His Bodyguard || K.TH.

5. Coming Back

The toilet flushes. You leave the stall, washing your hands in the sink before drying them with paper towels. A mere second is spent looking in the mirror before you turn away impassively.

When you leave, no one's in the hallway. He's gone. But then your line of sight falls to the ground where Taehyung's slumped against the wall, luckily still in-tact. He has one knee up, arm rested lifelessly on it.

"Taehy-" Your eyes widen, breath hitching. "What happened?"

"What?" His finger touches against the corner of his mouth and he winces, but still smiles like an idiot. "This? Nothing."

You lower yourself down to meet his eyes, voice dead. "Who did this to you."

Taehyung grins even when it hurts. "The ground. You gonna beat it up?"

"The ground?"

"I slipped. You don't believe me?"

"No."

"Well it's the truth." He stands, putting his hands in his pockets, acting all too casual. "So where are we off to now? Is it a class or can we grab lunch in the dining hall? I think they have macaroni today and let me tell you, it's not half bad."

You stare at him. Your eyes bore into his face, intense and unwavering.

There's silence.

Taehyung walks off, but when you don't follow, he sighs exhaustingly. You're left to look at his backside that's broader than you remember.

"It's not your fault."

"You're my responsibility, but I left you by yourself. Something worse could've happened."

You wouldn't be surprised if you lost your position. Taehyung's not supposed to get a scratch under your watch and you've failed. Massively. This is it.

"And what? From now on you won't even go to the bathroom?" He runs a hand through his hair, pushing it back. He twists around to meet your gaze. "Don't be ridiculous. It wasn't your fault, okay? It's not your fault. It was mine."

"What happened?"

"I don't want to talk about it."

But this time, you don't give in. You don't move a single inch, firm and grounded to the floor. Taehyung's frustration increases, his happy expression quickly crumbling.

"I need to know for your own safety."

"My safety? My safety," he repeats and scoffs. "You're only here because of my physical safety. I get that but can you not treat me like I'm glass or like you're babysitting a child? Because you do," he continues without giving you a chance to interject.

"That's how you treat me. That's how everyone treats me. I know you don't actually want to be here, okay? I know that. This is just a job to you. Fine. Whatever. You know what? I know you didn't want this job in the first place, so why don't you just leave? Get Jimin or someone to come to get me. You can go."

"I can't leave you unsupervised."

"Then call Jimin!" He shouts, on the verge of tears. "Just leave me alone! Go away! I don't want you here anymore! What don't you understand?! You left me once! Just leave again! Should be easy for you, right?!"

You assess the situation if you should insist on staying or not. But Taehyung steals away any chance of you considering what to do next when he turns around and stomps off down the hall.

One thing is clear that he can't go without a bodyguard.

So you follow after him, from afar, stalking the man at a distance. Once outside, he turns around and you tuck yourself behind the directory board and at another time, you lower yourself into the bushes, unseen by him and preventing another outburst.