Blood In The Water / Mafia / Kim Taehyung

Epilogue

It wasn't the first time I felt like I was being watched...

I had been given the tedious job of shutting up the shop every Thursday evening. It had been like that for the past three years since moving back to my old town. Outside the streets were covered in snow and the temperature had fallen into the minuses. Even inside the shop, there was a cold chill in the air. I tighten the scarf around my neck and button up my coat to the very last one, preparing to battle the wintery night. I turn the lights off and check the back door a second time to make sure it is securely locked. Using the dull glow of the streetlights as a guide, I open the front door to leave.

Outside of the shop, laying on the snow is a bouquet of flowers. Their emerald green stems are wrapped in a sugary pink wrapping sheet, tied with a white ribbon. The bouquet consists of roses, peonies, tulips and others I didn't quite know the names of. This wasn't the first time a bouquet had been left outside of the shop. In fact, to be more precise, there was one every Thursday. I pick up the bouquet, looking around at the empty streets surrounding me. I always felt as though there was someone watching me. I assumed I was either being paranoid or the person responsible for leaving the flowers stayed long enough to watch my reaction. I'd never worked out who was leaving them but I would do almost anything to find out.

I lock the front door of the shop and begin the walk back to my apartment. The moonlight reflects off the ice which caused my feet to slip and slide along the pavements. The park was covered in a thick blanket of white, footsteps left behind creating patterns in the fresh layer of snow. I smile to myself, glancing down at the bouquet in my hands.

There is a sudden loud thud, followed by a low cry from behind me. I turn my head and audibly gasp as I spot a male laying on the floor, rubbing the back of his head. I begin to retrace my footsteps towards the man to help him up but as he sees me approaching, he gets up quickly, almost too quickly as he nearly falls to the ground again. Before I can check to see if he is okay he begins walking away from me at a fast pace down the street.

"Excuse me, are you okay?" I shout after him but I don't receive a response nor does he slow down. As the bouquet of flowers rests in my arms something clicks. Could he be the one leaving them? I rush after him as fast as my legs can move while keeping balance. I find myself closing the gap between me and the male who was struggling to stay upright. I'm only a few meters away from him when I overstep and feel my foot slide from underneath me. My body is hurtled into the back of him, the extra force bringing him down to the ground with me like a set of dominoes. The male had fallen on top of me in an awkward position, his body laid sideways across my own. "I'm so sorry," I apologise with an embarrassed blush across my cheeks. I push myself out from underneath him, brushing off the dirt from my jeans.

"It's okay, Hanna."

"My foot slipped and - wait a minute, you know my name?" I still hadn't managed to get a glimpse of the strangers face until he turns to look at me. All words left me. I stare into those coffee-coloured eyes I'd not seen in so long and everything comes rushing back; the memories, the fights, the goodbye.

"Of course I know your name. Do you like the flowers?" He asks with a small chuckle, finding amusement in the way my eyes had blown open wide and my mouth was stuck in a permanent 'o' shape. "Fuck the flowers," I cry out loud as a pull him to my body. He clasps one of his hands around my lower back as he strokes my hair with the other. I cry into his shoulder, releasing all the built-up tension and frustrations of the three years without him.

"I'm glad to see you missed me as much as I missed you," Taehyung whispers and I can tell he is smiling. I pull back from him, no longer able to feel the cold that was being expelled by his body heat. "It was you leaving me the flowers?" I ask, mostly rhetorical. He nods his head with a small hum. All of a sudden the flowers meant so much more. I had displayed every bouquet Taehyung had left for me in a small jar placed on top of my bedside table. It was like I had always been living with a part of him beside me, and I wondered if that was the reason he had left them.