An Extra Beat of Love

36. Stubborn little baby

"Are you okay, Taehyung?" Jeongguk asked, stealing a glance at Taehyung, who was lying at a comfortable angle in the passenger seat of the car with a pillow under his head, his mask on his face, and a stool with a pillow under his legs to support his swollen feet. 

"I'm fine!!" Taehyung exclaimed, rolling his eyes at his boyfriend in the process. "This is totally unnecessary, you are just overdoing things," he said grumpily, pointing to the stool and the pillow. 

"It's totally necessary. You just sit still and look pretty and maybe even talk to me and give me some emotional support while I drive," Jeongguk chided, rolling his eyes back at Taehyung. 

Taehyung huffed and shook his head, "you are never gonna change," he mumbled and looked away from Jeongguk, who was now walking towards the driver seat. 

They had two more days for Taehyung's admission into the hospital and Taehyung had wanted to visit his mother's grave before getting the surgery done just in case things went bad. Jeongguk had assured him that things wouldn't go bad, but there was no stopping Taehyung once he decided to do something, was there? 

The discussion had started the previous night after Hana had fallen asleep, with Taehyung expressing his wish to visit his mother's grave in Daegu. 

"It's a 3-and-a-half-hour journey, hyung, that's totally not safe right now. We can go after the surgery," Jeongguk had said, but Taehyung wasn't accepting it. "You...you are not understanding it..." he had sounded really desperate, "I need to go," he said. 

"But....hyung....please, it's not right for you to travel right now, please just listen to m-why are you crying?!" 

"I..." Taehyung wiped his tears, but they didn't stop, "I need to say goodbye just in case things go bad," he had cried. 

Jeongguk didn't have words. "Why would you.....hyung, things are not going to go bad. Why are you thinking that way?!" he asked. "Things are definitely gonna take a turn for the good," he assured him. 

"You don't know that," Taehyung sniffled, "pacemaker replacements are always 50-50 chance surgeries. You can never say if the body is gonna accept or reject the new one."

"But you should still take a lot of care of yourself right now. Mr. Park literally told me not to even let you walk these couple of days, you know?" 

"When did you talk to Seojoon hyung?!" Taehyung asked him suspiciously. "A couple of days ago. To know more about Edema," Jeongguk said. 

"Ohh...but I need to go..." Taehyung had then mumbled, but Jeongguk wasn't having it. "No, hyung. I'm really not gonna allow it. Your mom will understand," he said. Taehyung didn't reply and after a few minutes, Jeongguk had found him asleep with a little frown and a pout on his face. 

Jeongguk huffed and shook his head at him and gently spread the frown out. "You are such a stubborn little baby, really, god!!" he mumbled and after a few minutes, he fell asleep as well, thinking he had solved the sudden problem that had arisen, but he was totally mistaken. 

When he had woken up the current morning, hoping to find Taehyung still in bed like every other day for the past few days, he found it empty. His daughter wasn't next to him either. With a frown, he got off the bed and walked out of the room, only to find Taehyung wearing one of the only few worn-out outwears that he had and sticking a sticky note to the fridge. 

"Oh?! Appa, gummanin!!" Hana greeted loudly, making Taehyung jump and turn around. "Y-You...woke up?" he mumbled, sounding exactly like a kid caught red-handed doing something forbidden.