His Boxy Smiles

Chapter 47

They didn't know what to do.

Not a single one of them knew how to handle this situation.

Taehyung was crying in the room and all of them were hovering over the door, struggling to fit in the tiny space so that they could press their ears against the door.

They strained their ears as Taehyung whispered something too soft to be heard.

"What?" Namjoon asked.

"Tae, speak louder," Jin urged with the gentlest tone he could muster.

But all they got were more whimpers.

And so panic ensued.

At this rate, the boy would exert himself all over again.

"Tae, please don't cry," Jimin pleaded, biting on his lower lip to stop his own tears from flowing.

All he got as a reply were gasping sounds and a louder round of whimpers that seemed to have escaped from being muffled.

"We made him cry again!" Jungkook groaned, frustrated.

"Tae?" J-Hope asked with a shaky voice.

The boy made incoherent sounds that signalled that he was listening.

"Do you remember my message? The card?"

There was no answer but J-Hope could imagine the boy nodding. The first tear rolled down his cheeks as his lips started to quiver.

J-Hope never liked seeing, or in this case, hearing, any of his members suffer and cry. He hated it. Heck, who'd want to see a loved one suffer like that?

With a tone so stable that it parred with his quivering lips, J-Hope continued. "Hug the bear, Tae. If I could go in there I would let you hug me instead and I could hug you too but... Just hug the bear, TaeTae."

More tears escaped his eyes.

"Hug Judy too!" Jungkook added, sounding seconds away from bursting to tears himself.

For six days they've been coming by the hospital, hoping to finally see his Taehyung hyung or even be able to hear his voice. But now that he was hearing his beloved (partner in crime) hyung, he couldn't help but want to cry his heart out.

It didn't help that he was actually hearing his hyung cry instead. A sentence or a phrase would have been enough. Heck, a single word would have been more than good enough. Yet here he was, hearing whimpers and gasps from his hyung.

It wasn't only him. All of them were longing to see and hear Taehyung. But they weren't exactly fond of hearing the boy crying. They would never be fond of it.

"Tae?" Jin tried yet no comprehensible sounds came out from the boy. "Tae, please stop crying. We don't want you to exert yourself again."

"Yeah," Jungkook nodded vigorously as if he'd be really offended if the others said so otherwise.

They could hear Taehyung sniffling constantly as he tried to catch his breath. All but trying to stop himself from crying.

Everyone stayed in their current position for minutes, not caring if people who passed by gave them weird looks. All they cared about was Taehyung and Taehyung alone.

For two minutes, they didn't hear the boy move or even breathe inside the room and so their state of panic started once again.

"T-Tae, are you okay?" Namjoon asked, a few tear streaks staining his cheeks.

When there was no answer, their leader tried once again.

"Tae?"

For what seemed like an eternity, the boy in question finally gave signs of life.