(n) forgotten or lost things; a notebook lost on a bus, a pencil left at school.
(Previously @dontcry-writefic. Don’t worry, it’s me!)
A/N: This amazing graphic made by my cool ass friend soulmate - @donttellme-byebye. She be so cool, i cri :’)
//CHAPTER 1// CHAPTER 2// CHAPTER 3// CHAPTER 4// CHAPTER 5// CHAPTER 6// CHAPTER 7// CHAPTER 8//
“Ooh, I haven’t really decided yet….” You took a quick scan of the menu in front of you. But instead of looking at the descriptions of the dishes, you went through the prices. You knew this restaurant was known for its notoriously high prices, and you didn’t even know if you had any cash in your wallet. Aha! A salad, why didn’t you think of that earlier?
“I think I’ll have the Caesar’s salad with, umm, croutons?” You were adding up the total in your head.
A soft scoff escaped Taehyung’s lips. “Oh come on, _______, there’s amazing Teriyaki here, and I know saw it on the menu, weirdo. So yes, noona, we’ll both have the Teriyaki entrée, no appetizer. Could you go easy on the sauce for ________? She likes it that way. Also, please make sure there’s no type of nuts in the side, she’s really allergic, and I’m sure she doesn’t have her EpiPen with her right now,” his gaze landed on you for a second and as if having made a decision, he looked back at the waitress with a firm smile, and added, “She’ll definitely have cranberry juice, no ice, and of course, I’m fine with any kind of cola,”
“Coming right up!” And Jeya was gone with a swift twirl.
“What are you staring at me for? I’m not that good looking.” The napkin he’d just picked up fell out of his grip by your soft slap.
“How did you, umm, know that? Like. About the allergy, and the cranberry juice no ice, and the uhh…”
“The teriyaki, less sauce? I just like observing people. And your habits are really cute,” He said it like he was saying ‘I like strawberries’.
“Are you still staring into space ___________?” Oh no. This is the third time.
The apologetic smile you had conjured up fades into a horror filled one when your kindly uncle snickers and says, “I didn’t know Taehyung could have this big of an effect on you,”
“Excuse me?” You’re spluttering, “H-how….?”
Maybe because I’m all knowing, ________. Or maybe because I ran into Taehyung last night, and said Taehyung just rang in, but you completely didn’t notice because you were day-dreaming, and he is now standing right behind me,”
This is about when Taehyung pops out from behind shelf in front of you. “I really didn’t know I had this effect on you, _________,”
“Yah! Kim Taehyung!” you shriek, to which both your manager and Taehyung burst out laughing at. Why is everyone out to torture me?
Uncle Lee starts stepping back, “Okay, I should probably leave before you lovebirds start fighting,” an indignant grunt escapes you lips. “Actually, _________, I am leaving. Sunday brunch with the kids. I won’t be back before we close, so you’re in charge until then. A few books got shipped in, add them to the new arrivals please. And it’s precisely the reason why this young man is here. Mentioned he would like to help out yesterday, and I thought you’d appreciate having him all to yourself,” He’s picked up his keys and coat now. Greeeat. Or Great! You have no clue which fits the mood better. Maybe a mix of both.
And he’s out the door with a wave and an embarrassing, “Have fun! Just stay away from my desk!”
“What are you doing?” Taehyung’s voice breaks the silence, and is the only sound in the entire store, save for the rolling wheels of the book cart and soft footsteps on the woolly carpet.
“Arranging books.” Your reply is anything but curt. Those two words dragged out into a warm sigh let out by him.
“Can I help?” He says this right as you finish placing the last book onto the assigned shelf. You never knew you would be the person who giggles a lot, but here you are now. In all honesty it shows what this guy is doing to you.
“Well, yes you can. Tell me something about yourself. Anything at all.” You have no clue where all this is coming from, but you welcome this newfound confidence with open arms.
You settle down on one of the bean bags behind the shelves as he contemplates, then it seems like the world is ten times brighter- he’s smiling his most glorious smile; someone would think he won an Olympic medal.
He plops down beside you, still grinning, and begins, “One fact about me is: no one has ever asked me that before.”
Now you’re confused. And it probably is quite evident on your face because his grin, somehow, get bigger, “You know. No one ever asked me about…me. I have a lot of friends. They share their stories. I listen, empathize. But seriously no one said the words, ‘What about you?’ after they finished.”
Hmm. It should surprise you, but it kind of fits. You’ve always seen Taehyung listening and giving inputs, but never actually talking about…himself. Yes, it does fit.
“So what about you, huh? Won’t you tell me something? Isn’t that the rule of this game?” The way he’s smiling right now. The way he diverted the attention back to you. It’s so familiar, but you’re struggling to pinpoint what exactly it is.
“What’s there to say? You already know a lot. You kind of proved that last night,” Normally, your mind would be whirling around because of cheekily smirking and saying stuff like that, but something else is nagging you.
You still can’t shake of that déjà vu feeling. You know someone else does that; distracting like that. Just the way you turned the topic back to yourself….
“Why are smiling like that __________?” His face looks like a lost puppy’s, probably because he was planning on saying something well thought out before you started creeping. You lips form a type of smile you thought you weren’t capable of smiling anymore.
“It’s just nice spending time with you.”
“You play piano?!” You’d just stated that you’d like to borrow the staff for the play from Yoongi when he had exclaimed like a five-year old on Christmas morning.
It sounds like a question when you reply, “Umm… yes,”
“And I don’t know?! At least now we can do a duet next month in the play!”
“A-a duet? I can’t sing for the life of me….” Honestly, you can’t. Especially compared to the heavenly beauty that is Kim Taehyung’s voice. You’re sure you can melt chocolate with it. Maybe we should try next time…. Okay, get a hang of yourself man…
“Then, we’ll just do an instrumental. Piano and saxophone sound amazing together. Come on, _________-ah. It’ll be fun!” He takes your
When he gets up and begins bouncing up and down on his heels, repeating “Please, please, please” you have to give in. With a last “YES!” he falls back, starfish, onto the beanbags. And his head half ends up in your lap. But you’re too busy laughing at the moment to even notice.
“You haven’t read Harry Potter?!” You’re seriously reconsidering your choice of companionship.
“I watched all the movies, so I already know the story! What’s the point?”
“But, but, but. The books are so much better! The movies portray everything so differently! Harry actually has some character, if not the best! Hermione doesn’t amazingly fit to beauty norms and Ron is not a total fluffhead. Plus! Dumbledore is this cool-hip-swag grandpa type of guy, with amazing amounts of chill, you know. And Snape. Don’t get me started on him. He’s the biggest fluffing twisted cold-blooded abusive guy whose actions can’t be forgiven because he’s in love with motherfluffling Lily, okay!”
You’re not even embarrassed by your mini-rant until he doubles over with silent laughter, shoulders shaking uncontrollably. “Did you just…? You use ‘fluff’ as an alternative for cursing? Ugh, can you get more adorable, ________-ah?”
“Is that why your fringe was dyed green last term?” This is quite the revelation, truly.
“Yeah, the little girls at the orphanage I was helping out at last summer, they said that would make me perfect idol material,”
Well, of course, you are perfect idol material. You realize you’re saying this out loud only when the last syllable escapes your mouth.
With the now familiar smirk, Taehyung leans on his elbows and asks, “Then maybe we can debut next year as a saxophone wielding, piano slaying power couple, yeah?”
There starts Blushing 101 with your expert ___________.
You don’t know what to expect when he suddenly asks you, “Do you want to hear a joke?” So you reply with a simple, “Why not?”
“Okay. Why was Tommy surprised to find wheat growing from his ear?”
A childish grin mirroring his instantly formed on your face. This crappy joke. What a history it held in your heart.
“Because he planted corn!” Both of you screamed at the exact moment and you knew it would be the end of you.
By the time, your round of rowdy laughter subsided, the both of you were sprawled on the ground, clutching your stomach due to the extreme (EXTREME!) shortness of breath. Taehyung rolled over on his side to face you and timed seemed to slow down to a stop. Or maybe super slow mo.
Lazy grins etched on your faces, you laid there. Just looking at each other. The whole universe could try to take this away from you, but at that moment, you were king and queen of the world, side by side.
“Don’t tell me I have to get the bean bags and the carpet sanitized,” You groan a little slowly open your eyes, to see your uncle standing over you with a cheerful, but slightly disgruntled expression.
You begin to question why, when you to notice the position you’re in. Your head is on something soft, and you when you fully wake up, you realize, it’s Taehyung’s shoulder. That’s also when you notice his arm wrapping around your middle.
Surprisingly, it’s seems like the most natural thing in the world, and you have zero, zero, intention of moving. But that lasts only until you register your employer’s exact words. Sanitized? Why wou……oh. Oh!
You quickly scramble out of Taehyung’s grip and stand up straight, at which he groggily sits up as well.
Uncle Lee has moved back to his desk when he speaks, “So tell me, Taehyung-ssi, should I get the bean bags and carpet sanitized?”
You’re sure your face is contorted into the most horrified, ugliest look ever, but all Taehyung does is give a short laugh and says, “Only if you want to clean up my drool, sir.”
“Well, thank the heavens. Little kids use those bean bags, you know?”
You can’t help but squawk indignantly, “Uncle Lee!”
“It’s okay. Calm down Caterpillar,” you totally know his true intentions behind saying that. Wait for it. Three Two. One.
“Caterpillar?” Taehyung says with a certain level of amusement from which you know – this is going to become a thing.
“It’s nothing. Just an old nickname,” You know he won’t let this go so easily, yet you still hope against all hope that he will.
Your uncle seems more adamant about revealing the truth though, “Not just any nickname! We all came up with it when she was the tiniest thing,” You’ve gone to full on eye roll mode already.
“I’m sure you know her enough, but ____________, she’s the type of person who’ll just remain hiding in her little cocoon. She has so much greatness in stall, but she stays in there, you know. But we all love her, and we know, always have in fact, that one day she’ll finally break out. We’re confident she can do it herself, but she might need a push. The right thing, or the right person to the just guide her there. But when she does break through –”
“The world won’t be able to handle it,” Taehyung finishes with a smile you can only describe as…..well, you can’t. You’ve never seen a smile like that on him, let alone someone else before this.
All of your intentions of loud protests go down the drain. There’s this new found feeling blossoming everywhere in you, and you’re not sure how to handle it Thankfully, you’re not given a lot of time to ponder this situation, because your phone starts ringing.
Mom. Right, it’s way past lunch time, she must be worried. While you walk to the back to answer the call and explain to her that, “Yes, I know it’s almost lunch time. Yes, I know it’s unhealthy to eat very late. Yes, the bacteria in my stomach will start digesting if I don’t stick to a schedule. Yes, I’m in the store. No, I’m not alone. No, we did not kiss with romantic books surrounding us. No, I haven’t invited him home yet, Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay.”
Taehyung has never felt this much at home with someone other than his family. Of course his friends are everything, but he’s never connected with someone like this. Taehyung is a people person, in the sense that he likes being around people. He also loves observing people. Spending quality time with you has finally made him see that there are people out there who want to know about him just as much as he wants to understand them. It’s just…. refreshing. Refreshing to be around you and if this is what he feels after two hours, he would absolutely love to spend some more time. Maybe even a whole –
“Kid, I’ve never seen ____________ so comfortable with anyone,” Mr. Lee’s voice interrupts his train of thought. And he’s kind of glad; his thoughts were spiralling way out of control. Unbeknownst to him a fond smile appears on his lips, which Mr. Lee takes as acknowledgement and continues, “The past few weeks though, I’ve noticed things, Taehyung. Tell me, did she break up with some hidden boyfriend, or something?”
“What?” Taehyung splutters before he can stop himself. “No, no. __________ isn’t like this because of a break-up. It’s her best friends. Or should I say, best-friend. He-uh…you might know Jungkook already.”
He continues when Mr. Lee nods grimly, “Yeah, well he…” Soon, the entire story is conveyed in bleak sentences and gloomy nods of understanding. He knows he can trust the man because family, family always looks out for one another and he can see such genuine love in Mr. Lee’s eyes that he can’t help but share his knowledge. And Taehyung knows. He knows that he’d do anything, anything, to see you truly happy again.
Mr. Lee has his hands covering his face when he mutters, “It all makes sense now,” and elaborates after Taehyung throws a questioning glare at him, “About two weeks ago, her mother called. She said that __________ had come home in tears. So she asked what had happened, since she had work that day. Even I didn’t know what it was, but I vaguely remember something. That day, she saw these two kids outside the shop and went out to greet them, but they walked away the instant they saw her waving from inside. I was pretty infuriated, but she just brushed it off, so I did too. But now, the things I want to say to that guy…..”
“Things you want to say to whom?” Taehyung’s soul almost jumps out of his skin when you suddenly speak from behind them.
It’s your turn to splutter when Mr. Lee suddenly shouts, “To the delivery guy! He completely messed up with the last order! But enough of that, aren’t you taking Taehyung home yet?” Taehyung can see where you get your flustered rambling from.
“W-what?” The usual redness creeps across your cheeks. Adorable, Taehyung can’t help but love when you get all flustered. “Uh, yeah. Mom is asking me, umm, us to come home. She made lunch for the three of us. But only if you want. You don’t have to. It’s… uh, my mom can be quite blunt,”
“I would love to come,” Taehyung means it. Even a bit more time spent with you would be a gift, even if your mom would be there.
You spend the entire walk home in comfortable, yet stimulating, silence. What you don’t know is, Taehyung uses that time to think of a hundred ways get some sense into the metal skull of Jeon Jungkook. (and how he could clock the guy without having him press charges.)
A/N: yoU GUYS, IT’S FINALLY HERE! I’m honestly the worst person alive :’’’’’’ But thank you for sticking along for so long. I’m planning to have only two/three more chapter so, don’t fret!
amandla
vaporwave
gummygunk
gracieabrams
blakekathryn
2087
prguitarman
