Not For Long

.21

Chaeyoung forced a smile to appear on her face as she bid her colleagues goodbye before stepping out of her workplace. Just as she seated herself in her car, she took her phone out while her other hand buckled the seatbelt. For the whole day, she hadn't even taken the device out of her handbag, trying to have her brain and mind focus on her work because she knew that Jungkook was right, that life must go on no matter what.

Things happened and it was not her place to stop it from happening, she had no power to reverse death, and forcing the suffering onto her would only make things worse. Taehyung wouldn't want that, his mother wouldn't approve it. While she couldn't help but think of the impossible, that if only she had agreed to work with Taehyung for his mother's happiness, she would always get reminded of how the lady had said that honesty was much more preferable.

No one was to blame for the loss of the beautiful soul. After days, she had finally begun to accept that fact and although it was difficult, she needed to keep moving on. And she needed to help Taehyung go through it.

Her thumb brought the device to life, teeth lightly nibbled on the inside part of her lower lip as she stared at the screen. There were miscalls and messages all from the same person, Jeon Jungkook. After wasting a few seconds just being still in her seat while her eyes stared at the phone, she eventually made her thumb work to send commands to the phone to make a call to him.

He answered the call in an instant, with a panicked merged with a slight relief in his voice as he called her name. "Chaeyoung?"

She leaned backwards as she quickly responded to him. "I'm sorry. I'm really, really sorry."

"Where are you? I came home early, went over to your place but you weren't there. You're not anywhere in my apartment too. Are you... are you okay?"

The corner of her lips lifted slightly. She took a deep breath, nodded lightly as though he could see it. "I'm okay. I'm sorry I didn't tell you. I was at work. And I didn't check my phone."

There was a long, relieved sigh on the other line. "So you're going home now?"

She bit on her lips briefly, thinking of the person she had in her mind even in her sleep. "I..." she began hesitantly. "I want to visit Taehyung. I need to check up on how he's doing."

Silence from his side lasted for a few seconds before his calm voice replied her, "Okay, careful on the road."

It was totally unnecessary for her to tell him what she told him next, but she felt as though it was needed. "I'll definitely come home tonight."

He chuckled softly. "I know." The way he spoke to her, soft and gentle, everything about it made her insides felt like they were being caressed with a sort of warmness that would calm down any uneasy feeling at all.

Chaeyoung stood in front of Taehyung's apartment then, her index brushed against the doorbell with hesitancy building up inside of her. All the what-ifs began to take turns to pollute her mind. What if he knew she was at the door but refused to open it? If he opened the door, would he tell her off? With a slight shake of her head, she breathed out heavily, pushing away those unnecessary thoughts out her head. She pressed the doorbell once and waited patiently, shifting the plastic bag in her hand to the other hand before pressing it again.

She already knew from Jungkook that Jennie said Taehyung refused to see anyone except Namjoon, but here she was with that tiny hope that Taehyung would make her an exception. It was nearing five minutes when she finally decided to text Taehyung to open the door for her. Soon after she saw that her message was delivered to him, she attempted again to press on the doorbell.