Chapter Text
Group Chat: Lachimolala
Members: Seokjin, Yoongi, Jimin
[Jimin]: okay don’t freak out
[Yoongi]: Too late. What did you do now
[Seokjin]: ????
[Jimin]: i just got off the phone with taehyung
[Yoongi]: Oh god, what did he do
[Seokjin]: is he okay??
[Jimin]: he’s fine. just… emotional asf but alive
[Yoongi]: Translate please.
[Jimin]: he and suni broke up
[Yoongi]: WHAT
[Seokjin]: wait. like. officially broke up?
[Jimin]: yes. capital B capital U Broke Up.
[Yoongi]: I KNEW IT. Could sense something was up with them. She was never endgame anyway.
[Seokjin]: when did this happen?
[Jimin]: tonight. apparently they’ve been circling it for weeks
[Yoongi]: Called it. Absolutely called it.
[Seokjin]: did he say why??
[Jimin]: not explicitly. but he did say something about “not wanting to lie to her anymore”
[Yoongi]: OH. Okay that’s LOADED.
[Seokjin]: that could mean literally anything
[Yoongi]: No it doesn't.
[Jimin]: i’m just saying, if i were a betting man…
[Seokjin]: jimin don’t
[Yoongi]: there’s someone else.
[Seokjin]: yoongi.
[Yoongi]: There is. I can feel it in my soul.
[Jimin]: i’m not disagreeing tbh
[Seokjin]: you both are getting way ahead of yourselves.
[Yoongi]: Seokjin. People don't end a two-year relationship for no reason. Ugh you should have dug further Jimin!!
[Jimin]: well he sounded relieved too, if that shines any more light on the situation??
[Yoongi]: SEE.
[Seokjin]: relieved isn’t romantic!!
[Yoongi]: It is if you’re secretly in love with a certain flatmate and finally admit it to yourself.
[Seokjin]: please stop.
[Yoongi]: I’m just saying, if he DID end it because of someone else, statistically speaking, it is 100% you.
[Seokjin]: that’s not funny. i am completely over him anyway.
[Jimin]: i didn’t say that out loud!
[Yoongi]: You were thinking it.
[Jimin]: …maybe a little bit
[Seokjin]: i am muting this chat.
[Yoongi]: Don’t you dare.
[Jimin]: we’re just excited for you hyung
[Seokjin]: excited isn’t safe.
[Yoongi]: Safe is boring.
[Jimin]: and you’ve been playing it safe with taehyung for literally years
[Seokjin]: wowww okay. anyways as i said: OVER IT.
[Yoongi]: We’re just saying, maybe this is the moment you finally stop sitting on the sidelines.
[Seokjin]: …
[Seokjin]: i need to lie down.
[Jimin]: understandable
[Jimin]: get some sleep, hyung. tomorrow’s going to be… a day.
[Seokjin]: yeah.
[Seokjin]: it feels like one of those moments where everything changes.
[Yoongi]: 👀
[Jimin]: goodnight, romantics
[Yoongi]: Goodnight, main character.
[Seokjin]: goodnight.
Kim Seokjin was, in fact, not even remotely “over it.”
It was at that exact moment, staring at the glowing ceiling stars in his dark bedroom, that he decided he couldn’t just sit back and watch anymore. For two years, he had played the role of the dependable, unbothered older friend. He had been the one Taehyung called when they fought, the one who cooked him comfort food when they drifted, and the one who held his secrets. He had convinced himself that playing the long game was smart. But hearing Jimin repeat those words “not wanting to lie to her anymore”, sent a dangerous rush of hope straight through his veins.
Could it be? Had Taehyung finally realized what had been staring him in the face this entire time?
He barely slept. By the time the sun filtered through his blinds, Seokjin had already mentally rehearsed a confession, analyzed a dozen ambiguous late-night texts from the past semester, and convinced himself that today was the day the script finally changed. When he texted Taehyung asking to meet at the campus arts pavilion, and Taehyung replied with a flurry of enthusiastic exclamation marks, his heart practically leaped out of his chest.
Ten minutes later, he spotted him. Taehyung was sitting on the concrete steps of the pavilion, his oversized corduroy jacket swallowing his frame as he stared aimlessly at the passing students. He looked slightly tired, but there was a lightness to his posture that hadn't been there in months.
“Hey,” Seokjin said, dropping onto the step beside him and trying to sound as casually cool as humanly possible.
“Hyung!” Taehyung turned, his signature boxy smile breaking across his face. It was faint and a little subdued, but completely genuine. “Jimin told you, didn’t he? He has the structural integrity of a cardboard umbrella when it comes to secrets.”
“He’s a terrible gossip,” Seokjin agreed, his stomach doing nervous backflips. “How are you holding up, though? Truly?”
Taehyung sighed, running a hand through his messy, unstyled hair and looking out over the courtyard. “Relieved, honestly. Suni didn't deserve a boyfriend who was only half-present. I couldn't keep lying to her. Or to myself. It wasn't fair to stay when my heart was already somewhere else.”
Seokjin's chest tightened so hard it genuinely ached. Somewhere else. This was it. The exact moment Yoongi and Jimin had predicted. Every shared movie night, every time Taehyung had fallen asleep with his head softly on Seokjin's shoulder, every lingering gaze over shared drinks… it all felt like it was rushing toward a beautifully overdue conclusion.
Seokjin took a deep, steadying breath, preparing to finally cross the line he’d drawn two years ago. “Taehyung, if there’s someone else you've been thinking about… or if there’s something you need to say to me - ”
“There is,” Taehyung interrupted, turning to face him fully. His eyes suddenly ignited with a brilliant, breathless spark that Seokjin hadn’t seen in a very long time. He reached out, his warm fingers gripping Seokjin's wrist with sudden intensity. “Hyung, I didn't want to say anything to anyone until it was completely over with Suni, because I didn't want to be that guy. But... I met someone.”
The entire courtyard seemed to go dead silent. The wind stopped. Seokjin's heart hammered against his ribs, a triumphant, emotional smile already threatening to break across his face. He’s going to say it. He’s finally going to say it’s me.
“I met him about three weeks ago,” Taehyung rushed on, completely oblivious to the absolute paralysis taking over Seokjin's body. “At the indie record store where I do my weekend shifts. He’s a freshman who just started working there, and hyung... it’s insane. His name is Jungkook.”
The air evacuated from Seokjin's lungs as if he’d been violently kicked in the sternum.
Jungkook. Not Seokjin. A stranger. A freshman from a part-time job.
“Hyung, it’s like a movie,” Taehyung continued, his voice dripping with a sugar-coated, dizzying awe that he had never once directed at Seokjin in all their years of knowing each other. “We were organizing the vinyl section in the back, and we both reached for the exact same out-of-print album. We ended up talking about music for four hours straight past closing time. I’ve never clicked with someone so fast. It felt like a literal lightning bolt. I knew the exact second I looked at him that I couldn't keep pretending with Suni anymore.”
Seokjin sat there, his face frozen in what he desperately hoped looked like an encouraging, friendly expression, while his entire inner universe quietly collapsed into a pile of ash. The fragile tower of hope he had spent the night building didn't just fall; it shattered into sharp, jagged pieces of profound bitterness.
“Wow,” Seokjin managed to choke out, in the lightest tone he could muster. “A freshman, huh? Moving a bit fast, Kim Taehyung.”
“I know, I know!” Taehyung laughed, a bubbly sound that completely missed the agonizing strain in Seokjin's voice. “But he’s incredible, Jin. You’re going to love him. He’s a bit shy at first, but he’s so sweet. I’m actually thinking about bringing him to the Y2K flat party you and Yoongi are throwing in a couple of weeks.”
“Yeah,” Seokjin murmured, his eyes tracing a stray leaf as it drifted across the concrete. “Can't wait.”
Seokjin wasn't the endgame. He wasn't even a contender! He was just the reliable background character who kept his seat warm while Taehyung waited for a lightning bolt to strike.
As Seokjin walked away from the pavilion ten minutes later, leaving Taehyung to happily text his shiny new soulmate, the crushing heartbreak in his chest rapidly curdled into something else. Seokjin was mad. At the Universe. At Tae. At this 'Jungkook' dude. But mostly at himself. Two years of silent devotion and he's been discarded for a freshman met over a plastic sleeve of vinyl.