txt taejun - "I just need to scream."
Yeonjun puts his arms around Taehyun's shoulders. He has to comfort all of them like this, every now and then—they have to comfort him—but Taehyun's whole body refuses it. It's like trying to hug a wooden plank, hard and dangerous with splinters.
"Let me—" he starts, and Taehyun's body clenches even stiffer. A mistake, to make him think he's even taking comfort wrong. "It's okay, however you're feeling," he tries instead. "It's okay to cry."
Taehyun scoffs, a hot, rude little pop from his throat. "I don't know how to cry."
"Tell hyung what you need, then," Yeonjun says.
Taehyun's shoulders shudder once, a microscopic shift toward relaxation. Hyung authority always works on him.
"I just need to scream." Taehyun looks helplessly around the empty green room, and at the thin door between them and a horde of staff and cameras. "Maybe when we get home, I'll borrow one of Kai's plushies."
"Here," Yeonjun opens his arms, acting to help without thinking. "I'm not as good a plushie as Soobin, but I think this will work."
Taehyun stares. Yeonjun is stuck there, just for a second, realizing this was a stupid idea. Maybe Taehyun will feel better after laughing at him, at least.
Before Yeonjun can lower his arms, Taehyun dives forward, pressing his face into Yeonjun's chest.
The sound Taehyun makes comes from somewhere deep and inside him and vibrates to the same place in Yeonjun's gut. He feels it everywhere—in his scalp, under his fingernails, down his legs and into the earth beneath him.
When Taehyun sits back up, it's Yeonjun who's breathless. He puts his hand over the warm, not quite damp spot on his chest and feels the drum of his heart.