The Tattoo on my Heart

25. Do you trust me?

"Do you need help, or do you know where the bathroom is?" Jimin asked Taehyung once he woke up, trying his best to keep his voice from shaking. 

Taehyung threw his pillow at Jimin, which completely missed its target, but Jimin decided not to burst Taehyung's bubble. "Shut up, goose!! I don't need your help!" he said, glaring at the wall behind Jimin, who began to laugh again. 

"Are we gonna hang out again today?" Taehyung asked once he finished brushing his teeth. "Maybe, I guess. I am not sure" Jimin said. They walked into the living room and flopped on the couch. 

Jimin switched on the TV. Yoongi was in the kitchen, cooking breakfast for the four of them, and Namjoon had his nose buried inside a shelf, checking if they had their groceries. "Hyung, we gotta buy groceries" he announced after a while. 

"Take Tae with you and show him around the new locality" Yoongi said. "Yeah, gonna do that" Namjoon said, closing the shelf and settling on the dining chair. 

"Jimin, Tae get your asses here. Breakfast is done" Yoongi hollered. "Yup, coming" Jimin hollered back.

"Tae and I are going out to buy groceries, hyung. Do you need anything?" Namjoon asked, walking into Seokjin's flat with his brother.  "We need groceries too! Jungkook, why don't you go with Tae? Namjoon can stay. You both go and get groceries for us" Seokjin said.

Jungkook stared blankly at Seokjin for sometime before nodding his head hesitantly. 

"Okay, then. It's settled" Seokjin said, handing him a list of groceries. "Wait a second, I'll be right back" Namjoon said, walking out of Jin's flat. Taehyung waited for a couple of minutes before he suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder.  He recognized his brother's scent immediately. 

"Here" Namjoon said, placing the folded cane into his hands. "Please be careful, Tae. I love you" Namjoon said, kissing his brother's cheek. Taehyung grabbed Namjoon's face and rubbed his cheek lovingly before placing a peck on it. 

"I love you too, hyung" he said and opened his cane. "Shall we go?" he asked Jungkook. "Yeah, come on" Jungkook said, walking slowly so that the older could follow him. 

It was a small walk to the shop, but Jungkook couldn't help but notice that even though Taehyung was using his cane, he kept tripping on small things that the cane missed. 

Before Jungkook could gather up enough courage to help him, they reached the shop. Luckily, it was a shop where they had to tell what they wanted and the worker would get it for them (Indian readers might understand what I am talking abt). 

Jungkook started with Taehyung's list first. 

"2 packets of cheese" he said, finishing his own list. He immediately noticed a grimace on Taehyung's face. 

"Don't you like cheese?" he asked. "Ewwwwwwwww" Taehyung dragged. "It's horrible! I hate it! So does my brother! We don't use it at all" he said. "Oh my god, I hate it too. Jin hyung makes me eat that disgusting thing, ugghhh god!" Jungkook said.

"Please tell me you hate milk too!" Taehyung said, grimacing again at the thought of milk. "Milk is tolerable to an extent" Jungkook said, rubbing his neck awkwardly even though Taehyung couldn't see it. 

He actually loved milk. But for some weird reason, he wanted Taehyung to have a good impression on him. He felt that matching of interests was important for him to get into Taehyung's good books. He didn't understand why he felt this way, but he found it quite surprising. 

"We both hate milk too" Taehyung said, making a weird face that the other found cute. Jungkook finally gathered up enough courage to ask Taehyung to let him help him. He had noticed how Taehyung never used his cane when he was with the people he trusted. 

"Do you trust me?" he asked. "Yeah, why?" Taehyung asked, confused at the sudden question. "Put your cane away" Jungkook said, letting his feelings take control of him. 

Taehyung smiled brightly before folding and putting the cane into the pocket of his jeans. Jungkook took Taehyung's hand gently and interlinked their fingers. "Let's go" he said. 

Both of them could feel the feelings blooming inside them, but they ignored them, thinking it was too early. The whole way back, they talked about what they liked and what not. They cracked jokes and laughed at each other. 

'Maybe moving on isn't that bad' Jungkook thought.

Seokjin was in the balcony when he saw Jungkook and Taehyung walk back towards the apartment, hands interlinked and faces beaming. He couldn't control the tears that came out as he saw his cousin's face. 

It'd been two years since he saw him smile like that. "What's wrong?" Namjoon asked, wrapping his hands around his waist and placing his chin on his shoulder. 

Seokjin simply jerked his head towards the two men walking below. Namjoon felt euphoric looking at his brother, who was finally finding his own happiness.