A week had gone by in which everyone tried to get their minds right again. With Ten's passing and Johnny who hadn't said a word ever since the search for the chip had come to a dead end and no one knew how to continue. Namjoon had tried the best he could to get the brunette to talk, however Johnny kept his lips sealed. The only sound the male sometimes made was him breaking down, probably due to the fact that he blamed himself for Ten's death. After all, he had been the one to fire that bullet.

The whole Johnny situation stressed everyone out. For the past couple of days he had refused to eat anything and had only taken small sips of water every now and then. It was like he was purposely starving himself as some sort of punishment. It truly was horrible to look at his pathetic state. The Johnny they had captured was just a shell of the man he had once been. Only a fraction of the person they had actually needed to get that chip.

In that week Taehyung hadn't set foot once inside the bedroom in which Johnny was being held. The confrontation with the brunette was something the blonde wanted to avoid at all costs. He hated his ex best friend with all that he got and still there was just this tiny piece of Taehyung's heart that still cared about him. They had grown up together and there literally wasn't a thing they didn't know about the other. Taehyung just hated the fact the he'd be confronted with the fact that that friendship all belonged to the past now rather than the future. His head knew the bond between him and Johnny had been lost but his heart refused to accept that fact.

Why did it have to come to this?

"I don't know what else I'm supposed to do Joon. He refuses everything to the point that it's starting to worry me. The last time he ate was three days ago." Jin spoke as he walked out of the bedroom, a worried look visible on his face. The oldest male of them all briefly closed his eyes as he let out a big sigh. He had been the one assigned to try and get the younger to eat but it had been to no use. Johnny didn't even react to anything the older said to him.

"Not even a tiny bite?" Namjoon answered back as he looked at the plate of food in Jin's hand. The burger that was standing proudly on the white plate looked untouched and as soon as Jin shook his head Namjoon angrily slammed his hand on the kitchen counter. "God damnit!" the grey haired male angrily let out as he let out a deep breath of air. Johhny was their only way to get to know where that chip was right now. If he wasn't talking then there was no use in looking for the damn chip at all. Seoul was a big city and it would be of absolutely no use to aimlessly start looking. The damn chip was so small and so easily hidden, it'd be like looking for a needle in a stack of hey.

Jungkook closed his eyes at the sound of the impact Namjoon's hand made on the kitchen counter and he looked at the leader of this team with a defeated look on his face and dark circles around his eyes. For the past week Jungkook had done his absolute best to try and locate the chip. He'd even stayed up night after night to try and find the goddamn thing but it had been to no use. The chip was untraceable as of right now and their only hope was trying to starve himself right now.

Just their luck

The whole team looked like they had no idea what to do with the situation. The elections were coming closer with every day that passed and if the word about a possibly upcoming war didn't come out before them then Korea would basically be doomed if they chose the wrong man as their president. None of these males here wanted to let that happen of course but who was going to believe them if they did not have any evidence?

Taehyung softly sighed as he looked at the others in the room. All if them wore sad expressions on their faces and it was as clear as crystal that none of them knew what they had to do anymore. With a deep sigh the blonde stood up before he began to walk towards the bedroom where Johnny was being held against his will. "I'll go talk to him."

All the others looked up with shocked expressions as soon as Taehyung had said those words and Jungkook was quick to get up from his chair and wrap his fingers around the older male's wrist. A worried look was visible on the brunette face and he softly tugged at Taehyung's wrist to make him look into his direction. "Are you sure? You don't have to do this you know. We all understand." The hacker spoke, worry clearly lacing his tone. He out of all the people in the room knew exactly where Taehyung was coming from. After the night Ten had died and the moments the two of them had spent together Jungkook and Taehyung had grown a lot closer than they had been. Taehyung slowly began to feel more at ease with opening up to the hacker and Jungkook provided the blonde the comfort he needed at difficult times.

Last night the two of them had once again spend together on the balcony. Jungkook had just needed a break from trying to find the chip and Taehyung had just felt the need to distance himself from the group for a while. The blonde had then told Jungkook exactly the reason why he didn't want to see Johnny right now. Jungkook just couldn't forget it that easily. He wouldn't let Taehyung force himself to do something he actually didn't want to.

Taehyung smiled briefly at Jungkook before he shook his head. "It's okay. I can do this." The blonde spoke and Jungkook softly nodded before he unwrapped his fingers from around the older's wrist, a look of concern still visible on his features. The hacker couldn't tell at times like these if the blonde was being genuine or just giving the answers everyone wanted to hear.

Taehyung then turned around again before he began to make his way over to the bedroom. With a deep breath he opened the door, only to be met with the familiarity of the room he had been in many times before. The bed was still standing in the same place and even the drawers looked untouched. However the odd thing in the room was the chair that had once stood in the kitchen. It was now standing right in the corner next to the bed with no other than Johnny placed on it.

The brunette was handcuffed with four sets of handcuffs to the chair, leaving almost no space for the male to move his arms or legs. Taehyung blinked a couple of times, taking in the sight before him. The person he'd once called his best friend looked nothing more like and animal caged to a chair right now. His eyes were surrounded by dark circles, they had an empty look in them and his lips looked dried out. The color of Johnny's skin looked pale and it almost gave of a sick look. Johnny looked nothing like how Taehyung remembered him to be.

A soft sigh left Taehyung's mouth and he closed the door behind him before walking over to the bed and sitting down right next to Johnny. The brunette looked up briefly to see who had decided to join him now and his eyes immediately displayed a shocked feeling as soon as he saw Taehyung sitting next to him. Johnny clearly hadn't expected the blonde to pay him a 'visit'. Taehyung slightly smiled at the expression on the other's face. He himself hadn't expected to go in here either yet here he was., facing the one who had broken his trust into a million tiny little pieces. Yet still he felt sorry for his state. Ohh how Taehyung would want to just be able to turn of his emotions for once. He was great at hiding them but turning them off completely? That unfortunately was a skill Taehyung hadn't even mastered in the slightest.

Taehyung briefly closed his eyes before he shook his head, already regretting was he was about to do. "Just know that we are with eight and you are on your own so don't try any stupid tricks." The blonde spoke before he grabbed a set of keys from the drawer and began to uncuff the handcuffs which were forcing Johnny to stay seated on the chair. One by one Taehyung opened them all until Johnny's hands and feet were completely free again. The brunette looked shocked at Taehyung and he slowly locked eyes with him, a disbelieving look on his face.

"Why do you help me?" Johnny spoke, clearly not understanding why Taehyung was doing him a favor instead of just screaming or hitting him. Taehyung sighed softly before he walked over to the bed again and sat down, an apologetic look now covering his features. "I'm sorry Johnny. I should have never involved Ten in all of this. I deeply regret his death."

Johnny instantly looked down at the mention of his lover and tears began to fill his eyes. "Do you know what it feels like to see the life leave your loved one's eyes?" Johnny softly answered, his voice shaky and vulnerable. Taehyung almost reached forward to rub his back but he refrained himself from doing that. Johnny and him weren't close like that anymore, that kind of bond between them now belonged to the past.

Tears began to leak down Johnny's eyes, the male clearly experiencing what had happened that fatefull night a week ago again. His body began to softly shake as sobs left his mouth and little desperate cries filled up the silence between him and Taehyung. "Do you know what it feels like to be the one that caused that shit?" The brunette continued as he looked up while locking eyes with Taehyung. "I killed him Taehyung. I pulled that trigger. His death is upon me. I killed my own boyfriend and there is nothing I can do to ever make it up to him."

Taehyung looked at Johnny with a sad look on his face as well. He had felt nothing but hate for his ex best friend in the past couple of weeks but right now he only felt compassionate about what had happened to Johhny. It wasn't because the blonde had suddenly forgiven him, no it was far from that. Taehyung would never forgive the other for what he had done. However right now he did know exactly how Johnny was feeling. He too felt responsible for what had happened and Taehyung could do nothing but look how his former best friend broke down completely.

"How did it come to this Johnny? We were best friends. How did we go from there to wanting to kill the other?" the blonde voiced out his thoughts, looking for the answer to the question that had been bugging him ever since Johnny had betrayed them. Taehyung didn't understand at all why the other had chosen war over peace. They both had agreed on doing the right thing for once and yet here they were, one had chosen the right path while the other went down the bad one again.

Johnny scoffed harshly through his tears, an angry look forming onto his face. "As if you'd understand. You and your perfect life." Johnny spoke, his voice filled with anger and venom. If looks could kill Taehyung would be buried six feet under now. Never before had he seen Johnny look at him in the was he was doing now. Nothing but pure hatred was visible in his eyes.

"I lost everything Taehyung. Mom, dad, every single thing. I had no one except for Ten." The brunette began to speak and Taehyung's eyes grew big as soon as all the puzzle pieces began to click in his head as his former best friend said those lines. Johnny's mother had died at a young age and while Taehyung couldn't exactly remember what had happened to her he knew her death had hurt her only son a lot. Her death also caused a lot of misery for the family. Due to his wife's death Johnny's father had developed a drinking problem which ultimately resulted in him getting fired from his job.

It was then that Johhny and his father were left with no money and thus his father had decided to rob a gas station in order to get them some easy money. However this all fired backwards and he was caught by the police. Johnny ended up in foster care and his father got sentenced to 20 years in prison for armed robbery. After these events the brunette had always refused to talk about what had happened to Taehyung. Everything just hurt too much.

Taehyung now exactly understood why Johnny didn't want the info on that chip to leak. His father was in prison and if Seunghoon became president then that meant that his father got to go free. An angry look began to form onto Taehyung's face and he looked at Johnny with a look that could kill.

"Are you serious? Did you even fucking think about the consequences Johnny!? Your father would have to go to war! He could die!" Taehyung spoke as he stood up from the bed and shook his head disbelievingly at Johnny. His reasons were just not understandable for Taehyung and he was starting to think if the male even had some brains to begin with.

Jonny now stood up as well. "If making Seunghoon president will get my father out of prison I will do whatever it takes to get him into that position." The brunette spoke, his voice soft but serious. He was deadly serious about everything that he was saying and the worst part for Taehyung was that he sounded as if he had thought it all out thoroughly. Johnny's plan from the beginning had been to betray him in the worst way possible.

"So getting your father out of prison is worth risking war upon all of us? It's even worth Ten's death?" Taehyung spoke, a disbelieving tone now lacing his voice. He knew Johnny had always deeply regretted what had happened to his parents but there hadn't been anything he could have done to prevent any of that. His mother had died and his father had made a wrong choice for which he was now paying the consequences. Why risk ending up in war to get one man out of prison?

"Do not talk about Ten like that! I never meant for him to get stuck in my shit!" Johnny immediately screamed angrily at Taehyung, his eyes immediately filling themselves with a combination of anger and sadness. Taehyung however was quick to interrupt Johnny, a serious tone lacing his voice. "Think about it, you risked everything you had to get one man out of prison. Millions of people will die if Korea will start a war. Those deaths are all upon you. Not me, not Seunghoon but on you. You stole that chip from us, hell you even tried to kill Jungkook for it." The blonde spoke before he walked over to Johnny and locked eyes with him one last time. "You call yourself Ten's boyfriend yet what would he have thought about all of this?"

Johnny harshly pushed Taehyung away by his shoulders, his eyes once again filling themselves with tears. "SHUT THE FUCK UP!" the brunette screamed while he grabbed with both his hands to his hair and fisted them in it. Taehyung however didn't care about the anxious look on his former best friend's face. He wasn't going to hold back anything he had to say to him. It was time Johnny's damn bubble of his ideal life got popped and he was faced with reality.

The blonde once again walked closer to Johnny before he was standing right in front of him, a cold look covering his face. "Admit it, you and I both know it's true. Ten would have hated you for all that you would have done." The blonde spoke and that's all it took for Johnny to sink down on his knees and turn into a crying mess. The male's shoulders were shaking softly while his hands were now placed firmly in front of his eyes. Finally Taehyung had managed to break him down and while the blonde didn't like to do it he knew it had to happen. If he didn't break him down today then the other would've kept his mouth closed forever. The blonde took one last look at Johnny before he turned around and left the bedroom. Tears were now threatening to spill from his eyes as well and he took a deep breath before he closed his eyes briefly.

Let's just hope it all wasn't for nothing.

________

A/N

so a little bit of background info on Johnny there. Hope I didn't disappoint with it. ❤️

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