VHope Fluffshots

Home

Everyone has a sense of home. For some people, home is a pet, a plant, a place. For others, it's in a book or music. But for most, it's in other people. Humans are very social animals, and even the most introverted people want someone to be their home. We crave love and affection from those who are willing to give it to us. But we're never truly home until we find the right person to be our home.

For me, home is a tall, black-haired beauty named Kim Taehyung.

I met him almost eight years before I made him mine. I was seventeen, he was fifteen. He came from a poor family of Daegu farmers, while I came from a family of Gwangju accountants and literature teachers. I used to pity him because he was so strange and all the rich Seoul kids at our high school would pick on him. He was all by himself while I looked on with my tiny group of Jolla-born friends who loved dancing almost as much as I did.

The first time I talked to him was a sad memory turned happy in the end.

There was a park a few blocks from the market where little kids would go hang out by day and some teenagers occupied the shadows at night. But it was a good neighborhood, so it was usually deserted by eleven at night. I was walking home from a very late dance lesson when I heard sobs echoing through the empty park that night.

"Hey," I said when I caught sight of a tall, skinny boy curled into a ball underneath the small slide. He flinched, but his face remained buried in his arms as he continued to sob. For some reason, hearing him cry made my heart hurt more than it did when other people cried. I walked over to him and sat down in the dirt next to him. "Hey," I said again, causing him to lift his head and look at me.

Oh, those big brown eyes never looked sadder than they did that night except for when, about six years later, his grandmother passed away. Those thick lips quivered as he stared at me in uncertainty and curiosity. "Y-you're not going to h-hit me, are you?" Daegu dialect was difficult for me to understand completely, so I ended up having to ask him to repeat, but this time in Seoul Standard. I shook my head at him and offered a smile.

"Of course not, beautiful. I'm not going to hurt you. I'm Jung Hoseok," I said and extended my hand out to him. He stared at it for a minute before he took it and shook it gently. "I'm Kim Taehyung." And I remember thinking it was the most beautiful name in the world and telling him so. He giggled and wiped his tears. "Thank you. Everyone thinks I'm strange, not beautiful."

"Well, you're beautiful to me. Don't forget that."

And now he never forgets. He knows he's beautiful and I feel proud for being the one to help him accept himself.

It wasn't until two years later when he was the one who had to care for me.

"Hoseokie-hyung, it's the middle of summer! Why are you wearing a sweater?" Taehyung asked as we walked along the pier, frozen lemonade in one hand and my hand in the other. He was always scared of being lost in a crowd, so we always held hands. Now we do it because we can.

I shrugged and tried to hide the fact that I was very uncomfortable due to the heat, the crowd judging every single move I made when, in reality, they were minding their own business. I was praying that my sleeve wouldn't roll up and show my suffering to my best friend, who was having the time of his life soaking up the Busan sun. This was a good day and I wasn't going to ruin it for him.

But he rolled his eyes and dragged me into a place where no one would look for us. We stood face-to-face for a while, holding some sort of staring contest. "Hyung, why are you hiding? I thought we shared all of our secrets," Taehyung pouted and I couldn't look at him anymore, my gaze drifting down to my arms as my hands played with the sleeves nervously. He followed my gaze and stilled my hands, his big shaking ones slowly pushing my sleeves gently up my arms.

"Hoseok..." His voice was so quiet and those big eyes were filled with terror as he traced every single line he saw. "Why?" he asked me after another minute of silence. But he didn't need an answer, so I simply leaned into him and cried my heart out on his shoulder. Without another thought, he wrapped me up in a strong hug and let me cry. He wasn't mad at me at all and I knew it from the way he held me.

"This is why we share everything with each other, Hoseok-hyung."

And now, even if it's a trivial thing that's bothering us, we tell each other everything.

The day we got together was probably one of the fondest memories I have, other than our wedding day.

It was really simple, the way we became a couple. It was about ten years ago. We had a lazy day in our apartment; a pillow fort, a funny movie and kimchi-fried-rice. We were safe in our tiny - yet cozy - fort and full from our small dinner. Taehyung was lazily running his hand through my hair as I laid on his chest and tried so hard not to fall asleep before I could speak my mind.

"Tae, I need to tell you something," I mumbled after I gathered up all of my courage, which took about twenty minutes. His hand stopped moving and simply rested in my hair as he hummed. It was his way of letting me know he was listening.

I licked my lips and moved my head to look into those sweet brown eyes I had gotten lost in plenty of times. His fluffy black hair was clouding his vision only a little bit. "Remember when we kissed?" A smile washed across his face as he nodded. "Mm, my first kiss. How can I forget that?" he chuckled and I pinched his cheek lightly. Gathering up the remnants of my courage, I took a deep breath.

"I love you."

Silence.

When I opened my eyes again, I was met with that sleepy fond smile across Taehyung's perfect face. His hand moved from the back of my head to push my bangs out of my face. "I know you do, baby. I love you, too." This had to be a dream, but it wasn't and I was glad. His smile widened into that boxy smile I loved so much before he leaned down to place a kiss on my forehead.

I find it funny that we both passed out after that. We were so tired.

But now, six years into our marriage, the both of us can never get any happier.

We have four rambunctious boys and a sweet little girl that Taehyung is completely soft for. She's only four months old, but she's already her daddy's princess. It's funny to me.

The point is, over the years, Kim Taehyung slowly became the one I wanted to come home to. He became the one I wanted to mess around with and hold in my arms every night. He became the one I wanted to hold hands with and kiss as much as I wanted. He became the one I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.

Kim Taehyung, my black-haired beauty, is my home.

And I don't want it any other way.