𝐁𝐫𝐨𝐤𝐞𝐧 𝐂𝐥𝐨𝐜𝐤𝐬 | VMINKOOK

Red Roses

I looked up with blurred vision, my fuzzy mind and tearful eyes rendering me near blind. Who had recognized me in my disguise? Who had guessed my identity without even seeing my face?

When I wiped the tears from my eyes, I saw my sharp-looking butler, bending over to look at me. His hair was neatly tied into a bun, but two front pieces had escaped to frame that beautifully sculpted face of his. On his forehead rested about a hundred beads of sweat, and I guessed he'd been working quite hard within the depths of the wild party going on inside.

"Is everything alright?"

Is everything alright? My lips parted and I only blinked. That was a fully grammatically correct sentence. Not a word twisted or switched with another when it needn't be.

Taehyung crouched, and then sat down next to me with a thud, joining me in the tall grass without a care for the mud and the dirt. "It's a pretty evening, isn't it?" He asked as though there wasn't a single odd thing about the entire situation.

I was still in shock from what had just happened with Emilio, and hearing Taehyung speak fluent english like a scholar only worsened my state of distress. The boy looked calm, and simply gazed up at the stars as though the constellations displayed a map to the meaning of life.

"F-forgive...me- me," I managed to stammer. "But this e-evening has b-been very, very ugly for me."

"Look up," Taehyung said, and though he'd ordered me to do it, his gentle tone made it sound like nothing more than friendly advice.

I did as told and tilted by head, finding the white-beaming moon, and the plentiful stars, strung across the sky like infinite fairy lights. How slowly the world began to turn in that moment, was frightening at first. Time was still and motionless, and from the corner of my eyes I could see Taehyung swing himself left to right in a slow dance along with the trees. The wind rippled his clothes and brushed through his hair and I found myself swinging along with him, rocking myself side to side like a mother would her babe.

"My birthday..." I whispered, careful not to speak above the evening breeze. "I don't think I should've made it such a big thing. All this dancing and drinking... it's worn me down by about a hundred years in only a few hours."

"Should we make it small for a moment?" Tae suggested, giving me an insane whiplash by using correct grammar once again. "Every guest left their gift for you in the library, but taking mine inside would... destroy it."

I furrowed my brows, looking back at Taehyung again and halting our little waltz. "You... have a gift for me?"

Taehyung smiled and nodded. "Of course!"

He got up to his feet and looked at me expectantly, but I was incapable of rising from the grass with the same ease as him. I had been ignoring my foot the entire evening, but now that it had been left to rest for a moment, it would not allow me stand once again. My ankle was blue and swollen, and the sharp, whining pain would've killed me had I not still been drunk out of my mind.

Taehyung inhaled sharply through his teeth when he noticed my bruised ankle, and barely hesitated before throwing my arm over his shoulder to help me stand. I winced, as the slightest bit of pressure on my foot felt like a thousand needles were being drilled into the bone. But suddenly I was weightless. I was floating above the grass as two arms held me up above the world, and I looked down at the ground as though it was miles and miles below me.

I glanced at Taehyung in shock, clamping my hands around the man's neck. I'd never been carried this way. Not at an age older that one at least. My father told my nanny that I'd learn how to walk faster if I wasn't carried. I learned how to walk within ten months of being born, so I suppose he'd been correct.