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I watched her leave, and I wish I ran after her, forced her to listen to me, but the look Ella gave me scared me off.
And when Aria was gone, I still stood there, helplessly, wondering what to do, until Ella came up to me and said, “Listen, Taehyung, I don’t know what your deal is, but just know that you’ve really hurt Aria tonight and as her friend I have a right to protect her from y –”
“Friend?” I scoff bitterly. “You’re not her friend. At least not anymore.”
She curls her lip. “I’m sorry, did you not get the news? Or were you too busy with that red-headed witch to even know about who your girlfriend’s friends are, because guess what, Taehyung? I’m her friend, maybe even the only friend she has right now that will stand up for her, because I’m not afraid of you, Taehyung. You know why? Because you’re pathetic. A pathetic no-good boyfriend who can’t keep his eyes to himself just like every other man!”
She’s breathing heavily, and I notice tears in her eyes, her glazed eyes that look like she has had a few drinks. Of course she’s drunk, it’s her birthday! But that doesn’t mean I don’t take her seriously. Especially when I know that a drunk person reveals their true self. And I could see that Ella isn’t as nice as she pretends to be.
“You really think I’m pathetic?” I take out my phone, glaring at her. “I’ll call her right now, and then we’ll see who the pathetic one is.”
Ella snorts, crossing her arms as I tap Aria’s contact, waiting. The longer it rings, the haughtier Ella becomes, and I feel my cheeks burn and my shoulders droop as the call ends.
She didn’t answer.
“Well that’s embarrassing,” she laughs. “Anyway, good luck trying to win her back. But I suggest you get rid of them first.” She juts her chin over to them, gathered for a smoke.
I clench my jaw, a million things running through my head as I look at her. Does Aria actually like this girl? How can they be friends? But the Ella I’m seeing is not the Ella that Aria sees, and I wish Aria could see that.
I wish I could see Aria.
“What’s wrong, baby Tae?” Ruby pinches my cheek as soon as I return, head down and feet dragging. As soon as she touches me I flinch, rearing away from her as if she just burned me. “Don’t fucking touch me,” I snarl, and hurt flashes in her eyes, before it is replaced swiftly with a playful spark.
“Oh, come on, Tae! I’m just teasing you,” she nudges me, and I step back from her, biting my lip to prevent it from trembling.
Victor finally looks away from his conversation with the guys to regard me. “Something happen?”
I lock eyes with him and for a moment I see the man who I used to look up to as an older brother, someone who I admired and thought was really cool. But now, all I feel is disgust and resentment against him. Against everyone here.
“I can’t do this,” I say firmly. “I’m sorry, but…I can’t do this anymore.”
“Okay then,” Victor doesn’t seem fazed at all, holding out a hand. “Hand it over.”
“Hand what over?”
“The money, idiot.”
I don’t even hesitate. It’s not like I wanted to keep the money anyway. I didn’t even earn it.
“Well, Tae, it was nice working with ya,” Frankie slaps my back, and they all laugh as if he said something funny. I start to walk away, until I hear Victor speak again.
“Tell Aria’s mum I said hi, yeah?”
I halt at their laughter. And then I slowly turn around, eyes blazing.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Victor raises his eyebrows. “Whoa, Tae, calm down, it’s just a joke. You don’t need to say hi for me. I can say hi whenever I want.” He receives a round of high-fives, while Ruby watches me with concern, gnawing her lip. “In fact,” Victor’s black eyes gleam. “I think I might just say hi tonight.”
“I think the fuck not.”
And then I punch him straight in that smug face of his, sending him stumbling backwards with a twisted expression fuming with rage.
“You little shit!”
I dodge his blow, but when he swings again, I’m not so lucky.
Pain sears my jaw as I fall to the ground, and when I touch my lip I feel something warm and wet, a fresh cut from the blade of his ring.
I fall to the ground with a grunt as he towers over me, breathing heavily with a satisfied smirk. A low growl escapes me as I lunge toward him, knocking him off balance. Even though he is much heavier and stronger than me, I pin him down, and we wrestle, possessed by an urge to hurt, an urge to fight. All my anger is released onto him, because it’s all his fault, all his fucking fault, and I am so blinded by my rage that I don’t notice the two police officers approach us until they have us by the collar, yanking us apart.
“We’re gonna have to take you in, gentlemen,” they say, and I feel completely dead inside, so empty and numb, as they arrest us both, the click of the handcuffs snapping me back to my senses. The rest of our group have scattered, leaving us for dead, and we don’t even look at each other as we are shoved into the back of their car, stunned into silence.
This is not how I imagined the night to end.
【★】
ᴀʀɪᴀ’ꜱ ᴘᴏᴠ
“You’re joking.”
I hear my mother on the phone as I get ready for bed, my entire body aching with fatigue. She didn’t even question anything when I returned, only asking if I enjoyed myself.
I lied and said yes.
Now, just as I’m climbing under the covers, my mother appears at my door.
“Victor needs me to bail him out,” she announces with an expression of confusion. I frown.
“Bail him out of what?”
“Jail.”
“Jail?” I suddenly think of Taehyung, and wonder what happened to him after I left. A pang of guilt stabs me as I remember how broken he looked when I refused to listen to him, and then rejecting his call…
“I’ll be back soon, honey, just sleep, okay?” my mother blows me a kiss before leaving, and I lie down, one thought repeating in my mind.
I hope Taehyung isn’t with him.
【★】
ᴛᴀᴇʜʏᴜɴɢ’ꜱ ᴘᴏᴠ
“Who’d you call?” I ask Vic once he returns to the cell we have to share with a homeless old guy who keeps talking to himself and another guy with a runny nose.
“Take a wild guess,” he snaps back, but when I sneak a glance at him I notice his evil smirk.
“Oh, no.” I know exactly who he called, and I wish I could just disappear into thin air. I don’t even feel like I’m in my own body. It’s like I am floating above, watching this whole situation from an outer perspective, because this isn’t me. I shouldn’t be here.
“I shouldn’t be here,” I grumble, and I let out a choked gasp when Vic slaps me on the back, hard.
“It’s okay, little bro, you’re fine as long as you’re with me.”
For the first time since the fight, I look at him, glaring. “Do you want me to hit you again?”
Vic laughs. “Oh, Tae, you’re a funny guy, aren’t you?”
“And you’re a fucking sicko,” I mutter.
We ignore each other until an officer arrives, and he’s not alone.
“Cherry!” Vic gets up while I’m frozen, not knowing what to do. While Vic is smiling, Aria’s mother sports the opposite expression, her arms folded.
“I don’t think you have the right to call me that anymore, Victor,” her tone is so venomous that it silences the schizophrenic homeless man in the corner.
“Oh, come on, Cherry, baby, this won’t happen again, I promise,” Vic moves to the side, and that’s when Aria’s mother notices me for the first time. Her jaw drops.
“Taehyung? What are you doing here?”
I lower my gaze, feeling ashamed. “I’m sorry, Eomeoni.”
The officer unlocks the cell and we trudge out in silence, but I feel her eyes on me the entire time.
“Taehyung,” she says softly, and I look up. Her gaze is sympathetic, as if she believes that it’s Vic’s fault that I’m here, and that I somehow got tangled in this mess.
I wish I could believe that too.
“What happened?” she asks me, reaching up to touch my cheek, examining the dried cut on my lip. “Poor boy, what did he do to you?” She turns to Vic, glaring.
“What did you do to him?”
“Nothing! We just had a little fight, that’s all. I barely touched him!”
“Barely?” she points to my face, which I’m sure looks worse than it feels, and contrary to before, I feel very grateful that Vic called her. Of course she would defend me.
“It was an accident, I swear! We had a disagreement and –”
I snort. Disagreement? If only I could tell Aria’s mum the truth about what Vic was saying about her.
“You can get home by yourself. Taehyung, you’re coming with me,” she takes my wrist, tugging me forward, and Vic watches with an open mouth as we towards the exit.
“Fuck you too then!” Vic shouts, and Aria’s mum lets go of my wrist to storm back to him. When I turn, I see her slap him across the face.
“Don’t you dare ever contact me again! In fact –” she retrieves his phone from his pocket, scrolling through and tapping the screen before handing it back to a baffled Vic. “There. Now you can never contact me again.”
“Cherry, sweetie, we’re neighbours, remember?” Vic smirks as if he’s the smartest person in the world, but Aria’s mother isn’t having it.
“Hey, officer, I can call you guys if this man ever bothers me again, right?”
The officer behind the desk smiles. “Of course.”
Aria’s mum cocks an eyebrow triumphantly. “Then my work here is done. Come on, Taehyung, let’s go,” she strides out with me behind her, unable to hold back a smile at how awesome this woman is.
But then she asks where she should drive me, and my smile instantly falls.
“Um…”
She shoots me a look of concern as we reach a red light. “We should probably get you cleaned up first, he really hurt you, didn’t he?”
“I’m okay,” I shake my head.
“No, no, you’re not okay, and I am so sorry you had to go through this.”
I hang my head, thinking, no, I deserved it. I deserved it all for making Aria feel bad.
“I won’t tell Aria if you don’t want her to know.”
My head snaps to her in surprise, and she winks at me. “I’ll keep it a secret, yeah? Don’t worry, Taehyung.”
I force a smile. “Thank you.”
Then she pulls up in front of her apartment complex and I gulp.
“Don’t worry, she’s asleep.”
It’s as if she can read my mind.
“Here, drink this.”
She gives me chamomile tea and tends to my wounds, and I feel a pang in my heart at how kind she is to me, as if I am her own son.
“I always wanted a son,” she tells me as I sip the tea, feeling sleepy.
“Really?”
“Yeah, especially as a first born, you know, to look after his dongsaengs, just like you,” she smiles at me. “And I’m not gonna lie, when Aria turned out to be a girl, I was a little disappointed, but when I looked into her eyes for the first time, I felt so…grateful. She was truly a blessing to me, to this day. She has never disappointed me.
“Especially when she brought you home,” she nudges me, laughing, and I let out a chuckle, rubbing the back of my neck sheepishly.
“Thank you, Eomeoni,” I set the empty tea cup down on the coffee table. “Thank you for being so kind.”
“I’m just doing my job as a mother,” she says wistfully. “I haven’t been doing it lately enough.”
She sighs, and I notice how exhausted she is, the tired lines on her face, making her look old, when she looks younger than she is. I feel the need to comfort her somehow, so I say, “Aria is very proud of you, no matter what.”
“You think so?” she smiles wearily, and I nod.
“Of course. She talks about you all the time. How strong you are, doing everything alone…”
“You’re a good person, Taehyung. I’m glad Aria has someone like you in her life.”
I avoid her eyes, playing with the tassels of a pillow beside me. “Yeah…”
Suddenly we hear footsteps behind us, and we both turn to see none other than Aria standing in the living room, all groggy and squinty-eyed.
“What’s going on?”
She seems a little disorientated, but as she slowly returns to a conscious state, her eyes find mine and she gasps.
“Taehyung?”
Her mother is the first to act.
“Aria, honey, go back to bed, why are you still up?” she gently guides her back, but Aria shakes her head.
“I just want some water, I’m thirsty,” she pouts. She’s so cute when she’s sleepy.
“Then let me get it for you, just go back to your room, okay?” Aria’s mum tries to block me from her view, but Aria continues to stare at me, like she can’t figure out if I’m real or not. But her mother wins in the end, managing to get her back to bed and deliver her the water she wanted.
I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding.
“I don’t think she’ll remember,” Aria’s mother assures me, so I believe her. I don’t want Aria to see me like this, and we still have a lot to talk about.
“Should I drive you home or would you like to stay here?”
I hesitate, pondering over it. Should I stay or should I go? My family think I’m with Aria anyway. They trust us that much. And so does Aria’s mum.
“I’ll stay. It’s too late to drive back,” I decide finally.
“You know I don’t mind, but if that’s what you want, you can sleep here. The couch has a pull-out bed.” She helps me set it up, then leaves me to fresh up in the bathroom, where I have my own toothbrush since I come here so much.
My reflection shocks me, and for all the wrong reasons. The cut has been cleaned up, but my lips are puffy, and there’s bruises along my jaw and a reddish graze on my cheekbone, plus my eyes droop with fatigue and shadows. I look like a ghost.
Well, time for this ghost to go to sleep.
【★】
ᴀʀɪᴀ’ꜱ ᴘᴏᴠ
There’s someone sleeping in our living room.
Fascinated, I tiptoe forward, the early morning sunlight illuminating his face enough for me to recognize him. And almost fall over in shock.
So it wasn’t a dream.
He was really here. And he still is. Oh my God.
I suddenly don’t know what to do. I woke up due to a need for the bathroom, but now I don’t think I can sleep in. Not when he’s here.
The events of last night play through my head, from Ella’s birthday party, where I ate lots of cake and drank lots of champagne before dancing with Charlie to seeing Tae there with another girl, then the tray of leftovers falling all over me and Ella taking care of me while I cried. Not to mention the grand finale of me being a total bitch to Taehyung and not letting him speak, rejecting his call and vowing to never talk to him again. But now…
I have no choice, do I?
“Aria, I’m sorry.”
He’s murmuring in his sleep, not knowing I’m listening, that I’m standing right here, just a couple metres away from him.
“I’m sorry, please,” he continues to mumble nonsense, and my heart crumbles, especially when I notice the scab on his lip, and the faint bruise on his cheek.
“It’s okay,” I whisper back in response, even though he won’t hear me. “I’m sorry too.”
“Who’re you whispering to?”
I jump, startled by the sound of my mother’s voice, whispering right behind me.
“Eomma!” I clutch my heart. “Please don’t do that!”
She grins cheekily, and I notice that she is fully dressed and ready for the day. “You’re up early.”
“I’m always up early,” she replies, passing me to go to the kitchen. “Are you going to get up now?”
I glance at the sleeping Taehyung on the pull-out bed, clinging onto one of the pillows to his chest. Why is he so adorable?
“Well, I can’t exactly go back to sleep now,” I say while still watching him.
“You must be wondering why he’s here, right?”
I nod.
“Well, long story short, he got into a little fight with…” she clamps a hand over her mouth, eyes wide.
“Who?”
“Oh, I’m not supposed to tell you,” she says sheepishly just as Taehyung moans, shifting around to the other side so that he’s facing where I stand.
“I better go,” I tiptoe away to brush my teeth and change out of my pajamas, and the entire time I feel…nervous.
How do I talk to him again? Do I just say hi? What do I do? Should I just apologize first or –
The door suddenly opens and I choke on my toothpaste.
“Yah!”
Well, that’s one way to start a conversation.
His eyes widen as he sees me, and for a moment he just stands there, disheveled and puffy eyed, the cut at the corner of his lip and the bruise blooming across his skin making him look pitiful as we look at each other through the mirror. Then I spit out my toothpaste.
“You’ve got some explaining to do.”
He simply nods, face devoid of expression. “I do.”
I rinse my mouth out and stand to the side, letting him through to the sink. He grabs his toothbrush and pauses, glancing at me.
“Brush your teeth first, then we’ll talk,” I say firmly, and he nods again, so I leave, pulling on one of my softest hoodies. I then pull my hair up into a ponytail so that it’s out of the way, slapping my face with some moisturizer before spritzing on some perfume. For myself, not Taehyung.
I walk out of my room, bumping into someone, and when I look up, I gasp.
“You’re bleeding.”
The cut on his lip has split open again, red droplets leaking out, and I immediately forget everything, grabbing his wrist and dragging him back to the bathroom for a tissue.
He’s silent as I dab at the blood, not even flinching as he should be but instead just boring an intense gaze into me, a gaze which I can’t help but meet.
“Aria, I’m sorry,” he whispers.
“I know,” I glide my thumb over his lip before bringing my other hand up to gently hold his jaw so that we are facing each other completely, and looking at him now, everything dissolves away. Everything I felt last night falls away, because those feelings weren’t important. No, they were stupid. I was stupid. Because something in my heart told me that I can’t be mad at him, no matter what happened, I trust him. After everything, I trust him more than I trust myself, and by the looks of his injuries, it’s clear to see that he has suffered.
I can’t let him suffer because of me.
“There’s so much I need to tell –”
“Tell me later.”
And then I seal his lips with mine, placing soft kisses against his tender flesh, healing him with my touch, and whatever he has to say, he says through the force of his kiss, pulling me close with his hands at my hips.
I kiss all his bruises and cuts, and then I kiss all my favourite parts. The tiny spot on his nose. The beauty mark on his cheek. His perfectly carved cupid’s bow. His sharp jaw which is scattered with bruises, and he hisses with pain at the contact.
“I’m sorry,” I pout, but he just smiles, covering my hand on his cheek with his own hand.
“It’s okay.”
And just like that, it’s okay.
We’re okay.
【★】
wow i haven’t updated since LAST YEAR LMAO
i’m actually doing summer school that’s why it took me so long it’s hard to find time to write and also be motivated
so much happened since last time like WE HIT 6,000 READS WHAT?!
Also, the sweet Petal_Drops made more cool covers for this story ⬇
so yeah this chapter is dedicated to her (again) because i love the covers she makes uwu
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