The end of winter break approaches faster than i'd like it, just like it does every year. Before you know it, there's less than a week left before classes resume and you go back to the daily college life. Less than a week left before you can go back to your dorm and pretend like this year's winter break mishap never happened.
Less than a week before me and Taehyung go back to never seeing each other.
sitting at his kitchen table, clearing out your backpack and recycling every paper, every syllabus and assignment and study guide from last semester, doing a deep cleanse of your life because holy shit, you need it, when you come across the purchase you had made at the MOMA.
"Taehyung," i call out before i can stop myself.
"Yeah?" He asks from where he's sitting on the couch, reading a James Joyce book. i love that novel. It was one of the very few you read for fun last year.
i take the small paper bag in your hands, walking over to the couch. "I almost forgot about this, but since winter break's starting to wind down, I just wanted to give you this as a thanks. For everything."
"You got me a belated Christmas gift, dahyun?" Taehyung asks as i hold out the gift, clearly something thin like a posterboard or an art print.
"If it means I don't have to buy you two things, then sure, consider this a belated Christmas gift," i say with a laugh, sitting down a foot away from him as he slowly opens up the packet. "It's sort of cheesy and very basic, but I just wanted to get you something nice as a thank you."
Out Taehyung pulls is a print of van Gogh's The Starry Night, big enough to fill up the empty spaces on his walls, so every inch of his apartment, of his life and his home, is filled with art.
"Oh my God," Taehyung says, mouth agape. "This is..."
"It's basic, I know. But I know how much you loved seeing it in person, so I thought that a memory of that would be nice," i say, trying to ease the nervousness that has bubbled up inside of you.
"It's wonderful," Taehyung says, and you swear you've never seen him so happy, other than perhaps when you saw the real thing. "This is so fucking thoughtful of you."
"I just—you told me a lot about the art we saw that day, but when we reached this painting, you were speechless. And I sort of knew, then, that it was your favorite piece. Because you didn't have to explain it with words," i tell him. "I could just tell. It was like your whole body warmed up the moment it came into view."
"I'm touched, dahyun." Taehyung beams. "This is all an art student could ever want, really. To be able to know that their love for art meant something to someone else."
"I just wanted to say thank you for everything. Taking me in, cooking me food, being really nice me despite me entrenching on your living situation." i smile.
"I was happy to do all that stuff," Taehyung tells you honestly. "I've had a lot of fun this winter break, even if we're still trapped on campus."
i loved getting to go home for winter break your freshman and sophomore years. You loved being able to escape from the college mindset and just relax, no deadlines, no assignments, no worries.
But looking back on it, you think that you've had the most fun this winter break, stuck at school, a five-hundred-dollar plane ticket short, with your dorm neighbor-slash-nemesis from freshman year. Never have you done so much in so little time.
"Yeah, me too," i say, thinking back fondly. It feels like this winter break has lasted for years, but also as though it went by in the blink of an eye,
"I have something for you as well," Taehyung says, scrambling up to dash into his room. "Consider it just a Christmas gift, because I don't really have to thank you for letting you stay at my apartment for free for a month."
"Roast me, why don't you," i muse jokingly, rolling my eyes as Taehyung fumbles around in his bedroom before he emerges with an equally flat, similarly-sized gift wrapped up in some spare tissue paper.
"I don't recall you buying anything at the MOMA," i tease as Taehyung hands you the gift, settling back down on the couch to watch as you open it.
Slowly, you peel back the tissue paper, and when you reveal what he's wrapped up for you, it drops to your lap.
It's a portrait of you, done entirely by hand. It's you smiling, lashes fluttering. He's memorized your entire face, drawn it neatly onto this piece of sketch paper, like he was just passing the time and suddenly he had a picture of you on his hands. He's even remembered where your mole even go's.
"What's this, Tae?" i ask, like you don't already know.
"Uh, it's you," Taehyung says sheepishly. "I wasn't planning on drawing you, I didn't have a gift in mind, but I was practicing paintings the other day and an hour later I looked down and I had drawn you. And I felt bad for not telling you, because that's weird, so I thought that you could see it."
"You drew a portrait of me? Just randomly, from memory?" i ask, looking down at the sketch in your hands like it's just ruined your life.
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"Yeah, so?" Taehyung asks. He looks terribly nervous.
"So, that's—people don't just do that, Taehyung. You don't just draw a picture of someone purely from memory while you're practicing sketching," i say, reeling back as he tries to lean in, attempts to explain himself.
"What do you mean? I did that. I thought of you and I drew you, what's so bad about that?"
"I don't know if you missed the memo, Taehyung. I told you in New York. We're not dating, Taehyung," i tell him, so firm and certain in your conviction that you hardly pay attention to the way his shoulders sink. "We're barely even friends. I'm not interested in you like that. Please don't think otherwise."
