Brighter Days || Taekook

Part 11

It's weird how living with someone long enough can turn a stranger into a friend. Can Taehyung call the other members his friends? It's complicated.

There's been a weird shift since that night Yoongi found Taehyung in the bathroom. The younger boy doesn't really know what it is, but something has definitely changed. It's hard to describe, but it's suddenly like Yoongi has become protective in a way? When they all eat together, Yoongi makes sure that Taehyung's got enough food on his plate before eating himself. He asks him how he slept every morning, and when Taehyung's talking to one of the managers, Yoongi will question the nature of their conversation.

Namjoon's different as well. He always asks Taehyung for his opinion now, always gives him a bloody choice. It's come to a point where it's almost annoying: does he want orange juice or apple juice; would he prefer beef or chicken; what flavour does he want for his ramen? They're things that Taehyung doesn't even care about, but he thinks that Namjoon feels guilty about promising Taehyung a choice in choosing his stage name, when that really wasn't the case. Bang PD-nim stuck with V. He's insisting on it, and no one can tell him why he's so obsessed with it. No one except for Namjoon maybe, who starts acting really weird whenever Taehyung brings it up.

So Taehyung doesn't have a choice but to get used to V again. He asks the other members to call him by his name unless necessary, and asks Jimin to do so as well.

Friends...

Jimin's a friend. That much Taehyung is sure of. Namjoon? Maybe. He's definitely more than just an acquaintance, but he's also the leader and that's what makes Taehyung hesitant in calling him as such. He's sure that if push came to shove, Namjoon would have no trouble throwing him under the bus.

He can definitely call Jungkook a friend. They often watch anime together way into the night, when both of them can barely keep their eyes open. For some weird reason, Jungkook seems to admire him a lot. It's stupid, because Taehyung hasn't done anything admirable. But Jungkook looks at him wide-eyed, and whatever Taehyung says, the younger boy agrees.

Hoseok likes to say, "He's the best maknae there is," Maybe that's true. Taehyung's lacking the social skills to judge whether a maknae really looks up to his hyungs the way Jungkook does.

Hoseok's a different story. He still feels like a stranger to Taehyung. They talk, and he's a great dance teacher, but somehow they don't click. Seokjin, on the other hand, is someone Taehyung gets along with easily. He's funny and caring, and he reminds Taehyung of his grandmother. Maybe that's because she was the only person that'd ever cared for him before. In a weird way, Taehyung could almost say that he feels fond of the man.

And then there's Yoongi.

Hyung. That's what Taehyung called him once, and although he hasn't spoken the word out loud again, he does refer to Yoongi this way in his head. He used to intimidate Taehyung the most, the serious look on his face, his no-nonsense attitude. But after he'd calmed him down in the bathroom, Taehyung sees him in an entirely different light. It's not like there's a glowing halo above his head, but he seems kinder. More approachable. Even with the look on his face that says back the fuck off.

Somehow, Taehyung feels like he's slowly becoming a genuine part of Bangtan Sonyeondan.
___

Seokjin's taking Jungkook out to the Han river on a sunny day in June. They're planning to go biking along the river and then going to grab some food. It sounds like a nice way to spend the day, so when Seokjin asks if Taehyung wants to join them, the boy doesn't hesitate to agree.
There's something so normal about this, the kind of normalcy that Taehyung never really experienced in his childhood. Of course he used to have friends and did fun things with them from time to time, but whenever he dared to go out, the reminder of his father possibly waiting for him to come home in anger, lingered at the back of his mind and dampened the joy.