HOME - Taejoon

24. Breaking point

Gloomily. Drops of water slid one by one under Taehyung's fingertips; He saw them sitting on the floor, leaning on his own knee, perpetual and continuous. In a way, it was nothing more than his own desire to be alone that ended up isolating him that day. 

He tried, in vain, to tell himself that in fact he was being pessimistic, too constant with his own disappointment alone to justify how miserable he felt, washed up, in the middle of his room, the one he didn't share with Namjoon. 

He had lived there for a year, but he was surprised by how little he failed to know it: he had forgotten the calendar he had, far away on a wall, a yellow one given by her mother; the stuffed animals that reminded him of her younger brothers; the dusty books on the open desk, illuminated by a green lava lamp. The color was important, all right, because he really hated it, but Namjoon didn't.

Taehyung's jaw trembled with rage, and suddenly he found himself in the first square, stretching his legs and letting the smell of the room surround him. 

He wanted to be somewhere just for himself, and not remember everything that had happened. 

***

Yoongi was already at university that day in the morning. He was secretly smoking in the shadow of a building when he watched Taehyung's emaciated figure appear on the sidewalk. He looked like she hadn't slept a wink. 

When he had him face to face, he dropped his cigarette, stepping on it the second after. Those brown eyes searched for him through thick, reddish glasses. 

''Want one?'' Yoongi asked him, as he took a mint out of his right pants pocket. Taehyung looked at his hand, then took it with a confidence that he didn't even believe himself. When he put it in his mouth he didn't expect it to taste this sweet. 

While he surrounded it with his tongue, as if it were a comforting friend, his phone vibrated inside his pants. Yoongi watched him check the screen, causing him to stop moving the sugary ball in his lips as an attempt to keep his breathing coherent. He wanted to look to see what exactly had caused such a reaction; However he was stopped when the head glued on the screen rose. 

''Do you know where the finance building is?'' Taehyung asked, his eyes surprisingly sober. 

''I think so,'' Yoongi pretended to think, ''it must be in the northern part...'' he received a nod, and then he prepared to walk towards where the route according to him was, with the little ghost following his trail without so much of a hint. To break the silence, he cleared his throat. ''So...what exactly do you want to do?''

''If the message is right they should be there.'' Taehyung shoved his hands in his pants pockets and groaned. ''I still don't know if I believe it thogh.''

''I guess it's a matter of time...but if, say, it turns out to be real...your girl with someone else...then what?''

Taehyung looked at Yoongi like a sacrificed dog, as if pleading. 

''Then nothing.''

The eldest between them took the hint and focused on the path. 

In reality, the day was not bad, with the sun above them despite the increasingly present December; With the other students coming and going, it was easy to mask the tension due to the cold, among those seemingly normal hallways that did not display more than what was necessary.