taetastic (ao3)
Taehyung starts receiving strange text messages.
--
"You're nothing but worthless trash. Kill yourself."
Taehyung stares down at his phone in mute shock, something heavy weighing down on his chest as he reads the words over and over. It's from an unknown number. The soft 'ping' of his message alert had gone off in the middle of him watching an anime on his phone. Now he wishes he hadn't paused the show to look at the message.
It's not as though he's never seen such words directed at him before. Unfortunately, he sees things like this directed at himself and the other members online occasionally. Sometimes it stings a little more than usual, depending on the mood he's in, but usually, he can brush it off.
But it's not every day that this is sent to him through a message to his personal phone.
It's concerning, but he knows it's happened to idols before. The wrong people get a hold of an idol's number and they bombard them with texts and calls until the idol has to shut their phone off and get a new number.
It's only one text though. No phone calls, no messages after that. Just one.
He blinks and snaps back into the moment when he feels a tug on his hair.
He quickly shoves the phone in his lap, hoping the stylist was too busy to see the message. With a brief glance in the mirror, he sees that she's too engrossed in styling his hair to even notice that he moved. A quick sweep around the room tells him that no one else noticed either, as they're too busy fluttering around the room, getting their makeup done or outfits adjusted.
He tries to act as casually as possible as he picks up his phone again and deletes the message.
There's a slight twinge of guilt, but he ignores it. The other members will only worry needlessly, and it'll weigh down on them when they're already stressed in the midst of the comeback. It's not a big deal. He'll just change his number when he gets the chance.
Instead of going back to his anime, he turns to his right and strikes up a conversation with Hoseok, who's getting his makeup done in the chair next to him. It's the perfect distraction. He puts his phone away and pushes the message to the back of his mind.
_
"My legs are falling asleep."
Taehyung swats away the finger that pokes at his nose, then his cheek repeatedly. He groans, his words of protest incoherent and slurred with sleep.
"Come on, they're completely numb."
"So dramatic," he grumbles. "I was almost asleep, you meanie." He opens his eyes, squints against the light from the TV, and turns to look up at Jeongguk from where he's still resting his head in Jeongguk's lap. Jeongguk stares back down at him, looking just as tired as Taehyung feels. He's trying to seem annoyed, but there's a hint of an amused smile on the corner of his lips, and he can't hide it from Taehyung.
"You can sleep on the bed, and I can hopefully get feeling back in my legs."
Taehyung moves to wrap his arms around Jeongguk's torso and bury his face in his stomach. "Never," his words are muffled by Jeongguk's shirt. "Too comfy."
Jeongguk's muscular thighs aren't actually all that comfortable, but that doesn't mean Taehyung doesn't enjoy how it feels to lay on them.
Jeongguk rests a gentle hand on his side, fingers brushing against his ribs. "Don't make me tickle you."
