Jungkook had been avoiding Taehyung like the plague. It wasn't because he was embarrassed about getting rejected but because he felt he would make his 'cub hyungie' uncomfortable. Though he looked at Taehyung from afar like always, his eyes found the elder everywhere. It took him some time, but he finally made his heart hurt less by saying, "It's okay, my love is not obliged to return my feelings. I will keep loving him and have no expectations in return." He always said this but was also well aware that he was human too, with desires. He wanted to hold hands, to kiss, to share late Sunday mornings, breakfast, lunch, dinner, little tiffs, and hugs, but what could he do?
As he sat under a tree, he heard sniffles and saw it was the same senior he met three months ago in the restaurant.
"What happened to you?" he asked, sitting down. The girl lifted her head and looked at him, then broke down again.
"Got rejected," the girl cried.
"Me too," Jungkook said, sitting down, his heart becoming heavier with every passing second.
"Me too," Jaeson added, joining them.
"You from whom ?" she asked Jaeson, who pointed at Jungkook.
"He doesn't love me," Jungkook said rolling his eyes . "He just wants to show me off. He hasn’t even fallen in love with anyone."
"And you?" Jungkook asked the girl.
"Taehyung," she sniffled, to which Jungkook nodded.
"Yeah, it's easy to fall in love with him. He is so lovable, it's not your fault who couldn't help but fall in love with him ," he said defeatedly.
"How can you be rejected? You are childhood sweethearts, right?" the girl asked.
"I lied to you," Jungkook admitted. All three of them sat in the same posture, looking in the same direction.
"He doesn't love me. We were childhood sweethearts, but only for me, I guess," he said, chuckling sadly.
Jaeson and the girl, Yeri, looked at Jungkook. They could feel his pain, which was unbelievable as it contrasted with his personality.
"I was a little child, heavily bullied. People mocked me for my teeth, saying they looked like a rabbit's. They made fun of everything. I was feminine, and they bullied me for that. It happened for so long that I started to live with it. It became the new normal until he came.
'Hey kids, leave him alone!' Taehyung shouted at the students kicking the baby, who looked so fragile, so cute, so small.
'Hey baby, are you fine?' the elder asked, and little Jungkook looked at him for the first time with tears in his eyes. He was just a nine-year-old baby, while Taehyung was almost a teenager, wearing a loose school uniform with a bag hanging.
'Aigoo,' Taehyung cooed and instantly picked him up, kissing his cheeks, which made the younger blush evidently. Seeing this, Taehyung chuckled.
'Did they hurt you?' Taehyung asked, to which Jungkook nodded his head and hid his face in the crook of Taehyung's neck. He couldn't keep this pain to himself, not when someone was asking him so sweetly.
Taehyung took him to the school nurse's station, which had no nurse. He treated Jungkook’s wounds on his knees and face. The younger hissed, to which the elder blew on the wounds.
'pain pain do away , don’t come anyday,' Taehyung said, kissing each wound. Jungkook literally thought that by doing this, the pain would go away.
'They call me rabbit and laugh at me,' Jungkook said, on the verge of crying.
Taehyung took the younger boy in his lap. 'Whenever someone says that, you say, "I am Taehyungie hyung’s bunny, okay?" You are my bunny from now on, okay, my baby bunny?' Taehyung said, tickling younger 's tummy ,to which the younger nodded his head and smiled.
'Baby, be strong. This world is bad. If you appear weak, they will hurt you more; they will suppress you more,' Taehyung advised, ruffling the younger's hair.
From that day, Jungkook always remained attached to the elder, as if both of them were connected by a thread. The elder used to feed the younger, calling him sweet names. From that day, the younger started smiling, waiting for Sunday to end so that he could go to school to meet the elder. His little heart started loving the elder from that young age. Until Taehyung got a girlfriend, he started ignoring the younger harshly. Jungkook couldn’t help but cry in the bathroom at the elder's behavior, who was totally ignoring him. Jungkook saw the elder leaving him behind after every meal, always paying attention to his girlfriend instead of him. Even if Jungkook got wounded, Taehyung didn’t give him a 'po-po,' saying 'pain, pain, go away.'
Soon Taehyung had to leave school because of the plane crash that took his parents' lives. His property was taken illegally by his uncle, and just being a sixteen-year-old teenager, he didn’t know how to take it back. He had to drop out of school and study from home.
The last time the elder hugged the younger was when Jungkook was 13, and Taehyung was 16. It was also the last time the elder gave him a goodbye peck ('po-po' in Jungkook's language).
Listening to this, even Jaeson was crying while the girl was snorting on Jaeson's jacket.
