Bittersweet

21

"You're prettier than them."

Taehyung's eyes widened. You clamped a hand to your mouth and turned away, the heat rising to your cheeks. You could feel Taehyung's gaze burning into you, but you refused to turn back and meet his gaze.

"Y/N-ah?"

You could feel your heart pounding.

"I wasn't thinking, sorry. Please just ignore what I said."

"Y/N-ah just look here, would you? It's not very fun talking to the back of your head."

You reluctantly turned back, but kept your gaze lowered, afraid to meet Taehyung's eyes. He laughed.

"You know, it's nice hearing stuff like that. Soo Jin never compliments me, you know? In fact, she's actually been avoiding me recently, so we hardly say much to each other."

Surprised, you frowned. Soo Jin avoiding Taehyung seemed a little odd. You usually saw her plastered to Taehyung, playing with his hair or practically wrapping her body around his arm.

"That's odd. Why would she be avoiding you?"

Taehyung shrugged, slightly pouting.

"I don't know. She says she's busy preparing for a comeback."

Your frown deepened.

"But I didn't even finish properly writing all the songs yet. I'm still editing and making a good instrumental. Nobody's working on the comeback right now except for me."

Taehyung propped himself up on his elbow, facing you. His dark eyes were dead serious, any hint of laughter or humor gone from his face.

"Are you sure? She's not working on anything?"

You shook your head.

"She's not. Nobody is. We're all going to be starting in a week, once I'm all done with everything."

Taehyung's frown deepened. You watched him, concerned. You liked him. A lot. But you still cared about his feelings and if Soo Jin was doing something shady behind his back, he should know.

"Should I ask Soo Jin about it?"

Taehyung shook his head.

"No. I'll talk to her myself. Thank you for telling me."

Taehyung stood and sauntered off without another word, leaving you alone on the rooftop.

---------------------------

A week had passed since you and Taehyung had talked properly. A few days back, you saw Taehyung and Soo Jin in a practice room and they seemed to be arguing. You decided to give both of them their space, and didn't bring it up around either of them. Taehyung seemed crestfallen whenever he had accompanied Hoseok to dance practice with you.

Taehyung was the kind who liked to be always pampered, so the fact that Soo Jin was avoiding him and lied about it was probably really hard for him. You felt awful for him and you wished you could help, but you got the feeling that Taehyung wanted to be alone.

You stepped out of the recording studio, after finishing up recording your parts for the first song. You'd be recording again in two days for another song, and you'd keep repeating the process until all the songs were complete. Jae Hwa would be recording the intro alone, since it was her solo piece. You promised to accompany her into the studio while she was recording for support, so while you'd be in the studio tomorrow, you wouldn't be recording yourself.

You wandered down to the practice rooms where there would often be a stock of energy drinks. You'd been recording and re-recording your parts until you were satisfied, resulting in your throat becoming incredibly dry and strained by the end of it. You found an energy drink in an empty practice room, so you sat down with it, your back against the mirrored wall.