sunsets and roses | t.k.

chapter five

"Sing it loud so I can hear you

Make it easy to be near you"

𐇵 ~ 🌣 ~ 𐇵

"Where did I leave my cigarettes?"

Taehyung pushed the sliding door to his balcony open, greeted with a silent gust of wind and a painted sky. The outskirts stretched before him, tops of buildings, roads, the strip of blue sea and the silhouette of skyscrapers miles and miles away in his view. He was there last night when the moon was out, a crescent sliver in between white stars and streetlights, smoking and thinking until he couldn't do either anymore. The redhead looked down.

There was a small parking area for the building next door, accessible by a gap in between his shop and theirs. He had no car to park there, so the space below him was empty. Wooden stairs were built against the brick wall, leading to his 'porch and front door'. It was inches away from the balcony he stood on.

The red package was nowhere to be seen. Taehyung wouldn't have worried about it, but the shop would open in a few short minutes, and he was not planning on being late or leaving them upstairs. They always stopped him from going too far, from thinking too much.

He ambled around his home quietly, eyes scanning each familiar surface. The living room was small with just a few furnishings. A brown plush couch was pushed to the wall. Candles and a small bouquet of daisies sat on a wooden coffee table. Pictures of the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin hung on the walls along with small framed art pieces.

His room was a bit more crowded with only enough free space to walk around his bed. Taehyung instantly spotted his cigarettes on his nightstand. He swept them up and tucked them safely into his pocket. He still had enough time to get downstairs. As he was headed out, the edge of his foot bumped into something laying on the floor. A low hiss of pain left the redhead's mouth and he stepped quickly away.

"What was that?"

Taehyung bent down, brows creased. Stacks of books and discarded articles of clothes sat in the corner. He pushed all of it aside until he found what was underneath. His expression blanked.

It was his guitar.

Taehyung forgot he owned one. It had been so long.

He ran a palm over the case. Dust clung to his fingers. There were still some of the old stickers on it. In the corner was his handwriting.

"Property of V"

A frown was etched into his face. He slid another book away and grabbed the handle, standing and setting it on his rumpled bed sheets. Taehyung crossed his arms and looked at it for a long moment. It stared right back.

He needed to put it back. There were more important things to worry about. His shop, how many cigarettes he had left in a pack before he had to buy more, Jungkook.

"Jungkook?"

That's right. Jungkook. He was on the list now. After meeting up with him more times than he could count, he was occupying his thoughts more frequently. He was the exact person he was thinking about last night. The remnant bitter taste of smoke still swirled in his lungs even now.

The redhead's darting brown eyes caught sight of his alarm clock. Eight fifty eight. His shop opened at nine. He grumbled. He didn't want to leave his guitar out, but he had no choice. He exited the room and climbed down the stairs to the back of his shop, hoping he'd forget about it again.

𐇵 ~ 🌣 ~ 𐇵

Taehyung's work day wasn't busy. He worked in the back picking fresh flowers and arranged them into bouquets behind the counter basked in dim, cloud-covered sunlight. He went over his limit of three smokes in eight hours, simply because he had nothing else to do, no customers to talk to. Well, if he was counting last night's incident, then he had passed that limit a while ago.