Taehyung:

        It was somewhat weird to think that he was going to see her again. He was supposed to keep his distance and for the most part, he did. He still was managing to see her anyway. He sighed and looked at the print he had in hands. He was a little reluctant on giving it to his professor but there was honestly no turning back now.

Yesterday, after getting assigned a new group project with Irene and Kim Myungsoo—they were also told to turn in a sample for the semester project of what they would interpret to be love or equal love and beauty. The teacher asked for one of the shots that would surely be in their project and not a throw away. It was so their classmates could either get inspiration from each other or seethe in jealousy, of their fellow classmate’s better talent than theirs. It was said as a joke but not. One thing they were all good at, being envious of each other when it came to certain pictures.

Taehyung walked in. No one but their professor and Minho were there. Minho smiled at him. Tomorrow he and Irene would be going to an art exhibit at the museum with Minho. That same day he was also meeting with Park Gyuri to go over some wedding photo details. Luckily, they had liked the bridals and he had sent them the bridals about two days ago.

Minho careful watched him hand his photo and smirked. It was as if he knew a secret. Taehyung tried to ignore his stare.

“Well, Mr. Kim as always you show a great knack for capturing beautiful moments. Is she going to be your model for the project or is this a throw away? With your talent I could see you using this as a throw away.”

Taehyung let out a polite chuckle before replying. “No. This is probably the center of my project and yes. She will be my model.”

“Beautiful model, very photogenic.” his photography professor complemented Joy and somehow he felt proud of it.

“I thought Bae Joohyun was your model?” Minho had taken the photo and inspected it. Taehyung did not necessarily like the smile on Minho’s face as he inspected the photo. “I’ve seen her before.”

Taehyung didn’t answer or allude to the fact Joy was a student at the university. Instead, he merely shrugged and smiled to them before bowing and leaving. Even though he knew Irene would make another beautiful model, she wasn’t his and apparently it was too hard to believe for some.

Just recently, he found out about the rumors of him and Irene being a couple. After all, they did spend quite a lot of time together. He stopped and looked up to the blue, clear sky. The clouds were white and fluffy like cotton balls. Cumulus clouds, that’s what they were called . . . or so he hoped. He thought back to what Irene had said about how Joy was going to accept Jin’s proposal. Then he thought about how he and Joy met up and he comforted her over Sungjae’s death. His heart was broken. He was walking around with a broken heart and no one saw that. Instead, what they saw was him and Irene.

There was no them. There was no him and Irene. There also was no him and Joy. However, there could be a Joy and Jin. He did not want to hate his friend but he did. Oh, he did. He hated Jin. Hated how Jin could express his feelings. Hated how Jin technically won—even though there was no battle because he threw in the towel before there even was one. Taehyung didn’t really hate Jin. He just held strong animosity and pain in his heart because Jin was taking the one thing he wanted to have been his. He was taking Park Sooyoung and like every noble idiot in k-dramas, he was letting her be taken from him.

Sooyoung. He sighed her name in his heart. She made his heartbeat increase. She was the reason his heart even worked. Obviously, an exaggeration, of course. A sigh. Sooyoung. The more he thought about her, the more he loved her. Sooyoung. She was so close yet so far. All he had to was reach out his arm and hold her. That was what he couldn’t do. Sooyoung. Why could he not have Park Sooyoung?

What no one knew and something he had to tell his bodyguards; Taecyeon and Changsung to keep secret, was that he left the café with everyone else but he stuck around to follow Joy home after her shift. It took a bit for Irene to agree in letting Myungsoo accompany her home instead of him. Taecyeon had pointed out they could have done that if he asked them to. He agreed. Mainly because his two bodyguards were really, smart and caught on to his real feelings. In addition, how he was a masochist by being so close yet so far.

He was still keeping his promise. He stopped under a tree, sat down, and closed his eyes—slowly inching into a laying position. Nothing out of the ordinary had taken place just yet. The days went by normally. Most the time he felt like a love struck fool. He was. He was a fool for sure.

Taehyung was enjoying the gentle breeze when he felt a heavy weight drop on his stomach, making the air inside his lungs disappear. Last, he had checked, there was always a residual volume of air left in the lungs for a reason. That was gone. He tried to breathe in but it hurt like a . He tried again and it still hurt but he needed oxygen. He glared at Jungkook who laughed and had dropped his book bag on him. While Jungkook laughed— Taehyung kicked his feet from under him, watched the younger male tumble backwards, and fall flat on his with a groan. Now it was his turn to laugh.

“ Tae, that hurt.”

“And getting the air knocked out of me didn’t?”

“What were you thinking as you closed your eyes, anyway? How you are dating Irene and when you’ll kiss her?” Jungkook stopped rubbing his sore bottom and scooted over to sit by him.

Taehyung denied everything with a nonchalant wave as he continued to rub his chest. “We’re not dating.”

“Why not? I swear that girl likes you and last I checked, didn’t you like her?”

“I found her attractive. Kind of like how we find celebrity attractive but it doesn’t mean we like them.” he stopped to think and then waved his hands again as if taking that thought back. “I thought I liked her and it turns out I don't. She is becoming a good friend though. I thought you would have picked up how I felt about her when you came with us to the Han River.”

“Nope. I probably blocked it because I wanted not to think that perhaps you have more than friendly feelings for Joy.”

He did.

“No.”

He lied.

“Good. Our date went okay. We are going to watch a movie with Jimin and Seulgi. It was supposed to be today but we are moving it to tomorrow because it turns out neither Yerim nor I nor Joy and Daniel have done our chemistry lab experiment. We are working on them tonight. But I am treating her to food afterwards. I’m slowly moving up and staking a claim in her heart. I know I am. My only wish is to have her like me because I think I’m falling for her like a fool.”

Taehyung hummed but said nothing. That is how it all starts. Liking Joy and then falling for her. How long, really, did he like her for? He had not sat down and thought about it because it reminded him of how Joy was going to accept Jin and it was breaking his heart. He kind of did not want to see her. His broken heart was a benefit to their safety.

“Hey, so I know this is odd but I’ve noticed you and Joy haven’t talked much like before. Are you guys fighting?”

“I’ve been really busy. Look at us just talking now.”

Jungkook threw him a judging look. “You came over to Jimin’s yesterday at night and we played poker for three hours until 2 in the morning.”

He chuckled and looked at his wrist. “Well look at the time. I have to go.”

“Tae, are you ignoring Joy?” Jungkook asked again as he gathered his things.

“If I was, wouldn’t that be an advantage to you?” he pointed out, saw how Jungkook thought about it, and then nodded.

“Touché my friend, touché.”

He smiled, this time really smiled when Jungkook smiled back and laughed. Once the latter stopped laughing, it seemed he was going to ask him something else. It was interrupted when someone decided to speak beside him. The soft gentle voice let him know it was Irene.

“Oh V, Jennie said we need to go now to the art class.”

He almost forgot about the posing—but not. Almost like how he tried to forget how Irene kissed him on the cheek last night as they said goodbye. She left him with the words that she would be there for him if he ever felt lost and alone before she and Myungsoo went to catch the bus. He wasn’t sure what she meant but it almost seemed like she knew his pain. He liked to use the word almost a lot for the current situations he was facing. Like how he almost forgot about posing and how it was a clear lie because he would actually be seeing Joy and that was all he wanted. He wanted to see her and see her physically be okay. Never cause her any pain—although, he strongly felt like both of them were causing each other pain.

⇤〜⑉⑅﹎⑅〜⑉⇥

Sooyoung:

“Hey, I need to tell you something after class. Do you have time or are you going to be meeting up with anyone? Jin?”

Sooyoung finished setting up her easel when Seulgi walked into the classroom. She nodded an okay, pausing to recall something.

“I’m not meeting up with Jin—he’s kind of busy but I also need to do my chemistry assignment with Daniel this afternoon. I asked Hoseok to take my shift. He said fine as long as I go to his rap battle this next Saturday. He’s a saint for working double today. But we’ll talk tomorrow when we watch the movie with Jiminnie and Jungkook.”

“The things is—I wanted to talk to you first. Without them.”

She lowered the pencil she was looking at to blink at Seulgi. She raised a brow. “Seulgi, we live together!”

“Yeah, but ... okay good point.”

“You could have told me yesterday when I came back from work.”

“I didn't know how! Besides, you were all whining about how you missed Taehyung at work and that reminds me—when are you going to tell Jungkook that even though he tried he wasn’t able to sway your feelings? Don’t pull a Tae on him.”

She faced forward after what Seulgi said. The last time she saw Taehyung was when he comforted her two nights ago in their spot. She still recalled his warmth and how he didn’t want to let go, as if she was going to disappear. Today would be the first time seeing him after that and she did not know how she would react. Part of her understood what Seulgi meant by her words. Hearing them be said so bluntly actually made a small stab at her heart. The last thing she wanted was to give Jungkook false hope.

The last thing she was going to tell Seulgi was the fact that she had agreed to go have dinner with Jungkook after they finished their chemistry assignment. Seulgi would just say she was leading him on. She saw it more as an early pay for the help she would offer Jungkook in the weekend for his upcoming history exam—something she was oddly good at, memorizing dates. In her defense, she really thought she and Jungkook resembled more friends than anything else. She saw the way he had reacted with Yeri and Taeyong yesterday. It made her smirk.

Her mind did settle on one thing Seulgi said that she disagreed with and it was just that everyone thought Taehyung played with her feelings and she knew that it was herself reading too into his gestures and kindness. She had no one but herself to blame. Except for maybe two nights ago. After he had finally decided to let go of their embrace he then clung to her hand. She found it odd that he covered his face with his hood and then did the same thing to her. He merely said that he just wanted to be invisible from anyone that knew them. She played along, watching their hands as he walked her home. It was the longest they had ever held hands, it made her mind wander into the aspect of always holding his hand if they were dating, no matter the situation.

The memory of what she did later made her blush. Taehyung hadn’t led her on. He was there once again to comfort her, just this time she thanked him by giving him a kiss on the cheek—once again—something she never did before but randomly twice in one day. He had stood frozen this time around, as she did but the smile that made his eyes disappear appeared and it filled her with giddiness.

“What is it that you want to talk about anyway?” she recalled why her thoughts had gone back to her bold actions and asked Seulgi.

“Our precious Yeri likes Lee Taeyong.”

Sooyoung dropped her pencil—knowing this was coming because of what Jimin asked. It still took her