change

change. | 08

You can’t concentrate.

For the past two hours, you’re fairly certain that the only thing you’ve accomplished is opening your email inbox and rereading the same seventeen unread subject lines. The apple you’d grabbed on your way out the door sits on a napkin, untouched, and your coffee—freshly brewed this morning—has long since gone cold.

Today is Friday, which would normally be cause for celebration. The first four days of the workweek had passed in a haze of monotony, and when you’d glanced at the calendar this morning, you’d nearly dropped your mug. But instead of looking forward to the weekend—and the holidays—like the rest of the world, you are dreading tomorrow’s arrival.

Tomorrow, you are supposed to get on a train back to your hometown. Tomorrow, Jungkook is supposed to meet your family.

And yet, Jungkook is nowhere to be found.

Your phone sits at your elbow, the screen black and silent. You’d finally worked up the nerve to call your boyfriend last night after downing two glasses of wine, but to your dismay, there had been no answer. You wonder if he’s even listened to the voicemail you’d left, but a cynical little voice in your head tells you that you already know the answer. He hasn’t even responded to your last eight texts, it says mockingly. Why would he listen to your voicemail now?

Sighing, you tell the voice to kindly shut the fuck up and return to the task at hand. Clicking open the first email, you read through it, fingers tapping on the edge of the keyboard as you formulate your answer. Going through your inbox is routine and familiar, and you finally manage to get Jungkook off your mind as you respond to all the emails that need your attention and forward along the ones that do not.

Just as you open up the last one, your phone buzzes atop your desk. The vibration is startlingly loud against the wooden surface, and for one brief, shining moment you think that perhaps Jungkook has finally come around. But when you glance down at the lit screen, your boyfriend’s name isn’t the one that’s displayed there. Instead, Taehyung’s name flashes up at you in bold black letters, your phone buzzing again as a second message comes in immediately after the first.

[11:01am] Taehyung: IMG_0027.jpg

[11:01am] Taehyung: tan made a new friend today!

Curiosity piqued, you click on the attachment, smiling when a familiar little Pomeranian pops up onto the screen. Next to Yeontan is another dog—a brown and white creature with liquid eyes and soft, floppy ears. Another message pops up below the photo, and you scroll down to read it.

[11:02am] Taehyung: his name is mickey! he’s cute, right?

Very, you write back. What are you and Tan up to today?

Three dots appear at the bottom of your screen, indicating his incoming response. Taehyung has been texting you all week, sending anything from new jokes he’s heard to pictures of art that he’s considering for his gallery. You’d readily welcomed the distraction from your troubles, and any and all thoughts of Jungkook are shoved to the very back of your mind when your phone vibrates again.

[11:04am] Taehyung: hoseok’s visiting studio v. mickey’s his dog!

Imagining the cheery red-haired artist with the fluffy puppy makes you smile. So the new exhibit is going well? you query.

[11:06am] Taehyung: amazingly well! remember this?

[11:06am] Taehyung: IMG_0028.jpg

Your breath catches in your throat when you click open the photograph, taking in the familiar lines and colors. You recognize the painting, of course—the two hands with their interlaced fingers, delicate green vines with red blossoms wound around their arms. Beneath the canvas sits a little brass placard, the words “Love in Bloom” carved in delicate strokes. Hoseok must have finished it at last, and you can’t help the way your cheeks warm when you remember the way he’d misinterpreted your relationship with Taehyung. It looks like your girlfriend likes it too. Hoseok’s voice echoes in your mind, reverberating like a tolling bell. Something shifts in the pit of your belly, warm and effervescent.