Jar Of Hearts

Chapter 13: Endure my love

    Beomgyu knew he shouldn't have spoken until the words were already out.

     Had it not been for his curiosity or the aching urge to do something fallacious, he would've never caught himself asking such a secluded question. He was painstakingly aware of his boundaries and respected them.

     The question seemed to catch him off guard as much as it knocked Taehyun, even more so. It struck him how calm he seemed to be.

     “I’m sorry, I shouldn't have asked that. You don't have to tell me,” Beomgyu retreated instantly, feeling much more blameworthy when the warm hand fell from his cheek, taking the comfort with it. He wanted to steal his words out of the air and hope they wouldn't come back.

     Taehyun shook his head, no concealed malice or discomfort to be seen. “Hyung, it's okay,” he stopped him, voice tranquil and light. “It isn't the first time someone has asked me this.”

     Truth be told, he’d seen that coming. It was a natural first thought that anyone would think when they’d first see Taehyun. Branded by his hearts, many may wonder about his abundance rather than his favourite colour, or even his name. That was how it'd been for him, hadn't it?

     As for Beomgyu, his current lifestyle was a constant state of receiving implied pity. He didn’t know which was worse.

     “You don’t have to tell me,” Beomgyu requested, discouraged. Two minutes, that was all he desired; to go back two minutes where he hadn’t spoken and Taehyun’s hand still shared its heat against his face.

     “It was inevitable, wasn’t it?” Taehyun simpered, an underlying bitterness trickling through his voice even though a blatant attempt to conceal it was shown. “I was going to tell you before, but I didn’t want to unload so much on you.”

     “You’re not a burden, I hope you know that,” Beomgyu consoled him faster than needed as the casual urge itching to touch him arose again. It was getting unbearable at this point. “You can tell me anything.”

     Still adequately close, he met Beomgyu’s eyes, hesitance glossing over them surely. “Thank you,” he paused, averting his gaze.

     With a shaky inhale, he began. “When I told you about…” a pause, ostensibly recalling his thoughts, “everything, I left some out about someone helping me.”

     Beomgyu nodded encouragingly even though the younger boy’s eyes weren’t watching him. At this moment, he was opening himself up wholly, the steel door encasing his feelings beginning to slide open for Beomgyu to probe at. His heart felt heavy, both in his chest and on his wrist.

     He hummed instead, hoping the tender murmur from his voice would guide him and let him know he was listening. He was unceasingly listening when it came to him.

     “There was this boy I knew from school,” Taehyun proceeded deliberately, his voice delicate, “we were close and all that. Uh, he had one heart.”

     Beomgyu grimaced at the erudition, the fabric sleeve around his wrist beginning to itch annoyingly. All of Taehyun's wicked encounters seemed to have been with people with a single heart. How had he let Beomgyu in? He wondered if Taehyun used to avoid people like him, just like how Beomgyu steered away from people with a full wrist of hearts.

     Times had changed, and so had he. All because of one boy.

     “He knew about what happened with my family, and he’s one of the reasons I hadn’t given up back then,” Taehyun fluctuated, beginning to lose the therapeutic stability he usually voiced. “He’d even lend me money at times no matter how many times I asked him not to.”