For Everything I Am | KTH 18+ ✔

Chapter Five

Taehyung stood over his sketch and building plans while tapping his mechanical pencil to his chin. There was something off about the design that he just couldn't place his finger on, something felt missing. Although he was damn good in his line of work, this particular project he had fought to oversee and design needed to be much more detailed than the others he had worked on in this past because this wasn't just any ordinary job.

The dance studio held so many fond memories for both him and Ria and knowing that he planned on enrolling Izzy into classes only added to the pressures he was feeling to make it as perfect as humanly possible. His boss was on his ass daily about getting the blueprints finalized so that construction could begin, but until he could figure out what it was that was missing, he knew he couldn't be satisfied with the results.

Staring out of his wall-to-wall office window, he counted the floors of the sky-high glass and stone edifice across the street until he landed on number nineteen. For a moment, he wondered if Ria was also looking out of her window towards his own building until he forced his mind to focus back on the task at hand.

What was it that was missing?

Staring blankly, he replayed memories of watching Ria spin on that empty wooden dance floor from the lonely corner of the large room. A smile adorns his face as he remembered the way she would stick her tongue out at the instructor whenever she turned her back after being scolded for not pointing her toes enough. Her pink tutu and the graceful way she would move until she stopped dancing at sixteen was something that would forever be engraved into his memory, but there was something in particular about that dance studio that meant a lot to her. Something structural that she used to love to look at every time she had class.

Trying his hardest to force his memories beyond the visions of young Victoria, his brow furrows in strict concentration as he stares back at the plans. After a moment of reminiscing as much as possible, he exhales sharply and turns to grab his coat and car keys. Being cooped up in this office wasn't helping him in the least. No, he needed to step away from the confinement of his desk and go down to that old studio in hopes it would help him be able to finalize it once and for all.

"Hey Joseph, could you pass me the keys to 6th and Carlisle? I need to do a site visit." Taehyung holds out his hand as the assistant unlocks the cabinet, tossing him the keys he desired.

The dance studio was near the edge of the city, a decent drive away from his office, especially with afternoon traffic. Having grown up in the outskirts of a less populated area, it was the closest ballet studio to Ria's house she could enroll in even if it meant she had to take two transit buses to get there after school.

Back when they first became friends, she had already been dancing at that studio and he could still remember the first time he went with her:

»»————-　Flashback　————-««

The loud school bell rang indicating that the day was finally over. The classroom stood up excitedly as they gathered their belongings, saying goodbye to their friends as if they wouldn't see them the next morning. Except for today, Taehyung didn't have to say goodbye to his new friend Vic-... Vic-. Ugh, he could never pronounce her name correctly and he noticed she hated it when the teachers would call her Vicky or Tori. Ria... that's what he decided to call her from that point forward. Short and simple.

Hopefully, she likes it.

"My mom said thanks for letting me come with you after school, Ria." He tests out the nickname as he approaches her stuffing her pencil case into her pink backpack.