Lifetime

Complex Closure

The cab driver surely felt bad for me, refusing the tip I pressed into his palm after he retreived my bags at the airport entrance. Despite not being in the states the airport still bustled with people traveling for the end of November holiday so I fell into the flow of crowd.

Once my larger bag was checked I moved on to the security checkpoint for my gate, tacking myself onto the end of the line. It moved at a snail's pace, and the longer I waited the more my heart ached over the rear window picture of them. I stepped from the queue, keeping my head down as I found a restroom, taking the risk of leaving my carry-on suitcase outside the door to sob in the safety of a stall.

The skin surrounding my eyes was even redder once I exited, my appearance catching the eye of a few women who offered me sympathetic looks and a tissue that was softer than the coarse toilet paper I'd been using to wipe my face.

My bag still sat amongst others against the wall next to the bathrooms, the TSA line calling me back. I ignored it, finding a space to sit on a ledge in front of a display of greenery and watching flyers pass as time droned on.

I'm not sure what kept me in that spot but I couldn't move from it, letting my legs dangle as I watched the crowd blur in front of me. I stayed until my bottom was numb and I had to shake my feet awake, still unable to be willed to board my flight.

"Seline?" My attention was taken by someone calling my name. I had to blink a few times to bring everything back into perspective, a blush rushing to my ears as Mateo approached me. We encountered one another enough through his friendship with Jungkook over the years for him to recognize me even with my appearance in a disarray. He tugged the bag that was slung over his shoulder up before getting closer. "Are you okay?"

I didn't want to talk to him, glancing at my phone before standing abruptly. "I'm fine. Sorry I'm late for my flight." I rushed away from him to the tail of the security line where I'd already been twice. It wasn't a lie. I was technically late for my flight, at that point having missed it by over two hours.

When the line started to move quicker I felt my heart rate rise with panic and I checked over my shoulder to make sure Mateo was gone before reclaiming my spot of seclusion.

It wasn't thirty minutes later that someone sat next to me. They were too close for the comfort of a stranger and when his hand reached out to fall on my knee, I recognized it immediately.

"Why are you still here?" Taehyung asked. I grabbed onto his hand too quickly, desperately, sinking my fingers between his with a tight grip.

He'd changed out of his clothes, freshly showered with his hair halfway dry and the aromatic scent of his soap lingering in the air. "I don't know how I'm supposed to leave with things like this." My answer came out with exasperation. "Why are you here?"

"Mateo called Jungkook." He answered, my reply coming before he could finish.

"And you came. See I can't leave it like this." My voice shook. "He hates me. Hell, you probably do too."

Taehyung sighed, standing and keeping my hand to use his strength to pull me up from where I sat. "We don't hate you." He repeated himself when I scoffed. "We don't, but you need to go help your dad."

I was losing it again, ignoring curious passersby who eyed the couple in the middle of an emotional goodbye. "But if I get on a plane out of here, it'll really be over." I was pleading for something too late to recover.

"You heard Jungkook. It's already over Seline." There was no malice in his tone. It was honesty, reality.

"But I didn't know. I didn't know that it was all about to end. I didn't know that yesterday when we were dancing that it'd be the last time we kissed. I don't even remember the last time I kissed Jungkook. It wasn't supposed to end like this." I ranted, fighting past the hiccup in my throat to get everything out.