The next day came by as expected; V acted the same, falling asleep or playing with whatever caught his attention during class. He was gone by lunch, and Suhyun suspected he’d be on the rooftop again today, which was the perfect opportunity to talk to Namjoon about the boy in topic. 

    “Ah, that kid… He’s weird,” Namjoon starts, scratching the back of his head as they walk towards the cafeteria together, “His name is Taehyung, but he always calls himself by the single letter ‘V’ ever since his parents died…” 

    Suhyun snapped her head to look at him, her eyebrows knitting together as her expression asked her silent question: they were dead?    

    “There was an accident in his household in our second year, and.. Well, again, he’s always been odd but even more so now. Every time I see him outside of school he says he’s running errands for his mother— even around the time of their death, I don’t really remember him having much of a response to it.” he explained, recalling the memory that seemed to be  forgotten about until Suhyun asked. She felt her heart drop, feeling an intense wave of heartache for the boy they spoke about, feeling as though she might understand why he seemed to be so cold whenever it came to other humans. 

    “Ah…” she murmured, the information still processing in her mind as she considered all the possibilities that could have happened to his parents. She couldn’t imagine a world without her father and mother— they were her support, her solid ground. To think that V— Taehyung didn’t have something like that in his life, especially now that they were graduating, broke her heart. 

    “Don’t worry too much about it though, I’m sure he’s over it now. You’ve probably noticed, but he doesn’t really seem to feel much about anything. Maybe that’s just his way of coping, but.. I don’t know, I think it’s just better not to bring it up around him.” Namjoon continued, opening the door to the lunch room, letting Suhyun by.

    “So… Does he have any friends that he can talk to?” she inquired, hoping he at least had a best friend he could rely on, someone who could help carry the burden placed on his shoulders. Namjoon merely shook his head and shrugged, his answer putting another weight on Suhyun’s heart.

    “I’ve tried talking to him before, but he just kinda… Brushes me off? As class president, I’m responsible for everyone in our homeroom’s well being, and since he’s not causing any trouble, I thought it would be best to just leave him alone. You seem to be getting along well with him though.” he states, a smirk dancing on his lips as he nudged the small girl, receiving a blush in response.

    “Not really. I just think he’s… interesting.”

    “Well you’d be right about that. He doesn’t talk much, so if he talks to you, you’re probably really special, Suhyun. I think you’ll be good for him.” Namjoon chuckles, patting her lightly on the head before joining the 5 boys already waiting for them. 

    “Suhyun~ Where were you yesterday? We needed your opinion on something!” Jimin exclaims, leaning forward over the table to get closer to her. He noticed the blush on her cheeks and turned to Namjoon, the corners of his mouth curving into a sharp grin as he assumed the wrong thing, “Namjoonie, is there something you aren’t telling us about you two?”

    “Don’t be an idiot, I was here with you guys yesterday.” he retorts, slapping the bill of the hat Jimin was wearing down, over his eyes. The bagel boy whined, pulling off his hat, mumbling about how he’d have to fix his hair now, “Besides, we were talking about someone else.”

    Suhyun looked up from her lap, panic clear on her face as Namjoon told them that it was Taehyung they were speaking about, embarrassed by her fascination in someone she just met. The other boys listened, wide eyed, and Jungkook even giggled, furthering Suhyun’s embarrassment as she felt eyes land on her. 

    “Hm, so our little Suhyun has got a crush, eh?” Hoseok teased, fake whispering into Jimin’s ear as he made eye contact with her. She opened to respond, but all that came out was a small squeak. 

    “Isn’t Taehyung the one that’s always on the rooftop by himself?” Jungkook piped in, reminding everyone that he wasn’t in their grade so he had little idea of who he was. 

    “Mm, that’s the one,” Seokjin nodded sagely, as if he was assessing the boy in his mind, seeing if he would make a proper fit with Suhyun, “But I’d be careful with that one.”

    “And why is that?” she manages to ask, annoyance forming in her voice as she felt as though they were berating her for a crush that might not even exist— okay, it did exist, but that didn’t mean they had any right to judge her for it.

    “Don’t you know about the rumour, Suhyun? The neighborhood cats have been going missing lately. I guess you don’t know since you just moved here, but Taehyung is usually seen petting the stray cats outside of school, so everyone thinks he’s taking them home.” Jimin chirps, his fingers wiggling in a way that was supposed to make the statement seem spooky. Suhyun rolled her eyes, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear as they all laughed, poking fun at the target of her affections.

    “What do you think he does with them?” Jungkook asks, sipping on a juice box, the question catching everyone off guard as they began to ponder it.

    “Maybe he eats them.” Namjoon laughs, nudging Suhyun, hoping that she wasn’t getting offended by the conversation. She just kept her head down, poking at her lunch until they decided that that was enough, and moved onto different topics. 

    It wasn’t that she minded their teasing, she wasn’t the type to be so easily offended, but something about it made her uneasy. She thought back to the way Taehyung behaved, the way he really didn’t care about what other people thought of him or how they would perceive him— and while it was refreshing to see someone so devoid of worry about the condemnation of others, it was strange, almost inhuman. 

    She thought about what he had said, his words ringing through her ears; ‘you’re just like the rest of them’. Had he opened up to someone before and was shut down? She stirred the remains of her soup, it already having gone cold, as she thought hard about what he meant. Perhaps he was referring to the rest of the student body? That was very possible; Taehyung did seem to be a misfit here after all. She wondered if he had ever actually had friendships with people, and if they just died out somehow and now he was left to wander around by himself in a school full of eyes he felt was constantly laughing at him. That thought brought even more bitterness to her heart as she recalled what the others were saying about him. It really wasn’t fair, was it?

    When the bell rang, she didn’t bother to say anything to the 6 boys and abruptly stood up, tossing the remains of her barely eaten lunch and heading straight back into class, hoping Taehyung had chosen to stay for the remainder of this day. Of course, he wasn’t, and she was left to wonder just where he went when he wasn’t there. Maybe home, but… if he didn’t have any family left, wouldn’t that just be lonely? 

    Suhyun tapped her temple with the eraser of her pencil, trying and failing to pay attention to the lecture being taught. There were romanized letters scrawled all over the chalkboard; English, as she learned to decipher, but the squiggles and lines seemed to mean absolutely nothing to her as her hand wrote down everything on the board. There didn’t seem to be any significance to it, especially when it seemed like she had more important things to think about.

    Namjoon was motioning at her out of the corner of her eye, and she could see his eyebrows fused together in worry, as if he finally caught into the fact that all the jokes they  made earlier were completely unwarranted. She flicked her hand at him discretely, a sign that she didn’t really care too much and it would all be forgiven by tomorrow, and he turned back around, but not before giving her an, ‘are you sure’ type look, to which she rolled her eyes and nodded. 

    The rest of the day seemed to drone on, as usual. Suhyun found herself putting her head down on the desk, looking over at the empty space beside her in which that beautiful creature would have been if he wasn’t off doing something else. She wondered for a moment if he ever spent any time thinking about her, shaking the thought away before she disappointed herself. 

    On the way home, she saw the same stray cat; the one that she saw with a mouse in its mouth the other day. It was black, fluffy; its eyes a vibrant green that stared holes right through her. She found herself staring at it for a good minute or two before a sound got it up and scurrying back into the shadows.

    The way it looked at her reminded her of Taehyung; and the way his wide eyes seemed to bore into hers every time they made eye contact, as well as the way it ran away the second it seemed to notice that it wasn’t just the two of them anymore. It was odd, but most likely just a coincidence, right?

Kitties are cute, aren't they? 

Remember to leave a comment or whatever else if you liked it, and thank you so much for reading! <3 

-Celeste