part 3

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Taehyung and the Stranger: A Heart Caught in Silence

Taehyung remembered the day he saw him again—the man who saved his interview, the stranger who gave him hope. Only this time, the man was no longer a stranger. He was Jeon Jungkook, the CEO of Jeon Global Holdings. The most powerful man in the building.

Taehyung had stood in the far back during the staff orientation, clutching the hem of his oversized blazer, heart pounding as Jungkook walked across the stage to speak. Dressed in black, eyes cold, posture like royalty—he looked completely different from the kind man who had once offered him a ride and a second chance. That man had smiled. This one barely blinked.

Jungkook didn’t look at him. Not once.

Taehyung told himself it was okay. A man like that wouldn’t remember a boy like him. CEOs don’t remember small acts of kindness. They don’t notice the quiet interns who bow in hallways. They move through marble-floored offices like gods—untouchable, unsmiling.

Still… it hurt.

The Quiet Falling

A month passed. Taehyung kept his head down, worked late, triple-checked every task. He earned a reputation for being dependable, kind, quietly efficient. He never missed a deadline. But every time Jungkook walked by, Taehyung’s eyes would follow him, like a sunflower to the sun.

It wasn’t logical. It wasn’t safe. But it was real.

Taehyung fell slowly—first into admiration, then into longing, then into something deeper. Something reckless. He memorized the way Jungkook rolled up his sleeves during meetings, how his voice dropped when he was thinking, how his brow furrowed when something didn’t go as planned.

Taehyung wasn’t in love with the CEO. He was in love with the man in the car, the one who looked at him like he mattered for the first time in his life.

He knew it was foolish. That Jungkook belonged to another world, one of silk and shadows. But love isn’t something you ask permission for. It just... blooms.

The Storm Begins

Then came the day everything shifted.

It started with a minor error—Taehyung accidentally attached the wrong document to a client email. A mistake, but one quickly fixed. Still, when Jungkook found out, something in him snapped.

He stormed into the office, eyes like ice, voice like thunder.

“Kim Taehyung. My office. Now.”

Taehyung’s blood ran cold. He stood slowly, heart hammering, trying to hide the tremble in his fingers. He followed Jungkook into the private executive office. The door slammed shut behind them.

Jungkook turned, face unreadable.

“What do you think you’re doing?” he said, tone sharper than knives. “One task. One simple task. And you can’t even manage that?”

Taehyung flinched. “I—I'm sorry, sir. I fixed it right away—”

“That’s not the point,” Jungkook snapped. “There’s no room for carelessness here. If you want to play around, go back to your orphanage days. This isn’t a charity.”

The words stung like open wounds. Something in Taehyung’s chest cracked.

He bowed deeply, eyes to the floor. “Understood.”

But Jungkook wasn’t done. Day after day, his mood shifted toward Taehyung. Cold glances. Sharp critiques. Unfair corrections. It was as if Jungkook had declared war on his presence—without explanation, without mercy.

The office whispered. “Did Taehyung do something?” “Why does the CEO hate him all of a sudden?” But Taehyung stayed silent. Because beneath all the pain, something told him—Jungkook remembered him.

And maybe that was the problem.

The Bruising Silence

Taehyung stopped hoping for eye contact. He stopped lingering in halls. But his heart wouldn’t stop hurting. He had fallen in love quietly, innocently, and now it felt like he was being punished for it.

He still remembered the warmth in Jungkook’s voice that day in the car. It haunted him.

And now that same voice was being used to tear him down.

He cried once—alone in a stairwell, knees drawn to his chest, muffling the sound in his hands. Not because of the scolding. But because he missed the man he thought he had met.

He still came to work every day, still smiled at coworkers, still did everything right.

But inside, Taehyung was breaking.

And Jungkook—whatever he was hiding behind that mask—was the one holding the match.

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