my time, that's your time | jungkook

Chapter 6 - Taehyun - boxing

Jungkook covers his hands with wrapping, wishing he could do the same for his face—and lately his shoulders and neck. He hasn't had a bad episode in two days, but he can feel it coming on—darkness and cold forecasting the coming lighting. An itch travels across his whole body. He guesses it's just not one part of him anymore—it's embedded into his whole being.

Taehyun grins, wrapping his own hands with an unsteady nervousness. "Jungkook-hyung, thank you."

Jungkook completes wrapping his hands, pulling on the last stretch tightly, almost to wake himself up. He reaches out to check Taehyun's hands, even though he knows the TXT member is a boxing expert at this point.

"Jungkook-hyung," Taehyun says, freezing. "You don't have to do that."

Jungkook remembers one of their earliest meetings. Taehyun stared at him with eyes like a doll's, past starstruck. He could barely shake Jungkook's hands. Jungkook has a lot to live up to today, and he won't ruin it by being stuck in his head. "It's only right that we make sure you don't get hurt."

After donning his boxing gloves, Jungkook stands an arm's-length away from a bright red punching bag that reminds him of Hoseok's painting. He readies himself, stooping a bit and moving the weight on his feet. He's ready. He's an animal on the prowl.

As he punches, he releases all of his frustration into the blow. The bag moves quite a bit for being weighted, and from there Jungkook releases a barrage of everything he's felt in the past few months. His first major picking episode. Doing it again, even though he swore to himself that he had the power to stop. The lights of his bathroom flash into random spots in the boxing gym, coming to life like urban fireflies.

Soon, he tastes blood.

Taehyun stops his own, much-less-intense sequence on the adjacent punching bag. "Hyung, are you okay?"

Jungkook falters, like Taehyun's words have illuminated all the cracks he's been trying to disguise. He lurches forward and slams against the punching bag, falling onto the—thankfully—padded ground.

"Oh my gosh," Taehyun says, stooping to his level. "You pushed yourself too hard. You should sit down."

A minute later, he tosses his boxing gloves from hand to hand, sitting on a bench off at the side of the gym and trying to construct the right explanation in his head. Taehyun returns with two bottles of Pocari Sweat. "This should invigorate you."

Jungkook's tongue prickles at the salty-sweetness of the sports drink. "Let's do some sparring with the coach."

The coach lines up with strike pads, and Taehyun goes first. He dodges and punches at all the right times, weaving in and out like a master of battle. The coach, a bulky guy who doesn't talk much, grunts in approval.

Then it's Jungkook's turn. He stoops to the position most comfortable to him. Going slowly, he shifts into a pattern of uppercuts, sideswipes, and straight punches. As he feels himself ramping up, he pushes more of his body weight into it. He scares himself, how much power he puts behind it.

When he misses, he pitches toward the floor. This is it. I'm going to end up in the hospital.

Jungkook's fall is braced. He stumbles and finds Taehyun holding him up with a steady arm.

And he realizes how wrong he was about today. He didn't come here to relieve stress. He came here because Taehyun looks up to him, so much so that he's still nervous around him.

Jungkook falls back, restraining the power on his punches. He works himself into a steady rhythm, one that Taehyun follows every time they change turns with the coach. Jungkook finds his voice, calling out loudly like his hyungs do for him every time. "You can do it, Taehyun-ah!"

He and Taehyun, after their session, lean against the wall by the vending machine and sip at the remainder of the Pocari Sweats. Sweat drips off Jungkook's face, and he's sure his makeup isn't holding up too well.

He thinks about what Hoseok told him last Saturday. He twists the cap of his bottle hard, as far as his muscles allow. "Taehyun, what if I told you that there was a secret about me that no one knows? Not even my members."

"I'm sure I know everything there is to know about you, hyung," Taehyun says cutely. Then he grows quiet, using the wise and diplomatic tone that his fans know him for—"but every person in the world has a dark secret. I'm sure it's not as bad as you think. And even if your members don't know about it yet, that doesn't mean you can't work up the bravery to tell them."

It's like a light bulb appears in Jungkook's head. Taehyun is right. He nudges an elbow against the younger boy's side, unwrapping his hands with a newfound spirit. "Let's box again someday. Hopefully by then, my secret doesn't feel like a monster anymore."

Taehyun holds out his hand in a shake-it position, a closed-lip smile showing off his dimples. When Jungkook takes his hand, he swears to himself that this battle with his skin is winnable.

A/N: Thank you for reading, and Merry Christmas! Hope you got all the best BTS related presents out there 💜.