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     chapter twenty-two      the king of narcissism & the queen of derision.

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Taehyung turned around and locked eyes with Arang. “I don’t understand your question,” he replied, slightly confused. Her inquiry was strange and random. Why would she ask him something like that? Did she lie to him? Had the movie traumatized her? She seemed perfectly fine a few minutes ago. “I’m pretty sure you know who I am.” He placed a hand on his chest. “I’m the ever so charmingly handsome Kim Taehyung.”

Arang stood up and gave the package of peas back to him. She should have known that he wouldn’t have been able to get what she was really asking him. “Never mind. Just forget about it. I should probably get going now before it gets even later.” She walked over to the door, slid out of her slippers and put on her sandals.

Taehyung had his eyebrows kissing at the center of his forehead as he stared at the frozen bag of vegetables in his hand. What was that?

His head snapped in her direction when he heard the door open. What was with this girl? She was trying to leave on her own? Did she not learn her lesson after the incident on the bus? What if something else happened to her? She wouldn’t be able to protect herself to the best of her abilities with that bruised wrist of hers. Throwing the package onto the table, Taehyung rushed over and joined her at the entrance of the apartment.

“What do you think you’re doing?” He frowned.

Arang peered over her shoulder and spun around once she saw that he was right behind her. Why was he wearing that sort of expression? “I’m going home. What does it look like?” She answered nonchalantly.

Taehyung raked his fingers through his hair as he scoffed. “Do you know what time it is?” He didn’t give her a chance to respond as he continued. “Too late for a girl like yourself to be walking home alone.”

“It’s not like this is the first time I’ve done something like this you know. I’m a grownup; I can take care of myself. I’m not a baby. You don’t need to worry about me.” She assured.

“Worry? I’m not worried about you; who said that I was worried about you.” He disagreed a little too loudly even for his liking. “I just don’t want to read about a homicide in tomorrow’s newspaper. Besides, didn’t you say that your parents were into chivalry? Wouldn’t they want me to send you home? What would happen to me if they found out that I let their daughter leave on her own?”

“I can lie and say that you brought me. It’s not a big deal.” She countered. “You’re overthinking it.”

“I—” Taehyung’s voice got jammed in the back of his throat. That’s right, she wasn’t a baby. This was Arang he was talking about here. She had a nasty right hook and a mouth that could cause any criminal to flee and think twice about messing with her again. There was no need for him to accompany her. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.” He resigned.

“And if by chance something awful does happen to you make sure you leave a message explicitly telling the world that it wasn’t my fault.”

Arang her teeth but not in annoyance or anything like that. It kind of looked like she had actually found Taehyung’s statement to be quite humorous for once. “Don’t you know that the boyfriend or spouse is always the prime suspect? Add the fact that you were the last person to see me alive and you’ve just earned your one-way ticket to prison.”

“Yah, does this face look like it belongs in a prison?” He sneered playfully.

She corked a brow. “Do you really want me to answer that?” Taehyung predicted that if he said yes, she would surely slap him with another insult. Therefore he shook his head to spare himself. “That’s what I thought. Anyways, seeya around.”

There was this unidentified feeling nagging at Taehyung and before Arang vacated, he grabbed the strap of her shoulder bag, holding her back. What did he want now? “Let me at least call a cab for you.” He coughed as she craned her neck back to look at him again. “It’ll make me feel better about letting you go alone. So if something does happen to you, I’ll be able to tell the police that it was the taxi driver.”

“You’re worse than my mom,” Arang stated in disbelief. Even she didn’t fret over Arang’s safety this much. “Fine. Do whatever you want. But if the taxi isn’t here within the next ten minutes I’m leaving.” Without skipping a beat, Taehyung yanked out his phone, searched up for cab services around the area and called the closest one he could find. He requested that they send a driver over right away and provided the dispatcher with the address.

“Does your conscious feel at ease now? Can I go?”  

“Yeah, hold on.  I’ll go and wait with you.” He didn’t bother to hear whether or not Arang would acce