Blueberries & Whiskey || k.th

prologue

➳

He was like a Midsummer Night's Dream.

So surreal, so hard to cling on to.

And maybe deep down I've known it since we've met.

But I surely only realized it when he got on that cab to the airport.

He wasn't crying. He was smiling brightly and waving ecstatically as if the next day I'd see him again waiting on our front porch with a couple of stag beetles to play with. Only I won't.

I wasn't sure if he genuinely didn't know that or if he was just forcing himself not to cry, but I shouldn't have expected much from a ten year old.

I hiccuped and clutched onto my mother's shirt as the cab drove away. As I became more aware of the empty presence that once belonged to my best friend, more tears fell out of my eyes.

No, no, please... Don't go away. Don't leave me.

"Taehyung!" I shouted, letting go of my mother's shirt and running forward, like I thought I could miraculously catch up to the cab and stop it from leaving — but at that time, I didn't care.

Then I fell. On my own will, once I've seen that he was really gone, he was not coming back.

I sobbed more as I hung my head low, kneeling down on the concrete ground that was scraping my knees painfully. Although I came to the conclusion that I was already too pained to mind the throbbing of my legs.

I soon heard footsteps before I felt the presence of my parents behind me. They crouched down on my level and comfortingly squeezed my tiny shoulder.

"Aera, it's going to be alright."

"Aera! It's going to be alright. Please don't cry. "

Taehyung wiped my tears but I saw that he himself was crying.

"Y-You hate me, that's why you're going away!" I felt my lips quiver as I spoke. I looked up and saw Taehyung's gaze grow soft with his red puffy eyes, he shook his head.

"I love you!" He said and I shoved him away.

"No you don't!" I answered back with wet tears descending down my cheeks. Taehyung frowned, stepping closer, "Of course I do, you're my best friend."

"Then why are you leaving?" I asked, my voice quiet.

His own tears didn't go away, "My dad has work. He's being relocated — I think that was the word mom used — to Arupe? Uerok? No, Europe."

I looked down and whispered, "That's so far away."

Taehyung grabbed my cheeks and lifted my little face up, "Just continue to play with Yoongi. I don't want the both of you to be lonely."

I swung my head side to side vigorously, "I don't want Yoongi! I want you!"

Back then I wasn't aware of the meaning my words held, neither did he. But maybe that small glint in his eyes told me otherwise.