word count: 925 words
rated s for sorry i have sinned 
jeongguk can see the breaks on people’s spine and taehyung has been broken so many times. 

something happened here. there’s worn out knee socks on the floor and there’s a bottle of whiskey still half full but half empty. the boy is slumped on the carpet, face first, beautiful but devastating. jeongguk thinks something happened with him. something down right wrong.

jeongguk wakes him up, tells him he has to do the grocery, there’s not much time. jeongguk tells him he needs to wash the dishes, there’s a lot of them. the boy on the carpet is taehyung and jeongguk tells him that because he forgets. jeongguk knows because he needs to save him. there’s nothing more.

taehyung wakes up but he doesn’t stand. this is where jeongguk thinks everything begins to become holy.

the man has a ridiculous bright orange hair and a small mole on his nape, something that draws like a heart. he’s sighing and shaking his head too many times, he’s asking jeongguk’s name but keeps his eyes on the floor. his shirt is too thin, jeongguk could see it - the cracks of his spine, the whole thing broken.

"what happened to you?" jeongguk asks. taehyung is standing now and he looks at jeongguk, eyes sad but lips forming a little smile.

"i was trying to build a home. something concrete. failed though."

taehyung’s moving now to where the dirty dishes are. jeongguk follows.

there’s another thing that happened there in the kitchen. burnt pancakes, chicken and potatoes. oven smelling like fire and burnt cigarettes that’s nowhere to be found. something happened there. jeongguk asks what it is.

"oh, i was so tempted to smoke because i wanted to burn my lungs which is anatomically close to my heart but i run out of money to buy them and i think i needed something that means more metaphorically so i burnt the food i had in the fridge. too bad though, can’t eat them."

jeongguk hums as a response although it isn’t much a response, just some thinking. he’s thinking about the cities that burned in sodom and gomorrah, some place written in the bible. he’s thinking about the ashes that were left behind and the bones that could not be recognized. he’s thinking about if it’s similar to the one he’s seeing now. 
there’s a part in there, in the bible that reads “do not be afraid to get your hands dirty.” he’s thinking about holding the guy across him. he’s thinking about it. he’s thinking about bones and how would they feel in his hands.

taehyung comes close to him, a meter apart leaning on the table. the table shakes from the contact. jeongguk wonders if he would too.

"who are you?" taehyung asks again.

"i told you i’m jeongguk."

" i couldn’t remember what happened last night or the other night or last week. why are you here? did i bring you here?" taehyung’s eyes looks into his as he speaks. taehyung is shivering, he doesn’t know why.

jeongguk knows something happened there. inside taehyung’s bones and they’re all the reasons why they’re broken. something happened, something jeongguk has never seen before. something jeongguk’s afraid if he could handle.

he reaches his hand though. just a small action, an extension of a body, taehyung doesn’t accept it. not yet. 

jeongguk thinks about the question taehyung has left. he was there to save him but maybe there’s something more. “i’m going to save you, something heroic.” he tells him.

taehyung chuckles and jeongguk could almost see it, the spark inside his lungs, not something burning.

jeongguk thinks he’s going to save him. 

he brings him to the grocery store and they buy something to replace the food taehyung burned the other night. he brings him to the parks where they fly the kites they stole from the kids riding their bikes. he brings him to the pond and shows him his self saying ‘there you are.’

 jeongguk reaches his hand again, longer this time. something heroic. they do this for weeks and weeks. taehyung accepts it this time. 

something is happening here. there are new cds on the table and a burned bible. the whiskey is now half empty but half full and something about it tugs jeongguk’s heart. something is happening and taehyung is the one who asks jeongguk about it.

"do you know what love is?"

jeongguk is holding taehyung in his hands. he’s curling the tips of taehyung’s long hair. he’s tapping his fingers on his stomach. he’s listening to the sound of his heart and he’s thinking about something.

"you can’t save something that you don’t love. some part of the bible says something like that." taehyung says to him almost soft as a whisper.

jeongguk could see the breaks on people’s spine and taehyung is one of the many that needs to be fixed. so when he meets him, he holds him gentle, finger by finger, slow and slowly. his skin makes him tremble but sometime he gets there, he gets to where it feels alright to tremble. he’s building a city inside his bones every time he touches him - something new, something concrete, something that could last for as long as it could - some religion. he’s forgetting his own - the angelus he says when it’s six and the sun’s collapsing, the three o’clock prayer for cleansing. something in the bible says ‘do not be afraid to get your hands dirty.’ maybe he doesn’t forget everything.

jeongguk is looking at taehyung and kisses his lips for as long as he could. “i’m saving you so maybe that’s true.”

that’s what’s happening.