Hi guys, sorry it took me a while to update. Online classes began at college which swamped me for a good part of my day.

Thank you so so much for all the love that you've given me this past week. The story racked up 150 views in 10 days which is so humbling for me. I'm here for all of you, drop by my chat whenever you wish to and please take care of your mental health during the lockdown.

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I dumped my bag on the floor and flopped onto my bed the second I got home, the events of this morning replaying in my mind over and over, like a broken video player. I'm still not really clear about what triggered Tae but I felt tremendously guilty for not being able to do anything for him and for unknowingly triggering him in the first place. The memory of that moment haunted me, seeing his face contort in pain over and over, not knowing what to do or how to help. I had never seen anybody break down so painfully. Every tear that fell from his eyes was like a fresh stab to my heart, cutting at it and tearing it to tiny little pieces because somewhere, I knew that I was the one that had triggered this response. 

He had mentioned something about his ex but right after saying that, he broke down into uncontrollable sobs again so, I comforted him the best I could and drove him home. It didn't seem like the right time to me to ask him to open up about his ex and other problems. 

I drove him to his apartment, the entire ride completely silent except for the occasional sniffles Tae let out. It was the first time I had ever entered his place but even at first glance, this flat screamed Tae. Multitudes of musical instruments were lying around in his living room along with a few of his own framed pictures and posters of Miles Davis, Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to dwell on the aesthetics of his apartment. He had told me at our date that he was close to his upstairs neighbors, Jin and Namjoon. So, I carefully sat him down on the sofa and covered him with a blanket, noticing that he was shivering. After rummaging through his kitchen drawers for a few minutes, I found all the ingredients I needed to make him tea. I put on a kettle and walked back to him, delicately framing my palms around his face. 

"I'll be right back. Just give me two minutes," I said and he slightly nodded. Taking that as an okay, I ran upstairs and knocked on the door of the flat right above his, hoping this was the right one. The door opened just a fraction, revealing a really handsome man behind it. He gave me a dimpled smile as if he recognized me and opened the door completely.

"Jin, look who it is," he yelled. He, I'm presuming Namjoon then turned to me and invited me in, his hand on my back, gently guiding me in. Another man barged into the room, even more handsome than Namjoon. I'm presuming Tae showed them a picture of mine since they seemed to recognize me.

"Jungkook, it's so good to finally meet you! I'm Jin, this is Namjoon," he said, gesturing towards the man with the dimples. "Where's Tae?" Jin asked quizzically. Immediately I was reminded of my purpose and I grabbed Jin's hand, tugging him with me, albeit with a little too much force but it was an emergency. Jin gave Namjoon a look and he followed us.

"I'm not sure what exactly happened but I think Tae was triggered by something I said or did and he won't stop sobbing. I'm really sorry, I don't know what I did, honestly. He told me you guys were close to him so I thought you would know what's going on," I told them as we rushed downstairs, back to Tae.

In a perfect world, I would have loved to meet the two of them under much different circumstances but neither was this a perfect world nor was this a different circumstance. Quickly, we got back to Tae's flat and I could see Tae was trying to hold in his tears the best he could. The second he saw Jin and Namjoon however, he burst right back into those painful sobs, piercing my heart again. He looked so frail and small, wrapped up in the blanket and all I wanted was to appoint an entire army to save him from whatever feelings he was drowning in. Without wasting a second, Jin and Namjoon went on either sides of Tae and cuddled him, coaxing him to tell them what was bothering him.

I went to the kitchen to pour the now ready tea into three mugs. I didn't really have the appetite to eat or drink anything, knowing that Tae was far from alright. I carried it all out on a tray and heard Tae mutter a few words to them, something like Sungi or Senri but I couldn't make sense of anything else. The two of them seemed to understand the situation immediately though and Namjoon came up to me, taking the tray from my hands and setting it onto the table. He ushered me out of the flat and whispered, "Jungkook, this is kind of a personal matter. I'm sure Tae will talk to you about it when he feels like the time is right but right now, it's better if you leave. I'll tell him to text you once he feels better."

I nodded, knowing that there was no other alternative and trusting Namjoon to take care of Tae. I didn't really want to abandon him but it was clear that something huge was happening and Tae wasn't ready to tell me yet, so I left him with the two people he trusted the most. I caught sight of a pharmacy nearby and bought a few painkillers for him, knowing that his head was going to hurt like it was smashed by a machete after the amount he cried. I left it at his doorstep, not wanting to interrupt Jin and Namjoon's moment with Tae and took my leave for real.

Jimin was still in college unfortunately or he would definitely have given me some valuable advice. Yugyeom and Baekhyun would get here soon though, maybe I could run it by them and see what they suggest.

Nothing could get my mind off everything that happened with Tae other than Tori Kelly, so I clicked on the playlist with her songs and plugged in my earphones. At some point I must have dozed off because the buzzing of the doorbell is what woke me up. One of the earphones had slid out of my ears in the process while the other one was still playing 'Never Alone' into my ear. I pulled it off and rushed to open the door.

Yugyeom and Baekhyun stood outside, smiling their dazzling smiles at me. It was hard to think about my worries when my two best friends were smiling at me like everything was alright with the world. The two of them pounced on me, ruffling my hair and squeezing my cheeks, knowing that I hated it when they did that. Retaliating, I climbed onto Baekhyun's back and started ruffling his hair. This went on for a while till we realized that we were behaving extremely stupidly and I jumped of Baekie's back.

Yugs marched into my kitchen, knowing exactly where all the snacks were kept and brought eight packets of chips with him. We all settled down on the sofa and Yugs dropped all his chips next to where he sat. When I gestured for him to pass me one, he looked at me like I had asked him for his eyeball.

"Go get your own," he said, munching on his chips.

I glared at him, incredulously. "You do know this is my house and those are my chips right? And you've got eight packets," I said, hoping to point out the illogicality of his statement.

He gave me the best death glare he could muster and spoke in some kind of animated, growling voice, "GO GET YOUR OWN."

Baekhyun lost it at this point, falling off the couch as he laughed at Yugs poor impersonation of an ogre. I just rolled my eyes at Yugs who seemed to be laughing just as hard as Baekie and swiped a packet from him quickly, before he could even realize what happened. Tearing it open, I popped a chip into my mouth, raising my eyebrow at Yugs as if challenging him to take the packet from me. He just looked at me with a small smile plastered on his face, urging me to eat it.

The second I bit into it, I spat it out, trying to get rid of the rancid taste in my mouth. It was one of those tomato flavored chips that I despised with all my heart, body and soul. I threw the packet at Yugs who already knew I hated this flavor and Baekie was back on the floor in fits of uncontrollable laughter. Sighing, I also started laughing with my two idiotic friends. Every moment I was with them was a reminder of how thankful I was for their existence in my life.

We got to the point soon after our tomfoolery and I told them about everything that went down since Tae had come to our date on the weekend. I didn't tell them about this morning because Jimin would get home soon and I thought I'd just tell them all together. They listened intently, not one of them interrupting my monologue except for a few eyebrow raises and side glances at each other. Once I was done, there was a silence hanging in the air and I didn't know how to diminish it. So I just sat there, in the silence, hoping my friends would respond to what I just told them so that I wouldn't feel as awkward as I was feeling right now.

Yugyeom cleared his throat, dramatically and I looked at him. "Soooo..a teacher, huh?" he said, wiggling his eyebrows at me, almost comically. I lunged at him, grabbing him by the head and ruffling his hair. "That's what you got out of everything that I told you?" I asked, with a chuckle and an eye roll.

"Of course not. You seem to like him a lot," Baekhyun said, giving me an intense look of something I couldn't figure out.

Just as I was about to answer his statement, he spoke again with a full blown smirk on his face, "enough to give him a hickey at least." 

Yugyeom threw his body onto the couch, laughing like it was the funniest thing anybody had ever said. I rolled my eyes again, this time lunging at Baekie. He expected the attack however and dodged me, running around the sofa with me chasing him as Yugyeom laughed his hardest.

Soon though, our messing around came to a halt when Jimin came back and saw the state of our living room, two people chasing each other and chips packets and crumbs lying everywhere. With a look of disapproval, he grabbed me by my T-shirt to get my attention.

"Guys, what the hell. You do know this is a house right, a place of residence, not a chips factory," he yelled, eyebrows raised.

"Sorry Jimin hyung," the three of us said in unison, looking to the ground, fake regret written all over our faces so that Jimin would pity us and wouldn't yell anymore. He rolled his eyes, knowing we weren't apologetic for anything and lightly flicked our foreheads.

"Clean this up and then tell me how your day was," Jimin said, turning on his heel and going to his room to change into his home clothes. Before Jimin would have another chance to yell at us, we quickly cleaned up the mess we created and I even made iced tea for everyone.

"Soooo..guys, there's something else I had to tell you," I spoke up, successfully gaining everyone's attention. I narrated everything that took place this morning, even my meeting with Jin and Namjoon and waited for them to give me some advice about how to handle this situation.

"Look, none of us know what he might have been through and what may have triggered it. I think what you could do would be to give him some space for a few days and then reach out, see if he wants to talk to you about it. Even if he doesn't, just let him know that you are there for him no matter what. Just be patient, don't rush him," Jimin said, his hand lightly patting my shoulder.

I felt so defeated by the thought of not being able to do anything to help Tae out. I lay my head on Jimin's lap as he brushed his fingers through my hair, knowing that the action soothes me. Yugyeom and Baekhyun were sitting opposite me, not knowing how to make the situation any better either. After a while, Baekhyun got up and pulled me up as well. "Look, we can't do anything about this right now so give your mind a break. Do you want to watch something? It'll help take your mind off things. We're staying the night with you, don't even try to convince us otherwise," he said, pulling me in for a hug. I felt myself relax in his hold, realizing that as long as I had my support system i.e my friends, I would get through anything.

Yugyeom pounced on me from behind and Jimin soon joined, the four of us in a quadruple hug for what seemed like a really long time. Eventually, Yugyeom switched on The Office on our television and I attempted to forget the horrible, sinking feeling that had made its way into my stomach, making it churn and seethe.

*******

The next day when I went to school, it was no surprise that Taehyung was nowhere to be seen.

Thank you so much for reading! I'll see you all next update and I have nothing but lots of love to give you all <3

STAN BTS