Have You Ever?

"Do you know what it feels like?" he continued, arms tightening around Taehyung's waist. "To want someone so much... you start to believe your body isn't enough to keep them in?"

Taehyung's fingers stilled on the bandage.

"I think about it," Jeongguk whispered, and now his voice was low, a caress that made Taehyung's blood turn cold. "All the time. What it would take... to make sure you could never leave."

He paused. Then, slower, quieter, with a strange tenderness that made it worse:

"I want to cut myself open. Here."

His hand moved-pressed flat against his own chest, over bone, where his heart beat like an unspoken secret.

"Right here. Carve a space between my ribs. Hollow out the softest part of me. And tuck you in."