Trouble ; Kim Taehyung

(Eunsol)

The following night, Dong Gook called me out to an empty street. As I walk behind him I notice something different but nothing in particular stands out. Haircut maybe?

"I've come to this shady place for whatever you have to tell me so hurry up with your business so you can go suck on something else." I shake my head while heading for the side walk to take a seat. He comes over to sit beside me.

He stares off into the distance asking, "You know how love changes you?"

I could only cringe, hearing those words come from him. "What is that? You're turning out to be an even bigger moron than someone I know of."

He turns to look at me with a slight smile. "I'll be sure to take pride in that."

The moon appears behind some clouds and behind us grew the shadows of trees created by it. I clench onto the ground from where I am sitting and grit my teeth to stimulate some heat or at least have control over the cold I was feeling. The wind that was already cold only becomes colder the longer we stay as we were. Shivers ride down to the tail of my spine, Goosebumps travelling all over my body. I hold both my arms close to me, embracing myself in hopes of gaining some warmth.

"So what is it?" I ask, testy while taking notice of three human figures hiding in the shadows. They have come forth to soak in the moonlight and reveal themselves. A tall fatso, a shorty, and a bald guy. "Oi, oi, what's up with the weird bunch? Are you seriously thinking of causing a scene in the middle of the night? If you're planning to kill me the least you could do is take me somewhere sanitary and out of public. I don't want anyone waking up to a bloody sidewalk in the morning."

"Hearing you okay with that creeps me out but no, I'm not here to kill you," Dong Gook disapprovingly exhales. "Do you really think I'm that evil?"

"Well, considering how things have progressed, who wouldn't? You ganged up on me once and even tried to expel Taehyung." I shrug. Only to roll my eyes and murmur, "Not that he wasn't already a candidate for it."

He directs his hands at the three people behind us, "Those at the back are my friends."

"Well, your taste has changed. They're obviously not thugs."

"None of those people from before ever were. They only came to me because I gave them money. These guys are different. They're real."

I put my hands together and feel a faint smile emerge from my face. "Real friends, huh? I'm glad you found people you could consider real friends."

"I guess you could say I was slapped back to reality when Hanna rejected me yesterday. I invited her over for dinner but she declined saying I was gross and boring. That definitely hit me hard but I'm able to manage with these guys helping me...Anyway, the reason I asked you to come here was because Taehyung will be quitting school. It's none of my business, I know, but I just wanted you to tell you."

I bit my lip to the sudden information, "It was bound to happen one day, am I right?" I forced a smile and gaps of laughter hoping he wouldn't notice how destructive that news was to me. My guts gather together tight and hold onto my sadness before it bawled out of me.

"Are you sure you're alright?"

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure. I'm tough you know, don't let me have to remind you." I chuckle. He scratches his head, unsure whether what he did was the right thing. "I'm serious. You don't have to worry."

"Dong Gook, we really have to go now or we'll miss the stream." A voice calls out. The bald guy approaches us with a worried look.

"Yeah, okay. Just give us a sec." He turns back to me and meets me eye to eye. "I don't know what's happened to both of you but I know you hold each other important. You can twist my words or even deny them, but I'm telling you, there's much love found between you two." He pats away the crumbs of soil on his jeans and gets up to join his friends. With one last wave good bye he says take care and I am left alone as they walk back from where they came from.

I stay seated on the cold pavement, stuck staring at my hands, when suddenly, one by one, tears roll down my cheeks without running dry. The breeze continued to sway the trees, wishing I could follow wherever it's headed as a means of escape.

That's when, out of nowhere, something grabs me by the shoulder. I immediately fling my head back ti check who it was, and there, Jungkook appears behind me. My tears pause for a moment but they have yet to disappear completely.

"What are you doing here?" I ask, wiping off some snot.

"I followed you because I was worried where you'd run off to in the middle of the night." He lays his jacket over me and takes a seat. The warmth he has provides amidst this cold is immeasurable. I lean on his shoulder while he wraps an arm around me. we stay silent for a while but then he speaks.

"Do you remember when I was a younger? I was helpless and couldn't do anything right." He gives me a soft charming smile. "But you didn't believe any of that. You were there to support me, you were there to help me, you were always there reassuring me of the things I could achieve."

"Of course I did, you dummy. You're important to me." I snuggle in closer.

"I know that. It's just that...I. Why am I no good?" He holds my face with his free hand, wiping the trails of tears, and moves my face toward him. He looks just as sad I was feeling but I couldn't reach out. I was scared of what more he had to say. "Why do you cry for him? Why do you choose him even when he hurts you like this? You don't deserve to be treated like this."

"It's not like that! It's not that you aren't good en-"

"Then, why!" He screams with an expression full of frustration. "Why..."

My tears resume and begin to fall again, melting into his chest. Once I get a hold of myself, I sit upright to face him properly, abandoning the comfort of his arms. I grab the hand he used to wiped off my tears and squeeze it.

Sobbing and hardly able to breathe, I finally admit to someone what I've been most afraid of acknowledging myself. "We don't get to choose who we fall for. It just happens and we have no control over it." I cry out, embedding my face into my palms.

"I'm trying my best to stop feeling this way about him because lately all I ever feel is pain. always in pain. In so much pain!" I pound at my chest several times. 

"But that only proves how much more I've come to love him."