The Polaroid Album | taehyung✔

◾24th May◽

I hugged her.

I don't know why I find that as an important milestone in our friendship. Maybe because I had worked up the courage to make my feelings clearer, to both her and me.

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Love is a beautiful thing. She is a beautiful thing. Life is a beautiful thing. How did everything come to this?

Those twenty four hours was a rollercoaster. The very thought of her was able to send me into a fit of giggles. The image of her smile was imprinted in my mind, replaying the laughter over and over again. I couldn't sleep, so I settled on dreaming the night away. The future felt uncertain, but it's not a crime to dream, is it?

I don't know how many times I drifted to sleep, but I eventually ended waking up after a few minutes. When I had my eyes open, I could see her apparition in front of me, enclosing herself in my arms. When I closed my eyes, I could see her dragging me through the woods, happy to keep going forward without looking back. She was everywhere.

So as the clock showed half past four, I decided to wake her up for a change. Practically jumping out of bed, I stretched, picked up my polaroid camera and with naked feet, walked over to her cabin.

Single candles were lit at the entrances of our cabins. Nothing else was seen between these two spots of light, but as long as the destination remained in sight, no bother could, can touch me.

Stones were flowers at my feet. The slosh was cotton. The darkness of crescent-mooned night kept my heart blazing. The eerie silence was music waiting to be played. The whole prospect of greeting her made the small journey feel like another world.

The other candle let me see the steps. The creaks echoed through the undisturbed atmosphere as I walked up with a smile playing on my face.

The candle didn't flicker much as I thought it would. It's length shone strong and bright. It looked happy, and I liked anything happy. So there came the polaroid.

Careful not to alert anyone of my arrival, I handled the door with utmost care. Once that was done, I stood amidst sleeping beauties, but there was only one I asked for my own.

The candle lit at the table illuminated her peaceful self. Her mouth was open, puffs of air blown out at constant intervals. I could see her drooling out of the corner of her crafted lips. Her hair covered half of her face, pieces falling on her nose. She laid in such a position that one should think it to be impossible.

Only I could find this incredibly adorable.

"Aurora.... Wake up. Rise and shine." Placing the camera and picture aside, I shook her slowly, not wanting to startle her. After a few more pushes, I finally got a response.

A sleepy hand weakly slapped mine away. "Go away..." she groaned into her pillow, shifting over to another unimaginable position.

I grinned. She would finally see how it felt to be woken up by someone else, especially when sleep called out to you. Relentlessly I continued to annoy her.

"Stop it Tae..." My hand momentarily froze. She had made my name another permanent resident in her.

"A nickname can't stop me now!" I joyously whispered. I was just so carefree, with nothing holding me back. And it was such an addictive state to be in. I could see the world around me in another light. A much better light.

She groaned, moving around in her blankets. "Come on, I'll wake up in a few minutes..."

"A few minutes isn't much. Get up and we can make the other two get up too."

"Tae..."

The name made my cheeks burn. Everyone who knew me called me the same, but she made it sound so... perfect.

I shook her again, to which she grabbed my hands and tucked them in her own. "Don't do anything for a while. Just stay if you have to," she rasped.

"I'll just sleep here then."

"Do as you wish," she mumbled, leaning over to the other edge of the single bed, facing her back to me and leaving my hands placed on the mattress.

I didn't mean to actually act as I said, because I was still shy underneath. But my love-drunk mind pushed that aside.

I placed one hand over her while lowering myself onto her bed. That hand encircled her, keeping her close. One corner of my mind said, What are you doing? Are you crazy? Honestly, I must have been crazy, but crazy in love. And love makes us all do insane things.

The material shaped to fit me just as my heart shaped to fit her. I left a hair's length between us, resting behind her. Though we were almost equally tall, I got this feeling like I was protecting her. When she made me feel safe, shouldn't I do the same?

She didn't move. "What are you doing?" She whispered, slightly panicked.

She was home. It was cozy, and my eyelids finally felt heavy.

"I haven't slept the entire night. I think I'll sleep here," I mumbled into her hair.

The stiffness melted away from her. "Why the sudden change?"

"I don't know. But change is a good thing right?" The darkness was taking over me. The heaviness landed on my head, another indication of the arrival of sleep.

"This change is." I heard the smile in those words.

Her words set ablaze a flame in me and made me envision a future as I closed my eyes. A future where we were together, where we laughed, talked and lived like everyone else, but with a secret spoken with each touch, each look. A secret that spelled out, I LOVE YOU.

I can dream... I didn't know what was to come, but I knew that I was willing to do anything to reach that. I smiled into her hair at the thought. I really liked her a lot, enough to call it love.

So I ended up sleeping for the next few hours, instead of waking up in what I thought would be a few minutes.

This change from ignorance to realisation was the biggest change in my entire life. The dormant part of me had been activated. The part of me that smiled at the smallest things, the hyperactive side that had me giggling at silly things and the feeling of immense happiness that left me carefree. A happy sort of thoughtlessness took over me, letting me enjoy things to the utmost.

I still am the same, which does leave the other boys in confusion at times, but I don't care. It's my way of being happy.

I think I'm still the same because that flame I felt back then still burns bright till today. A fire that began burning when my chest touched her back, hearts beating together. No matter how long the wait, the wax, being made of patience and wishfulness, would never run out. With only darkness surrounding the flame, it takes up all the space, free to spread out till where it can.

Everything is because of the