TASTE | KTH

burning

Taehyung wakes up to Yeontan barking next to him on his bed. The dog's yapping seeps through the cracks of his subconscious enough to rouse him, and sufficiently scare the shit out of him. "Yeontan." Taehyung groans, pushing the little ball of fur away with his hand. The dog is relentless, though, continuing to jump on the half-asleep Taehyung. "Seriously, son?"Taehyung mutters, rolling over away from his puppy. "It's way too early for this--ow!" Taehyung exclaims when Yeontan bites his ear. Taehyung sits up, woken up enough by the sting of Yeontan's tiny teeth and ready to scold him.

But then he takes pause.

Yeontan has never bitten in his life. Taehyung is a diligent dog dad, he has made sure that Yeontan knows not to bite. In fact, now that he thinks about it, Yeontan has never randomly barked in the middle of the night, either. Taehyung trained him not to bark, period. "What's your deal, huh?" He asks the little puppy groggily. Yeontan continues to bark, romping about on Taehyung's bed chaotically. "Shush, you'll wake up Yura." He says.

That's when he realizes. Yeontan had slept in Yura's room last night. He vividly remembers shutting the door behind him after bidding her goodnight, so how did Yeontan get out? That, on top of him acting weird, Taehyung deduces that something is definitely wrong. He quickly gets out of bed, not even bothering to put on a shirt before running out of his room-- and almost stepping on the body curled up in front of his door on the ground.

"Holy shit." Taehyung curses, kneeling down next to Yura, worry painted clearly on his face. Her face is tear stained and her skin is scarily pale, sweat dripping down her temple. She opens her eyes when she hears his voice. "What's wrong? What's going on?" 

"It burns." Yura chokes out, wheezing for breath. Taehyung is worried now, recalling Hoseok's words. This must be the pain he's talking about. He didn't know it would happen so soon.

"Okay, let's get you off the floor, all right? We can go run you a bath to try and break the fever, okay?" Taehyung suggests, and Yura moans in pain, not even hearing him through the agony. He reaches out to close his hand around her arm and help her up, but as soon as his fingertips make contact with her skin, she lets out a piercing scream. She scrambles away from him, and Taehyung feels tears gathering in his eyes. "Oh, God, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry!" He cries.

"What's happening to me?" Yura sobs weakly, and Taehyung feels guilt eating him from the inside out. This is all his fault. If he would have just picked up Hoseok's calls, they wouldn't be here. If he would have just sucked it up and told her the truth about their soul bond, she wouldn't feel so lost and confused on top of being in immense pain.

"This is all my fault, but I'm gonna fix it. I'll tell you everything later. I'm gonna get some help, okay? Can you hang tight for just a little longer? Can you do that for me?" Taehyung murmurs to her, kneeling down to her. Through her tears, Yura nods. Taehyung shudders when he sees angry red marks on the place where his fingers just touched. He rushes to his room and calls Hoseok with trembling hands. It's not even light outside yet, so he just prays he'll answer.

"What?" Hoseok answers on the second to last ring, clearly pissed for being woken up.

"Hyung, it's happening." Taehyung says, so distressed he's struggling to form coherent sentences. "It's Yura, she's hurting, hyung." He cries. Hoseok, being himself, understands immediately. 

"Shit. That was quick." He says, and his words are accompanied by rustling of his bedclothes as he gets out of bed. "What's going on, exactly?"

"She tried to come get me but couldn't even make it down the hall, Yeontan came and woke me up. She said it's burning, and she's crying. And, fuck, I can't even touch her or it hurts her even more." Taehyung rambles brokenly.