a little braver

아홉

chapter nine.
— ✿

"care to explain kim taehyung?"

jimin went to the park with taehyung, grabbing the younger male in the wrist as his other hand was occupied by the chicken he bought, placed in a plastic bag.

they are both silent. the other boy is not fighting to escape, but his cheeks were dusted with pink—jimin is holding him tight on his wrist. that's why. he loves the feeling of jimin's warm, small hand in his cold, bare skin.

they are currently sitting on a swing next to each other, eating chicken. the older is gnawing the leg part of the chicken, like there's no tomorrow. while taehyung can't help, but to smile at the view. he's glad that jimin is eating well, seeing the boy eating happily makes him full.

taehyung takes a bite of his chicken which is the wing part since there's only two legs and he doesn't want to eat the other one, for jimin to eat. he's thinking of an excuse to say to jimin, on why he was pretending to be drunk.

"thwolk." jimin says, his mouth was stuffed by the food, creating a muffle sound. thwolk.. what? talk? taehyung barely understands what the older said, but doesn't mind it since jimin looks cute with his squirrel-like cheeks.

"i'm just pretending to be drunk..." taehyung starts explaining, jimin snorts. "i freaking knew it." the tall male averts his gaze and stares at his feet like it's the most interesting thing that ever existed in the planet. he then, puts his finished chicken on the plastic bag with the other chicken bone.

he lets out a sigh while rubbing his greasy fingers on his faded denim pants. jimin must be mad at him. all the late night calls, annoying his friend every freaking night and forcing jimin to say i love you to him. who wouldn't be mad? taehyung doesn't know what he was thinking. he's drunk, but not literally drunk. it doesn't even make any sense.

"hey, what's wrong?" jimin softly says, half kneeling his legs infront of taehyung. jimin looks smaller compare to the usual tiny chim and he just want to give the little boy a hug. his feelings frustrate him a lot.

"i'm sorry for toying you like that." come to think of it, he's taking advantage of jimin's kindness. whenever he's pretending to be drunk, jimin always worry about him.

jimin doesn't deserve to be treated like that. he doesn't deserve to be lied to. he feels really bad and he wants to be honest to the older male.

"it's okay—if you tell me why you did it. i'm going to let this off." jimin smiles, reaching for the last piece of chicken which is the neck part.

what an angel.

"it felt good." taehyung says, having an eye contact with jimin, showing his sincerity. the older furrows his eyebrows—confused. hinting taehyung to continue talking.

"that you're worrying about me, asking if i'm okay, to eat a hangover soup, to sleep early ... i just love it when you worry about me."

"i always worry for you. i'm your friend. drunk or not i care about you." jimin wholeheartedly says, then hurriedly munches the chicken, the conversation is starting to get heavy and he's still eating a food. he doesn't want to be rude.

"it's not just that..."

"i'm pretending to be drunk, so that i can voice out my feelings to you..."

"my real feelings. the truth is whenever i'm saying that i love you, i really meant it. i didn't said that because i'm drunk."

".. and sometimes, i want to hear you say that you love me too."

"i love you jimin and this time i'm not drunk—sorry."

jimin chokes from the chicken he's eating. inhale, exhale, then coughs while his face is turning red and his eyes getting watery. he's also running out of breath and feels like vomiting.

taehyung in a swift, assists the poor boy to seat on the swing, while he dashes to the nearest vending machine—almost trips himself, but doesn't care because it's a matter of life and death to jimin.

he rushes back once he gets a hold of the water bottle—only to find jimin sobbing really hard and weeping, like how the older lost his pet bunny a few years ago.

he lets jimin drink the water and then, waits for the boy to calm as he gently caress the small male's back.

"t-taehyung." taehyung is standing beside jimin who's currently sitting on the swing and looking at him like a lost puppy. the moment he sees the older's eyes, he knows that the tears is not from choking.

"hmm?"

jimin tightly grips at the hem of his blouse and then leans on his stomach, the older buries his face—soaking taehyung's blouse with tears. taehyung is confuse. he doesn't know what causes jimin to cry that hard. was it possibly because of what he said? shit.

"shh .. shh .. don't cry, okay?" taehyung whispers, stroking jimin's hair.

"shh .. forget about what i said, okay? just forget about everything. let's act that this never happen .. just—shit, don't cry please."

"we're friends, i'm sorry. i'll act as your friend, i'm not hoping for anything. please stop crying chim. i'll stop being your friend if you want me to, i'm sorry. this is all fuck up, i—"

"i-it's not t-that." jimin finally answers, then looks up to meet the eyes of the younger male who's now eyes are glistening with tears as well.

"i'm just really scared."

".. i'm scared of this taehyung-ah."

•
if you didn't notice, i edited all the chapters and i also changed few things—hoho. thank you for being patient!

— ely.