The air tasted like ash. A broken promise. It wasn’t the sting of the slap that mattered, not the bloom of crimson blossoming against the cheap wood of the table. It was the hollowness. The echoing silence where warmth had lived.
“Jung kook—”
“Shut up.” The command wasn’t a shout, but a fracture. A severing.
“Just shut up. Get lost. I don’t want to see you again.” Each word was a shard, aimed directly at the core of something fragile.
“L-listen to me—”
The world dissolved. It wasn’t just the impact of his hand against her cheek, though the force sent her tumbling, head cracking against the table corner. It was the *shift*. The moment the hand that once cradled her with tenderness became a weapon. Blood slicked her fingers as she touched the wound. Tears blurred her vision, but she couldn’t look away from him.
He hadn’t flinched. No remorse. Only disgust. The same expression she’d seen mirrored in strangers' eyes, the one she’d spent years shielding him from.
More tears streamed down her face. Not for the gash, not for the pain, but for the fissure in her heart. The realization that something irrevocably broken.
A sob escaped her lips. After everything, was this how it ended? Was she merely a problem to be discarded? Was the love she believed she felt a delusion?
Her gaze met his, desperate for a flicker of recognition. He crouched down, his eyes dark pools devoid of any warmth. He seized her jaw, the pressure threatening to splinter bone.
“I’ll make you regret this.” The voice wasn’t laced with rage, but with a chilling indifference. A promise of calculated pain.
She looked into those vacant eyes, searching for the ghost of the man she loved. Finding only emptiness.
“You don’t know me well, Kim Taehyung. If you think *you’re* bad, trust me, I’m worse. I’ll show you what hurting really means.” The words were a desperate, fragile defiance. A plea disguised as a threat.
Slowly, she raised her hand, her fingers brushing against his, the same hand that gripped her face with such fury. He inhaled sharply, his breathing ragged. A single tear traced a path down his cheek. She sobbed louder, a raw, guttural sound.
“Kookie…”
More tears escaped him. He released her jaw, rising abruptly. She reached for him, her fingers closing around his. He hesitated, then shoved her away.
“You did wrong, Tae. I’ll take my revenge. You have to pay for your actions.” The words were delivered with a finality that shattered her.
He turned and walked away, slamming the door behind him. She screamed, a desperate, animalistic cry swallowed by the silence. She wept, collapsing against the table, her body wracked with sobs. But he was gone.
He was truly gone.