CANDID. ᵏᵗʰ

CHAPTER 19; 𝙎𝙈𝙄𝙇𝙀 𝙁𝙊𝙍 𝙔𝙊𝙐

taehyung stared up at the fancy apartment building, dizzyingly tall. he wondered if you'd moved. if you had, then he had no way of getting to you.

talking. this was only talking. calm yourself, taehyung, just knock when you get there.

taehyung toyed with the small, teardrop-shaped device he was given. it was from a friend of seokjin's, who resided—quite coincidentally and to taehyung's advantage—in this exact building. to get past the main doors and to use the elevator, one had to have the key to tap. technically, a tenant was only supposed to have one key for themselves, but seokjin's friend had two, and taehyung didn't want to question it.

he inhaled, exhaled, and made his purposeful way up the steps and into the building. it was exactly the same as the last time he saw it, down to the plants in the corners which taehyung now understood to be fake. the one thing that changed was the side on which a vase of yellow flowers sat on the empty reception desk.

he entered the elevator and punched in the relevant numbers. you lived on the seventeenth floor, second from the highest, number one-seven-oh-eight. taehyung glanced over his appearance in the mirrored walls of the lift. he was glad nobody else was with him, so he was free to fix his sugar-brown hair as openly as he wanted, with only the potential judgement of someone who might be watching the security cameras.

the doors dinged, sliding open smoothly, and he counted the doors as he passed them. with every step he took, he found himself doubting his plans more and more.

what if you slammed the door in his face?

what if you ordered him to leave?

what if you hated him now?

he collected himself by cupping his face over the mask he wore. he concentrated on the heat of his hands and allowed the bad thoughts to fade away. he dropped his hands when he was better.

at number one-seven-oh-eight, he stopped and gazed at the black numbers, tracing over the digits with his eyes. his fist hovered over the door.

well, rip off the band-aid, right, taehyung?

he knocked three times. they sounded surer than he felt.

after a short moment, the door opened. but, instead of your face in the gap between the door and its frame, there was a girl.

"can... can i help you?" she asked after an awkward couple of seconds.

taehyung glanced at the apartment number again just to make sure. yes, this was yours. did you move away? he inclined his head hurriedly and apologised, "sorry, i, um, must have the wrong door. my bad."

he was about to leave when the girl reached out to stop him, not quite touching his arm. "wait, i know you! you're in a bunch of yn's photographs."

his heart skipped a beat. you had them up somewhere visible like that? then he realised that there was a person in your home who knew you, and was wearing—a long shirt?

he recognised it. he wore that dark blue shirt once, when things were less complicated. he wasn't half as pretty as her, not in the way she was. he knew that and it hurt to say that she looked better in it than he ever did.

his heart jumped to his throat and he swallowed, trying to speak normally. "o-oh, am i?"

she nodded, her hair falling neatly down her back and over her shoulders. she smiled warmly. "yeah, you're here for him, right? he's out at the moment but he should be back soon. do you want to come in?"

"yes, um, if that's alright with you."

"sure it is. come on in." she opened the door wider and stepped aside to let taehyung through. he slipped off his shoes and naturally went over to the cupboard, grabbing out a specific pair of blue slippers that were wordlessly his.