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THE TIME BEFORE (PT.2)

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“I like you, Taehyung.”

Four simple words but when arranged in that order, they made his mind go white. They were friends, weren’t they? Since when…? Her confession baffled him to no end as he tried to recall all of the moments they had spent together. They were fleeting instances, nothing more.

So how?

Why?

He didn’t even know her birthday. Her favorite color. Her favorite food. The more he thought about it, the more confused he became. Even the few personal things he did know about Chaeri, he had heard indirectly from Yuna.

She annoyed him, it was like her personal kick in life to push his buttons and they had their routine but that was it, wasn’t it?

But even as he tried to reason with himself in his head, as soon as those four words replayed in his mind, all other thoughts escaped and he was left brain dead. His breath hitched and everything ceased to exist, and he did the only thing he could to fix the situation.

He avoided it.

But Chaeri was known for being annoyingly persistent.

“You’ve been avoiding me,” Chaeri cornered him inside his office with a deep frown marring her usually cheerful face.

Taehyung kept his focus on the papers in his hands. It was urgent, he thought to himself. Bang Sihyuk had requested him to hand some papers to him as soon as possible and he had been working nonstop for the past few days to get them done in time. Of course, the moment he had finished and was about to head to the Big Boss, Chaeri had decided to walk in.

It had been days since her surprising confession and Taehyung was no closer to answer than he was before. He’d never really given dating much of a thought with his ambitions of becoming an army commander coming before anything else.

They were co-workers, friends. Nothing more.

When she had said those four simple words, his mind felt as if it had been hit with a two ton truck completely out of the blue. His tongue was tied and the fact that she could leave the boy speechless was impressive in itself.

“It’s because of what I said, isn’t it?” She barreled on. That brutal honesty of hers was dangerous. Why did she even confess? How did she want him to react? More importantly, how was he supposed to keep their friendship afloat when they were standing on ice?

“No,” he lied, not moving his gaze from his stack of papers. Any distraction was welcome. “I’ve just been busy lately.”

“You seem to have time to talk to Yuna and Jimin,” she commented lightly but he knew it was anything but casual.

When he didn’t reply, she pushed off the doorway she had been leaning on and took one further step into his office.

“Hey, I like you.”

Taehyung’s eyes widened and he finally directed his attention to her for a split second before turning away. How could she just say that so casually? Like it didn’t even matter.

She was straight to the point, at least. Never one to beat around the bush.

“But,” she continued, “it’s not like I’m expecting you to return my feelings or suddenly profess your love for me.” Chaeri gave a shrug then a timid smile. “I don’t like being avoided.”

Taehyung ran his fingers through his hair. “Sorry,” he murmured, fully turning to her. He returned her smile with one of his usual grins and tossed up the only word he wanted to be with her.

“Friends?”

She nodded and smiled.

But there was something about that smile Taehyung couldn’t place. The corners of quivered so slightly he wouldn’t have noticed if he hadn’t been focusing on her so hard and the depth of her eyes contrasted with that wide smile. Something told him the only reason he had been able to read her at all before was because she allowed it.

What was she truly thinking?

Down the line when Taehyung thought about it, perhaps that decision hadn’t been for the best