Take Me Home.

8

“I want morning and noon and nightfall with you. I want your tears, your smiles, your kisses...the smell of your hair, the taste of your skin, the touch of your breath on my face. I want to see you in the final hour of my life...to lie in your arms as I take my last breath.”

In the morning, the nurse woke Seokjin and said he would have a visitor in the afternoon. She sent for the barber and afterwards, she came to tidy the room. She checked the leg and said it looked very clean; such a clean operation deserved a drink.
She sat in the same chair the doctor had used and poured them each a drink from a small bottle of vermouth. She told Seokjin not to mention the drink to the doctor, he would not approve, but because Seokjin looked so sullen in bed, she could not stand it. After the drink, she went out, Seokjin slept a while.

He woke when he felt the bed move beneath him and when he woke, he thought himself still
asleep, for Taehyung was sitting on the bed beside him. He held Seokjin’s hand cradled in his lap.

“Hello, love,” he said.

Seokjin blinked and kept his eyes closed. If he was dreaming, surely he had lost his head.
Taehyung felt very real against him as he leaned over and kissed the top of Seokjin’s head.

“You’re truly here, aren’t you?” Seokjin did not open his eyes.

“Of course, I am. Can’t you tell?”

Taehyung put his arms around Seokjin and leaned all his weight onto him. He was very small and did not weigh much, but Seokjin felt the weight deep inside him. He put his arms around
Taehyung’s body and held him tightly. A love bloomed inside Seokjin then and he knew for
certain that he was in love. He had felt it before, but knew then that it would never be lost.

He was comforted by Taehyung’s whispering breath against his neck.
“Oh, I’ve missed you,” he said. “It feels like you’ve been gone a long time.”

“I have been.”

“Yes, you’re right.”

“Don’t let go now.”

“I couldn’t even if you wanted me to.”

They were careful of Seokjin’s leg as Taehyung pulled back the bed covers and crawled beneath them, so that his body was pressed tightly into Seokjin. They did not care if they were caught, nor if time was to slip away from them. All that mattered in that moment was that they would not be apart again.

“Did you think of me often?”

“Yes,” Seokjin said.

“Is that why you're in this mess?”

“No, love... no.” He kissed Taehyung’s closed eyes. “It was only bad luck.”

Taehyung could not possibly come any closer, but he tried very hard. He wrapped his arms tightly around Seokjin’s middle and lay his head on his shoulder. He put his leg over Seokjin’s waist and held him that way. It seemed he could not speak.

The silence was a tender thing that Seokjin would not break. He kissed Taehyung’s cheek, then kissed his forehead. He found his mouth and kissed him there. He kissed him deeply and held him down with the weight of his own body so that Taehyung was pinned gently to the bed. Seokjin  could not move well with the bandaged leg on the pillow, but was able to cant his body enough to feel Taehyung beneath him.

“I’m afraid I’ll hurt you,” Taehyung whispered.

“You won’t.”

“I will, I know it.”