Chapter Text
I love you.
Taehyung checks his phone in the morning. He hadn’t even exited out of the messages last night. He skims it all again - the Taehyung-ah, hyung is so proud of you, the I know what I say can’t fix everything but I will try, the you mean so much to us all, the I’m so glad that now everyone can see what I’ve always seen, the you know this, but it’s important I say it anyway - until he gets to the end. To the part that he can’t stop repeating. Sleep hadn’t changed that. Now, he mouths the words again to make them feel more tangible; more real. I love you.
Taehyung’s reply is just under it - a single message. It had been all he’d been able to type through his tears. Hyung, hyung me too. Thank you. I love you so much, too.
Go to sleep, Taehyung. And as if Yoongi’s words had broken a spell, Taehyung had fallen asleep almost immediately.
Taehyung reads through the message again. Slowly, he picks apart each sentence. The weight of it all is still as heavy as it had been the first time. It makes him feel something. Jittery, he thinks. Impatient. The text he had sent last night in response just wasn’t enough. He had to make sure Yoongi knew just how much it meant to him. He probably knows that much already. He seems to know everything. He would know just how much Taehyung looks up to him; how deeply he loves him.
But knowing and being told were two very different things. Taehyung knows that very well, now. He had known all along that Yoongi loves him. Yoongi loves all of them. But it was seldom that Yoongi admits to it aloud. If given the chance to show or tell, he would almost always choose show. It’s something Taehyung loves about him. There were a lot of somethings on that list, actually.
A new text, this one jarring him with its sudden ting! notification, forces him to quit reading halfway through. For the third time. It was Jimin.
Taetae come eat
Which was odd, because Jimin would much rather bodily drag Taehyung out of bed instead of texting him.
Ok he texts back, and receives no reply. It makes him frown deeply.
The frown follows Taehyung as he pulls on his comfiest sweater and stumbles his way toward the bathroom. By the time he makes it to the kitchen, the frown is replaced with a yawn. Jimin is sitting at the table with a mug in one hand and his phone in the other. “Mornin,” Taehyung greets, and tries not to grimace at how horrible he sounds. Jimin snaps his head up; eyes wide as he stares at him. “Um?” He asks when Jimin takes a little too long to say anything.
“Taetae,” Jimin sighs; face melting into that soft expression he’s seen too many times recently. “Your eyes are so swollen. Come here.”
Taehyung allows himself to be resigned with his fate. Of course he wouldn’t be able to hide it from any of the others. They’d spent so long existing around each other that they couldn’t ignore signs if they tried. The second Taehyung shuffles within reaching distance Jimin has his arms wound around his waist. Taehyung folds onto Jimin’s lap easily, and buries his head in his shoulder. It’s a little of an awkward position, but if Taehyung were to comment about it (as he had before “Jimin, you’re too tiny to be holding me like this” which had resulted in a fairly painful punch) he would lose the coddling he so shamelessly loved.
“Oh, my baby,” Jimin cooes, and holds him tight. “I heard you crying last night, but I wanted to give you space. Should I have come in? Are you okay? What happened?”
Taehyung sighs; lets himself relax into the hold. “Nothing, no. Just... just one of those nights. Needed to cry, I guess.” Jimin hums in understanding. “I’m okay, though. If I need you, I’ll make sure to text.”
“Good, I was worried for so long.” Jimin lifts a hand to drag his fingers through Taehyung’s bangs. “Your hair is a mess. Why don’t you take a shower after breakfast? You’ll feel better.”
“Okay,” Taehyung croaks. His throat feels like it’s trying to trap words there; dry and painful. Jimin allows him to disentangle himself to settle down on the seat beside him. A plate filled with cut up fruits and a glass of orange juice awaits him. “Thank you, Jiminie.”
“Anything for my baby.” Jimin leans over and kisses his temple for emphasis.
Taehyung is eating the last of his apples when someone passes by the kitchen. “I’ll be back,” Yoongi calls, no doubt on his way to the studio.
“Bye, hyung. Don’t forget to eat!” Jimin’s yell is left unanswered. He huffs. “He’s totally going to forget.”
Taehyung’s mind finally catches up to him. That was Yoongi. Taehyung is jumping out of his chair and scrambling after Yoongi before he quite realizes. “Hyung!” Yoongi stops from where he’s knelt by the door; tying his shoelaces. He raises his eyebrows at him, surprised but attentive as he stands up. “Hyung,” Taehyung says again, because he can’t quite remember what had felt so urgent. Yoongi waits patiently, hands in his pockets. He looks small, like that. Swimming in one of Jin’s hoodies; shoulders hunched against a perpetual wind. Oh right. That’s it. “I love you.”
There’s something a little magical about the way Yoongi’s face slowly changes. It’s a shock, obviously, with the way his eyes widen and his lips part. The red that crawls up his neck; down his ears is soft and pretty. The words turn and spin and stab deeper into Taehyung’s chest. He loves him so much. “Um,” Yoongi says. The blush reaches his face, now. He brings his fingers up to press them against his cheeks, as if he doesn’t believe he’s blushing either. “Um, thank you?” But it’s more a question than a statement.
Taehyung feels himself grin wide. So cute. “I’ll see you later, hyung. Make sure to eat like Jiminie said.”
With a nod almost mechanical, Yoongi hurries out the door. The second it clicks shut, Taehyung’s shoulders slump. That felt like something very important just happened, but Taehyung wasn’t quite sure what it was. He’d said it before. It wouldn’t be the last time, either. But there was something about it. Something that felt a bit more. More important. More different.
“Tae, Jungkook is going to eat all your food if you don’t come back!” Jimin calls.
Something to think of later, then. “Stay away from my strawberries, Jeon Jungkook!”