You opened the drawer and pulled out what was stored at the very back of it for months, untouched. White blouse and a pair of blue jeans looked ridiculously foreign to you now. The robe you used to fumble about not knowing how to dress properly, sometimes almost tripping from how it tangled heavily on your legs, had become familiar to your skin. It was strange.
You slipped in those clothes, feeling uncomfortable on how the jeans wrapped your legs tightly, and pulled on a robe atop it.
You looked yourself in the mirror for the last time. You couldn't read your own expression.
"So you weren't kidding," Jungkook said, flipping his head busily between Giyoon and Yoongi's identical face, amazed.
On the fateful day of going back, you, Giyoon, Yoongi, Taehyung and Jungkook gathered in front of the sacred tree, the tree that was the beginning of everything. Giyoon did better on explaining than Yoongi, saying that the sacred tree was the channel of future and the past, as a living that has lived for years held immeasurable power.
Unlike the moment you fell from it, it was dressed in heavy snow, looking solemn and cold.
Taehyung watched you from the back as Jungkook bid his farewell nearly in tears.
He still remembered the day you fell from the tree, as if it was yesterday. It's not everyday you catch someone falling off a tree. And with how you dressed unusually, it was only natural Taehyung thought of you as suspicious, unlike Jungkook whose driving force was curiosity and inquisitiveness, and trusted people on instincts.
Growing up in a brothel, on a street, Taehyung grew cautious of who to trust and who to rely on. He barely showed his emotions, knowing there were so many evil that were seeking to take advantage of any chance they got. But then he met you, whose eyes were so colourful and loud, clear and true. For someone who had built a wall in his heart, to have someone slip in so easily, to have that person stay at the very core, was unforeseen.
Even when he hardly knew who you were, even when he guessed Jungkook might be sharing the same feeling, even when you told him the truth, even when he knew that would bring an inevitable separation, you resided there, in the middle of his heart, unwavering.
When you told him the date had moved forward in tears, his heart cracked. All this while, knowing the fact had not prepared him mentally. Holding you in arms, feeling the hiccup against his chest, stroking your hair quietly, he felt an impulse to hold you like that forever, lock themselves in the palace, far from the reach of anyone taking you away from him.
But, he had fallen in love.
Strange, he thought, because the notion of love was the furthest thing he thought he could ever understand. He could witness it through Seokjin and Misun, but he thought he'd never feel it even if he was married, for he thought marriage was business, and he couldn't be more glad if his status, even though a low born, could ensure peace for the people.
He never knew he would yearn for someone so much that what mattered in the end more than his heartache was their happiness. He couldn't let you sacrifice your life for him. You had to go back to where you belong.
Coming to a secluded area, you have removed your white robe, and with that it seemed as if you shredded off the memory of being here altogether. You looked so foreign and fragile to Taehyung's eyes, almost disappearing. A fear washed over Taehyung, and he pulled your arm. He sighed, seeing your eyes find his, but he could tell your eyes were submerged with pain, as much as his own.
"Taehyung," you called him, not knowing how many more times you could call him like this.
"Watch," he said, directing your eyes to his palm.
It's just a palm, and although you are confused, you did as he said. He clenched it into a fist and opened it again, but this time, you see a flower on it. A plum flower.
"How-"
You're curious on how the flower came about out of nowhere, but more so on how he obtained a plum flower that wasn't in season. It didn't look fake or dried, or maybe it's just your eyes betraying you.
"Smile, y/n," he said, clenching two fists this time and throwing them up in the air. Numerous white flowers fell from the sky, danced around you, side by side with snow and the sight unconsciously drew a smile on your face.
"Your smile is beautiful."
You inhaled the chilly air and drifted your eyes to him. He was smiling, his eyes telling you hundreds of stories but what caught your breath was the fondness among them. He pulled you into his chest strongly.
"Promise me you'll smile more and cry less," he wrapped you tighter. "Promise me you'll stay happy."
You held him back with the same force. "Promise me you'll stay safe Taehyung. And promise me you'll stay happy."
You could hear his heartbeat against his chest. In that moment, you felt like it synced yours.
"We are ready," Giyoon announced.
He had been drawing a transferring circle around the tree, with letters you couldn't decipher. All that was needed was Yoongi and you to stand in it as he uttered an incantation. Yoongi followed the instruction giving you a somber expression. Jungkook stood near, nervous of what was going to happen.
You weren't ready. You would never be, but Taehyung took your hands and led you to the place. Every step seemed to drag heavier, slower, as if all the gravity worked to pull you down. Consume you whole, and maybe that was what you wanted.
The moment Taehyung's hand left yours once you reached your designated place, a feeling of emptiness washed over you. He stepped away in a safe distance directed by Giyoon but his eyes never once left yours.
There was a word they'd never used. The one that was so loud in their eyes and actions but never once spoken. Because if they did, there was no way they could bear the pain that would crush their soul.
I love you.
You wanted to drink in the sight of Taehyung, every detail of him, burn it in your brain, but your sight started blurring with welling tears.
Giyoon started uttering the incantations, the sound of it unfamiliar to your ears, but even if they were the words you knew, they probably never reached your ears. Your ears echoed with the sound of a loud heartbeat. Probably Taehyung's lingering, or maybe yours, or maybe both.
The circle started glowing.
"Taehyung!" you threw your hand out to reach him.
"Y/n!" Yoongi yelled furiously, calling you back to the circle, trying to hold you back but you slipped through his grasp. Giyoon had noticed but he couldn't stop chanting his incantation in the middle.
Taehyung caught you, and it was only a breath before he crashed his lips on yours. It was a familiar taste of sea. Lacing both your hands with his, holding it upwards, he leaned his forehead on yours.
"I'll make an oath," Taehyung said, his voice trembling but strong. "That even after 700 years, I'll find you."
That was the last of him, before he pushed you into the glowing circle as Giyoon finished the last phrase, the light swallowing you in golden.
A/N:
Hi hi how are you feeling? :D
We just have two more chapters to goooo
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An Ode to Maehwa | kth
Fanfiction"I'll make an oath. That even after 700 years, I'll find you." Lee Y/n was a university student who found history was the least thrilling subject. But who could have guessed that she'd go back in time, trapped in a historical turmoil? She was lost...
