Days of Grace | vkook

°18: Burnt Child

     Taehyung wasn't even fully awake when he suddenly felt something climbing clumsily on top of his chest, warm breaths hitting his face, and fingers tracing along his cheeks, drawing messy lines and semicircles, as if the boy's face were some kind of canvas and not a sensitive part of the human body.

Taehyung blinked his eyes open.

He was met with the blurry vision of a small, snotty nose, an o-shaped mouth filled with cute milk teeth, a head covered in tousled locks, and two round, puppy-like eyes that analyzed the colorful spots spread on his face. Somehow, they reminded her of the ones she usually got on her knees after a successful day on the playground. Or like the ones on Sumin's arms whenever he played boyish games with his friends, like war and fights.

Sana stretched her index finger and poked probingly at the elder's nose.

"Ouch!" Taehyung replied, feeling the achy impact of the bruise.

"MOMMY!"

The girl jumped off Taehyung's chest and ran back to the kitchen, her piercing scream waking everyone within a radius of two hundred meters. Taehyung groaned at the loud noise; it was undoubtedly the last thing his worn-out brain needed this early in the morning, especially after the previous day.

Why... Why am I here? he tried to remember while changing his position to a sitting one, his hands carefully touching the material of the couch where he seemingly spent the last night.

"I see," his thoughts got interrupted. This time, he was met with the sight of his foster mother, who watched the boy with crossed arms from the kitchen sill, her mouth tugged into a half-amusing, half-angry smile. "You decided to return from the dead."

"Is... Is he a ghost now?" Sana stammered, taking a quick peek at her brother before hiding herself again behind her mother's skirt, her hands clutching the garment and a shivering pout present on her baby lips.

"No, sweetheart. Just world-weary."

Taehyung simply scoffed at the dry remark. He tried to lift himself up, yet he could feel his legs giving in. A repugnant knock sounded from his hipbones, and his muscles literally begged him to stay in bed and not move any further until his body had fully recovered from the awful event yesterday. It was pathetic and frustrating at once. "Shit!"

"Hey! No cursing in front of my baby!"

Another groan of suffering sounded as Taehyung leaned back and closed his eyes for a second before opening his arms and looking at the girl. "Sana, cherry. I need your kisses for my ouchies."

"N–No!" the girl shook her head, her locks bouncing up and down as she did so. "You're scary!"

"But then I'm going to die! Would you like that?"

"No! Ki–Kiss yourself!"

To the cute demand, Taehyung could only manage to let out a light chuckle. But even this small gesture hurt like hell. "It won't work if I kiss myself better."

You could tell by the indecisive irises and her twitching muscles that the girl was struggling with her decision. She really, really, really wanted to jump into Tae's embrace, but on the other hand, his appearance made her think otherwise. He looked kinda spooky with all the bruises and swellings on his face, and besides that, the boy reeked terribly of things Sana still couldn't name properly. It was disgusting, and Nabi would surely spend her whole weekend cleaning the couch where she had reluctantly placed the boy.

It had been a huge shock when she found Taehyung in front of her house last night, banging defenselessly and hysterically on her door, clothes drenched in blood, sweat, and mud. It wouldn't have taken much for the woman to have a heart attack at her son's hideous sight. "You'd better clean yourself. I need to check your wounds properly."