Twisted Life, Thorny Love

13. The park

"Careful, both of you!!" Jungkook yelled at the two kids who were busy playing on a heap of mud beside the swing. "Woah, your voice got hoarse!" Taehyung said. Jungkook cleared his throat. "Yeah" he said, sniffing once again. "It was fine in the college, wasn't it? Did you take some medicine or something?" Taehyung asked. "Not yet. Later" Jungkook said vaguely. "You've got to be kidding me! Seriously?! Are you mad or are you mad?!" Taehyung asked. "Chill! I'll take them bef - achoo - before going to sleep" Jungkook said. Taehyung shook his head and buried his hands into his pocket. 

"I like this kind of weather, you know.....neither hot, nor cold....I don't get why people call this dull. I love it when it is like this" Taehyung said as they walked around in the park, keeping a close eye on the kids at the same time. "I don't exactly like it, but I don't hate it either. I kind of keep falling under the weather frequently when it is like this" Jungkook said. "Ohh. I don't fall under weather so easily" Taehyung said. "Lucky you - Oh! Dohyeon!!" Jungkook shouted as he ran towards the kids. 

Dohyeon had slipped from the mud, falling face first into it and sliding down. He ran and picked him up and dusted him. "It's okay, it's okay, it'll be gone, it's okay" he kept chanting as Dohyeon started crying. Junha started crying just because Dohyeon was crying and Taehyung ran to him. "I'll do magic, okay? Abracadabra Giligilichoo! Choo! Choo!! See? The pain is gone, right?" Jungkook asked as he waved his hand around his face as if he were holding a wand. 

Dohyeon innocently nodded his head with a pout on his face. "Good boy. See?! No pain! Now come on, let's play the slide" Jungkook said and picked him up. "Kook, you send them down, I'll stand here to catch them" Taehyung said, standing near the end of the slide and sending Junha to Jungkook. "Okay" Jungkook said and put Dohyeon on the seat first. 

"Ready, one...two....three!!" Jungkook said, slightly pushing him down. Dohyeon yelled on the top of his voice as he went down and started giggling when Taehyung caught him. Junha was jumping with excitement. "Thaiga' Thaiga' " he kept yelling, referring to himself as 'tiger'. Jungkook laughed loudly before taking him to the steps. 

"Come on, climb" he said. He stood right behind him to make sure he didn't fall. Once Junha sat on the top, he gave him a huge smile and a gentle push. Junha yelled as he went down, giggling as Taehyung caught him at the end. 

Soon, the park was filled with yells and shrieks and laughs as the two of them kept coming back round after round. A few other kids who saw them, ran over to Jungkook, asking him to do the same for them as well. 

They spent a good hour and a half with the swings and merry-go-rounds before Jungkook started to feel like shit. "Okay, I'm drained. Let's just go and sit down somewhere and let them play with the mud" he said weakly, tugging at Taehyung's arm and pulling him towards the bench. 

Taehyung frowned at the heat coming from his hand and turned towards the kids. "Kids, go and play with the mud, okay? We will be on that bench" he said, and the two of them walked towards the bench. 

"Jungkook, you are warm" Taehyung said, his eyebrows furrowing in concern as he placed a hand on his forehead. "You mean, I am hot??" Jungkook asked as he rested his head on the bench and stared at the sky with a smirk on his lips. "Yeah. Both physically and figuratively" Taehyung said, smiling back at him. 

"What?! So you accept that I am hot?" Jungkook asked, whipping his head towards Taehyung. "Of course. But we'll talk about how hot you are later. Right now, you are really, physically, temperature-wise hot" Taehyung said. "Yeah yeah I know. I feel like shit too. I'll just go home and sleep. A good night's sleep can do miracles, you know?" 

"I know, but still. Let's just stop this shit and go home. You can always bring him back again. He won't feel bad. He is too young to feel bad for this yet" Taehyung said. "But I'll feel bad. He has literally been asking for a month now. I promised I would let him play till 8. We'll go home after that" he said, leaning his head back on the bench and closing his eyes. 

Taehyung let him be and silently took his hands, caressing them in his own. He suddenly felt Jungkook stiffen in his hold. He wondered why the younger suddenly had a frown on his face. "What's wrong?" he asked. "Huh? N-Nothing" Jungkook said, pulling his hands out of Taehyung's hands. 

"You are right. I'll just go home" he said and walked towards Junha. "Okay, kids! Play time over! Come on, let's go home" he said, going forward to pick Junha up. 

But he had no energy in him to keep him up. He immediately put him down and gave him his index finger to hold on and walked with him instead. He looked hurt for some reason, but Taehyung just attributed it to being sick.

"Good night, Taehyung. Good night, Dohyeon! Junha, say Good Night" Jungkook said, voice heavy with tiredness. "Gunait" Junha yelled. "Gunait" Dohyeon yelled back. "Take care, Jungkook. Take some medicine" Taehyung said. "Yeah. Bye" he said and walked towards his car. 

He barely managed to keep his eyes open. He somehow managed to drive back home and tuck Junha into his blankets before taking a blanket and a pillow and getting onto the couch. 

He didn't want to sleep with Junha and pass on his fever to the kid. He snuggled into his blanket and thought about what happened in the park. 

He was feeling slightly dizzy when he pulled Taehyung towards the bench. It felt strangely comfortable when Taehyung took his hands and caressed them. He had been keeping his feelings under control all this while because he knew for sure that Taehyung was too manly to be gay. He knew that he didn't have a chance. 

Thus, he ignored the butterflies in his stomach whenever they were together. His crush had been growing stronger and stronger for the past two months and he kept himself satisfied by getting closer to him. 

By this time, he believed he was the closest person to the elder and he felt a bit happy at the fact that he was the only person other than Jin to get to spend so much time with Taehyung.  

But all of those small things that kept him going on all this while came crashing when Taehyung took his hands to caress them. He didn't understand why he had never noticed it. He felt happy and warm and comfortable in the starting. But suddenly he felt it. He felt a metal band brush one of his fingers.  

He suddenly stiffened. He felt shocked. He felt betrayed. Of course, they weren't in a relationship or anything, and he certainly didn't have any hopes of getting together with him, but he thought they were close enough for Taehyung to tell him about it. 

Sure, even Jungkook had his own secrets. But they weren't secrets that would hurt someone. It wouldn't hurt anyone if he hid them. But Taehyung's one? He felt extremely hurt that Taehyung didn't tell him a word about it. 

At first, he thought he was unnecessarily being paranoid. Maybe it was just an accessory. But he opened his eyes and stole a glance at Taehyung's hand just to be sure. And there it was, a ring sitting magnificently on the ring finger of Taehyung's left hand.

He scolded himself for having a crush on a married man as he tried to fall asleep, and that was when he suddenly remembered. It had happened two years ago, a year after Namjoon got married.

"Why can't you guys come this weekend? It's been almost four months since we hung out" Jungkook whined over phone. After working his ass out for a long time, he finally found a bit of free time and decided to spend it with his friends, only to be let down by Namjoon and Jin. 

"Jin's younger brother is getting married, Kook. We have to attend that marriage" Namjoon had said.