why me?

XVI

Taehyung stared at Seokjin with wide eyes, trying to keep up the innocent act. "T-Taetae got huwt hyungie!", the boy pouted and rubbed his eyes. Jin noticed the slight, uneasy smile behind the boy's hand and sighed.

"Taetae and I need to talk alone", he said to Jimin, who pouted as he let go of the boy, opting to cling onto Hoseok instead. Jin walked towards Taehyung and took him to the kitchen.

He crouched down in front of him, gently holding onto Taehyung's arm. "C'mon, look at me, there we go", he said softly as he used his other hand to gently make the boy look at him.

Taehyung pretended to sniffle and pointed at his arm. "Ouchie...", he said softly.

"Oh really? I don't think so. Stop the lying and tell hyung what happened", Seokjin calmly said, making Taehyung tense as he had been caught. Seokjin chuckled to himself as he saw the panic in Taehyung's eyes, curious as to how the boy was going t save himself.

The little gulped and looked down, trying to think of another lie, but his mind went blank within less than a second. He opened his mouth to say something, but no words came out. "Uhh... Taetae just... Uhm..." Taehyung stuttered, making his cheeks heat up with embarrassment as he tried to look away

Seokjin continued to look at the boy, not easily giving up. "I'm counting till 10, and if you haven't told me by then you'll get no good night stories for a week."

Taehyung gasped dramatically, night stories were his favorite! As Seokjin began to slowly count, Taehyung fidgeted with his hands.

"4...5..."

Taehyung whined as the counting went agonizingly slow, yet terrifically fast at the same time. The numbers were way too difficult for him to understand though, the poor boy panicking even more.

"7...8..."

Taehyung pulled on Seokjin's shirt. "Taetae p-pwetend to be hurt so h-hyungie gib Taetae attention!", he cried out and clung onto Seokjin, a waterfall of confusing emotions and thoughts washing over him. He started sobbing and hid his face, his hands clutching onto Seokjin's shirt as he cried.

Seokjin sighed softly and wrapped his arms around the boy, rubbing his back softly. "thank you for telling me love, I'm very proud of you."

Taehyung shook his head as he let it all out, his body slightly shaking with sobs and hiccups. "A-am bad! No Kookie, Taetae bad!", the boy said and let out an agonizing wail after, as if it was the worst thing ever said in the history of the world.

Seokjin frowned and took the boy to the living room, sitting down with him. "Hey Taetae, I want you to take some deep breaths with me hm? Do you think you can do that for hyungie?"

Taehyung hesitated before slowly nodding, rubbing his eyes as he shakily took a deep breath. Seokjin made sure to guide the boy as he slowly worked towards calming him down.

Taehyung closed his eyes for a second, his face once again going red with embarrassment. "T-Taetae sow", he mumbled softly, holding onto Seokjin tighter.

"It's okay love, I understand that this is a lot of change so soon hm? But it is absolutely not okay to hurt yourself like with the wall, or the blocks, and it's even worse to blame someone else for it. Kookie has been having a really hard time lately because of mean thoughts in his head, and we don't want him to feel worse, right?"

Taehyung gasped and frowned. "Meanie thoughts? Why?", he pouted. He didn't understand the concept of numbers, let alone trauma.

Seokjin nodded. "It doesn't matter why baby, what matters is that we go apologize to Jungkook and help him", He said softly, a smile on his face.

Taehyung nodded and rubbed his tears away with the rough material of his sweatshirt, making his cheeks raw and red. Seokjin grabbed onto his wrist to stop the boy.

"Hey hey, be careful love", he said softly, to which the boy shook his head.

"Why not hm?", Seokjin asked kindly, though he was interrupted by Namjoon.

Taehyung looked over and frowned. "Why hyungie hewe?", he asked softly, trying to appear okay.

Namjoon gulped slightly. "I don't mean to bother you two but... Jungkook is crying again and I think he needs one of us."

Before Seokjin could even blink, Taehyung had already gotten up, racing towards Jungkook's room. "Kookie, Taetae hewe to help, pweash wet Taetae in", he said softly, patiently waiting for a verbal response that never came.

Instead, all he heard was a muffled sob and the sound of the door being unlocked, before an arm stuck out of the door opening and pulled him inside, closing the door behind them and latching onto him.

Hi there! I'm incredibly sorry for not updating more. I've been very busy, but I'm holding myself together. I would also like to apologize for not interacting more on here. On AO3 I always write notes at the ending of chapters, I do that a whole lot less on here, so my apologies for that.

Anyway, stay safe everyone, and take good care of yourselves!

- S