Against Time | k.th. ✔

十九 : dearth of time

"For how long are you planning to stay in there, Taehyung? It's already been two days that you haven't eaten anything. You'll become a breathing corpse at this rate—"

Yeoreum's genuinely altruistic entreaty backfired when the worrisome man replied from the other side of the closed doors, the indignation in his voice— which everyone had deemed as a mere juvenile foible of his, hence lending him no sympathy— blaring to such an extent that the woman could not help but feel hurt at the statement that followed.

"I said, leave me alone! Which part of it do you not understand?"

"I won't move an inch until you assure me that you'll have the food that I've brought for you. I'll leave it at the doorstep and go my way, I promise... but that will happen only when you keep your end of the promise too." Yeoreum's resolve at ensuring that Taehyung ate the much-required meal was endearing, but also vexatious at the same time. Albeit, he was also not quite sure about him viewing the female's concern as an inconvenience being plausible of him.

Essentially, he could not think straight anymore. He had so much on his plate, after all.

In his opinion, all he did to deserve being deserted by his comrades was banking on a theory that was seemingly— in a revolutionary manner— way ahead of his time. But he was not completely accurate with his deduction either. He, too, was missing the most pivotal point that led to him being mortified so ruthlessly at the hands of his former team.

Oh, how achingly nostalgic that term sounded now.

"Taehyung? If you don't answer me, I'll barge into—"

"Go away, I don't want to talk to anyone right now." Taehyung was on the brink of collapsing, yet managed to stifle the oncoming sob. Yeoreum accidentally heeding and then proceeding to pester him all day long about it was the last thing that he wanted to occur at that moment.

"Could it perhaps be true, then? About that destitute charming you and all? Do you want to go and search for her, then? Is she really the only thing you can think about right now? Because if that's so, you're in serious trouble, Taehyung. We may even need to take you to a shaman if you fail at getting over this lovelorn phase of yours in the long run." Yeoreum, though coming across to herself as simply brooding without actually harboring the intention to emotionally distress Taehyung further, in reality wound up doing the exact opposite.

However, Taehyung did not entirely disagree with Yeoreum's argument either. In fact, all credits to her, he had successfully fathomed the sole aspect that was perturbing him.

He indeed needed to look for the strange girl from the other land whose name he had already forgotten— sadly. The catch here being, the impulse not engendering as an effect of the enchantment that had been performed on him by the girl— as was the talk of the town— but to unearth the answers that she had supposedly brought along with herself and yet could not provide to him due to the dearth of time.