IT ISN'T YOU

46| Our Pasts

"There's a lot that I know, but you two don't." The man smiled sadly, looking over to his friend once again. Taehyung's eyes couldn't help but flick up to him every minute, hoping he'd twitch a finger or two.

"How-"I choked, "H-How..."

"I've been suspecting it for a while now." He answered, brushing his messy bangs away from his brown eyes. "As if you've been unconsciously dropping hints for me, and I'm not bad at connecting the dots."

"For how long?" I whispered, almost unsure if I should question him.

"Since the day we visited the park." He turns to me, eyes raking over my face, maybe trying to study my emotions. Mouth agape, I stared at him incredulously, "It-it's quite a while."

"You just confirmed my doubts when you burst out crying outside for a person who's supposed to be a stranger to you." I looked back into his eyes, the brown irises reflecting the dim light of the sickly room, glossed, and red eyes. I had never seen him so out of it, so unusual for the always presentable Kim Taehyung.

"I'm sorry..." I breathed out, a water droplet escaping the corner of my eye. He sighed, shaking his head in denial, "You're both at fault, it will not matter if you apologize to us instead of him, and by that, I don't mean that you're the only one who should be apologetic." He glanced at the white bed again, "He too needs to."

"Why are you putting so much effort into this?" The words dissipated into the air as soon as they left my lips, the annoying beeps of the monitor making me feel nauseous.

"Because, if it's not me then who will?" He smiled slightly, pulling his knees up to his chest, resting his arms on his knees. I stared at him blankly, lips morphing into a bitter smile. A thousand questions rang at the back of my head, but the situation constrained my throat, who would be happy being interrogated when someone close to them is in jeopardy. But, one more question wouldn't hurt...

"Tae," I mumbled, picking at the cup noodles in my hands. He hummed, staring at the ceiling, head resting against the wall. "Would you... still, help me even if I wasn't someone close to Jimin?"

He flinched at the mention of the name, "Yes." Taehyung started.

"I would've done anything to solve this if you weren't Cathy, and I still will continue trying."

I chuckled humorlessly, "What are you so nice for?"

"I don't know, what are you so aggressive for?"

I shrugged, "Bullying."

"Same here."

My eyes widened, head snapping to look at Taehyung's side profile, a calm smile resting on his lips. "No way..."

"Yes way," He laughed softly, "Yeah, I was bullied. Not as bad as you guys—it was pretty intense– I was mentally abused—verbally." Taehyung sighed contently, the memories playing vividly in his mind, however, the grown-up wasn't traumatized by his past anymore. "I was good at suppressing emotions, trying to act all toughed up and bearing everything like it was supposed to be; I started believing it was my fate. Eventually, my parents found out about the not-so-disciplined students. So, I changed schools."

I listened intently, it was not every day you meet someone who understands you and has experienced the miserable things as yours. "Then, I met this idiot." He pointed to Jimin, tears falling from his eyes, the liquid expressing his gratefulness and his worried heart. "Do you know what he was like when I first met him?" He turned his head towards me and I shook my head in denial.

"He was always like, 'You're so annoying', 'Get lost, don't you have anything else to do?', 'Stop bothering me!' and so on." He chuckled. My mouth fell agape, I didn't remember Jimin talking like this to anyone, always carrying the inferior aura that wasn't healthy for him.