But Beautiful

part 57

“I don’t want to go back,” Taehyung whispered the next morning as they were getting ready to head to the rehab. “I don’t want to be an inpatient anymore. I don’t need it anymore.”

Jungkook turned to face him, staring for a moment before starting to get dressed again. “Have you brought it up with Jonathan or Dr. Jang?” he questioned. As much as I want that for him, and as much as he’s grown, I don’t want to get too excited over something that he might not be ready for, he thought.

“I’ve talked about it with Jonathan a few times, and Dr. Jang told me that once we had the right dosage of medicine, she would talk with me and Dr. Yoo,” Taehyung replied, “but I’ve been on this same dosage for a while now and I’m doing fine but we haven’t talked with Dr. Yoo yet. I’ll bring it up again today…” he finished, frowning.

“The fact that you’re willing to talk about it and bring it up is very important. I hope that you can express yourself freely and that they’ll listen to you. I would love nothing more than to see you outside of the facility, in a permanent way, and thriving without restriction. As long as they don’t see a need for you to continue inpatient treatment, I’ll be supporting you and helping you however I can,” Jungkook spoke, smiling at the other.

“I don’t want to be there anymore,” Taehyung stressed. “How do they know if I need to be there if I don’t want to be? Can’t I make that decision for myself? I’ve left all of the decision making up to them since I first arrived, I’m ready to make my own,” he insisted.

“I understand, my love,” Jungkook replied, embracing Taehyung in his arms. “Let them know this. Let them hear it.”

With a nod, Taehyung hugged Jungkook back, following him out and to the car. “I’ll tell them,” he added when they parked at the facility. “With my words. I’ll tell anyone I need to.”

“I believe you.”

“Can I live with you?”

Jungkook scoffed playfully, looking at Taehyung with shimmering eyes. “As if I’d let you live anywhere else.”

The tension in Taehyung’s body and face relaxed and he let himself smile, giggle. Jungkook felt punched in the stomach when the butterflies erupted, as if he had never seen Taehyung’s smile before, never heard his laugh. Every time was like the first time; bubbly, bright, brilliant, beautiful.

          __________________

When Jungkook returned to work, the days started melding together, rapidly passing by. Sometimes he was so busy he stayed overnight at the facility, and sometimes he wouldn’t sleep at all. There were constantly new people transferred in and out of the rehabilitation center, as if the place had a revolving door, while Spring began and the expansion continued. Between treatments, Jungkook always found Taehyung painting in the corner of the social room, as if time in the large area stood still. Except this time Taehyung would give him a smile before Jungkook was rushing off to his next task, happiness in his heart at the progress done in the last several months.

He worked hard on his studies and hard on his work, and when it came time for his last evaluation by Dr. Yoo, he was more confident in his abilities than he had ever been. It was hard for him to gain the confidence, his anxiety always putting him in a position where feelings of inadequacy could drown out his knowledge and abilities. If it weren’t for Taehyung, and the unique challenge he had started out to be, Jungkook didn’t know if he would have been able to build up such confidence while he was finishing up his final year.

“You’re going to be taking your board certification examination soon, isn’t that right?” Dr. Yoo asked Jungkook as they walked around the back of the property. It had been spruced up, mostly by a busy, restless, and very pregnant Soojung, who had planted flowers and had a quaint stream made. It was beautiful, and it reminded Jungkook of when he and Sohee had spoke about it back when he’d first arrived. It felt like ages ago, and considering everything he had done until this point, it was.