Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"Sorry, I'm late!" Jimin called out as he took his chin out of the long and fluffy scarf wrapped around his neck, closing the door behind him.
It is autumn actually and not that cold but Jimin always feels chilly in the evenings, always been walking around wrapped in something, which Taehyung had always found so adorable to see him in the warm wool he is lost in.
Jimin's brows were furrowed as he strode inward with hasty and cute movements.
When Taehyung realized that his friends were not jumping to the door, he gets that he was the only one to meet him for the first time. He isn't really surprised.
Jimin's pinky hands clumsily pull off the thick scarf around his neck as he waves excitedly to Yoongi. Then his movements slow down as his eyes lock onto the big eyes next to the older one.
Time has slowed down, as if everyone around them has frozen. After all this time, there is enough distance between them that they could touch each other if they reach.
Taehyung's heart is beating like crazy. His hands are trembling, his breath seems to be getting heavier in his chest. He wants to turn his eyes away, he can't.
There was the same blank expression in Jimin's gaze that had fallen into the same void with him. Taehyung doesn't mind that he can't see compassion in the eyes looking at him anymore, but there is something else in there that he couldn't identify. Unfamiliarity? Maybe.
While Taehyung is tossing around in this thing, he even thinks for a moment that the face smiling at him on the subway could be a dream. But then- it happened again.
Jimin smiled at him the same way, made gasp Taehyung for air.
He can't believe it at first. He wanted to see if there was someone behind him, but his body stiffened. Jimin has never been someone who can act on his emotions, he's always been the same what you see in his actions. Taehyung can't understand.
'Stop smiling,' he wished he could say. He wanted Jimin to yell at him, to break him down.
He had realized at that moment, he wanted to fight for everything from the very beginning, while that smile made him feel so petty, as if he's not even worth feeling resentful about.
He feels that he can't bear to look at him anymore, can't bear to feel the coldness of all the words they've said to each other all over again as his smile that radiates warmth like this, despite everything they've been through.
Then suddenly his stiff body unraveled, just as Jimin opened his mouth to talk to him, his feet took two steps backward.
Jimin's words, which could not reach Taehyung's buzzing ears, were left hanging in the air.
-
Taehyung first threw himself into the back kitchen, leaving behind the eyes that looked at him incomprehensibly. He rested his hands on the cold marble and tried to catch his breath for a few seconds, then his feet moved again and quickly left through the back door.
He didn't even have the strength to question why he was doing this right now. He felt as if he knew deep down that this would happen.
He lied to everyone.
When he said he doesn't feel anything, he was lying.
When he said he wasn't nervous, he was lying.
When he said he was going to be fine somehow, he lied again.
But the biggest lie he told was the one he told himself because the glass bell where he hid his Jimin hadn't worn away a bit. He felt it down to his smallest cell after being this close to him.
Now, he feels like he's suffocating watching the black infinity by the sea where he stopped his car.
He doesn't even know how long he's been sitting here. The light of his phone, which he had thrown on the side seat, had flashed repeatedly, and it was probably a stressed out Yoongi. Then he gave up and it too was buried in darkness.
With a sudden decision, he starts his car. He wanted to go home, lock his door, and pretend the outside world didn't exist again. The way he spent most of his time for years now.
About half an hour later, when he arrives, he locks his car with the key he pressed without looking back, and enters the apartment where his flat is located, his shoulders drooping forward as if he can't even stand all the way home.
His feet crawling up the stairs suddenly stop when he comes in front of his door.
He blinks his eyes a few times thinking he is dreaming, but the tiny body sitting in front of his door and sleeping with its head almost lost in thick fabrics starts to become more real instead of disappearing.
He doesn't know what to do, his body turns backwards for a second but backs down instantly. Of course, he can't just leave him here like this. But Taehyung no longer knows how ready he is to contact him in any way.
He did not have time to prepare himself when the car key he forgot he had in his hand slipped from his fingers as if it wanted to remind itself, and fell to the ground audibly.
"Oh," Jimin slowly opens his eyes and lifts his head, "You came?"
Taehyung bends down as calmly as he can and grabs the damn key, simply nods even though he knows it's not a real question.
"I called you but you didn't pick up," Jimin says, getting up from the floor with support from the wall.
Taehyung swallows, the way he didn't expect the light on his phone to be from Jimin's calls, being so far away from this possibility, breaks his heart .
"I was driving," he lies, "What are you doing here?"
Jimin nods, he wants to meet their gaze for the second time tonight, but Taehyung's eyes wander over everything but him.
"If you have time, can we talk for a moment?"
Taehyung's gaze reflexively responds to him this time, there are dozens of emotions from the simplest to the most extreme, starting from fear to happiness.
"If my presence at your house will bother you, we can talk here too," Jimin speaks again after a wait that has been like hours.
He obviously deduced from the silence of the other person that he was not wanted, but at that moment, a thousand different storms were breaking inside Taehyung.
"No, of course not," Taehyung rushingly speaks, "I mean, of course it won't bother me, don't talk like that."
"Considering that you ran out of your own cafe like you saw a ghost when you saw me," Jimin says as he watches him take out the house key and head for the door, "It's possible."
Taehyung's movements slow down for a moment. His heart is literally beating in his mouth, he remembers this sarcastic tone of Jimin's voice as if he last heard it yesterday.
Then he finally turns the keys, opens his door without answering him, stands back a little for Jimin to pass by.
Jimin steps inside without hesitation as if he wasn't expecting an answer anyway. Taehyung holds his breath as he walks past him. There is a fear in him, as if even breathing incorrectly will ruin something.
He is at home. And by turning the key, he locks the world outside, just as he wishes.
But the only difference is that he is alone with a man who has masterfully managed to infiltrate his world from the outside, despite all the things they've lost.
