Chapter 2

Fourteen Years

Taehyung walked through the halls of the clinic and greeted every person he came across. It was another great day where he would have loved to spend under the same tree and maybe read a book or something. But he was in search of someone at that moment. A particular someone who disappeared after their first encounter and could not be found even though Taehyung visited his room multiple times.

In the distance, he saw Jungkook’s nurse, Seokjin (better known as Jin who was also the youngest nurse in the whole clinic). Taehyung ran up to him and tried to give the cutest face he could.

“Hi Jin hyung!” he greeted. Jin smiled at the cuteness of the boy. “Searching for Jungkook again, Taehyung?” he commented and ruffled his hair.

Taehyung pouted. “It’s been three days since I last saw him, Jin hyung. Why does he keep on disappearing?”

Jin laughed. The smoothness of the laugh reminded Taehyung of warm milk and honey he had in the morning. “I think he’s out in the garden,” Jin finally said after teasing the younger boy for some time. Taehyung grinned at the elder and ran out towards the mentioned place. Jin shook his head with a smile to see the eager boy run off. “Be careful,” he called out but Taehyung didn’t hear him.

The distance from the halls to the garden seemed to go on for eternity and Taehyung cussed under his breath because of it. He wasn’t the type of guy who cursed a lot but the distance was seriously annoying him. “Why the hell must mom keep the stupid garden so far away from the clinic?”

He finally reached the gate to the garden and suddenly the garden didn’t seem so stupid anymore. Because on the right side of the full blooming garden, under a shady tree, there sat a boy with the palest skin and the darkest hair. In his right hand, he had a book and in the other was a pencil.

Taehyung thought it best to leave the boy undisturbed for some time. His mother had told him of Jungkook’s complications if ever he was startled. He didn’t want Jungkook to have a lash out moment on their second encounter. So he sat down and waited for the perfect time for him to approach.

Watching and doing nothing would have been very boring for the young chocolate haired boy of fourteen. But observing Jungkook helped. He had seen his mother paint when he was younger and it made him feel so calm and peaceful. He never understood what she was drawing until the very end but he liked every second of observing her pretty fingers working their magic with the paint brush until the end result was displayed. Taehyung heard from his dad that his mom used to paint when they were in high school. No wonder her artworks were always beautiful. His dad, on the other hand, couldn’t even draw an apple even if he wanted to. Taehyung used to regret inheriting his artistic skills from his father.

Even from the distance between them, Taehyung could see Jungkook’s slim fingers ever so carefully tracing out each line and . Unlike his mother’s confusing art, each movement Jungkook made seemed to make sense to Taehyung.

Why is that? He thought and continued to stare at the younger boy. Not finding an answer that would satisfy his curiosity, she simply gave up and decided to continue staring at the boy. It didn’t occur to him that this action of his seemed a little creepy and well, stalker-like.

After a few minutes, Jungkook lifted his book in completion of his work. Taehyung saw this and he too stood up.  Closing the space between them, Taehyung slowly walked up to the boy with a peaceful resolve in his mind until he saw the boy tearing out the pages again.

“Excuse me,” he interrupted, standing right in front of him. Jungkook eyes rounded into pleading orbs as he turned to the elder. Taehyung swore something flipped in his stomach at that moment.

“Hi,” Taehyung forced himself to speak. Seeing that the smaller boy wouldn’t reply, he sat down beside him and smiled at him. Jungkook continued to stare into Taehyung’s soul with those rich golden brown eyes. Wishing for his previous confidence to come back, he picked at the grass, trying hard not to make eye contact with the boy who was now, very possibly, melting his very soul.

All of a sudden, Taehyung felt someone tug at his left sleeve. He turned to see Jungkook handing him a loose paper with a lost look in his eyes.

Realizing what the younger wanted him to do, he took the paper from his hands. But not completely satisfied with his companion’s actions, he mustered up all the courage he could find and asked him a question.

“Do you want me to make a crane?”

Taehyung saw Jungkook shake his head shyly. “Then perhaps a plane or…” Taehyung began when he saw the younger nod. It wasn’t much but it was something.

Taehyung smiled, easing down to his companion. “Okay then,” he said and got to work. He could feel Jungkook watch his every move but he decided to say nothing about it. After all, if Jungkook had known that he had been staring at him for the past hour, even Jungkook would’ve felt a little uncomfortable, much like what he was feeling right then. So he decided to complete the task at hand and focus on making the paper plane.

“There,” he finally said after a minute or two and handed the curious looking boy the plane. The boy’s eternally confused and timid face broke into a smile and accepted the plane right out of Taehyung’s hands.

After inspecting every inch of the plane, Jungkook finally turned to Taehyung and smiled at him. Once again, he mumbled out a weak ‘Thank You’. But this time, his gaze didn’t avert from Taehyung’s face.

Taehuyung could feel his face heating up. Was it just him or did the sun turn up the heat?

“You’re welcome,” Taehyung replied. Jungkook continued to give that eye blinding smile at Taehyung till the elder thought he couldn’t take it anymore. Clearing his throat awkwardly, he interrupted, “Anyway… Uh, I didn’t introduce myself the last time we met. Hi, I’m Kim Taehyung.” He gave Jungkook his hand already knowing that the boy before him wouldn’t make any reaction towards it.

But to his surprise, Jungkook slowly accepted the handshake and tightened his grip on it. He even shook it up and down to enforce the handshake.

“I..I’m,” he stuttered, “J… Jung… Jungkook.” He finally introduced himself.

Taehyung wanted to say ‘I know’ but he didn’t want to spoil the moment. So, he gave his wide grin at him and replied that it was nice to meet him.

Jungkook copied him and gave him his own version of the toothy grin. Taehyung noticed the pair of adorable bunny teeth. He didn’t know why but he also noticed that when Jungkook smiled, his eyes disappeared into crescent arcs, with small crinkles in the corner of his eyes and mouth. It wasn’t the perfect smile, Taehyung figured that much, but he knew that it was the most beautiful that he had seen so far. And with that thought, Taehyung decided to tell Jungkook of his plan to make him his friend.

Three days later

Kim Taehyung never imagined that Jeon Jungkook would agree to his proposal of being his friend. So he was still dumbfounded that he was currently on his way to Jungkook’s room, with colored papers in his hands, to have their daily art session together in the garden. It wasn’t much of a lesson, more of Taehyung making as much paper toys as he could and Jungkook drawing or sketching something in one of his many books.

However, the happy smile on his face immediately disappeared the moment he saw Jin rushing into Jungkook’s room with a syringe in his hand. Standing right outside the door, he saw, to his utter shock, Jungkook screaming his lungs out; grabbing hold of anything he could only to throw it away or scratching and punching anyone that came near him.

He then saw his mother struggle her way to hold the panic-stricken boy, only to find her hair being pulled at. But she didn’t stop and continued to hold him even though she winced in pain.

Taehyung knew that by then, his mother caught sight of him in the hallway, right outside the door. He heard her say something to Jin and Jin nodded after which he walked out of the room towards him, leaving the other nurses and his mom inside the room.

Taehyung didn’t know that tears had already welled up in his eyes. Jin kneeled down to Taehyung’s face and apologized that he had to see it.

Taehyung controlled himself from hugging Jin because it wouldn’t be very manly of him to do so. So he asked Jin the only thing that seemed to matter to him at that moment.

“Will Jungkook be alright?”

Jin nodded slowly but surely. “Yes, Taehyung,” he assured, “Jungkook will be fine.”

“Good,” Taehyung said, almost inaudible.

Two weeks passed and Jungkook and Taehyung continued to have their daily sessions out in the garden every afternoon. Taehyung hadn’t forgotten how distraught and lost Jungkook looked when he had his panic attack. In fact, it was quite hard to do so when he knew that Jungkook had one almost every night. But that didn’t stop him from trying to spend more time with Jungkook. He didn’t know how to explain it himself but he felt this new responsibility and need to be with Jungkook whenever he could.

“Hyung,” he suddenly heard Jungkook say.

Taehyung snapped out of his daze and laid an affectionate gaze at his new friend.

“Look, look,” the younger repeated and showed him a sketch of him.

 Widening his eyes in amazement, Taehyung slowly pried off the book off of Jungkook’s hands and took a long time to take intothe details of Jungkook’s new art.

To say that it was beautiful was not doing it justice. Jungkook took in every last detail of Taehyung and reproduced it exactly, if not better, on the paper. From the wavy hair to the slightly droopy eyes, from the V shaped chin to the smallest crinkles in the corner of his eyes, Jungkook had drawn Taehyung better that any camera could.

“Do… do you… do you like it?” Jungkook mumbled in a small voice. He eyed Taehyung warily and seemed to brace himself from an insult or possibly a rejection.

Taehyung was at a loss for words. “I love it. Kookie-ah, you’re so talented,” he admitted.

Jungkook’s nervous face eased a bit and soon he broke into a smile. “Kookie,” he giggled and repeated the new nickname that Taehyung gave. “I love cookies…”

Taehyung smiled at the cuteness of the boy and pushed down the feeling of wanting to hug and squish the living daylights out of him. “Kookie loves cookies,” he repeated.

There was never a time when Taehyung disliked school. Even when he was in elementary school, while most children cried about not wanting to stay in school, Taehyung always sat diligently and waited for the teacher to teach them something new.

But he wasn’t feeling excited on his first day. He didn’t know when his love for school disappeared but he didn’t muse over it. All he knew was that he terribly missed Jungkook.

He inwardly laughed at his weakness. Since when did he become so attached to Jungkook that he couldn’t be away from him for even a few hours?

Choosing not to answer his own question, he constantly glanced at the wall clock, waiting to hear the delightful screeching of the school bell to signify the end of class.

TRRRIIIIIIIINNNNNGGGG!!!

Taehyung rushed out of the class and raced back home. He didn’t care if he looked like an idiot. He just wanted to get back to Jungkook and spend more time with him.

All excitement was, however, stripped away when he heard from his mother that Jungkook had another one of his panic attacks and now he was sleeping in his room.

Once again, he asked the only thing that mattered, “Is he okay?”

He saw his mother feign a relaxed smile. “He’s just a little tired, Tae-ah. He needs rest for now.” Taehyung nodded. He liked to believe that his mom was telling the truth.

Jungkook awoke to an orange ray of sunlight hitting his face. Rubbing his eyes, he yawned and slowly opened them. Noticing the setting sun, he suddenly pulled off his covers and tried to get off the bed. But he remembered bits and pieces of what happened the previous day.

The twelve year old boy remembered his newest companion tell him about school. Although he didn’t understand everything that the chocolate haired boy was saying, he somehow felt Taehyung’s excitement. Then he remembered his friend tell him something important.

“Until I come back from school, be good, okay?”

Jungkook nodded to no one in particular in his room. He was going to be a good boy. He was going to wait for Taehyung to come back from his school.

However, after ten minutes or so, Jungkook became impatient and got off the bed. Wearing a cardigan that Mrs. Kim bought him on his twelfth birthday, he made his way out of the room to the garden. Maybe Taehyung was waiting for him there.

But when he reached the garden, Taehyung was nowhere to be found. Disappointed, he sat down under his favorite tree and picked at the grass, waiting impatiently for his new friend to come along.

“Taehyung,” he muttered. “Taetae hyung,” he mumbled again. “Eodiseo, Taetae hyung?”

Suddenly, a blue paper plane landed near him. Startled, he turned around but found no one. Right at that moment, another red paper plane glided down from the sky. This time, Jungkook looked up to see Taehyung on the branch of the tree under which he was sitting.

Jungkook felt his whole chest lighten up as he saw his friend climb down the tree.

“Taetae hyung,” he said and grinned excitedly.

Taehyung tried not to melt at the boy’s cuteness. He couldn’t believe he had given him a nickname.

Taetae, he mentally repeated. He liked it. No. He loved it.

Relieved to see his cute dongsaeng before him, he quickly commented, “Pabo. You’re clothes are too thin. You’ll catch a cold.” Saying so, he led him inside, leaving the two paper planes on the ground.

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Waaaahhhh.... So many subscribers already.... XD

That's why.... TADAAAAA~~~ Double update.....

Comment please.... ^_^ Vkook....Taekook....