【 Jungkook 】

Who would've known opening your inbox– or any social media platform for that matter could feel this dreadful, after all, how much damage could some mere words on a screen really do?

- Spoiler alert, a lot of damage.

Hateful messages and posts about you and your work seemed to be flooding in from wherever you turned without a break nor mercy, and even though all writers eventually grow accustomed to dealing with hate from anti-fans online, nothing could've really prepared you for it to be taken to this extent.

In a desperate attempt to figure out how an event as absurd as this plagiarism scandal could've come to be in the first place, you ended up spending many sleepless nights noting down as much research and clues as possible, hoping to find at least something that could lead you onto the right track of proving your innocence

There had to be something— anything, that could prove your innocence, right?

Though seeing how the other comic had these odd bonus-like chapters that varied from your own, strategically posted in between the rest of the noticeably copied chapters, making it seem as if it had progressed ''further'' in its storyline since there were more episodes up, only fueling the confusing illusion that you had been the one copying the other— not the other way around.

The timestamps also, unfortunately, couldn't be used in your favor, because even though they were posted later than yours, the other writer 'Xhian' cleverly claimed to always be 1 chapter ahead of their uploads prior to the scandal breaking out

Nevertheless, this naturally meant that for this past week and seemingly more days to come, you practically lived at the studio, only ever going home to shower and change clothes before heading right back to the office to continue your fight.

It just didn't make sense how similar both of your comics were, this was far beyond a mere coincidence, but how they possibly could've gotten ahold of your material was seemingly an unsolvable mystery

They would've had to get this information from an insider or by sneaking into the studio, but surely there's no way that could be the case here, after all, you and your team were just too close with each other for them to betray you like that

...Unless it was a new member—

As your mind instinctively trailed off to that one night when Taehyung had come back to the office to 'fetch something he had forgotten', you couldn't help but to shamefully suspect him for a split second

However, you swiftly shook your head and snapped out of that thought, knowing Taehyung had done too much for this team to betray all of you like that.

An exhausted sigh left your lips as you took off your glasses and rubbed your eyes, soon standing up from your seat before heading over to the kitchen with slow steps as you needed a short break from everything

You grabbed your mug from its designated place, ready to prepare yourself yet another cup of coffee, only to halt your actions and scoff softly as you eyed a certain box on the counter containing chamomile tea

Memories of Taehyung continuously pointing out your bad habit of drinking coffee at night came to mind, heck one would even dare to say he scolded you for it, which was awfully bold for a still relatively new employee to do towards their boss

Nonetheless, those memories still managed to make you give in, as you stopped and thought for a moment before putting your mug back in its place, abandoning your previous urge to make coffee as you grabbed yourself a bottle of water instead and headed back to your desk

Though as you sat back down at your desk, getting ready to go back to work, you accidentally managed to knock over the stack of books that you had placed onto it, and when you crouched down to pick it up you couldn't help but notice the letter that had slipped out of one of the books

A very dear letter which you seemed to forget every now and then, until you usually came across it again by coincidence

Upon slowly unfolding it, a faint yet sad smile painted your lips as you began to re-read the words messily written down onto the otherwise blank page, its content however displaying so much love and care despite it being fairly short

It was both the first and last letter you ever received from your grandpa before he passed away, and the letter with his handwriting remained one of the last treasured memories you had left of him

In an attempt to comfort yourself, you forced out a breathy chuckle as you traced his handwriting ever so gently, tears slowly welling up in your eyes as you spoke softly to no one in particular

Jungkook: You'd probably nudge me and make some silly joke to cheer me up if you were still here, r-right?

That sad smile on your lips soon began to quiver as silent tears began to roll down your cheeks, gently hugging the letter close to yourself whilst you let out a shaky breath, feeling your chest ache painfully

Jungkook: I m-miss you grandpa...

You honestly don't remember the last time you cried, heck you couldn't really figure out what brought you to tears just now

Was it the letter and painful longing of your dear family member, the overwhelming and stressful situation you currently found yourself in, the exhaustion of your severe lack of sleep, or was it just a hopeless mix of everything and nothing that made that hard shell you tried to build around your emotions crack?

Whatever it was, it made you have a hard time holding in your soft whimpers and sniffles as you hopelessly sat on the floor, body trembling slightly as you leaned your back against the desk, eventually letting the exhaustion combined with the vague relief of crying finally make you blackout.

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