Your phone beeps with the oh-so-recognizable tri-tone, and you get up from the dinner table and dash to the counter to grab it. It’s him again.

 

You are fast, but Jungkook is faster.

 

With just one glance at the phone, his smile immediately pulls itself downwards and his face darkens. He was never supposed to know, but he’s seen it for himself. With shaking hands, he turns the phone to face you, his voice quivering. “What the hell is this?”

 

Hey there babe, what are you doing tonight? Wanna hang out with me?

 

Your hands reach for the phone, but Jungkook pulls it back, and you are left grabbing at the cold, stale air penetrated with both awkwardness and anger in the room.

 

“I- I can explain. There’s this guy, he keeps – “

 

But before you can finish, Jungkook snaps, “I cooked dinner for you, I cleaned the house and did the laundry because you said you were tired, and you’re hanging out behind my back with your sketchy secret boyfriend? You promised you wouldn’t keep secrets from me. You promised!”

 

“Jungkook, no, it’s not like that – “

 

“You are unbelievable. And to think I trusted you? What kind of fool am I? Why did I even marry you in the first place? Till death do us part? Yeah, to hell with that!”

 

You grab hold of his wrist, but he flinches at your touch and pulls away roughly, not caring if he hurt you. He doesn’t let you get a word in as he stomps to the bedroom, and you run behind him, trying to get a hold of him.

 

“Jungkook, listen – “You’re screaming your head off at this point, but nothing is getting to him.

 

“Listen to what? Huh? Another ty excuse? Now I’m wondering what the hell you do that makes you so tired when I’m not home. You probably have with him on our bed every day!” Jungkook sneers, and that’s when you explode.

 

Your voice goes quiet, laced with weary and frustration. “Are you ing calling me a right now?”

 

Jungkook doesn’t say anything, but pulls his luggage bag out of your shared closet, and throwing clothes messily into it. White shirts, ripped jeans, enough changes of underwear to last a week, probably. You see him toss aside the sweater you gave him in exchange for the ugly sweater his friends gave him as a joke, and your heart shatters into a million pieces, right there and then.

 

 

“I’m trying to explain to you, Jungkook, but you won’t ing let me!” you shout, not caring if you wake anyone up at this point.

 

 

Jungkook was acting irrationally, way out of character. The boy who would once listen to all your troubles even if he was exhausted from work was now not letting you get a single word in, and screaming and accusing you.

 

He looks at you in the eye, and you can see that his eyes are filled with tears he’s trying so, so hard not to let fall. You can tell that he’s really angry, because he never cries in front of you, not even when you guys watched Marley and Me together.

 

“We’re over.”

 

And with that, he walks out of the house, and the slam of the front door behind him echoes throughout the silent apartment.

 

 

You clutch onto the sweater now lying on the ground, disentangled from its hanger, and allow yourself to cry. It still smells exactly like him – strawberries infused with the slightest hint of detergent, and momentarily, you wonder how long you’ll be able to preserve this scent before it fades with enough washes.

 

But anger immediately masks sadness as you pick your phone up from the carpet, and angrily text the guy.

 

Do you have any idea what you’ve done?
 

I told you to stop ing texting me

 

You have a wrong number.

 

I don’t even know who you are and what u want from me

 

Just leave me alone, please…

 

 

If only Jungkook had bothered to listen to you, if only he paused what he was doing in that moment of fury – but he had too much pride; he hated being wrong.

 

You didn’t know who this mysterious texter was, or his intention of texting you. At first, you figured it was a wrong number, but the repeated messages said otherwise.

 

When you got into bed that night, you half expected someone to get in after you, to bring warmth to the other side of the cold bed, but in your heart, you knew fully you would be sleeping alone in this big house tonight.

 

It was a restless night.

 

 

After a mere five hours of shut-eye, you awake to a cold bed, and immediately feel scared. You guys have never had a fight that lasted for so long – usually Jungkook would come back in the middle of the night, sometimes drunk, but always with an apology.

 

Did he mean it? Did he really mean that we were over?

 

You reach for your phone, and immediately call his best friend, Jimin.

Jimin picks up on the tenth ring, his voice thick with sleepiness.

 

“Hey, um, sorry for calling at like, eight in the morning, but is Jungkook over at your place?”

 

“He’s not home?” The tinge of concern in his voice already gave you your answer.

 

“We kind of had a fight, and I figured he might be at your place… do you have any idea where he is?”

 

Jimin hesitated for a moment before replying. “Maybe you could call the studio or the hotel nearby? I doubt he went that far. Or you could try Taehyung’s place.”

 

“Thanks, Jimin.”

 

“No problem. Hope you guys work this out soon – he’ll get over it fast, I know him.”

 

You smile gratefully to yourself, but you know that there’s a small, tiny part of you that feels uneasy – what if he never comes home? What if he’s booked himself a flight to, I don’t know, New York, and decided to live there forever? What if he got into an accident while drunk and… died?

 

The studio and the hotel said he wasn’t there. With shaking hands and a broken heart, you called Taehyung’s place, knowing that if he wasn’t there, it would be difficult to find him unless he came back on his own will. He didn’t bring his phone with him – it was still charging on the nightstand when he stormed out of the apartment.

 

Taehyung picked up on the first ring.

 

“Hey, Tae, I’m wondering if Jungkook’s there?” You asked hesitantly.

 

There was a moment of complete silence, then you could hear the door closing over the phone.

 

“Hey, yeah, he’s here, I had to step out of the r