The Quiet Boy

Chapter 22

-

During the writing exercise, Taehyung had kept on changing the position he held the pencil. He couldn't remember how he uses to hold it. It bothered him to the point where he began to grow frustrated with himself.

Seeing him get annoyed with himself the nurse spoke up, "Here." she put down her pencil. "Hold it like this." grabbing his pencil she began to change the position of it. She laid the back of the pencil in the space between his thumb and points finger and put the top of the pencil against his middle finger. "Now put your pointer finger here on the pencil like this and your thumb atop your finger," she said as she moved his fingers into place. "Now move the pencil up or down into a comfortable spot."

All of Taehyung's frustration had disappeared in an instant. It wasn't completely comfortable but it was way more bearable than the other positions he had been trying.

"Better?" she asked with a small smile and received a nod in reply. "Let's continue then."

"This here says May." she circled the word and boxed the first letter as she had done on the previous words. She then drew a small oval and Taehyung followed. Continuing she made an even smaller line down from the oval and then a longer horizontal line under the previous line making the syllable "오(oh)".

"Now this part might look hard but it's easy, trust me. Next, to this syllable draw another oval." she said as she drew another. "under the oval is similar to what we did here but this part," she circled the letter under the oval. "Is upside down."

"So like this?" he tried writing to the best of his ability to do what she had explained to him.

"Yeah, like that." happiness filled her voice as a big smile occupied her lips. "Next you'll write a sideways version but the line here," she pointed to the shortest line. "Will be a bit more to the bottom. Like this", she wrote in pieces letting Taehyung follow. "Good. Now under these two syllables make a horizontal line."

Taehyung did as told.

"Next make a short line at the end of the line over here and make another horizontal line and do the same thing as you did here but over here and then finally one last horizontal line." she directed him completing the syllable "월(Wol)" spelling out "오월(Oh-wol)" meaning May.

Taehyung looked at his writing and then at hers. He hadn't felt proud of his writing until now. It wasn't neat or even near perfect but it was legible and that's all that mattered to him. "I did it." he happily cheered with a big proud smile on his face.

-

Taehyung had woken from a small nap almost a full hour ago and now he laid on his bed watching whatever it was that the TV showed. It was interesting at first but eventually, he began to grow bored of it. There was nothing for him to do here. A bored sigh had then filled the almost quiet room.

His attention was pulled towards his room door as he heard it open. A smile quickly formed on his lips when he saw Jeongguk enter the room.

"Hi, Tae." he smiled back as he sat down. "I brought you a small gift." opening a white bag that he had brought with him, he pulled out a pink stuffed bunny. "I wasn't fully sure what you liked so I got this. I thought that maybe it could help when we or the nurse aren't around."

Jeongguk had felt anxious about giving him the stuffed toy but seeing the boy's face light up when he saw it made him relax.

-

"Eunmi!" a nurse called happily. "What are you doing here? You don't work today and I don't remember you being called in."

Smiling back at the other female Eunmi spoke, "No, I wasn't called in. I came to see how Taehyung is doing." she stated.

"He's doing great. He's progressing pretty fast." The nurse said with great joy in her voice. "If I had to estimate on when he'd be able to leave. I'd say in about two more weeks."

"I'm so glad." Eunmi's smile widened. "Jeongguk will be so happy to hear that."

-

Jeongguk sat in his chair watching the TV along with Taehyung who had his arms wrapped around the stuffed toy. They didn't say anything as their eyes were glued to the screen but they didn't care. They felt happy just being near each other.

Taehyung likes being around Jeongguk. He felt comfortable and happy. Don't get him wrong, he felt comfortable and happy around the others too but it was different with Jeongguk. He didn't understand what it was but he didn't mind it too much.

But his joy was quickly ruined. He hated the random ones the most. They were always the worst.

He felt his chest begin to tighten and pain started to build up. No no. Not again. He thought to himself as his hands tightly gripped the toy. He tried to call the other male's name but his throat had tensed up preventing any noise from being made. It rapidly got worse, not giving him enough to react causing him to freeze in place. Not being able to do anything to get Jeongguk's attention, all he could do was sit there as the tears pooled in his eyes and spilled over, running down his cheeks.

You're okay. You're okay. He repeated to himself in hopes to calm himself down faster but it only grew and like a tsunami, the bad thoughts came flooding into his head. Everything that people had said to him had resurfaced.

Taehyung felt warmth spread around him as he heard Jeongguk's voice.

"It's okay, Tae. It's okay." he rubbed Taehyung's back. "Nothing bad is happening to you. You're alright. I'm right here."

The warmth of Jeongguk's body in the cold AC room and the steady sound of his heartbeat helped him calm down just enough that he could move again. He quickly wrapped his arms around Jeongguk, his hands gripping onto the back of his shirt as he pulled the other as close to himself as he could, burying his face into his chest.

-