Taehyung liked being alone. Despite everything, the company he enjoyed best was his own. At least, that was what he preferred. But it was weird, he had noticed how that now, instead of absolutely detesting being around other people, he didn’t not enjoy being with them either, as long as they were civil with him he was fine with it. His walk home from school was quiet as usual, no one accompanied him and he had walked the short journey with his earphones in. He arrived at his neighborhood and he concentrated on putting his earphones in his pocket, but when he took a step forward he stumbled over something and swore under his breath.

That something was a kid. It was some tiny kid who was sat on his knees in the middle of the pavement and was quiet until Taehyung came and accidentally kicked him when he had stumbled over him. He was now wailing so much that his words were barely coherent and all Taehyung heard was a bunch of gibberish. He was surprised (and slightly annoyed) that no one had come along to help the boy before him, but then again, the neighborhood that Taehyung lived in wasn’t occupied by many people and most were probably still at work. He just wondered where the kid’s parents were. Taehyung exhaled slowly as the kid screamed. There was nothing else for it.

“Hey, kid.”

The young boy stopped crying and looked up at the tall male next to him. He sniffled. “You kicked me.”

Taehyung sighed as he saw the kid rubbing his eyes fiercely. “Look, I’m sorry. But what are you doing here? Where’s your parents?” Taehyung asked. The boy’s answer only came out in broken sobs.

“I was playing outside, but I – saw – a bird and was playing with it and – now I’m – lost.”

“And now you don’t know where your house is?”

The boy nodded. Taehyung put his hands on his hips and looked at the houses nearby. The kid was only following a bird, so his house shouldn’t be too far from their current location. A kid with short legs couldn’t have gone that far anyway. Taehyung looked back at the boy and saw a wet trail of snot on the top of his lip, and he helped him up and offered his hand for him to hold. “Come on, I’ll help you find your house.”

The boy ceased all crying, springing up immediately and hugging Taehyung’s legs which took him by surprise and almost made him stumble again. “What’s your name?” Taehyung asked.

The boy shook his head sadly. “Sorry, omma told me not to tell my name to strangers.”

Taehyung was about to retort something about the fact that he had just agreed to follow someone he barely knew, yet alone reveal his name, but he reminded himself that this kid was probably at least half of Taewon’s age. “Fair enough. Well, my name’s Kim Taehyung.”

“Kim Taehyun?” The boy experimented.

“Kim Taehyung.”

“Kim Taehyun—g,” the boy repeated, and Taehyung ruffled the boy’s hair as a reward. He also took the chance to get a tissue out from his pocket to wipe off some snot from the child’s upper lip. They walked together, in hope that one they passed was the house they were looking for.

It didn’t take too long, it turned out that it was the house which was just opposite the road from Taehyung’s own. He walked down the gravel path with the boy trotting alongside him, and knocked on the door. A woman answered it shortly after and was surprised to see her son with a teenager at their doorstep. Taehyung explained everything and the woman thanked him gratefully while trying her best to pry her son’s hand out of Taehyung’s, but the boy seemed to have grown fond of the older already. In order for him to let go, Taehyung told the boy he only lived across the road and that he would see him again.

“Pinkie promise?” the kid mumbled.

Taehyung linked his pinkie with his. “Alright, kid.”

-

That boy reminded Taehyung a lot of his younger self, he couldn’t remember much but he was told by family members that he was a cry-baby, until after his mother left.

Taewon was staying behind after school because he was at soccer practice, and their dad was still at work, which meant that Taehyung had the house to himself. He had finished all his assignments and had nothing else he could do, so he had went downstairs and to the living-room to look at the photo albums, it had been a while since he had looked at them. Although Taehyung had gotten rid of the pictures he had of his mother, his dad had kept a few and still had some of the albums with had her in them. Taehyung wasn’t that cold-hearted to throw away the photos his dad kept, just the ones Taehyung himself had in his room. He knew for a certainty that just because she was gone didn’t mean the memory was. But he hated that. He really didn’t want to remember.

Though flicking through the pages of the albums didn’t help either. It relived so many memories of his childhood with his mother in them. Though they were happy memories, he didn’t wish to remember them; he still hadn’t forgiven her. He came across numerous photos with just his parents, and Taehyung had come to realize just how much his dad had loved and probably still cared for the very same woman who left their family. Taehyung still didn’t understand love too well, he had come across plenty of annoyingly lovesick protagonists in the books he read and the films he watched, but that was barely enough to tell him what he needed to know. But it made him sad to see the older photographs of his parents when they were younger, when they had gotten married, their first honeymoon, when they bought their first house together. It was sad. Taehyung still couldn’t understand why she left. But he felt the saddest for his dad the most. Taehyung had asked his dad before why he was so accepting of the divorce, to which he merely replied, ‘“She’s happy, so I’m happy.”’

But if you already have a family, that made it different, right? If his dad loved her so much then shouldn’t he of persevered and chased after her? Got her to love him again? His parents had history that Taehyung didn’t know about, so what would he know?

It was all in the past anyway, and it had now been years since she left. But he had to admit that it was painful watching his dad balance his job as a lawyer, still do housework and still spend some time with his children, and Taehyung thought that he was amazing for being able to do that.

Though Taehyung back then was an intelligent kid, and always noticed the lonely, melancholy look on his dad’s face during their first few times sat at the dinner table without her, or the few times when he would call her name when he found something funny on the T.V. programme he used to watch with her, or that time when it was Taewon’s birthday and the waiter at the restaurant they were going to had asked how many people were to be seated and his dad had replied four but then quickly changed it to three afterwards. Taehyung presumed that their dad had moved on, but it was probably true that he still loved her, no matter how many years passed.

So many memories were triggered through all the photographs he was going though, and he had looked through all of them and later put the albums away back into the album cabinet. However, he noticed a blue cover somewhere at the back and took it out. It was another album, but dust had been collected on it and he blew them off. He opened it to the first page.

It was a photo which looked like it was taken back at the park in Daegu when he was still a kid. He turned to the next page. And to the next after the next. They all included photos of him and another kid – a girl who appeared to have been around his age. In practically almost every photo she and he were smiling, her hair unruly and her eyes perfectly shaped crescents. He racked his brain for any vague memory, but as he flicked through the pages, more than just vague memories were thought of.

He remembered he used to play with that girl back in Daegu and they’d see each other every weekend, though what irritated him was that no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t recall her name. But he somehow still remembered that he had a crush on her, of course it wasn’t real, just merely puppy love, but Taehyung remembered all the bruises he had gotten just from climbing trees so he could show off. He almost laughed at the silly lengths he put himself through back then for a girl, but looking back, they were also very good memories of his. Though he remembered himself crying back then and throwing a tantrum when he found out she was moving out of Daegu. They had spent their last day together at the park and Taehyung had forced her to a climb one of the trees with him, but she had misplaced her step while doing so and fell. Luckily she didn’t climb that high so her fall wasn’t heavy, but Taehyung remembered a cut on her ankle, which he guessed was probably a scar by now.

“Hyung, I’m home! Hyung!”

Taehyung tried to dismiss the incessant voice and continued to flick through the photo album. A constant rattling came from the front door.

“Hyung! Hyu-u-u-u-u-ung!”  

He sighed, shutting the album and stood up. He laid it onto the table. “Alright, alright, I’m coming,” he muttered, and walked over to the front door to undo the chain which was the only thing that was separating himself from his younger brother who was not supposed to come home until after an hour. Taehyung asked, “Did something happen?”

“Practice got reduced today, that’s all,” Taewon replied while at the same time trying to remove his shoes. Taehyung assisted in helping him take off his bags and hung them at the coat pegs. “I’m so tired.” Taewon yawned and went straight to the living-room with his older brother following shortly behind. “Bored?” Taewon assumed as soon as his eyes caught sight of the cabinet open with a few of the photo albums lying around it. Taehyung didn’t say anything but resumed back to his original place on the floor, picking up the album he was previously flicking through.

As much as he tried to block out Taewon, he failed to do so. The boy didn’t give up to take a peek at what his older brother was looking at, no matter how hard Taehyung tried to shield it away from him. “What is it that you’re trying so hard to hide?” Taewon whined, “Let me see! You can trust me, right? Hyung? Hyung!” 

“Don’t ‘hyung’ me, can’t you stop?” Taehyung was just as persistent as the younger.

“But I want to see what you’re looking at!” He narrowed his eyes at his older brother. It seemed as if that stone glare was something which was passed down in the family, not just something only Taehyung did out of habit.

“Fine,” Taehyung responded exasperatedly in defeat. “But I promise you, it’s nothing interesting.”

“Well you wouldn’t be trying so hard to hide it from me if it wasn’t.”

He scooted over so that there was space for Taewon. “Just look here before I change my mind, you rude little brat,” he murmured. Taewon snorted, but knew that that was his way of presenting his affection. Similar like Taehyung, he was also observant of other people, and long already knew how hard it was for his older brother to express how he felt in the right way, even if at times it was counted as unusual. Which was why he sometimes sympathized him – Taehyung was mostly misunderstood.

“Uh, so who’s this?” Taewon questioned as soon as he had seen a few of the photos.

“I don’t know, it was a girl I used to play with back in Daegu,” he replied while keeping his eyes on the pages of the album. Being the kid Taewon was, it didn’t take long for him to become disinterested; he had already seen what he wanted. He went on his knees to reach for an apple in the fruit bowl which was on the small tea table.

“How’s Hyunjung noona?” His mouth was full while it was crunching the apple as he looked at his older brother expectantly, who had finally put the album back in the cupboard.

“Why are you suddenly so interested?” he asked, arching a brow.

Taewon simply shrugged and tried to keep his face neutral. “Just am.”

After a few moments of exchanged silence, Taehyung finally replied, though half-heartedly. “She’s alright, I guess. I don’t really know for sure myself, to be honest.”

Taewon was unsatisfied with his response and picked at the carpet. “Will she be coming over again? Hyung, I want to meet her again.”

Taehyung got up from the floor so he could sit on the couch instead, and he stretched his legs to get rid of the numbness after sitting cross-legged for too long. “Probably not anytime soon, she has a boyfriend.”

“So?”

Taehyung reminded himself that his obnoxious younger brother was still only ten. “Well her boyfriend probably wouldn’t be the happiest person in the world if he found out that his girlfriend was at another guy’s house, would he?”

Taewon shuffled to change his position so that he was facing Taehyung. “Who’s this boyfriend of hers anyway? Who could be better than you anyway?”

His older brother shot him a blank expression. “I can’t tell whether or not you’re being genuine.”

Taewon continued, “Who’s her boyfriend? I want to know, hyung!”

“Why am I having this conversation with you anyway?” Taehyung groaned.

“Uh, because I brought it up?”

 Taehyung stood and swiftly made his way to the stairs before Taewon could continue. “I’m going to my room.”

The younger’s eyes sparkled as he laughed. “You’re going to have to up your game, right hyung?” he joked. Taehyung paused mid-step and blinked, but the next second replaced his blank expression with a scowl.