HOME - Taejoon

4. Stubborn

Tuesday afternoon was quiet. Rainy, a little mist between the roads, and a forecast for thunderstorms in the early morning; most citizens stayed at home, curled up in their beds with their families or partners, you know, the usual stuff: movie marathons, takeaways, and warm make-out sessions for everyone...except the students.

Unfortunately, they were condemned to the library due to lack of classes: the teachers lived far from campus, and in order not to waste time, most of them decided to spend the day as a regular, studying in the library. Kim Taehyung was no different.

He got up with dreadlocks, taking advantage of the fact that for the last two days Namjoon had slept in the dorms on campus with one of his classmates for a long project that he couldn't procrastinate. He felt alone at home, that helped him to give himself the impulse to go for a simple review of some of the design issues that he had pending. He decided not to tell Namjoon that he was going, he figured it might be a surprise to go see him in that bedroom he knew after finishing his work; he planned to perhaps arrive with some food and a reassuring smile.

Taehyung was really proud of his boyfriend. He had mixed feelings seeing him always work so hard but, inside, he hoped that part of him would never leave: it was his perseverance that drove him to want to surpass himself to reach it. He told himself that someone like Namjoon, with his feet on the ground and a great love of art and business, would have to serve as an inspiration for his own future, a process materialized in different small changes that Taehyung had learned to adjust in their life.

For example, before meeting him, he had never opened a book at will. Since he was little he thought that reading was an absurd and boring task, and he always protested when he had to sit in a chair for hours because of school or his mother to read disgustingly boring and tedious stories. Well, always, until he started dating Namjoon and on the fifth date he insisted on going to a library and set out to find something that he could do to finally venture into reading. They went five hours up and down the streets of select, private and public bookstores, until Taehyung found that book with blue cover and leaves slightly bent to the left.

He remembers taking it, seeing it and reading it mischievously; and he remembers being afraid to show it to Joonie, who seemed all grown up with his deep literature talks, because the book he had chosen was a children's book. He thought about how dare he say it without him making fun of him, but it wasn't necessary. A pair of hands grabbed him from behind to flip him over.

"Do you have something interesting yet?" He said simply, a pair of dimples decorating his smile. Taehyung thought for a bit before holding out his hands and letting his then newly appointed boyfriend take the copy and read the title out loud "Fantastic Mr. Fox." Taehyung nodded, hoping to see some sign of mockery in the smooth face of that man who had kissed him a few days ago in his apartment, but he found nothing more than a gaze fixed in wonder, first on the book and then on him. "Perfect."

"B-But, it's a child's book." Taehyung argued, determined that something wasn't quite right in his choice. His boyfriend tilted his head.

"And?" Namjoon sneered. "Labels are useless."

"But-" Taehyung was acting unsure, and Namjoon noticed. So taking advantage of the fact that no one was looking in their direction, he brushed his hand and approached his face slightly, shortening the world between them.

"They are never of any use. Don't worry about them." Those simple whispered words became enough.

Since then, Taehyung filled his room with child books and comics, not giving a fuck about nothing, not even about people considering him inferior compared to his boyfriend with all of his fat and phylosophical books. They just were what they were, and that was it.