TASTE | KTH

breathless

Feeling like you can't breathe is one of the worst feelings in the world, in Taehyung's opinion. Like your lungs can't function properly, like the oxygen in the atmosphere was sucked out by some malicious force. Like you're breathing like you're supposed to, but it isn't working, and there's nothing you can do about it but sit there, wheezing and gasping for air and chest burning and waiting for your breath to be restored.

Taehyung is out of breath when he reaches Jimin's doorstep. He did practically run out of the hospital, into a taxi, and up the seven flights of stairs to Jimin's apartment, but that's not why he feels so oxygen deprived. It's truly because Jimin isn't okay, and by the transitive property, neither is Taehyung. Jimin is the stable one in their friendship, the confident one, the one who's always sure of himself. Taehyung is always the one who's overly emotional and needing of support, not the other way around. This is mildly foreign in their friendship. He has seen Jimin cry before, seen him sad or upset, but never like this.

He has never heard Jimin's wavering voice and hitching breath and desperate pleads for him to come over and felt like all of the oxygen in the air surrounding him had been stolen. Breathless.

When he reaches the door to his best friend's apartment,
he doesn't bother knocking, and just walks right in. "Jiminie?" He calls out, for his friend is not in the living room or the kitchen. He uses process of elimination to determine that his friend is either in the bathroom or his bedroom. He walks down the hall that Jimin lined with photos—photos of him and his family, of him and Taehyung, of him and Namjoon and their other friends. His smile is the brightest in each photo, which doesn't
surprise Taehyung. When Jimin smiles, the world seems to stop and watch, in awe of him.

Jimin isn't smiling when Taehyung finally reaches him. He opens the bedroom door and peeks his head in and sees Jimin. He's not crying anymore, but Taehyung can tell he has been, from his red and swollen eyes. Those eyes, so typically full of joy that they smile before his mouth does, are blank, excluding the storminess within them. Jimin is normally a clear, sunny day, but now, his eyes are the raging wind and violent rain and crashing thunder and blinding lighting of a torrential downpour. He sits with his knees pulled to his chest, and on the bed in front of him is a pizza box.

This is another red flag for Taehyung—Jimin hates eating on his bed. He thinks it's unsanitary. But the thing that absolutely fries Taehyung's brain regarding the whole situation is what lies within the pizza box.

Hawaiian pizza. With three slices missing.

Jimin hates Hawaiian pizza.

"Jiminie?" He asks quietly again, and this time Jimin snaps out of whatever thoughts that haunt him. Relief floods his crestfallen face as soon as he sets eyes on Taehyung, and he immediately reaches his arms out for him, like a child would their parent after a nightmare. Taehyung doesn't waste any time, taking wide strides across the room and climbing onto Jimin's bed. He takes the shorter man in his arms and holds him to his chest, planting kisses in his hair. He's curious like always, wanting to know what made Jimin this way (or who, so he can go kick their ass), but he knows not to pry when Jimin is in such a fragile state as this. So, he just rubs Jimin's back and feels the front of his shirt dampen with fresh tears.

He doesn't know how long they've been lying there when Jimin's uneven breathing finally calms down. Then, and only then, do Taehyung's lungs finally cease their burning.

"What's going on, Chim?" He asks quietly. Jimin unburies his head from Taehyung's chest, looking up at him. Taehyung wipes away the tear that lingers on his best friend's cheek.

"Is this how you felt?" He answers his question with a question. Taehyung raises an eyebrow, letting the fingers that had graced Jimin's cheek rise up to stroke his hair, knowing Jimin loves when his hair is played with.

"What do you mean?"

"When you tasted blood for the first time. Did you feel...helpless? Worried?" He says, and the realization washes over Taehyung. "Fucking terrified?"

"Wait, did you...?" Taehyung asks, trailing off, not wanting to say the grave words. Jimin nods, pretty eyes glossy. "Oh, Jimin." He murmurs, heart breaking for his best friend. The same way no one should ever have to go through abuse, no one should ever have to go through what he himself goes through whenever his soulmate is abused. That feeling that hurts more than any physical pain, because the one you're destined to love the most is hurting. Bleeding. And you can't do anything about it, no matter how hard you try.

"I had just gotten home from the studio, and I was in the shower. And I was just dreading tonight, because my soulmate always eats Hawaiian pizza on Thursdays and I absolutely hate Hawaiian pizza." Jimin says, eyes showing that he's elsewhere in his mind, reliving it. A dark chuckle leaves his lips, one that makes Taehyung shiver. "And I tasted it. Metal." His nose crinkles in distaste. "I thought I was having a bloody nose, so I got out of the shower to look in the mirror, and there was no blood on my face. So I was confused. I just assumed that my soulmate was having a nosebleed."

"Which is very possible." Taehyung gently reminds his best friend, but Jimin shakes his head.

"No, Tae. Then I tasted salt. Tears. My soulmate was crying, bleeding." He says quietly, the quiver in his voice returning then and making Taehyung hold him tighter. "And I just knew. The same way you knew, I knew my soulmate is out there somewhere, hurting at the hands of someone else." Jimin sits up a little to look Taehyung in the eye better. "I can feel it in my gut, Taehyungie. Someone's hurting them."

"Has it stopped? The taste?" Taehyung asks quietly, and Jimin nods.

"The blood has. I can still taste their tears. It started at about 8 and ended around 10. And I didn't know what to do, so I just called you and then ordered this nasty pizza that they like so much and ate some hoping they could taste it and feel better because that's all I can do—" Jimin's voice breaks, and Taehyung pulls him close to him again, but his mind is elsewhere, thoughts racing a million miles an hour.

Namjoon got the call around 9. Taehyung and Yura got to the apartment around 9:30. Jungkook had stopped bleeding by the time he has gotten into the ambulance,
around 10. The timeline fits.

No, Taehyung thinks to himself, it can't be. His head is spinning, trying to fact check himself some way, trying to make sure that what he's thinking is true.

And then it dawns on him.

"And I was just dreading tonight, because my soulmate always eats Hawaiian pizza on Thursdays and I absolutely hate Hawaiian pizza." Jimin had said.

Taehyung visualizes Jungkook's apartment.

He looks around for the couple, but doesn't see them. He sees a Hawaiian pizza sitting on the table, uneaten.

"I just want to help them, Tae. I just want to hold them close and keep them safe." Jimin murmurs softly.

"Holy shit." Taehyung blurts out, sitting up suddenly. Jimin raises his eyebrows at his best friend's actions.

"What?"

"You said you want to help them?" Taehyung asks, electricity running through his veins at his realization. This is a different kind of breathlessness he feels—one of excitement, anticipation. "Maybe you can."

i'm feeling so inspired for this book i'm not even sorry for updating three days in a row 🤪

enjoy and i hope you're all safe and healthy and happy