First of November

[4] new heights

Taehyung was unsure of what he was doing right now. In his left hand was a Polaroid picture of him and Nayeon on Jimin's birthday, taken just recently. They were wearing matching sweaters—following Jimin's strict dress code of wearing thick sweaters in his party because he was extra like that—standing in front of a brick wall in the birthday boy's house.

        He stared at Nayeon's face for a moment, specifically at the smile that graced her face while she pulled up a peace sign with him.

        "She's actually really pretty there."

        A short-haired girl popped out from the other side of the counter, hair uncombed but face still glowing in that beautiful radiance she basked in every time he sees her.

        "But I'm prettier, right?"

        He rolled his eyes, but there was nothing evil behind the action.

        "I'm glad you didn't replace me with someone who looked like me. That would've been awfully disappointing and pitiful."

        Taehyung looked up at her, before setting the picture down.

        "I'm not replacing you, Jeongyeon."

        "Then what are you doing?"

        "I'm just moving on from you."

        She tilted her hair, eyelids drooping. "You're taking an extremely long time to move on from me, Taehyung."

        "Have you?"

        "What do you think?"

        Taehyung looked back down on the countertop, on the picture that had been abandoned but certainly not forgotten for months in the farthest corner of his drawer, behind folded socks and undergarments; a picture that held an enormous amount of significance and weighed heavier than his footfalls every time he approached a special someone's slab, no matter how much Taehyung denied it to himself.

        "I've been by your side all along, Taehyung."

☂ ☂ ☂ ☂ 

Every Wednesday, Nayeon's shift in the office starts at 8am. She adopted a healthy habit of exercising and cycling from Jennie once she received a bike on her 21st birthday from said best friend. There was a numb aching in her thighs once she maneuvered herself to the side of the bike trail she took. She brought up her water bottle and gulped the fruit water contained within.

        Something copper brown—other than autumn leaves— shot into her field of vision before she realized a dog, a bichon, had circled her and stopped to sit right beside her.

        What in the world, she thought, stopping herself from drinking. So cute...

        "Sumo!"

        The dog looked at the caller approaching them before someone familiar appeared before her, kneeling down on one knee to reattach a dog leash to Sumo's collar.

        Ah. Well if it isn't Park Chanyeol.

        "You stubborn dog." She heard him mutter under his breath, but he was smiling slightly. He looked the same as before, still tall and lanky but somewhat different. At least, she hoped there was a difference. When he looked up at Nayeon, it took him a full second to bring up a friendly smile.

        "Ah, Nayeon. Hey."

        "Hello," she greeted back.

        She sat back comfortably on her bike before she decided to make an attempt of forming a conversation with him—just to make up for the cold shoulder she remembered serving him once they broke up, as well as for leaving his text messages on read. She hoped he moved on from that.