C H A P T E R

EIGHT:

Jungkook had no idea how he was going to have a peaceful night's sleep with all the noise Taehyung was currently making. Sighing, Jungkook turns to face the wall, hoping that the dull cream wall could help in blocking the noise Taehyung was making out. But sadly, the noise was still reaching Jungkook's ears and affecting his attempts to go sleep. Jungkook shuts his eyes tightly, and tries to ignore the noises. A little bit after that, the noises stop, and Jungkook almost smiles. He can finally get some sleep. Slowly, he begins drifting away, the darkness enveloping him; his muscles relaxing...

Crunch.

Jungkook's eyes snap open and he jumps up. He looks at Taehyung who's looking straight back at the cherry haired boy, amusement in his blue eyes. "Taehyung...is it too much for you to just go to sleep?" Jungkook asks, tiredness lacing in the tone of his voice. Taehyung stops eating his extremely crunchy food to stare at Jungkook with an eyebrow raised, "no, I love sleeping," he says, before he continues chewing on his food. Jungkook sighs, his head pounding.

It didn't help that Taehyung absolutely refused to turn off the light.

Jungkook faces the other way, looking around for his phone. When he was out exploring with Wendy, he had taken some really nice pictures with her. He laughs at the memory of Wendy slipping and falling into a puddle. He had caught the exact moment where she fell and it was absolutely hilarious.

Jungkook's eyes beging to slowly close, his breathing regulates as his body relaxes. Jungkook allows himself to peacefully drift off.

"Dad, if you really want something, what do you do about it?" Jungkook stares up at his father, wide eyed. Jungkook's father turns to his now twelve year old son, with a confused expression. "What do you mean son?" Jungkook sighs, as he looks down, playing with his fingers. "It's hard to explain dad," he says, a sad expression on his face.

His father doesn't say anything as he continues to look at his son, observing his face with his eyes. He can see that his son is upset about something, but he just couldn't tell what was going on with Jungkook.

Jungkook sighs, trying to figure out the correct way to tell his father.

"Dad...what about this, what if you believe you're something...and others might ridicule you...what do you?"

Jungkook's father looks down at his son, thinking for a few seconds. He then takes his son by the hand, "come with me Jungkook."

Jungkook stares down at their hands, and nods, following behind his father as they walked. They walk all the way to an empty park. Jungkook and his father sit down on a bench, staring at the grassy area and trees ahead, watching the wind push past the leaves.

His father tried to keep a peaceful atmosphere, so he stayed silent, a small smile on his face. After a while, Jungkook turns to his father, looking up at him. "Dad...why are we here?"

"Son, I want to tell you something."

Jungkook couldn't stop looking at his father. His father was his hero, and without his father, he wouldn't be able to complete half the things that he does, "what do you want to tell me dad?"

He watches as his father takes a deep breath, holding his hands tightly together, his leg shaking, "when I was a little older than your age, around 15, I went to a party. Believe it or not Jungkook, partying was and still is very common, and I used to party all the time,"

Jungkook was confused. Why was his father telling him this? Of course he knew that his father partied, especially from all the photos of he and his friends in the countless photobooks that the family owns.

"I know you're probably wondering, “why is dad telling me this,” but Jungkook dear, I promise that this story has a valid point. And I want you to listen to this point very carefully because I believe that this point will answer the questions that you have for me."

Jungkook nods, staring down at his dull trainers, "okay dad."

Jungkook trusted in his father. Always. And forever. Jungkook aspired to be his father, and that's because his father was so understanding, even if you had a problem that others just couldn't understand. A few seconds go by, the silence between the two calm and peaceful. Jungkook continued to look at the ground, his thoughts silent, a sudden feeling of relaxation hitting him.

"My friend, Christian, well that day he had broken up with his girlfriend. I remembered it so clearly. And we all just wanted him to stop being upset, and to have fun. So after class finished, we took him to the nearest diner, and brought him some food. But we all knew that food wasn't going miraculously heal his heart, so we took him to a party,"

"Son, that party was the best party I ever went to. The music was classic, the people were all of my friends, and most importantly I realised just I was," Jungkook's father pauses, a certain glee in his eyes, shining like a twinkling star. He looks down at Jungkook, and takes his hand in his son's with a warm smile, "you know I kissed him."

Jungkook's eyes widened almost immediately as his father's words processed in his brain four times.

His father chuckles at the sight of his son in shock, before wrapping his arms around his son, "and at that time, it was unbelievably wrong to be gay, bisexual, lesbian, transgender, whatever you are. Especially in an Asian household, how was I supposed to be myself? So what do you think I did Jungkook?"

Jungkook's mouth couldn't open, he was so shocked. His father was...

What was his father?

Shrugging slightly Jungkook says, "you hid it from everyone?"

His father chuckles loudly, his laugh booming in the empty park. "No Jungkook! I stood proud. I was young, and confused, but that didn't stop me from expressing who I was. See Jungkook, it doesn't matter who you are and who you choose to be, because there are people out there that will love you. They will respect you. And they will look up to you. But they can't do that if you're lying to yourself, pretending to be someone else. My point is...being who I was, allowed me to meet your mother, and now I have the most wonderful son in the whole wide world."

Jungkook doesn't say anything, his eyes teary and his heart happy. He can't bring himself to say anything so he leaps into his father's arms, burying himself in the warmth of his parent. Jungkook begins to sob loudly when he hears his father say, "I will always love you Jungkook...no matter what."

Jungkook feels his father rubbing his back, rocking the two gently before Jungkook musters up the courage to say, "dad...I think I like boys...as well as girls."

The small boy moves from his father to look in his eyes, and he sees his father staring back at him with a large smile that reached his ears, "Jungkook, I'm so proud that you could tell me that!" Jungkook begins to cry again, his heart fluttering with happiness, and he feels a whole ton of weight being lifted from his shoulders, "Jungkook be who you are, and get what you want. That's only way you will be happy."

His father hugs him again, and Jungkook smiles into the crook of his neck, enjoying the warm comforting feeling. However when he opens his eyes, he sees a familiar blue eyed boy, standing at the entrance of the park, an orange basketball in his hand. Jungkook stares at Taehyung with wide eyes, but before Jungkook could even blink, Taehyung turns around and runs away.

Jungkook knew that he would be happy, but he always felt that without Taehyung...without his best friend, his heart would never be truly happy.

Jungkook awoke with a gasp, drenched in his own sweat. His eyes were immediately met with darkness. He quickly got up, throwing the thick duvet away from him. Panting a little, he grabs his phone to check the time. 3:54 am. Sighing, Jungkook also throws his phone to the side. He had only slept for about four hours, and now he knew that he would be left alone with his own thoughts for the next three.

The small boy couldn't help himself.

His eyes slowly travel from his own sides, to where Taehyung was sleeping. Jungkook's eyes couldn't see that properly in the dark but he could see the distinct outline of Taehyung's body, covered by the large duvet. He knew Taehyung was sleeping from the regular breaths the boy was taking.

Jungkook had a dream, or more like flashback, to the time where he had told his father he was bisexual. That memory was buried deep in Jungkook's mind for a good couple of years, but it was one of his favourites. It was the day Jungkook finally accepted himself.

However, that memory had one tiny flaw, and that was when Jungkook saw Taehyung.

He didn't understand why Taehyung had run away, maybe because Jungkook was with his father, but that was still not a good enough reason as to why Taehyung ran.

A cool breeze sways onto Jungkook's skin, making the boy shiver. He looks towards the window near Taehyung's bed, which was wide open. Scoffing, Jungkook stands up, quickly pulling on a hoodie, he tiptoes his way over to the window. Jungkook was standing right next to Taehyung's bed; he was trying his best to be quiet as he reaches for the window handle.

Latching onto the handle, Jungkook tries pulling the window shut, but it's as stiff as a stick, not moving. Mentally groaning, Jungkook tries pulling again, but the damned thing wouldn't budge. Jungkook shivers again when he feels another breeze on his hands.

It was no help that the floor was wooden meaning cold shots were running up Jungkook's legs, making his legs shake.

"One more time," he whispers to himself, pulling the window more harder, trying to shut it. Jungkook almost slips when the window falls forward and slams shut.

Taehyung groans in his sleep and turns around, his face now visible to Jungkook.

Jungkook's heart beats erratically in his chest, his throat turning dry and fingers tingling.

Taehyung looks so much more peaceful in his sleep. Whenever Jungkook looks at Taehyung, he looks so conflicted, like there's always something on his mind. Sometimes Jungkook wanted to leap into his arms and ask him, whereas other times, Jungkook believed that whatever Taehyung was going through, well to put it nicely, he deserved it.

Taehyung's black hair falls in his face when he moves again, and Jungkook is almost tempted to move the hair away, his hand reaching out, but he stops himself, and quickly turns away. Jungkook tiptoes away, feeling unsatisfied but he realises how wrong it is.

He shouldn't even be looking at Taehyung.

He didn't know why.

But Taehyung was just so irresistible.

And Jungkook didn't know how he was going to survive the next four weeks but somehow, just somehow, he was going to bring himself to dislike Taehyung more than he already did.

Jungkook cast one more longing look at Taehyung, secretly wishing that the two could go back in time and spend more time with each other, before he got back into his own bed, and went back to sleep.

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I almost didn't write this but at the last very minute I pulled through! It's like a shorter chapter but I did a memory, and this memory is important, not just in the story, but in real life. So I want the next things I say, taken very seriously. Thank you to everyone that reads these words with the utmost seriousness.

- I know I'm late, but let's talk about Pride month. Pride month is basically a month where the LGBTQ+ community celebrate their path to freedom and how they can be who they are today, in present day. And I just want to say, please please please, do not be afraid to love who you want and be who you are. Do not pretend to be someone or something you're not, because it won't bring you happiness, and it certainly won't ever bring any good into your own life.

- speaking of being yourself, let's now move onto BLM. If you didn't already know, the Black Lives Matter movement is basically people all around protesting about the police brutality towards the black minority. I just want to say a few words on this matter because, I am from a minority community as well, where I have faced a lot of racism from others. An important message is that, the colour of someone's skin should not be stereotyped to be something bad. There is only one race in this world, and that is the human race, so we should all be treated equally. So please, do whatever you can to help.

- the last important notice and message I want to spread is about , if you haven't already known, Yemen is on the verge on no longer being a country from the amount of deaths. Yemen has been in war, and impacted for a good couple of years now, and no one has paid attention to it. However because of the covid19 and the war, a lot of people have been dying (1million+). There is a huge famine and people are also dying from starvation. So please everyone, do anything you can to help. Whether that's donating, or even sharing.

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THANK YOU SO MUCH.