iris . vkook

twenty five

이십오

Taehyung's PoV;

"I think this is probably worth a C, if I'm being generous." The teacher said as she flipped through my book.

Groaning, I slumped upon my desk, "you cannot be serious."

My literal tears went into this and it's not even worth a B?

"Deadly serious, Kim. I don't feel as if you're putting enough effort in."

I look at her in disbelief, wanting to aggressively point at the delicate flowers etched into my work, painted carefully and to the thin black lines.

I wanted to waft the book around, showing her that I had scented the book with rose petal aroma, to go with the theme of the book.

How was I lacking effort?!

"Okay." I said, taking my art book with disinterest, most likely going to dump it on the way home or decorate Yeontan's kennel with the paper - since it was so shit (in her opinion).

If she knew that Jeongguk had drawn a few sketches, I'm almost certain that I'd be on an A, possibly an A+.

"All in all, Kim, your creativity is good but you're going out of the box and adding in too many independent ideas. It's about minimalism."

"Whatever." I huffed, sick of the way she treated me with the lack of interest, walking out of the classroom and towards the school gates.

I'd just sat through another two hours of art, alone, for her to insult every piece of work and tell me to try harder.

Sighing, I walked out with my head down, walking straight through a billow of cigarette smoke.

"Shit, sorry, I didn't see you." The guy said, aggressively wafting the thick gaseous substance with his free hand.

I looked up, ready to brush off the apology when I saw his face.

The pouty lips, now adorned with a ring. The gentle slope of his nose, button shaped at the end. Prettily shaped eyes, the irises covered with a thin layer of black plastic. Mulberry hair that was scraped out of his face. A crimson rose with jade thorns inking across a slim neck.

"Jeongguk?" I asked, looking at his facial features.

He almost looked like a stranger - foreign to my eyes.

He'd left with brown hair, no piercings on his face and definitely no bruising or cuts.

He'd returned with purple hair, a lip piercing and blue bruising around his eye, a cut running along the width of the bridge of his nose.

"Jeongguk! I missed you so much!" I squealed happily, practically jumping on the spot.

His lips broke into a wide smile, opening up his arms to hug me tightly, stepping side to side as he held my waist.

"I missed you too, petal." He said, his nose tickling my neck, "sorry for leaving you, I hope everything was okay."

We pulled apart, me setting my bag down as I sat on the wall next to him, watching as he relit his cigarette that he'd dropped to hug me.

"It's fine, nothing happened." I smiled, it soon faltering when I looked at his eye, "however, what isn't fine is what happened to your eye. Who hit you?"

Jeongguk blew out some smoke, shaking his head to move the hair that annoyed his forehead.

"Dad beat me."

"How can you talk about it so casually?!"

Jeongguk's PoV;

Probably because it didn't happen, Taehyung, he's dead.

I can't mention that though, because then he'd ask why there's so much money in my bank account if my father isn't transferring it over.

And then I'd have to explain all the assassin shit and all the drug runs and then he'd definitely be gone.

It's selfish, but I didn't want him to leave me.

I didn't want to be alone.

"Used to it, I suppose." I shrugged.

The lie that I was currently rolling out wasn't necessarily that much of a lie, considering father did hit me when I was younger.

That was before he died in a car crash, swallowed up by the flames that swam their way through the leaking petroleum.

It happened recently, actually on the night that I first met Taehyung.

He and uncle beat me to the ground, calling me a freak for both my sexuality and my eye colour.

After that, they went to a bar and got drunk and had a row.

Uncle tampered with father's engine and so when father went to (drunkenly) drive home, as soon as he pressed ignition, the flames immediately spat at him.

Since he was beyond drunk on cheap spirit, his reaction time was considerably slower and this caused him to stay in the car until it was too late.

Uncle went to prison, but they only sentenced him for three years, one and a half if he's well-behaved.

Just think, if I had never gone to Min's florists to pick up a bunch of flowers to lay on Jung-hyun's grave, my father and uncle wouldn't have died because they wouldn't have seen me walking. They wouldn't have gone to that bar to get drunk. Uncle wouldn't have tampered with the car and father would still be alive, uncle would be free from jail.

I'm glad things played out that way. It was better. I was better off without him. I was just happy that mother didn't have to live through the years of hell caused by father.

"Aww, Gguk." He sighed, looking at me with slight pity.

"I'm fine. It's only a punch." I brushed it off before turning to him with a wide smile, "how would you feel about that trip to Busan? Taeyong says that he'll throw you a party, and then we can spend the week exploring the city!"

He gasped cutely, clapping his hands as he nodded, "yes! Can we go now?"

"Of course, petal. Lets go get your stuff packed."