Time out.

Rose’s dog’s savior was BTS’ V? Taehyung was BTS' V?

This childlike guy who jumped in piles of dried leaves with her dog in the playground was the same guy who was oozing with charisma and demanded attention whenever he stepped on stage?

Wow.

How could she not have recognized him? Even with his mask and cap on, she should’ve seen through it. His caution in not revealing his face and his personal details should have been clues to Rose, and yet she chose to ignore all those clues and her slight hunches because she enjoyed her time with Taehyung and deluded herself into thinking that he’s just a normal guy (despite the weird habits), and she was just a normal girl. 

That nice delusion would have continued if it weren’t for Rose tricking him into removing his mask. Stupid, stupid curiosity.

She crossed her arms and leaned back on her chair just staring at Taehyung, who was paying an unusual amount of attention to his waffles. If she wasn’t so thrown off by his revelation she would have found it cute, the way his eyebrows scrunched together and the way his lips pouted in concentration at the seemingly mundane task of eating waffles.

Taehyung was only doing that because the silence made him very uncomfortable, she could tell. He would look at her after every bite then look back down again when he saw that she was still staring at him. But she couldn’t help but stare in disbelief (and maaaaaybe a little bit of admiration because Rose was just in awe of how beautiful his features were).

With his cheeks still full of food, he finally had the courage to meet her eyes long enough to say something. “Yah, don’t just stare at me like that, it’s weird,” he mumbles, which is basically just Taehyung speak for please say something because this much silence is driving me insane.

But Rose’s silence was unrelenting, and so was her gaze.

Taehyung suddenly missed her light, melodious laughter just a few minutes back, but he didn’t know what to say at this moment to get her to laugh again.

“This is why I didn’t want to take off the mask, aish.” Taehyung sighed before taking another bite of his food, feeling regretful that his revelation made her withdraw again. Just when she was starting to get comfortable and joke around with him, too. They were almost not strangers.

“Chaeyoung-ah, say somethiiiiiiiiing.”

“A-ah, sorry. But… I don’t really know what to say.” Her voice was soft and her words slow and careful, a stark contrast to her intense stare.

“Just… anything!” Taehyung urged, trying to get her to open up again. It was his persistence that got her talking the first time, so might as well try that again. Maybe she'll be comfortable again when she finally sees that Taehyung she spent the morning with was no different than the guy she was facing now. “Say whatever