Please read the A.N. at the end of this chapter :)

After their second performance of the day, all four boys went straight to the room backstage to gather their things and get ready to leave. They were all tired and sweaty, ready to go home, take a quick shower and sleep for ten hours straight.

Taehyung is the first one to get ready, not even bothering changing clothes, and leaves the room to go buy a bottle of water in the school’s vending machines. As soon as he obtains the bottle, he chugs down half of the liquid in one go.

“Taehyung.” Someone calls.

Taehyung stops drinking water and looks for the person. He smiles straight away and greets J-Hope.

“Finally, I found you!” J-Hope says, big smile on his face. “I was looking everywhere for you.”

“For me?” Taehyung asks.

“Yeah. You did great back there. I mean… The first second I heard your voice I knew that you would sing great, but I wasn’t expecting you to sing that great.”

“T-Thank you.” He said sheepishly. “But I think you’re exaggerating a little bit.”

“Are you kidding me? I don’t exaggerate with this type of things.” He said, now a little more serious. “And I wouldn’t be looking for you to congratulate you if I didn’t seriously think that you were great. Well, I mean, this wasn’t the only thing that I wanted to speak to you about. But still…”

“I believe you then.” Taehyung said, eyes shining brightly, proud of himself and his ability to sing. “So, what was the other thing you wanted to talk about?”

“Oh, that.” J-Hope turned a little awkward all of a sudden. “The last time we talked was when that accident with Jimin happened.” He started, making Taehyung let out a low ‘oh, yeah’ followed by a slightly nervous, slightly awkward giggle. “I’m pretty sure that Jimin told you the whole story. But I just wanted to talk to you either way, even just so I could know if we were still cool.”

“Okay. Do you want to go talk somewhere a little more private?” He offered.

“Yes, maybe that’s better.”

They entered the first room that wasn’t locked and closed the door. J-Hope sat on a desk near the windows and Taehyung followed him, observing the clouds getting darker as the seconds passed by, and making a mental note to not forget to return to the other room to go get his umbrella that he left there, before he leaves school.

“So.” J-Hope started. “I’m guessing Jimin already told you what happened between us and why we broke up.”

“Yep.” Taehyung simply said.

“I’m not going to repeat the same story. I’m sure you wouldn’t want to hear about my horrible actions a second time.” Taehyung silently nodded. J-Hope let out a sigh and continued. “I think that all I can say right now, and all I want you to know, is that the person who I was back then is dead, completely gone. I was, and still am, truly regretful and sorry towards Jimin about what I did. And that’s why, after that day, even though I had multiple things with multiple people, I was never in a relationship with them. And as soon as I started to have a slight romantic interest in of those people, I would end everything with them, not taking any chances. But with you…” He looked down, trying to find the rest of his words.

“But with me…?” Taehyung asked, helping him to stay on topic.

J-Hope looked straight to his eyes and smiled. “But with you is different. We don’t even know each other for that long, and this goes against all my principles. But since you’re so special, I’m guessing that this is a special case. Because I’m being completely honest with you, Taehyung. I truly do want to get to know you better and try being in a relationship with you. Because I’m ready to be committed to a single relationship, if that relationship is with you.”

A few seconds passed by with pure silence. J-Hope was still looking directly at Taehyung’s eyes, waiting for his answer. When almost one whole minute passed with Taehyung not saying anything and not doing anything except for the occasional blinking, J-Hope started to get awkward and avoid his eyes.

“I…” Taehyung started, gaining once again J-Hope’s full attention. “I’m sorry.” He tried not to get affected by J-Hope’s drastically and not so subtle change of mood. “It’s just that, even if I was interested in you in that way, and even if I wanted to try dating you to see if we would work, I can’t. Not when I know about what happened with Jimin in the past. I believe in you when you say that you’ve changed, but I can’t be 100% sure about that. And the most important thing for a good relationship is trust, and I wouldn’t be able to give my full trust to you.”

“Yeah, I understand.” J-Hope said quietly. “I can’t say I wasn’t excepting you to reject me. I would reject me as well if I