Claw's Bridge(Discontinued)

44. Distrust

"Nighter," Hoseok called out as Taehyung and I guided our horses to the stable. I turned around to face him and Namjoon.

"Yeah?" I asked. Taehyung gently took the rein from my hands and guided both of the horses, leaving the three of us to talk.

"How are you?" Hoseok asked.

"Tired," I responded. "What is it?"

"I shouldn't have called you a monster, I'm sorry. I jumped to conclusions, and I assumed the worst. I'm sorry," he said.

"You know, you guys apologize a lot," I commented. "Now I've noticed how you're all sincere about your apologies, and so far none of you have double-crossed them. But the main thing I've noticed is how none of you even try prevent situations that require apologies at the end. You do realize that your actions, your words, remain engraved in someone's mind? You can apologize all you want, but it doesn't change what you did, or what you said."

They opened their mouths to speak, but I cut them off with a sigh. "I'm not one to hold grudges. So I accept your apology. I don't forgive you, I merely accept your apology," I said.

"You're with Taehyung tonight," I heard Jimin mind-link me.

"Okay," I replied. I saw it coming. It would start out small, with supervision. Then it would become bigger, they would distance themselves from me. It wouldn't take long until the bond weakened and I could finally do the last step of the rejection. Removing the silver from my blood. No, it wasn't the silver that gave us the soulmate bond.

No one knew why silver was such an important factor in the severing of the bond. All that was known was that Jupitarians had to live 24 hours without the silver. The sudden lack of silver in our body weakened our immune system considerably. The slightest change in weather gave us a cold, and the slightest amount of stress that caused a change in our hormone secretions almost put us on the brink of extinction.

I didn't deserve them. They were good to me... most of the time, but they didn't deserve a mate who had caused them nothing but stress and trouble since arrival. I had always been independent, in control of everything in my life. Having mates ripped that control from me.

"Well hello roomie," Taehyung cheered, swinging an arm around my neck as we walked inside.

"Hi," I replied, smiling at his cheerful self.

"So..." he started as he walked towards his room. "Have you ever had a sleepover?"

"No," I said. "But I overheard some higher-ups talking about sleepovers. It sounded too fun to be true."

"Well, let's see if they were wrong."

-

"What the hell is this?" I asked, looking around the room with wide eyes.

"A blanket fort," Taehyung said, shrugging. "One of the classical activities done in sleepovers. We will watch a movie in this fort, hopefully even sleep in here if it stays that long."

"Okay..." I dragged out, hanging my wet towel on the hook of the stand in the balcony. "W-what movie are we watching?"

"How are you with horror?" he asked.

"I enjoy them. They can be really funny sometimes," I said. "Like, if you look at how people react in the stupidest ways, rather than the jump scare, you're bound to find it funny rather than scary once you get used to it."

"Doesn't that just ruin the essence of it being horror?" he asked.

"Depends. Eventually you stop getting scared of the horror movies and then you can just enjoy the thrill," I shrugged, helping him arrange the pillows inside the fort.

"Okay!" he exclaimed, clapping his hands together. I admired the fort that was covering the entire floor in front of the bed. It looked really cozy, romantic even. It made me feel safe when Taehyung didn't judge me despite his past. It only proved that he was genuine. It became harder for me to dislike him. It almost made me want to accept the bond. But the thought of being bonded with the others was what held me back. Taehyung showed me that mates could look past each others' worst traits and care about them unconditionally.

At the same time, I also knew that Taehyung deserved someone so much better than me. They all deserved someone who was as devoted to the relationship as them.

I laid against the pillows inside the fort while Taehyung got the laptop. He gave me a small smile as he crawled inside with the laptop. He sat beside me, leaning on me little by little as if he was waiting for me to protest. I wrapped my arm around his waist and pulled him closer to me, letting him rest his head under my shoulder blade.

"What movie are we watching?" I asked.

"IT," he said. "It's not that scary, but the graphics are really good."

I hummed in response as he changed the language settings of the movie to English. "Y-you can leave it in Korean with English subtitles," I stuttered out.

"It's fine, I can get more comfortable with English by practicing," he replied, pulling the blanket over us. Once the movie started playing, he intertwined our fingers.

I rested my head on his and basked in the feeling of safety and comfort that he made me feel.

Somewhere in the back of my mind I knew it was temporary, so I decided to make the most of it while it lasted.