I'm on the run with you, my sweet love

Chapter 2 | He was a nice guy, really bright

Nobody knows it, but you've made a list of men who rejected you throughout your entire life.

It's a secret you never disclosed to anyone, for the shame still weighs upon your chest and crumples your heart like a leaf burning in the sun. A list of episodes and words and gestures that often re-emerge in the back of your mind when you let your mental guards down, smudging your self-esteem like oil.

Somewhere, unable to clearly pinpoint the exact position, there's also Kim Taehyung.

Curled up in a corner of Jimin's white leather sofa, you lift your head up in the direction of the abovementioned man, attention caught by the deep tone of his voice drooling from his lips in a sort of whiny pleading.

He's laying against the stove, phone stuck between the ear and the shoulder while his fingers twiddle nervously with the belt threads. Your gaze lays upon the curve of his pout and, inevitably, tenderness shapes your mouth in a sweet half-moon (because he might be a grown-up man, but he still preserves the traits of the boy who used to hold your hand when you went camping and doing midnight tests courage seemed a terrific idea).

Before becoming your best friend, Taehyung was a stratospheric calf-love that lasted for two years.

Bushy hair of a particular chocolate shade -always a bit messy and wavy; gut-wrenching smiles that shaped his expressive almond eyes into two thin lines brimmed with joy; a voice too deep for a 10th grade student, with a pronounced Daegu accent that used to seep through his words when he was too euphoric or angry, he was considered one of the most charming boys at the " Bong Summer Camp " (a two weeks event that used to gather students and camp counselors coming from different cities and provinces around South Korea).

Your friendship blossomed on this particular occasion during your second year of Middle School, between singing competitions, games, and horror tales recounted around the bonfire. Despite the distance kept you far from each other for an entire year, only to reunite every August for such a short period of time, your bond grew stronger -permitting you to have a place of honor into each other's life until today.

In the turbulent phase of your adolescence, you noticed the beats your heart used to skip if you lingered your stare upon his face a little longer; the way your mouth ran dry for the first hint of abs sketched along his tummy, or for the well-defined lines of his chest adhering to the t-shirts at the slightest movement; how you felt the breath being punched out of you at the mere sight of his name blinking on the screen of your phone, announced by "I want it that way" as a ringtone ( shit , sheer embarrassment still tinges the tip of your ears of a vibrant scarlett shade if you only think about it).
But if you were developing a small infatuation for him in your teen years, imaging how nice would be to taste the consistency of his lips or wandering through the city without letting go of his hand, your best friend's feelings were on another type of frequency: to Taehyung, you were the friend who acted as a bridge between him and his crush of the moment; the emergency call to dial when his parents were in the middle of a fierce argument; the confident he could rely on whenever he had a problem with his girlfriends; the girl who made him laugh at the top of his lungs for a silly joke or a weird expression.