BLACK ON BLACK | TK

Chapter Three

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"There's silence where I stood
I found you in the lone light
Never knew it felt this good
Won't you teach me how to see
The way you see me"

The fact that his partner was finally living in the same city as him brought Jimin a smile so wide on his face that he blinded Taehyung every time his friend knocked on his door late at night to tell him the details of their dates. Taehyung and Jimin laughed together but the younger couldn't ignore the familiar tightness inside his chest when Jimin told him how wonderful it was to finally have someone by his side.

Taehyung was not jealous because being jealous or envious of someone else wasn't something he'd ever see himself doing. He would never allow himself to feel that way. Taehyung was just eager to have what they had, to find someone for himself as well. When Jimin told him about the smiles and kisses he shared with Yoongi, his soulmate, or the dated he planned in detail and that always surprised him, Taehyung smiled because he was happy for his best friend but that smile never reached the extreme where his cheeks should have started aching.  Taehyung had only smiled like that when he'd turned 18, hoping that he'll finally find his soulmate, but ever since then that smile had slowly faded, leaving a cold mask of porcelain behind.

"I want you to meet him, Tae." Jimin said, his excitement falling out of him in waves as he paced around Taehyung's apartment. "I'm sure you'll get along so well. You're both from Daegu so you two can share memories about your hometown together. How about tomorrow night?  We'll go out with his friends and I'll also ask Hoseok to tag along."

Taehyung wasn't a fan of going out but he found himself approving without realizing because of Jimin's sparkling eyes, because of the smile that hasn't left his lips ever since Yoongi's arrival in Seoul.

So, the following day, Taehyung woke up early, as he usually did, to eat breakfast while Muse and Onyx waited for him in front of the door, their food long gone.  Taehyung smiled as he pet them, then hugged them both, letting Onyx touch his cheek with his nose—he did that every time he saw him.  Taehyung went down the steps of his building, greeting the people that were leaving their apartments to go to work, school, or shopping, and received sweet smiles and greetings in return.  As it happened every morning, the old couple walking down the street stopped to greet him, then the woman handed him a cookie, which Taehyung divided into two pieces he offered to his dogs—he knew they were sugar free because he often bought the same ones and used them as treats while they were in the park.

He strolled around for a while as his dogs played and, as he walked under the warm rays of the sun, his mind drifted to the man he had met a few days prior—the owner of that black motorcycle that had caught his eyes. He had left that day because Taehyung, despite how friendly he seemed, was still a person who mostly spent his days inside, painting. His anxiety levels were above normal so talking to strangers, especially ones who looked like they were taken out of a movie, was not something he was good at. The stranger had made him feel anxious but not in a bad way—he had made Taehyung nervous with his beauty and that intense stare.

Still, even after the passing of a couple of days, Taehyung couldn't forget his eyes—that stare. His eyes looked like they had the night sky hidden inside them—not the universe, not galaxies. Just the sky—and maybe a couple of glittering stars. His eyes had been beautiful but, then again, the man, as Taehyung could still remembered, had been astonishing—everything about him.

Taehyung had ran that day, daring to look back once more as he walked towards the entrance of the park only to find the man staring after him, but as he turned around and strolled towards his building, he had found himself wishing he would have stayed.