Chasing Fire | VKOOK

22. The Art Of Getting Over Your Dead Fish

│C H A P T E R  2 2│

Taehyung was a few feet away from the boy when he got up, the distant sound of urgent feet striking the ground reached his ears over the rain. Before Jeongguk could open his mouth to say anything, the devil wrapped his arms around the shivering boy, the pair now standing in the middle of the empty roadway devoid of any being.

Taehyung buried his face into Jeongguk's shoulder, closing his eyes as he lightly dragged his fingers across the younger's jacket, drenched in water. The leathery feeling of it established the fact that Jeongguk was present. He was there in his arms.

It took awhile for Jeongguk to hug him back but when he did, despite the overpowering cold, the two boys felt a blaze of fire.

The rain had slowed and neither of them spoke.

"What kdrama am I in?" Jeongguk whispered timidly as he pulled away from the devil. They stepped away from each other and the devil took a few seconds to scan the younger's condition.

His cheeks didn't hold the usual hue of a blush instead they were pale and ghostly as a cause of the thunderstorm he faced. His hair was drenched, pieces falling over his eyes but he didn't bother to push them away. His clothes hugged his body in a tight embrace, and through the material Taehyung could see Jeongguk trembling slightly.

"I would give you my jacket, but I-" Taehyung glanced down at himself. "-I forgot to wear one."

Jeongguk's eyes widened in worry as he opened his mouth to protest, but Taehyung beat him to it.

"Jeongguk? What are you doing here?" Taehyung questioned softly. Jeongguk looked down at his feet, before he started walking past Taehyung. Taehyung followed him. They started to take slow steps down the road. The rain, now tapped lightly against their shoulders in silent announcement that it's still present.

"I wanted to get out." Jeongguk answered, keeping his eyes faced forward while Taehyung had his fixed on him. "Take a stroll, I guess. And of course, my dumbass forgot I'm horrible with directions and that I can't differentiate left and right, so I got lost."

"And you laid down? In the middle of the road?" Taehyung inquired, a little too urgently and Jeongguk glanced at him meekly.

"No?"

"I literally saw you, Jeongguk."

"Okay, fine I did. Seokjin said the thunder can't hurt you and it was really peaceful, I highly recommend, you should try it sometime but if Seokjin lied and you end up looking like a well roasted turkey it's not my fau-"

Jeongguk was stopped short when Taehyung grabbed his hand, his fingers wrapping itself around Jeongguk's wrist as he held him in place. Jeongguk then noticed Taehyung's eyes, which were reddened due to his past breakdown.

"Taehyung, did you cry?" Jeongguk questioned, turning himself to look at the devil more scrutinizingly. Taehyung avoided the question with a small tilt of his head as he averted his gaze.

"Jeongguk, listen-" Taehyung began, letting go of the younger's wrist but Jeongguk stood in his place, his ears peeled for what the devil was about to deliver. Taehyung stood for a while in utter silence, collecting his thoughts, arranging the words in his brain before carefully enunciating them.

"I thought I lost you for a second there," he remarked. "I know you can't technically die but the thought of you just-" he halted to let out a sigh. "-it scared me so much."

The small shiver in his voice towards the end of the sentence made Jeongguk want to pull him in into a hug but he didn't cede to his desires. Instead, he waited for the devil to continue. The rain had now stopped completely, except for an occasional rumble, the surrounding held silence and serenity.