TASTE | KTH

weird

Being home in Daegu is weird, Taehyung decides, and for a multitude of reasons.

Reason number one, it's not a holiday or special occasion, and they're staying with his parents. He typically limits his visits to those, so as not to get used to relying on his parents for any minor inconveniences. Well, if royally fucking up your soulmate bond and having to see a soulmate guru is considered a special occasion, Taehyung supposes this counts, but that brings him to reason number two: it's all very sudden. Taehyung is a planner. Taehyung always finishes all of his work obligations, hires a dogsitter, basically just gets his life in order before going. Sure, his innerworkings may be mildly chaotic at times, but Jimin likes to call Taehyung's thought process organized chaos. Now, Taehyung has never felt more disorganized in his life.

Taehyung gets this from his mother, who is also a through-and-through planner. Even with kids like Taehyung and Taeho running around the house like wild animals during their childhood, on top of the actual animals she was responsible for on the family farm, Taehyung's mother kept an impressive amount of control over everything. But, that brings him to the third reason this is odd-- Taehyung's mother had absolutely no idea that her eldest son would be paying a visit until about five minutes after he and Yura embarked on their train ride. She had a small conniption over the fact that she hadn't had the chance to change the sheets in his bed since his last visit, even though no one ever sleeps in his childhood bedroom but him anyway, and that she hadn't boughten enough samgyeopsal feed him at dinner.

Her conniption only intensified when he told her he was bringing Yura, reason number four as to why this was all weird. 

"Heavens, Tae, you couldn't have told me sooner? This place looks like a pig sty!" His mother had exclaimed, so loudly he winced and pulled the phone away from his ear. He knows that his mother's version of a pig sty is just mild clutter on the kitchen counter and some dust here and there, but he also knows it's no use telling her that. "Your friend is going to think you were raised in a barn!"

"I mean, we do live on a farm--"

"Wow, that's an awful lot of smart mouth coming from someone who did something incredibly stupid!" His mom scolded him. Ha, if not calling in advance about coming home is stupid in her books, he doesn't even want to know what she'd think about his current situation. He doesn't want to even tell her Yura is his soulmate, he knows she'd probably pass out, come to, and then spend the rest of time before Taehyung and Yura arrived making sure all of the lines the vaccuum makes in the carpet are going the same direction.

Aside from his mother's reaction to Yura, Taehyung is having a hard time wrapping his brain around the fact that she's actually here. He has been imagining introducing his soulmate to his family for years. His family was with him throughout all of the hardships he had faced, or rather, all of the hardships Yura had faced that Taehyung had to experience helplessly from the sidelines. He wanted this moment to be happy, a relief for both himself and his family, a weight off of all of their shoulders. Instead, he only feels like he's burdening his family with his sudden visit, and burdening Yura with throwing her into his dysfunctional family, on top of everything else she's going through.

Finally, reason number five: both himself and Yura feel like shit. Sure, Yura's touch had loosened his joints up enough for him to move, but that didn't mean it didn't hurt like hell. Every contraction of a muscle, no matter how minor, sent a dull ache rippling through his body. He was shivering, bundled up in a big sweater and a peacoat, a knit beanie his grandmother made him, and two pairs of gloves. It wasn't even below freezing, but his breath still crystallized in the air, so he hides his lower face in his scarf to prevent others from seeing.

Yura, on the other hand, was overheating. Nothing dilapidating, like before, either, but enough for discomfort. Enough to feel sweaty and gross in just one of Taehyung's sweaters and a pair of Jimin's jeans (the man had impeccable fashion, a tiny waist, and short enough legs that they fit Yura properly, where she would have been drowning in Taehyung's). The only shoes she had were the high heels she wore to the gala, so her look is an odd mix of formal and casual, and her left shoe definitely has a bit of Wonho's blood on it.