Taehyung ran his fingers through his hair, plonking himself on his sofa. He didn’t know what to do, loving Tori was the only thing he could do and now that their relationship was undefined, he felt like his world was falling apart.

He knew this was going to happen.

Tori was too good to be true.

She was that amazing dream that he wasn’t worthy enough of having.

And yet he believed it could work out.

Why did his father have to show up and ruin everything?

But he knew that wasn’t the problem. He knew that the pair had literally spend every spare second together, and once his father came along, and threatened it, they broke. And they broke so bad that it was unfixable.

He didn’t regret spending all that time with her, however, she loved and cherished every moment of it.

After handing in his Chemistry assignment, he ended up walking to the cafeteria. Maybe he couldn’t speak to Tori but he was sue he would be able to watch her at least from afar.

“Hey man,” it took a while for him to realise someone was speaking to him and he slowly turned around.

“Jimin…”

“You remember my name,” he said with a laugh.

How could I forget it?

“What’s up?” Taehyung asked slowly, he was Tori’s friend, it wouldn’t be right to not treat him with respect. That doesn’t mean he had to like him though.

“Can you help me with something? I’m kinda stuck on a history essay and I don’t really-”

Taehyung gave him a small smile, he didn’t know how to say no.

“Sure, you wanna sit down?”

“Really? Thanks man, you’re the best!” Jimin brought a lunch tray for the both of them and slid in next to Taehyung on the table.

He listened intently when Taehyung read over his essay and told him where to correct grammar and spelling, as well as telling him where to go into more detail.

Jimin brought out his history textbooks and added in the explanations Taehyung had told him to do, and an hour later they had constructed an essay worthy of an A+.

Taehyung would know.

“You’re seriously so amazing, why didn’t we become friends ages ago?”

Taehyung hid his face. Because I’m not outgoing like you.

“I really owe you one, you wanna hit the arcade with me?”

“Uh…”

“Come,” he said cheerily and stood up, hanging his bag over his shoulder, “It’ll be fun!”

Taehyung’s balance faltered as he stood up, he didn’t want to go but he also didn’t want to say no.

“Do you go to the arcade often?” Jimin asked as they strolled off campus.

Taehyung walked in step beside him, finding it weird how he could be intimidated by anyone no matter how small. He didn’t realise before that Jimin was in fact, shorter.

“No, not really,” Taehyung said. Honestly, he had never been there before.

But he didn’t get to find out what it was like to be at one because just then, when they reached a secluded alleyway, Jimin dropped his bag on the floor. Taehyung turned to him, stunned. “What are you…”

Jimin lunged forward, grabbing Taehyung’s collar and pushing him against the wall. Taehyung’s eyes grew wide, and he took in a deep breath.

He hadn’t faced a situation like this in so long.

“What did you do to her?” Jimin huffed.

“W-What are you talking about?”

“Tori, she’s so different now, moping around like every day’s a bad day, what did you do to her?!”

“I-I didn’t do anything,” he stammered, not knowing how to get out of this situation.

Jimin brought his fist up to his head, pulling it back and aiming for Taehyung. He squeezed his eyes shut, accepting that he wasn’t going to get out of this, but when he thought the impact was going to hit him, nothing did.

Opening one eye, he saw some strands of silver hair slide in front of him, hair that he had grown to love.

“Guess what?” Tori asked over the phone.

“What?”

“I dyed my hair!” her voice was much too enthusiastic compared to Taehyung’s expression.

“What?”

“Geez don’t be too excited,” he could hear the eye roll.

“So your hair’s not brown anymore?” he couldn’t hide the disappointment in his voice. He loved her brown hair. It reminded him of his own mother’s hair, and he loved running his fingers through them. Watching the brown silk wave through his hands as he her hair was one of his favourite things to do.

“Kim Taehyung, do you only like me for my hair?”

“No, but…”

“I would tell you to open the door but I don’t even want to see you anymore.”

He rushed to his front door, tearing it open to see her standing there, phone to her ear. The first thing his eyes rolled over was her hair. Silver? She dyed it silver?

“Like it?” she grinned.

He didn’t know what to say. It was different, it was beautiful. Although he wasn’t really the type to like dying hair, she made it work.

She always makes it work.

How can silver hair suit someone and not make them look like an old lady?

She looked gorgeous.

“Uh…”

“No? So you did like me for my hair, okay I’m leaving,” she turned around but Taehyung caught her wrist, turning her around.

She smiled, “Do you like it?”

“Yeah,” he breathed, still speechless, “I do.”

“Good,” she pursed her lips together, freeing herself from his grasp and wrapping her arms round his neck, bending his back toward her.

She captured his lips into an innocent kiss, making words unnecessary.

“Let’s go back in before your neighbours see us,” she said, leaning back but his eyes were focused on her hair.

She laughed, “Or let’s just stay here.”

“Vi-Victoria…”

“Jimin what the hell are you doing?” Taehyung’s eyes flittered over to Tori’s seeing his fist held in her hand.

“Tori, what are you doing here?”

“Go,” she said to Taehyung over her shoulder, but he didn’t move. “Tae, go.”

Taehyung flinched when he heard her call him that; he hadn’t heard it in a long time.

When he didn’t move, she pushed Jimin and he fall back, onto the floor. He couldn’t stop himself because he was too shocked to do anything.

Turning around, Tori looked at Taehyung.

“You alright?” her eyes were full of concern as she took one hand at a time, inspecting it for any wounds.

“I’m… okay,” his voice cracked, watching her worry over him hurt.

She caught on to what he must have been feeling and sighed, forcing a smile on her face.

“Alright then, let’s go.”

They both loved each other, and honestly they knew for certain they’d never be able to stop. But why was it so hard for them to forget those words that they had shared, those horrible, dreadful, ugly words which they did not mean. Why was it that they were so in love that the mere possibility of not being able to be together set them apart?

Taehyung bore his eyes into hers, and for anyone else it would have been uncomfortable, but for Tori, she didn’t feel anything other than nostalgia. They hadn’t seen each other in weeks and this was therapy for her, after all those sleepless nights, waking up in a sea of tears.

“Victoria,” he breathed, finding her start to blink rapidly, “Where did I go wrong?”

“Tae, we’re broken, both of us. We’re broken and we rely on each other to fix ourselves,” she sniffed, looking to the floor.

I can’t say this while looking at you, Tae.

“We need to work on ourselves, before we try to work on each other,” she started to turn around and walk but Taehyung caught her wrist.

“Tae,” she sighed, taking his hand off her, “I don’t want to just fill that void in your heart,” she smiled up at him, “I need you to find yourself, I need you to make yourself whole, I can’t do that for you.”

He blinked, What was she talking about?

“I think that incident with your father showed managed to help me realise that our need for reassurance from each other is unhealthy, we both need to be healed, but it’s something we have to do alone.”

He opened his mouth to say something but the thought whizzes out of his head once she took a step away.

“What can I do to make you love me again?” he asked softly, completely stepping out of his comfort zone as he looked to the floor, “Can I make you love me again?”

“Tae,” she whispered back, “Who said I ever stopped?”

--

Tori was beating herself up over it, again and again. She knew it was the right thing to do but why did it hurt so much?

“Baby!” a shrill voice cried and she jumped on her bed as she looked to the door.

“Jen?”

“Baby! I heard! What happened?”

“Heard what?”

“The thing with Jimin and Taehyung,” she crouched down in front of her and held both her hands, “Did you talk to Taehyung?”

“Yeah,” she said sadly.

“Uh-oh, what did he say?”

“It was me, Jen, I was the one who pushed him away.”

“Wha- Seriously?!” she asked, incredulously, “You’re kidding.”

Tori glared at her, “Is it that hard to believe?”

“No, just, I was always sure you were the one who liked him more,” she reasoned, “But, why? What happened?”

“I just don’t know, Jen. I kept feeling like we relied on each other too much, and while I don’t mind it, I feel like it was turning unhealthy. I don’t believe in myself anymore Jen,” she looked up at her best friend, tears welling in her eyes. “Now that I don’t have him next to me to remind me that I’m a superhero, I don’t believe in myself anymore.”

“Aww,” Jen sat up on the bed, pulling her friend into a hug, “If that’s the case, baby you did the right thing.”

“But why does it feel like I just drilled a hole deeper into my own heart?” she sobbed.

“If you don’t empower yourself, how is someone else meant to empower you?”

“Jen I wasn’t like this before,” she cried, “I never needed a man to make me feel good.”

“That’s love, sweetie, when it comes around, you lose everything you were once the queen of. And when it’s gone, you’re left with nothing.”

“Is there a way out of this?”

“There is, it’s if you climb back on that throne and make yourself the queen. You only fall when you’re finding love for the first time,” she her hair, “Don’t worry baby, once you get back up there, you’ll be unstoppable. And then, you will believe in yourself, you won’t need a man’s words to make yourself feel strong, however that would be nice.”

“Thanks Jen.”

--

Tori worked so hard. She would stay after lectures and bombard her teachers with questions. In the weekends she would go to the library and read up on all the latest articles. After that, she would revise her notes and then do a few practice papers. Finishing her day by finishing her assignments, she would head back home. She wouldn’t allow herself to go out but Jen would ask her to the movies and she would accept one out of five times.

The days she had her Bio-Sci lecture, she would have to find another seat b