It's been two weeks since Jungkook hasn't shown up in school. Two weeks since the coffee shop incident.

Taehyung was getting even more anxious as the days go by. Sure, he's gone longer without talking to the younger but for some reason, this was different.

He felt utterly guilty.

Video's of the coffee shop incident did indeed spread around school and people still talked about it even when these sort of things usually die down after a few days. What made it worst was that the senior never received any hate. All the insulting comments, the nasty rumors, and the mockery were directed to the junior and the brunet could only imagine him scrolling through social media and getting unwanted hate from a random student he'd never even met.

He bit the inside of his cheek at the thought.

"Tae!" Someone called out, pulling the brunet out of his head. He looked up from his locker only to be greeted with that familiar heart shaped smile.

"Oh... hey, Hoseok." Taehyung gave a halfhearted smile which the older didn't fail to notice. The last time the two males had spoken a word to each other was when the brunet confronted the red head in the parking lot.

"Just wanted to check on you. You seemed a little off these past few weeks." Hoseok voiced out his concern, a pout unconsciously settling on his lips. It made him almost resemble a puppy.

"It's nothing. Just... worried about... someone."

"Does that someone go by the name Jungkook Jeon?" The older teased, wiggling his brows. Taehyung flicked his forehead and Hoseok groaned, rubbing the pain away.

"Unless you're Sherlock Holmes, drop the fucking investigation, chief." The brunet rolled his eyes, not noticing the fond grin on the other's face from hearing the sassy attitude the younger always sported. It didn't dawn on him how casual and not at all awkward their conversation was going. "But fine, that someone is Jungkook. He hasn't been showing up to any of his classes and it's been 2 weeks for christ's sake!"

"Wait... you didn't know?" The latter asked incredulously. He was both shocked and slightly amused.

"... Know what?" Taehyung questioned skeptically with a raised brow.

"Know that he doesn't go to this school anymore." Another voice chimed in from behind, slightly startling the brunet who accidentally shut his locker using too much force. "Damn, Jeon really didn't tell you? Knew I was more important than you."

"Shut up, Jimin. Don't you have somewhere to be? Heard Snow White's recruiting for an eight dwarf." The brunet retorted, earning a punch to the arm which would've hurt if his mind wasn't being such a distraction. Was what he did that bad? God he wouldn't be able to forgive himself if he was the reason why Jungkook dropped out.

"How are you sure? When did he even tell you?" Taehyung crossed his arms, showing boredom when in reality he would really like to know.

"I've invited him to hang out with us at the coffee shop once or twice already and he told us he wanted to be homeschooled." Hoseok shrugged, shoving his hands in his pockets.

"And when the hell did you became buddy-buddy with him?"

"He apologized to me the day after you talked to me. I felt bad because, really, he did nothing wrong. And then from there on I found him pretty chill to be around with." The redhead explained before a text dinged through his phone. His smile appeared when he saw who it was from after pulling it out from his pocket. "Well, I gotta go now. I promised Yoongi to a Disney plus marathon and I'm already running late. See ya! Hope you'll start hanging out with us again, Tae." He patted both the males' shoulders before walking off, fingers typing a reply with that whipped grin stuck to his face.

"Ugh, they're so in love. It's disgusting." Jimin complained to Taehyung before quickly turning back to the redhead to shout "Don't forget, he's sucked my dick long before he's sucked yours!"

That earned him a middle finger from the eldest senior and the shorter male only laughed.

It wasn't any real surprise that Jimin's comfortable enough with Hoseok dating his ex but hearing how in love Hoseok and Yoongi were surprisingly didn't affect Taehyung like he thought it would. Weird.

"Well I'm off to third wheel Namjoon and Jin now. They might not be a couple yet, but I know those two secretly want to fuck each other. At least they're not as disgusting as Hoseok and Yoongi." The smaller shuttered before giving the taller senior a quick hug. "See you when I see you, Kim!"

That left Taehyung back to his own thoughts.

He knew he had to see Jungkook before the day would end.

Get it over with.

Taehyung stood outside the Jeons' doorstep, holding a suitcase filled with all the hoodies and sweaters Jungkook had so kindly lend but never took back. The brunet wasn't aware of it until now but the younger seemed to have given most of his cold wear to the boy. All the clothes almost didn't fit in one suitcase that Taehyung was close to adding a duffle bag. It was sorta funny, the senior found that almost half of his own closet consisted of the younger's clothes that he never returned over the years.

He even found Jungkook's Jigglypuff hoodie with a pink drawstring from the first month they became friends.

Huffing, he rang the doorbell twice and patiently waited for someone to open the door. Jungkook, hopefully.

And apparently hope never failed him because that's exactly who answered.

The junior yawned, rubbing his face to rid of drowsiness while holding the door open with his other hand.

"Hey." Taehyung breathlessly mustered out because wow. He was not expecting this surprising and, frankly— though he wouldn't dare say out loud—, arousing sight. His biceps were on full display thanks to the striped black muscle tee he wore which went perfectly with that messy bedhead look. He wore the typical grey sweats that would no doubt show off morning wood if he just so happened to get one. God, why did it have to be the afternoon?

...but wow.

......WOW. Had Jungkook alway been this hot?

"Hey-" the younger greeted back but quickly sobered up from sleep when he caught sight of the luggage next to the senior. "Uh, the guest room's not really suitable for guests right now considering that's where my mom's keeping all of her old creepy cat figurines but you can make use of the couch-"

"I'm not moving in, you dumbass." Taehyung rolled his eyes, earning a small 'oh' from the boy. "And why are you just waking up? It's literally 4 in the afternoon."

"I stayed up last night binging on My First First Love." He shrugged, focusing his attention back on the suitcase. "So like... if you didn't get kicked out, then what's that for?"

"I-It's all your sweaters. I decided to finally return them all." The older said, handing it to the younger. "I'll just get the suitcase some other time."

"Okay... aren't you wearing one of them right now?"

"N-no!...maybe... yes— there wasn't enough space in the suitcase." The brunet lied, fiddling with the sweater paws of the hoodie that was a size too big for him.

Jungkook raised a brow, an amused smirk making its way to his face.

"Okay, fine! This is my favorite one so don't expect to get it back anytime soon. I'm keeping it... asshole." He huffed, cheeks red from embarrassment.

"Go ahead." The younger held his hands up in mock surrender.

"Why do you have so much sweaters anyways? How have you not ran out of them?" Taehyung continued, trying to keep the conversation going before he had to say what he really came to say.

"I like them. I buy a lot on purpose to share them with you." Jungkook shrugged once again as if this was a normal thing every broskie does for a fellow broskie.

"O-oh."

"Well if that's all you came here for then-" the raven head was getting ready to close the door but the senior wasn't about to let him when he hadn't even fulfilled his true agenda.

"W-wait. WAIT!" Taehyung panicked, pushing the door open and pulling the younger in his arms.

He wasn't aware of his own tears making an escape.

Jungkook on the other hand, was taken aback. He wasn't expecting the older to hug him, let alone leave heart wrenching sniffles.

"Hey, hey. You're okay. Everything's fine, Taehyungie." The junior comforted, hugging Taehyung's waist closer to him and rubbing his back soothingly with one hand.

"N-no. Everything's not fine!" The senior whined, voice muffled against Jungkook's chest.

The younger sighed, taking the boy's face in his hands and forcing his already puffy eyes to look into his sincere one. "Can you breathe for a second, please?"

Taehyung nodded. It took him a moment to stabilize his breathing but he eventually got there.

Jungkook sort of had a hunch on what this was about.

"Now tell me what's wrong."

"I'm a bad friend." The older pouted, a tear slipping out of the corner of his eye which the junior immediaty wiped away with his thumb.

"How so?"

"Because I kept taking and taking from you and never gave anything back in return."

"If this is about the sweaters-"

"No! This is about everything in general! The sweaters are just a bonus and a reminder of how shitty of a person I am." Taehyung could feel his eyes starting to water again and quickly blinked them away.

"I do all that I do for you to see you happy. Although it would be nice, I don't expect you to return any favors nor sweaters." Jungkook smiled sincerely. "You're my only family besides my mom. I couldn't lose you even if it hurt me."

"Stop being so nice, you doof!" The brunet hit the male's shoulder with a sweater paw but the younger only laughed.

"I'm just being honest, Taehyungie."

"Whoever said honesty's the best policy can die in a ditch." The senior pouted before clearing his throat. "So... are you going back to school?"

The hope in his voice made the younger sigh.

He took it back, hope may have just failed him.

"Going into homeschool has been something I've wanted to do for a while now. I also very much need the one on one with the private tutor because going into a public school just isn't cutting it anymore."

"So you're not coming back?"

"No but don't worry, I'll hang out with you after school every day since I quit my job at the coffee shop." He gave his bunny like smile that emphasized on just how young the boy really was for his life circumstances.

"You quit? When?"

"Two weeks ago."

Taehyung hummed. "Okay... so do you forgive me? Are we good now.?"

"I always forgive you— unless you decide to eat the last piece of strawberry glazed donut like last time because in that case, an unforgivable act has been performed." Jungkook scrunched his brows and the latter snorted. "But other than that... yes, we're good."

Taehyung smiled. "Good. I missed you, Kookie."

Jungkook hadn't heard that nickname in ages— eight grade at most. It was refreshing and nostalgic. It put a big, goofy grin on the junior's face.

"I missed you, too."

Everything's back to normal. No more drama, bullying, neglecting. Just Jungkook and Taehyung as they were in middle school.

"Just so you know, I'm taking the suitcase back with all the sweaters."

Jungkook rolled his eyes. "Way to ruin the moment."

==

A/N: I very much enjoyed writing this easy going chapter :)

Next chapter will be the last. (I doubt that I'll write an epilogue even though I did a prologue but we'll see)