an au in which the heart is not an organ, but something that can be held.
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HE WAS GORGEOUS. that was the first thing taehyung noticed.
jaw-dropping, heart-achingly gorgeous. and had it not been for the excruciating amount of social awkwardness that taehyung possessed, it would have been the only thing taehyung noticed.
with people like jeon jeongguk, however, a pretty face is never the end of it.
Δ
whether the red string of fate had pulled taut that day, or the planets aligned, or taehyung was just so unlucky, nonetheless it still happened, and taehyung couldn't get it out of his mind.
conveniently, it was his lunch break, but taehyung wasn't someone who'd attempt the journey of finding a restaurant, ordering food, eating it, and returning to work in less than an hour.
so taehyung opted for the easier route: buying a bag of chips from the vending machine and taking a swig from his water bottle whenever he needed it. working a nine-to-five and having that for a lunch probably wasn't the best idea, but taehyung was as young as his "baby face" (as namjoon liked to call it) indicated, so his metabolism could handle it.
it had been just that - his walk to the vending machine a few hall turns from his little office, some change in his pocket. the nonchalance in his gait was one that he held every day; with a nice job, an okay apartment, and a somewhat limited circle of friends, taehyung couldn't call his life completely stress-free, but it was easier to manage than most.
he didn't predict the circumstance of meeting someone like jeongguk.
"someone like jeongguk", of course, not referring to his gender, or sexuality, or even his personality - but rather, his lack of the latter.
taehyung wasn't one to approach people, but his fumbling mouth couldn't help it when he arrived to get some of his favorite kind of doritos and saw someone with a broken heart instead.
symbolically and literally it meant the same thing: a heart torn apart by some form of a past tragedy. but hearts, in this case, weren't referring to an organ, but instead, a piece of heart-shaped transparent light the size of your palm that hovered in front of your chest, and, quite easily, was the most important part of your body.
because anyone had the power to break it, and when they do, both the heart and the person are called broken.
it wasn't a disease, although some people liked to call it that. there wasn't anything wrong with them really; the infliction of what someone did to them is really what affects them.
it made taehyung wonder who did this to the boy he saw before him.
if more than half a heart breaks, it's considered dead. but it wasn't dead, not really. neither was the owner of it.
they just didn't feel anymore.
the broken were emotionless, and taehyung found himself standing right in front of one.
he swallowed thickly, politely moving behind the stranger while his own heart beat almost loud enough to hear. he could say his outburst was out of curiosity, but in the end, it was the nerves that got to him.
"are you new here?"
the stranger's movements weren't sudden, but they weren't calculated, either - he just seemed to move, and the concept of it was stranger than its actuality.
he turned around to face taehyung, and though admittedly his first thoughts were wow, he's attractive, his second was to drop his eyes to the broken heart.
taehyung has never actually seen one up close. normally, hearts were a soft red, emitting a warm glow from its core.
but the one the boy had, the one taehyung saw before his eyes, was dull. it didn't - or rather wouldn't, ever - shake or flicker or pulse like anyone else's would.
it didn't do anything.
so the way the stranger looked at him wasn't with unfamiliarity, or even annoyance.
instead, he just looked at him, and even though it didn't seem like much, for taehyung it felt like someone tugged a little too harshly on his heart.
"no," the stranger said finally, "i'm not."
taehyung bit his lip at the sound of his voice, and blurted out, "oh! well, I've never seen you before, so it's nice to meet you."
he gave taehyung a small, curt nod of acknowledgment before turning back to the vending machine, punching in the number-letter combination for his purchase.
taehyung would have shut up right then and there. taehyung, under normal circumstances, wouldn't have continued the conversation at all.
but he couldn't stop thinking about the grayed piece of a heart that the stranger had and managed to choke out, "my name's kim taehyung."
the stranger bent down to pick up his drink, then swiftly side-eyed taehyung and murmured, "jeon jeongguk," before turning and walking away.
Δ
thank you all if you voted on the preface !! i'm real excited for this book, haha.
if my calculations are correct, this will probably have about 20 chapters, at most 25. it's a real small one, and the first one i've published on wattpad, so bear with me here! the concept is a little weird, but it'll get better, i promise.
the first few chapters will probably be too drawn out and exhausting, but likewise, it'll hit its peak soon :))
