Rural Romance - [K.TFanfiction]

The Neighbor

  You did not like to get mixed up in problematic gossip. But often times you couldn't help but overhear the words of the very few people who live here.
Words circulate at an exponential rate around here, even faster than newspapers and online posts. There was no need for a bulletin board for people to know that the Kim family's eldest son was a simpleton.
Not that there was anything wrong with being a simpleton, If anything everyone here is, but there's something about that kid that left you dumbfounded. And it had always been that way.
Coincidentally the Kim family and your family decided to conceive a child on the same day. Apparently there was a period of time where everyone in the small town wanted to have babies at around the same time so they could go to school together. Unfortunately you were the first who popped out. And the last of that year was none other than the simpleton himself.
Taehyung was always the one who took the blame and the burden from the older kids because he wanted the acceptance. Many townspeople admired him for being a passive and overall friendly child. But overtime that changed.
Taehyung started spending more time alone out in the fields catching butterflies, or indoors practicing his saxophone than talking to the other kids. Instead of grown out of his shell, he grew into one.
You noticed this the moment he stopped waiting for you outside your door every morning. You noticed this when he stopped sharing jellies with you at school. You noticed this when he stopped pointing out the simple things like the color of the sky, or whether or not the clouds were shaped like red bean sesame balls. He became quiet, almost like his mind had nothing else but the task he was completing at the moment.
And for some reason, you resented him for it. You resented him for no longer being concerned or troubled about anything at all. At least it seemed like that anyway.

To be fair, you always believed that deep down the Kim Taehyung that told you that sunflowers remind him of you was still there. Even if you resented him for leaving you alone for the past 10 years, not speaking a word when you guys happened to be walking on the same path to the same school everyday; you still missed him. You still miss him.

You guys have spent the past 18 years of your lives knowing of each other, but remaining strangers with memories.

You look across the field again after reminiscing the idea of his past self, when by coincidence he looks up from collecting the berries.
It was an odd feeling. To catch his eyes. He had sunburn spots left from his loose tank top and ripped cargo shorts. Everyday he carried that basket for fruits and flowers, everyday he would tan his skin. He had a natural honey-like complexion he had developed over the years. It was quite surprising to realize how tall and strong he had become.
Where has that baby face gone? Where has his small and shy voice disappeared too?