Ashes, Ashes, We All Fall Down | TK

21 | A new friend?

"Oh, you! Don't tell me you overheard everything." He bristled at his words, a sharp exhale through his nose and his head picked up. His eyes flashed at Taehyung, bold and sharp as they zeroed in on him once more, and the omega recognized brave, confrontational Jimin in them.

His words were followed by a short pause. The omega didn't say anything, simply staring at him with alerted look written on his face, careful with how to proceed. "Just a tiny bit of what you two said." He said, cracking out a sympathetic smile. Offering his company was the best thing he could do in this case, knowing that sometimes it was good to discuss your problems with someone, but other times it just made it hurt all over again. The last thing Taehyung wanted to do was add insult to injury. He figured giving Jimin the option was the best route, in any scenario.

The alpha huffed out grumpily, running his fingers through his black hair as he tried to put his emotions together without losing his own sanity. "Great! My day couldn't get any better."

"Don't be so dramatic. You just picked the wrong flowers. There is always tomorrow for everything." Taehyung tried to cheer him up.

Jimin scoffed, brows scrunching together, like someone squeezing excessively upon a lemon, drenching the sour juice across his immensely perturbed expression. "Didn't you hear him? I don't stand a chance with Yoongi."

Taehyung paused so he could think of the next thing to say, whilst simultaneously collecting himself in preparation for the alpha's unpredictable reaction.

"Hey...I know we didn't start off very well. But I-..." The omega's face was scrunched as he watched how Jimin's features contorted into a more morbid depiction of annoyance and agitation. "I don't think you're a bad guy, Jimin. You can always come to me if-"

"What do you suggest?" Jimin interrupted, giving Taehyung such a tormented and somewhat hideous gaze in return, as if the very notion of forming a friendship with him was absolutely disgusting – he looked like a child somewhat.

"I can give you an advice or two on how to win Yoongi's heart." The omega said, grinning from ear to ear, and it was almost feline, the way his eyes lighted up in bursts of sapphire lustre, and his head tilted in scrutiny, as if Jimin's face was speckled with red lights, and he didn't know where to look or pounce first.

The alpha's eyebrows raised up on their own volution, staring down at Taehyung in disbelief. Enraged, he took a step forward, eyes a tsunami of unrelenting rampage. "Are you pitying me now? An omega is pitying me! Wonderful!"

Taehyung bristled a bit at the insult but kept his pleasantries. "I'm just offering you my help. There is no need to get upset about it." He said through tightly gritted teeth, seriously debating the idea of ever proposing his help to another alpha.

Jimin paled in expression then, whole ambience of compassion shut down for a moment, his patience cracking just a little bit. "God, I've never thought I would be that desperate." There was a silence for a moment. The alpha felt his mouth fill up with dust, felt the maggots slither out from the hallows of his cheeks, felt time passing as those maggots (and otherwise assorted grubs) infested his brain, walling in it and scooping out all sense of sensible thought. "Why do you want to help me?"

A soft glint sparkled in Taehyung's souful eyes, the corners of his lips were tilted up in a faint smile. "Because I don't think you're a bad person, Jimin. And I do want to have you as my friend."

Shocked Park Jimin was something that Taehyung couldn't handle, for who knew what that shock would metamorphose into: unsuppressed and empathetic merriment or unbridled and relentless anger, there truly was a fine line between the two when shock was their gateway. Right now, the alpha's eyes were as round as Taehyung had ever seen them, his mouth slightly parted, as his body tried to adapt to a world where such a qualification was available to him.