teacher • kth

22: festivities

Apparently Jae was Taehyung's 4 year old goldfish, gifted to him by the real Jae, who was very much alive.

When I told him about my confusion, he burst out into laughter.

How was I supposed to know that he owned a fish?

According to Taehyung, he'd asked Namjoon to feed the poor thing before we left, and for the first time ever, he didn't forget.

The only problem was, his clumsy self dumped the whole food canister into the tank, and the little thing overate himself to death.

What a way to go.

It was late, but neither of us were tired, and we sat beside each other, watching a late night movie.

I tried my hardest to ignore Taehyung's occasional giggles.

He was still cracking up about the mix up, even going as far as to FaceTiming Jae and letting him know about the incident.

"Everest, this bastard would cry more for that damned fish than for me. Don't worry." He'd said, making me blush.

"It's not funny." I grumbled under my breath, making Taehyung look over at me.

He raised an eyebrow, before scooting in closer.

"Are you mad?" He asked, a glint of amusement in his eye.

I turned away from him, my arms crossed.

It was an honest mistake. And who names their goldfish Jae?

Taehyung leaned in closer, and I pushed his face away, making him chuckle as he sat back down, refocusing his attention to the flat screen.

I glanced over at him, looking away quickly when he turned.

"Is that why you weren't talking to me? Because your fish died?" I suddenly asked, my curiosity getting the best of me.

Taehyung looked over, an eyebrow raised.

"It's just, you've been ignoring me-" I trailed off, embarrassed.

I flinched when his hand met mine and squeezed.

"I know. I'm sorry. I was stressed about planning our trip back home. It's not exactly easy to get out of North Korea." He explained to me.

"It wasn't my intention to ignore you." He said gently, and I nodded slowly, relieved that at least, he hadn't been purposefully ignoring me this past week.

I swallowed the lump in my throat, blinking rapidly to blink away my tears.

It wasn't exactly easy having almost zero human contact for so long.

I could see Taehyung's body tense and hesitate, before he leaned over and hugged me.

His long arms wrapped around me, his muscles flexing under his gray henley.

"I'm sorry." He whispered, his embrace warm.

His warm breath hit my ear, making me shiver.

I wrapped an arm around his, hugging him back.

His embrace felt like home.

I pulled away slightly, letting my hands fall to his side.

I could feel his eyes on me, following and tracking my every move.

I was drawn to him.

Like a moth to fire.

He was so close.