Paper Planes (Taekook)

Chapter 8

 
Seventeen years

 
Taehyung silently watched Jin feed mushroom soup to the coughing boy before him.

And somewhere in between wanting to feed him with his own hands and fearing that he would hurt the boy with his own clumsiness, Taehyung felt sad.

No. He was angry.

Jungkook experienced another one of his panic attacks. It was the third one that week. And it was only a Thursday. Why? Taehyung thought.  Wasn’t Jungkook supposed to be getting better?

Jin wiped Jungkook’s mouth and turned to Taehyung. “Shouldn’t you be getting to school?” he asked.

Taehyung wanted to shoot back that he wasn’t his mom but bit back his tongue. There was no use being cranky at the whole world. So he just stood up and straightened his uniform out.

“Take care of him please, hyung,” he said and leant down to Jungkook. “I’ll be back later, okay, Kookie?” he said in his deep sonorous voice, his hand lingering on Jungkook’s face a little longer than Jin would’ve thought. But Jin said nothing regarding it. Instead, he just muttered that he was Jungkook’s nurse. It was his job.

Jungkook gave a weak but wide smile. It was the kind of smile that made Taehyung’s insides melt.

“Okay,” he said meekly.
Taehyung desperately tried to stop himself from kissing the younger boy on the bed. It’s weird because Jin hyung is watching, he repeated to himself. And besides, it would startle Jungkook. Ruffling his hair for one last time, Taehyung picked up his bag and gave Jin a half hearted smile before closing the door behind him.
 

Namjoon wasn’t the type to poke his nose into other people’s business. But being a hyung, he felt it his responsibility to at least figure out what was wrong with his dongsaeng.

“Anything bothering you, Taehyung?” he asked, looking at the pink/purple haired boy stare out the window while lying on his arm on the desk. He didn’t hear a reply.

“Taehyung?” he called again. Silence.

“Yah, Kim Taehyung,” he raised his voice a little. Taehyung let out a startled “Huh? I’m not sleeping!”

Namjoon knitted his eyebrows. “When was the last time you had proper sleep, Taehyung?” he asked. Taehyung rubbed his eyes and yawned. “What do you mean, hyung?”

But Taehyung knew exactly what Namjoon was talking about.

Come to think of it, he hadn’t had proper sleep for four nights. Three nights because he was too busy worrying about Jungkook during one of his attacks and one because of worrying about if Jungkook would have one.

“How’s Jungkookie?” Namjoon asked out of the blue. Taehyung threw a cautious look which Namjoon caught. “Relax. I’m just curious.”

Realizing there was nothing to be worried about, Taehyung ran his slim fingers through his fluffy and perfect hair. “Aaah,” he sighed deeply and looked at the ceiling, fearing that tears might fall again.

Lately all he had been doing was fight the tears that were threatening to fall whenever he saw Jungkook in pain.

“Hyung,” he said softly, almost whispering. “He’s fallen sick again.”

~*~*~*~

Taehyung folded a pink colored paper into a rose and handed it to Jungkook. The latter accepted it and placed it on his hair, giggling like a child.