With a large bouquet covering the face and holding a basket of fruits in other hand, a man entered the hospital room pouring his lively aura with his quick steps. On sensing the presence of someone, Sohyun and Yeri who had been living the past hour in silence, looked up to see that person.

“Yellow flowers?”, Sohyun murmured wondering the identity of the person. And the stance of the person pacing towards her, gave away his identity. “Kwak Dongyeon oppa?”

“Sohyun-ah!”, the cheerful voice sounded behind the bouquet. Getting the bouquet away from his face, he eyes looked at the two women who were rather taken aback by his presence. “Oh, Yeri-sshi! You are here too!”, he said placing the fruits basket on the table beside her bed.

“Am I visible to you only now?”, Yeri responded.

On seeing the empty vase among the bouquets, he unwrapped the flowers he brought and arranged it in the vase.

“All those flowers…”, Sohyun asked.

“Ah, this one?”, he said, “I found this bouquet in front of your room… may be from your fans? Beautiful and big, isn’t it? It’s a pity to leave it like that, so I brought it here!”

“You didn’t buy it?”

“I bought fruits for you! I didn’t come empty handed!”, he defended himself, “I more than willing to spend my money on you!”

As Sohyun chuckled at his response, Yeri felt relieved on seeing her witnessing her mood brighten.

Taking his seat on the edge of the bed beside Sohyun, he looked into Sohyun’s eyes. Her eyes that bore a tinge of red hue and her lashes which were clubbed together with her tears, sold out her state. “Were you crying?”, he asked softly but his tone told her, he was serious about his question.

She hung her head in silence.

“Is that a no or yes?”, he insisted.

“I wasn’t-”, she started.

He interrupted her with his stern question, “Then, were those tears of joy?”

Yeri interrupted, “Why are you rubbing the salt in her wound?”

“I was asking her…”, he told her off without taking his eyes off Sohyun.

Sohyun’s lips were tightly sealed.

“I was pondering over someone who parted…”, he reminded Taehyung’s rumor but continued his sentence as if he was referring himself, “Pondering over someone who parted me, is like seeing myself in despair, in sorrow… aren’t I a fool?” His eyes fell on the phone beside her pillow, and he remarked, “I waited for a call, a text or even a glance from that person… waited, holding the phone in my hand, never let it away, it stayed by my pillow when I slept… I slept carefully to not silence the phone under me or the pillow and always conscious of the sounds from the phone… I waited… straining, struggling, swallowing every painful knot in my throat… I just waited, never got redemption… my life drenched in sorrow…”, he paused and asked her, “How are you feeling?”

‘The same’, her mind replied which her lips dammed up.

“I was rejected… so that was expected of me… what about you?”, he asked.

Yeri realized where he is getting at and raised her voice in anger, “What are you hinting at?”

Not minding her words, he continued his one-way conversation with Sohyun, “Our photo in the articles wasn’t tampered with… so is his’!”

“You-”, Yeri’s call never reached his ears and he continued cutting in, “Ours was real, so is his photo…”, his words clearly affected her as her eyes wandered the air. “How about the content in it?”, he asked. Only at his last question, her eyes met with his. But words never slipped her lips. “I came here to confirm the truth… I asked Bogum, but he even feigned ignorance of Taehyung’s relationship with you! That sly loyal person never uttered a word! So, I came to you… any news?”

Sohyun just looked at him in a daze.

“Maintaining silence, just like his agency! You got yourself in a dating rumor with me… so, he is getting his revenge through his dating rumor with… someone… who is not me? That doesn’t sound like a good revenge…”

“If you are concerned about me… then spell it out! Why are you beating around the bush?”

“How can I be worried about someone who rejected me? How can I say, ‘I’m worried about you’ or spit my thoughts, ‘You should’ve chosen me’!”

Sohyun chuckled saying, “You can always be worried about your childhood family friend!”

He smiled and stretched out his arms for a hug saying, “Let’s see how much of a childhood family friend still I am to y-”

Before he could finish his sentence, she hugged him without any hint of hesitance. In that few moments of surprise and few moments of silence, they are yet to start talking, yet her heart filled in solace.

But for Yeri, those moments were spent in awkwardness. Not sure, whether she should stay or leave… she stood frozen at the sight. “Ahem!”, Yeri cleared breaking their hug.

After his leave, after a lot of contemplation, Sohyun took the courage to call him but the call never went through. She could call the members, and that thought indeed crossed her mind, but she never did. Afraid of taking a step further; afraid of staking on her desperateness, she never crossed the bridge. “I expected his phone to be switched off… His agency might’ve instructed him to do so… or at the worse, his phone might’ve been seized by the agency…”, she paused and inhaled deeply after which she spilled, “disappointment arises only when our expectations fail, right? But… why am I disappointed…”

Taehyung who sat in a roundtable conference accompanied by his manager and surrounded by his agency staff and CEO, had his phone seized. Holding his fury within, he was seated among the staffs in silence.

After few ticks of the clock, the CEO broke the silence, “So, what do you want us say? The photos were proved to be authentic! You want to disclose a statement stating, ‘You’re not dating that idol but an actress’? Do you even realize the blunder in that? Rather than clearing the rumor, you are dragging in another person who isn’t involved in that at all?”

“Then, is it right to leave the matters as such? You took my phone and I couldn’t even contact my family, then how else am I supposed to give a peace of mind to them… and her?”, Taehyung spoke trying his best to keep his composure.

“You want to use that kind of media to convey your message to them, like a moron?”, he vociferated. He paused and shut his eyes while breathing in, trying to regain his composure, “We’ll look for the way within today! Till then stay quiet and stay low!”, he told him. Facing the program director, he said, “Let’s not cancel any of the concerts… since there are no fan meetings scheduled, we’ll be fine! Rearranging anything will raise suspicions! Do Taehyung have any Vlive scheduled?”

“That’s for tomorrow evening!”, one of the staffs answered.

“Let it go as per planned… Let the web developers, content developers and programmers stay alert to malicious comments and keep them off, either report or block! Do something! Anything! Don’t let them have their way!”

“Sure, sir”, they replied noting down the instructions.

“Did we receive any reply from that’s agency? Did they disclose anything?”

“No sir. They are maintaining their silence with reporters… And-”, the staff hesitated

“And what?”

“They asked us to not respond too… they said that such rumors will die out soon, if left unattended!”, liaison director spoke.

“Are they enjoying this bloody attention?”, CEO responded furiously. “No one gets a free promotion!! Send a statement immediately that ‘V is not dating her or ever dated her or any idol!’”, he gave his stern instructions.

“Ah… sure sir”, the staff was reluctant in delivering such a sentence which seemed like a direct hit.

Reading his mind, after considering it, he gave in saying, “You may tone it down, but never sugarcoat it! And take immediate action!”

“Sure sir!”, he said before he took his leave from the meeting room.

Eavesdropping this commotion in meeting room, the members were outside the door with their ears glued to the door. Though they couldn’t hear anything, they felt the tension through the soundproof doors and regretted forcing Taehyung to go on the blind date. As they were trying their best to listen, they mistook the sound of the door being unlocked as a loud voice and everyone stuck their ears to the door. As the door opened without their notice, they fell on the ground losing their balance. Looking up at Taehyung’s manager who opened the door, they gave sheepish smiles to hide the embarrassment.

Flustered at the scene that unfolded before him, the manager said, “I was told to fetch you guys… please come in…”

Dusting their clothes, they came in pushing Namjoon and Jin to the front to lead them. Taking their seats beside Taehyung, they sat straight placing their hands on their knees, cowered.

“Did you realize what you all have done?”

“We had good intentions…”, Jungkook spoke up.

“A scandal out of your good intentions, what else did you expect? With the lyrics of the new album, people are already considering the possibility of the members in a romantic relationship! And paparazzies are tagging everywhere you go to get a dating scoop! You’re adding the fuel now?”

“We’re sorry”, Namjoon sounded dejected before Jungkook could respond to it.

Their guilt filled eyes brought down his anger, “What’s done is done… be careful from now on! Your actions reflect on your juniors too… You all didn’t makeup or miss out any information regarding that blind date, did you?”

“Without his knowledge, we waited for him in the restaurant and picked him up in the agency van…”, Namjoon said politely.

“If so, then we are safe… The pictures just show Taehyung and that idol entered the same restaurant on the same day but NOT at the same time and NOT together! So, we have a loop there! Let’s tell them that all the BTS members were in the restaurant that day and let’s attach a photo from surveillance camera or black box of Taehyung and others boarding the agency van… And we are gonna state that ‘Taehyung and that idol indeed exchanged their greetings, but they never were in a date!’ We are neither lying nor fabricating anything…”

“Yet... we’re keeping the public in darkness…”, Taehyung murmured not pleased with the action while other members who heard him perplexed.

The press report that was instantly prepared by the staff were issued to the CEO and finalized, after which the copies of the report were handed to individual member, to get them prepared to answer unanimously regarding the questions on the rumors. After the reported were distributed, the members along with Taehyung was asked to take their leave. But the meeting continued in their absence, to deal with the cost of the rumors and the benefits which could be possibly derived from it.

While reading the report in their hand, the members retired to their rooms. Suga quoted the texts from the report which read, “‘Since fans look up to the BTS members as stars, we are disclosing this report and photos to disclose the truth especially to not keep the fans in darkness’, these lines… I have no comments on this!”

“Though planets revolve around the Sun… the planets are still swimming in darkness, aren’t they?”, Taehyung remarked.

“Tough times, maketh a poet”, Suga quoted nodding.

“Tough times…”, Jimin repeated and paused for a thought before he hesitantly continued, “Sohyun-sshi is in hospital…”

“What?”, Taehyung perplexed.

“Its not serious, just exhaustion…”, Jimin explained. “The news came out just minutes after your dating rumor…”

Taehyung’s eyes quivered at his disclosure.

“It’s not like you think… it wasn’t because of your news”, Jin comforted. But Jimin poured, “She was admitted in the hospital before your news broke, before your phone was seized… a few days before… it’s just… the news happened to come on the same day!”

Being kept in dark about her condition, angered him. The gap that sprouted between them, anguished him. With the rumors around, his curfew lasted 24 hours a day. He was left hanging with no words to express his thoughts and helplessness. He never spoke another word and rushed making his way to the floor to get breath of fresh air with the city view.

His incessantly distressed eyes saw a magpie on the evening sky. ‘Sohyun’, the only word that came to him on seeing the flying bird. As it flew moving its beak, pecking the sky, he murmured, “You’re flying higher, shaking away the world, aren’t you?”

But soon the rain clouds gathered quickly. He got worried as he lost the direction in which the bird flew unto. In a moment, thunders struck with crackling sound and the rain splattered around heavily. “How are you gonna bear this rain? Your wings will be in pain… you’ll suffer… you’re suffering, aren’t you?”, his volume decanted lower as emotions choked him. “People will say ‘See how you ended up for rejoicing the moment while forgetting your home…’” He crouched down, with tears drenching his knees. The weather had been changing, the time went sliding, with his heart beating faster, he still searched for the words and ways to tell her something that could express his lament.

Their body cried like death; they were in island surrounded by the sea of obscurity and uncertainty. But what pained them the most is that those tears that dissolves in the sea, never crosses it and never reaches the shore.

On his crouched back, Taehyung felt a warm hand patting, which was soon accompanied by an elderly man’s wavering voice, which spoke, “Are you feeling helpless?” Taehyung lifted his head to see an old man in cleaning uniform, wearing a smile and wrinkles. Somehow his smile and glaze gave him warmth and made him pour out his heart like the rendering of a tune.

“What should I say? Should I ask about her health or should I explain the rumors? A comfort or apology? What does do I tell her? Defend myself or assure her?”

Holding his hand in his’, he replied calmly, “Think on the other side… do you want to come off as a person who has no concerns over the relationship or the person?”

“Huh?”, he took a moment to conceive his question and replied, “Neither…”

“That’s not how you answer a question with ‘Or’! So, let me rephrase it for you… Is your relationship with her is more important than her?”

“What?”

“Will you able to love her even though you two are no longer in relationship?”

His eyes down-casted, and his lips pronounced, “I love her… but… if we aren’t in a relationship then…”

He chuckled saying, “Love that expects is never a love!”

Taehyung smirked saying, “Those words may be poetic to quote, but not romantic in practice… Is that even practical?”

Spreading his arms, he said proudly, “Me… a living example!”

Taehyung froze for a second before he blurted his thoughts, “Your wife died?”, upon knocking himself to senses, “I’m sorry, if it came out rude…”

“You’re just blunt, son. No issues…”, he replied, “I was never married…”

Taehyung waited for his answer to his un-spelt question ‘why’.

With a reminiscent glance through the corner of his eyes and a smile in the corner of his lips, he narrated, “In our generation, it was difficult to even get close to a girl, not to mention, conversations were way out of our league… no mobile phones, no mails, internet existed only in metropolitan cities…But thankfully we went to same school… I knew her since middle school, we never pronounced the words ‘I love you’, we never acted like a couple… I wonder if we ever were a couple! But we knew that we love each other… Letters were our only means of communication… Looking at the same moon and the same sky from different places on earth, was how we dated… Then… during high school, I fled the town with my parents due to debts… I told no one about it… I had no chance to write it to her. And we lost contact. When I came back to town after a year, she already moved away… I didn’t know her whereabouts… Never heard of her again… But on my 30^th birthday, I met her again, like a birthday wish!”, with eyes b with enthusiasm as if he just met her, he said, “I couldn’t believe my eyes… she wasn’t the girl that I once saw… Her attire, her posture, her hair, her heels, everything changed… but her-”

“Eyes never changed… that gaze she throws at you never changed, right?”, Taehyung completed his sentence, recollecting the emotions that hit him when he saw Sohyun after a long time.

He nodded smiling, “We recognized each other! I could see the happiness in her face on seeing me! We did our best to hold in our tears, and… I took great courage to speak to her, for the first time in 30 years, I spoke to her directly not through letters. Wiping the sweat off my forehead, I greeted her asking, ‘It’s been a long time… How have you been doing…dongsaeng (sister)?’”, he stopped his narration overwhelmed by the emotions that took over his vocal.

“Dongsaeng?”, Taehyung drew his eyebrows together.

He chuckled answering, “Then… How am I supposed to address her in front of her husband and children?”, his eyes welled in tears as he continued, “If I said ‘friend’, her husband might question her about me and… she’ll be in a pinch… In those days, ‘Friend’ is the most suspicious word, my son!”

In that instant, Taehyung held him in hug without giving his actions much thought.

“Tell me… what’s so difficult in communication, in this generation?”, the elderly asked receiving his hug.

Thanking him with a smile, he asked, “You were never in a relationship?”

“Like this generation, do you want me to be in a relationship with others while convincing myself that ‘it is love’… while desperately hoping that I should never hear from her or ever cross path with her? Those years I lived without her taught me… even in separation, my love for her is never a lie, so is the pain.”, he left his words abruptly. But Taehyung’s sad eyes that fell upon him, made him comment, “Hey… don’t look at me with such a pity! Save it for yourself, there’s another side to this fast communication… showing your love, hate and anger quicker does have an ugly side…”

Wearing a short smile, Taehyung listened to his preaching like a child, “I’m all ears… Mr. Love Guru!”, he said.

Smiling at his words, he explained, “You know, since conversation was difficult… even our anger can only be expressed through letters… But halfway through writing, anger will fade away. Letters that started with, ‘Never expected you to be like this’, ended with ‘I love you’ and ‘I hope we stop this for a while’ turned to ‘I miss you’… But I never regretted it, lament is a phase of love too!”

“If I ask you something, will you answer honestly?”

He nodded without getting flustered.

“The daily life that you live without her, is that even a life?”, he spelled that raw question.

Though he didn’t expect him to serve it raw, he understood the reason behind it and replied softly, “This mind of mine dies daily… but I simply loved her… just loved her… on my own way without crossing her path! My love lived with her, lives because of her… To be honest, there were lots of dream, lots of questions which was left unanswered… All I had was the time… time to think, search and reminiscence… hating the dreams that kept me company. Waste no time, or you’ll be seen dining at a buffet in her wedding!”

“The time, I understood the torment it brings only after I met her…”, Taehyung uttered before he bid his goodbye to the him. As he made his way to his floor in elevator, he realized that he didn’t even ask for his name or relay his thanks properly. He retracted back to find him, but the floor was empty, and he couldn’t find him anywhere. All that he recollected about him was that he was an old man with few black hairs among the greys who wore the cleaning uniform, so he visited the maintenance department to convey his thanks… but the staff said there was no one that fits his description. Wondering the identity of the elderly, he returned to his room in a daze.

As soon as Taehyung stepped inside the room, Jungkook who came out of nowhere, shoved his phone towards Taehyung saying, “They called me since yours is switched off…” and took his run.

As Taehyung took the phone to his ear, he heard a faint voice that spoke, ‘A call for you…’ from the other end of the line. Though the voice felt familiar, he couldn’t decipher the owner. Pressing the phone against his ears, he listened keenly to the sounds.

““Hello””, their voices collided.

Hearing Taehyung’s voice through Yeri’s phone perplexed Sohyun since the phone was forced into her hands without any prior notice. Yeri took off after handing over the phone to her, leaving just her and the phone alone in the hospital room connected to Taehyung.

Taehyung couldn’t bring out the words and Sohyun couldn’t process her thoughts.

Holding the phone against their ears, they spent the moments in silence.

Her heart struck her rib cage, but her words stayed in, but not her emotions. With the words failing her, the tears had begun to speak. She pursed her lips to quiet down the sniffles. As it began to fail too, she covered to contain her. Hearing her cry, rendered him relentless.

At that moment, the sound of the door being opened distracted her. Wiping the tears of her cheeks, she turned to find the nurse who came in to check up on her. On seeing Sohyun, keeping her silence over the phone conversation, she asked, “Sohyun-sshi, has the line got cut?”

“No…”, she answered her, while having him on the line.

“Then talk… I won’t eavesdrop on your conversation, so don’t worry…”, the nurse assured.

She waited for him his voice which never sounded…  shaking her head, she said, “I guess, it’s a wrong number…”

Before Taehyung could string the words, she hung up the phone. He held the phone for a while longer even though the call ended. Abandoning the phone, he ran his fingers through his hair at the frustration. Paralyzed to use the chance, he grunted as the frustration transformed into anger. Clenching his teeth, he struggled to contain the anger upon his helplessness. He went for water to ease himself but before water could reach him, the hostility took the taste of him as he struck the cup hard against the table breaking the porcelain into pieces.

Author’s thoughts:

Hello! How are you doing? Somehow pulling through? *same clichéd greetings, right? But I really mean those words!*

Our Sohyun got a new historical drama!!! Never expected the drama news so soon (Though I hoped for one)!! We’ll be seeing more of her in the later part of this year. So excited!! We can see Sohyun back to back, coz we got 2 dramas!!!

Malelead was yet to be confirmed. *Reading Dongyoon as ‘Dongyeon’ in a historical drama with Kim Sohyun, means writing fanfiction got too much into me, right?*

*Whispers* BTW, did you see the post of Taehyung in a concert wearing the coolers/glasses that Sohyun chose in Gentle Monster event?

About the elderly man in this chapter:  

Had the experience of being helped by some unknown person and never found them after? When I shared this, I was amazed to find that many had similar experiences like that… we all got goosebumps!!! An angel? Or a Human with humanity? Whoever it may be, this chapter will be my remembrance of that person!