Credits: xtaesox (instagram)

Sohyun’s eyes wavered at the awkward dilemma between Kwak Dongyeon’s discovery and Taehyung’s discovery.  

“Looks like I’m interrupting…”, Taehyung’s calm words sounded despite his cold eyes a second ago. “Let’s meet tomorrow, Sohyun-ah…”, he left with his poker face.

Sohyun parted her lips to resolve the situation, but his leave turned off her volume. Her heart felt heavy. Her fear was way beyond the revelation of facts, but his goodbye, it felt like it was their last, like the one last year.

Dongyeon understood the situation between them. He inhaled deeply and exhaled a loud sigh saying, “Is it him? The one you wanted to introduce?”

She nodded.

The evident sadness on her face made him question, “You wanna go after him?”

Her downcast eyes looked up at him with surprised look.

“He can wait… if he wants to”, he said nonchalantly.

Sensing the intention of his words, she faced him, “It’s true… You were always the perfect guy and I, of course had a crush on you… And, sadly, it lasted for years”, she let out a quick laugh saying, “To be honest, whenever you expressed your interest in any girl, my mind raised few questions at you…”, she paused in hesitancy to continue further, “Those questions which I never uttered, ‘Am not a woman? Don’t you have eyes to see that?’ But, now I’m in love with a guy who gave me the worst first impression…”

He smiled. “If you had confessed your feelings to me, when you were 16 and I was 18 or even before that… I would’ve said yes… Certainly”

‘When you were, and I was’, those words brought her serenity. She smiled at him and but, her eyes darted between him and the empty doorstep.

He clearly understood her desire to go after him, but he stood quietly ignoring it.

Her feet didn’t stay still on the floor and her eyes looked worried as each fraction of second passed. The image of him walking out on them hit her hard. “I’ll see you tomorrow, oppa…”, she told him, yielding to her hastiness to go after Taehyung.

Her quick steps soon left the room and entered the hallway in search of Taehyung. She tried to reach him through phone, but the call never got through. She hurried to her dorm hoping to find him waiting for her, but her hope shattered. With sweat lining her hairline and tears lining her eyes, she made her way towards his dorm. Her phone never took a rest from dialling his number and her eyes wandered in the air looking for him. She waited in front of the dorm receiving awkward stares from the guys who were at the gate. Unknown persons passed by her, but her eyes were searching the trace of him without batting her eyes.

Meanwhile, Jimin entered Taehyung’s room calling out his name.

Hearing him, one of Taehyung’s roommates pointed towards the restroom.

Jimin gave a quick head bow thanking him and slammed the door with the knock calling out to him.

Taehyung opened the door with a force which clearly poured out his annoyance at the knock. But his anger subsided on seeing Jimin’s worried face.

“Wha-”

Before Taehyung shot his question, Jimin cut in saying, “Sohyun-sshi is in front of our dorm!”

“Sohyun?”, his eyes widened, “At this time? Are you sure?”, he asked while he was making his way to the entrance. He didn’t bother to hear the answer and just took a run.

The moment Sohyun found Taehyung in her sight, the emotions choked her and brought her to tears. He hurried to her side on seeing her flushed face. He cupped her face wiping her tears with his thumb, “Hey…”, his gentle but anxious voice sounded. “What happened? Did he-”

She shook her head and hugged him tightly wrapping her arms around him.

He stood frozen at the sudden hug. He knocked himself into senses and patted on her back gently. “Sohyun-ah!”, he called softly.

She didn’t respond and buried her face in his chest.

When the guys who walked past him laid their eyes on them, Taehyung sent them away with his sharp stare, said, “What are you looking at?”

“People are looking”, Taehyung told Sohyun softly.

“Let them…”, she said through her choked breath.

He smiled and hugged her back.

When the hug lasted minutes longer, he spoke, “It’s past 8, your dorm closes by-”, he dropped his sentence and broke the hug. He bent down meeting her eyes, “Let’s go back to your dorm and talk… OK?”

She nodded agreeing. Though it’s half past 8, Sohyun made it back to her room thanks to Taehyung.

Sohyun took her seat on the bed and he, on the chair while facing each other. The silences didn’t last long, “Enlighten me…”, he said.

“Why did you leave like that?”, she asked.

“Like what?”

“As if you abandoned me…”

“Silly! Why would you think like that?”

“Shouldn’t you be angry? Shouldn’t you grab my hand or wrap me in your arms and tell me that I’m yours?”, her voice amplified as she poured out her thoughts. Her volume soon subsided with her question, “Shouldn’t you be bothered by it?”

He smirked saying, “I lost my temper… And if I stayed any longer, then I would… I don’t know what I would do… I’m really trying to control my temper, especially around the people who are important to you… And th-” She cut in his sentence saying, “I love you”

“I know”, he .

She didn’t seem to get bothered by it and looked into his eyes in all her seriousness, she said, “Love you… truly, madly, deeply-”

“Hey…”, he spoke softly, “You’re completely poisoned by me…”

She laughed, “I prefer being smitten…”, she corrected him.

“Then, I’ll grant you that wish…”, he said leaning in towards her lips.

“I didn’t mean it literally…”, she said backing down.

“Forgive me for my poor Korean!”, he uttered promptly and landed his lips on hers.

Welcoming his kiss gladly, she kissed him back. Slipping his hand behind her neck, he gently rested her head on the bed to kiss her conveniently. They got in by the soft nibbles and lost themselves in the moment. When he slipped his shirt over his head, in that second of losing her in his sight made him realize what he was about to do. With his shirt on the floor and his eyes on her, his gaze asked for her permission, silently with expectant thoughts. Her eyes that expressed the answer by itself was a conundrum.

He cupped her face and gazed gently into her eyes, “I’m not as good as you… my temper is worse… But I love you, more than you will ever love me”, he said as he planted a kiss on her cheek. “I’ll love you even if you don’t”, he kissed her other cheek, “I’ll love you even if you hate me; I’ll love you even if you despise me”, he kissed her on the lips, gently and rhythmically. And she did not just let him kiss her but pulled him towards her and kissed him back. Unlike his quick temper, his kiss was slow but sensual; unlike his strong calloused hands, his were gentle. As his hands ran over her carefully studying her elegant curves, he lost his pride and himself. They introduced their whole new selves to each other and let them narrate the secret stories that were never been told before. The night was silent but their breathes could break open the sky.

They spent the remaining hours of the night, cuddling each other.

As she rested her head over his chest, his hands fiddled with her hair while it gently. She lifted her head to look at his face and said, “Vacation starts next week, shall we go somewhere?”, she asked enthusiastically.

“Aren’t you going home?”

“I can go after the weekend…”

“I have to go back next week… we’re preparing for a debut…”

“Debut?! That’s good news!”

He nodded smiling.

“Can we spend the weekend together before you leave?”

He shook his head saying, “I’ll send you off first…”

“Can I stay with you in the weekend?”, she insisted.

“Sohyun-ah, please… I can’t do goodbyes… If you’re here in university, I won’t be able to leave Seoul…”

“Then, you leave for your studio, I’ll leave for my hometown... On the same day…”

“Didn’t you book the tickets already?”

She threw in her puppy eyes.

“Don’t do this Sohyun-ah… ok?”, he pleaded as he embraced her tightly in his arms.

She nodded silently.

They stayed on the bed not willing to let go of each other until in the morning, when they heard the door being opened.

Sohyun drew the blanket over her head to cover herself while he sat up startled.

Hwayoung who witnessed them, covered her agape mouth to not even let a hertz of sound to carry the happenings outside. To her flustered face, he said, “Can you wait outside for a while, she is feeling shy… We’ll get dressed in 2 minutes… Please…”

Hwayoung stood dumbfounded unable to utter anything. Realizing she can’t do anything about it, she gave in saying, “Take your time, let me grab my Shoes…” As she walked towards the table, Taehyung stopped her saying, “Wait… Can you take the one by the door? Our clothes are by the table… so-”

She rolled her eyes and grunted, “I’m not going to be back anytime soon… happy?” She slammed the door shut walking out.

Sohyun and Taehyung giggled in the embarrassment and left the bed to get ready for the day.

They were in a hurry as they lost track of time. Taehyung got ready and waited for Sohyun while watching her putting on the makeup.

“Pass on the mascara from the table…”, she said while pressing the powder on her face.

After rummaging through her drawer, he asked, “How does it look like?”

“Black coloured, pencil like…”

“There are lots of black coloured and pencil…”

“Can’t you read the label?”

“It’s all in italics…”

“It’s not in Latin… just English in italics…”, before she could finish her sentence, he placed all lookalikes of mascara in front of her. She chuckled and chose one saying, “This is what I asked for…”

“Then what’s this?”

“That’s eyeliner…”

“And this?”

“Eyebrow pencil…”

“This one?”

She rolled her eyes. “Tae! I’m trying to concentrate!”

“Sorry…”, he said with guilt-stricken face which brought smile to her lips.

The week passed carrying the sweet fragrance of memories. Soon, the weekend came. Sohyun wasn’t willing to go back and all week she tried her best to convince him into spending the weekend together, but it didn’t work out well instead it stirred his temper.

While they waited for her train in the station, she tried her luck again, “Please Tae… Can I stay for two more-”

“HEY!”, he shouted startling her. “WHY ARE YOU CONSTANTLY TARGETING MY WEAK POINT? I TOLD YOU IT’S DIFFICULT FOR ME TO LEAVE IF YOU STAY HERE! You’ve been bugging me about this since a week now!”

His scream clearly took her aback and her eyes clearly quivered at his words. She immediately looked away avoiding his eyes.

“Sohyun-ah…”, his words softened at her tears, “Who even cries about things like these?”, he said while taking his hands to cup her face. She shoved his hands aside and walked away. He ran after her saying, “It’s our first fight… You should argue with me… why are you running away…” But, she didn’t heed to his words. He grabbed her hand stopping her and turned her around to face him. He cupped her face pleading, “Sohyun-ah sorry! My sweetheart, I’m sorry!” His words calmed her down, but she didn’t utter anything to him. When her train approached the station, tears stung her eyes and her lower lip trembled at the thought that they’ll be apart for the first time since they began their relationship. Shedding all her anger and pride side, she hugged him tightly which lasted for seconds longer and then, she drew back hesitantly. The moment the train halted in the station, he felt his heart tighten and the gravity of her words felt harder on him at the sound of the door opening. When he helped her to carry the luggage inside the train, she made up her mind to go. But, as she took her seat, he held her luggage in his hand instead of placing it on the luggage rack. He was reluctant to let go of it and looked at her registering every inch of her face, her nuances and her breathing pattern.

When the announcement about the departure commenced, Sohyun lifted her hand to wave at him but he shoved her hands away before she could wave and slid his hands over her neck and gave her soft lips a solid smooch. Their smooch soon turned into a lingering kiss. She broke the kiss on hearing the final announcement about the departure. “The train is gonna depart soon…”

“So?”, he answered nonchalantly and cupped her face to kiss her.

She stopped him saying, “Are you coming with me?”

He shook his head in denial.

“Then?”

“I’ll get off at the next stop…”, he said and kissed her again. He took an empty seat beside her while wrapping his arms around her shoulder.

“Ticket?”

“I’m fine with the fine…”

She wanted to stop him, but her desire yielded into the little devil in her which made her to grin widely. After an hour of travel with her i.e., after crossing two stops and missing one intentionally, he got down reluctantly with a goodbye kiss.

She thought being home will make her at ease about his absence but, the phone conversation was her only solace. She missed him so much that half of their conversation through phone were filled with her silent sniffles. Taehyung was held up by the busy practising schedule but, he never left his phone alone. His only breath of life was her voice.

Her vacation almost came to an end and her new semester was just around the corner. Her final semester won’t spare her the free time to chat with him which worried them.

The day before her arrival for the start of her new semester, Taehyung tried to reach Sohyun through call, to get to know about her train so that he can receive her. But, his call didn’t get through. He tried again but of no use. His attempts and failures, feed his temper. When he tried for third time, the automatic tone said the phone was switched off. Losing his temper, he lifted the phone over his head to smash it down. Fortunately, one of the staff at his agency interrupted him saying, “Taehyung, you’ve got a visitor…”

He spared the phone and directed his frustrations in his tone, asking, “WHO?”

“She claims that she is your cousin…”, she said giggling.

“Claims?”

She nodded.

Taehyung made his way to the lounge wondering about the reason behind Hwayoung’s visit. But, he found Sohyun there. She was standing right in the middle of the room, carrying her bags in her hands and smile in her lips.

Though he was glad to see her, thinking again about the risk involved in travelling unannounced piqued his anger. “Have you gone mad? Did your mother know about you coming here to meet me?”

She shook her head.

“How did you come here?”, his rigid tone sounded.

“Train…”, her disappointed voice said.

Her face shrunk at his tone. Noticing that, his tone softened. He took the heavy bags from her and held her hand in his palm and softly uttered, “Look at this… Your hands have become red… Is it painful?”

On hearing his sweet words, she hugged him involuntarily and immediately backed away realizing the ground she is standing on.

He wiped the tears lining her face with his hands, “Silly! It’s has not been a month since saw each other… But, thank God, you came!”, he said while pulling her into a hug.

“Cousin?”, the staff commented.

He nodded and said, “Meet Kim Sohyun, my girlfriend… And Sohyun-ah, meet our staff, Lee Haeun!”

They bowed greeting each other at the formal introduction.

“Let me drop her off in her university…”, he said and took her hand to walk out.

“To her university? It’s a three-hour drive!”, Haeun warned.

“I’ll be back tomorrow…”

“Tomorrow? We have press conference about your debut the day after tomorrow…”

“I’ll be back”, he said and took off.

On the way back to her university on the bus, he asked her, “Did anything happen?”

“Why?”

“What happened?”, he asked her again.

“Nothing…”

“Argued with your mother? That guy? Or your uncle?”

She nodded.

“Who is it among them?”

She stayed quiet. And he didn’t insist her to answer nor did he ask anything further. The junctions they crossed, the signals they went past, the trees that went by, the electric poles that passed by and the window by their seat that stayed till the end of their bus journey will tell tales about the hands that never let of each other; the gaze which always traced back to the face and the words which were never uttered and the silence that spoke.

From the stop to the university, their short-paced steps tried its best to lengthen the short time they have for each other. They walked as he wrapped her shoulders in his arms and she put her arm around his waist while resting her head over his chest. Under the excuse of cold evening, the warm hug that lasted while they walked till the university is what she wanted to last till the end of her life. On reaching the university, Sohyun said, “I have good news…”

“I’m all ears…”, he said looking into her eyes.

“I got through an audition…. For the young counterpart of the female lead!”

He planted a kiss on her forehead, expressing his joy.

After exchanging few words of comfort and motivation with him, “Are you leaving now?”, she asked. Her eyes stayed on him which never wanted him to leave from her sight.

“Do you want me to?”, he said teasing her.

She gave him a wide grin saying no.

“A cup of coffee?”, he asked.

“And a movie”, she offered.

They made their way towards her room and sat down with a cup of coffee and a list of movies.

“That’s a whole collection of Rachel McAdam’s movie…”, he exclaimed pointing to her watchlist.

She hummed and said, “That’s my role model…”

For the Netflix movie date, they sat comfortable on the bed and started to watch the movie. Taehyung’s tired eyes didn’t let him watch the full movie, in the early rays of moon, he fell asleep on her lap. Like an oyster that enveloped the pearl, she let him sleep peacefully. In the later hours of the night, under the same moonlight, he woke up and found her asleep leaning against the wall beside the cot, while carefully bracing him on her lap. He gently shook her to wake her up.

“Shouldn’t you be watching me sleep?”, she asked in coarse voice from her sleep.

“I prefer look at my reflection in your eyes…”

“Narcissist”, she commented.

“Attention-Seeker”, he corrected. “I have to leave now…”, his tone lost its energy.

She hummed nodding, “Give it your best! Don’t dwell on the result no matter how good or bad it is…”, she spoke her heart and tiptoed to etch a kiss on his forehead. “I love you”, she bid her goodbye.

“I love you too”, he said as he took his leave.

She walked him to the dorm entrance and when she reluctantly let go his hand, he held her hand tightly saying, “Excuse me for speaking my mind… but I want to take you up, wrap around my finger, fold in my palm and hid you in my hanky… Is it not possible?”

“Bye…”, she said asking him to leave while smiling at his sweet words.

He smiled and took his leave. She felt her chest tighten on watching him walk out from her sight.

On reaching her floor, she found Kwak Dongyeon with his guilt-stricken face waiting for her in front of her room. Her eyes became cold and she walked into her room ignoring his presence. He stood by the door and pleaded, “I shouldn’t have said that… I’m sorry…”

“Who gave you the right to talk about me or my relationship?”, she spoke infuriated.

“Who taught you to spend the night with a guy, in your room?”

Her slap across his face, stung his cheek. The pain belonged with Dongyeon while the tears belonged to Sohyun.

“Here I was, like an idiot… eagerly waiting to tell my mom about him. I always felt glad for having you in my life, but…”, she said wiping her tears that rolled down her cheek.

“I’m sorry”

“Why did you tell uncle about him?”

“I felt angry… I’m sorry!”

“What did you say? Why is he so against him?”

“I told him you’re in a relationship with him… I purposefully chose the wrong time, that’s very sly of me…”

“Why do you hate him so much?”

“I don’t know why your mom believes in my father’s words so much?”

“What are you talking about?”

“I just told my dad about your relationship, but the fact that he is against it and is trying to turn your mom against him is none of my doing… I’m here just to inform that I’ll be accompanying you to the shoot… I know few people there, I’ll introduce you to them… They’ll take care of you…”

She stayed silent with her downcast eyes.

“Let me tell you this… No relationship is worth forsaking us… You’ll regret it…”, he uttered before he took his leave.

As they got busy with work, days rolled on. Months passed, and meetings that occurred once a week became once a month. It became difficult to meet and it became even more difficult to say goodbye every time. The phone conversations and the video calls were never enough for them. Sohyun graduated with a degree from college, a flower bouquet from him and a dinner date with her mom. She got acknowledged in the film industry through her role in her debut drama and received more offers. Though she was yet to receive the female lead offers, she was happy with the recognition. He was recognised through the debut, though the response wasn’t overwhelming. The idol side of him acting cute while curtailing his short temper surprised her whereas Sohyun’s strong onscreen presence took him aback.

Seasons passed, Sohyun finally received an offer for female lead in a romcom.

Whereas Taehyung and his band members were reconsidering their career as musicians.

They were yet to share their news with each other. When Sohyun took the lead to inform the happy news to him, he who was contemplating to share his struggles with her decided to bury it inside him. He was happy about her progress but, at the same time it reminded him of his place in the industry. When they met, he congratulated her and gifted her favourite Kakaotalk stuffed duck. The moment Sohyun saw him, she sensed the presence of unspoken words within him.

“I’m waiting to hear the buried words inside you…”, she said.

He smirked.

“If you don’t want to talk about it, then don’t”

He never spoke a word.

She continued, “Though I desperately wanted to know it, though I might even lose my sleep for a week worrying about it… Though I might be constantly thinking and contemplating, if I should ask your friend, Jimin or not, and I ultimately might insist on hearing it from your mouth one day… That day might not be today, so don’t worry…”

“We are reconsidering our career…”, he broke the ice.

“Do you not like doing music?”

“Of course, I love it! We just recorded new album!”, he said and paused, “But, ‘loving it’ alone isn’t enough…”

She clearly understood every word he uttered. She couldn’t say anything or even think of anything. She lost her words not knowing what it should covey, a comfort or a motivation. No matter how well she understood him, she is not him. So, she quietly had her food and so he had. He didn’t want to pour cold water on her good news, but it happened so.  

At last before they parted, she told him the words that kept on echoing in her mind bugging her to spell it out, “When you think of giving up not matter what it is, just hold on for one more month, one more day, or even one more hour…”

He gave a contented smile at her. “I love you”, he spelled through his breath.

After her filming for drama ended, she rested in her hometown spending some time with her mom. On hearing things about him from Sohyun, her mom concluded only one thing… that her daughter likes this guy called Taehyung too much and that most of her happy memories had trace of him. After giving it much thought, her mom said, “Bring him home one day and introduce him to uncle…”. Though the word ‘uncle’ shook her up, she was on the cloud nine at her words.

Taehyung and s decided to face their dream straight ahead while supporting each other like the pile group of the foundation. Taehyung’s filming for the MV ended smoothly, before the album release, he had a week of vacation which he decided to use it for meeting Sohyun at her hometown.

When everything went smooth in their career, life was waiting to tell them that ‘career’ isn’t the only thing that got ordeals.

Author’s thoughts:

Hello!!! Hope you’re doing well :)

The things mentioned here about their character or their career is all super twist of facts to create a drama i.e., none of them is truth, so kindly excuse me for that.

Pic Credits: All credits go to the rightful owners. I don’t own any!