Jimin watches as Jungkook goes from cautious to downright uncomfortable in a matter of seconds. "No, not technically, but I'm always here, and I figured it was an unspoken agreement that I'd eventually move in with you."
"Why would you ever assume that?"
Jungkook frowns. "Because we're together and I wouldn't ask you to move Link, and I love you. It's the next logical step, I thought."
"This is my house. Tyler and I bought this together."
"Jimin." He doesn't say anything else, treading lightly.
Jimin bites at his bottom lip. "We're not updating the photos. Are you gonna ask me to take down my wedding picture next?"
Jungkook touches Jimin's knee and Jimin jolts back like he's been burned. "You don't have to take it down unless you want to," he says gently.
"I don't want to. I'll never want to."
"That's fine, I'm not asking you to, but what the fuck is going on?" He runs his fingers through his hair uneasily, a nervous habit. He did it throughout their entire first date.
Jimin doesn't find it as endearing now.
He climbs off the couch and stands in front of the pictures, like he's guarding them. "You're forcing me to get rid of Tyler. I was fucking married to him, or did you forget?" Like I did, he thinks, lump in his throat.
Jungkook stands up, too, but he doesn't take any steps towards Jimin. "I don't understand what you're talking about."
Jimin snorts. "Of course you fucking don't. You're too busy planning parties in my house, pretending you live here, too busy replacing pictures of my dead husband, too busy replacing his stuff with your own shit. On what fucking universe would you ever think that was okay?"
Jungkook takes several giants steps toward him and grabs his wrists. Jimin hadn't realized he was shaking until right now.
" Jimin, you're scaring me. What happened?"
He tries to break free of Jungkook's grip but he's so fucking strong. "You're trying to erase Tyler so you can finally have me all to yourself, just like you always fucking wanted. He was your Goddamned best friend and you're doing everything you can to make sure it feels like he never fucking existed. It's disgusting. Christ, it's not Tyler's fault that you've always been obsessed with me. He doesn't deserve this shit."
Jungkook drops Jimin's wrists at that. His face is red. "I know you don't mean any of that. That's not true."
"I meant every word."
He runs his hand through his hair again. "You know none of that is true. But if you really thought that, I'm pretty fucking confused as to what we've been doing for the past six months."
Jimin can't look at Jungkook when he says, "I feel fucking guilty that I let you waltz in here and take over, playing house with me. Tyler would die all over again if he knew what we'd been doing since April."
"What happened to Tyler would love the idea of us together'?"
He shakes his head. "Tyler would be disgusted that I let you manipulate me into being with you because I was vulnerable and you could finally have me all to yourself. Took you a decade, but you finally fucking got it."
Jungkook's bottom lip is trembling, and Jimin hates it, but he can't stop. "For the record, if Tyler never died, this would have never happened. We would not be a thing and I would be so fucking happy for that."
Jungkook steps back, breathing shallow. He's trying not to cry, Jimin can tell, and he's pretty close, too. "I know," he whispers.
"I know we wouldn't be together. And thinking about that breaks my heart because I love you so fucking much, it scares me. But I... I didn't manipulate you into anything, Jimin. Why would you ever say that? That's so unfair."
"No, what's unfair is that you can go home after you fuck me and you have no hard feelings and no guilt about it while I sit here and try not to scream my lungs out that I just fucked my dead husband's best friend in the bed I used to share with him. And that I can tell you I love you in that fucking bed and you tell me back and it hurts all over that I used to do that with him and I let you replace him in a matter of what felt like seconds."
He looks like he could throw something, break something, break Jimin. "You have never once said any of this. I'm not a fucking mind reader, Jimin, how the hell am I supposed to know this?!"
Because this past week has left me feeling like the biggest piece of shit and I didn't know how to tell you. I knew you'd try to fix it and I don't know if you can. You weren't supposed to know. "Because you never feel guilty about anything, and this is so fucking easy for you!" he shouts. "And then I'm alone with my own fucking thoughts and the more I think about it, the more I hate you for it!"
"You hate me?"
Jimin starts crying, can't hold it back anymore, and he's about to tell Jungkook that he's gone way too far, he doesn't mean it, when Jungkook says, "You think this is easy for me? You don't think I feel guilty for not wishing my dead best friend was still alive, if it means I get to have you?"
The look on his face makes it clear he didn't mean for that to come out, but Jimin doesn't care. Any ounce of sadness he had is gone.
"You can get out!"
Jungkook steps toward him, tears sliding down his own cheeks, and he reaches out to touch Jimin.
Jimin moves away, backing up into the photos. One of the frames digs into his back. "Jimin, fuck, I..."
"No. You need to get the fuck out."
"Jimin." His voice breaks. He wipes his nose on the back of his hand. "Please. I can't... I can't lose you now that I know what it's like to have you. I'm not above begging. Don't do this. We can fix whatever's happening here. I want to. You want to, too. Just."
Whenever Jimin looks back on this moment for the rest of his life, he'll never understand how he managed to keep his tone so steady, his eyes locked on Jungkook's.
" I'm not above begging, either. And I'm begging you to get the fuck out of my house. Do not come back here."
Jungkook sucks in a breath and he shoves his hands in his pockets. "Min, please don't break my heart," he whispers, his eyes filling up once again.
When Jimin doesn't answer or look at him, Jungkook finally turns away and doesn't look back when he walks out the front door. Jimin hears the Jeep pull away, and that's when he finally allows himself to break. He grips the first picture he touches hanging on the wall behind him, not bothering to look which one he's just yanked down, and throws it across the room, watching it smash against the opposite wall.
Jimin blinks the tears out of his eyes when he sees the ruined photo is of himself and Tyler during college years, but he absolutely falls apart when he remembers who took it.