why me?

XV

Hoseok stared ahead of himself as Jin lectured him, the words slurred together into one inaudible mess by his brain. He couldn't get his mind to focus and move his body, to let Seokjin know he was listening, he just sat there.

Seokjin sighed softly when he was done. "Hobi, you need to apologize to Jungkook", he said, his voice firm even though he was already nearly giving in and letting the boy off the hook.

Hoseok slowly looked up, his eyes watery and shiny in the cold light of the tv. It had taken a long while to get Jungkook to calm down, even longer to get everyone to the living room for their talk. Seokjin ran a hand through his hair, god he was so tired of all the talks.

He knew it needed to happen though.

"I'm sorry, Jungkook", Hoseok slowly said, and he meant it. He meant it so bad that he was blaming his habit of being happy for making Jungkook sad, even though he knew those thoughts were irrational. He always knew, yet he still believed them sometimes.

Jungkook, who had been curled up on Young's lap, rubbed his eyes tiredly and sniffled softly. He nodded without saying anything, but Hoseok knew enough. His shoulders dropped with relief, and his entire body just relaxed.

Namjoon sighed softly as he watched, glad that another problem had been solved.

—

That's what they thought though.

A few days had passed, everyone had gotten to spend some alone time with little Jungkook to get to know him better, and he was starting to become more relaxed around them.

They now knew his triggers, his favorite thing to do, when to have nap time etcetera.

But as his triggers were bad while he was awake, that got ten times worse during the night.

Jungkook would wake up at least twice a night, screaming or crying as he shook his head to get rid of the last remains of the dream. Someone else would wake up to calm him down, which could take an hour, or maybe 2 before everyone was asleep again.

Don't get them wrong, they loved being Jungkook's caregivers. They loved taking care of him when he was in such a vulnerable state. They were very happy that Jungkook allowed them to take care of him when he felt like that.

But they also loved their sleep.

And jealous, sleep-deprived littles were a perfect mix for disaster.
Ever since Jungkook had allowed the others to take care of him while he was little, Taehyung had noticed some changes. First of all, Yoongi seemed to slip less, which made the boy sad as he felt like he lost his best friend to Jungkook.

There was also less attention left for him. It was constantly "Jungkook this", "Not now Taehyung", "After I get Jungkook his-".

Taehyung was done with feeling left out and alone. He had set his mind on one goal. Getting Jungkook in trouble.

That was easier said than done, as the boy was constantly being pampered. Taehyung knew just how to manipulate them though.

Maybe they didn't see it because of their lack of sleep, or because they were really, extremely blind, but it was the perfect opportunity for Taehyung to do his plan.

—

Jungkook was playing with the blocks when it happened. Taehyung had first strategically put himself in the line of the blocks. Jungkook shot him a confused look but continued to make his tower even higher until he had to stand.

Taehyung then giggled to himself before kicking the tower over, making the blocks fall on top of him.

Jungkook gasped and stood up to help him, a block still in his hands.

Taehyung started to wail, however, and Jungkook could see it was fake. He heard rushed footsteps coming closer, looking over. "Hewp Taetae-"

"Jeon Jungkook? What the hell do you think you're doing?!", Seokjin yelled as Jimin helped Taehyung up. Jungkook didn't realize how weird it must've looked, Jungkook holding a block while Taehyung was covered in them.

"Did you throw those at him? He could've gotten seriously hurt!"

Jungkook opened and closed his mouth to say something, but no words came out. It felt like his throat was closed off, not allowing any form of communication at that moment.

Seokjin took the silence as an affirmation and pulled Jungkook to the corner. His sleep-deprived brain didn't connect the dots between Jungkook's innocent face and Taehyung's smirk as he pretended to sob over Jimin's shoulder, while the older boy took him to the kitchen for an icepack. "Ten minutes, I'll set a timer", Seokjin said softly after he had put Jungkook down and left.

Jungkook looked around in confusion, still not fully processing what just had happened. His brain simply didn't understand why Taehyung would do such a thing, for God's sake. He didn't understand most things, let alone jealousy.

After his time out Seokjin took the boy to the kitchen. "Go say sorry hm?", he said with a soft smile.

Jungkook shook his head. "Nuh-uh, no did sumthing wwong" he pouted.

"Jungkook, you need to apologize after being bad", Seokjin sighed softly and ran a hand through the boy's hair.

Jungkook shook his head and squirmed out of Seokjin's hold. "Kookie no bad! A-am good boy!", he said, stomping his feet on the ground. It was just so unfair!

Seokjin frowned. "We do not yell in this household Jungkook. Go to your room and think about your actions some more", he said, making sure to keep his voice calm, but Jungkook just raced out of the room and slammed the door behind himself.

And as Seokjin passed by, he heard Jungkook's sad voice as the boy talked to Bunbun. The boy's heart clenched painfully and sighed as he sat down, trying to go over the events once more.

He looked over at where Taehyung was being coddled by Jimin and Hoseok, Namjoon putting a mug of hot chocolate on the table for him.

Seokjin didn't miss the mischievous smile Taehyung had on his face and frowned. "Kim Taehyung, tell hyung what you did this time hm?"