Puppetry - P.JM. [ON-HOLD]

Seventeen

"Tae, you know I can't take this."

Just like always, Taehyung had to pull me into his games that I never learned.

In front of me was a beautiful dress, probably made from one of the top tailors in the district. Knowing Taehyung, he was always going all out for the things he surprised me with. It always made me feel bad for myself. I felt as if I could never return the favor. I felt like the more beautiful and extravagant things he got me, the more it hurt me. 

The dress in front of me held a beautiful white fabric. The skirt went down to the floor, little pearls and lighter pink jewels sparkling along the smooth material. Coming up to the waist, the belt was the lighter pink you could find on the skirt. Little pieces of white lace were sprinkled here and there for effects. My eyes trailed up to the upper part of the dress then; and oh my Môna, was it gorgeous.

The dress cut off at my upper chest, revealing lace covering the rest of the skin area. The clash of pink and white lace mixed together, dancing with themselves. The pink jewels and pearls covered little parts of it, the objects small enough to just glisten in the light. The lace ran down the arms, going to the wrists. Seeing all of this, it was more skin than I was used to showing, and it wasn't even considered "showing skin."

I turned around, finding Taehyung to be at the doorway, standing there with his shoulder planted on the door frame. He smiled widely, waiting for my reaction. I was starting to slowly come to again.

"Tae, you know I can't take this," I murmured, shaking my head. I could feel my legs straining underneath me, begging to let me drop. "I'm never going to use this. It's . . . It's too pretty."

"Well," he said with his smile, looking down at the floor for a second, then bringing his eyes up to meet mine again, "I thought you could use it for the party I'm throwing tonight."

My heart finally dropped to my stomach. Jungkook was right. Taehyung was planning a party. Just thinking about it, my stomach was starting to turn on me. My legs went numb, fear consuming me. Panic was rising at a rapid pace. 

"I can't come to your party tonight," I murmured, adjusting my backpack strap on my shoulder. 

Taehyung gave a sigh, pulling himself away from the door frame. I watched him walk into the room, coming up to me. "Y/N, tonight will be a time for you to try and relax. I know being in a room filled with a million people is scary, but you can stay by my side the whole time. You don't have to socialize or anything."

Taehyung now had stopped in front of me, him towering over with ease. I looked up at him, watching a little frown on his face. "I can't hurt your reputation, though. I know I already am. Doing this would both get us into trouble. I can't do that to you. Please understand that."

"Does it really look like I care about what people think of us?" he said, his eyebrows tilted up a bit. "If I did, we wouldn't be here now. It doesn't matter what people think of you or I. You've always been my best friend ever since three years ago. I don't think I would ever not invite my best friend to one of my parties."

"But people will start spreading rumors about us like always," I countered back. "Like the time of two years ago. I can't do that again. That was horrible of what people said about us."

Taehyung closed his eyes for a second, running his hand through his hair. He opened his brown eyes back up, looking at me. "I know that was a bad time in our lives, but trust me, nothing like that will happen again. You won't go through that again. I promise you that. Tonight will be fun. Trust me."

Looking up at Taehyung, I was starting to feel bad for wanting to not go. With the beautiful dress and Taehyung's request, it was messing with my brain. The more I thought of how I've always gone to Taehyung's parties, the more I felt obligated to go. I hated that. I hated that I always felt like I had to go. But I always did help out Taehyung a lot. It was me making it up to him. It still pained me, though.