"Yoongi-hyung is a tree" TaeHyung says on a chilly Tuesday afternoon. No one but HoSeok usually pays any attention to him when he spouts random nonsense, but not once has TaeHyung said something like this about Yoongi. Surprised and—though he’ll never admit it—a little bit pleased at the statement, Yoongi shifts his attention from the game on his phone to TaeHyung. The rest of the members turn to look at TaeHyung, interested in the possible reasoning behind his statement and even more so in Yoongi’s possible reaction.

"Hyung's a what?" HoSeok asks; he's always the one to nudge TaeHyung towards an explanation.

"Yoongi-hyung is a tree," TaeHyung repeats.

"I'm a tree." Yoongi shakes his head incredulously. "Honestly kid, I don't know if you're some sort of genius that I can't figure out or if you're just an idiot."

It's SeokJin rather than HoSeok that slaps Yoongi's arm and sends him a warning glare. Yoongi rolls his eyes and shrugs; he knows it takes more than that to hurt TaeHyung's feelings.

"Why do you think Yoongi's a tree?" SeokJin is trying to encourage TaeHyung to share his thoughts—which means he’s been reading those parenting tips books again.

"Yeah TaeTae, why? It's not even like he's tall or anything! Hyung's more like a bush, or like a flower." JiMin's bubbly laughter fills the air and HoSeok's strong hand on his shoulder keeps Yoongi from punching the vocalist in the jaw.

"Because!" TaeHyung exclaims, like the reason why Yoongi is a tree is common knowledge. "His hair was red, but now it's changed with the season and it's orange! Next thing you know his hair will be brown, and then it'll fall out! Poor hyung."

The other six members exchange looks, trying to gauge how they'll each react. JeongGuk cracks an awkward smile and coughs.

NamJoon laughs—loud, sharp, and yet without judgment. "TaeHyung, you realize that Yoongi-hyung's hair dye is just fading, right?"

An indignant look spreads across TaeHyung's face as he shakes his head. "No, it's because he's a tree! Hair dye is dangerous for Yoongi-hyung anyway; chemicals like that are bad for plants." Everyone just stares at him, unsure of what to say in response to something so farfetched. TaeHyung takes the silence as a form of acceptance, and a wide grin pops onto his face. “See? I told you! Yoongi-hyung is a tree!”

“I'm a tree.” Yoongi shakes his head again, but this time his lips form a small smile. TaeHyung looks at him with this stupid grin, and Yoongi's heart does some sort of mediocre cartwheel in his chest


–

A finger pokes him in the nose and hot breath fans across his face, and that's how Yoongi wakes up at 5 o’clock on a cold Saturday morning. His eyes refuse to open but he doesn't need to see in order to know that it's TaeHyung; he's the only member that has no fear of dying, and therefore is the only member who would ever dare wake Yoongi up this early. “Hyung,” TaeHyung whispers—though Yoongi isn't really sure it qualifies as whispering as it's much too loud—and pokes Yoongi in the nose again.

“TaeHyung, what the f—”

“Hyung, please go take a shower now.” TaeHyung is already leaning across the older man in an effort to maneuver him into a sitting position. TaeHyung's sleep shirt tickles his nose and his palms start to sweat.

“Why in the hell would I take a shower this early in the morning?” Yoongi hisses, glaring at the younger man. “It's still dark outside!”

TaeHyung pouts—he looks genuinely hurt—and Yoongi thinks his heart must have been taking tumbling lessons because it does a pretty smooth cartwheel this time. “Hyung, this is the only time you'll be able to take a long shower! You need all the water you can get so you can stay healthy.”

“What are you talk—oh.” Yoongi remembers. I'm a tree. TaeHyung is pulling him to stand now, all the while murmuring about how it's no wonder you're so short Yoongi-hyung—you don't get enough water to grow! Unfortunately, Yoongi isn't too graceful before noon and TaeHyung is always a bit too excited for Yoongi to keep up. They end up toppling over, TaeHyung's head making contact with the wood floor and Yoongi's chin slamming into TaeHyung's chest—which he doesn't remember being so firm, but he supposes it's the side effect of being a growing teenager. “Ow, ,” Yoongi wheezes, and he swears he can feel his chin beginning to bruise. “TaeHyung, you okay?” Yoongi pushes himself up onto his hands and knees and glances up at the younger man's face.

TaeHyung is staring at Yoongi with this weird look in his eyes, and it makes Yoongi's palms start to sweat again. He props himself up with his elbows as his eyes search Yoongi's face. TaeHyung's tongue darts out to his lips and Yoongi finds himself doing the same thing, and suddenly the room is way too small and way too hot for his liking.

“Hyung.” TaeHyung almost breathes that word out and Yoongi thinks his hands are so sweaty they'll slip any moment now and his lips will come crashing down onto TaeHyung’s like some cheesy anime scene—though it’s not like Yoongi would really mind if it happened. Now that he thinks about it, kissing TaeHyung would actually be pretty nice. “You really need to take a shower now. You're all wobbly; your roots aren't stable enough! You need water!”

“Right, shower. Um, yeah, I'll go now.” Yoongi’s face heats up has he miraculously manages to push himself up and off of TaeHyung, sweaty palms and all. He stands there awkwardly, avoiding TaeHyung’s gaze, before he coughs and points at the door. “I’m uh, gonna go shower.”

“Get lots of water hyung!” TaeHyung calls cheerfully as Yoongi practically runs out of the room and to the bathroom, locking the door as quickly as he can. He stares at himself in the mirror and runs a hand through his messy hair, taking in his reddened cheeks and his racing pulse.

“I’m so screwed,” Yoongi groans.

–

The months pass by quickly and suddenly it's January and Yoongi's hair is back to its natural black color—and it's freaking TaeHyung out. Apparently Yoongi's hair was supposed to fall out and then grow back in Spring—which would be a sign of him being a healthy tree—but because it turned black instead of falling out, Yoongi is sick. Very sick, TaeHyung had said, Yoongi-hyung might be dying!

TaeHyung forces Yoongi to go to the hospital and gets incredibly frustrated when the doctors—emphasis on the plural, as TaeHyung ran frantically down the halls grabbing every doctor he could find—say the only thing wrong with Yoongi is that he's just a little bit exhausted. After the manager tells TaeHyung he can't take Yoongi to the hospital anymore, TaeHyung takes to the Internet for a solution. Sometimes, Yoongi looks over the younger man's shoulder at the laptop screen; there are usually several tabs open, most of them titled things like “Why Is My Tree Dying?”, “How To Save A Dying Tree”, and “Maple Tree Diseases”. One time Yoongi sees an article titled “Does Singing to Your Plants Really Help Them Be Healthy?”, but he doesn't think too much about it.

Everyone thinks TaeHyung is taking this a little bit too far, but Yoongi thinks the complete opposite. He is absolutely adoring the amount of attention he's been getting from TaeHyung, and the members can't really complain about TaeHyung “going crazy” since Yoongi has been in the most agreeable mood since the whole ordeal started.

“Hyung, I figured out what's wrong!” TaeHyung exclaims one day at the dinner table. Yoongi feels a sinking sensation in his stomach; he really doesn't want attention from TaeHyung to stop. He's certain the other members know about his small crush—okay, honestly, it's like a massive crush—on TaeHyung, because he catches all of their worried glances in his direction.

HoSeok forces a smile. “What is it? What's wrong with Yoongi-hyung?”

“Tar Spot! He's got an infection that caused his hair to turn black.”

“Is it gonna kill him?” JiMin asks around a mouthful of rice. SeokJin mutters something about not talking with food in his mouth, but nobody really cares; they are all focused on TaeHyung and what TaeHyung is about to say and how Yoongi is going to react.

“Thankfully no! It just requires a simple solution, but see, Yoongi-hyung is sensitive so instead of chemicals I'm going for a natural approach.” TaeHyung grins happily, and under normal circumstances Yoongi's heart would have flipped over in his chest, but he's too disappointed that the constant care from TaeHyung is coming to an end.

“What's the solution?” NamJoon asks. He's slapping JeongGuk's hand away from the plate of meat but he's paying attention nonetheless.

TaeHyung just giggles, something he does when he is really excited but doesn't want them to know what he's excited about. NamJoon looks up from the plate and raises an eyebrow, opening his mouth to demand for an explanation before cursing at JeongGuk for taking the last piece of meat. JeongGuk laughs and NamJoon reaches across the table to smack him. SeokJin starts scolding them and chaos ensues, but Yoongi definitely doesn't miss the weird look in TaeHyung's eyes when he smiles at him.

–

That night Yoongi lays in his bed, staring at the bottom of TaeHyung's bunk. Everyone is probably already asleep, and Yoongi really should be too, but he can't find the willpower to close his eyes. The mattress above him shifts and then TaeHyung is climbing down the ladder and standing over Yoongi.

“What?” Yoongi whispers. He probably sounds angry, and maybe he is. He's probably just angry at himself for being so complicated. It really can't be that hard to tell TaeHyung I like him.

“Scoot over, hyung.” TaeHyung doesn't wait for Yoongi to move, but rather lifts the covers and slides into the bed, and Yoongi moves over to accommodate the younger man. At first, TaeHyung doesn't do anything but stare up at the bottom of his own bunk, but then he turns onto his side and slides an arm around Yoongi's shoulders. Yoongi tenses and he guesses TaeHyung feels it too, because the younger whispers a low “Relax, hyung” in his ear. Yoongi's pulse speeds up and his palms start to sweat.

“TaeHyung, what are you doing?” Yoongi hears his voice crack, but he's definitely not nervous. What's there to be nervous about? It's probably just TaeHyung being weird again.

“I read this article that said you should love your tree to keep it healthy.” Oh, Yoongi thinks. “It said that trees need affection and need to hear how wonderful they are every day so they can grow strong.”

“Ah.” Yoongi can't really think of much to say.

“It also said singing to your tree can heal it of diseases.”

“You gonna sing to me?”

“Well, I don't want you to have Tar Spot forever, hyung.” Right. Yoongi rubs his sweaty palms on his sweatpants as TaeHyung starts singing. It's a Busker Busker song—Yoongi can't remember the name of it, but he recognizes the tune. “I should have been a little better to you, I should have been a little better to you, this isn't what I wanted—”

“That's a sad song,” Yoongi mumbles, leaning his head on TaeHyung's chest. “I don't really think sad songs are gonna make me grow better, you know.”

“Well, I'm sad.” TaeHyung's voice comes as a whisper, a barely-there sentence that Yoongi struggles to hear. The arm around Yoongi's shoulders tightens its grip and Yoongi wipes his sweaty hands on his pants again.

“Why?”

“Because if I had taken better care of you earlier you would have never gotten Tar Spot.” TaeHyung's hand comes up to play with Yoongi's hair; Yoongi's heart does a back flip inside of his ribcage. “You're my tree and I should have been better to you since the beginning, because then I wouldn't have to worry about you getting sick or dying.”

Yoongi takes note of the possessive word and it sets his insides on fire. “I'm your tree,” he echos.

“Yeah, mine. You're not HoSeok-hyung's, or JiMin's, or anybody else's—you're my tree. And I really should've been taking better care of you. When your hair turned black I thought you were dying and it scared me so bad and I really didn't know what to do and—”

“Shut up, kid. You talk too much.” Yoongi rolls his eyes and smiles, more than happy with the way this whole tree situation is ending. Both men are quiet for a while until Yoongi thinks of something. “TaeHyung, couldn't you have just gotten another tree if I died?”

“But I like you! I can't just replace you.” TaeHyung sounds so offended and it does nothing to settle the fire in Yoongi's heart.

“You like me? Because I'm your favorite tree.”

“Well, yeah. But I like you a lot more than that.”

“People aren't really too fond of cross-species relationships, TaeHyung.”

“Okay, but consider this: we could have adorable little sapling babies!”

Yoongi splutters. “B-babies?!” TaeHyung nods excitedly. “You do realize it's biologically impossible for me to have kids, right?”

“Yeah, but you're a tree! Anything's possible, hyung!” TaeHyung giggles; his hot breath brushes Yoongi's hair across his forehead. Yoongi wants to argue about the physical issues of him being a tree and also carrying children, but he decides to just let TaeHyung have his way.

“So you like me,” Yoongi says instead, trying his best to not seem too interested.

“I like like you.”

“Even though I'm a tree.”

“I'm pretty sure I'd like you even if you were a shoe, hyung. It's like, some things are supposed to happen. I guess you and I are one of those things.”

“Right, okay.” TaeHyung giggles again. “Um, so are we like, you know?” Yoongi looks up and TaeHyung's lips are so close to his own, and Yoongi really wants to reach up and pull his face down to meet his own, but his palms are sweaty and that's kind of gross. Fortunately, TaeHyung has the same idea and excitedly presses his lips against Yoongi's. Fireworks explode in Yoongi's chest and he swears TaeHyung giggles into the kiss, but he can't really find himself caring about anything other than how amazing it feels to finally be kissing the guy he's been crushing on for over a year. When they pull away TaeHyung giggles again, and Yoongi honestly has never felt more satisfied.

–

The next morning, Yoongi wakes up early and heads to the hair salon. When he comes home with newly dyed red hair, TaeHyung's face lights up as he exclaims “See! I knew that would work!”, and, yeah, Yoongi thinks, being a tree isn't so bad.