KIM TAEHYUNG | taehyung x irina

thirteen

| taehyung's point of view

"I'm sorry, what?"

"Your signature, mam." The young adult behind the cashier asked. "I need you to sign on this."

"Oh, yeah." Irina smiled at the kid after regaining her composure, taking the pen to sign on the small machine before retrieving her card.

"You've been spacing out quite a lot and it's alarming." I pointed out as we head out of the hardware store after buying a hammer. "Something wrong?"

"It's nothing. I just probably need sleep." She waved her hand, dismissing my concern but it still remained in my mind.

Irina is not like herself today. She's kind to me and asks me if I'm comfortable in her apartment. She complimented my clothes, my hair, almost everything. She didn't act like Irina at all. I watched her open the door of her apartment then I followed her inside where she showed me the painting she wanted to hang in her room.

"Why did you ask me for help and not Taemin?" I asked her, my intention pure but to myself, I know I was jealous. I sounded like it.

Irina smiled, giving me a glass of water after I've hammered the nail onto her wall and hung the painting, "Don't be a child, Taehyung. I don't know why I called you first, okay? You were just the first person to pop into my mind."

"Then that does mean, you think about me a lot lately?" I gave the glass back to her and we moved to the second painting in her living room.

"If that will make you shut up, then yes, maybe." Irina said half heartedly, making me frown bitterly which she just took lightly with a smile.

"I'm not making progress at all, huh." I took the hammer again and a nail, "Can I move the couch?"

"Yeah, I'll help you." She situated herself at the other end, bending at her waist, causing the tank top she was wearing to loosely hang over her full chest. I gulped down hard.

I had to stare.

I want to stare.

Her words wafted in and out of my ear as we moved her sofa away from the wall where she wants the painting to be hung. I never understood a word she spoke. "Taehyung?"

"Huh?" I snapped my eyes up to her face.

"I said, trying and failing is progress." Irina straightened up as she spoke. "You were staring at my rack, weren't you?"

I wanted to deny it because it's a natural reaction but she already caught me so I decided to just play it cool. I'm a mature man and she's a level headed woman. So, "Yeah. It looks nice. Well rounded."

"You're weird for not even denying it." She pulled her cardigan over her chest and crossed her arms while I hammered the nail in.

"I'm not weird. I just think differently." I replied, taking the painting from her and doing the honors of hanging it. "Are there any more paintings?"

"No that's all." Irina and I moved the sofa back and we both stared at it hanging proudly on her wall. "I'll return the favor someday. Thanks for your help."

I suddenly felt nervous when she faced me, her cardigan falling off her shoulder when she picked up the tool box and I was staring at her again. Calm down, junior. I dug my hands into my pocket to stop myself from making unnecessary movements that would make me look nervous then I looked at her face again.