BTS Imagines

Taehyung - Play Along

«fluff?»

The sun shines pleasantly in the open sky while a teasing breeze tugs at the strands of hair framing your face. You'd left your house for some fresh air, but the amiable weather had inspired a cheerful mood. There was only one place to go on days like these, and that place was your current destination: a tiny ice cream shop tucked away in a corner of the city. You hummed to yourself contently, lightly swaying your head from side to side and tapping your hands on your thighs in no particular rhythm.

Suddenly your hand is grabbed, and you turn to see a handsome boy with dark brown hair that reaches past his eyes. His gaze is dark and brooding; his skin contrasts in golden tan. Startled and confused, you draw in a breath to ask what he's doing, trying to jerk your hand away in the process. He holds on firmly.

"Play along," his deep voice comes as a surprise, "we're being followed."

Your gaze flits from your hand encompassed in his, to his serious, slightly pleading expression. The words you try to speak come out in broken sputters, but when hurried footsteps quietly echo behind you, your words fail completely. The stranger leans toward you and whispers under his breath.

"Tae."

The wheels in your mind are racing like a steam engine. What does he want? Who's following you? Should you find the police?

"Tae?" You repeat. His hand squeezes loosely in response. Oh God. "...Tae!"

He smiles widely. The stranger, Tae you suppose, relaxes his shoulders and swings your entwined hands. He laughs and says loudly, "Sorry for keeping you waiting. Are we still on for that lunch date?"

"...You have to treat me to make up for it," you manage with what you hope looks like a natural smile. Tae keeps up that easy grin and pulls you along excitedly as he leads you who-knows-where. What an actor.

As you walk with him, never once parting hands, your initial fear and apprehension give way to a buzzing sense of adventure. After an hour long lunch, he drags you to the park where some kids are enjoying the playground.

Is he for real, you wonder as Tae climbs the stairs and squats down onto the slide. The image of him scrunching up his long legs and slowly scooting down the slide was almost too much. At Tae's gleeful, "Weeeee!" you doubled over in laughter, clutching your aching stomach, and searching through teary eyes for a hidden camera, almost certain this was a TV prank.

"What are you," you teased, "like, six?"

"And a half!" He replied while he bounded over with a cheeky smile. Suddenly his eyes became hard and flashed to the left when there was an apparently suspicious rustle of movement. As you turned to look, he was back to grabbing your hand and dragging you.

The rest of the day progressed much in the same way. The two of you would move from place to place and enjoy whatever was there. Then Tae would get antsy and guide you somewhere else. It never occurred to you why you still stuck with him even though whoever was following you had long given up. Even once the noontime sun began to hang low in the now red-orange sky, you stayed.

"—and then on my way to the ice cream shop, some crazy stranger comes up and grabs my hand!"

Tae smiled widely again. That same smile.

"What a weirdo," he joked, "Who does that?"

The two of you had ended up circling back to only a few blocks down from where Tae first approached you. You were leaning back against a brick building— Tae was squatting down— and talking as you sipped on juice boxes. Earlier Tae had complained about being thirsty and moped until you rolled your eyes, already heading to a convenience store. It just so happened that he'd left his wallet, so the juice was on you.

"I wonder," you replied sardonically. "And I never even got my ice cream!"

Tae tilted his head toward the ground and said solemnly, "What a terrible loss." Then he stared up at you again from his position on the ground. "Where is it anyway? The shop, I mean. Which direction?"

You pointed a finger down the road and generally described its location to him. He nodded, stood and stretched, leaving his empty juice carton on the floor. He stood still with his hands in his hoodie for a moment, his bangs covering his eyes, and the shadows of the evening sharpening his features. As you stared at his profile, your mind thought back to the circumstances of your meeting earlier in the day. Why was he being followed? He didn't seem like a bad guy, but you also noted that he was a good actor too, at least to some extent. You subconsciously clutched your juice tighter. The hair on the back of your neck stood on end. He turned abruptly.

"Pen."

Suddenly nervous, you rifled through your bag as you tried to ignore your dry mouth. You worried that maybe your sense of "stranger danger" was kicking in a few hours too late.

Once you handed him a blue ink pen, he grabbed your wrist, turned your palm face up, and touched the tip of the pen to it. Your mind turned to static in mild confusion. The next thing you knew, the pen was enclosed in your fist, and Tae's back was facing you as he stalked away.

"Let's get that ice cream next time," he called back. And with that, he slipped around the corner and was gone, heading back in the same direction from which he came. You dazedly averted your eyes from where he'd just been down to your fist. Slowly opening it, your heart gave a strange leap.

Underneath his name was a crudely drawn smiley face and a list of numbers— a phone number.