Everlast || •KTH• ✔️

Lovely

A/N: This story is really fun to write, and I love writing it cause Taehyung is just... *chefs kiss*. However, due to some personal and health issues that have come up recently, focusing on more than one story when I have 5+ ongoing stories right now is too much. I will update this story when I can, but until I finish Heartless (which will hopefully be soon as there's only 7 chapters left), it may take a bit for more chapters to come out. I swear I didn't drop this story randomly, I'm going to finish it and hopefully give it consistent updates, but it may take some time until I finish my other big story. Thank you for your patience, and I hope the next update doesn't take nearly as long as this one did.

CHAPTER 9 - LOVELY

The beach was lonely.

It felt as though she was getting her heart trampled on over and over again as she stared out at the beach ahead of her. There were waves crashing against the sand, blowing grains of it toward her. It got between her toes, which made her cringe and wish to pop a gasket. Or two. Or three. One thing she despised was the feeling of dirt, grime, or sand getting between her fingers and toes. That was what she dealt with since the crash.

Taehyung had been gone long enough that she got to deal with isolation. This was what it'd be like if she didn't have Taehyung with her, and it was appalling. Her left alone with her thoughts made her mind go insane. All she saw were flashes of her father's face, and she heard his laugh, but it wasn't the laugh one would think it'd be. It was like he was laughing at her. She wasn't sure why, but it felt real. It had her itching her skin, flakes of it piling up by her side.

Her anxious side was kicking in. Where had Tae gone that he had disappeared for a lengthy amount of time? Or maybe the time was exaggerated since the solitude was getting to her head. That was a real possibility. She was already pulling at the sand and grass, attempting to distract herself from the reality she was faced with.

There were birds chirping in the distance, and that was enough to have her feeling more at peace. Less alone. If she was forced to stay alone like this, she was sure she'd turn into a violent psychopath. Wasn't that what isolation did to people? Made them lose their minds and lash out?

However, her thoughts shattered away when she heard the crack of a twig. It caused the birds to flutter away. More solitude. The solitude didn't last, and she heard rushed breathing next. It was like an asthma attack was occurring behind her, and she whipped her head around in time to see the man she had learned to adore. He was beelining for their HQ, and she found herself gasping at the way he was carrying himself, wobbling back and forth.

When Taehyung came fully into her view, she wasn't expecting him to have tears streaming down his face. Right away, she ran to him, halting only a few feet away. Then, the rotten aroma hit her nostrils, and she understood what happened long before she saw the corpses he was carrying.

"Oh Tae," she said in a mutter, rushing up to hug him.

He hugged back with one arm, his other carrying the animals. She felt him bury his head against her shoulder, him sniffling and threatening to cry. "I'm sorry," he murmured. "I hesitated and lost a bunch of them, I only got 2."

"Hey, shh shh, all that matters is that you're alive and we have food. You did so good, Tae. We're going to eat well." She pulled back and placed her hands on his face without her brain telling her to do so. It was an instinct, and one she didn't regret. "I'm so sorry you had to do that. Necessary or not, I can't imagine how that felt. Thank you for doing that for me."

Their eye contact continued, and it brought her heart to a halt. The pain behind Taehyung's irises created a swarm of sorrow that swam deep inside the pits of her stomach, circling until the swarm captured her brain and held her captive. Her vision blurred. Next, it did a spin, and she wasn't sure if that was a result of the eye contact, or the emotions that were overflowing within her.