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The first night at Taehyung’s house feels like we stepped into the set of a family sitcom, where the lights are warm, the silences are filled with laughter and everything is comically exaggerated. Taehyung shows me a few baby photos of Yeontan, and then, after a lot of begging on my side, he reluctantly shows me a few of him as a little boy.
“You look exactly the same!” I marvel at the photo as he smiles, cheeks slightly flushed in embarrassment.
“So do you,” he turns to me with a spark in his eyes, and I cock my head to the side.
“When did you –”
He pulls out his phone, quickly swiping through his camera roll until he reaches a certain photo. Of me.
“You look so cute, I just had to take a photo,” he giggles as I glare at him.
“Delete it,” I order, but he shakes his head stubbornly, holding the phone away from me.
“Nah, I’m keeping this one forever,” he smirks. “So you better be nice to me or I’ll have to use this photo as blackmail.”
“Oh, you’re bad.”
“But you like when I’m bad, don’t you, Aria?” he has the audacity to bite his lip, tilting his jaw upward as he peers down at me with a sexy gaze.
And I’d be lying if I say it didn’t affect me.
“Yah, what the heck is wrong with you?” I hit his arm to cover up my flustered state and snap him out of whatever that was.
“Oh, you don’t remember, do you?” he chuckles, setting down the photo album back on the shelf and slipping his phone back into his pocket. And that’s when it kicks in again. That damn phone call.
“Remember what?” I play innocent, and he arches an eyebrow.
“You really don’t remember?”
I swallow, avoiding his eyes. “No.”
He leans in close. “You sure?”
“Yes…”
“Would you like me to help you remember?” he whispers this in my ear, as if he isn’t already causing me enough stress, and it takes all that I have in me not to self-combust, so I step back.
“No, however, there’s something else I would like your help with,” I grab his wrist, tugging him along with me out of the room.
“Ooh, where are we going?” he sounds amused as I drag him down the hallway past all the bedrooms. It’s only when we stop before the closed door of the room I am to stay in that I realize this might not be a good idea.
“What do you need help with exactly?” Taehyung’s voice sounds deeper in the semi-darkness of the hall, but I don’t let it shake my resolve as I open the door and switch on the light, leading him into the room.
“Unpacking,” I finally reveal, gesturing to the suitcases. He walks over to them, then turns to me.
“Really?”
I nod, tucking some hair behind my ear. “Sure. I mean, I’m gonna be here for a while, right?”
He visibly brightens up. “Right! Okay, I’ll help,” he claps his hands once, rubbing them together as I kneel beside my suitcase, unzipping it slowly.
Thank God all my underwear is in the other bag, otherwise this would be so awkward.
We work together in a comfortable silence, transferring my clothes to the wardrobe, hanging the jackets on hangers and folding the pants. Due to such short notice, I wasn’t able to pack everything with me except what I need, so it doesn’t take long for us to finish with my suitcase.
“Is that all?” Taehyung absent-mindedly rakes his fingers through the back of his hair as he looks around the room. I sit on the bed with an exhausted sigh.
“I couldn’t bring everything, so most of my stuff is still at the house. We still have a couple of days left until we have to be completely out of the house, so we’re going to organize it tomorrow.”
Taehyung watches me with a seemingly blank expression, but as he approaches closer, I can see the sympathy swimming in those large dark eyes. He sits beside me, drawing me closer with his arm so that I have no choice but to rest my head on his shoulder.
“I still can’t believe this is happening, Taehyung. We worked so hard to keep that house for so long, and now, it’s just…” I stare at my fingers. “It’s all my fault.”
Taehyung shifts slightly beneath me, taking in a sharp breath. “It’s not your fault, Aria. How could it be your fault?”
I bite my lip, debating whether I should confess what is truly eating me away on the inside. But then he softly takes my hand and gently squeezes, and for some reason, that gesture alone gives me enough incentive to continue.
“My university fees…they were too much, even with the HECS help, so we’re in a lot of debt,” as soon as I say this Taehyung’s grip on my hand tightens. “And this debt means we have to – I have to – take leave from uni. At least for now,” I add quickly.
“Won’t you finish the semester? Until exams? I mean, we only have three weeks left after the break.”
“Break?” I totally forgot about the break. See, our university just thought it would be a grand idea to have a mid-semester break after nine weeks. And then four weeks after that is exams. Talk about tactful scheduling. Not.
“Yeah, and we can spend the break together,” Taehyung raises our interlocked hands up, grinning.
“Yeah, I guess,” I sigh dejectedly, and I swear I can hear the grin drop from Taehyung’s features.
“Hey,” he nudges me, twisting his body to face my side. When I don’t turn to him, he forces me to, taking hold of both my hands. “It’s going to be okay, remember? Don’t worry too much, Aria.” He cups my cheek, stroking his thumb across my skin, and I look down, feeling an onslaught of tears well up inside. Don’t cry, Aria. Not in front of Taehyung.
But of course, my body has a habit of disobeying me, and I wish I could disappear as one lonely tear slips out, caught by Taehyung’s lingering thumb. He puckers his brow as he gazes sadly at me with literal puppy eyes.
“Hey, Aria, don’t cry,” he swipes away the next tear, grabbing my entire face in his large warm hands and peering at me as I try to look away.
“I’m sorry, I just –”
My words are muffled as he pulls me into his arms, a gesture that only brings even more tears that I let fall silently in his embrace. How can he care so much about me? Why is he so warm all the time?
Why is it that every time he holds me, I never want to let go?
“You don’t need to be sorry for anything, Aria,” he assures me in his rumbling voice that I can feel at my core. “And you definitely shouldn’t feel like any of this is your fault, because it isn’t.”
I am too broken down to roll my eyes, because I have watched enough dramas in my life to know that those words are the typical thing to say in these types of situations. Yet why does he make them seem so new and genuine, as if those words have been specially strung together just for me?
“When I said let’s be together from now on, I meant it in every way. Aria,” he looks at me, eyes ablaze with determination as his palms burn on my shoulders. “Let’s be together when things are happy, and when things are difficult. Let’s be together for all of it. Okay?”
The way he says okay is so cute and child-like that I let out an involuntary giggle, reminding me of when I first met him nine weeks ago, and the way he behaved, so cute and child-like, you can’t help but become enamoured by him.
“Okay,” I giggle, and he pats the top of my head with a satisfied smile.
“Good girl.”
“What am I, a dog?” I retort.
“No, you’re a puppy,” he ruffles my hair, and I glare at him as I attempt to fix the mess he created.
“I think you’re more of a puppy than me,” I reach out and ruffle his hair, but instead of glaring at me like I did to him, he closes his eyes with a smile, enjoying it.
“I agree,” he chuckles as I lower my arm. Halfway through, he snatches it, roughly shoving me so that I fall onto the mattress, hair fanning out above me. He smirks down at me cheekily, kneeling on the bed and pinning both my arms at each side of my head. I squirm, refusing to let him win this easily, but he just giggles goofily as I attempt to kick and push him away, only to succumb to him at the end.
“Yah, go away!” I laugh as he sticks his tongue out, pretending to lick me as if he were a puppy.
“But I’m a cute puppy,” he insists with two paws and a pout.
“You wish,” I scoff, about to roll away from him when he suddenly slams two palms on either side of me, trapping me underneath him. I have no choice but to look up at him, and the look in his eyes makes me gulp.
“Looks like the puppy is angry,” I laugh out nervously.
“There’s no puppy here,” he growls. “Only Taehyung.”
“Taehyung? Who’s that?”
Big mistake, Aria.
He dips his head into my neck, his hot breath spreading across my skin like wildfire as a hand snakes along my side, hovering over my ribcage. I shiver as his fingertips crawl over my shirt and his dark voice enters my ear, “You’re gonna regret that, Aria.”
And then he proceeds to tickle me, but unlike last time, he succeeds, peals of laughter escaping my lips.
“No, stop, Taehyung, haha, that tick – ah!”
At each attempt to block his hands, he only finds another way, taking pleasure out of completely torturing me. Why am I suddenly ticklish? My body never fails to let me down, I swear, and this time, it was me who let her guard down.
“Who am I, huh? What’s my name?”
“Taehyung! Your name is Taehyung! Now stop, please!” I laugh, and he obeys, but not before the door opens, and we are caught in this position, with him hunched over me, one step away from straddling me as he pins me down.
“What the hell are you guys doing?”
Of course, that voice belongs to my mother. We spring apart, reliving another time when she caught us together. I am the first to respond.
“Nothing, Eomma, I swear.”
But my mother just looks amused, arms crossed over her chest. “Sure.”
“I’ll go,” Taehyung dashes out of the room, leaving me alone with my dear mother, who looks ready to grill this chicken.
Instead, she just turns and opens her suitcase, rifling through. “I better start unpacking too, shouldn’t I?”
I raise my eyebrows as I watch her calmly pile her folded clothes onto the bed. Something about her seems different, but I can’t pinpoint what exactly. When she catches me staring at her, she cocks an eyebrow. “You gonna help your Eomma or what?”
“Are we going to be here for long?” I ask, and she holds my gaze for a second before looking away with a sigh.
“You know what, Aria, I have no idea. All this is so sudden and there’s still so much we need to organize…” Another sigh. “I just don’t like being a burden to this family. They are so generous, but…it’s a full house. We have to work hard, Aria.”
“I know, Eomma,” I nod, understanding exactly what she means by work hard. We can’t possibly stay here for free, and even if I do still get to see Taehyung every day, it’s not like life is going to get any easier.
The first night at the Kim house is a restless one, and I find myself craving my own bed, a bed I had all to myself, because as much as I love my mother, sharing a bed with her is never easy for an independent sleeper such as yours truly. In fact, this whole living with other people thing, especially people I don’t know very well, is what irks me the most out of everything. Did I take my house for granted? Because now I have to tiptoe around these people, especially Taehyung’s parents, no matter how welcoming they are, and make sure I don’t make a fool of myself. It’s too much pressure and too much stress, so, not being able to take it anymore, I decide to creep out of bed and down the hall to the kitchen for maybe a glass of water, or milk, or something to relax me.
I don’t expect to run into Jeonggyu, who is leaning against the fridge with a glass of milk in his hand. He almost drops it out of shock.
“Shit, you scared me, man,” he clutches his heart while I just stand there awkwardly, wishing I hadn’t left the bed.
“Do you want something to eat or drink?” he asks in a low voice, and I bite my lip, eyeing his glass.
“I guess…but I’ll get it myself,” I add, so he steps back, allowing me full access to the fridge. It feels weird to look through his fridge while he’s standing right there, watching me, but I just bear through the weirdness, grabbing the carton and setting it on the counter. He surprises me by handing me a clean glass from the dishwasher, and I mumble a thank you as I take it.
“So…my brother’s girlfriend,” he begins as I pour the milk in until three quarters full. I screw the cap back on as he scrutinizes me, and I arch an eyebrow.
“I prefer Aria, thank you very much.”
He chuckles as I turn my back, returning the milk to its glacial home. When I spin around again he is right at my shoulder, dark eyes twinkling in the refrigerator light. “I like your sarcasm, Aria. We share the same sense of humour.”
“I highly doubt that,” I sip my milk, remembering his joke about being sixty-nine years old during the house tour.
“I think we are quite alike, don’t you think?” his eyes glimmer even after I shut the fridge door. “I mean, we both can’t sleep, we both like drinking milk and we are both extremely sarcastic.”
“You just described the majority of people in this world,” I drawl.
“Ah, see? Same sense of humour,” he lifts his glass to me, before downing the rest of it in one gulp. “I think we will get along, Aria.”
“Hm, we’ll see about that,” I hum, finishing my milk as well. For a blinding second, I am a victim of a brain-freeze, but I don’t let it show as I wander past him to the sink where I rinse my glass.
“You know, you’re the first girl he’s brought home,” he informs me, as if I care. I put the rinsed glass into the dishwasher’s cave before drying my hands with the towel, wondering how I am supposed to respond to what he just said.
“Cool,” I nod, about to make my way back to the bed that now seems so inviting, but he’s not done.
“My brother has never had a problem with getting girls, though. I sometimes wish – okay, I always wish – that I could be as cool as him, ya know? He may act like a complete idiot half the time, but don’t let that fool you. He is a heartbreaker, Aria. He has turned down a lot of girls in the past, even the pretty ones.”
“Why are you telling me all this?” I inquire suspiciously.
He sighs. “Because I think you should know, especially from his own brother who shares a room with him. I know him more than anyone, more than Eonjin, more than both our parents combined, so I think it’s safe to say that you can trust me. Also, I feel inclined to help you, since we’re so alike and all,” he grins.
“Yeah, okay, but what exactly am I supposed to do with this information? I don’t care what he’s done in the past,” I say this with a double meaning, because the old Taehyung did more than just steal girls’ hearts. He stole other things, too.
But that’s not who he is anymore.
“Look, I think you’re a cool human being, from what I’ve seen so far,” Jeonggyu says. “And you’re going through a lot right now in your life, which means you’ll be more vulnerable and emotionally susceptible, so straight off the bat, I want you to know what you’re in for, okay? Taehyung is not –”
“I’m sorry to say this, but I don’t think you know your brother as well as you think you do,” I interject. “I was his friend before his girlfriend, in fact, we are still friends and so whatever you want to warn me about is not going to change anything I think about him. Got it?”
“No, you don’t understand, I’m just saying that, yeah, he’s a nice guy, but he has a tendency to hurt people and push them away, and I’ve seen it firsthand, Aria. It’s not pretty. But you know, as long as you guys are in the honeymoon stage, enjoy it while you can,” and with that he walks away, not even putting his glass into the dishwasher so that I’m forced to clean up after him.
Wow, thanks a lot. It’s times like these that I am glad I don’t have any siblings, because I don’t think I have the patience to deal with them day in and day out. However, as I tiptoe back to bed, I can’t help mulling over his words.
A tendency to hurt people and push them away…
Why does that sound a lot like me?
【★】
press that little star to vote and make me happy ^^
Dedicated to anicecupofspilledink because she dedicated a chapter to me in her book Mirage so imma return the wonderful favour also check out her story it’s so beautifully written!
i just realized it’s daylight savings here so the clock just went from 1:59am to 3:00am ripppp
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