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boredom is an invitation for the mind to play games, to get lost in powerful fantasies of worlds that didnt exist and a reality that would never accept them. it was times like this that had his thoughts flowing without directions, they had the power to go down whatever paths they wanted – new paths to be discovered rather than the same old paths filled with daily worries that usually ran in his mind over and over again. it was a painful disconnect, someone or something that would interrupt the fantasies and pull the boy back to his sad reality.

his interruption was the wheels of the nurse cart coming in and a painted red smile adding some color to the room. "good morning mr jeon." ms aecha was smiling and scrolling through her tablet, just to grab the clipboard hanging on the end of his bed. queen of multitasking.

"morning." he greeted her.

"how are you doing today? get some good sleep?" she asked, but her eyes never left the paper.

"uh huh slept great." it was a lie. the bags under his eyes could have revealed this for him. there wasnt a chance of sleeping last night, not with the subtle headache that wouldnt leave after many hours. it was too bad to deal with, but when time to sleep came around it suddenly felt worse. jungkook knew he should have said something about it, it was one of the rules. any symptom or pain that lasted longer than 12 hours he should have said something. jungkook didnt feel like his nurse asking a bunch of questions and probably leading to more tests and crap later. he just wanted to be left alone today.

left alone. hes been alone for four days now. four days since his lung xrays, four days since he wish he could eat a hot dog, and four days since he last saw taehyung and told him that he had cancer.

jungkook tried not to think too much about it. the boy was literally here to see his mom, not spend time with jungkook and keep him from being bored. he tried to keep telling himself he didnt scare him away, but each day made that a little harder to come across convincingly.

"so, i noticed you've been hanging out with taehyung." normally her attempts at small talk were more boring than this. except now jungkook was turning from the window and plopping down on the side of the bed. "yeah, so?" he tried to seem uninterested, picking at a thread on the blanket and keeping his face neutral. he couldnt hide the warmth in his cheeks though, or the beating of his heart so fast it had his stomach twisting in on itself.

"have you told him?" she asked. there was a professional and personal battle going on with te nurse. she wanted the boy to make friends and enjoy what he could, but considering it had to be the son of her other patients dealing with the same sickness was unfortunate. taehyung didnt need to worry about two people suffering from the same cancer, all his focus should be on his mother.

jungkook simply nodded and a soft sigh left his lips. "four days ago. totally not counting though."

ms aecha chuckled a little at his response, he was so counting.

she was going to say it outloud too, tease the boy a little more since this softer shy version of himself was different from the stubborn and sarcastic one. that is, until she checked his cart and saw the pink and blue capsules that should have been gone already.

"jungkook." she was stern now, and jungkook looked up from the blanket.

he saw what she was looking at now, lips turned down in disapproval and he had to come up with some reason for his night medication to still be there. "i can totally explain that." that was the best he could come up with.

"jungkook there is no explanation and no reason you can give me-"

"i got tired and i fell asleep and forgot to take them, it was an honest mistake." he shrugged and stood from the bed, walking over to the table by the window to grab his hoodie and slip it on over his head.

ms aecha was still shaking her head now and discarding the medications. "i know you dont like people breathing down your neck, but if youre not going to do it yourself im going to have to have someone distribute them to you again." she said, arms crossed and watching the ravenette barely pay her any attention. "and then watch until you take them." she added.

jungkook just nodded and reached for his backpack, he wanted to get out of this room.

his nurse wasnt sure how much he was actually listening, and she might just go and do what she had to do despite the boy getting annoyed by it. "in order for this to work, you need to follow your regimine." she said, now placing the new morning prescription on his cart.

jungkook sighed and wondered if she would be done talking by now. he figured he should be a little nice this morning so he walked around the bed to the cart. he was about to take his meds but frowned, "wheres the pudding cup? how am i supposed to take these." he pouted.

"you lost your pudding cup privileges. try some water." ms aecha smiled and gave his shoulder a pat, "ill see you in the afternoon!" she called before exiting the room.

jungkook frowned and then followed it with a roll of his eyes, "water. yeah right." and soon he was sitting on the edge of his bed and digging through his backpack to find the mountain dew bottle.

he was elbow deep, getting frustrated, and almost about to quit looking for the soda – when there was a knock on the open door.

his bangs bounced from looking up so quick. there was no way ms aecha already had something to come back and lecture him about-

except it wasnt his nurse. jungkook felt his stomach twist again and his backpack fell to the floor during his mild surprise. taehyung stood there, after four days passing he had the audacity to stand there and lean against the doorframe of his hospital room with a little grin on his face. "so this is your crib?" he said it with that dumb deep voice and dark brown eyes looking around the room until landing on the ravenette sitting there on the bed.

"i dont recall giving you the code to my gate." jungkook recovered from his surprise, leaning back on the bed on the palms of his hands.

"your butler gave me a pass." taehyung joked, walking into the room and closer to the ravenette.

"im going to have to talk to him about that."

taehyung chuckled again and it sounded lovely. jungkook was annoyed by it.

"how have you been?" he asked now, still watching the ravenette. jungkook sat up now and reached for the water bottle and first cup of pills. he said with a lazy shrug, "oh you know, chilling, going out and getting wasted with pretty people. just living life." he laughed a little at the end.

taehyung rolled his eyes and walked around the bed to take a seat at the table by the window. he was tired of standing awkwardly in the middle of the room, his change of position had the other boy turning as well and bringing one leg up onto the bed. "im serious." taehyung said. he could see the bags under the boys eyes, and maybe it was the dark hair and black hoodie he had on, but he seemed paler. "how are you doing?"

jungkook shrugged and tossed back the rest of the capsules, swallowing hard and following it with a quick sip of water. "tired. bruised. medicated. out of breath. the usual." he said, looking at the other now who watched him intently. "how are you, hows your mom?"

this wasnt how he expected to spend his morning, jungkook figured hed get a little lecture from his nurse and then hed be out of there. hed walk around the halls and probably find someone to play cards with before going to see how the babies were doing. then again he wasnt complaining right now, he was still stuck in his room but the company was okay.

"she had a couple bad days, a couple of scares." taehyung said, he played with his fingers and stared down at his hands when he talked. "they got her on a ventilator right now."

jungkook nodded and crushed the empty paper cup in his hand, throwing it across the room just to hit the wall and miss the trash bin. a ventilator kind of sucked. to jungkook, it already sucked that he was restricted to one and a half working pairs of working lungs, but at least he could walk around and do as he pleased with minimal restrictions. the ventilator was like a trap, keeping you in place and doing all the work your lungs should have done itself.

there was a comfortable silence that fell over the two of them. yet, it was somewhat uncomfortable at the same time. neither of them felt like they had to say anything, which is what made it comfortable – yet there was so much to say, which made it uncomfortable for the possible remarks and questions that could come up.

taehyung didnt want to have a solemn day though, he didnt want to spend time dreading the inevitable and talking about things that were bound to happen when he was free to mke choices of what will happen. and he decided that the two of them were going to have a good day. they were going to spend it together and pretend like nothing ever bad happened in the world. it might not have been the best idea, considering both would have to come back to reality at some point. for now though, it felt okay. taehyung could help the little smile that appeared now, thinking about jungkook and the time he wanted to spend with the boy.

"i think its time i show you my favorite place.

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comment if youre ready for more, im curious what you think