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Taehyung forgot to move as he looked behind Jimin.
He couldn't ask him what happened, couldn't tell him not to go, maybe there was an problem he needed to apologize for, but Taehyung couldn't even see it.
He watched Jimin push the door by not even pausing to put on his coat, and he could only get up when he was nudged by the sound of the door slamming.
At that moment, Taehyung walks towards the door without thinking, but instead of going out he stops in front of it. While the sound of the bell they hung in the entrance still reaches his ears, he watches the blond one through the glass, fast steps through the darkening night.
"What happened?"
Taehyung turns around, slightly startled by the familiar deep voice he hears. His two friends are standing side by side, eyes wide open, waiting for an answer from him.
"He just arrived, Tae," Jungkook speaks this time, his voice showing a hint of anger, "Did you realize that I just left the table so that you could be alone because of the fucking way you look at each other? What could you possibly have done in ten seconds to make him run away?!"
Taehyung knows that even if he tries, he can't explain what happened to them. While he was thinking about the details in his head and what he should do, his eyes wandered around.
Then a black umbrella that fell behind the hanger and the p.j letters on its handle caught his attention. And it's no longer an umbrella for Tae, it's an excuse to go after Jimin.
Reflexively, he turns around and asks while pointing with his index finger, "Does this belong to Jimin?"
He realizes that Yoongi has left, leaving Taehyung alone with Jungkook's piercing gaze.
"It must be," he answers in a flat voice.
"I'll take it to him," Taehyung mutters and steps to pick it up.
As Jungkook is about to argue with him and say that he can do it instead, the bell on the door rings once again and they both turn their attention to that side.
The little girl, who is familiar to everyone who constantly comes to this cafe, starts running towards Taehyung with swaying steps, and a few seconds later she has already wrapped her arms around his leg.
"Oh, Blue?"
Taehyung picks up the kid watching him from below and turns to the young woman walking slowly after her, "Hey, Sodam."
Sodam is a thin, tall and well groomed looking woman with her blunt hair and shapely facial features. The boys have met her as Jimin's friend from the dance club in high school, she is the same age as Jimin and Taehyung. She was also said to look a little older than her age by people, and in a way she is. This even caused their friend group to sometimes refer to her as Noona.
"Hello, Sodam," Jungkook greets her gently, after the young woman responds with a big smile, he says, "I'll leave you alone," and walks away from them as fast as possible.
He had a lot of time with Sodam when she and Jimin were friends, and he remembers enjoying it. But since Jimin pulled away and left the country, he has been feeling a coldness towards her that he can't help, and in a way, of course, he has his reasons.
He couldn't sort out her meaningless intimacy with Taehyung, for example, at one time, everyone even thought that they were secretly dating. And those suspicions persisted when Sodam reappeared with a baby some time after she had disappeared.
Jungkook doesn't like things that he can't make sense of.
As he walks away, Taehyung sees him pulling his phone out of his pocket, and of course he can guess who he will call or text. As he continues unwillingly to watch Jungkook, the voice of the woman next to him causes him to turn to her again.
"Told you not to make promises to this monster. I had to leave all the housework and come here because she cried saying 'Taetae promised me hot chocolate'." Sodam speaks in a complaining tone as she straightens her blow dried messy hair.
"Oh sorry, Blue, it totally slipped my mind," Taehyung quietly tells the little girl he let play with his curls, "Uncle Taetae has been so busy lately."
"Don't worry, I've already told her that you may be busy." Sodam says as she pulls the stool from the nearest empty table.
Taehyung looks at her with a question mark appearing over his head.
"I heard Jimin is back home." She explains.
Taehyung feels a lump in his throat when he hears the name. He is very sure that if it was not a very beloved person held by his arms, they would lose their strength and fall on both sides of him.
He nods slightly in approval as he takes a deep breath.
"How does it feel to be around him again?"
Taehyung carefully puts Blue down, opens his hand as if asking for a high five, raises it towards her, "We'll have hot chocolate in five minutes, okay? Just five minutes."
Blue nods sweetly and presses her own little palm to his, that's their way of making a promise.
Taehyung gives her a big smile and drops himself into the chair opposite Sodam as the little one walks to the inside of the cafe she is familiar with.
"Everyone is asking how I am, how I feel or whether it's okay for us to hang out together.. but I don't even have an answer to any of this." He says directly.
"Come on," Sodam doesn't use her usual harsh tone, she's never been able to be tough when it comes to Jimin and Tae anyway, "There's no way you still can't have an answer for how you feel after all these years."
"I don't know a name I can give to how it makes me feel like to be around him, Sodam," Taehyung says as he stares at his folded hands on the table, "How hard is that to understand?"
"It's so hard, Tae," Sodam is as honest with him as ever, "For someone who's opened up about himself and all of his feelings to you over the years, uncertainty must be much harder than you think."
"I- I don't know, it's like he's gotten over us," Taehyung frowns without looking up, "And it's like- I've already lost him."
"Oh, please, shut up," Sodam looks at him with a scolding expression, "We both know you can never lose Jimin."
"Again, something that you all say the same," Taehyung lifts his eyes from his hands, unaware that he wants to believe what Sodam is saying the most, "But he doesn't think so. He told me he's just put up with me."
"Of course he would say that. Did you expect him to jump on your neck as soon as he back after everything you've been through?"
"Of course not, but-"
"Try it, Taehyung," Sodam remembers all the conversations he had with him about Jimin before and wants to sum it up in one word without needing to repeat them all, "Try to win for once before you say you lost."
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A/N: Please assume this as a transition part & give our new drama queen a warm welcome hehe<3
