promised - kim namjoon

nine

"Tsai, hey!" Taehyung shouted to her from across the hallway. Tsai watched as the man came running over, tripping over before steadying himself and pulling her into a hug. She allows his arms around her while she wraps her free arm around him.

"I had a great time last night," Taehyung grinned, making Tsai blush, "I really enjoyed going out with you yesterday."

"I had a great time with you, too, let's do it again soon," Tsai brought up, although in the back of her mind, she thought about Namjoon's teary eyes from earlier that morning.

Taehyung nodded, before sighing and looking towards the ground.

"I also want to apologize," he said lowly, "about kissing you."

Tsai doesn't say a word, but raises her eyebrow a little bit thinking about what he had just said. He glances at her and runs his fingers through his dark brown hair.

"I know that I caught you off guard, and I kissed you without your permission. I could tell I made you nervous, and when I went to my dorm, I realized that I was the only one who really enjoyed the kiss so I-"

"No, no, no! I like the kiss, too," Tsai exclaimed, "I just didn't see it coming, that's all. I loved the kis- liked the kiss, it was nice." Tsai's cheeks reddened even more, and it made Taehyung wish for a moment that he and Tsai were together and he could pinch her chubby cheeks.

So, he did. He leaned forward and grabbed her cheeks in his large hands, pinching them gently and cooing at her. "Ah, look at you, getting all shy and nervous over me!"

"Hey," Tsai's eyes squinted as she spoke to him in Korean (like she always did to Namjoon when he made her upset or pissed), "if you want to keep those hands of yours, I recommend you remove them from my face."

Taehyung moves them away, his eyebrows raised and his mouth gaping. Tsai chuckled a little bit, making Taehyung more comfortable again.

"I'll walk you to your next class," Taehyung offered, putting his arm around Tsai's shoulders, "so we can talk about planning our next date while we walk. I was thinking about getting some sushi, or maybe some Italian."

"How about I treat you this time? Next Thursday after that lecture class you have, I'll take you out to lunch," Tsai suggested, "and I'll buy you some Italian food."

"Why are you paying?" Taehyung asked. "I'll eat too much and be a burden. I'll pay half."

"Fine, then you can pay half, as long as we get to go do some more sightseeing. I haven't done a lot of it since I came to Taiwan," Tsai informed him.

"Why?"

"I've been at school, studying, going to work, I'm a busy woman," Tsai answered. "The only times I've went out is to find some food places, and that one time I went with Namjoon to the tattoo place."

Taehyung slowed his steps when he saw Tsai's class in view. "Namjoon came back crying this morning, when I asked him why, he just told me to fuck off."

"Where is he now?"

"I left him in the dorm alone," Taehyung replied, "I doubt he would go to any classes today. When I was getting ready, he was talking about his soulmate or his tattoo or whatever, something along those lines. It's sad really, knowing that there's really no one out there for him."

"He told you that?"

Taehyung and Tsai stopped in front of her classroom door, Taehyung leaning on the wall in front of the door, and Tsai standing upright in front of him with her textbook in her left arm.

"I'm very observant, Tsai, he doesn't have to tell me these things," Taehyung muttered. "He's infatuated with studying philosophy and soulmate tattoos, even though it's pretty already laid out in textbooks everything you really need to know about them. He tells me he removed the tattoo on his own because of a failed relationship, but even I know Namjoon would never attempt to remove something like that, it's too sentimental and he's a big pussy for symbols and things with meaning. So, it left me with two conclusions: One, he has no soulmate and he's trying to find out why, or two, Namjoon cut the tattoo into his skin to create a scar because he has no soulmate. In the end, it just means there's no one for Namjoon."

Tsai listened, astonished with the words that flew out of Taehyung's mouth. He seemed like a very clumsy, loud, and idiotic man, but Taehyung was intelligent. He took many linguistic classes, and studies computer science on his own time just for the fun of it.

"Wow," Tsai mumbled.

"I'm going to go now," Taehyung smiled, "and see if Namjoon is okay. I'll call you later." He leans down and presses his lips to her forehead quickly, before walking past her and back down the corridor towards his dorm, his cheeks turning a crimson red.