The Cool Girl| Kim Taehyung

Don't worry about a thing

"No!"

Desiree's eyes flew open.

"I promise, it wasn't her, it was all my fault! Please Dad, don't!....stop!"

She sat up in bed, greeted by the darkness of the hotel room. 

She could hear Taehyung panting next to her and turned on the bedside lamp. Her hazel eyes widening in distress at the sight of her boyfriend's sweat-drenched body thrashing about, brows furrowed and chest heaving in terror.

"No!" He muttered again wearily and she put her cool palms on his cheeks to sooth him.

"Tae, It's alright. I'm here. It's just a dream." 

Taehyung's eyes fluttered open slowly. 

Desiree saw the panic and confusion on his chiseled face and honestly it scared her. 

Just the thought that for even  one moment, he might not know who she was.

But as he let his golden head flop back down into the pillows breathing slowly, she realised that he was fine.

He looked around in the darkness feeling cold and ashamed. He didn't want Des to see him like this. 

Taehyung was used to night terrors as a kid . The constant abuse from his Dad meant most nights of his adolescence were spent sleepless, tormented. When his life had changed and he moved to LongPalm, the nightmares went away. Taehyung thought he'd buried those memories somewhere far away, deep down where his subconscious had no need to access them. But now, they were back. 

"Are you alright? Is there anything I can do?" The girl whispered tenderly running her fingers through his flaxen hair.

Taehyung looked at her freckled face in the night light and immediately his heart slowed down, melting.

"You've done more than enough already," He smiled, moving her soft hand from his hair and pressing it to his cheek.

He felt lucky and most of all underserving. 

A huge part of him wished that she wouldn't have come. Wished she would have just stayed behind and lived the full and peaceful life she deserved. One without him there to complicate things. 

Never forgetting the elephant that had a constant place in the room and which they never wished to discuss. It was almost an unspoken understanding. They would hold off until it was absolutely necessary, neither of them having the courage to bring it up. The inevitable moment when they would have to say goodbye. 

Taehyung knew that Des was due to return to school abroad in two weeks and he wasn't sure he could promise that he'd be there whenever she came back. 

He didn't have a place to call home anymore. Not that LongPalm had ever felt like it. 

By the time Desiree's fall semester was over, he could be anywhere..

Her hazel eyes studied him tenderly and Taehyung felt an instant warmth despite his skin still clammy and the AC making him shiver lying in his own sweat.