Fate's Deadly Dance || KookV

Chapter 2

August 2023:

Taehyung resides by the vertically falling water, with no hint of light, basking solely in the faint moonbeam. He can hear the caddisflies and cicadas in the distance, breaching the almost agonizing silence of his forlorn night. Cheonjiyeon is where he finds himself most of the time, the splattering water droplets hitting his lean figure every so often all whilst he stands there, mind a cluttered mess.

The waterfall has become his hideaway for the past years, where no one can see him and he can see no one, it's weirdly tranquil. He descends slowly, a black pouch in his hands that he pays no heed to. Once near the still water, and a few feet closer to the roaring running water, he hoists the pouch, ogles at it for a good second and discards it into the water body.

Taehyung keeks at the sinking black sack and exhales, another day he scarcely lived through. Hands pushed into the pockets of his pants, he takes in the white noise with closed eyes. He can hear people's palaver from miles away, voices so subtle it doesn't bug him like it usually does. Known for its beauty, Cheonjiyeon is never completely vacant but he takes pride in having found an isolated corner that folks are appalled about entering.

Once his thoughts are not as fuzzy, he departs, carefully stepping on rock after rock, grunting when he bumps his toe onto one. Taehyung disappears into the horde, blending into the ordinary he sees the second he's back in the swarming streets of Jeju. Everything is a blur next to him, nothing exactly catches his eyes as he strides along the path he's walked more times than he can recall.

The young lad greets the aged as he enters his neighbourhood, late into the night. He is curious as to why the folks are still up but decides against it feeling the throb in his head and heads to his portion of the house, passing the humongous cigar tree in the exact centre of the patio. He listens to the landlord and her son's usual banter, which causes him to shake his head at their antics.

Taehyung plops in his bed, upon entering his room, with a thud, bringing one of his hands in front of his face. Covering his eyes in the act and lying for a while before tears start welding in his eyes, blinding his vision further. He muffles the sobs and serenely sobs into the night. It's always been like this. Whenever it gets beyond his threshold, he tends to cry it all out even though he feels like it doesn't suit the scary facade he has to maintain, he obstinately does. And once he is done snivelling his bollix mind out, he showers and gets to bed with a parched throat.

                                    *

"Kim Taehyung! Wake your ass up!"

The quoted male shuffles around his freshly washed sheets, toes peeking out of the thin blanket covering his drowsy self.
The knocking and shouting get worse hence he resentfully drags his body out of bed, a permanent scowl etched onto his face. Hair flying in all directions, face puffy and nightwear crimped, he greets the person at his door with a menacing glower.

The breach of peace has a tight-lipped smile plastered onto his face that gets wiped off as he stumbles at Taehyung's crude appearance, almost tripping to death in the midst of executing his dramatic reaction earning him an eye roll. 

There, in all his grandeur, stands Jeon Jeongkook, son of the most compassionate woman who was letting him stay in a separate room in her house, that too for cheap rent but if Taehyung counted all the meals she'd fed him in the previous year, he'd forever be indebted to her. His son, on the other hand, is a walking (and talking) menace. Taehyung doesn't exactly feel the warm fuzzies for him.

The kid's quite assiduous and has a keen eye. Now this shouldn't be a reason to dislike him but he's made Taehyung's life bleak in the past year. He just hopes he gets done quickly with all his work here and packs his stuff to go to the mainland, at least before Jeongkook gets a whiff of his identity.