The sudden electric shock-like feeling that swept through his entire body left him numb, he felt everything around him freeze.
The air, the people, everything.
Taehyung felt his heart thumping against his ribs, his breath collapsing in his throat as he gulped, his ears deafening, sudden memories crashing in front of him like breakers on a cold seashore.
It can't be.
He stood there stumped for a moment before he could react, when the increasing volume of shouts from the man's throat shook him awake.
"Hey! Leave him!" Taehyung suddenly commanded the security guard, who then reluctantly loosened his grip on the man's collar, still not letting him go completely.
"Sir, he's a trespasser. I will show him out now. Sorry for the inconvenience," the guard politely spoke and bowed as he slightly pulled the man backwards by his restrained hands, while the latter looked as stunned as Taehyung had looked earlier; their eyes locked, the stranger's expression morphed into one of confusion and perhaps, hope?
Hope that Taehyung would remember him.
Taehyung could never not recognise the person in front of him. Sure, ten years had drastically changed the man and himself, but was this really something he could forget that easily? Time had failed in its pursuit to vanish his memories, and this was the part he wanted to keep.
But he just couldn't believe it.
Is it really you?
"No. Let him go. He's a... friend," Taehyung spoke softly as he steadily made his way towards the panting man who now stood free from the clutches of the security guard.
A couple of feet away from where the man stood, he paused — his vision had blurred out due to the tears pooling in the corner of his eyes, still not able to believe that this wasn't a dream.
"N-Namjoon hyung? Is it really you?"
The words left his mouth with a broken sob; a sob of happiness, of shock, of confusion, of pain.
The echoes of his past rang through as he remembered everything — the seven of them, together, their laughter and jokes, the stars in their young eyes. They were like pieces of a puzzle, each piece being vividly different from the other, but when fitted together perfectly, they made the complete picture.
Taehyung came back from his sudden recollection when he saw Namjoon taking a step towards him quickly, but only to embrace him into a warm hug.
No words could explain what Taehyung was feeling — yes, happiness was one of them.
"I thought you'd never recognise me," Namjoon spoke on the verge of tears, not breaking the hug yet, but squeezing the other even harder.
Bogum and the security guard exchanged confused glances among themselves; they felt completely baffled by the sudden emotions which flew into the scene out of nowhere. They watched the two men in front of them cry and hug each other to their deaths, speechlessly.
Namjoon pulled back from the hug after a good five minutes, his cheeks drenched with his own tears, his shoulders drenched with Taehyung's.
"Taehyung, how are you?" Namjoon asked as he playfully hit the younger's arm, trying to ease the atmosphere a bit, forcing a soft broken giggle out of Taehyung's mouth.
"I'm doing alright hyung," Taehyung sniffed as he wiped his never-ending tears with his sleeves, he was never good at controlling his emotions.
"And how are you?" he ricocheted the question as a smile tugged on his lips, the tears pooled in his eyes sparkling as he watched the older return his smile, deep dimples adorning both of his cheeks.
"I'm alright too Tae," Namjoon replied, his face still laced with that charming smile. "I'm sorry about the ruckus I made back there, they wouldn't let me in otherwise. I-"
"Excuse me, Mr. Kim, you have a shoot in ten minutes. We have to leave," Bogum suddenly interrupted, as he eyed a startled Namjoon from head to toe and then focused back on Taehyung.
"Now," he spat, not liking one bit of the tall grey-hooded man, as he pulled on Taehyung's arms.
Taehyung quickly glanced at his watch and nodded at Bogum, waving a hand at him that he'll be there in a moment.
"Hyung, I have to leave now," Taehyung spoke with a noticeable drop in his aura; only he himself knew how much he loathed his gruelling schedule.
"It's okay. I understand. We'll uh- we'll meet up sometime else for sure... when you're free," the older said as he rubbed the back of his neck; the fall in Namjoon's voice was also too obvious, that Taehyung suddenly hugged him again, the older almost losing his step.
"I missed you hyung."
Low pitched grunts were heard from Bogum's side as Taehyung and Namjoon shook their hands for the last time, eyes sparkling, both of them not wanting to leave.
As Taehyung got in the car, he pulled out his wallet and from it a contact card, and handed it to Namjoon quickly, before Bogum could close the car door. Namjoon leaned to the car door and mouthed a 'see ya' through the tinted windows, waving his hands.
The engine vibrated and the car slowly rode out of the sun-lit parking lot as Taehyung saw Namjoon still waving him goodbye, for now. And in his heart, he knew that he was never going to let go of him again, that everything was going to be alright indeed.
Taehyung couldn't help but smile as he saw his tear-drenched face through the rearview mirror of the car. The unexpected rendezvous with Kim Namjoon had led to an overflow of memories, his thoughts wandered to the old days again, when they were all together, happy.
Each and every piece of his memory stayed crystal clear, untouched by time.
Sounds of reminiscence echoed; memories of a certain boy who laughed like a 'windshield wiper', a boy with charming dimples, another one with manggae cheeks, a hip-hop rap music lover, someone who loved dance more than his life and a boy with an entire galaxy in his eyes, stood still in front of his sight; life used to be perfect.
But an unseen heaviness suddenly tugged in his heart, his smile disappeared and his breath quickened, as his memories took a dark turn to that night; the night that left him sleepless for so many nights that came after, the night that tore them apart, that left all seven of them broken for eternity, never to heal.
He breathed out slowly as he wiped the beads of sweat that formed on his forehead with his sleeves, thinking about the ruthless ways in which fate works.
Everybody believes that we create our own fate. But in reality, are we the ones who decide?
[A/N]
Huehuehue.
Love,
PAPRIKA ♡
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UNKNOWN || BTS (on hold)
Fanfiction"Why'd you kill him, huh? I thought that was my job..." He could feel the rage in that voice, the fire that burned through those words, the ire that blazed in his eyes. But something about that voice bothered him. It was a voice from his past, a voi...
