HEART2HEART

chapter 10: opening up

"Okay, hurry up! Hurry up!

"Wait."

Jisoo stopped Taehyung from switching on his monitor by grabbing hold of his hand later that night at the PC café.

"What?" Taehyung looked down at his hand, blushing slightly. "What do you want?"

"We're not just here to game today, you know-" Jisoo frowned. "Did you forget the reason why we're here?"

"Tsk, I know, I know-" Taehyung snapped back to attention, pulling his hand out of Jisoo's grasp rather agitatedly and turning on his monitor. "I'm supposed to help you level up your Level 9 Warrior tonight - I got it, okay?"

"No, I meant-" Jisoo reached over and switched his monitor off once more. "You're supposed to tell me why you were acting so upset this morning."

Taehyung's eyes darted around, before he finally remembered. "Ah... that?"

"Mm."

Taehyung hesitated for a while, before laughing as he shook his head, swatting his hands around casually. "Forget it, I'm okay now, I'm all over it. It's okay, I don't need to bore you with my own personal problems."

"I don't think you're all over it, though?"

"No, I am-" Taehyung tried to shrug it off. "Seriously. I've almost completely forgotten about it, so you can just pretend that it didn't happen, too."

"It's clearly still affecting you, though-" Jisoo pointed out. "You can act like I'm some random stuff toy in your room you tell your secrets too and rant it all out, it's fine."

"Excuse you, I don't rant to my stuff toys-" Taehyung made a face. "I only expose them to positive words of affirmation."

Jisoo stared blankly at him for a few seconds.

"So you're just gonna sit here and admit that you hold actual conversations with your stuff toys?"

"That's not the main point."

"Ranting it out really does help," Jisoo said quietly. "I'm telling you... I'm here to listen to you, if you do need someone to rant to."

Taehyung laughed and shook his head. "Look, I really appreciate the thought. But it's alright - seriously. I'm completely fine."

"You sure? Here's my final offer," Jisoo said as she casually put on her usual cat ear headphones. "So take it while the offer's still up for grabs."

Taehyung was quiet for a few seconds, as he deeply considered what Jisoo had said to him.

"Okay then, let's play-"

"It's nothing much, it's just-" Taehyung was finally all ready to open himself up to her. "Sometimes, I don't feel like... I belong."

🎵 Enchanted - Taylor Swift 🎵

Jisoo took off her headphones at once and placed them on the table, focusing her attention solely on Taehyung. The atmosphere between them was silent for a while and all they could hear was the sound of fingers tapping rapidly at keyboards and people yelling into their mics around them.

"And it's not like, a feeling that I can avoid," Taehyung went on, as he fiddled with his fingers, his eyes fixating on them. "Because at work, I feel like that. Then I go home... and I face the exact same problem. There's no where I can run."

Jisoo just listened.

"I guess maybe that's why I'm always here so often." Taehyung let out a small chuckle as he tapped the keyboard in front of him, but it just sounded sad. "Or at Jungkook's house... or just out, in general. I avoid returning to the place where my unhappiness stems from. A place where even when I'm not alone, I feel lonely."