Afterglow | K.TH

Little Kids

RIEUL

"Nothing."

"Nothing?"

His voice is mocking, and I bite down on my tongue as I nod furiously. Taehyung smiles, eyes slitting into dark lines.

"Well, you do think I'm a handful, though." He says, resting his head in his hand. "So. Is that in a good or a bad way?"

I yelp.

"None of the ways!"

Then cursing out Jimin one last time in my mind, I bounce up from the couch and run towards the veranda of his house. Taehyung follows me, but I lock the glass door before he can get to it first.

Then I slump on the grass bed, sun pouring down on my exposed forearms.

He looks furious now.

"Come back in." He growls, tapping the knuckle of his hand against the glass. "I'm fine with it. Just come back in, Rieul. This is ridiculous."

"Not until you stop looking at me like you want to kill me!"

He runs his tongue harshly over his bottom lip. "Rieul, I'm only going to get angrier the longer you stay out there. It's hot. Come in, before I break the door."

I gape, which makes him smile darkly.

"I could, baby."

"But you shouldn't." I point out, and frown deeply. "And don't call me that. Even I don't call Jungkook that, and for real he literally fits the definition of that wor—"

"Rieul. I'm not playing."

He slams his hand harder against the glass surface. That makes me wince, and Taehyung sighs low in his throat.

"No. I'm not coming back in because you're being mean to me."

And for a second, I'm shocked at the childishness I'm showing, that I really just said to him. It was something that I'd kept in for years from caregiving Jungkook.

Was it because I was really accepting Taehyung as mine? My caregiver?

Was that it?

"Rieul, come inside. I can see you sweating already— don't try and deny me."

I stretch out against the grass. He clenches his teeth when I stick my tongue out in his direction, ignoring the fact that I was being a complete kid.

"I'm not hot at all."

I quickly wipe off my sweat when he turns away for one second, looking up with an innocent expression when he turns back.

Taehyung crosses his arms over his chest, tone flat.

"Fine. I'll wait until you decide that you've matured enough to come back in, Miss Jeon."

I wipe my forehead again.

_________________________

"O-Ow."

He shoots me a dark look, and I wince for the millionth time as he gently spreads aloe all over the skin of my sunburned forearms.

He shakes his head.

"This is why you should've listened to me, Rieul."

I blush slightly, looking down at my feet with voice all tiny from embarrassment. "I don't know why I acted like that all of a sudden. That was so childish."