Better Than Tears (sweeter than sleep)

End this winter

Taehyung didn't say anything else. He just hummed some song that Jungkook didn't know and continued to swing their hands. Jungkook kicked at a snow drift and watched the flurries fly and mix with dirt from his boots with some satisfaction.

"You don't really like snow, do you, Jungkookie?"

"I hate snow." Jungkook practically spat the words out, the vehemence behind them surprising him a little. "I-I mean," he spluttered as he tried to retract his words without lying. There wasn't a way to do that, so he fell silent.

Taehyung stopped walking. Jungkook stood still beside him.

"When I was a kid, I used to go to this frozen pond in the winter. I didn't have ice skates, so I just slid around on my boots. There were a bunch of kids who had skates, but I couldn't play with them because I didn't have any. My mom wouldn't buy me some because she didn't like the kids that had them and I thought she was so mean. One day, I managed to borrow some from a friend of a friend and I joined in the games of those kids." Taehyung's voice never wavered once, but Jungkook couldn't help feeling a small sense of dread as to where this story was going.

"We played some form of hockey, but since all we had were sticks and a puck, when bumped into each other, it kinda hurt. I was always a skinny, gangly kid with not much strength, and I knew I was getting bruises all over. But," Taehyung held up a finger, "nobody else was complaining, so I didn't either."

Jungkook frowned, more unsure now as to what the point of this was. The story wasn't even about snow.

Taehyung continued. "There was a patch of ice that was weaker than the rest. Nobody skated over that. But the kids I was playing with, they dared me to do it. You could slide on your stomach and you'd be okay. The ice was thinner and you could peer down into the pond like you were looking into a mystery. But skating over it would just be stupid."

Taehyung sighed and Jungkook squeezed his hand without thinking.

"They dared me, so I did it. It was snowing that day, and by the end of our game, it was quite a storm. We all should have been home and safe inside, but instead I was being egged on to do this stupid thing," Taehyung smiled ruefully. "And I did it."

"And you fell in?" Jungkook asked quickly, kind of wanting this story to be over with.

"Nope."

Jungkook looked up in surprise. "You didn't?"

"I didn't." Taehyung chuckled. "I did, however, trip on a piece of jagged ice, go flying across the pond and hit my head on a fallen tree."

Jungkook blinked. He didn't expect that. Memories of falling into snow flashed across his mind. He blinked again, like that would make them disappear.

"I don't know what happened after that, since I was unconscious. After I recovered and had five stitches and my mom was done freaking out I was grounded and honestly had no desire to go back to that pond again. I did eventually," Taehyung said musingly, "just to see where it had all gone wrong. I loved that place, Jungkookie. But it was where I'd been stupid and hurt myself."

Jungkook pulled on Taehyung's hand and they started walking again. It was too cold just to stand still. "Do you hate that place now?" He didn't even know why he was asking.

"I did, for a long time. I was afraid of it. It was like I thought that if I went back there, I'd turn stupid again, like it was the pond's fault that I'd accepted that stupid dare." Taehyung tugged Jungkook sideways to make him look up. "I hated a pond, Jungkookie. Just so I didn't have to hate myself."