Against Time | k.th. ✔

八 : for goodwill to not fall apart

Yeseul's heart was swelling with an unusual kind of veneration towards the boy. Every single eatable that she had bought for Taehyung, he gobbled it up in a flash. It was now the fourth time that she was rallying between the cash counter and the corner table that Taehyung had converted into his safe haven, as the latter nibbled on the rice cake that Yeseul had fetched for him in her previous trip to the same multitude of shelves.

Sighing, Yeseul pattered on the table impatiently, stirring the man sitting across her— otherwise busy in satiating his hunger— to glance at her confusingly. However, when nothing came out of the grinding silence, Taehyung could not help but spare a grateful smile at the female to suffice for the apparent wordlessness. Yeseul was finding it increasingly besetting to just hang around while pretending to be uninterested in the outlandish male's affairs. She could no longer hold her curiosity back.

"Don't you think that you owe me something now?" Yeseul mumbled, shamming her indifference towards Taehyung's business.

The clueless man halted his slurping down of the bowl of ramen that he was having currently, and lifted his head at an utterly sluggish pace. Once he had matched his eyes with Yeseul's fixated ones at him, Taehyung instinctively passed yet another diffident grin at her, starting to speak shortly after.

"You can have some, I feel so stuffed no—"

"Hey, seriously? If I wanted something to eat I'd have bought it myself. I'm not asking you to share your meal, this dumbass..." Yeseul side-eyed Taehyung with distaste before picking up, "It's time you tell me what's your deal."

"My deal? I don't deal! I told you, I'm a farmer!" Taehyung spat almost instantly, shaking Yeseul to her core.

It was a matter of time that Yeseul bared her teeth at Taehyung and tame him on account of how menacing she would appear every time she did so. As expected, when she pulled her most effective card, the male could sense his blood freezing in his veins. The shudders that Yeseul's reaction caused would feel as real as ever— the frequency did not matter.

"Annoy me more and this will be your last time inhaling the fresh air. I swear I'm gonna turn you in this time. So, if you don't want that to happen, tell me why and how did you come here... and no jokes, alright?" Yeseul glared. Taehyung gulped.

"You could've put it that way too... I don't understand half of the things you say." Taehyung being a farrago of scared and hesitant was palpable, and it was only turning clearer by every second, "I'm from Korea— Kaesong as I told you, honestly. I was digging an underground room when I discovered a tunnel and decided to travel further into it, and ended up in that train station where we first met—Er, came across each other. My curiosity is to blame, I really had no other intentions." He completed, clasping his own hands into one another.

Yeseul's brain had slipped into a hurricane-hit state. Her initial accusations of Taehyung being a man from the other side of the border were simultaneously erased of their existence. There was no conceivable way for him to dig up a tunnel up to a subway station in Seoul if he did hail, as a matter of fact, from Kaesong. It was something plainly and physically unachievable. Her whirlwind of thoughts did not die down until Taehyung had waved his hand before the former's eyes, for she was staring at his face for quite a while now and it was causing him utter unease.

"Ah, yes..." Yeseul trailed off whilst collecting herself in the meanwhile, and resumed, "So, like, is your Korea united?"

Taehyung automatically blinked his eyes at the downright absurd question that Yeseul had thrown at him.

"Of course! I mean, not technically since it's due to the fact that we don't have a king right now, so the entire Korean peninsula by default comes under a single banner." Clarified Taehyung as he wiped his mouth after bringing his gorging to an end, at last.

"King, you say?"

Taehyung hummed assuringly, "King Sunjong."

"King Sunjong?"

"Yes! Have you heard of him?" Taehyung quizzed as his eyes twinkled with an unanticipated exultation.

"Why, obviously. He was the last king of Korea, how can I not know his name?" Yeseul shrugged nonchalantly as her face screamed unsurpassable confidence.

"Oh," Taehyung gaped at Yeseul unamusingly, though her arching one of her eyebrows as a response to him provoked him into continuing, "I mean, that's amazing. King Sunjong being the last king of your country as well— which is supposedly Korea... I don't know what must be called amazing if this isn't being. I assume we're on the same page—"

"You bet we are."

🔹

"By the way, how are you planning to return back to your place?" Yeseul queried Taehyung absentmindedly whilst fumbling with the money that she had in her possession, unintentionally keeping the cashier waiting for the cash to be handed over to him. It was not until he had feigned a cough that Yeseul was caught off-guard, eventually realizing that her clumsiness had gotten the best of her yet again.

"Ah, I'm so sorry..." Yeseul's voice faltered as she frowned while brooding of ways which would help mitigate the embarrassment that was so keen on engulfing her. Although ultimately, she wound up bowing before the middle-aged man incessantly, who himself was trying to figure out the situation in the first place.

The two oblivious humans had zero inkling of what was transpiring behind their backs. Yeseul could only part her ways with the cashier when Taehyung, at long last, had showed up, and provided her with the cue to move on already. Descending down the streets, it surprisingly took them no significant amount of time to find themselves a subway terminal through which they could carry out their plan. Yeseul cast one last leery look at Taehyung before gesturing him to follow in her footsteps, simultaneously praying internally for her goodwill to not fall apart at all costs.

Nonetheless, the fear took a backseat when Yeseul accidentally glimpsed at Taehyung's strangely distending abdomen. What in the hell was suddenly happening to him?

"Hey, are you fine? What's that taking place over... there?" Yeseul pronounced with genuine concern, pointing at the ever-inflating area.

"This," Taehyung merrily beckoned at his own stomach, not a hint of worry traceable in his eyes, "it's nothing, it's just bloating. It's normal."

Yeseul's original response would have been of absolute disbelief, but gradually grasping how the male was ruckus embodied, she preferred it better not to pay much attention to his shenanigans.

"Alright, let's go then." Whisking her head back into the direction of her strides, Yeseul cascaded down the stairs.

🔹

a/n

what do y'all think they meant by being on the same page? what conclusion did they arrive at? also, a random thanks to the lovely readers of this book. thank you for wanting to continue this journey with me <33 i agree that the book may be a little slow at this point, but that's kinda necessary to provide some base. just hold on a little longer, you'll see what chaos breaks down in the later chapters ;) and i'm sure you're gonna love it when that happens hehe.