Sirenic Menace

⑭What Do You Think?

 
Jungkook’s features were tight with dismayed gloom as he sat bolt upright to glance at the two, who took their things for their shower. “Did something happen?”

“With Taehyung?” Hoseok asked and mulled over it when he received a nod. “I don’t know. He was fine minutes ago.”

Jungkook’s lips flattened into a frown. He flopped back down and set his eyes on the ceiling, delving into his brain to find a reason for his weird behavior.

The two left the room and even returned under thirty minutes freshly showered, but still Taehyung didn’t come back. His chest singed with bitter anxiousness, for some reason. And he couldn’t take it any longer.

“See you later, hyung,” Jimin chirped and headed out to meet Yoongi after the other said his goodbye as well.

Hoseok peeked at Jungkook’s fretful state. He expelled a long breath, letting his eyes rest on him. “You were right. Something did happen. But Taehyung doesn’t want to talk about it with us. I think he’s just sitting in the shower doing nothing.”

Jungkook’s restlessness bristled. “Thanks.” He hurried to get out of his bed, sloppily wore his slippers, and bolted out of the room. He scurried along his way to the bathroom and only slowed when he arrived. He tracked the sound of the running water to his left and pattered to the last shower. He attached his palm to the navy plastic door, and the next sound that pierced through his senses dug holes into his heart.

A choked sob. A single choked sob dropped his stomach to the ground and gashed through his chest.

“Taehyung.” He sucked in a jerky breath that soon exploded out of him in a sharp outflow. “Talk to me.”

Taehyung palmed his mouth, teeth clamping on his lower lip to silence himself. He didn’t know why he was crying so much. Everything felt too much for his fragile heart to handle. He just sat there in a deep squat with his back leaned against the cold wall and let all his convoluted feelings out in surge after surge of tears.

Jungkook pressed his quivering fist against the door, barely able to lease himself from banging it. He instead yanked it open and closed it behind him. Taehyung’s head shot up on instinct, and the heartbreaking sight of his wrecked face left Jungkook in torture for a while.

He neared him without giving a damn about the springing water that drenched his right side and fell to his knees in front of him. His eyes gloomed and sank with poignancy, just like his heart. He couldn’t control it. He couldn’t hide how much Taehyung’s state affected him anymore.

“Baby.” He slid his mask to his chin, then held his wet cheeks in two tender palms. “Tell me what’s wrong.”

Taehyung’s tears carried on falling over his forcefully poised expression. “Get out. You’ll get drenched.”

“I don’t care. Just talk to me.”

“Jay.” He removed his hands from his face with a faint push. “I’ll come to the storage room when I finish, okay? Leave.”

Hearing him call him Jay again when they were alone bothered him more than he thought. Pained him even. And he hated it. “Fine.” He respected his wish and rose to his full height. He wore his mask and got out, then slouched to the storage room.

He shed his soaked shirt, not caring enough to go change his clothes. And he waited. He felt like he waited for hours when it was barely twenty minutes.

He spurted to his feet at the click of the door opening. And there was Taehyung, with the same painful melancholy in his eyes and his droopy lips, standing in front of the closed door.