eidolon | kim taehyung

• two •

"x, cubed?"

"squared," the boy replied, munching on a crisp, red apple. "i think."

yesul groaned, tapping her pencil on the piece of paper in frustration. as of then, yesul's algebra homework looked a complete mess—figuratively and literally.

the assignment was adorned with messy, smudged pencil marks, the girl's writing, and now, tiny fragments of graphite and other random scribbles decorated every spot of the sheet—except the actual blanks that required the full formulas.

the two had been sat on a slightly damp bench under a fully blooming apple tree near the school for fifteen minutes trying to answer one of the ten dreaded problems.

"oh, right," yesul sighed, hitting her own forehead for messing up the computation the sixth time. she erased the exponent, the surface of the paper already flaking at the countless amount of times it'd been erased over.

"okay, okay, s-so, x squared, then apply the quadratic formula n-negative b, plus, p-plus..."

she paused.

"plus..." she looked at the boy in desperation, but the older had a look of faith in her. the formula was right at the tip of her tongue. she stayed up for that test once.

right at the tip of her tongue.

seven seconds passed, and put the pencil down, sighing loudly.

"if you can't answer that one, just skip it and answer the next one." taehyung chewed, leaning on the trunk of the apple tree.

"but that one's harder! and the one next to that is harder, and the one after that is even harder than the two of them!" yesul groaned, hating the feeling of her throat tightening for such a silly reason.

she pressed the back of her arm on her eyes, lips starting to tremble again, "i-i can't do this anymore!" she whined, stomach churning at the thought of another talk outside with mrs. kang.

"th-the others say that it's grade school math, and anyone who didn't get it was stupid." she sniffed, kicking a rotten apple by her feet in exasperation, "why does it seem so easy for everyone else but not for me?"

"cause you're not like everyone else, and everyone else is boring." the boy replied bluntly, taking one final bite of the fruit. yesul looked up at him with furrowed eyebrows. "you think everything is boring." she replied nasally.

"yeah, because obsessing over a 10/10 is overrated," he replied, and yesul watched him lob the leftover apple across the street in astonishment, "and super boring. everyone wants it. everyone wants to be perfect and no one wants to be themselves anymore." taehyung crossed his arms.

"but that's what you need, t-to pass, in life," she frowned.

"so people need perfect marks more than food and air to survive now?" he chuckled wryly, "that's kinda pathetic."

yesul looked down, eyebrows knitted in confusion, now finding her words slightly foolish.

but that was how it worked! that was how it was supposed to work, b-but—

"anyways, why be like every other boring human being?" taehyung questioned, jumping down to the ground and landing gracefully on his feet. "if you can't answer it, it's not your fault. it's the school's for giving you something you're not able to answer."

he wasn't wrong, yesul thought, but that was school, that was, life, wasn't it?

"b-but what am i supposed to say? i have to do something, o-or else i'll have another lecture outside the classroom," yesul stood up, scratching her head.

taehyung did not speak one word, but with a frank expression, he pointed his finger up, the both looking at a fresh, ripe apple hanging on a branch.

"you really think i can just give her an apple and she'll give me a passing score?" yesul looked at the boy curiously.

he shook his head, "no, no, kinda like," he scratched his nape, "an, apology? i guess? a 'sorry, i'll try better' thing." he shrugged.

"maybe it'll work, maybe not, but give it a try." he grinned lightly at her.

"that's the fun about it," he added, and yesul looked at him in confusion—no, wonder, listening intently,

"making people happy, somehow."

yesul looked at the apple once again, now with determined eyes. "i-it's not a guarantee but,"

"somehow." she said.

"yeah, somehow." the boy smiled.

"it's kinda like a compromise," he pointed to his head, and yesul giggled at his slightly fading highlights, and little by little, yesul started to understand why the boy liked to dye his hair so much. "you never know what's gonna happen but,"

"it'll always be something interesting."