Was he confused?

Yeah, he was.

Taehyung scratched his nose as he frowned at the words.

The unanswered pile of messages was increasing in his inbox. It was left there as if the other side of the line didn’t notice it, but Taehyung knew better. Min Ji Yeon was ignoring the questions.

Two weeks passed by since he had last seen her. They still exchanged messages between each other and to be frank, Taehyung preferred it that way. Besides, they had been getting along quite well through phones and the Internet. He was a bit scared to ruin that by changing the routine.

However Taehyung couldn’t say he know everything there was to say about Ji Yeon. Sure, he knew she was receiving drug addiction treatment from her aunt, had a personal psychiatrist, and hated a lot of things.

But she was in fact very mysterious, especially if it involved her family and background.

Whenever he tried to open the topic, she’d slyly slipped out of it or chose to ignore it completely. Taehyung didn’t really mind that. But he wondered sometime whether he was a friend or something else to her, as he didn’t know anything about her past.

Taehyung bumped his nose against his phone screen when it suddenly rang. Rubbing his aore nose, he saw the caller’s name on the screen, and a grin found its way to his lips. Jung Eunji.

Ok, don’t start. He wasn’t having any relationship with her or something similar to that. But you couldn’t blame him when he had a crush on her. She was his ideal girl, and the constant shipping from both Army’s and Pink Pandas didn’t help the situation much.

Taehyung answered the call with a big smile, “Hey, sunbae.”

 “Taehyung-shi! Can you come down for a while? I’m inside the building right now.” Eunji said hurriedly before hanging up on him.

Deciding to humour her wish, Taehyung went down to the front entrance of the Bighit building. Sure enough, there she was, all beautiful in her ruffle top and miniskirt. He thought he had never met an elegant girl like her before. Looking up, Eunji beamed when she saw Taehyung heading her way.

“Taehyung-shi!”

“Hey, what’s up? You’re back early, sunbae,” Taehyung said, resisting the urge to smile like an idiot when he saw her cute expression. “No present for me from Japan?”

He meant it as a joke, but Eunji giggled as she pulled out a large oversized Gabumon doll that she hid behind his back. Taehyung dropped his jaw as she held it up to him expectedly, trying hard not to squeal.

“So do you like it, Digimon fanboy?” Eunji poked her head from the side to see his response.

“S-sunbae, thank you,” Taehyung exclaimed before giving her the biggest hug of her life. “THANK YOU!”

Taehyung twirled her around in his arms, laughing at his boldness, while Eunji didn’t seem to mind as she too hung on to his shirt, squealing. They both would’ve continued twirling if someone didn’t disturb them.

Ji Yeon faked a cheer as she clapped her hands slowly, saying, “Wow, what a merry couple.”

“Ji Yeon!” Taehyung said, placing Eunji back on her feet. “Didn’t know that you would come.”

Ji Yeon let out her traded smirk and approached both of them. Blushing a bit, Eunji greeted her as she bowed down politely. But Ji Yeon didn’t seem like she was going to bow back. Silence descended over them.

Taehyung faked a cough, “Um, I was thanking Eunji for her present.”

“Oh?” Ji Yeon lifted an eyebrow.

“Yeah, my group and I just got back from our concert tour in Japan,” Eunji smiled and patted the big doll in Taehyung’s arms. “And I just happened to saw this doll that reminded of the Digimon freak.”

“Yah.” Taehyung complained, and Eunji laughed at his pouting face.

Ji Yeon kept her blank look as she watched them laughing. When Taehyung turned to look at her, she raised her eyebrows like she was impressed before saying, “So you f***ed her already?”

Ji Yeon didn’t intend to insult them or anything but she just blurted out what came into her mind. From what she knew, both of them looked really close and didn’t hesitate to show public display of affection, so it was only natural. Wasn’t it?

Eunji froze literally as her eyes widened in shock, while Taehyung looked like a frying pan hit him in the face. They both looked at Ji Yeon incredulously.

“Or was I wrong?”

Mumbling an excuse, Eunji scrambled out of the building. She didn’t spare them a look as she got into her manager’s car. It was too humiliating. While Taehyung was trying to register what had happened just now. Did Ji Yeon just imply he and Eunji do it? Like it, it?

“What the hell is wrong with you?” Taehyung bellowed at the nonchalant girl. “Did you just go around and ask people that?”

Ji Yeon didn’t look the least bit sorry or faze by Taehyung’s rage. In fact, she looked oddly amused. Smiling mockingly, she crossed her arms, “I’m being honest.”

“Honest?” Taehyung narrowed his eyes.

“You’re obviously having the hots for her, Kim Taehyung,” Ji Yeon said, leaning forward. “I can see right through your innocent face.”

Taehyung’s ears went scarlet red as he gulped down his saliva nervously, “It’s not what you think,” He mumbled indistinctly before glaring at her. “Why are we talking about this when you’re the one who scare her away?”

Ji Yeon rolled her eyes, saying, “Please. Like I know a man who wouldn’t want to —”

“Shut up!” Taehyung hissed under his breath when he saw passerby’s looking at their way. Ji Yeon gave him a snort of disbelief. Oh, god, remind me why I’m being friends with her?  Taehyung stared at the wall, hoping that answers would drop from it. His eyes brightened when someone called out for him. God?

“Aish! You’d at least tell us where you’ve gone to, you idiot!” Jimin cried as he walked toward them with Jungkook, who only sighed in relief. Jimin gave Taehyung an annoyed look, saying, “You’re trying to skip dance practice, aren’t you?”

“What? No! I just went to see a friend.” Taehyung said.

“By friend? You mean her?” Jungkook jerked his head at Ji Yeon, who stood by with a bored look. Her hands casually tucked in her jeans pockets.

“Nope,” Ji Yeon said. “He met his playmate just now. He kept denying it but I personally think--

“Kiss this!” Taehyung quickly shoved his Gabumon doll into her face, muffling whatever she was about to say. The doll covered up all of her face so they couldn’t see what her reaction was, and then she held up the ‘finger’ at Taehyung’s face.

“Ok…” Jimin managed to say despite the quiet reaction before returning to Taehyung. “Are you going to the practice room or not?”

“Oh,” Taehyung snapped out of his daze. “Yeah, I’m going.”

“I’m going too,” Ji Yeon said as she swung the doll away, letting it hit Jungkook. Jungkook caught it before it could hit the floor although his face showed surprise.

“No, you’re not.” Taehyung said. He wasn’t up for more of her criticism. He frowned as he imagined what she would say when he dances, and he wasn’t a dancer to begin with.

“I didn’t ask you.” Ji Yeon drawled with a yawn.

“That little a**hole,” Ji Yeon muttered as she placed the palm of her hand on her chin. What kind of person called guards on his friend? Doesn’t he even have the shame to do that to a girl?

She had waited for almost three hours, sitting on the stairway of the building’s entrance. A few times, a bunch of high school guys whistled at her. Scoffing, Ji Yeon showed them a ‘rude gesture’. It was the hand gesture that nobody in Korea would dare to do, but Ji Yeon clearly didn’t care. The boys let out a scowl before leaving her alone.

Ji Yeon was torturing an ant with a stick when a pair of sneakers bumped her toes, as she was wearing her sandals. She looked up and sneered at Taehyung, who had an apparent guiltiness in his eyes.

“What? Kicking me out?” Ji Yeon brushed the dust off her jeans. “Because if you do, I’ll kick myself out. Thank you very much.”

Taehyung ignored her words as he pulled her hand up. At that movement, the container of drugs slipped out of Ji Yeon’s pocket, falling on the ground with a thud. They both stared down at the container, before Taehyung reached out for it. Ji Yeon quickly snatched it and hid it back in her jacket.

“What’s that?” Taehyung inquired curiously.

“Nothing.” Ji Yeon said, patting her jacket. “Aren’t you expelling me?”

Taehyung opened his mouth to retort back, but he closed it back slowly. He didn’t know what was wrong with him. The words had slipped out from him and before he knew it; the guards had appeared, dragging Ji Yeon out of the building. He immediately regretted it after that.

“I’ll make it up to you,” Taehyung said with a heavy sigh. “So can you please let it go?”

“Depends.” Ji Yeon said as she stretched her arms up. Smacking her lips, she realized that she hadn’t eaten anything for dinner yet. Ji Yeon stared at Taehyung, asking, “Hey, are there any street foods vendors around here?”

“Uh, yeah, there’s a vendor nearby,” Taehyung scratched his head, confused. “Why?”

 Ji Yeon immediately took a hold of his shirt and pulled him towards the street. Ignoring Taehyung’s cries of protest, she sped along the dim-lightened pavement.