TAEKOOK / TIGER LILY

19.

"Taehyung?" Crackles out Sehun, his father, into the phone, trying to grasp at his affections from miles away. He sounds as if he's running, like he's pacing back and forth, or like he's trying to escape someone or something. His breaths are so laboured and continuous, Taehyung can count them, can twirl them into a beat.

"Dad?" He asks back. Currently he's taking a break from helping to fix up the gazebo, biting down into one of Seokjin's famed home-grown peaches, allowing the juicy innards to fall down his chin, and for the outer skins to slot themselves between his teeth. "Is everything alright?"

"Yes—" He doesn't sound sure of himself, and he's definitely running. Taehyung can hear the beeping of a treadmill and his heart flattens into a default harmony. "I was just checking in."

Taehyung uses a fingernail to try and pry one particularly irritating piece of peach skin from between his front teeth. Tactlessly, he responds, "I'm fine."

Sehun coughs, and he releases an animalistic kind of grunt, as if he really is a neanderthal, hunting down his unassuming prey. "What are you up to right now?" He asks, but his voice is so strained, clearly quite a way into his workout.

"Just..." Taehyung glances toward the half constructed gazebo for a moment, then down at the sun-lounger he's currently inhabiting, and, deftly, he sighs out, "eating a peach."

"Eating a peach." Sehun repeats, and Taehyung can envision him nodding to himself, as he tends to do when pretending to be interested in a topic that he truly doesn't care about. He tends to do it when he's got something else on his mind. His feet slam down against the conveyer belt contraption of his running machine, and Taehyung hears the thump of it in each of his breaths. "I'm sorry I haven't—" He chokes on a breath. "You know, checked in—"

"It's okay." Taehyung tells him, making excuses in his mind. "It's supposed to be a break." He takes another jab at his gums, hissing at the sudden pain, still trying to wiggle the irritating piece out.

His dad releases a wheeze, and the younger supposes it was perhaps meant to be a laugh. "Right. I'm glad you're getting— having a good—" His voice cuts out as he seems to grow too tired of his strenuous exercise regime.

"Having a good time?" He guesses.

"No, not really, this machine is— gonna be the death of me." The man rasps back, joking around, and Taehyung almost smiles at it. Almost. But, it's overshadowed by his frustrations with not being able to extract that darned fruit from between his teeth. "Hey, uh, actually—" His dad continues into the silence. Taehyung continues to prod at his tooth, his tongue getting to work too and aiding him just the right amount. "There's something—" His father is still rasping. Taehyung feels hope rise in him as he almost has it out. "Did your mother call?"

Taehyung gets the piece out.

He doesn't feel as exhilarated as he should. He knows he shouldn't have allowed himself to entertain the belief his father actually wanted to check up on him. He nearly slaps himself at the idea. Flicking the skin away, he replies, "she did."

"Oh." His dad's breaths slow, and he hears the machine beeping, and he hears his feet slow, and it's evident he's walking now. "Is she okay?"

Taehyung sighs. "You can ask her yourself."

"She won't—" He pauses, lets out his own tone deaf sigh. "As long as she's okay."