes on the board. After the last class, Taehyung was always the first one to leave and Jungkook one of the last. When they passed each other in the corridors, Taehyung looked straight ahead while Jungkook would focus on a spot on the floor, his bangs falling into his eyes to shield them. If Jungkook's friends had noticed the tension in the relationship between Taehyung and himself during the week before they knew of his leaving, they were definitely not being nosy about it. 

Finally, Taehyung turned to close the gate, breaking the silence. 

"I thought you were usually driven to school," Taehyung said, walked over to Jungkook. 

"I didn't want to sit in the car," Jungkook told the older boy. He couldn't admit anything else. What else could he say indeed? 'I wanted to admire your house', didn't seem like the smartest thing to say then. 

"Like I said once before: If you miss me, just say so, Jungkook!" Taehyung said jokingly and landed a punch on Jungkook's arm. "Shall we walk?" 

Jungkook gave a brief nod and they started to walk. The silences between them were never uncomfortable before, but then the silence carried with it the burdens of questions unasked and confessions fallen dead on lips that could not move to speak the truth when it mattered. 

Jungkook fancied that Taehyung was walking further away from him than usual. Other times, their arms would something brush against each other as they walked and conversed. Right then, there were perhaps five hand's length of space stretching between them. Jungkook felt the absurd urge to reach out and close his hand around Taehyung's own which was swinging freely just a little beyond his reach. To quell that urge, he balled his hand into a fist and shoved it down his blazer pocket. 

"Say, Jungkook," Taehyung spoke up suddenly. "Did you study for the Math test today?" 

Jungkook looked at Taehyung, suddenly surprised. He had not known of any Math tests. Why, of course he hadn't. He was on the roof the whole of yesterday skipping classes. Trust Baekhyun and the rest to not tell him about important things when they're pissed. 

"I figured as much," Taehyung said, turning to him and grinning. "You were not even in class yesterday!" 

"Skipped them all," Jungkook added. 

"Uh huh," conceded Taehyung. "You were on the roof. I saw you while I was eating lunch with Jimin and Hobi at the field. I could recognize you anywhere!" 

Taehyung reached out to swipe at Jungkook's hair. Jungkook managed to prevent Taehyung from destroying his morning's effort by ducking just in time. 

Taehyung laughed and Jungkook watched him laugh, feeling himself drawn yet again by that laughter, feeling it envelope him like an old, comfortable blanket. 

Suddenly, Taehyung stopped and turned away. "Sorry I didn't call you up to tell you or anything. I thought you might have been...busy." 

"With what?" Jungkook asked, almost too sharply. 

He saw Taehyung turn to him again, grinning. 

"Spending quality time with your grandfather?" 

"No. I wasn't," confessed Jungkook, turning away. "Never had." 

Taehyung fell silent for a while and they continued walking without saying anything to each other for some distance. 

Then he spoke up again, his voice uncharacteristically quiet, "So you're going away." 

Jungkook saw no other way out of it but to tell the truth: "Transferring out." 

"I see." 

They didn't say another word and kept on walking. The school gate was already in sight, the clock tower looming up just above it, the long and short hands showing that they were still early. Some students could be seen arriving on their bicycles or stepping out of cars. Still few were going through the gate, most of the early birds choosing to stand outside in small clusters, greeting each other and laughing their morning lethargy away. The world seemed so normal even as his, Jungkook felt, was crumbling around him. He couldn't help the slowly rising scorn and he was sure that his face was carefully working itself into the cold mask that was, and had been for a long time, his trademark. 

"Man kookie, you could use a smile or two once in a while," he heard Taehyung say from beside him. Jungkook turned to see the orange haired boy peering intently up into his face as they walked in perfect synchrony. "Your face is how my milk looks after it had been left on the counter overnight." 

Jungkook snorted. He couldn't himself. He thought it was quite funny, somehow.

Taehyung laughed. 

"Anyway," Taehyung began, shoving his hands into his blazer pockets and suddenly picking up his pace so that all Jungkook could see of him was his slim back. What he said next came out so soft that Jungkook almost couldn't hear it: "Just make sure we'll still be pals, 'kay?" 

Jungkook's movements stopped and he stood there staring at Taehyung's back. Something was ripping at him from the inside, shredding him. It made his throat hurt and his nose felt funny. 

"You are so screwed for the test, Jungkook!" 

Taehyung had looked over his shoulder at Jungkook, grinning almost maliciously. Then assuming a superior air he added, "Maybe I can teach you in whatever little time we have before Math!" 

Jungkook must have been staring with his mouth gaping slightly open because he distinctly felt himself closing it with a snap. 

"Just tell me the topics, Kim." And he started to walk, feeling deeply annoying and strangely angry. 

Taehyung guffawed and did so. "I am so beating you in this test, Jeon!" Taehyung declared when he was done. 

"Oh yeah?" challenged Jungkook, glaring at Taehyung. 

"Yeah, and you will eat my dust!" and with that, Taehyung took off running towards the school gate where he saw Jimin and Hoseok waiting just inside it. 

Jimin was with Yoongi, standing close but perhaps both were too shy to do anything more than...well, standing too close. Yoongi watched Jungkook walk through the gate, a long moment after Taehyung had crossed it at breakneck speed. Jungkook lifted his head at the young man and issued a nod. Yoongi smiled, flashing his white, sparkling toothed smile, and nodded back. 

The lot of them started walking towards the main school building. Three people separated Jungkook from Taehyung but perhaps, thought Jungkook, it was for the best. 

Jungkook met Baekhyun, Chanyeol, and Namjoon at the lockers, and nodded a greeting. He was secretly glad when Baekhyun and Chanyeol nodded back. Namjoon was as docile as ever when it came to such matters and was more bent on ranting about how someone was at it with his rap lyrics, and how all the good raps had been taken. However, Jungkook constantly felt that they were all watching him whenever his back was turned. He was already looking forward to the end of the school day. 

The next few days, everyone noticed that Jungkook was preoccupied and that he came to school with Taehyung every day, except that one day when it rained and Jungkook had to take the car. Jungkook's preoccupation was usually hard to detect because he somehow appeared the same with or without it. Lately though, his friends noticed that he wasn't even listening to the things they were saying and that his eyes followed Taehyung whenever the older boy was within sight. His friends said nothing. They had all come to a silent concession that they would leave Jungkook’s personal life to the latter, however frustrating it was to watch and accept. 

Jungkook saw the poster for the charity performance of the play on his way to the restroom in the middle of Math class. There was nobody in the corridor, so he stopped and looked at the poster. Taehyung and Kai took center stage in the poster just as they did in the play. It was a shot of their side profiles, blown up and rendered translucent so that it could show the stage and the balcony scene in the background through them. Taehyung, dressed as Juliet had his eyes closed, tilting his head up toward Kai, as Romeo with his ridiculous hat, as the older boy planted a kiss on his forehead. The two of them looked so blissful, so happy, and so in love. 

A loud thud and a throbbing hand later, Jungkook realized that without thinking, he had lashed out a fist and slammed it against the poster, right over Kai's face. 

As if life wanted to torment him, Jungkook later walked past the black box studio on his way to the field for soccer practice. He didn't know what compelled him to stop and stare at the entrance to the studio. A hand-written sign on the door said, "Rehearsal in Progress". His legs didn't follow his mind's behest to leave and make way to the field. Instead, they took him through the door, down a short corridor and finally through another door on the other side of which Jungkook found himself standing in a corner of a space that literally looked like the interior of a black box. 

There were no seats but in the center of the studio, the drama members were gathered, some reading lines while sprawled on the floor and others acting their parts in clusters. Jungkook scanned the studio for the one face he must have been brought by impulse to see. He spotted that face easily enough. Taehyung was being held by the waist by Kai, who had one of Taehyung's hands outstretched and Taehyung's back bent backwards as if they had paused in the middle of a dance number. Taehyung was bent so low that he looked a little bewildered. Kai, however, was looking like he was out to seduce, his face so close to Taehyung's own and whispering something that Jungkook couldn't hear from that distance. Whatever it was that he had said, it made Taehyung blush furiously, and Jungkook, furious. 

With a laugh, Kai pulled Taehyung back up and did a little tango number before twirling him and ending the dance. Taehyung, appearing not to have noticed Jungkook, straightened the white sweater he was wearing over his school shirt. Jungkook quickly darted out of the inner studio door, but was not quick enough for Kai not to spot him. 

The next thing Jungkook knew was that he heard his name being called as he was hurrying, as only Jungkook could hurry, down the corridor. He turned, half-expecting Taehyung even though he recognized the voice which called him. He stopped and only looked over his shoulder at Kai who came to a halt just behind him. 

"Nice of you to pop by the studio, Jungkook. Here to watch our rehearsal?" Kai asked. 

Jungkook could hear the maddeningly serene smile in the young man's voice. He turned full around but said nothing. 

Kai started circling Jungkook slowly as he spoke, his arms outstretched as if to receive a hug. 

"Shakespeare wrote in one of his plays: 'All the world's a stage, and all the men and women, merely Players'. If you want something, Jungkook, really want something, or should I say, someone, you will have to play. You will have to put everything into your game, as if you are battling against a powerful opponent, against someone you cannot lose to." 

"What are you yapping about now, Kai?" Jungkook asked coldly. 

Kai stopped circling, drew back, the smile once more on his face. 

"That was a hint, Jungkook," he said after a moment of study. "A HUGE hint." 

Jungkook turned and left. For a while he thought Kai, too, would leave, but he heard the young man say, "Am I really someone you want to lose to?" 

Jungkook's hand was on the outer door, about to push it open so that he could step outside into the main corridor of the school, but it paused there for a while before it pushed and the door swung open. 

When he reached home after soccer practice, Jungkook was summoned to the study which had become Jungkook's grandfather's private throne room for the period of the time he was staying at the second mansion. As Jungkook walked to the study, he tried not to see the packing and cleaning that was going on around him. Already some rooms had their furniture covered in white cloth, the sitting room for example, where he had spent time with Taehyung reading the script. 

He knocked on the study door and waited until he was bid to enter. Inside he found his grandfather looking every bit the patriarch as he sat behind the table, holding a silver envelope and reading the slim slips of card which only before had been in it. 

"It seemed our flight will have to be postponed to the following Monday, Jungkook," the elder Jeon remarked. When Jungkook did not reply, he waved the cards vaguely. "We had been sent VIP invitations to a play performed by your school." 

That caught Jungkook's attention. 

"Which show is it?" he asked. 

The old man raised an eyebrow at his grandson and replied, "The last performance day, the coming Sunday. Highly inconvenient but, seeing it is the Oh family, an important appearance is to be made." 

The old man was surprised when Jungkook excused himself hurriedly and only watched when his grandson darted out of the room. 

Jungkook was suddenly seized by an idea and he needed to set it all in motion...on that last performance day. 

In his room, he made sure to lock the door before digging his cell phone out from his bag. He dialed and held the phone to his ear. It was picked up after a significant number of rings and from the sound of it, he figured that Baekhyun and Chanyeol were in the midst of something. 

"What do you want, Jeon?" Baekhyun demanded in a fierce series of gasps. There was a persistent creaking in the background and Baekhyun let a highly restrained cry of Chanyeol's name. There was a lot of hard breathing going on too. 

Jungkook grimaced. He seriously didn't need to hear all that, what more see images of his friends getting it on. 

"Switch off your phone when you are doing that next time," advised Jungkook. "Explain to you later. Call me." 

It was a whole three hours later that Jungkook's phone started ringing. He snatched it up and put it to his ear, only to find that he had not pressed the "Accept" button for the call so it blasted out to metal ringtone directly into his eardrums. Cursing, he accepted the call and put it to his ear. 

"I need help," he explained the moment he heard Baekhyun's voice. 

Anything that could go wrong would go wrong. Was that not Murphy's Law?" 

Taehyung's dress was found to be missing and it sent to whole dressing room into a flurry. Jin was screaming and some of the other actors went around searching for it, clad only in their breeches or corsets. Strangely, Taehyung himself was not too fazed by it, seeming a little preoccupied with something. Besides, Jin was bade him, very fiercely, to not move from his spot. So, he only looked around the room at everyone as they peeked under tables, under perfume bottles, and into other impossible places, before turning back to the mirror and staring at his reflection. 

This was the last night of his performance as Juliet and he ought to be feeling a bittersweet sort of excitement since it was all going to end-- the time he spent with the cast and crew, all of them having been through a thick experience, and those few magical hours on stage when he was someone else, someone who was a young woman. However, something weighed heavy on his mind and could not find it in himself to feel the least bit excited. 

"Ah!" Jin's cry was the cue for him to focus on the situation at hand. To his quiet relief, Jin came to his side with the dress. Apparently someone had packed it wrongly, putting the dress where the maid's dresses were and not in its usual place of honor, in its own special box. 

"Now, let's get back to transforming you, shall we?" Jin asked cheerily. 

In the midst of all the powdering, breeching and corseting, all the fluff and feathers, Taehyung saw himself transform and set his mind to being Juliet for one last time. 

Kai had a dressing room all to himself. He particularly requested it. Surely the lead actor and the president of the club could not be sharing a room with all those other actors, exposing his sacred body to their admiring scrutiny. He never heard of such a thing! So a room for himself it was and in it, right when the common dressing room was in panic, he was being costumed in his Romeo garb by his very own dresser, (someone who helped him dress, and not the furniture.) 

He was only about to put on the shirt when the door to the room rattled and burst open to reveal the hulking figure of Namjoon in the doorway, holding on to the doorknob. He stepped into the room and behind him followed a few others: Baekhyun, Chanyeol, Yoongi, and finally, calming walking in with his arms crossed over his chest, his eyes fixed with the glare that he was famous for, Jungkook. 

"What is the meaning of this?" Kai demanded, quickly closing his open shirt to protect his modesty. 

Jungkook turned around and closed the door with little hurry. 

Baekhyun spoke up as he took a step towards the suddenly vulnerable Kai, grinning impishly as he spoke, "Take off your shirt and step out of your drawers." 

The boy who was helping Kai with his costume took in the four rather menacing-looking boys barring the way to the door and stepped away from Kai before trying his best to blend into the wall as far away from the boys as the room would allow. Kai, however, remained rooted where he stood, staring at Jungkook and the others with growing fear. 

"W...what?" he exclaimed, holding his shirt close even tighter. "Y-you're... you're not serious, right? You're all going to do that t...to me? Y...you'll be--" 

No one had seen Kai anything but serene. However, right then, Kai actually sounded hysterical. Baekhyun and Chanyeol rolled their eyes and stepped up to him. 

"We're not going to gang-bang you or anything. Trust me, none of us would be tempted even if you're the last man on earth and then are no goats. Now, take off your clothes!" said Baekhyun. 

"No! I protest! I--" 

Kai couldn't have said anything else. Not with all of them, Baekhyun, Chanyeol, Yoongi, Namjoon and Jungkook, surrounding him like that. The next thing he knew was the door to the small janitor's cup boarding was slamming shut in his face and that he was standing in his boxer in that dark, claustrophobic space. His hands were bound behind his back and he was gagged for good measure. He could kick but that would mean having to fall gracelessly onto the hard, dirty floor. Oh, what was a prima donna to do? 

Baekhyun wiped his hands against each other and said cheerfully to Namjoon, who had helped him drag the Drama Club president to the closet, "Well, that takes care of him. I've wanted to do that my whole life!" 

Back in the dressing room, Jungkook was contemplating the costume because honestly, he did not have any idea as to how he was to go about putting them on...and in what order. A slight movement in the corner made him look and he perceived, for the first time, the boy who had somehow become Kai's personal dresser. The poor boy visibly flinched when he saw Jungkook turn to him. The black haired young man had quite a reputation in school and from what the boy heard, he was not someone to be displeased. 

"Hey," Jungkook called. The boy flinched even more visibly. Jungkook stared at the boy, thinking for the first time how he had such a negative effect on others who did not know him. He took a deep breath and attempted to make his voice gentler. He thought of the play and why he was there. It all came out easier than he thought. 

"There is someone out there in the play, okay? I need to play Romeo tonight," he told the boy. He saw the boy straighten up, the initial expression of fear slowly being replaced by a quiet understanding. They boy took a step up to Jungkook and nodded. Then he got to work. 

As it turned out, Kai and Jungkook weren't all that much different in terms of size. Kai was taller but a few quick stitches by the boy and Jungkook was wearing the costume as if he had been wearing it all his life. 

There was a round of applause behind him. Jungkook looked in the mirror at his friends behind him. 

"Looking good, Jungkook!" Baekhyun drawled, having returned with Namjoon while Jungkook was being dressed. "Taehyung could not refuse!" 

Jungkook was about to return Baekhyun's comment with a cutting remark but a knock on the door interrupted him. The door opened and a head poked through. Romero was about to speak but when he saw who was in the Romeo costume, words died in his throat for a moment. Everyone thought he was going to protest, create a scene and demand for Kai. There were all ready to say something in Jungkook's defense. However, Romero's eyes narrowed and with that sly, knowing smile, he looked almost sleazy 

"Ah! Mister Jeon," he said. “I didn't know you act!" 

Jungkook would direly love to be rude but this man had the authority to bar him from going onstage and right then he needed to be onstage. Romero probably knew this, along with some other things too, being the perceptive literature and drama teacher that he was. 

When Jungkook chose not to speak, Romero stepped into the room and his demeanor changed to a seriousness no one had seen before. Even Baekhyun could not find anything to say to it. 

"Do you know the script, Mister Jeon?" Romero asked. 

This was no time to want to seem tough. Jungkook returned Romero's gaze with equal sobriety and replied, "Every word." 

Satisfied with the answer, Romero smiled his usual smile and opened the door wider as an invitation for Jungkook to step out. 

"The cast are all waiting backstage. You need to get going," he told Jungkook before adding, "break a leg." 

Jungkook started to walk to the door but Romero interjected, leaning in and added, "Oh! Act 1, Scene 5." 

The dark haired boy young man understood immediately and started to walk again. Only this time, an uncertain voice called out to him. He stopped once more and turned to look at the boy who had helped him with the costume. 

"Uh....Mister..." the boy began. 

"It's Jungkook," Jungkook said. 

"Yeah...break a leg." 

The slight curve of Jungkook's lips could have been a smile, a mere contemplation of his part, or attempt to quell the butterflies in his stomach. Actions could be hard to decipher, so Jungkook only said curtly, "Thank you" with an affirmative nod before stepping out of the room. 

Backstage all the actors were waiting, rolling their shoulders and generally getting into gear to perform. Jungkook craned his neck to spot a certain orange haired boy in a gown of gold but could not spot him anywhere. He tried not to let it get to him. All he needed to do was focus on becoming Romeo. He could feel the odd fluttering in his stomach. He had never felt like this before for certainly he had never been in a situation where he had to appear on stage and act… in front of so many people. 

“What the hell are you doing here?" 

Jungkook whipped his head to look at the speaker. It turned to be Kyungsoo, playing Tybalt. 

"Where's Kai?" Kyungsoo demanded, staring down sharply at Jungkook. "Don't tell me you are going to act?" 

“Kai’s busy. I'm Romeo for tonight," Jungkook said simply. 

Kyungsoo opened his mouth to say something but the announcement for everyone to switch off their cell phones from beyond the stage curtains indicated that the play was about to begin. The actors hissed out last minute 'break-a-legs' and even Kyungsoo patted Jungkook on the back with a whispered reply: "Whatever. Break legs and don't screw up." 

So began Act 1, Scene 5 with the servants of the house of Capulet kicking start: 

"Gregory, on my word, we’ll not carry coals..." 

Kai arrived backstage in a state of fury and clad only in his boxers. He swore that his family would hear of what that Jeon has done to him. He intended fully to retrieve his costume and play the part of Romeo but with all the time he took to get someone to hear the racket he was making in the janitor's closet and let him out, he had arrived to hear Jungkook's voice saying Romeo's lines with perfect ease: 

"Why, such is love's transgression. 

Griefs of mine own lie heavy in my ," 

He turned to Romero to try to elicit some sort of sympathy for his plight, or teacher-ly anger at the blatant demonstration of rebellion on the part of Jungkook and his friends. But all he got out of Romero was a finger held up to lips, desiring him to be quiet. 

This was not to be borne! He, KAI, the President of the Drama Club and their best actor at that, stuck backstage with no role to play? He casted his eyes about the backstage area. He spotted the boy, Kris, in his Paris costume and his rapier. A thought crossed his mind and he had to smile at his own brilliance. 

He strode up to the boy, who turned to him even before he was close. 

"You are on backstage duty today," Kai informed the boy. 

Taehyung only joined the group near the end of Act 1, Scene 2, after having had some problems with his dress. The problem had been quickly sorted out, seeing that it was silly little moment of misplacement, and he arrived just as Scene 2 came to a close. In all the flurry of scene-changing, he was not aware of Jungkook emerging backstage with Chen as Benvolio. He went about his lines as Juliet gallantly in Scene 3 and barely paid attention to the exchange going onstage in Scene 4, busy as he was preparing for the scene to come. As it were, both Jungkook and Taehyung were kept apart the way the main characters of the play were, during the course of the play until the fateful Scene 5 of the first act. 

Jungkook knew the play by heart and knew that it was only Scene 5 that he would he see Taehyung for the first time the way Romeo and Juliet would see each other in the play. He hoped to see Taehyung backstage, but he craned his neck as much as he could, he could not seem to spot Taehyung in the bustle of scene changing and the throng of characters. Bits of props and players-- a feathered hat here, a chair there-- kept passing across his vision as he tried to spot Taehyung the way he had seen him during the first time Jungkook saw Taehyung perform as Juliet on stage. Perhaps it was just as well because if he did see Taehyung, he didn't know what he ought to say to him. Jungkook was bad with words, especially words of his own making. 

The cue came for players to be in place and when the party started up, scene 5 began. 

Jungkook had not been to any rehearsals, what more rehearsed the play with the cast. He had, from the very beginning of the play, acted on impulse and gut feeling, guided by the actors and lines of the other players. Right then, he was acting just on that impulse and on something else too, something genuine, something strong and resolute. He was weaving through the crowd of party-goers in the onstage masquerade ball setting as he would at any party he was in. And as he would at any party, for being a Jeon, he often had to attend a number with his grandfather; he sought a corner to be by himself. 

It was a while weaving through the crowd that he spotted Taehyung as Juliet, in character, just accepting a dance with someone in a knight's doublet. Taehyung's wig had not been curled for after the pain about the missing dress, Jin only had time to brush it and tie it back into a low ponytail with a ribbon. With a lightly sprayed bangs that fell into his eyes, it was pretty much Taehyung, just with longer hair. Jungkook thought about the irony of it. In one impulsive act of bravery, where Jungkook had decided to show Taehyung what his heart felt, what he felt, Taehyung would appear more like Taehyung than Juliet. 

Jungkook stopped a passing servant and asked, "What lady's that, which doth enrich the hand of yonder knight?" 

If the boy playing the servant was surprised to see Jungkook, he was professional enough not to show it. Instead, the servant lowered the tray he was carrying and replied with only a quick glance as the said lady, "I know not sir," before going on his way. 

Jungkook continued to gaze at Taehyung as he spoke: 

"O he doth teach the torches to burn bright! 

It seems he hangs upon the cheek of night

As a rich jewel in an Ethiop's ear;

Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear!

So shows as snowy dove trooping with crows,

As yonder lady o'er her fellows shows. 

The measure done, I'll watch her place of stand, 

And, touching hers, make blessed my rude hand.

Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight! 

For I never saw true beauty till this night." 

No one in the audience seemed to notice Jungkook's blunder in the first two lines of that verse where he referred to Juliet as a "he", not even Baekhyun who was listening closely to every word, possibly out of interest and possibly it was really something to see Jungkook acting and saying words he would not be caught dead uttering elsewhere. Not even Jungkook seemed to notice it. 

The dance between Taehyung and the knight ended. As Taehyung curtsied to the knight, Jungkook took off his mask and made his way to the orange head just as the conversation, between Tybalt and Lord Capulet, about his presence at the party took place. They eyeballed him as they spoke about what they ought to do about him: Tybalt wanted to fight him; Capulet did not want to ruin the party. 

In the midst of the crowd, out of sight from Tybalt and Lord Capulet, Jungkook took hold of Taehyung's hand and the moment their hands touched, Taehyung turned, fully expecting Kai, only to find himself face to face with Jungkook. Taehyung's eyes held his astonishment and would have rendered the late teen speechless if it wasn't for the fact that the play must go on. There were so many questions he wanted to ask but for now, the words of Juliet would more than suffice. 

Jungkook had never held Taehyung's hands the way he did then. If he did dream of it, he had not imagined that it would take place on stage in front of an audience of few hundred, in some of the most renowned theatre-house of the region. The world seemed to dissolve around them and their lives became the lives of the two star-crossed lovers of old Verona. 

Jungkook was arrested by Taehyung's appearance as Juliet. From a seat in the audience, Juliet had appeared dazzling but up close, he found that the eyes indeed hold sweet innocence, the lashes defined and a tinge of the faintest make-up blush touched the cheeks of the younger teen standing before him. He noticed too that a significant amount of skin was exposed by the dress' wide neck and that Taehyung had on a little glitter around his eyes. 

He tugged Taehyung gently to the edge of the stage on stage right, very near the audience. Taking a deep breath he began, holding up Taehyung's hand and bringing it to himself as he did: 

"If I profane with my un worthiest hand 

This holy shrine, the gentle sin is this:

My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand

To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss." 

With that he brought the hand to his lips. He could and would not do that as Jeon Jungkook, he knew, but as Romeo, it all seemed perfectly right. Certainly, as Jungkook, he would not even ask for such a kiss. 

Lifting his free hand to touch Jungkook's cheeks, Taehyung began in his Juliet voice: 

"Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much, 

Which mannerly devotion shows in this;

For saints have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch, 

Catching the hand on his cheek, Jungkook went on, "Have not saint lips, and holy palmers too?"

Taehyung let out a breathy laugh and replied, "Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer." 

Leaning in, our dark haired Romeo said, "O then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do; they prey, 'Grant thou, lest faith turn to despair." 

"Saints do not move, though grant for prayers' sake," our Juliet said in return. 

Jungkook swallowed and went on, "Then move not, while my prayer's effect I take." 

With that, he leaned and kissed Taehyung chastely on the lips. It was Romeo and Juliet's first kiss, as it was theirs. Jungkook had somehow missed and his lips only met the top of Taehyung's own. Taehyung tried to respond but he didn't quite know how for he had only taken Kai's kisses passively during the other runs of the play. 

Nevertheless, the underlying reality of the moment seemed to be caught by the audience and a collective in-drawing of breaths was heard. 

Pulling away, Jungkook continued, “Thus from my lips, by thine, my sin is purged." 

Looking up at Jungkook with eyes he could have given to no one, Taehyung went on more naturally than any other actor could achieve, "Then take my lips the sin that they have took." 

Jungkook replied with, "Sin from my lips? O trespass sweetly urged! Give me my sin again" before leaning in again. 

This time, Jungkook did not just kiss chastely. He got Taehyung's lips point on and took advantage of the whole situation, deepening the kiss as his hands s around the other's waist. Responding more confidently to the kiss, Taehyung wound his arms around the younger teen's neck and pressed himself closer. 

They were reluctant to let go but as they had a play to finish, pulled away still keeping their hands linked. 

"You kiss by the book, “Juliet commented a little breathlessly. 

Xiumin had watched from backstage, noticing everything that was going on, especially the way the two looked at each other. He was almost reluctant to separate them but when the line was said, it was his cue to enter the stage. Xiumin as Nurse came rushing up to the couple saying, 'Madam, your mother craves a word with you." 

Juliet pulled away though her soft hand lingered in a lightly tanned one and chocolate eyes refused to turn away from dark ones. Then both hand and eyes slipped away with the person to which they belonged. 

Romeo watched as Juliet's back wove through the throng of party-goers and only when he could see her no more did he turn to the Nurse. "What's her mother?" he asked. 

As the end of the scene, Taehyung was on to Jungkook within seconds backstage, grabbing hold of both the latter’s arms without giving it any notice.

“What are you doing?” Taehyung demanded in a hoarse whisper of his own voice, adding a comic element to his dress-clad appearance.

“Playing Romeo,” Jungkook replied easily as the scene changes took place behind him.

“What happened to Kai,” Taehyung asked. He tightened his grip on Jungkook’s arm even though Jungkook made no move to extricate it. Taehyung’s eyes were too arresting, too captivating to compel Jungkook to do such a thing. He wanted the kiss all over again.

“Baekhyun locked him up,” and before Taehyung could saying anything more, he placed a hand over Taehyung’s lips to quiet him. He nodded in a particular direction and added, a little amused, “But he is playing Paris now.”

Taehyung glanced in the direction Jungkook had indicated and saw Kai standing in a corner, costumed and glowering at Jungkook, rapier at ready by his side. Taehyung let himself take it all in before turning to Jungkook again.

The chorus began for the Prologue of Act 2 and Jungkook leaned down to kiss the back of his own hand which was still over Taehyung’s mouth. He let Taehyung and in a few minutes, his voice was heard coming from the stage: “Can I go forward when my heart is here? Turn back, dull earth, and find thy center out.”

Taehyung stood rooted backstage staring at the curtain until Romero bustled him out to get ready for the famous balcony scene in Act 2, Scene 2.

As much as the players, namely Taehyung and Jungkook, wanted to take away the most out of the last running of the play, as it was with much of life, everything went in a blur.

The balcony scene went without a hitch, except Jungkook couldn’t help but wish the Nurse would stop with the “Madam!” each time Taehyung was saying something as Juliet. The promise of a marriage made and Taehyung was gone from the balcony.

They met backstage a few times but none of them shared more than a word or two between them. Kai kept his eyes closed for most of the play and refused to speak to anyone, seeming to focus his energy on a personal battle he was going to undertake, waiting for his scene to come. If one looked closely though, one could perceive a tiny smirk on his usually serene face.

The play went: A secret marriage. Tybalt’s death. Romeo taking leave of Juliet after a night spent together, and Jungkook stealing a few kisses as he did so. Juliet’s refusal to marrying Paris.

And the play just spiraled down to the end everyone expected.

Romeo having entered the chamber and forced open Juliet’s tomb, looking down at the figure of Juliet, lying in her dress at the bottom, her hands clasped easily over her stomach. Taehyung looked like he was only having a short nap.

“Stop they unhallowed tail, vile Montague!”

Upon hearing that cry, as Romeo, turned to look over his shoulder to see a very menacing looking Kai in his Paris costume blocking the way to the exit, his rapier already out, the end pointing at Jungkook.

“Can vengeance be pursued further than death?”  asked Paris, taking a step towards the still kneeling Romeo, “Condemned villain, I do apprehend thee, Obey, and go with me; for thou must die.”

Romeo turned back to the tomb, to Juliet still at the bottom of it.

“I must indeed; and therefore came I hither,” he remarked sorrowfully.

“Good gentle youth, tempt not a desperate man;

Fly hence, and leave me. Think upon these gone;

Let them affright thee. I beseech thee, youth,

Put not another sin upon my head

By urging me to fury. O be gone!”

Romeo stood and whipped himself around to look at Paris, still with his rapier raised.

Standing thus, Romeo went on:

“By heaven, I love thee better than myself;

For I came hither armed against myself.

Stay not, be gone; live, and hereafter say,

A madman’s mercy bade thee run away.”

Paris was unmoved by Romeo’s attempt at mercy.

“I do defy thy configurations,” he told Romeo, standing his ground and playing the part of the upright citizen to the ‘T’. “And apprehend thee for a felon here.”

Romeo skulked nearer to Paris. There was a sweet sense of satisfaction for Jungkook to be putting Kai in such a spot and referring to the senior as ‘youth’. He drew his rapier slowly, eyeing Kai steadily. In time, he smirked, a near deranged smirk of the despaired.

“Wilt thou provoke me?” Romeo snarled, drawing nearer to Paris. Without warning he lunged out at Paris with his rapier, crying, “Then have at thee, boy!”

The Drama Club president proved to be trained in the art of swordfight for he raised his rapier in time to counter Romeo’s strike.

“You have killed my kin, Juliet’s kin, and from sorrow she had expelled her final breath,” Kai hissed into Jungkook’s face, their rapiers crossed between their faces. “I will not forgive you for taking her away her away from me, when we would have been wed!”

Everyone backstage cast puzzled glances at each other, not having read those lines in the script anywhere. Romero watched from the side of the stage, hidden away from the audience, impressed by the believability of the swordfight and the boy’s emotions but unsure as to whether or not he ought to interrupt. The boy playing as Paris’ page almost forgot his line as the swordfight ensued before his eyes.

“Juliet does not love you!” Jungkook hissed in turn, breaking away from Kai with a little jump backwards. His rapier threatened to leave his grip but he closed his hand tighter around the hilt. He took another lunge at Kai and cried, “Juliet does not love you!”

Kai jumped away in time to avoid the lunge.

Romero took a step forward but still remained hidden from the audience. He was suddenly afraid that having these two face each other on stage was the worst thing to the school’s drama club. Those rapiers may not be the real thing but a hard enough could run anyone through.

“You cause so fair and innocent a creature to die and you still dare blaspheme!” cried Kai raining down on Jungkook a series of blows. Metal met metal in a series of clangs as Jungkook blocked each blow. “You sir…” and Kai brought down one particularly hard blow on Jungkook, getting the younger man square in the shoulder, causing him to winch. “are…not… worthy of his time!”

The audience, too caught up in the intensity of the swordfight did not notice Kai’s own blunder in referring to Juliet as a male. In the tomb, Taehyung’s eyes shot open. The swordfight between Romeo and Paris was not supposed to have any conversation between them. He was beginning to get worried. He debated “rising from the dead” and interrupting them, thus changing the whole play into a ghost story of sorts, but that did not seem right. He itched to do something, but Juliet must wait here cue to rise.

Kai’s last line got Jungkook where it hurt most because the truth in it was not easy for him to bear. When he could have left Taehyung with nothing between them but those few awkward moments, he had to seal it all with this stupid charade.

In a bout of self-directed anger, Jungkook the rapier through Kai…no, he actually stabbed it through the gap between Kai’s arm and the side of his body which faced away from the audience, making it appear as if Kai had been really stabbed. Had Jungkook not been so upset, he probably would have been surprised that the scene went so well and that he had not killed Kai by accident.

Romero almost ran onto the stage and a gasp ran through the audience as Kai was stabbed. Kai’s actions suddenly ceased and for a few seconds, he stood remarkably still, staring down at Jungkook as he had lost a battle he was sure he would win. Jungkook watched Kai, panting from the exertion of the fight he had unintentionally made real. His dark eyes widened as he took in the shocked expression on Kai’s face, suddenly frightened that he had indeed killed Kai for real.

“O I am slain!” cried Kai, dropping to his knees. Looking up at Jungkook, he pleaded, sounding very much in pain, “If thou be merciful, open the tomb, lay me with Juliet.”

With that Kai fell forward, the clatter of his rapier when it met the stage floor resonated through the silent theater, and he remained there unmoving as if truly dead. Although the scene had not ended, the audience clapped, giving Jungkook a bit of time to think what his next line from the script should be. It was the long monologue before he drinks the poison and dies.

He performed the monologue without further glitch and, for once not feeling jealous, laid Kai down (with some difficulty for Kai was heavy and putting on a good show of being dead) beside Taehyung in the tomb. Within the tomb, away from the audience’s eyes, Kai turned to Taehyung, who was staring at him wide-eyed, and winked. He did it just in time before Jungkook took hold of Taehyung and lifted him halfway out of the tomb so that he could finish his monologue looking at his face.

The monologue was long and Taehyung, listening with his eyes closed to Jungkook performing it, found it somewhat difficult to keep a straight face and not burst out laughing. Finally, Jungkook got to the part where he drank the poison. With one hand holding Taehyung, he removed the stopper of the bottle with a thumb and raising it as if in a toast, he said, “Here’s to my love!” before drinking it, finding it to be none other than raspberry cordial, and that it was cloyingly sweet.

“O true apothecary!” he went on, trying not to grimace at the sweetness. “Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die.”

He planted one last kiss on Taehyung’s lips and fell forward, dead, his body dangling halfway into the tomb, for that was the only logical way he saw in the play. For a moment, Jungkook wished he, too, could buy poison and do away with himself before he left for the Jeon first mansion.

With Romeo dead, the play sprung back into action after the paralysis that Jungkook and Kai’s fight had induced. In time, Taehyung as Juliet awoke and perceiving Romeo’s unmoving form, took himself from the tomb with surprising sprightliness considering the cumbersome dress, and was beside the “dead” figure, cradling the head to his chest.

He kissed Jungkook’s lip for remaining bits of poison, and thought how the raspberry cordial never tasted so sweet before. Finally, he took Jungkook’s dagger and with, “This is thy sheath; there rust, and let me die”, he fell dead in the final act of sacrifice. He fell over Jungkook’s boy, heard the faint heartbeat of the other but there was not rise and fall of the other’s chest, as if Jungkook was holding his breath. Unseen by the audience, Jungkook took the opportunity to raise a hand slightly and hold Taehyung with it. The action was almost imperceptible, but Taehyung felt the hand at his waist and could not help but take a furtive fistful of Jungkook’s shirt as the exchanges went on between the other characters.

The play closed with Prince Escalus reciting the famous line: “For never was a story of more woe, than this of Juliet and her Romeo.”

Amidst thunderous applause, the elder Jeon watched the curtains close. He had been annoyed when Jungkook was not home when they were about to leave for the play. Later, he received a call from Sehun’s father telling him that Jungkook would be going ahead and that the family would more than glad to have their driver pick him up. The old man had declined the offer, preferring the privacy of his own car so that he may better fume over Jungkook’s supposed insolence.

He was more than a little surprised to see Jungkook on stage. Jungkook had not told him anything about acting. He considered leaving but with the Oh family sitting beside him, he had no choice but to stay.

When the play ended, and the supporting cast came on stage to take their bow, the elder Jeon was in a world of contemplation. He stood up and left before the main cast arrived.

Back stage, right after the final curtain, the rest of the cast was congratulation Jungkook for the performance. No longer Romeo, Jungkook was once again Jungkook and only Jungkook, so all he said in response to their praises was, “Hmm”, his arms crossed over his chest, adding something of a comic relief to his Romeo costume. Everyone had to admit that Kai did a fantastic job as Paris, but when everyone wanted to praise him too, the Drama Club president was for once nowhere to be seen.

Taehyung watched the crowd surrounding Jungkook and felt a tug in his chest, though it was not an unpleasant one. Everyone was approaching Jungkook so candidly, from senior to juniors who had steered clear of Jungkook’s way in school. Taehyung could not help but think that Jungkook had grown somewhat over these past few months. The announcement came for the cast to come on stage and while the supporting case made their way out, Taehyung went over and took Jungkook’s hand and led him on stage, where their appearance was greeted by a series of hoots and catcalls, most likely from Baekhyun and the gang.

Once everyone was on stage, they thanked those in charge of the multimedia and took a bow together, before the curtain shut with a profound sense of closure, While no one was looking, while everyone was busy smiling at the standing audience, Jungkook felt Taehyung give his hand a squeeze before letting go of it. 

A/N: This by far is my favorite chapter ^_^ I hope you all enjoyed!!! And for those of you who celebrate Halloween, HAPPY HALLOWEEN GUYS!!! HAVE FUN!!!