Looping Hearts

Chapter 11 - The confrontation

 It had been five days now. Five days that Jimin woke up before everyone in the early morning and joined his shelter last at night after dark to deal with the fires of the clan. This of course without counting the few rounds he had to do during the day to make sure that they were still going and secure. The task was simple, child's play even, but Jimin did not particularly like getting up early to work. He also did not like having to keep going around the clan for nothing – nothing unusual ever happened with the fires. But what he disliked the most was having to come out at night and brave the wind and the cold when he could just stay at home, warm, with Taehyung who was still not recovered. Because yes, Kim Taehyung was still very ill – which also caused Jimin a lot of pressure from Han Ye Seul and Yo Seung Ho who were impatiently waiting to meet the stranger. His fever had almost completely disappeared, but his loose cough, which had appeared on the second morning, persisted ferociously. That worried him a lot. For while he was expecting to see him spit blood at any time now, Jimin had actually seen him spit a small orange petal after giving him his herbal tea to drink. He had felt very guilty at first, thinking it was a petal of Elderflower that had defied his attention. Then he had realized that not only was the petal not the same color – Elderflowers were white – but that the shape and size of the petal did not match either. Jimin was certain, however, that Taehyung had spit the petal into the bowl after being seized by a violent coughing fit. Its origin remained a mystery. Flowering plants were quite rare ordinarily, so it was almost impossible to find them in winter. And how would it have landed in Taehyung's mouth anyway? Even Ji Chang Wook, after he had spoken to him, had not been able to advance any hypothesis except the one of a flying petal following the wind, falling into Taehyun's infusion just before he drank. But Jimin had not seen anything like this happen – his hut did not have a single hole that would have allowed this petal to come inside – and thefore remained alert for almost twenty-four hours a day to be sure that Taehyung would not choke on anything. He even went as far as neglecting his closest friend who had been asking for him ever since he had come back from his little jaunt.

« - When will I be able to go out? I feel much better now! » Taehyung complained for the umpteenth time.

The latter had remained seriously ill for about ten days before his condition had improved. Now that he felt better and did not cough much anymore, he kept on tormenting Jimin to go out.

« - Come on Jimin... It's so boring to stay lying there without doing anything. »

« - You spent half your time here sleeping, how could you be bored? » Retorted Jimin.

« - But I've been feeling better for the past two days... Why don't you let me go out? » Taehyung continued to complain.

Jimin sighed and dropped what he was doing to eventually get close to him.

« - Listen... » He began, placing one of his hands on top of his head. « It's not that I don't want you to go out, it's... it's just that I don't want you to relapse. It's very common you know! And... The first thing you'll have to do when you get out of here is to go see the elders and... and I don't want them to kick you out... » Jimin finished, looking away from Taehyung and dropping his hand.

Taehyung smiled showing all his teeth, very much happy deep down that his one and only friend cared for him this much – and he admited it, his savior was also undeniably cute when he pouted – and that he finally responded with something else other than « Because. » or « It's like that. ».

« - Come on Jimin... » He begged, grabbing his wrist and fidgeting. « I'll have to see them one day anyway, huh?! Please... »

Jimin turned his head in his direction to face Taehyung's pleading eyes. He held his gaze for a few seconds before getting up with a sigh.