Flower Boy [Kim Taehyung]

Part 4

Kim Taehyung's stood less than six feet from them, a distance that suggested he'd been about to approach.  A look of horror plastered his face, mirroring ten times worse than hers or Mina's expressions.

            "T-Taehyung." Rin started to squeak out, but the cry of the bell sounded.

            A frenzy of people flew between them and Taehyung seemed to snap out of it. Face still deathly pale, he turned and fled into the crowd, disappearing around the corner of the hall.

            Rin stared into the moving mass of people, ears ringing. Her books felt like cold blocks of lead in her arms.

            "Um..." Mina bit her lip, suddenly appearing small against the lockers. "I'm so sorry.  I-I had no idea he was even there, he just popped up out of nowhere-!"

            "MINA!" Rin yelled, smacking Mina's shoulder with her Trig book.

            "Ah, okay, okay..." Mina said, cowering behind her arms.  She peeked at Rin after a moment, a guilty laugh shooting out of her. "But... that's what best friends are for, right? We... we make fun of each other, we argue occasionally, we might mortally embarrass one another at times... but we're still best friends, yes?"

            Mina sent her a simmering look before Taehyung's horror-struck face resurfaced in her mind, and she collapsed against her locker with a moan.  "Oh, my God... What am I gonna do? How much did he hear?"

            "Well, enough, whether if it was that you threw the flowers away or that you're allergic, he didn't know, and you threw the flowers away," Mina said with a cringe.  "Oh! I'll go run after him!  It was totally my fault he overheard, I could just-"

            "He probably thinks I'm the worst now!" Rin wailed. Hot shame scrambled her insides.

            Mina paused in the direction Taehyung had gone, looking back at Rin with conflict in her eyes.  She stepped in front of Rin and gripped her shoulders.  "Look... it's going to be okay, you hear?  Taehyung is a nice guy.  He's just shy.  We'll... we'll figure something out, all right?"

            Unable to meet her eyes, Rin could only nod.

            "C'mon," Mina said, gently tugging her off her locker. "We're gonna be late to class."

             Rin ducked through the halls after that, anticipating any face she'd come across to be Taehyung's.  Once in a while she would catch a flicker of him, but then she'd hastily tuck herself between a crowd of people and he'd disappear from her field of vision once more.  Did he ever see her?  Was it obvious she was avoiding him?  Rin had no clue.

            And she could only curse at the irony of seeing him because before the flowers, Rin had barely noticed Kim Taehyung.

        She knew he existed but Taehyung had always been one of the dozens of guys in Rin's grade, a boy who happened to live by her. He was never in any of Rin's classes back in elementary or middle school, he was crazily athletic or best sports player, and he was popular but certainly shy among the school.

            Rin could probably count on one hand the number of times she'd spoken with Taehyung, and even then those interactions had been pathetic.  "Sorry", if he accidentally bumped into her in the hall?  "Thanks", if he picked up her pencil?  The awkward eye contact they had across the street if they ever checked the mail at the same time?

            It was ridiculous, living less than thirty yards from him, with only six hundred students in their school, and Rin didn't even know the simplest things about Taehyung. Like if he was an only child or not. Or if he could drive.  For Taehyung's sake, Rin couldn't even recall what his voice sounded like.

            Yet Taehyung the enigma had decided to give her flowers.

            "Just go over and talk to him," Mina said at lunch. "If you won't let me go and apologize--"

  "But it's not your fault!" Rin said, lowering her voice to a hush when people at their lunch table looked at them curiously. "I mean, not really, you were telling the truth but then he was there and... and, oh-" She buried her head in her arms. "He shouldn't have heard any of it!"

               But then the thoughts that had been swirling through Rin's head all morning resurfaced: Even if Taehyung hadn't heard and had approached them that morning, what would Rin have said? What would he have said?  That he liked her?  That he wanted to go on a date with her?  And how would Rin have replied to that?  Or was she reading too much into it, and the flowers had just been a simple "happy birthday" gesture from a fellow neighbor?

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