Taehyung hums along with the advertisement song as he cleans the tables of his small family restaurant and glances up at the exact moment when she comes on the tiny television screen. He smiles, pausing his work.
Dorothea.
The name brings a sweet ache and the overflowing memories to his heart and mind. A loud thud in the restaurant steals his attention away from his little getaway session of his memory tour. He walks to the kitchen at the back and sighs as he sees his mother throwing the vegetables into the freezer, loud enough for the whole neighborhood to listen. "What's wrong mom?" She continues throwing them inside until he walks to her and asks again, putting a hand on her shoulder. "Mom?"
"She thinks she is all mighty now because her daughter is a huge star now. I invited her for dinner because Dorothea got a film chance and she said, 'We are going to the city to celebrate it there. The town's too small for us now'" she mocks Mrs. Jung, Dorothea's mother. Taehyung can't help but laugh at his mother who perfectly replicated the tone and body language of Mrs. Jung. "Come on mom, she didn't mean it like that," he rubs his mother's back. "You don't put in nice words just because she is your friend's mother. I'm still surprised at how Dorothea managed to be such a sweet girl growing up in that household."
"I'll take care of this. Just cool off a bit," Taehyung takes the covers from his mother's hands and pushes her lightly out of the kitchen. Mrs. Jung has always been a bit rude and a show off type of person. He still remembers how Dorothea would come crying to him because her mother would often rebuke her for not being as popular as her mother. She always forced her to go into pageants and be pretty even in sleep. Taehyung always assured her that she is beautiful as she is.
She has always been a sweet girl who spent most of her time at Taehyung's family restaurant to be away from her mother. Mrs. Kim liked her a lot because she would always help her with the shop and be nice to customers. After which she would eventually get scolded by her mother for not maintaining her dignity working in a cheap small town shop.
Taehyung smiles to himself as he remembers those moments. She was naive and sweet but is she still? She's got some shiny friends after she left town and now even the big city girls want to be her. She is the queen of screen now. She would sell off any product she adversitied and people would just stop to stare at her on the screen.
"I will go to the city to get away from my mother and learn to be independent. Then you can come here so that we both can run a restaurant, and we will bring your mother after a while."
Taehyung ruffled her hair that night because it was cute how determined she was, the cute pout on her lips as she spoke and the anger visible on her face from her furrowed brows was endearing to him. He was glad that she talked to him about everything. But not anymore right? He sometimes wonders if she ever thinks about him. Like ever? At least once?
