✔️ 𝐈𝐧𝐤𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐟 𝐅𝐚𝐭𝐞 | 𝐓𝐚𝐞𝐠𝐠𝐮𝐤

Chapter Fifteen.

Taehyung

"Happy discharge day!" a voice exulted from the doorway. Taehyung looked up at Jimin, who had just entered the room with a bag in hand. Taehyung assumed it was to collect his clothes.

"I brought you a cake!" Jimin chorused. So, Taehyung had been wrong.

"Why a cake?" Taehyung mused.

Jimin sat the bag down on the bedside table and took it out, revealing a slightly smushed cake. "Aw, crap. I knew I shouldn't have put it in my trunk."

Taehyung laughed and looked at his friend warmly. "It's the thought that counts, Jimin-ah. Thank you."

Jimin beamed at him, removing the plastic lid so they could read what it said.

In very choppy letters, the cake read: Happy Discharge Day Taehyung, I love you (as a friend).

Taehyung chuckled at the absurdity of it all. He assumed Jimin made the cake himself, because if someone had been paid just to do that, they would probably be fired.

However, the fact that Jimin had made it just for him and written the letters himself made it 100 times more special. Taehyung's heart swelled with appreciation for his best friend.

"I'd say it's your favorite cake flavor, but I think they all taste the same, so it's vanilla." Jimin cut the cake with a knife he brought. "As if that makes any difference, though."

He passed Taehyung a plate with a slice of cake on it, and it appeared as if Jimin had burnt the cake past the point of no return. Calling it vanilla would've been very generous.

"Are you sure it's not chocolate?" Taehyung ventured, eyeing the cake suspiciously.

"Um... I don't think so. Guess you'll have to taste it to find out!" the reply came. Jimin then took an enormous bite, obviously very much enjoying his own baking.

Taehyung got a small piece of cake on his fork and lifted it to his mouth, about to eat it, when Jeongguk entered the room.

"Jeonggukie!" Taehyung bubbled. "I was wondering where you were. I get to go home today!"

Jeongguk walked over to Taehyung, bending over to kiss him quickly. "I'm so excited! You have no idea how much I miss you coming into the shop. The client I had this morning was a nightmare."

"You attract the worst clients, don't you?" Taehyung giggled. Jeongguk sat down next to him on the bed, eyeing the cake.

"You can have a piece, you know," Jimin told him. Jeongguk thanked him and immediately cut himself a giant slice of it.

Taehyung returned to the task at hand, which was attempting to eat the burnt cake. He lifted the same bite to his lips, eating it gingerly.

As the flavor of char spread throughout his mouth, he grimaced. However, the fact that Jimin had even spent the time making the cake just for him weighed on his mind, so he continued to eat it.

Jeongguk and Jimin, on the other hand, were enjoying it immensely. "Wow, Jimin, this is the best cake I've ever had!"

"Thanks! I can tell Taehyung hates it, but he hates everything I cook."

"I don't hate it!" Taehyung exclaimed defensively, but at that exact moment, his body decided to trigger his gag reflex.

The other two roared with laughter at this, Jimin insisting that Taehyung only ate high class meals anymore.

Taehyung was trying to refute these claims when a nurse came in with his crutches. She noticed the tone of the room and smiled along with them despite not knowing what was going on.

"I hope you're ready to go, Mr. Kim," she told him.

Taehyung looked at her excitedly. "I can't wait to get out of this place."

-

"We have to get your medicine!" Jimin told Taehyung as the drove into the parking lot for the local pharmacy. Jeongguk was in the backseat.

"I know, but I was hoping that, maybe, you'd do it for me so I can go home," Taehyung replied.

The pair had been quarreling over this matter since they left the hospital, even though they weren't really fighting. They argued over everything; it's how they showed affection.

"Besides, we can get you some shampoo or something," Jimin said. "You stink, and it's a miracle Jeongguk hasn't left you yet."

"Yah!" Taehyung chastised. "I do not smell!"

Jimin shrugged, parking the car. As all three of them tried to get Taehyung out of the car with his crutches, a lot of swearing and teasing ensued.

"You have one good leg, so use it!" Jimin scolded.

"And I have one broken leg, so I'm doing my best here," Taehyung fired back, but he was smiling.

"God, you two fight like a pair of cats," came Jeongguk's voice.

Taehyung was finally out of the car, and the three of them traveled inside.

The pharmacy was quiet, the only sound being music playing softly throughout the store and a few people murmuring to one another. Taehyung crutched up to the counter, Jimin and Jeongguk having already gone their separate ways to look around.

"Hello!" the pharmacist greeted him. "How can I help you today, sir?"

"I'm here to fill a prescription from my doctor," he told them.

The pharmacist handed him a form, on which he filled out his name, doctor's name, and other miscellaneous information. When he gave it back, she asked him to wait a moment.

For the first time since they arrived, Taehyung got a good look at the pharmacy they were in. It wasn't very big, and every shelf was crammed with neatly organized pills and other random remedies.

"Tae-ah, I found a manga magazine!" Jeongguk called to him, trying to be quiet.

"A what?"

"Yeah, look! I didn't even know they made these!"

Taehyung squinted, leaning forward on his crutches slightly to see the magazine. He smiled at Jeongguk, and he was tempted to go over there and look at more, but the pharmacist had called his name just at that moment.

"Here's your prescription," she told him. She handed him a few boxes, all with the name 'Sertraline' on the side. He paid, thanked her for the pills, and clutched them in his hand as he crutched difficulty towards the door.

"Come on, guys, I wanna go home."