How does one explain the phenomena of sunflowers that suddenly bloomed in the university’s east quadrangle field when it’s the First Snow in Seoul today?

It’s quite a sight to see; big, yellow flowers peeking out of the white snow, looking unbothered by the cold weather. Students are puzzled and crowded by the fields, some pointing and a few others picking in ones since they were so big. Just yesterday, the field were mostly orange and withered, covered in dead foliage from the now barren trees. As much as the students are half-confused and half-delighted, meteorologists in Seoul are probably having a mental breakdown at such an early time. (It was just 8:30 in the morning.)

The answer to this confusion can all be pointed towards the one and only Kim Taehyung. (Well, probably not the one and only, but you get the flow, right?) An earth elementalist with a specific affinity for sunflowers — also highkey hungover and regretting going to the late New Year party-slash-get-together of the students and teaching staff in the Visual Arts Department. (He should have not taken that five-tequila-shots-in-a-minute challenge, no matter how much bragging rights he’d win.)

Also, has he mentioned he’s 951 years old and slightly in love? (He’d deny the latter, but he’s already starting there.)

He woke up this morning with a pounding headache while trudging through snow, grumbling as he wrapped himself up in multiple layers of clothing (and as an earth elementalist who specializes in spring, winter was definitely a quarter for hibernation; but he had a job to do, and his students were cute, docile creatures to be left behind), and received an earful of scolding from Jimin upon the news of sunflowers blooming in the fields like it’s summer already.

(Apparently, the sunflowers’ blooming made an appearance in the local morning news and made a brief appearance in the national morning news. There were also circulating pictures of both landscapes and selfies from students and passersby in SNS. Taehyung figures he’s a star now. Well, indirectly. And for a day.) (People forget easily.)

So, now he’s lying down on the couch at the farthest back of his office, behind his table. The lights are turned off except for the table lamp on his table, that’s dimmed to the darkest (or brightest? How does it work? Is the glass half-empty or half-full? Does Mike Wazowski blink or wink?) it can. Slightly above the couch is a window, where a tiny, potted sunflower — that’s looking down on him — sits on the sill.

“What?” Taehyung mumbles, feeling judged by the plant. (Oh, the plant is definitely judging him.) “I know I make bad life decisions, but you know this for a long time already. Stop judging me.”

Aside from acquiring a hangover from last night, he barely remembers anything from last night after taking those five-in-a-row (did he even make it to five; he doesn’t remember) shots. What he does remember though is a mane of bushy, dull red hair and a snow globe of a tiny snowman with a funny sunflower nose (that’s now sitting on his table, beside his pen holder).

There’s a knock on the door, breaking the silence in his office and making him wince. He sits up from his spot in the couch when the door opens and reveals Jae-in, one of his freshmen students in his Drawing class. The kid’s bringing an armful of sketchbooks and struggling to keep them all in there with his flimsy wrists.

“Good morning, sir,” Jae-in says. “Where do I put the sketchbooks?”

“Just on my desk please, Jae-in, thank you,” Taehyung replies, standing up.

“Um, sir,” the student adds nervously, “there are still a few who haven’t passed their work, and they’re asking for a bit of extension? Is it OK?”

Taehyung shrugs. “Sure,” he says. “Just tell them to be sure to pass them before fifteen-hundred, and that they’ll have to pass it personally to me in my office. I’ll be here the entire day.”

Jae-in nods. “Thank you, sir.” And then he promptly leaves the office, the door quietly closing after him.

Taehyung lays back down on the couch, straightening his legs and pushing his arms above his head to stretch his entire body. There still a dull ache at the side of his head, and his sunflower is still judging him from the window sill. (“Shut up.”) But before he could close his eyes and get some semblance of sleep, his phone vibrates on his swivel office chair. He makes a reach for it, grunting.

Ji-ji Hadid

[10:04] min soo’s asking you to join us for dinner. she’s not making room for you to say no.

Tae

[10:05] sure thing, miss model. is she cooking?

Ji-ji Hadid

[10:07] yep. apparently, she just got paid from editing all those stuff for the yearbook last year. she just bought groceries and overdid it.

[10:08] also, have you still not changed my contact name? i told you i’m not zayn malik’s ex girlfriend.

Tae

[10:08] ok. tell her thanks from me.

[10:10] they already broke up? aw. they were kinds cute together. guess i’ll change your name then, jiyoncé

Jiyoncé

oh my god. [10:11]

~

Rest assured that Taehyung only woke up during lunch when one of his fellow teachers knocked on his door and asked him to have lunch with them. He doesn’t go to any of his classes, only sending text messages to the class representatives that he’ll be asking for attendance and that they should be working early on their work for the break. (He isn’t exactly the role model teacher in this case, but he’s had better days and his students love him.) (Well, he likes to think that they do. Love him.)

He can’t remember anything else from his adventures last night, but it seems as though he had brought along with him his sky-blue sketchbook considering that there’s a new drawing of someone’s eyes with a note underneath saying, “thanks a lot for drawing me so prettily, seonsaeng-nim” and a smiley face. And it obviously wasn’t his handwriting at all. Taehyung just hopes he didn’t drunkenly hit on a student or something.

“Have you seen the sunflowers in the fields today, Kim-seonsaeng?” one of the teachers cut him from his train of thought, and he turns his attention to them. It was Choi Jangsik, their Photography professor.

Taehyung’s eyebrows rose up. “I haven’t really gone outside of the office today. So, no. I haven’t.”

“Hmm,” Yoon Ra-on, the Animation teacher, had a funny look on her face. “Well, we definitely noticed you hitting it off with someone last night—”

Taehyung nearly chokes on his rice.

“—and she definitely isn’t one of the teachers or one of the school staff,” she continues, “so you better hope it wasn’t one of the students . . .”

“It obviously was one of the students,” a professor from the farthest end says, and there were snickers from the entire table.

Great. So, he had displayed himself out in the open. He was going for career suicidal at this rate.

“Don’t worry, Kim-seonsaeng,” one of their older professors assures him. “You know how the Art Department is keen on keeping things to ourselves. Just make sure that this doesn’t happen again, and everything will be alright.”

Taehyung presses his lips in a thin line and nods. “Thank you,” he says quietly.

~

After receiving the rest of the sketchbooks, he packs them all in his bag and sets himself to go to Jimin’s house. And on the way of getting out of the campus, he walks in the pathway in the middle of the field which was covered in both sunflowers and white snow. There were students who were taking pictures still and picking some of the sunflowers (making Taehyung wince at the act). As he pulls his scarf over his mouth, he pretends not to notice the sunflowers face to follow him and walks briskly to ride a taxi.

It’ll probably take about a week before all the flowers in the field will wilt. From the long time Taehyung has spent being alive, he doesn’t have the power to will sunflowers he’s sprouted and bloomed out of thin air to just disappear over a day. Like any other living organism, they’ll have to exhaust their life before they die. (Maybe he’s an exception to this rule then. And the poison ivies that grow when he’s feeling any kind of strong negative emotion.)

Before he could press on the gate’s doorbell, adjusting his scarf over his mouth and pink nose again, the door opens at the patio and Heekyung comes out. His curls seem to bounce atop his head with every step he took, making him look like an overgrown puppy.

“Hey, hyung,” Heekyung greets brightly, opening the gate for Taehyung.

“Hello, Heekyungie,” Taehyung greets with the same amount of delight that he can muster through the cold and his scarf. The kid doesn’t even look shaken with the weather, thanks to his wolf biology. Lucky for him.

“Min Soo’s still cooking, though,” he says as they step inside, taking off their shoes and placing them neatly in the little shoe rack they have. “So, we’ll have to wait a bit.”

When they step into Jimin’s homey living room Taehyung immediately feels the presence of the sunflowers he’s given as a house-warming gift in the kitchen along with the noise of something sizzling and something simmering, a delicious smell wafting in throughout the house. He pauses in his tracks though when he notices the unfamiliar face amongst the mostly gangly members (minus the shorter twins who were both on their phones) of the household with bushy, dull red hair sitting beside Jaemin.

“Hello, seonsaeng-nim,” the girl beams and Taehyung blinks, suddenly feeling déjà vu.

“Um.”

“This is Kim Sarang, hyung,” Jaemin says, looking quite dainty with the addition of a small, sparkly pin on his long locks. “We invited her over.”

Hana shrugged, standing up. “Might as well,” she says and then goes to the kitchen.

Might as well what? Taehyung his head to the side, but no one gave him any answer to his unspoken question. He sighs, taking off his scarf and coat and putting it on the hook on the wall near to him.

Min Soo abruptly comes out of the kitchen with a blank look on her face despite her Kiss the Cook apron and without a word, drags Taehyung by his arm back inside the kitchen. Jimin is standing at the stove and glanced over his shoulder when he noticed the commotion. He fully faced the both of them when Min Soo has made Taehyung sit at one of the stools near the counter, and she went to stand next to Jimin. The pot of sunflowers all turn their heads to look at the Healer.

“So, who is she?” Min Soo asks.

Taehyung frowns. “What?”

Min Soo rolls her eyes (the brat that she is) and went back to cooking as Jimin supplied with, “Hana saw Kim Sarang inviting herself over for dinner, so we had Eun Hye invite her properly instead. Wanted to meet with you, she said.”

“And by saw . . . you mean . . . ?”

Jimin and Min Soo gave him identical looks of you-know-what. Well.

“Oh.” Taehyung shifts in his seat uncomfortably.

“Is she connected with the sunflowers you’ve obviously grown overnight at the university’s field?” Jimin asks, crossing his arms.

“I-I don’t know,” Taehyung says. “I have horrible memory from last night —”

“You did another shot challenge, didn’t you?” Jimin asks, making Min Soo snort beside him as she continues to work. Taehyung kept quiet. “Of course, you did,” Jimin says exasperatedly.

“All we know about her is that she’s Eun Hye’s roommate,” Min Soo says, “and Min Yoongi’s old friend.”

Taehyung looks at Jimin. “Hyung’s friend? How come we’ve never heard of her before?”

Jimin purses his lips. “You know how he is.”

Taehyung pouts. Min Yoongi is Jimin’s ancestor and one of Taehyung’s colleague in the field of Cursed Immortality by Witches Who Hold Too Many Grudges. He unfortunately moved to New York after graduating (in his umpteenth course) and hasn’t updated them or kept contact at all. He’d probably show himself again after a few decades or so.

“So, you really don’t know her?” Jimin asks Taehyung under his breath as everyone took a seat.

Taehyung spares a glance at the mentioned Kim Sarang, who seems to be getting quite along with the others (especially Jaemin, who looks as though he’s found his partner in crime). She brushes her hair to her side, and Taehyung looks away.

“Nope,” Taehyung says.

He can feel the sunflower judging him, searing a stare at his back. He ignores it.

Dinner is peaceful except for the clatter of spoons and chopsticks against bowls and plates, and the occasional “can you pass the *insert food here*” for those sitting a bit farther. But there was something tense in the air, probably directed at the new addition of a stranger. Taehyung can already feel her not being just a normal human though, but what does she want from him?

“OK, you know what,” Jaemin suddenly speaks up, his little hair pin glinting under the kitchen light, “let’s just get past the elephant in the room, OK?” (Beside him, Jisoo is about to stop him but pauses himself and instead, sighs exasperatedly and continues eating.) Jaemin turns to Sarang who has an amused look on her face. “What are your intentions with our Kim Taehyung?”

“Well, I was going to tell him,” she turns to look Taehyung dead in the eyes, a smile on her face, “that Kim Namjoon is going to pay a visit and make you choice between two very important offers. Straight from the Tree.”

There was silence in the entire table as everyone pauses eating from Sarang’s sudden information.

“What?” Taehyung asks weakly.

“Kim Namjoon?” Min Soo repeats, eyes narrowing.

The doorbell suddenly rings. Everyone — except Sarang — turns in their seats to look at the door.

“Who’s Kim Namjoon?” Eun Hye nudges Sarang quietly.

“Some time traveler dude,” she replies nonchalantly. Eun Hye coughs.

Heekyung stands up to go to the gate.

“What’s the offer?” Taehyung asks Sarang.

Sarang shrugs. “He wouldn’t have paid a visit if I knew, wouldn’t he?”

“Sorry to interrupt your evening.”

All their attention is pointed to the newcomer in the room — a tall man in a beige coat, black band shirt with distressed jeans, black socks and messy blonde hair that needed combing. He looks like any other university student in the campus, meeting a deadline on a Friday night.

Min Soo stands up from her seat. “You —”

“I’m Kim Namjoon,” the man introduces himself, slightly bowing his head. “Once again, I’m sorry for interrupting. May I talk to Kim Taehyung-ssi?”

Taehyung blinked, causing Jimin to push him to stand up. “Taehyung,” he hisses quietly.

“Right — right, sorry,” Taehyung stands up, coughing. “Um — living room?”

Namjoon nods his head.

The two both head to the living room, Taehyung feeling slightly anxious and curious at the mysterious vibe Namjoon is showing. He wondered what Namjoon must have done to have the responsibility of being one of the Tree’s time travelers and messenger.

When they both sit down — at separate seats — Namjoon raises a forefinger near Taehyung’s head. Taehyung immediately backs up in his seat.

“What —”

“I was thinking of talking somewhere more private,” he says. “This won’t hurt, Taehyung-ssi, trust me.”

Namjoon presses his index to Taehyung’s forehead.

Taehyung opens his eyes to blue skies, the smell of grass after the rain and tall shadows of sunflowers.

Wait. Sunflowers?

He quickly sits up and sees a field of sunflowers in front of him. The buildings are familiar, but its walls are turning green with vines of flowers and plants crawling up to it. He’s sitting on a pavement in the middle of the field, and then he realizes there that he’s in the same university he teaches at — except bare of people and overrun by plants. The entire place slightly looks something out of a National Geographic photo of a forest, minus the scary animals.

“Would you like to hear the offer, Taehyung-ssi?”

Taehyung looks behind him and sees Kim Namjoon, holding out a hand. Taehyung takes it, and Namjoon helps him stand up.

“What’s the offer about?”

“A chance to get your mortality back.”

Taehyung frowns. “More than eight centuries have passed, and you only thought of this now?”

“It’s the Tree’s offer, Taehyung-ssi, not mine.” Namjoon pursed his lips.

“Well then.” Taehyung crossed his arms. “The Tree must want me to do something for it if its offering me this.”

Namjoon nodded his head. “A give-and-take relationship.”

“What’s the offer then?”

“You will gain both your mortality and elemental abilities back, but you will have to come with me to become the Tree’s caretaker,” Namjoon says. “And everyone’s memory of you will be forgotten.”

Taehyung takes in a deep breath. “The second one?”

“You will gain both your mortality and elemental abilities back, but you will have to give up your Healing and memories. Only one of those people in Park Jimin’s house will remember you.”

“Why would the Tree want to offer my elemental abilities back and my mortality?” Taehyung asks, suspicious.

“Because it would be getting back something much more precious in return both ways — memories,” Namjoon says, a sad curve to the side of his mouth.

Taehyung brings his arms down to his sides, lilting his chin up slightly. “And if I decline both?”

Namjoon his head. “Then you’ll continue on with your immortality. But it’s an open offer; you can take one of them any time you want.”

Taehyung would say that the Tree is being generous, willing to give back the two things he’s always needed. But the fact that memories are in return — powerless or not, he’d rather not walk like an empty shell. He’d have his soul, but he’ll be stripped bare of what he remembers makes him Kim Taehyung.

“You said only one of them will remember,” Taehyung says after a long pause. “Who is it?”

There’s that sad curve to Namjoon’s mouth again. “The one you’ve been courting your sunflowers to.”

Taehyung blinks. “What?” he says blankly. “What — why am I always getting pinned up for my sunflowers? They’ve done nothing wrong!”

This time, Namjoon looked amused. Putting his hands inside his coat’s pocket and turning on the balls of his feet, he says, “It’s because they always give you away.”

“TAEHYUNG!”

Taehyung scrambles up from his position in the couch, cricking his neck when he did so. Groaning in pain, he massages the back of his neck as he turns to Jimin who’s standing at the doorway going to the dining.

“Come on now,” Jimin says, gesturing his head to the dining. “Everyone’s waiting for you. Are you still that hungover?”

“What?” Taehyung says, standing up groggily.

Jimin makes Taehyung sit down. Taehyung notices that everything was back to square one — none of the food looks as though they’ve been touched, and no one has apparently eaten yet because they were waiting for him.

“Didn’t a Kim Namjoon come here?” Taehyung asks, frowning as Jimin sat down.

“No one came here, hyung,” Jisoo answers quietly, his voice gentle.

“Let’s eat, everyone,” Min Soo says.

Taehyung doesn’t press any further questions, though he’s confused as . Weren’t they already eating earlier? Did no one remember about the time traveler — wait. Of course. Of course, Kim Namjoon would turn back the course of time to erase any reminder that he’s been here at all. Of course.

Everything was on déjà vu — it all happened already; the awkward tension in the air with the addition of Kim Sarang (though she seems to be getting along with Jaemin), the occasional “can you pass me the *insert food here*”. And as what he’s already noticed earlier, Sarang didn’t seem like an all-too-normal human. The closest to normal in this room would probably be Eun Hye (if you ignore the fact that Taehyung has seen enough drawings of his Yoongi hyung’s old wife).

“OK, you know what,” Jaemin speaks up again, his little hair pin glinting under the kitchen light, “let’s just get past the elephant in the room, OK?” (In cue, Jisoo beside Jaemin looks like he’s ready to stop him but pauses himself and instead, sighs exasperatedly and continues eating.) Jaemin turns to Sarang who has an amused look on her face. “What are your intentions with our Kim Taehyung?”

She smiled a bit, pulling something out of her jacket’s pocket. “Well,” Sarang said, placing the sunflower’s stem behind her ear as the yellow contrasted greatly with her dull red mane. She turns to look at him dead in the eye, resting her chin on the back of her hand. “I’m here to make him remember.”

(“I can make sunflowers bloom right now!”

“Really.”

“Really!”

Laughter. “Seonsaeng-nim, you know it’s hard to believe someone who’s drunk out of their , right?”)

Taehyung blinks, chokes on air and then coughs. Sarang continues to look at him with that smile. Oh no.

(“Wow, that looks really good, seonsaeng-nim!”

“I’m not the teacher for Drawings class for nothing, am I? And I told you, we’re out of the classroom setting. You don’t need to keep the formalities here. We’re all friends here.”

“Well. Thank you for drawing me so prettily, ahjussi.”

“Sarang—”

“I was kidding, Taehyung.”)

Taehyung starts wheezing. Oh no, oh no. He thumps his chest with his fist. Oh no oh no ohno ohno. (He can already see his career starting to go down the drain.)

“Hyung, are you okay?” Heekyung asks, concerned. Jisoo already stood up to get water.

“He looks like he’s about to die,” Eun Hye says, sounding slightly scared.

“He’s fine,” Eun Hye snorts.

(“. . . Wow.”

“So, you believe me now?”

“Well, I kind of felt this coming, but I think you’ve overdone it, Tae. You could’ve made, like, a small patch to grow, you know? Not the entire field.”

“Same difference.”

“This will be in the local news, seonsaeng-nim.”

“You should be on the local news — for a beauty that could break hearts.”)

Good gracious —

“He’s facing the repercussions of those five vodka shots now,” Hana says, looking way too gleeful despite her words. Jisoo hands Taehyung a glass of water.

“I can see that,” Min Soo says drily.

“Stop being dramatic, bro,” Jimin says, patting Taehyung’s back.

“You made him remember, alright,” Jaemin chuckles, turning at Sarang who was still holding the pose though her smile was more of amusement this time as Taehyung continues to wheeze to death.

Kim Taehyung regrets everything. Why can’t the ground swallow him whole now? He’ll just make pretty sunflowers bloom for the rest of his life.

After dinner, the table is almost immediately cleaned to be replaced by books and laptops and different studying materials. Hana and Jaemin went to work in the coffee table in the living room. After the dishes are washed and kept, Jimin sent Min Soo home. And before Taehyung could say his own good nights to leave, Jaemin looks up from his laptop screen.

“Eun Hye, Sarang,” he says, getting the attention of the two girls who have been giggling while putting on their coats. “Don’t you live close by?”

“Yea, our dorm’s close by,” Sarang replies. (She had taken off the sunflower prior, after dinner.)

“That’s great! Hyung,” Jaemin looks at Taehyung, “maybe you want to go with them?”

Taehyung blinked. What?

Eun Hye and Sarang was quietly looking at Taehyung, gauging at his reaction as he remained silent. Jaemin gave him a look that said “say something but it would be better if you say yes or else” through his smile. (Taehyung knew never to cross with him, despite how quaint or dainty the kid looks like. It’s basically a façade.)

“Ah, y-yea, yea, sure,” Taehyung answers, nodding his head quickly before he suffers any consequences. Hana snickered from her seat.

Jaemin stood up from his position on the floor. “Sorry none of us can send you home,” he says, leading the way to the front door as the other put on their shoes. “Midterms are coming soon, and Jimin already warned us to work on them before this month’s full moon.”

After they’ve all said their goodbyes (a rather relieved one coming from Jisoo, whose sigh sounded a lot like a parent of a newborn early in the morning when the child’s already asleep), the three trudged quietly down the pavement. Sarang and Eun Hye are walking ahead of Taehyung, talking in quiet voices and occasionally laughing about something Taehyung is too distracted to focus on listening to. Instead, he’s watching their shoes and looking at the footprints they’re leaving behind as he tries his best to keep himself warm.

(He should be hibernating right now. But considering that he’s a powerless elementalist, he’s not really preserving his energy for anything in the spring.)

He wonders why after all this time the Tree would offer him these choices. It would’ve been great if it offered back when he was hitting his first century and he looked like he hasn’t aged any day after 23 winters. It would’ve been great if it offered back when he was watching so many of his old friends who were part of different wars and epidemics die. It would’ve been great if it offered back when he just wanted to take a really long sleep and just. Rest.

But, alas. He’d been punished for something he didn’t even want to do in the first place.

(Being held captive by rogue fire elementalists who had a dying leader they forced him to heal even if they had burned his village down, caught in the wrath of a witch he can barely remember the fire elementalists have attacked, and cursed with immortality — both living too long and unable to forget the deaths of those around him — and the storing of his elemental abilities somewhere inside himself that he can’t find.)

He could’ve accepted either of the offers Namjoon had told him — but the stakes. Memories. As much as he’s had so many painful memories, he’s had better ones where it always made him continue moving forward (because then, he had nowhere to go but onward). And he has the pack who have partially adopted him into their family, kids he’s both given and received advice from.

Maybe he could have them forget him instead, but Taehyung feels that it won’t be caretaking of the Tree that would kill him — but the heartbreak of seeing his friends not remember him would end him.

The two girls abruptly stopped in front of him.

“Um, seonsaeng-nim?” a timid voice speaks, making Taehyung look up. It was Eun Hye. “Eun Hee’s mentioned to me that you’re an earth elementalist? I’m sorry if I sound insensitive in saying this, but can you stop being . . . gloomy? Poison ivies are starting to grow on the pavement.”

Taehyung nearly jumps, looking immediately at the ground. Against the white snow and the yellow light of the streetlamp, vines of poison ivy are crawling beside him.

“Sorry,” Taehyung mumbles, and watched the poison ivy quickly wither at his awareness. After that, they continue walking but Eun Hye and Sarang was trying to pace alongside Taehyung, so they could face him properly.

“Is something wrong, seonsaeng-nim?” Sarang asks, concern etched on her face.

Taehyung quickly shakes his head. “It’s nothing,” he replies, hoping he sounded nonchalant. “And can you drop the honorifics? We’re not in a school setting anyway.”

There was a mischievous look on Sarang’s eyes. “Will calling you ahjussi work?”

Taehyung’s eyes twitch at the déjà vu. “Or you can continue calling me seonsaeng-nim. I’m not picky really.”

The two girls laugh. “I was kidding, seonsaeng-nim,” Sarang chuckles.

“Would calling you oppa work for you then?” Eun Hye asks, grinning. “Or the much more formal Taehyung-ssi?”

Taehyung nods, smiling a bit. “Or you could also just call me by my name: Taehyung with no honorifics. I’ve stayed long enough outside of the country to feel comfortable about it. It’s what the pack mostly refer to me with anyway.”

Sarang gives him a look he couldn’t decipher, so he tries his best not to pay too much attention on it. Eun Hye nods her head, saying, “If you say then, Taehyung-oppa.”

Taehyung’s smile stretches even more. Eun Hye was so cute. He would understand why his Yoongi-hyung was taken with her. “Any friend of Chimchim and Yoongi-hyung is also a friend of mine.”

Eun Hye’s grin dims a bit, but she simply nods her head and looks ahead, becoming quiet. Sarang sighs, and Taehyung hops he hasn’t said anything wrong.

Just a few moments later, they arrive at the gates of Eun Hye and Sarang’s dorm building. Sarang tells Eun Hye to go ahead and unlock their room. Sarang turns to look at nervous Taehyung.

At first, she was quiet except for the huge smile on her face. “Thank you for the flowers,” she says, almost whispering as if anyone was listening at the dead of the winter night.

Right. The sunflower field that the time traveler had mentioned so subtly that he realized they were for courtship. “Um, you’re welcome,” he replies, but it sounded a lot like a question that he cleared his throat and repeats it much more clearly in a statement.

Sarang chuckles.

“Um,” Taehyung begins hesitantly, “i-it doesn’t mean though that —”

“Oh, I know,” Sarang says, her smile still huge but her eyes were slightly glassy. “But you can’t stop someone from hoping, can they?” She shakes her head, still smiling. “Well, there’s nothing wrong with being friends, right, seonsaeng-nim?”

“O-of course,” he says, nodding his head and returning her smile. Then realizing her words, he frowns slightly. “Sarang —”

She presses her lips on his cold cheek, a sudden exhale of warm breath caressing the side of his face, as she stands on her tiptoes. He immediately became quiet in shock.

(Taehyung could feel his heart skip a beat.)

Sarang her head as she slowly turned in her heel to walk inside. “I was kidding, Taehyung,” she says in a much louder voice this time, chuckling. “Good night!”

Taehyung raised a hand in farewell. “G-good night,” he answers quietly and then presses a hand to the side she had kissed when she had gone inside the building, feeling his face flush and become hot while his heartbeat thrums faster. But he snaps out of the trance when he notices the sunflowers sprouting once again at the patches of grass in front of the building and outside the gate and walls.

“ing hell,” Taehyung mumbles as he starts to briskly walk going to his apartment, arms swinging dangerously at his side as he fails to calm his heart.

~

Unknown number

Thank you for the flowers again, Taehyung. <3

~

As expected, the sunflowers at the field all wilt at the end of almost a week — and throughout the entire week, Sarang doesn’t miss a chance in sending a selca to Taehyung with the sunflower fields in view. Taehyung would respond with either a selca of his own (mostly which are purposely taken in bad angles with weird faces) or a meme (which she would respond one back with). It has made him less flustered with her bold — and mysterious — advances, and counter them with some of his own.

Sara

[22:47] Sara sent a photo.

[22:48] i’m dying

[22:50] they required 20 pages and i’m still in the 5th.

Tae

[20:51] bc that’s the kind of that happens when you put your work off for too long

[20:52] overwatch isn’t going anywhere

Sara

[20:52] but

[20:52] there was an event

[20:53] and

[20:53] i needed that mercy skin

Tae

[20:54] yes

[20:54] but did mercy need /you/

[20:54] ?

Sara

[20:55] wOW

[20:55] W O W

[20:55] THE DISRESPECC

[20:55