pied piper

14 | Again and Again

Music Companion : Still Don't Know My Name by Labrinth

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With my eyes teary, I ran downstairs but searched around for Seulgi. My heart throbbing painfully in my chest, I hiccuped but concluded that she had left already. I stopped my steps to try to take some oxygen in, my eyes widening once noticing the time on my watch. The bus would be leaving any second now.

With my head empty and body now trembling, I used the left adrenaline to sprint quickly towards the bus stand, my limbs giving up on me but aching from all the exertion in such a small matter of time. Sweat trickled down my back as I made just into time to catch the running bus, making me feel sticky and entirely exhausted whilst I ambled slowly and carefully deeper into the roughly moving transport. My eyes then fell on the brunet who was fast asleep in one of the seats, his head supported by his backpack that was kept on the adjacent seat.

I cleared my throat and quickly rubbed my eyes to wipe the remaining vestige of tears as I poked his brown locks gently, watching him wake up instantly and in an alerting manner, spectacles still resting on his nose. "Can I sit?" Taehyung blinked a few times before immediately hoisting his bag and placing it on his lap, not speaking anything but letting me sit beside him.

"You can sleep." I noticed him keeping his weary eyes open forcefully and they instantly widened as I said, a slight red hue falling over and decorating his cheeks meekly as he shook his head, shortly falling asleep on my shoulder anyway. For once, I forgot about myself and everyone else, my eyes falling on the clearly exhausted but cute face of the boy who had accidentally landed himself on me as he dozed off comfortably.

It was the first time I saw him from up this close, forehead that was always kept hidden under the curtain of his bangs finally revealed and it wasn't long before I began noticing the way tiny scars littered around his forehead and cheeks, the kind that were once big injuries but faded along as time passed on, life went about. The darkness of the circles around his eyes apparent as the makeup that I never noticed on him seemed to efface.

He looked exhausted, and this wasn't the fatigue you'd get from one day. His life must be hard, I wondered, suddenly realizing how selfish I had always been to never think about him out of academic life. I didn't have the heart to wake him up but winced a little with the pointed side of his piercing dug on the flesh of my shoulder.

The pain numbed but became unbearable by the time my stop came, making me not care anymore but abruptly stand up. Once returning back to the ugly old reality, I felt all the pain, stickiness, hurt, and fatigue all at once as I exited the bus, walking the little distance under the tyrannically lethal and blazing heat of the sun.

I sighed and rang the doorbell and soon the door opened, revealing mom as she left it open there, letting me enter and lock it behind me. It was usual, the lack of communication being so normalized in our house but today, it weirdly hurt. I tried to ignore the numb ache in my chest and delivered a short greeting before walking upstairs to my room.

I didn't realize how but turns out it was achievable to further deteriorate my mood as beans and cabbage were presented on my plate, the dryness of them making me cringe as I tried to eat as much, everyone remaining quiet as no one dared to comment on mom's clear lack of interest and talent in cooking. It was evident that dad hadn't practically made-slash-assisted mom this time to make the food at least fine enough not to destroy our poor taste buds.

"Y/n, why are you making faces?" my eyes raised to see Jimin's smirking face, continuing eating the food as if the bitter and dry taste didn't faze him at all, "You don't like the food?"