Jiyeon’s POV:

Taehyung?? I tilted my head to one side questioningly, mostly confused though. I mean really, who wouldn’t be?
It’s late and I received 49 missed calls, 110 texts from him and there he was sitting outside my door fast asleep.
 

I stood there contemplating what to do and a huge part of me actually wanted to just walk off and leave him sleeping there while I go home, ignoring him. But seeing his peaceful sleeping face had stirred up some kind of emotion within me and I actually felt guilty for having that earlier thought.

Just as I inched a little closer to him, Taehyung stirred and his eyes flipped open yet instantly almost shutting them again, perhaps due to the blinding lights at the corridor. When he did open his eyes again, I was greeted with nothing but a soft and gentle gaze.

How could he be with her, looking at her with that very same gaze, then look at me with the same one? Who is he really? What is he really thinking about?

He got up on his feet and this time, he’s the one inching closer towards me whereas I unknowingly took two steps back.
Ironic how this scene was playing out considering it was an actual metaphor of any relationship between Taehyung and I. Someone would take one step forwards and the other would take two steps back.

His face flinched as he saw me moving away from him and his brows furrowed together. As quick as that expression came, it was gone in an instant, replaced by his smooth chocolaty deep voice.

“Where did you go today? I didn’t see you in school.”

I shrugged my shoulders, trying to avoid his gentle gaze that felt quite like the opposite of it. His gaze seemed to send a thousand daggers stabbing me and each of it felt icy cold that seemed to cause these countless goosebumps down every inch of my body.

“Aren’t you going to open the door and let us in?”

Truth be told, I wasn’t planning on inviting him.
After seeing him with her today, I actually felt a lot like crap.
Like I wanted nothing to do with him and after escaping that and having such a fun day with Hoseok was I really planning on letting Taehyung ruin this day, again?

“You know I was pretty worried about you. I asked Haneul why you weren’t at school today and she didn’t seem to know, or rather she didn’t seem that keen on telling me. I actually really wanted to see you at school today and I even left you a surprise in your locker!”

Was he that good at reading me, that good at manipulating me?
Because it seemed as though he had sensed my considerations and the words that he uttered was the key to have me inviting him into my house, into my partially closed off heart.

I switched on the lights as I stepped into my square apartment and slouched at the sofa while he followed suit, albeit a little too close to me which got me tensed up and my stomach was now flipping 50 times per second.

“So where did you go today? You’re obviously in your school uniform which means you aren’t sick and neither did you planned to skip.”

I looked up at him, half of me appalled at the fact that his observations were spot on and the other half felt giddily happy because he had observed me.

“I-I uh had something to do because something cropped up.” I felt guilty for lying to Taehyung, but I wasn’t sure what I was actually guilty about. Was I guilty about lying or did I feel guilty for not wanting to let him know I was with Hoseok?

Why didn’t I want to let him know?

Taehyung’s POV:

She’s lying.

I saw her at school today, I saw her with Haneul.
And I heard Haneul screaming after her when she ran off, I mean with that loud shrilly voice who wouldn’t have heard?
I know she saw the roses that I left in her locker, so why is she pretending to not know anything about it?

I also saw Hoseok following after her when she ran off, did she spend the whole day with him? If so, why did she lie?

My fists clenched and I felt a weird burning feeling in my chest.

Why weird? Well because relatively, lots of my emotions have been long dead and numbed to me.
Yet whenever I’m with Jiyeon, she always pulls out those emotions that I presumed dead a long time ago.

I surpressed that burning feeling in my chest that seemed to have been replaced by a red tide that was rising to choke me slowly. I unclenched my fists calling at myself to calm down before I swallowed that huge dry lump in my throat that felt a lot like I was eating sand.

Why was she lying to me?

“I was worried about you and I kept thinking of you. I called you about a hundred times and I sent you so many texts I think I lost count of it all. I thought you were ignoring me again.”

The words spilled out of my mouth ever so slowly and each of them left a bitter after effect on my tongue.

How could I have allowed myself to have been so worried about her and there she was lying to me in my face?

The weight of her lies were crushing my heart, leaving me perplexed.

Why would her lying have such an effect on me?

Reaching into my pocket, I decided to give her a necklace that I’ve bought today.
It was a simple one that had a Rose Quartz Heart strung on a beautiful red string, when I saw it I instantaneously knew that was the one for her and without thinking, I got it for her.

Why did I do that? Well, that’s a question I’ve been asking myself ever since I got it for her.

Her eyes twinkled at the sight of the necklace although there was another expression in which I couldn’t read.
Confusion?
Happiness?
Or was she actually touched?

I caught a smile appearing on my face before quickly masking it away, why was I happy that she’d like my gift?

“I’ll put it on for you.”
I reached over to her, stretching out my arms seemingly pulling her into a hug. Although it wasn’t that far off from a hug since she was so close to me I practically felt her warm radiating onto me, and that, that alone managed to send goosebumps down every inch of me

With our close proximity and the way the cozy yellow light was shining down on her face enhancing her features, I felt myself leaning closer towards her. The way her eyes shined, how her lips looked so pink and soft and how her cheeks turned into a faint pink turned me into mush.

Mush. Why would holding her like this turn me into mush?
 

Heat rose to my cheeks before slowly creeping it’s way to my ears, turning into nothing but fire in it’s place.

Why am I feeling shy?

I’ve never even felt shy with Jisoo.

She closed her eyes as if anticipating for me to kiss her, and that’s when I snapped out of my trance.

What’s gotten into me?
Barely a hour with her and I’ve a sense of rushing shyness and a myriad of emotions, followed by me actually wanting to kiss her?

Letting go of her hastily, I got up to leave her apartment leaving nothing but a thick silence that was broken with the thud of the closing door.

Standing outside her apartment door, I smacked my head before shaking off any remnants of the emotions she had seeded in me.

Jiyeon’s POV:

Agh, what’s happening right now?!
I wasn’t sure what I was feeling, was it humiliation or was it embarrassment?
Was I feeling upset that he didn’t kiss me or was I upset that I had expected him to kiss me?

Touching the necklace that he had gifted me and left on my neck, I let out a shy smile.
Somehow, with that necklace it felt like a piece of him belonged to me and he had marked a part of me.

The next day at school, classes seemed to fly by pretty quickly.
Lunch wasn’t anything special instead it was pretty ordinary although it was pretty weird considering how I had spent time with both Taehyung and Hoseok yesterday and yet two of them are acting like nothing’s wrong.

Although something did kept the back of my mind churning all day long, I saw Jisoo wearing a bracelet that seemed similar in design to the necklace that Taehyung had got for me.

Or was I thinking too much again? I mean, she could have gotten it herself and those designs could be very common right?

Anyway, the lessons came to an end and I was waiting outside the school gates for Haneul and Jisoo.
It’s been long since the 3 of us went out together, especially with the recent things going on.

We linked arms together and skipped happily to Ahjumma’s store.
It’s been long since I felt so much at ease, without thinking about Taehyung at all even though some part of me felt guilty