Into the Deep || BTS AU

Twelve

Jungkook shifted uncomfortably. Having a stranger witnessing him crying made him feel awkward but the longer he looked at the boy across from him and saw that he seem a bit flustered and uncomfortable as well, it helped him relax a little bit.

The boy swallowed thickly, scratching the back of his head awkwardly. "No, I'm not, sorry." Jungkook was once again shocked, he didn't expect someone so pretty and delicate looking to have such a deep voice, but he shook those thoughts to the back of his mind and watched as the boy climbed the rest of the way up the ladder and sat across from him, crossing his legs.

The boy bit his lip and avoided eye contact for a minute while Jungkook just watched him. "You're Jungkook, right? You were the one on the boat with the other one... uh... Namjoon?" The boy finally looked at him and tilted his head in question. Jungkook just nodded, his mouth slightly open in awe because of the boy in front of him. The more he looked at him, the more he was drawn in.

They sat there in silence for a while, both lost in their thoughts before Jungkook shook his head slowly and asked a question of his own, "Who are you and how do you know my name?"

The boy seemed to snap out of his head and grinned at Jungkook who melted at the sight of the boxy smile the boy had, visibly relaxing. "Oh, I was with Jin when we found you two but I left before I could say hello." The boy sat up straighter and stuck out his hand to Jungkook, "I'm Taehyung, it's good to meet you." Jungkook couldn't help but crack a small shaky smile of his own when he uncurled himself and grabbed Taehyung's hand, pushing away any questions like why he was out swimming in the ocean. He found that part a bit odd still but Taehyung did have a body of a swimmer, not that Jungkook looked of course. 

"It's good to meet you too." Jungkook and Taehyung shook hands, lingering a bit before letting go with small smiles on their faces.

"How's your other friend," Taehyung suddenly questioned, "The one with green hair that Jiminie found. He looked pretty hurt when I helped Jimin carry him here." Jungkook was surprised to hear he helped bring Yoongi Hyung to safety.

"I think he will be okay. He just needs rest and warmth, he should be as good as new within a few days." Jungkook sighed and nodded his head. "You mentioned a Jiminie, was he the one who found Yoongi Hyung?" Taehyung giggled a little but nodded. Jungkook made a mental note to thank him if they met.

Taehyung's smile suddenly dropped and he bit his thumb, contemplating speaking, "I, um, came over here because I saw you upset... " Jungkook tensed up and looked down at his hands, fidgeting uncomfortably again. "I just wanted to come over and check on you... see if you wanted someone to talk to." Taehyung blushed, embarrassed and flustered. Jimin and Jin were normally the ones comforting people when they were sad, he normally cheered people up with jokes and silly stories, but he felt like that wasn't what the boy in front of him needed right now. Just by looking into his eyes, Taehyung could tell that something haunted him and the best way to handle it would be to talk about it.

Jungkook took a deep shaky breath and stretched his legs out in front of him. His food lightly touched the side of Taehyungs crossed legs. Still looking at his hands as he played with his fingers and the strings on his sweatpants. After a few silent moments, Taehyung started to panic, thinking he had said something wrong and that's why Jungkook wasn't talking to him, but Jungkook didn't know where to start.

"I mean you don't have to talk to me, I'm a stranger after all. I just thought that would make it a bit easier, outside perspective and all that. I'm a really good listener too, but if don't want to talk I can just sit and keep you company. I'm good at being quiet too. Okay that's a lie, I like talking to people but I can try really hard to be quiet if that's what you want. Then again it is the middle of the night and you probably want to sleep. Is it the middle of the night, I don't really know what time it is but it feels like the middle of the night. Maybe that's because today has been so crazy, you know?"

Taehyung rambled on and on, not noticing that he was doing exactly what he came to do. Jungkook watched from behind his eyelashes and Taehyung avoided looking at the younger and waved his hands around as he spoke. A small smile touched Jungkook's lips as he watched the boy across from him bite his lip between rushed sentences and take in breaths of air just to keep talking.

"Speaking of crazy, did you meet Hobi? Of course, you did your in his house, silly me. He is a really funny guy. Speaking of funny guys, you're gonna love Jin's jokes. Jin is super nice too. Speaking of nice..."

Taehyung suddenly stopped talking, finally noticing that he was rambling and trying to fill any awkwardness with nonsense. He sat on his hands and bit his lip. "Sorry, I do that when I'm nervous and I'm not very good at comforting people." Taehyung still avoided looking at Jungkook but that didn't stop Jungkook from staring at him.

"I wouldn't say that. You're doing a good job of comforting me so far." Taehyung finally looked at Jungkook and was pleased to see a small smile on the other boy's face. Jungkook's smile dropped as he licked his lips and looked back down at his hands. "Sorry I didn't answer you, I just didn't know where to begin. You are right in saying today has been a bit crazy." Taehyung sat back and looked at Jungkook closely, tilting his head cutely to the side. He had to hold himself back from going over and hugging Jungkook, everything in him was yelling at him to hug away the pained look on his face.

"It's just," Jungkook let out a long sign, struggling to put his thoughts and feelings into words. He looked up at the sky, trying to hold back tears and avoid looking at Taehyung at the same time. "When our ship when down... there were so many of our friends and colleagues still inside and I... I feel like..." Jungkook hiccupped and let his head fall back down, giving up fighting back the tears. "I feel like I ... I could have saved more people if I hadn't been so selfish. If I hadn't jumped overboard before I even really tried." Jungkook hiccupped and cried between the last few words. Thinking about them is one thing but admitting it out loud, to another person, makes it so much harder to admit.

Taehyung gave up holding back and quickly crawled over to sit beside Jungkook. He gently threw his arm around Jungkook's shoulders and pulled him against his chest, holding him tightly as he cried. "Why do I get to survive and they don't? What makes me so special?" Taehyung tightened his arm around Jungkook, bringing his other arm around him so that he was hugging him.

Taehyung only had pieces of the story but he had seen and heard many stories like it, over and over. 

Taehyung slowly started to rock side to side hoping to calm Jungkook down. Jungkook found it a bit odd that a stranger was hugging him but he couldn't bring himself to pull away. So instead of pulling away he leaned further into Taehyung's chest and turned his head into the crook of his neck.

Jungkook grabbed the front of Taehyung's shirt and tried to even out his breathing as Taehyung continued to slowly rock them from side to side. Jungkook felt Taehyung rest his head on top of his and slowly draw circles on his back, which he again found odd but it was helping him calm down so he relaxed further in Taehyung's arms and closed his eyes. Focusing on the small patterns being drawn over his t-shirt. 

They stayed like that for a few minutes until Taehyung felt Jungkook's breaths even out and he realized that Jungkook had fallen asleep.

Taehyung silently cooed and gently unwrapped his arm from Jungkook to slip it under the boy's arms and pick him up, dragging his feet on the ground. Taehyung took a few deep breaths before slowly lifting Jungkook and himself off the floor with a lot of struggle. Taehyung worried that he would drop Jungkook and leaned against the wall for support.

So far, to his surprise, Jungkook was still asleep. So he slowly made his way to the door that was, to his relief, slightly open enough for him to nudge open enough for him to stumble inside and lay Jungkook in bed, unfortunately, he also ended up in the bed on top of Jungkook.

Taehyung paused, worried he had woken Jungkook up after literally landing on top of him, but to his disbelief, he was still out cold. Taehyung chuckled and lifted himself, prying Jungkook's iron grip off his shirt and lifting his feet onto the bed, tucking him in as best as he could. 

He then turned off the lamp and softly closed the door. Satisfied with how things turned out he smiled and went back to his room. Confident that some good rest will help and with a plan to wake up early and help cook for their guests in the morning.