stigma • kim taehyung

7

all professor taehyung could feel now was his heart sinking, entering his stomach, and settling itself there, along with its close friends anxiety and discomfort. he was disappointed. disappointed in himself for the most part. why would he do that? not only did he feel like you stepped on his heart, he also felt like you were dancing on it.

yes he let his intrusive thoughts win. it was so weird. the two seconds of you both touching kind of took him back to those days. back to when you both were walking around the park, holding hands, with chocolate ice cream on your lips. how he missed you.

you on the other hand, were confused. why would he do that? what was he thinking? why did he pretend like nothing happened between you guys? you did not like him at all. all you could think of was this semester ending.
you looked over at the email you got from professor taehyung later that night, it was about the assignment. he had sent in an excel sheet with all the formed groups.

you were teamed up with 4 people. a girl named Rachel, who was on the dance team of the university. she was a choreographer too. girlie was mad pretty and danced so well that the audience were no less than wolves on full moon night whenever she took the floor. you were friends with her, and you guys did hang out occasionally. the second girl was in Inayat, a Turkish exchange student. you had never spoken to her. third girl was Aaliyah, from the states. you guys had met in passing, but hadn't really spoken much either. the third girl was aecha. she was usually really quiet in class. her competency bore no falling back though. she was good at what she does. it looked like a decent group. you were going through the excel sheet, a puzzled look covered your face, following a frown, which was followed by an attempt to join your eyebrows resulting in a sequence of occurrence of lines, which was lastly drawn to a close by a combination of an eye roll and a scoff of disbelief.

professor taehyung had put all your friends in a group together. sujin, jiah, jungkook (the parameters of your relationship with jungkook is to be discussed, but will be termed as friends for this moment), yoongi and another guy whose name you couldn't remember. it was so annoying. why does professor taehyung actively strive to make your life nothing but meagre? someone should conduct a serious research on his mind. 'an in depth understanding of the mind of literature prodigy professor taehyung's peak pettiness'.
has a nice ring to it.

you had made the effort to arrange a meeting with all your group mates the next day, to discuss the assignment. you had a really interesting topic: 'gothic literature during the victorian era'. you were a fan of gothic literature in general, with poe's glass eye chronicles to yellow wallpapers, you loved it all. the cafe right opposite your uni was great. it had the sweetest barista who made the best coffee and croissants, while the ambiance had the coziest vibe ever. everyone except aecha had arrived. there was something weird about her. your brain tried its best to not jump on the judgement bandwagon as soon as someone is a little different, or to be precise, 5 minutes late.

aecha hadn't even replied to the texts on the group chat, she had just seen the messages and replied with a like on the text, the next day.
your fellow literature enthusiasts were conversing on their personal experiences back home and here. just a few minutes later, aecha arrived. she was wearing a black mask on her face, so it was unreadable.

'hey aecha, welcome. we hadn't started anything yet, since we were waiting for you.' you said to her, smiling. she just nodded her head and took off her mask before she sat down. you were in awe. everyone in this room was so beautiful. inayat, with her turkish lineaments, aaliyah and her dazzling hazel eyes with pretty skin, rachel with her exuberant smile and dancers build, and aecha, with her traditional delicate swoon worthy korean face. and of course, you, with your sexy brain and gorgeous face.

'before we start working, y/n you dawg' rachel said as she playfully hit your arm.
'ow miss girl you're strong as hell. what are you on about' you say rubbing your now 'kinda' hurt arm. 'bagging a cutie like jungkook! good for you. mf is hot as hell man did you sleep with him yet? please tell me you did!' rachel says in a voice that contained traces of pride and genuine happiness.
you get shy (the shyness that occurs on occasion of societal pressure and not because you actually don't want to shag jungkook) and say, 'rachel what the hell who told you that! besides it's not like we're officially girlfriend and boyfriend so calm down' while chuckling, and she says 'oh come on. don't act like it's a big secret when he's one of the most popular guys in our batch. plus, his dad is all over the news all the time. his reporting skills are really talked about.' she completes.
'his dads a reporter???' you ask her, stunned because jungkook didn't mention anything about that to you. interesting. you didn't really watch news channels, you were more into reading the newspaper, or just going through headlines on google news. that's why you weren't aware of the news channels, or his dad being a reporter on one.

suddenly, aecha got up and rushed to the washroom. you all got startled because it was so unexpected and sudden.
'that was weird' inayat said. 'i know right' aaliyah chimed in. you guys had broken the ice amongst each other, which wasn't so cold to begin with. it was more like the ice that's melting. the one that's a victim of global warming.

aecha comes back and has the most sour expression on her face. during the rest of the meeting, she didn't even look at you. she sure could be crowned the queen of the monosyllable, with a few 'yes' and 'nos' , 'hmms' and 'okays'. the melting ice was back to a frozen icicle from her side with a piercing sharp edge. she left early too. you guys were so confused, especially you.

did i say something to offend her?
i don't think so?
calm down y/n. unfortunately the entire world does not revolve around you. maybe she's going through a tough time. leave her be you nosy whore.