To Love or Not to Love || A Taekook Fanfic

21. Bloodshot Eyes

The next day~

JUNGKOOK'S POV

"Ugh! Why is my life so hard?" I raked my hand through my hair and groaned in frustration. I still haven't signed most of the papers and I haven't even replied back to those people and...life sucks. Yeah, it totally sucks.

I looked in front and saw Taehyung's desk empty. Just where is he. I think this is the first time he has been so late. I looked at the clock to my right. Yes, he was really late. Almost half an hour is over and he hasn't come back yet.

I sighed and shook my head. He might have overslept. I looked through the papers and began to type down the work. Suddenly I heard the door open and I whipped my head to see Taehyung walking slowly towards his desk.

Phew! I thought he was going to skip the day, "Where were you? Did you wake up late?"

No response. He just ignored me and sat in front of his desk. That's weird. He would come inside with a jump in his step and a smile on his face, but why is he so dull today and he looks like he didn't want to come to the office at all.

"Tae, are you fine?" I asked him and he slightly nodded. Not fine at all. I sighed and got up from chair, heading straight towards him. He saw me coming from the corner of his eyes and quickly avoided looking at me. I reached his desk and cleared my throat.

"Are you fine?" I asked him again.

"Yes," he replied back, but his voice wasn't like the deep, soft one. It was hoarse and cracked. I put my index finger under his chin and lifted his face up to face me. My eyes grew wide with shock when I saw his condition which he had clearly masked it with make up.

His eyes were bloodshot red and puffy, the dark bags under his eyes were somewhat visible and his lips were cracked and there were spots of dried blood on it. From far, nobody would have noticed it and that was probably why I couldn't see it well.

"Tae, you are totally not fine. Tell me about it," I said and sat down beside him. But he didn't respond and looked away, not wanting to look at me or even talk to me. I sighed and looked down at his hand clenching the hem of his shirt. 

Suddenly I noticed his knuckles had dried blood on it and there were huge gashes on it. I gasped and turned Taehyung towards me, "Why the hell is there blood and cuts on your knuckles? What happened, Tae?"

"I—" he stopped and bit his lips again, but I swiped my thumb on his lip and made him remove his teeth from biting his lips.

I got up and headed to my cupboard. I opened it and looked at the bottom for the first-aid kit. I found it and took it back to where he was sitting, in front of his desk. I made him get up and walked him to one of the couches and made him sit down.

I opened the kit and looked for the antiseptic cream. I took the water from my bottle and gently cleaned the wounds with a wet cotton. 

"You don't have to do it," he protested and tried to remove his hands from my grip, but I didn't let him and continued to clean it.

After cleaning it, I took the antiseptic cream and applied it to his cuts. Some parts of his skin were scraped off and it looked pretty creepy. I heard him wincing at the pain caused from the cream meeting his open skin. 

"It pains?" I asked him and he slightly nodded, "Good. Now you better not go and slam your fists at god knows what."

"It wasn't on purpose," he mumbled and I sighed.

"Just make sure you don't go punching stuff," I said as I wrapped the cloth bandage around his knuckles. I could feel him watching my every move.

"There! It's done," I said and he looked at his bandaged hands. He smiled at his hands and looked up at me, "Thank you."