On The Edge (TaeJin)

S1 - 15 - Digging more graves?

Long update is here! 

TW;

Seokjin walks past him, cursing himself for not being smaller. He expected Taehyung to call him – the way he teased him every single of the three days after the 'compromising' incident.

His heart thuds loudly in his head. He paces quickly to his classroom, checking the slow moving profile of Taehyung from the corner of his eye.

He counts down, three, two, one –

"Seokjin!"

He turns, his brain in autopilot because he was expecting Taehyung to call him. Only, it is his classmate – Eun-Ae.

"Hi," he says timidly but he looks past her, at the disappearing form of Taehyung towards the end of the campus garden.

Eun-Ae talks something about the assignment, hesitantly jokes about the deadlines. To anyone else, it'd be obvious that she is trying her best to flirt. But Seokjin's brain is fuzzy, wondering why Taehyung didn't call him. He responds to her in mono-syllables before she tires out and leaves to the class.

He stands rooted to the spot as if expecting Taehyung to reappear around the corner. The bell shrilly rings and he forces himself to go to the class.

....

Taehyung has never pined for anyone – maybe for his father's attention as a kid but that was his embarrassing pre-teen era.

Even now, he wants to tell himself that this is not called as pining. He is just concerned for Seokjin. Because after the church incident, Seokjin avoided him for two days straight.

But Seokjin's avoidance is of a different kind – not the rude, cold shoulder ones. On the first day, he left a box of cutely designed lemon tarts. On the second day, he left the borrowed coat with a neatly bowed bunch of wildflowers.

All that, but not a word was exchanged between the two. He wasn't even showing up at their library corner. Taehyung and Yoongi however had a scheduled check on both the evenings to make sure Seokjin isn't wandering away on his own.

Today, Taehyung already texted Yoongi, asking if he was picking him up. Yoongi didn't respond yet. As per protocol, Taehyung waits at the library though he does know that Seokjin wouldn't be showing up.

As he goes through his phone gallery, he sees the picture that he took at the church. He sighs and runs a few queries on the name. The data pops up quickly – he is a reverend who has been working with the Archdiocese for about 25 years. He apparently started off young – as a 17 year old. The now 42 year old has decided to move to a smaller place owing to his age and is hence practicing at their town.

Taehyung idly scrolls down through the long list of churches he has been a part of. There was a gallery full of pictures of his from each of those churches with well-worded praises signed at the bottom of each picture.

He walks to the window from where he can have a view of Seokjin's classroom as he goes through each of the pictures. One of the pictures catches his eye – he stares at it, the familiarity of the church, the way the photo looks and the children in the photo. He tries to grapple with the memory when he realizes the lights in Seokjin's classroom are being turned off.

Yoongi hasn't replied yet so he slings his bag. He blindly takes a turn and runs into someone.

"So – sorry," the girl squeaks as she picks her fallen books.

Taehyung bows and mutters an apology as he walks away from her. He thinks he knows her, but he can't place her face. Just as he is about to exit, he remembers.