"Shy" Boy [Taekook]

one

"Don't look so down, Taehyungie. We can always visit grandma in Daegu." Taehyung sighed, and looked out his new bedroom window, taking note of the trim healthy grass and surprisingly clean concrete that lined the swimming pool's edge. The aqua water shone and sloshed within the pool gently, reminding him of the public pool from his previous apartment complex, only less grimy and a little bigger. A nice upgrade, if he enjoyed swimming.

His eyes swept over the flourishing garden that sat pleasantly against the wooden fence, taking little interest in the roses colored with the paint the sunset created on the sky, the peonies colored in tones of traditional cotton candy, the warm and rich hues of the snapdragons, the gold dipped marigolds, and the vivid paints of the tulips. He liked flowers, sometimes. If he got some from a friend, he'd safely tuck it into a vase on his crowded homework desk, trying to find an empty spot of polished wood that wouldn't make it easy for his clumsy self to knock it off and ruin the blooming flowers further and task his mother with cleaning up the spilled water and jagged, broken shards that could easily split skin and hail a rain of crimson. On the other hand, flowers were often nice on the eyes; whether it be in nature, or in his room at 3:25 in the morning as he finished his math homework. It was when they wilted that they were no longer enjoyable, no longer worthy of sight. Much like how people treated people. 

His mother rubbed his arm reassuringly, as if the gesture would eradicate his gloom.

"Hey, at least you have your own art room! Soundproof walls, too, so you can stay up till midnight practicing your music. Or, you know, other stuff." She smiled coyly at her son, her mouth stretched into that smile Taehyung grew up with and saw during heavy times and moments anguish, frustration, sorrow. Or whatever teenage angst the chocolate haired boy was going through, but he chose to believe it was mostly the former simply because he refused to believe he once threw a hissy fit because he couldn't go to a 5 pm showing of some chick flick movie.

Her eyes screamed suggestion and Taehyung's screamed, "mom, stop!"

Taehyung banged his head against the window with a groan while his mother's twinkling, light laugh mocked him. "Joking. Don't actually...you know, when we're home."

"I don't know anyone here, mom," Taehyung muttered as he tore his eyes away from the tiled floor under the patio's shade and the small tables and lawn chairs placed neatly nearby one another, giving his mother knowing look, "and all I do is stay in bed in my room and turn myself into a sushi roll of stress. Who wants to you know a sushi roll, mom? Nobody with values."

His mom chuckled at his metaphor. "Fine, fine. I'll wait for my daughter- or son-" His mom winked and Taehyung resumed to wallow in a puddle embarrassment, because who talks to their mom about that stuff, "in-law a little longer. Besides..." His mother's once playful, teasing voice he heard so often trailed off, leading into an almost thick and tense air Taehyung wished he could easily cut through, like a knife through softened butter, so that the room can turn light again and full of, although embarrassing, joking and teasing.

"After what happened in Daegu, maybe it's best that you keep your head down, you know? Heal, or...well, I'm not saying that you shouldn't make friends, of course, it's just that..." A brief moment of uncomfortable silence floated between the two, throughout the foreign and intimidating home. He glanced at his mother; her mind was in shambles, searching for the correct combination of words to guide her out of the hole she dug herself. "All I'm saying is, be careful, okay? I know you're angry, at yourself, at me, at him-"

"Mom." His voice turned to stone, as did his body. His shoulders stiffened and his spine straightened. His eyes were no exception. The warmth and even the vague boredom previously present in them were drawn out quickly, like wringing water out of a sponge. His mind, plagued with unwanted memories, quickly remembered the trauma he'd experienced just a year ago, and before it went any place darker, he quickly drew his attention to the backyard once more. His eyes grew dark and clouded, ridden with a blankness at the peak of breaking, at the peak of showing the plethora of raw emotions raging inside him at the mention of the cursed Daegu incident. But he didn't dare show it, not in front of anyone, because he refused to allow it to affect how people thought of him. He refused those pitiful glances his mother tossed him, and he would continue to refuse it to anyone who would know about it. "I don't want to talk about what happened back then. It's in the past and has nothing to do with now."