Hold My Hand - A Taekook Love Story.

26 - Hating With Feet Firmly On The Ground..

Taehyung sighed again, when he saw Jungkook noticing the flower bunch he had left in the younger's path, but turning a blind eye to it. It's a regular occurrence and Taehyung should really be used to it by now. Even so, he couldn't stop the sting in his heart when he saw Jungkook walking past the flowers as they were truly invisible.

After Jungkook left, Taehyung picked up the flower bunch. He had made an extra effort this time to find purple coloured flowers because he knew that it was Jungkook's favorite color. He looked at his palms, which had scratches all over, a result of trying to pluck a particular set of flowers that had loads of thorns on its stem. For him, it was worth the wounds because those flowers were the prettiest in the bunch. But of course, Jungkook probably didn't even notice.

Taehyung would never give up, he can swear in front of any god, but it'd be a lie to say it didn't sting. He had put so much effort to catch a glimpse from Jungkook, to have a simple conversation where Jungkook's every word doesn't feel like a knife stab to his heart. But the younger prince had been adamant in treating Taehyung as a stranger, unrelenting in keeping up his walls so high that Taehyung's voice had no chance of reaching that barrier.

Taehyung had brought flowers, food, drinks, and ornaments which he thought would match Jungkook's preferences… anything and everything he possibly can think of and afford. He follows Jungkook almost everyday now, except for market days. He can't disregard his work as it's the only source of income for him. His mother is beside herself with anger of having to do all the housework work by herself but Taehyung truly believed that she deserved it.

Just like he deserved to be standing under the scorching sun for a couple of hours, so he could accompany Jungkook when he goes to replenish Namjoon's herbal ingredients stock. Taehyung's father was the one who was supposed to join that task but Taehyung managed to make his father stay at home and come in his stead.

However, when Jungkook completely disregarded his presence and started to walk ahead, Taehyung couldn't stay quiet anymore. He quickly took a few steps, till he was walking right next to Jungkook.

“Father is not feeling well.”

Taehyung waited for a few seconds for Jungkook to acknowledge it, but when the younger one didn't, he bit back the sigh and spoke up again. “He asked me to accompany you, so that you won't have to go alone.”

A blatant lie, Taehyung knew that Jungkook knew it. To be honest, he was kind of expecting to get scolded from Jungkook for that. He was sure that lying again would not be something that Jungkook would tolerate. But to his surprise, Jungkook didn't react to it at all, as if he didn't care about it either.

“Sorry, I lied.” Taehyung raised an arm in an surrendering gesture. “He's not even sick actually, in case you were worrying. I asked him to stay back today and let me come instead. And I already cleared it out with Namjoon-ssi. He said you know all the stuff that he needs and I can just help to carry them. I'm sure he didn't want to do it but I kind of asked Jin hyung to talk to Namjoon as well so I guess that worked.”

That must be the most Taehyung had spoken in front of Jungkook in a long while but even that wasn't enough to pull out a response from Jungkook. So Taehyung just followed him quietly from there on, thanking the gods that Jungkook didn't stop him from coming.

Even when they ventured deep into the forest in search of rare medicinal plants and stuff, there was only silence between them. Jungkook led the way, and by the looks of it, he wasn't even slightly bothered by his companion.

However, once they started to collect what they wanted, Jungkook couldn't stay quiet. He had to communicate with Taehyung, as they had to work as a team for this part.