Remnants of the Heart | Kim Taehyung

29: tomber

ACT 3 – SCENE 5.
THEY FALL

AFTER A lengthy trek around the resort, a cone of ice cream, and trying to convince Taehyung that skiing is a bad idea, the two are finally back in their shared room. Their little adventure only did so much to help her forget about the conversation with her mother. It seems impossible for Seojung to let everything slip out of her mind, especially since it had only been a few hours since their meeting. You can't really blame her for being so eager to dismiss the interaction. Recalling what her mother had said puts a bittersweet taste on her tongue.

Her phone rings just as she pulls it out of her back pocket, her brother's name flashing on the screen. Seojung puts it on silent without a second thought and places it facedown on the dresser. She's aware that Jimin hates it when she purposely ignores his calls, but she knows he's just going to ask about how things went and she isn't particularly up for that at the moment.

"Who is it?" Taehyung asks.

"My brother."

She slams right into Taehyung's chest after she turns around, not expecting the boy to be right behind her. His hands grab her wrists to keep her from stumbling backward and stay there even after she's regained her balance. The proximity allows her to get a scent of his familiar cologne, and somehow he even looks more attractive up close in the dim light. His hands guide her own to rest on the nape of his neck, and then moving to encircle her waist, pulling her closer as if they weren't already close enough.

She's come to learn that Taehyung's so dependent on intimacy, always finding ways to be close and be pampered at any given chance and she's not even sure if he's aware when does it. Thought he barely bat an eyelash when it came to physical things like this knowing his ways. But with him, it's always close, close, and close even when distance had long since blurred. Along the lines of his come closer or let me hug you or even I'm cold is his own unspoken way of saying I don't want to lose you.

(He would never.)

"Are you okay?"

Seojung doesn't understand why Taehyung feels the need to latch on to her as if she could run and leave him any second. If anything, it should be the other way around, for she spent years pining after him and forcing herself to be okay with admiring from afar. Perhaps she's only reading too much into it, but it is in her nature as literature major to find significance in even the smallest detail.

"Of course I am. Why wouldn't I be," is what comes out of her mouth, the lie sounding more practiced than sincere. The boy merely pouts. It's become so easy for him to tell when she purposely suppresses things that it makes her wonder just what else he's mastered when it comes to her.

"You sure?"

Seojung shrugs.

"'Seo."

She wonders if Taehyung realizes how much he pries sometimes. It's endearing, his intense want to be involved and aware of how she's doing or what she's feeling. The text messages that pop-up out of the blue after a few days of not seeing each other due to conflicting schedules, asking how she's doing even though he can just knock on her door at any given time (and he usually does a few hours after); it's the little are you okays and is something wrongs whenever he catches her looking too deep in thought that she always shies away from because confiding is still something she's working on—something they're both working on.