Blue Rose [taekook]

Chapter 22

"I want to.... help you. Can I?"
If you were to say 'you're gonna help a cute boy come out of his trauma' to taehyung a month ago, he and everyone around him would've put you in a mental hospital. But he is. And it made taehyung think, how much does he care for him? How far can he go? If jungkook is making taehyung feel this way, then this isn't just some special feeling, it's something else.

"why-"

"I don't really know... I feel.... I feel like I want to..... I don't like to see you scared and I want to just... I don't understand myself" taehyung spoke his mind (the "..." means he's taking a break from speaking, pausing mid sentence to think)

_Wait- is he serious? I thought he only joked around. Does he really like me for real?_ jungkook thought

"I actually want to get over that trauma. It's just really hard. I used to swim 4 days a week and was really trained and won competitions in high school and all that. Now I can't even stay one full minute in it. All it took was that one day" he said with a hint of sadness in his voice

"I'm familiar with the idiom 'Rome wasn't built in a day, but it was destroyed in one'. It's hard to get over some things" taehyung said looking at the pool. This was when jungkook finally decided to look over to Tae

"where iS YOUR SHIRT?!" jungkook said closing his eyes with his smol hands.

Taehyung chuckled and got up, getting in the pool. Jungkook looked at him confused when he extended his hand. He bobbed his head once as a gesture to tell him to come.

Jungkook understood what he was trying to do, but he's scared. But it wouldn't be a waste to try anyway right?

He hesitantly walked to the edge and dipped his legs.

"do you trust me?" taehyung asked

"..........not yet"

"that's okay. I'll wait" he chuckled for his honesty. He went to the edge where jungkook was sitting, he propped his neck between Jungkook's legs and lifted him up on his shoulders.

He firmly held Jungkook's thighs to avoid falling and walked around in the water. It was fun to be on his shoulder and moving around, Tae was trying to get him to enjoy the pool rather than to focus on the trauma.

He slowly let him down after some time, the water was warm which is because taehyung switched on a switch before Going to bath, and by this time the water has warmed up. (so they don't catch a cold)

Jungkook's breath hitched. "hey hey look at me. look at only me" Tae said

Jungkook closed his eyes and nodded, he slowly lifted his head looking at Tae with a cautious look. They said it's easier for someone to open up to strangers than close ones. And for the first time, jungkook actually took in tae's looks and he thought to himself about how handsome he actually was.

Jungkook's breathing started to be on a normal pace which made taehyung relieved. He pulled jungkook by his hand just like namjoon did. And while he did he noticed how small and soft his hand was contrary to his finger tips, It's not similar to his big calloused ones.

Jungkook looked at Tae and walked in the water steadily, he tired to swim again by kicking his legs like last time, but he still drowned. The only difference was Tae went underwater to look at why jungkook doesn't paddle, when kook lost control and drowned jungkook closed his ears with a distressed look, Instead of paddling. He brought him up the water like last time, thankful that jungkook knows how to keep his breath steady and not swallow water.

_why does he close his ears? This is going to be hard. But I'm not stopping today._ Tae thought.

He looked over to jungkook, who was sulking a little, so he spoke softly, "let's try again"

"now?"

"yeah now"

Jungkook was happy he could try again and because if it was namjoon he would tell him to stop right away.
He waited for a little while, taking in the warm comforting water. He exhaled and tried again

He tried the same paddling like last time. He actually tread his hand once but went down again.

When he got up from the water he sulked, "hey you Atleast made a stroke in the water. It's improvement. We can try again"

Jungkook nodded and tried again
He positioned himself but when he was about to go, " do you remember when we played UNO and you lost the game? And I made that you be shirtless for a whole day? I wanted to tell you that you were cute, maybe kinda wanted to kiss too" Tae said smirking

Kook's face busted red as he yelled a shut up and tried again, _who does he think he is! I never lose games. That was just out of luck he won. Ugh he's too cocky I swear one day I'll wipe that smirk off your face- Wait- did I just---_ he thought as he drowned once again

But both of them had a surprised face when they came to the floor. Because without knowing, he swam half the way across the pool. When he realise he swam he drowned but this time he didn't close his ears.

"I.. - I did that-" Kook whispered to himself, totally surprised with what happened.

It was stupid to say that tae's strategy didn't work, he said something  embarrassing to make him forget whatever was troubling him.

"see.  when you swim, Just think of me" Tae said and with a wink he continued "-without a shirt. It's more effective"

Jungkook looked at him blushing and splashed water around furious, but his actual reason was to hide his blush. He rested a little and tried again and again for the entire night. A little snack in the middle of it, as he leaned on tae's back in a sitting position while munching on potato chips.

They stopped after he was able to swim a little and that was enough. He can finally forget, whenever he is in the water he won't remember his mother, he will remember this instead. This may have taken a long night to achieve but its worth all the pain he went through and all the water he accidentally swallowed

Taehyung leisurely grabbed a chip from the packet Kook was holding and was about to eat it when,

"thank you..." jungkook said looking at taehyung, the sun still not fully up but a little orange light shining on the sky, a tiny smile tugging his cute lips and his eyes in the unusual Cresent.

The chip in his hand fell on the floor as he spoke, "did the sun just come out or you just smiled at me??"

That was the first time jungkook ever smiled genuinely at him, not because he was obligated when tae was a customer, not because they were all goofing around, not because he was smiling at someone else.
HE was smiling at TAE.

And that was all it took for the cold heart to warm up and the straight line in his mouth to curve.

                ~~~~~~~~💜~~~~~~~~~

I have no excuses 🤧 but here's a late new chapter

Borahae 💜