[3] Code: REBIRTH || KTH

Ch3: The Things I Do

"There's a blizzard outside."

Is the first thing Taehyung tells me once I wake up and walk out to the living room. He's sitting on the couch all dressed up with the TV on.

"Were you going somewhere?" I ask as I head to the window, slowly pulling the curtains apart to sneak a peek outside.

"Yeah," He replies, his eyes fixed on the TV screen.

"It looks a bit dangerous," I say, watching the heavy snowfall and strong wind rocking the trees, "You should stay."

He hums in response and gets up, disappearing into the hallway. I make my way to the kitchen to make my coffee, and he shows up a few minutes later, dressed back in his pyjamas.

"Do you wanna bake cookies?" I ask.

Taehyung stands in his spot, staring at me from the living room.

"Do you want to?" He asks.

I shrug, pause for a second, then nod. "Yeah. We have the ingredients. And I'm craving some cookies. Wanna help?"

He looks at me silently for a few seconds, contemplating, before finally replying, "Only because I have nothing else to do."

I start bringing out the ingredients as he walks in the kitchen and stands beside me, watching me and waiting for instructions.

"Get me the flour," I order as I bring out a bowl and he disappears from my side.

I'm humming to myself and taking out the measurement cups as I hear Taehyung rummaging through the cabinets behind me. I turn around to check if he found the flour, and I'm greeted by a sudden puff of white powder in my face, making me close my eyes and cough violently, waving a hand through the air.

When I open my eyes, Taehyung is standing with a mischievous smile on his face, a hand covered in flour in front of his lips.

I glare at him. "Did you just blow flour in my face?"

"I saw it in a movie once and I've always wanted to have one of those flour fights," He says, dusting his hands.

"Have you ever seen them in a movie cleaning up the mess they made after the 'flour fight'?" I make air-quotations.

He squints his eyes, tilting his head to the side. "No?"

"Exactly. They were having fun because they didn't have to clean it afterwards. It's also a waste of money," I say, walking to the counter and grabbing the bag of flour.

Taehyung goes quiet and I glance at him to see that his smile is now gone, so I look back at the flour as guilt starts eating me up. You idiot, I think to myself, He hasn't smiled in a while and you ruined it.

So I grab a handful of flour and turn around, throwing it in his face and taking him by surprise. He stumbles back, letting out a yelp as he grabs onto the counter to steady himself. Wiping his face with one hand, he finally opens his eyes and looks at me.

"I thought you said it was a waste of money?" He raises an eyebrow and smiles slyly.

"It's just revenge," I say with a shrug before dusting my hands.

Baking the cookies totally slips out of our minds as we spend the next few minutes throwing handfuls of flour at each other, and the rest of the day cleaning the kitchen up, and I repeatedly curse under my breath whenever I catch flour in a small crack somewhere. How does it manage to get literally everywhere? But I don't have any regrets, because today for the first time in a very long time I saw Taehyung smile. And it was me who made him smile. Just the thought itself makes my heart swell in pride. The things I do for this guy.

It's night time when we decide to watch a horror movie together, each one of us wrapped up in a blanket, curled up in either of the couch's corners with the heater on. It's the perfect atmosphere for cuddling, I think to myself, but I hold back from making any moves in fear of making him uncomfortable, or worse, rejection.

So I sit there with the bowl of popcorn between us, watching the movie silently and flinching at every jumpscare. Halfway through the movie, I take a look at Taehyung to find him sleeping, his head leaning back. What kind of person sleeps in the middle of a horror movie? Anyway, what if I sleep here and pretend we both slept in the middle of the movie so we wake up on the couch together? I giggle to myself. Where's your pride, you simp? My smile falls.

But I can't help it. So I leave the TV on, and I close my eyes, drifting off to sleep.

The things I do for this guy.