stay - taekook

Promise me to stay

          

A good love story always begins with one of the two main protagonists complaining about their life and how nobody is ever going to love them. And in the exact same chapter they meet the other protagonist, who of course is the love of their life - they just don't know yet. Isn't it always like that? And in most of these cliché love stories one of the main characters is hopelessly in love with life and spreading happiness, while the other character is a grumpy person who drinks their coffee black and doesn't know any other colours than black, white and grey.

Taehyung has read many books in his life and you can say that in almost every single novel he read the plot sounded exactly like the above. But why? That's what Taehyung asked himself, putting another book down that he just finished and took a sip of his tea, cringing as he noticed he forgot to add sugar. He started looking out of the window and got lost in his thoughts, a habit of his that always seemed to repeat itself when the young men finished a book. He just couldn't stop thinking about how authors could build a whole relationship throughout a book with over 800 pages and then crush it in the last chapter. It amazed him. He could only explain it as if the author got tired of the couple while writing the story and then just decided to make them break up. But why start writing in the first place?

Tae's head started hurting after all the thoughts that were rushing through his head. The last book he read was amazing. He couldn't put it down for one second but the last few pages ruined his whole life if you could say it like that. It was another love story. Tae was kind of fascinated by how you could find the same cliché over and over again in literally almost every single book. Of course, he knew people who were basically living a cliché love story - like his best friend Park Jimin and Min Yoongi - but he himself just couldn't identify with any of the characters he ever read about.

Jimin was the romantic boy who's only goal was to fall in love and marry their significant other while Yoongi didn't care about love at all and just wanted to finish college without any complications. But then the most common thing that authors use in their books happened: They ran into each other, making Yoongi spill his coffee all over himself and the younger. While Jimin kept apologizing and trying to get rid of the coffee stains by rubbing on the fabric, Yoongi already found himself falling for the boy. Doesn't that sound like something an author would write? The grumpy boy who only ever had one-night stands in his life suddenly falls in love with a boy he only just met a few minutes ago. Sounds like every single love story Taehyung ever read.

His life was the complete opposite. To be honest, he didn't know how to identify with any of the characters in his favourite books. He just never found a character that was the slightest bit like him. He did want to fall in love, so bad, he just didn't care when. He just wanted it to happen at some point in his life. And he also just lived his life, going to work every day, taking care of his cat, procrastinating every now and then, going to dance practice and so on.

Since he worked as a writer and photographer for the local newspaper he had to work hard to earn money. Sometimes at the end of the month he didn't know if he was able to pay the rent and had to ask Jimin if he could pay some extra cash. Because he didn't want to do that anymore he got himself a second job at a small company that publishes photobooks about different kinds of subjects.

Taehyung liked to take pictures of his best friend and roommate Jimin, because he always changed his hair colour and it mostly fit the themes of the photobooks. But this time the theme was »winter« and Jimin just dyed his hair orange and Tae didn't want to make him to damage his hair for one small photoshoot. That's why he asked Jimin's boyfriend Yoongi to come over, since he had mint coloured hair that was starting to wash out.

Tae was still in thoughts as the doorbell rang and he heard Jimin opening the door and letting out a scream of happiness. Tae smiled and stood up. He aspired to be as happy as his roommate but with the constant stress of having to make money he just couldn't figure out how to find happiness. The books he read in his short free time just made him feel happy for a few moments. He didn't want that. He wanted something that would last longer than just a second.