PEARLS, SKETCHES & HEARTBURNS. taennie

prologue.

THE FATEFUL DAY OF DISASTER

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The university dorm hallways are empty, specifically due to a party happening in one of the frat houses down the street and everyone is rushing to attend it. Taehyung might have joined in too, since he knows his dorm mate, Jimin is also going there. But he spent the whole day holed in his art classroom finishing one of his projects, and the urge to sleep is more overwhelming than the free alcohol.

"Yo! There is a fight and Jackson is ripping his shirt!"

Someone yells from upstairs and suddenly there is a wave of people rushing downstairs and running past him. A guy bumps into him and spins him around until he is barely on his feet. The boy throws a lousy sorry and Taehyung scowls, and tries to redirect his path that was distorted.

Taehyung truly can't keep his eyes open for the life in him, he opens the door to his dorm, a yawn escaping his mouth not a minute later. He rubs his eyes and throws his backpack on the desk near the entrance, only to scowl when it lands on the floor instead.

"Jimin, did you move the desk again?" he asks squinting his eyes as he reaches for his clothes he knows are thrown on the couch on the left. The material his hand touches is soft, like very soft, perhaps one of Jimin's new silk shirts.

Another yawn escapes his lips as he places a hand on his mouth, tears forming in the corner of his eyes. Then Kim Taehyung opens his eyes. And regrets it the very next moment.

Jimin isn't here.

The walls in front of him are a light peach, not the deep blue he is used to.

And there is a girl.

A GIRL!

A GIRL???

Her eyes are wide and amused, lips puckered in a fashion which shows she is holding her laugh. She is sitting on a couch in a corner, some beauty product in her hands, her eyes unmoving from his.

Taehyung wonders what sins he has committed in his past life to get this result. To commit such an embarrassing, stupid, and utterly awkward act. God no, this can't be happening no, no shit.

His eyes then snap to the cloth in his hand which is not Jimin's shirt, it's a top, a crop to be precise with a pink hue and borderline white design. And he is damn sure it belongs to the girl in front of him.

"This is your dorm," he says dumbly, frozen on his feet.

"I know." She says and purses her lips again, he is sure she is doing this to stop her laughter.

"These are your clothes..." he trails off before his dumb mouth can utter any more embarrassing stuff than it has already, why is he even speaking?

"They won't be yours, would they?" She isn't even trying to hide her amusement anymore, her feline-like eyes curved on the edges.

Taehyung takes a deep breath to stop the hyperactive embarrassment crawling into his body. He did not imagine his last day of the week to accidentally be in the girls' dormitory, holding her clothes while she sees him as perhaps the biggest clown of the century.

But here he is, accidentally in a girl's dormitory, holding her expensive-looking pink top and she is definitely seeing him as a clown.

Taehyung takes a deep breath. "Would you mind closing your eyes for a second?" He asks in his sweetest voice and musters his best, I-Swear-I'm-Not-Crazy smile.

"Okay," she agrees pretty quickly, and Taehyung decides to ignore the laugh that spills from her mouth after that.

"I'm gonna turn around," Taehyung says and the girl's eyes snap open again, a little wider. "I will put this top here and leave. And we will pretend this never happened, okay?"

The girl pretends to think for a moment and then speaks, "There is a teeny-tiny problem with that."

Taehyung furrows his brows and the girl sticks out her index finger in the direction of his left and he sees a bundle of various fancy tops and skirts fallen on the ground. His sleep-deprived ass must have hit them accidentally.

"I swear I'm gonna yeet myself off from the Mount Everest," he grunts and squats down and quickly starts picking up the fallen clothes.

"That sounds kind of extreme," The girl comments, and Taehyung grits his teeth to squeeze in the embarrassment.

He folds one of the cotton hoodies with a middle finger on it and closes his eyes for a moment as if that would make the embarrassment go away. He can't even hide his face in his hands because they are fucking preoccupied with folding some random stranger girl's laundry.

"I'm literally hoping Squidward to wrap his tentacles around me and give me a slow painful death-" Taehyung can't shut up to save his life as he continues to blabber, the bright pink top is still glaring at him from the stool he placed it on.

"Wow, that's a new one," The girl apparently enjoys his rants, "Not that my Nick Wilde fantasies are any different."

Taehyung chokes on air and the girl starts giggling, and it's not Taehyung's fault that she is so stupidly attractive with an infectious gummy smile. Though her words are not as innocent as she looks.

"Joke, that was." The girl breathes after she is done laughing at his flabbergasted state, "I swear that was a joke and I'm not insane—"

"I should leave," Taehyung says once he has neatly folded all the clothes, his face is about to combust any moment longer he stays here. So before she gets any more chance to speak, Taehyung is running out of the damned dorm.

He is only halfway back when he remembers his bag, which is still left in the girl's room, but with the bravery of a little chick in him, he doesn't dare to go back. He might send Jimin there later, not wanting to be the victim of that girl's amused eyes and snarky comments.