The yesterday’s joys come together, and find its meaning today, at this moment.

To kindle the never-ending passion for acting, she chose department of theatre. Here and now, coming out of her warm and comfortable home, she immersed into her college career. ‘A new environment; a step into the society; enjoy the days; spend the days carefully because college will make you spend the time thriftly; make connections; grab opportunity’, likewise many gave her advises but the one thing that stood in her mind was, ‘Embrace the moment!’

While ‘New friends’ and ‘GPA’ debated to top her priority list, she wasn’t aware that, an unknown person silently knocked out those ‘list’(s) and made himself as her only priority with no lists attached.

Her careful words can be soothing, but it might also sting.

His words are honest but painfully bitter to the ears.

She plans meticulously because she wanted to sculpture her every ‘now’ and ‘tomorrow’ moments by her own hands. While his motto was, ‘Why grieve about the situations that were both unseen and predictable?’ He was never the one to give up which includes his anger while his temper was an exception. The few always defy the rules; because they created the rules and exceptions too. One of the few is him always trying to have his way.

Kim Sohyun is the ‘she’ and ‘her’ pronoun holder of the above words and Kim Taehyung aka V, is the ‘he’ and ‘his’ pronoun holder.

Barely it has been a month since the class started, but she got a liking to her university thanks to Kwak Dongyeon, her family friend and a prefinal year senior in college. Newton’s third law of motion redefined her life, ‘To every kind person in your life, there is an equal and opposite natured person!’

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Cold wind blew against her face and drizzles pricked her with its coldness. Her head felt drowsy and found herself seated on the floor leaning against a wall. She was certain that it was a winter afternoon with bright light, but no matter how much she tried to blink away the dark sight, she couldn’t defeat the blindfold. With her hands being tied at the back and with great struggle, she straightened her back while trying to support herself on her spine, but her body felt heavy making her to retract and lean towards the wall. She grunted in pain at the labor she put in to break free, “Anyone there?”, she cried out loud.

And soon, she found that wind and rain weren’t the only cold bodies, because there was a person hinting his presence with the sounds of his smirk on witnessing her struggle.

She felt apprehensive, but put on a brave front asking, “Who is that?”

There was no response and just the sound of wind trying to make its way through the window.

“Who? Who are you?”, a fear lingered in her shout out.

“Hungry? It’s almost evening… I ordered fried chicken, it’ll arrive soon”, asked a voice which is not meant to be forgotten, or rather which cannot be forgotten.

Unsure of the owner of the voice, she asked, “Why did you bring me here? Who are you?”

“Kwak Dongyeon…”, the voice sounded grabbing her attention and he continued, “Did you know a person named Kwak Dongyeon?”

“Who are you?”, she asked again because she knew that owner of that voice isn’t Kwak Dongyeon.

“If you don’t know him, then let me tell you something about him…”, he said in a calm tone, “he is very fond of you…”, he paused for a second and continued, “and I’m… cold and hostile towards everything he is fond of…”

“I’m not scared of you…”, she raised her voice boldly, “No guts to fight him, so you pick on a woman?”

Her words brought a smile of fascination on his lips. He rushed towards her and the sounds of his footsteps rushing towards her shook her entire being. He took off her blindfold hastily and presented himself before her. She opened her eyes and saw his face just an inch away from her. His intense stare into her eyes, sent chills down her spine. “KIM. TAE. HYUNG!”, he introduced himself stressing every syllable of his name. “You’ll remember me, right?”, he asked in all his seriousness.

Swallowing every bit of fear, she spat her valour in saying, “You’ll regret abducting me…”

“Don’t get emotional… I won’t even lay a hand on you… but, see this-”, he said pointing towards a bruise on his cheek, “That boyfriend of yours, Kwak Dongyeon, did this to me… I want to return this favour of physical pain in terms of emotional pain to him. So, just spend another 14 hours with me”, he said calmly.

Her faced scrunched up in disgust at his words. Her eyes stared to pierce into him.

“Don’t look at me with those eyes-”, he was interrupted by the sound of knocks on the door.

Sohyun felt a ray of hope at the knock and prepared herself to shout for help while he who read her mind said, “It’s no use shouting, that’s my men…”, he smirked and continued, “Looks like the fried chicken is here!”. In an amplified voice, he answered the person on the other end of the door without opening it, “Warm it up… I’ll be there soon”

“Ok, Hyung!”, someone answered from the other side of the door.

Taehyung’s attention fell back to Sohyun after answering the door. His eyes scanned her from top to bottom and said, “You’re not wearing enough clothes…”. His act and words perplexed her. He walked towards her; untied the rope and grabbed her shoulders to help her rise on her feet. Putting all her strength into her wobbling legs she stood up with his support. As he led her towards the door, she suddenly resisted and ran away after shoving him aside.

She ran outside gathering her long skirt in her one hand and her life on the other, to find herself on the rooftop. It was dark outside; the sky was pitch black with no stars and even the street lights were at the far end of her sight. She stopped at the edge of the building and looked down, and it was pitch-black. She couldn’t even decipher, how high was the building or what was beneath her.

Taehyung who leisurely took his time to catch up to her, saw her standing at the edge of the building and smirked.

She looked behind at the dark space and looked back at Taehyung, “Why must I pay for men who fight each other?”, her shaky voice and quivering eyes asked him.

Her words struck his senses for a moment, but he gathered his sense back saying, “You’ve reached the end, no way to escape! Your life is in my hands-”

As tears rolled down on her cheek in desperateness, she interrupted him saying, “My life is mine. It belongs to me. Only me!”

“Tsk! Stop! Not another word! I won’t think twice to even push you off the edge!”, he tried to knock some sense into her, “But, don’t worry. I’m not crazy enough to do that!”, he sighed out loud and stretched out his hand lending it to her. “Grab my hand!”

She shook her head denying to take his hand.

Slightly losing control of his temper, he spoke through his clenched teeth, “I’m already having eternal dilemmas… Anger, Calm, Revenge, Peace… Grab my hand before I choose the unfavourable one!”. Warning and threatening are his only known way to plead with a person.

With a surge of emotions running through her, in an instant, without a grain of fear in her eyes, she jumped from the building.

“YOU FOOL!”, he screamed out of his lungs while running towards the edge.

On hearing the splash of water, he realized that she fell into the pool. Uncertain of her plight, and worrying that she might drown, he jumped off the edge following her.

Her brought her to the surface from the bottom of the pool; placed her on the floor beside the pool and then got out of the pool soaking wet. Wiping the water of his face with his hand, he looked at her lying on the floor in a daze. In a moment, she coughed out the water and knocked herself out of the unconsciousness. He stood still with incredulity upon looking at her. She rolled on her side and placed her palm on the floor to sit up. The second she saw him by her side, tears welled in her eyes at the futile effort to run away from him. As her sniffles and cries reached his ears, he said, “Enough! You’re hurting my ears! Stop crying!”

“I’m not crying!”, she said conflicting her actions.

Fed up by her arguments, he rose on his feet and lend his hand saying, “Come with me! Let’s go a warm and cozy place…”

She refused to take his hand and turned her face away from him. Wiping her tears, “Find yourself another woman to follow you to places like that! All the curse words in the world was made for you!”, she said in all her spite while hugging her knees to beat the cold.

He smiled saying, “I think, the weeping has stopped! Its better to hear the swear words than a woman’s snobs!”

Her lips quivered in cold to argue back, instead she gave him a sharp stare in reply while rubbing her hands for the warmth.

Leaving her there, he entered a locker room beside the pool and the heater after changing into dry clothes. He waited for her to give up the strike but instead it looked like she’ll give away to the cold winter. Giving up, he came out and covered her wet body with a blanket and pleaded, “I’m sorry! I acted on a whim in anger! Please come in…”

Voluntarily giving into his apology, she went inside the room. He stayed outside in the cold, to let her change into dry clothes. Though there were only track suits, it was the only option left.

As she continued to shiver in the coldness, he remarked, “You should look before you jump. Can’t you use your brain?”

“Why did you save me?”

“I didn’t want to become a murderer?”, he replied without giving any thought.

“Then why did you kidnap me?”, she asked him

“I think it was your fate to get kidnapped by me…”

“Pray! If you believe in God, pray! Coz, your fate is in my hands!”, she said looking into his eyes.

He looked at her fascinated again. His gaze stayed still on her until she broke it. He covered himself with a blanket and lied down closing his eyes. After few minutes, hoping that he was asleep, she took her steps towards the door carefully without making any sound.

“Stop!”, he said without opening his eyes.

Startled by his words, she stood stunned. “Let me go back to my dorm”, she pleaded.

“Be good. Go back and sleep. I’ll send you back in the morning, understand?”, he instructed and slowly opened his eyes.

Her eyes teared up at her repeated failures and in a haste, she grabbed the wet clothes on the floor and threw it at him. He evaded the throws, but she started to hit him with a wet clothe repeatedly. Since the clothe was heavy her energy was lost in the swing rather than in the impact on him. She vented out her frustrations while continuously hitting him. He let her hit him to vent out her emotions but, when he realized that she lost her strength in swinging the heavy wet clothe, he stopped her by grabbing the clothe. He tried to get the clothe from her hands by pulling it away, instead he ended up pulling her towards him. At a very close proximity, where they can clearly feel the warmth of the breathes on their faces, they stood frozen. Their breath pattern changed, and soon they suffered shortness in breath. With their eyes locked; unable to tear the gaze and distance apart, his eyes wandered on her face. Etching the images of her eyes, nose, cheeks, chin and lips, he looked at her without blinking. For her, no matter how deep she inhaled the air, it always seemed to be devoid of oxygen. When he leaned in with his eyes fixed on her lips, “Are you trying to see how brave I am?”, she asked him to break the proximity.

He took a step back saying, “I’m sorry! I’m really sorry!”

Taken aback by his sudden apology she looked at him without batting her eyes.

He smiled saying, “Now, you’re staring at me!”

Realizing that he really act on a whim in his anger, she said, “Have you ever thought of seeking help to deal with that anger of yours?”

He smiled at her concerned words and questioned her, “Why don’t you stay with me?”

She averted her gaze from him and walked towards her corner in the room.

“Why aren’t you saying anything? Answer me”, he asked softly, “Will you stay with me or not?”

“Why didn’t you push me off the edge? Better that, than asking me such a question!”, she spoke her thoughts.

“Fine. Shouldn’t have asked that. And also, Kwak Dongyeon shouldn’t have met you. Shouldn’t have made you his girlfriend! He shouldn’t have come here. Shouldn’t have initiated a fight with me. I shouldn’t have abducted you and I shouldn’t have triggered you to jump off. You shouldn’t have jumped. I shouldn’t have saved you. And importantly…. I shouldn’t have felt alive when you opened your eyes.”

She stood dumbfounded on hearing his confession and inhaled in deeply catching her breath.

“What’s done is done. It cannot be undone”, he said, “I can’t change my feelings. My words can’t be taken back. So, will you stay with me?”, he asked her.

She still didn’t recover from his confession but, he struck her again with his brutally honest words.

“If you weren’t his girlfriend, will you stay with me?”, he threw in a hypothetical question.

Like the sky which doesn’t heed to rumbling clouds, she didn’t say anything and went back to her position and he drowned himself in thoughts.

After an hour of silence, when the clock struck seven, he got up saying, “Come…”, he said but discontinued his sentence realizing that she hates that word. He continued, “I’ll drop you in the dorm… It’s open till 8, right?”

She stood up nodding her head in agreement.

They walked towards a car which was parked outside the building. After he opened the passenger door for her, he took his driver seat. He the heater and asked, “Is this temperature comfortable?”

She nodded, and his questions seemed to resonate with her and calmed her down. ‘Please God, don’t take my anger away’, she prayed in her mind earnestly since, for her that anger gave her the strength to fight him.

While he repeatedly opened his mouth to say something and pursed his lips contemplating. Swallowing the hesitation, he said, “I have never done something like this before… I’m sorry. I always solve it… with guys and… with fists…”

His words always managed to draw her attention.

He continued, “His guys beat up one of my men into a pulp… currently he is in hospital with a broken nose and ribs. I lost my mind on seeing him in that state… You know, its his final year and has audition next month…”, he continued to explain the situation. But all that she heard from him had terms like notes, rhythm, tempo which she had no idea about and all that she understood was a broken nose and ribs will greatly affect the vocals and that the future of the guy in the hospital is a question.

The moment she realized that started empathising with him, she resorted to denial, “That’s an excuse not a reason!”, she told him sternly.

Her words shot his temper. Trying his best to control it, he gripped his hold on the steering and never spoke another word.

When they were few minutes away from the dorm, she told him, “Drop me off here. I don’t want to be seen with you!”

Her words never failed to add fuel to his raging anger, but he managed it well and puller over the car. She determined to walk ahead without turning back after getting down, but his question, “What kind of man is he?”, pulled her in like a magnet.

She knew the ‘he’ in this sentence denotes Kwak Dongyeon, and she looked at Taehyung without any reply.

He asked again, “That Kwak Dongyeon… a good man?”

She never spoke through words but a stare.

“Or a very good man?”, he inquired.

“Never in my life, I saw a good person like him…”, she responded at last.

“I want to see him and ask him… why he met you first!”, with an evident proportion of jealousy in his tone, he continued, “Is he loving? Does he make you laugh?”

She nodded.

“And you? Do you love him?”, he asked softly through his breath.

“Why do you ask?”, she knitted her brows puzzled.

“Coz I feel jealous…”, he said but before he could say anything further, she immediately walked away.

She took her quick steps towards her dorm while murmuring her prayers, ‘Stop him from showing compassion to me! Don’t show bad people in good light! Nor show him as truthful!”

When she took her step on the stairs of the dorm entrance, a car puller over honking to get her attention. She turned back to find Taehyung in the car. He got down and handed her a bag saying, “Its medicines and soup…”

Her eyes darted between the bag, him and her surroundings, with the fear of being seen with him.

“No one will know what happened between us… I’ll make sure of that!”, he assured her reading her fear.

His eyes looked around searching for someone and asked her, “I heard he always visits his girlfriend just before the dorm closes?”

She nodded.

He raised his brow questioning the absence of his presence.

“His girlfriend is in another dorm…”, she dropped the truth abruptly.

“Oh!”, a tone dropped involuntarily from his mouth. “Then…”, he spoke ambiguously while his mind was clouded with doubts. “You aren’t his girlfriend?”, he asked keeping a straight face.

“Did you come for me? Or for Kwak Dongyeon?”, she asked with a tinge of anger lingering in her voice and went inside her dorm without receiving the things he bought for her.

Next morning, when Sohyun saw Kwak Dongyeon waiting restlessly in front of her dorm, she approached him to inquire about his restlessness.

On seeing Sohyun, Dongyeon’s eyes were filled with worry. He asked her, “Are you ok? Did anything happen?”

She shook her head saying, “Nothing…”, and hesitantly asked, “Why…”

Her answer angered him, and he took out some damp clothes from a bag asking, “Then why Taehyung has your clothes? He told me to give it to you!”

She murmured to herself, “I shouldn’t have believed you!”, while recollecting Taehyung’s assurance, ‘No one will know what happened between us’.

“Did he say anything else?”, she asked.

“No! That’s why I’m asking you!”, Dongyeon threw in his anger.

“He was angry that you hit one of his guys…”, she didn’t disclose anything else.

“So, did he hit you?”, he asked.

She shook her head in denial.

“Did he threaten you?”

“No”, she replied to prevent being the reason behind their fights.

“Did he touch you? What happened that shouldn’t have?”, his serious tone sounded so weighty.

“I know what you’re asking”, she smiled, “Look at me. Can’t you tell? If something happened or not?”, she asked him.

He nodded, “OK. As long as you’re ok…”, he said and took his leave.

Since then, she didn’t meet Taehyung again even by coincidence. A year rolled on without any trace of him. Sometimes, he pop up in her head and every time she meets Kwak Dongyeon, Taehyung made his proxy.

Entering her sophomore year, she had to take an elective subject of other department and being in theatre, one of the most popular choices is Vocal. Almost half of the students in her class chose vocal including her. Somehow, the fact that he graduated from the university last year gave her relief and also disappointment.

Sitting in her first elective class of vocals, the lecture hall seemed full. Being an introductory class, common for freshers too, the hall was b with enthusiastic audience. When the hall suddenly became quiet, she looked at the podium to find the professor. He looked old but wise, his voice is bold rather than sweet. After he introduced himself as Prof. Han with 25 years of experience. He called in someone by the name of ‘V’ who was waiting at the other side of door. The moment he stepped into the hall, her eyes widened to find Taehyung. Professor Han introduced him as ‘V’, vocalist of a poplar band.

Author's thoughts:

Thank you for reading :) Have a wonderful day :)