Hurricane ✔️

Chapter 44: Fight to Live

"Why are there cracks on your body?" Alessia's question snaps Taehyung out of his trance.

"These? I guess that falling in love is breaking me." Taehyung answers and looks at the black cracks decorating his body.

"You used to be the most beautiful being in all of creation." Alessia mumbles as she looks at the cursed nymph.

"I never wanted that. I've only ever wanted to be left alone in peace with the demon I fell in love with. Apparently, that was too much to ask." Taehyung scoffs towards the end and looks out to sea.

"I don't mean to be rude, but will he still love you like this?" Alessia asks as she winces at the state the cursed nymph is in. His eyes are different colors, and his hair is streaked black-and-white. The gems that once decorated his body are now replaced with black cracks.

"If you don't mean to be rude, then keep your thoughts to yourself." Jin growls as he walks over to them.

"It's ok." Taehyung smiles and looks up at Jin.

"She doesn't even know what you went through, yet she mocks you." Jin snarls and sits next to Taehyung.

"I didn't mean to be rude." Alessia quickly apologizes.

"Then shut the fuck up." Jin barks and looks at her with anger.

"I'm ok. I know that Jungkook will love me no less." Taehyung softly smiles and rests his head on Jin's shoulder.

"You're exhausted from the battle for the Southern Kingdom. Why haven't you told us? Yoongi just found out that you've been hiding your energy from him." Jin scolds Taehyung and feels his forehead for a fever.

"I'm not human. I won't have a fever." Taehyung chuckles and removes Jin's hand from his forehead.

"You need to rest more." Jin mumbles and tries to make Taehyung comfortable.

"There is plenty of time for me to rest since we are still two months away from Jungkook." Taehyung whispers and closes his eyes.

Jin stays quiet to let Taehyung rest, but he never takes his eyes off of the god that Namjoon allowed to stay on the ship. He doesn't trust her. He can tell that she and Namjoon are hiding something, and that frustrates him.

As Taehyung sleeps on Jin's shoulder under the morning light, Jin watches as Namjoon makes his rounds around the ship, making sure that everything is working well. When Namjoon looks up from his work, he sees Jin looking at him, so he softly smiles and waves at his Love. Jin grins and waves back then happily points at the sleeping nymph on his shoulder. Namjoon nods and sighs in relief to see Taehyung resting.

Alessia quietly watches the interaction between Jin and Namjoon with a frown. She observes the nymph's broken and cracked body, wondering how something like that could have happened to him. 

As Taehyung continues to sleep, Jin gently re-braids Taehyung's hair. He knows that he is not allowed to see Taehyung with his hair down since they are not lovers, but he wants Tae to look his best and well taken care of. So he takes one braid out at a time and re-braids it before loosening any other hair. As Jin's fingers nimbly braid the long black and white hair, Taehyung whimpers in his sleep and moves closer to Jin as a tear trickles down his cheek.

Jin quickly stops braiding Taehyung's hair and wraps his arms around the crying nymph. He sighs in defeat because Taehyung can't even escape his heart's pain while sleeping. 

Namjoon stops what he is doing when he sees worry decorating Jin's face. He can tell that something is wrong, so he walks over to Jin to see what is wrong. When he approaches them, he can hear Taehyung's quiet cries.