Haunted?

27. Stage three

Jungkook carefully lowered Taehyung onto the bed and ran back to the kitchen to get the first aid kit. Seokjin was already gone by the time he went back to the bedroom.

"Kookie" Taehyung called again once he saw Jungkook. This time, his voice sounded wet with a lump in his throat. "I'm here, I'm here" Jungkook said as he climbed up onto the bed and scooted closer to Taehyung.

He took his hand into his hands and placed it on his own lap. He picked up a small pair of medical tongs that were used to pluck thorns. "It hurts, Kookie" Jungkook looked up right in time to see a tear fall from Taehyung's eye.

Taehyung was never the type to cry. No matter what, he was the type to hold it in. Thus, seeing tears in Taehyung's eyes suddenly brought all of the water in his body rushing to his eyes.

"I know, baby. I will remove it, okay? It won't hurt after that" Jungkook said, his voice wavering dangerously. "Promise?" Taehyung pouted. "Promise, sweety" Jungkook whispered.

He carefully held the piece of glass with the tongs and looked up at Taehyung, who was busy staring at the piece of glass in his hand. "Come here, Tae" Jungkook said, leaning slightly forward. Once Taehyung was close enough, he connected their lips.

He almost broke down at the feeling of Taehyung's lips on his. 

Sure, they were chapped. 

But it had been more than five months since he had felt those lips. He moved his head to the side and kissed Taehyung passionately.

He pulled away when his lungs started screaming for oxygen. Taehyung didn't even realize that the glass piece was gone until he looked down at his hand. He completely broke his wall down and burst into tears the second he realized that Jungkook had kissed him so that he wouldn't feel the pain of having the piece pulled out of his hand.

Jungkook hurried up and cleaned the wound, all the while assuring Taehyung continuously that it would be fine. Once he wrapped his hand in a bandage, he ran to place the box in the washroom and ran back to Taehyung and engulfed him into a warm embrace.

Taehyung sobbed for almost half an hour, with his head buried into Jungkook's warm chest. Jungkook pulled Taehyung onto his lap and bundled him up. He tightened his hands around him and rubbed his shoulders rapidly, patting him in between. 

He kept whispering sweet nothings the whole time, listening to the loud sobs that filled the air and threatened to crush his heart and send it into the deepest pits of Tartarus.

He suddenly remembered the doctor's words. 'There are three parts of withdrawal. Anger, Violence and Tears. These happen one after the other. Tears come at the peak stage, when they don't get what their body is unconsciously craving.'

But if this was what 'tears' meant, he was ready to have the violence instead. Even though the violence drove him up the wall for the past two weeks, he was ready to go through the whole ordeal again, if that meant he wouldn't have to listen to the love of his life cry for the next two weeks without even knowing what was making him cry so much.

The fact that Taehyung wasn't the type to cry easily just made everything a hundred times harder and worse.

Taehyung slowly cried himself to sleep, just as Namjoon walked into the flat with food. "Dinner" he whispered once he noticed that Taehyung was sleeping on Jungkook's lap with dried up tear tracks on his face.

Jungkook gave him a nod and pointed to the dining table, with his hands still around Taehyung. "Did he eat anything?" Namjoon mouthed and mimicked eating. Jungkook shook his head and sniffled, tears threatening to fall out of his eyes.

"You eat" Namjoon mouthed again and pointed to Jungkook and the food. "Later" Jungkook mouthed. "I'll take him" Namjoon whispered, pointing to Taehyung. Jungkook shook his head immediately and tightened his hands around Taehyung protectively.

Taehyung's cries and sobs had broken a new wall in his heart that he never even knew existed. This was the first time after the whole ordeal that Taehyung had cried and more than anything else, this made Jungkook feel fiercely protective over him. He couldn't let go of him.

It made him see the whole situation in a new light. All this while, he had been seeing it only from his point of view, crying over how hard it was for him. But he failed to look at it from Taehyung's point of view. 

He felt disgusted at himself for thinking this was hard on him when his Taehyung had gone through things that were a million times harder than what he was going through. Even the withdrawal must be doing things to him that might be hard to express. 'Maybe that's why he yells and screams instead' he thought. 

"It's okay. You can eat fast and take him back, okay? You have to eat if you want to stay strong for him. I'm guessing the tears phase has started, hasn't it?" Namjoon whispered, bringing him out of his thoughts. Jungkook nodded with his lips weighing down.

"Kookie, I feel horrible for discouraging you right now, but the intensity of tears is gonna increase before the withdrawal ends. You really have to hold yourself together and keep yourself strong. It will be done in another two weeks" Namjoon said.

Jungkook spaced out at the floor for a while before shifting slightly. "Here" he whispered, looking at Namjoon and silently asking him to take Taehyung. Namjoon took Taehyung from his hold as gently as he could and decided to tuck him under the covers instead of holding him in his lap.

Jungkook was gone for five minutes before he was running back into the room. "You are done already?" Namjoon asked. "Yeah" Jungkook said. "Thank you, hyung" he said. "No problem. You sleep with him. I'll lock the door on my way out" Namjoon said, getting up and walking out of the room.

Jungkook thanked him again and climbed into the sheets, pulling Taehyung's head onto his arm and wrapping his other arm around his waist. He spent the next forty five minutes staring at every single strand of hair on his boyfriend's jaw. 

He stared at his fine features. He stared at the cute mole on the tip of his ridiculously long nose. He stared at his long, but thin lips. He remembered all the times Taehyung had teased him for having an almost non-existent upper lip. "At least I have an upper lip. Yours doesn't even exist!" he used to exclaim whenever Jungkook made fun of his long, thin lips. 

He stared at the dried up tear tracks on his face. His eyes traced the path the tears had made. He stared at the old earrings in his ears. He remembered how he used to make fun of the 'triangle holes' he had made on his left ear. 

He sighed heavily. If only those days would come back. He would make sure to tease Taehyung more and get teased by him more. If there was one thing he learned from the whole thing, it was that he had to use the time he had in his hands well, instead of worrying about unnecessary things. 

Slowly, he felt his eyes droop with exhaustion and give in to the sleep that was threatening to take over.