paralyzed | taekook

eight

"hi,"

"hi."

standing in front of jeon jungkook, the man whose existence himself already set kim taehyung on fire, the young prince didn't hesitate to stop on his track and admire this moment. because tonight, the stars reminded him that they were meant to find each other.

as soon as he closed the door behind him, taehyung bursted into a sobbing mess. he was hurt that ahro — one of the only people he depended his entire life upon — couldn't position herself in his situation, but he also knew that if he was ever placed in her stead, there was a ninety nine percent chance that he would most likely spoke the same thing. 

"lord, my mind is all over the place," taehyung clutched onto his pendant in unconsciousness, hoping that whatever nightmare he was experiencing, would eventually stop by the moment he woke up. "what should i do now?"

but he couldn't,

at least not when a certain young male with bunny smile was haunting his mind. 

and as he cried, thought and regretted, the same light that once blinded him when he first time traveled was coming through, swallowing him whole into the beautiful dimension of the future he wanted and never wanted to go to.

jeon jungkook was lost for words. he wanted to ask taehyung what happened that night, what was the reason behind his sudden disappearance. he wanted to ask taehyung if he was ever in his place, what would he feel when he got abruptly stood up with a bouquet of fresh flowers in his hand, looking pathetic as if he just got himself dumped? 

but it seemed like his mind wouldn't synchronise with his heart (not that he was complaining).

so jungkook mustered up every last bit of his confusion and curiosity, trying to find the perfect words to summarise his feelings, until taehyung distinctly beat him first.

"i-i'm sorry i didn't show up," taehyung looked away, feeling ashamed that he had to destroy the only hope he was giving him. "it's not you, really, i-it's me. something else happened, and now i realised that i shouldn't have made the promise i couldn't keep. i know that now."

jungkook shook his head.

"no," he stifled a sad laugh. "it's my fault that i got my hopes up."

looking back inside the restaurant, jungkook saw an excited ahreum flashing him a thumbs up, as if understanding that taehyung had been man he was talking about. it was most likely a girl's intuition, but he simply believed in the idea of not all questions were meant to be answered.

this, of course, didn't go unnoticed.

"was i interrupting your date again?" taehyung asked, already staring at their table.

"you're not interrupting my date . . . you're never an interruption."

oh my god, jungkook, stop being so fucking poetic unless you want him to run from your cheesy ass for the second time—

"can i ask you a question?" jungkook paused, until he agreed. "what happened?"

"that night?"

he only nodded.

"i h-had to go back to my kingdom, and unfortunately, i fainted along the way. by the moment i woke up, i realised that too much time already passed, and there was an unbothered probability that you most likely would've left a long time ago," taehyung caught a breath, before quickly adding, "b-but i knew i shouldn't have tried to reason myself, so if my intention isn't clear enough, then i beg for an apology."

jungkook almost broke into a fit of laughter at another episode of taehyung's peculiar choice of wordings. oh, just how much i missed listening to your stupid rants about silla.

"hey, i've told you that the blame is mine to take."

feeling his rosy cheeks turned crimson, taehyung continued for the younger man to resume his words as he silently cursed himself for transporting at the wrong time again.

"d-do you want to start over?"

"hmm?"

"do you want to start over?" jungkook repeated, doe eyes turning into the shapes of crescent moon, as the bunny smile he missed too much was now making a resurgence. "i know that your sudden appearance still couldn't make up for what happened between us, but now that you've told me where you went, i would like to forget and move past everything."

reaching out his hand to grab taehyung's slightly bigger one, jungkook let a hum cascading his lips until the older man took it in hesitance, blushes evident on both of their faces. because at the end of the day, through space and time, nothing else mattered as long as their hearts were paralyzed for each other.

"let's begin on a new blank canvas, shall we?"

and this,

was tragedy of the century.

hi, again! it's a really short chapter since i'm only building up for what is about to come, but i hope that you enjoyed it regardless. have a good day :)