Chapter 3 Sick, Hyung

    Kookie woke up to TaeHyung sleeping next to him on the couch and realized that he was curled up against him, holding the older boy’s arm hostage. He gasped and immediately clasp his own mouth shut as Tae shifted slightly. Wow, he thought to himself, Tae hyung is really, really handsome today. The kid calmed himself down and brushed hair away from the older boy’s eyes. A feeling of warmth engulfed him and he figured, he could sleep a little longer. He curled into the older boy’s surprisingly broad chest and took in his comforting scent before falling back to sleep. No one would be home for a while anyway.

    Taehyung woke to the sound of a camera and opened his eyes to see Jin standing over him with a pretty smile and a cellphone. “This is going to be my new background. Sorry Peach.” he noted and showed the picture to Yoongi who was standing next to him. Yoongi laughed and Taehyung noticed the heat pressed against him, looking down to see Kookie pressed into his chest and his own arms wrapped around the kid. How did he get there? He remembered Kookie’s pulling on his arm and also the feeling. “Hyung” he said softly, “Hyung can you take my temperature?” Jin seemed a little taken aback but obliged as he helped Tae get up without waking the kid. It was nice to see him sleeping again. Their oldest hyung gently placed the thermometer under Tae’s tongue and waited to check the outcome. “It is a little high” he noted, after seeing the number, “You should go lay in bed for a bit. I’ll make you something good to eat.” The sleepy TaeHyung agreed and went to collapse on his bed, seeing his magnae’s sleeping face in his head before falling back to sleep. Was he happy that Kookie seemed to be getting better? Was it the sickness? Why did he feel so weird?

    NamJoon’s phone beeped once, and then beeped a second and third time quickly so he instructed Jimin to open the messages. They were from SeokJin. The first was a picture that caused Jimin’s heart to jump into his throat along with disgusted bile. It was a picture of his JungKook sleeping curled up against TaeHyung. His heart stopped at he almost dropped the phone before anger started to well in him again. Anger and jealousy. Suddenly, the next two messages caught his eye and he immediately regretted his anger toward his friend. “TaeTae is sick.” he told his leader as he read the messages, “Jin is worried because the fever is high…” after a brief pause the phone beeped again and Jimin read the message before calling out, “he wants to know if you’ll come back.” The leader abandoned his work and apologized to the people helping them before packing up his and Jimin’s stuff to leave. Jimin followed suit, hoping he would get a glance at the sleeping JungKook in person and trying to hide his worry. If Jin was worried… He sighed.

    When they got back to the dorm JungKook was standing over Jin watching him cook and Yoongi was riffling through the medicine cabinet. Hobi didn’t seem to be back yet, as the house was almost completely void of conversation. “Is this going to help?” Kookie asked the older boy who was stirring porridge on the stove. SeokJin nodded and asked the younger to fetch things from around the kitchen. He was obviously trying to give the worried youngster something to do. NamJoon had abandoned Jimin at the door and gone straight to their room to check on Tae. Jimin moved to help JungKook and Jin prepare in the kitchen and Yoongi seemed to find what he was looking for as he picked up a few things and walked to their younger boy’s shared room. After a few minutes both he and the leader returned. “I don’t think we need to take him to the hospital.” NamJoon told Jin, “Yoongi hyung gave him some medicine and we wiped all the sweat off and changed his clothes. I think he should just sleep it off.” Jin nodded with a look of relief and JungKook looked between all of them with a worried expression. Jimin felt a pang in his chest, but he couldn’t get mad for now. Not when Tae was sick enough to have the hyungs talking about a hospital trip.

    He moved over to wrap his arms around the shifting Kookie and felt the kid lean into his touch. Well. One good thing came out of today.

    TaeHyung slept all through that night and into the next day and JungKook and Jimin took turns cooling him off and checking on him. Sometimes the hyungs would come in and sit next to the sleeping boy’s bed to check on him, feed him food, or medicine. Kookie watched as NamJoon returned for the fifth time that hour. He had come and gone the most out of anyone as he just sat by the bed and wiped sweaty hair off of Tae’s forehead. Before it would have made the magnae sad to see someone else getting extra treatment from the leader but he didn’t feel jealous at all. There was no pain, no tears, just worry about his friend and admiration for his leader. Finally he pulled himself out of bed and moved to the leader’s side to look down at their alien who had never been sick before. Not in all of the time that they’d been together. “I used to think that he couldn’t get sick.” JungKook noted softly and their leader gave a little laugh.

    “Even fools get colds.” the older boy replied and dabbed a cool wet rag on the sleeping boy’s forehead. The tanned leader glanced up at the youngest member who was standing above him watching with big curious puppy eyes and handed the rag to the kid, standing up from the chair they’d move next to the bed. He waved for Kookie to sit down and the kid followed with determined eyes. “Be gentle and wipe the sweat off. He’ll get worse if he doesn’t cool down. Gentle… just like that” the older noted as he watched the magnae wipe their sick friend’s forehead. “I’ll be back in a bit, I think we’ll need to change his clothes again.” The leader disappeared out of the door but the kid didn’t even notice as he concentrated on the sick boy. He wiped Tae’s soft but mature cheeks and his handsome nose, taking in the features as he did. He gently wiped down the older boy’s slender and attractive jaw and neckline, eyeing the golden skin glistening with sweat. A small breath like a sigh escaped and JungKook’s eyes moved to the source. Soft pink lips that were a little chapped covering what the kid knew to be a set of perfect teeth. The older boy’s lips were a pretty pale pink and quivered gently with his breath, they looked nice. They were hypnotising. They looked… inviting.

    “What are you doing?” came a voice from behind him and Kookie felt himself jump. Jimin lifted himself off of his own bed and moved next to the other two.

    “NamJoon asked me to wipe him down.”

    “Ah” Jimin leaned over JungKook whose heart was racing like crazy, “He’s looking a little better. The color is starting to return to his lips.”

    “Yeah.” Kookie noted, trying hard to cover his embarrassment. What had he been thinking about just a moment ago? His roommate leaned closer to their sick friend and brushed his fingers across Tae’s forehead to push damp hair away. Jimin was pretty handsome from this angle. His baby cheeks had dissipated and left behind a nice jawline with thick red lips and pretty puppy eyes. He had a nice profile and a handsome collar line. Those puppy eyes JungKook and surprised him again as he was caught staring. “Are you that worried?” Jimin asked and the younger boy stuttered with confusion. “You seem sort of out of it… are you getting sick too?” The puppy boy asked as he reached out and touched Kookie’s forehead with a firm, masculine hand. Jiminie hyung has become so manly. The older boy sighed and put his hand on his own head as if he was trying to compare before finally speaking “I don’t know, I’m not good at this stuff. We should get the thermometer to check.”

    “I’m okay, hyung” JungKook noted with a smile at the older boy who looked a little taken aback, “Thank you.” Jimin stood in silence for a moment and then smiled at Kookie and squeezed the kid’s shoulder before Yoongi appeared in place of their fearless leader, explaining that NamJoon hadn’t slept once all night or yesterday during the day so he’d sent him to bed, promising to look after Tae in his place. Yoongi was really handsome in his white tee tucked into fitted black jeans. He must have been at the studio for a bit. “Did you have a date?” Jimin asked, motioning to the hyung’s clothes and the oldest boy laughed. “Yep. With my studio equipment. I wouldn’t wear this for a date you brat.” He replied, coming close enough to mess up Jimin’s hair. Yoongi and Jimin had a strange relationship. Jimin was always seeking the older member’s attention, but all of the attention he got from Yoongi tended to be smartass comments and thinly vailed insults, but Kookie had seen how well the older boy actually took care of their little dancer and it confused him.

    “But you look good in that, hyung.” Kookie noted softly and Yoongi blinked at him before grinning and giving him a little side hug.

    “You brats are cute, but you’re still brats. Now help me change the alien’s clothes.” Yoongi noted before pulling the sheets off of the sleeping boy and leaning over to his pajama shirt. Kookie watched as the seldom seen set of genuine abs slowly came into view. Tae was in better shape than most people imagined since he was always playing with Jimin and Hobi who were active and loved to work out and dance. The carmel colored skin glistened slightly and his well formed chest was now into view so Kookie took that chance to turn away and look for more clothes… anything to keep his eyes off of the sight before him. Jimin helped their hyung pull the clothes off and wipe those perfect abs down before Kookie returned with more clothes. TaeHyung’s eyes fluttered open but it was clear that sleep still had a pretty good hold on him. He helped them a little by sitting up and allowing the tee to be pulled over his head and changing his own pants before curling back into the damp sheets. “He can’t stay in these.” Yoongi noted and called both Jimin and Kookie over to move him onto one of the other beds so that they could change the sheets. Jimin’s bed was closer, but he hated sharing it so they moved the sick Tae into Kookie’s sheets before changing the ones on Tae’s bed. Instead of moving him again JungKook took the newly cleaned bed that once belonged to Tae, and TaeHyung slept in his bed. The magnae collapsed into the clean sheets with a sigh and Jimin did the same into his own. “Harder than it looks, huh?” Yoongi giggled and moved the chair to sit between Jimin’s bed and the one that their sick friend slept on. Kookie caught himself yawning as he smelt the slight scent of TaeHyung from the bed and belongings. Jiminie was already breathing softly in his sleep and JungKook was not far behind.

             Jimin stretched and rubbed his eyes but the figure across from him wasn’t JungKook this time, it was TaeHyung. The little dancer couldn’t remember the last time he’d woken up before their deep voiced singer. Yoongi was still asleep in the chair with his face rested against the sick kid’s shoulder. He rolled over and stretched to see a cute little Kookie curled up happily in their roommate’s bed with a small smile on his face. He wondered what the kid was dreaming about to make him smile so sweetly and he had a flashback to the night before, to the worried JungKook huddled over a sick Tae in the wee hours of the morning. The way their youngest member was looking at his best friend… the way his eyes looked like they were wavering and the way he jumped with Jimin had called out to him. What could the kid have been thinking about? Or was he just falling asleep? His mind also turned over the way Kookie had been looking at him, with a touch of awe… and when he smiled to tell his hyung he was alright. The magnae had smiled at him so warmly that he had almost lost control. Jimin had almost messed up again but lucky for him the blonde older boy had appeared with perfect timing. Chills ran down his spine as he thought about the look he’d received and he felt himself heat up. The little dancer slipped out of bed and into workout clothes to take a run. He felt like he could do anything today. Along his run he danced and jumped around happily as he exploded in the elation from the night before. The memory of those dark pool looking up at him and that beautiful smile spun his heart around and made his hair stand on end. It was so wonderful.

             “Wake up, TaeTae” Jin called softly and TaeHyung wanted to wake up but his body felt stiff, sore, and cold. He struggled with his sluggish eyes and squinted at the two boys leaning over him. Yoongi’s pretty blonde hair glowed a little in the light from the window and Jin was smiling at him warmly. “Wake up. You need to eat.” They slowly helped him sit up and he coughed a few times, feeling out his weak body. The smell of porridge caught his attention and he looked to the side where a tray sat with water and tasty looking rice porridge. “Drink this.” Yoongi noted and tilted the glass of water into the sick kid’s mouth. Tae managed to gulp it down but felt that it had taken way too much effort and just wanted to go back to sleep. Jin wouldn’t have it, he gently spooned the warm food into Tae’s mouth and once he was satisfied made him drink more water. Then they gently laid his sore body back down. He was in and out for a while. One of the times he’d woken up Hobi was sitting over him playing with his hair, another time their leader sat next to him scribbling into a notebook. A few times Jimin and JungKook were sitting on the bed next to his playing together. Jin woke him up to take medicine and drink water and explained that Yoongi, who had apparently stayed up with him all night, had gone back to sleep. Everything was sort of a haze and it hurt to move around, but he couldn’t help remembering the sleeping Kookie’s face next to his and the feeling of his touch. I must be really sick, he told himself.

             Finally he woke feeling closer to normal but he could tell that the sun was beginning to set because orange was shimmering through the window onto the dark hair sleeping on the bed next to him. Someone had fallen asleep on the chair next to him and rested their head on the bed. Someone with beautiful creamy skin and long lashes, someone cute who TaeHyung really liked. JungKook. The magnae was breathing softly into the sheets and looked to be smiling a little. The kid was so cute his hyung didn’t even realize that he’d reached out to touch him until his fingers were gently pushing the hair from the boy’s eyes. Kookie’s nose scrunched and his eyes flittered open to meet his friend’s and they sat for a moment, taking each other in. “You’re awake!” Kookie noted softly, “You’re really awake.” Tae gave him a little smile and pat the wide eyed bunny on the head softly, letting his fingertips drag across the kid’s cheek. He hadn’t thought that JungKook could have gotten any cuter or his eyes could’ve gotten any wider but when his cheeks started to tint red Tae flashed him a big smile and giggled. The kid jerked his face away and nearly fell out of the chair while his hyung laughed happily before launching into a coughing fit. The younger boy hopped up to hover, concerned, over his friend and hand already gripped a cup of water. Tae struggled to drink the water but his throat was sore and his chest was sore and he finally stopped coughing but now he just wanted to lay down again. He realized for the first time that he was actually in someone else’s bed. JungKook’s. No wonder the kid was sleeping off to the side like that. “I’m sorry” he mumbled with a wheezy voice, “I bet you want your bed back… how did I get here?”

             JungKook giggled, but Tae was worried because the kid was avoiding his eyes. He must have been really upset. “You’ve been really sick, hyung, but don’t worry. I just slept in your bed.” The kid replied with a wide smile and Tae smiled back, but for some reason the thought of the pretty magnae in his bed made him feel a little hot. He pushed the comforter off of himself, but the kid struggled to replace it, claiming that he needed to stay warm. “I’ll move to my own bed.” Tae told him but Kookie shook his head.

             “I like your bed. I’m keeping it.” The pretty bunny boy noted with a mischievous smile.

             “Ya! I like my bed too!” They laughed and Tae looked around, “Where is everyone?”

             “Radio show. I had to beg to stay home with you.”

             “Ah” he sighed heavily, “that would have been fun.”

             “We can have fun here!” Kookie demanded with a cutely desperate expression and Tae agreed. They moved together into the living room to cuddle together and watch tv. TaeHyung sang through the theme song for an anime and JungKook grinned widely at him. They had always been good friends like this.

    JungKook listened to the older boy’s deep voice as he sung through the song and smiled widely at his friend. Once again Kookie’s eyes had found the soft, pretty lips of his hyung and were entranced. His box shaped smile sometimes hid the fact that the older boy’s face was actually very handsome and sleek looking. He liked watching TaeHyung’s handsome profile more than he did the show, and it was really nice to see the older boy awake and laughing happily. His pretty animated face that occasionally glanced the youngers way to see if he was having fun. Ah, Hyung…. you’re too much. The one downfall to feeling happily attached to TaeHyung was that a lot of people were attached to him and he didn’t seem to discriminate between the members at all. He loved them all. A small pang stuck the younger boy and he felt himself go rigid. He couldn’t do this again. He couldn’t start liking a member again, but as soon as he tensed up his bandmate noticed and look at him curiously. Pretty pools of black that, when serious, could make any heart skip a beat. Kookie forced himself to look away until warmth pressed against him, Tae seemed to be tiring out from the excitement and the sickness and was leaning onto the younger boy’s shoulder. “Tae hyung, wanna listen to the radio show in our room?” The older boy nodded and they moved sluggishly onto JungKook’s bed to listen.

    “Let’s make it fun and answer questions too” The sick one suggested and JungKook agreed, talking shouldn’t be too hard on the sick member. After a while the questions started, and they laughed together at their other members answers and at their own answers. The woman on the radio show asked Jin what his ideal type was and the oldest member went on about looks and fashion so JungKook turned to question to the rectangular smile next to him. “Hyung, what about you? What is your ideal type?”

    “I don’t know, really.” Tae thought seriously before replying, “Someone who makes me happy and accepts me as I am?”

    Gender neutral answer, Kookie thought and then immediately berated himself.

    “What about you?” The older boy asked with a silly face.

    “It used to be… someone I could really admire as a person… but now…” Someone like you. “I guess… someone who makes me  laugh and chases away my worries.” Tae grinned at him happily and they listened to the woman turning the question on Jimin.

    “I really like...I really like cool people like our magnae.” Jimin answered in a cute voice and the magnae blinked and for a second his heart shook before he shook it off. Jiminie was always like that, afterall. They went through several more questions about songs the members liked, food they liked, who they prefered to room with, and things like that. Tae was winding down and every now and then it seemed like he was falling asleep. “Do you like someone right now?” The woman asked their leader and he reassured her, and their fans, that he didn’t have time to like anyone. The answer that would have once burned heavy thoughts in his mind was now ignored as he gathered his courage to ask the boy sitting next to him. “Tae… hyung… is there… is there someone you like?”

    Tae yawned softly, “I’m…” he started but the magnae interrupted him, suddenly not wanting to know the answer.

    “I mean… you don’t have to answer that. I know it’s not my business… you don’t have to…” He looked back over at his hyung and watched his soft breath and gentle lashes and knew that Tae had fallen asleep, cuddling his face into the younger members arm. Kookie started to lay him down and head to the other bed but something compelled him to stay. I’m bad. The boy thought to himself, really bad. But I won’t do it again. Just this one more time… if I leave the radio on it will look like we fell asleep listening together. Yeah, that’s normal. Kookie wrapped himself around the sleeping Tae and felt his entire body freeze when Tae returned the gesture. He was sleeping, but it made the younger’s heart feel like it was going to beat out of his chest… or run out of his throat. Just this once, while no one is around. He gently leaned down and pressed his lips against his hyungs forehead. A soft gesture that left him somewhere between satisfied and wanting more. He wanted more, but he couldn’t take advantage of TaeHyung. He couldn’t do it unless the elder wanted it as well… the thought of his hyung returning such desire almost sent him over the edge so the kid squeezed the sleeping boy in his arms and willed himself to calm down so he, too, could fall asleep there.

    “YA! We should wake them up!” Jimin complained and Hobi smacked him in the back of the head for being loud.

    “Let them sleep” Jin said calmly, “TaeHyung could probably use the extra heat.”

    “Hyung” Jimin complained wildly and pitched a fit but no one would give in and he could tell he was starting to get on the leader’s nerves. He was really irritated too, though. How could they let those two sleep together like that? In such an… intimate position? “What if Tae overheats?” He whined, “Or Kookie get’s sick too?”

    “It’s fine.” NamJoon noted with a strong tone in his voice, “That kid has the immune system of an ox.” His leader’s tone left no chance for argument but Jimin couldn’t sleep in that room. No with those two like that. It made him too upset. He got ready for bed and then wandered around until he wandered to Hobi and NamJoon’s room. “Hobi hyung… can I sleep with you?” he asked and the older boy scooted over with little argument.

    “Jealous?” he asked, “Want some affection of your own?” The older boy giggled slightly as he squeezed Jimin tightly and ruffled his hair. Hobi may be silly and sometimes a little dumb, but he was a great mood maker and his warmth helped Jimin’s heart a little.