I Can't See You (On Hiatus)

一

第一次聽到你的聲音，你真像天使。

Taehyung POV
Sunday 8:00 pm

My head hurt. My fist hurt. Everywhere on my body hurt. Especially my heart.

I slammed the door to my apartment and tossed my keys to a side. The atmosphere was hot and heavy from the lack of air conditioning. Almost immediately, my forehead broke out in sweat. Hastily, I put down my duffel bag of gym clothes and locked myself in the bathroom.

I splashed cold water into my face and washed my hands under the running tap. Dried blood, rusty red, tinted the liquid and rushed around the sink bottom. I scrubbed along the edge of my fingertips, which bled out too. Not from me, but from who bled onto me earlier today. My head throbbed. The punch that asshole gave me was harder than I expected. 

I brushed my teeth with extra toothpaste to try and get rid of the bittersweetness of the whiskey I gulped down earlier. Staring longingly at the mirror, I sighed. I looked exactly how I thought I looked like. My recently dyed blue hair had faded. My eyes were bloodshot, and I wasn't even that tired. I groaned and gave up, spat into the sink, and flopped onto the bed.

With a lazy flick of the wrist, I turned off the bedside lamp and pushed myself up against the headboard. I fell back on to the balsa wood and closed my eyes.

Thump.

Thump.

I sat up again. Tf man. It was like someone was hurling things at the wall. Now, I knew for a fact that the walls were thin. The landlord warned me of that when I first moved in. At the time, I didn't have neighbors. Whoever was going ballistic next door probably just moved in.

Carefully, I knocked on the wall.

Once.

Then twice.

" Hello?" I said softly.
The someone was crying. Sobbing.

"Hello?" I called out again, this time louder. The person stopped crying, and shuffled against the wall.

I tapped the wall. It felt hollow and empty. The walls were really thin. I paused.

"Wait, you can really hear me?" The voice said suddenly, breaking the silence. I hesitated.

"Yeah," I replied. The person was a man. No, a boy. My age. Most likely. "I'm sorry for intruding." The boy laughed weakly.

"It's okay," He said. "The landlord warned me about the thin walls when I moved in this morning." Then he laughed, a sound of pure adorableness.

"You moved in this morning?"

"Yeah. From Busan. To study at college."

 I bit my lip thoughtfully.

"Huh. I moved here a month ago from Daegu."

The awkwardness filled the air again.

"Well, I'm sorry to intrude your privacy," I said quickly. "It was none of my business, I know." He must have heard me settling down, because he tapped the wall as if to stop me.

"You don't want to talk to me anymore?" He asked. 

"W-what?"

"You heard me, why don't you want to talk to me? You started the conversation in the first place."

I felt a blush spread across my cheek, and I covered my cheek with my hand, even though he couldn't even see me. I did start the conversation. well, unintentionally.

"Fine, sure, I can talk," I said at last. "But let me ask. you something first."

"Hit me with your best shot."

"Why were you crying?"

The air remained silent, for longer than comfortable. I felt the boy shift about, and I wasn't expecting an answer. I winced at myself, immediately regretting being so forward.

"Intruding privacy huh," He said suddenly, chuckling a little. "I caught my older brother's girlfriend cheating on him with some dick."

"No way," I breathed. "My girlfriend cheated on me today too. I punched the guy, and he bled a lot."

"Good for you," He sniffed. "I've been calling and texting him, and I don't know where he is, or if he's okay..." His voice trailed off and broke. I heard the shuffle of a pillow, and someones head stuffing into it. Probably him.

"I'm sure he's ok," I assured him, leaning back onto the wall. "Don't cry..." I paused, and pondered how to call him.

"Hey I never got your name," I said.

"My name? What, you hitting on me now?" He answered teasingly. I could almost hear him smiling. 

"N-no, I was just thinking, if we're gonna chat, we have to at least know each others names."

"Hm. Maybe we should keep it like this."

"Like what?"

"Like, staying anonymous. Like those cool spy movies that George Clooney does." 

I rolled my eyes and giggled. This guy was a nerd. A cute nerd.

"At least let me call you something," I offered. "It doesn't have to be your real name."

"Ok," He agreed. "I'll let you decide. K."

"K? Is that the first letter in your name?"

"Nope."

"Kim? Kang?"

He laughed.

"No!"

I thought for a while, trying to think of a silly name.

"Kookie!"

The boy laughed harder.

"But 'cookie' starts with a 'c'" He protested.

"Cookie with a K then," I said firmly, pressing my hand on the concrete. "Full stop."

"Fine," Kookie chuckled. "What do I call you then?"

I pondered for a while. I thought about all the nicknames I had as a kid. Tae. Tae Tae. Ta Ta. No, those were too obvious. He would guess my name easily. I thought about all the toys and cartoons I liked as a kid. Taekwon V. Taekwon? V? V. That was pretty cool.

"You can call me V," I said at last.

"V? What kind of name is that?"

"What kind of name is K?"

"Fair, fair," He said. "I'm good with V."

I giggled softly and flopped back onto my back. Shit. It was already 11 pm. I had school tomorrow.

"I think we should both get some sleep," Kookie said, as if he read my mind. "We both have school."

"Yeah," I sighed. "It was nice talking to you." I pulled the sheets up to my chin and nestled into my pillows. I heard a click of a light switch and shuffling of blankets.

"Goodnight V."

"Goodnight Kookie."

(A/n: PERSONA SHIPS. Also, I'm sorry I had to unpublished this chapter earlier because I accidentally deleted half the damn page 😂😂😅)