CHIAROSCURO; TAEKOOK

3 - ENIGMA.

I walked home from school that day thinking only about Taehyung and the Tower of Babel. Did God fear them? I wanted to know more about what went through Taehyung's mind. I would've never been able to ask such a question as bravely as he did, yet he did so with self-confidence.

To my surprise, he caught up with me while the other boys ran along back home.

"Hello, Jeon," he greeted me pleasantly. I could only smile in response, taken aback by how close he was. Standing next to me, this was the first time I had been able to see his features up close and wow. A walking embodiment of the Golden Ratio - Plato and Euclid would have been in awe.

"Would you like to walk together?" He smiled amiably, not at all put off by my silence. Strangely, he extended his hand to me. I was confused, did he want me to take it? Or was he just making some odd, dramatic gesture?

"I'd like that," I responded, evident that I was flattered. As quickly as he had extended it, Taehyung put his hand back into his pocket and began walking. I strolled beside him, occasionally glancing down at his pocket. Perhaps I was subconsciously hoping he would offer his hand to me again.

I started thinking about the lesson earlier, and just then, he asked, "Do you think God feared them?"

I was confounded. Did he just read my mind? I tried not to look so flustered by his sudden question.

"Why do you think He did?"

"By His own admission, nothing would have been impossible for them because they had a common language. Doesn't that mean that the people would have been able to reach the heavens if they tried? Teacher said the people were being boastful, but alternatively, they could have wanted to build the monument as a symbol of their unity. Why did this provoke Him so? Was it wrong for them to unite to accomplish this? Would they not have realised eventually that they could not possibly reach the heavens? The people had built the city and the tower so that they wouldn't be divided and scattered across the earth."

His words threw me into a loop. What he said made sense, but what did it mean? Was he implying that what we were learning was false? I couldn't wrap my head around it. I had never seriously thought about a Bible story before, I was satisfied to just absorb whatever my teacher said the morals of the stories were supposed to be.

"And so you believe the actions of the people were justified?"

"Yes and no. One cannot say if they were truly prideful and arrogant. I may be just upset that we lost having a common language to some impressive architecture," he chuckled.

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Taehyung puzzled me greatly. He was the first person I had ever met to have such an interesting take on the stories in the Bible, and to outright question the authenticity of them. Was he trying to steal me from the light? I could not sense that he had any ill intent, he didn't seem like he was trying to persuade me that his opinion was right. Which half did Taehyung belong to then?

These thoughts went round and round in my head. It was a stone dropped into a well, and the well was my youthful soul.⁺

I could not shake the thoughts of him from my mind when I returned home, they plagued my sleep. There must have been something very wrong with me. Why was I so attached to these thoughts, even when I returned home to the light and unsullied world?

I contemplated approaching my parents to ask what they thought of his views, but I knew they would be greatly disapproving. I resorted to try to put it out of my mind like I always did when I found myself conflicted over the worlds of light and dark, but I could not stop thinking about him.

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yall pls dont be offended by the biblical stuff