pretty boy | taekook

bathtub

chapter forty-seven ;; bathtub
third person
°☆.。.:*・°☆

Taehyung woke up with a smile on his face, wrapping his arm tightly around a bare waist and drawing a small body close. Except the tanned arm was only met with an empty side, bedsheets that were fluffed up being pushed down. Lazy eyes instantly opened in confusion, not understanding why the bed would be empty. There would always be another body to wake up next to, but now it was simply air, and, for some reason, that made the almost nineteen year old terrified.

Cold air smacked into Taehyung's naked body, but that wasn't a current problem. Goosebumps hatched across the smooth skin of his whole physique, while pace quick. It was a mission to find Jeongguk. Breakdowns would always happen when the boy was by himself, left to think for long periods of time in complete silence. He wasn't meant to be alone. The sad thoughts had been there since the beginning, getting so much better recently but soon to crash.

Loud cries and muffled sobs erupted from a fancy bathroom, causing Taehyung's steps to stop with his heart. A large hand, one that could fit over a pale thigh, lifted up to the white painted door. It was pushed open with a weak force. The small boy was sitting on the toilet seat, body hunched over and head in clothed hands. He was wearing a thick, wool sweater and boy shorts. Heavy material muffled his cries as well as keeping his face warmed.

"Gukkie, what's wrong?" Taehyung whispers, trying desperately to not have a cracked voice. Coarse hands slowly reached up, latching onto thin wrists and trying desperately to pull them away from a hidden face. Reluctantly, Jeongguk allows his hands to fall down, clutching tightly onto Taehyung's, but dark brown orbs remained squeezed shut, "Look at me, please." The younger boy didn't listen, vigorously shaking his head. Fingertips brushed against damp cheeks in an attempt to calm, "Shh, shh, calm down and breathe."

"I-I c-c-can't st-st-o-p-" A loud sob ended the weak sentence.

"I know," Taehyung coos, "I know you can't stop crying, but please, just try and breathe." Another hand slowly drew up and down the small of a back. Loud hiccups and jolting shoulders drew up and out after that, sending shivers down spines. Jeongguk was slowly but surely calming down, taking in deep and slow breaths, which would be cut off by loud hiccups.

"I'm sc-scared, T-Tae." Jeongguk wails between hiccups, shoulders bouncing up and down and body lurching. Snot was falling from his noes, causing Taehyung to calmly and quietly roll up toilet paper before wiping his smooth skin that was now covered in wrinkles from scrunching up.

"Why're you so scared all of a sudden, baby?" The task was hard, trying not to tear up at the mangy sight in front of him. Wool material was pulled back, fingernails aggressively and somewhat ferociously scratching the entirety of skin placed onto the back of an arm.

"Th-The bum-ps they- they won't g-go away!" Jeongguk shouts as he continues to scratch and scratch in an attempt to hopefully peal back layers of skin in order to erase red bumps that littered.

Taehyung urgently grabbed onto thin wrists again, pulling fingernails from now reddened flesh surely stinging, "Stop." He firmly speaks. The younger's eyes looked so afraid, "Calm down and breathe, now. You can't start acting like this, Guk. I know you're scared, but you've had these bumps since the day I made you mine. Don't let them get to you now."

The raven haired boy attempts to swallow down the lump in his throat while blinking rapidly. He currently wanted to erase the cracked look on his face, just as he wanted to erase the red bumps, "I-It's just...they're so much deadlier now."

Jeongguk had the right to think this way. Having red bumps across your skin was a sign showing Acute Myeloid Leukemia, and for so long, the young boy blindly saw them to be some sort of skin condition with no real affect. They never itched, they never burned, they just stood there as small hills across a smooth surface in patches, but now Jeongguk understood their importance in all of this, and waking up to find new ones spreading only made his little heart crack.