on opposite ends | vsoo

WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO.

Oftentimes, Jisoo thinks everything that has happened so far in her life is too good to be true.

When she comes home in the late afternoons after a long of day of work, Taehyung is always there waiting for her at their little cottage. He sits on the couch facing the door, often a book in hand or a newspaper. When the door opens as Jisoo arrives, he's already striding towards her and enveloping her in a big "welcome home" hug, as if she's been gone for a whole month and not just a little over eight hours.

"I made dinner already." Taehyung presses a soft kiss on the crown of her head which instantly evaporates the worn-out and tired feelings she had accumulated throughout the day. "How does mushroom soap and chicken salad sound?"

Jisoo scrunches her nose and pulls away from his hug to look at him with a small smile. "Sounds delicious to me."

She doesn't exactly know what he does all day, but she doesn't ask because he's there every time she comes home and that was all that mattered to her. Perhaps he spent his day reading, tending to their garden backyard, or going to the village nearby to stock up on their pantry. He doesn't go out all that much to the city because he confessed that he was scared and worried someone might recognize him and rat him out to his family, then they'll come knocking on their door to take him away.

"Can't be too careful," Taehyung had once told her, as he tipped his hat lower to the point where it obscured half his face. He was going to the village to fetch some organic fertilizer for their garden.

Somewhere in the back of Jisoo's rational mind, she knows they can't keep this up forever. No matter how many charms and spells they put up around their cottage to conceal its location from his family, no matter how many disguises Taehyung comes up with to keep a low profile.

And yet, a part of her, perhaps the irrational part, still hopes that they'll continue to live in their own little bubble for a while longer. She likes it here and she likes just being with him.

Jisoo herself doesn't have it in her to come clean to her parents. Every time she and Taehyung visit her mother and father, she's itching to tell them that they're actually living together for quite a while now.

But they adore Taehyung so much and things have been going so great that she can't bring herself to tell them the truth just yet.

For now, she finds comfort in their sweet and close-to-perfect life.

•─────⋅☾ ☽⋅─────•

"Taehyung, you cannot keep this up. Your parents are worried about you." Taehyung had missed his best friend, but he certainly did not miss his annoying nagging and guilt-tripping. "It's almost starting, he's coming back any day now."

He wanted to pour the pot of boiling hot water over Jimin's small head. How the gray-haired fellow had managed to pinpoint Taehyung's locations despite the spells he and Jisoo casted, he didn't know. But, he did know that Jimin was hurt and worried. It was obvious from the expression he had five minutes ago when Taehyung opened the back door to find Jimin standing outside in the middle of their small garden.

Taehyung remains tight-lipped and tries to think of Jimin as an illusion he conjured in his head. But no, the piercing glare he's getting from his best friend coupled with the worried tone of his voice is all too real even for him to fake.