nct imagines

T A E I L

"We could go to the amusement park" Taeil  offered. You cradled the phone to your ear and closed your eyes.
"Uh, actually, I kind of have a ton of work to do so..."
It was a lie, of course. Lately, most of your conversations with him were full of lies. "Come on, we haven't hung out in a few weeks. I think I'm having withdrawals" he said. You smiled and then slowly frowned.
"I'm going to have to pass" you said. He went silent and you became nervous. With any other person, you could lie and be done with it. Taeil, however, almost always seemed to know when you weren't telling the truth.

"Well, I can come over and help" he offered. It was a test. "No, no-"

"I'll be over in a half hour" he said, hanging up. You closed your eyes and sighed as you pulled the phone from your ear. It's impossible to avoid him if he's right next to you. You huffed and walked to the couch. This was all his fault! No, this was all her fault! When they met, you knew that she would be nothing but a thorn in your side.

Ever since she sunk her claws into him, you were constantly bitch-slapping her in your mind. Her annoyingly pretty face and stupidly awesome personality was just so...irritating. You were the one who'd been with him for 4 years. You were the one who had to deal with his constantly rising height and his weird jokes. Then Miss Perfect just waltzes in and everything goes crazy. You rolled your eyes and crossed your arms.

A small piece of your brain accused you of being jealous and you acknowledged it. Of course you were jealous! You'd had feeling for him for quite a while now. You sighed and unfolded your arms. You were trying to blame the two of them but this really was your fault. You'd had multiple opportunities to tell him how you've been feeling. You practically gave him permission to start dating her by keeping your feelings a secret. You rubbed your forehead and groaned loudly. All of this was a mess.

After he'd been dating her for 2 months, you decided that you couldn't handle being around him. It was a little painful to see them together: hugging and kissing. You'd been avoiding him for over 3 weeks, trying to "forget him" while simultaneously torturing yourself. All you'd been doing for these Taeil-free weeks was figuring out ways to keep avoiding him and being angry that he was dating that girl. Without realizing it, everything you'd been doing was highly counterproductive.

That half an hour blew away quickly and soon Taeil was knocking on your door. You ran your fingers through your hair and straightened your clothes. You began to rethink it and messed your hair up a bit. You told him that you were busy 'working'. There was no way that you were going to look perfect while working. You started to open the door and stopped, smoothing your hair back down. You rolled your eyes at your indecisiveness and swung the door open.

You cleared your throat and tilted your head, leaning against the door frame. "It took you a long time to open the door" he commented.

"You have a key. Why didn't you just come in?" you asked. On second thought, you were glad that he didn't. It would've been awkward trying to explain why you were pouting and groaning.

"I think I lost it. I had it on my dresser but-" Taeil stopped talking and just looked at you.

"What?"

"Are you going to make me stand in the hallway?" he asked. You must've taken too long to answer because he picked you up and walked in. He was holding you bridal-style as he kicked the door shut. When he put you down, you lightly punched his arm. "That was so unnecessary" you said, walking away from him. Seeing him after all of this time made the butterflies in your stomach turn into pterodactyls. Your palms were beginning to sweat.

"So where is all of this 'work' that you had to do?" he asked.

"Uhhh, I, I finished...early...?" you lied.

"Right. So are you going to tell me why you've been avoiding me or...?"
You shook your head and sat on the couch. He followed and sat next to you. "You're not going to tell me?" he asked. You shook your head again and decided to try a last attempt at lying.

"Avoiding you? I wasn't-"
"___, stop. Lying isn't your thing" he said. You sighed and gave up.

"Fine. I didn't want to be around Miss Perfect and I didn't want to see you two hanging out-" you began. You were spilling your guts and the more you talked, the more you thought about how you'd abandoned him and how shitty you'd felt for downplaying your attraction to him for all these years.

"-and it just hurt to see her laughing at those stupid jokes that you always told me-"

You were staring at your blurry fingers and your mouth just kept running. Taeil was a bit shocked, watching how easily the tears came.

"-and I hated that she got to be with you when I have been here this whole time-"
Tired of watching your tears fall, Taeil scooted closer and pulled you to him. "-I thought if I just stayed away from you I could stop thinking about you but that didn't work. I just ended up being angry that you've been with me for so long and you never saw me that way-"

"___?" Taeil said.
You looked up at him with tearful eyes and he smiled. "You make me so mad" he said.

You looked at him, confusedly, and he laughed. "For two weeks, I've been trying to tell you something but you kept avoiding me" he said.
"-'Miss Perfect' dumped me."
You smiled, then caught yourself. You settled back into a fake sad face and he laughed again.

"She kept wondering why I was spending all of my time trying to get you to come and see me. It started this huge argument and she just left" he said. You were quiet as you looked away from him.

"So...why did you spend all of you time trying to get me?" you asked.
"Because for the past 4 years, you've always been by my side and having you missing, even for a week, was driving me crazy" he admitted. You smiled and quickly pecked his lips. Before you could move away, however, Taeil held you still, lengthening the kiss.

Neither of you had truly said the words: "I love you" but the message was received as your lips pressed together.