AFFINITY.

thirty-one

Taehyung was glad to have the dryad's support. He wasn't sure he would have been able to keep his tears at bay without it.

Behind him, he felt the Blood oak's continence brush against him. This time it was filled with remorse and compassion, almost as if it wanted to comfort Taehyung.

It made him feel a little better.

"He loves you," Seokjin said, voice quiet as a whisper. The words made Taehyung's heart stop and he couldn't help but look up at the dryad with wide eyes.

"What?" Taehyung squawked in shook, feeling his heart beat a mile a minute. He couldn't believe what Seokjin said. There was no way Yoongi could love him. None.

"He does Taehyung. You have to be a fool not to see how much you mean to him. Yoongi had been kissed before, but he's never been in such a huff over it before. He's been completely indifferent to all advances people have ever made towards him. This is the first time he's reacted like this," Seokjin said, voice filled with honesty. "I'm not Namjoon I don't talk riddles and make games. He loves you but he's only just realizing," Seokjin said releasing Taehyung so he could look at him. The sun peeking through the branches over their heads played with the dryad's hair, once more making Seokjin look almost otherworldly.

"Yoongi didn't have an easy life. I can't tell you anything because it's his story, but he wasn't loved by his family, the first person he even remotely liked rejected him before he even got to confessing and if anyone has shown interest in him it was usually only to get access to the garden or to pick his brain before exams," Seokjin said, words harsh. Taehyung remembered the book of notes he was always carrying with him. It felt terrible that someone would only see words on a page instead of the wonderful person Yoongi really was.

"There was also someone else," Seokjin said, his eyes growing dark. "Yoongi meet her while he was studying botanic and gardening. She was the closest he's ever had to a friend that wasn't like outcasts like the rest of us," Seokjin said, voice tinted bitter. Taehyung couldn't help but look at the dryad in wonder.

Taehyung could help but wonder who'd had she been?

"I used to think of her as a friend. We managed the garden together, her and I," Seokjin said, frowning as he looking into the patch of fruit trees in front of them. "I trusted her with everything, and so when she did turn it took us all by surprise," Seokjin said. Taehyung looked down at the grass with a frown. He had a feeling that there was a lot of things Seokjin left out.

"She used Yoongi and betrayed him. It turned out she had been stealing from the garden and selling seedlings on the black marked. She destroyed Yoongi," Seokjin said, voice trembling with anger.

Behind them, the Blood oak pushed an echo of anger towards Taehyung, almost as if trying to agree with Seokjin.

"Oh," was all Taehyung could say. Inside his heard was a mess. He could help but wonder what the girl had been to Yoongi. It felt like she had meant a lot, perhaps more than a friend. His hand slid of Seokjin's arm, landing awkwardly on the grass, a small daffodil growing up and blossoming before their eyes.

Could she have been Yoongi's lover?

He felt an ugly dark feeling twirl in his stomach. He wanted it to be pure anger about someone using the people he had come to call friends – and it was.

Partly.

Most of it was just jealousy.

He hated himself, but he couldn't stop thinking about Yoongi loving someone else. The thought was like poison inside his head, but it wouldn't stop. It would explain so much, how Yoongi didn't react, why no matter what Taehyung did Yoongi remained unmoved. Ans it wasn't like it was the first time Taehyung had worried about Yoongi already loving someone else. He'd been jealous on every single person in the house until he got to know them, so imagining that there had been someone else, wasn't such a stretch.