Fragile Longing (Taekook)

Chapter Nineteen

But then you came along,

With laughter in your eyes, light in the wind:

And suddenly my silent heart

goes to war with my troubled mind.

........... ........... ...........

The punching bag was swaying heavily, threatening to fall anytime now. But the man hitting it seems to have no intention of stopping it any time soon. His knuckles were getting bloody, sweat dripping all over, breathing getting labored, but he didn't stop. Not hitting. One after another punch, one after another hit, along with the surging pain that was welcomed by Kim Taehyung.

That was exactly what he needed that time. So that those eyes, those hunting eyes will leave him alone. Those sniffles that kept ringing in his ear even now was not letting him settle. The empty box left in his kitchen was not letting him rest peacefully either, those sobs still echoing around his mind, taunting him, hurting him, asking questions about why,,why he was hurting? Why it was paining?

He closed his eyes, trying to shut down those sobbing sound, those complain filled eyes. His hand springing forward, again abusing the punching bag while welcoming the pain that was drowning everything else.

"There are other ways to get killed." Jimin said from behind the counter with a half dressed woman on his lap. "Stop torturing that punching bag."

Taehyung stopped, his hold tightening around the bag before he finally let go, untangling the now bloody clothe bounded in his knuckles. "At least I don't do it by gulping down alcohol."

He sat down on the counter after taking a cold water bottle from the mini fridge along the counter then downing it in one go. Hoping it will diminish the fire inside him. Which it wasn't doing at all.

"Alcohol is life, Taehyung. You won't understand. It gives you reason to live everyday. At least it doesn't betray you."

He scoffed, putting the now empty bottle down. "She found someone else." He said knowingly.

"She fucked someone else."

"Must've hurt."

"My heart is bleeding."

"You have one?"

The stink eyes he got in return was enough to answer that question. "Yes you fucker. I got one. What about you though?" Jimin ushered the woman down, who got out of the room with half buttoned shirt.

"What about me?"

Jimin unclasped another bottle of wine then looked at him while gulping that thing down. "That's what I want to know too. Do you have one too Tae? A heart that beats or feel emotion. Like us human do."

Taehyung didn't replied. Instead he lit up a cigarette, the welcoming smell clearing his mind a little, his eyes looking at the abandoned gym. The place was empty. As usual. Though he didn't expect anyone to use a gym while coming to drink. What was the owner thinking while building it is still out of his grasp.

"You didn't answer."

"What do you think?"

A smile lit up Jimin's lips. "I think you do. At least it has now started to beat at a human pace after meeting that kiddo. The same one you hurt two days ago. Younjun told me."

Two days? The thought stopped him suddenly. It has been two days already. Since he saw that kid. A bitter feeling spread across his chest. Making it a little harder to breathe. The urge to punch that bag increased again.

"Your words sometimes go over my head." He ignore that midget, looking outside the window where the sun was setting at it's own pace. People retuning to their home. And among them sudden vacant feeling consumed him as his mind again replayed those eyes. Brimming with tears with childlike innocence.