The Stockholm Syndrome

Problem...

At the warmth of his lips against hers, her eyelids fluttered suffering a dilemma, where heart told her to close her eyes while brain said the otherwise. Taken aback by the sudden kiss, she leaned back to withdraw. But he kissed her while closing in the distance until she was stopped against her seat. While receiving his kiss for a second longer, there occurred a usual duel between the heart and brain, where the latter took the win. So, the hands which she lifted to embrace him, landed on his chest pushing him with strength, but still gentle. Shutting her eyes tightly, she pushed him until he broke the kiss at the grown distance between them. He withdrew to look at her disquiet eyes and immediately widened the distance between them.

When she saw him being shattered from inside by her act, she felt something weighing her heart down. But, as soon as he looked away after withdrawal, she gathered her composure and took her hand to pull the handle of the van door to open but stopped on remembering the public location where their van was parked.

On seeing flustered Sohyun, Taehyung, not meeting her eyes, softly uttered, "Sorry..."

Unable to deal with the awkwardness and frustrations, she faced the window and said, "We should stop-"

He cut in her sentence, "I understand. I'll stop here...", he said curtly

His unexpected and immediate response turned her head towards him. With a brow raised, she asked, "Will you ditch me here or drop me home?"

He gave her a sharp stare which explicitly expressed his anger at her comprehension of his 'stop'. Before he could lose his temper, he diverted his attention and looked at the road ahead with knitted brows uttering, "I'll see you home" and started the engine.

In the 1 hour of travel home, only the sound of the traffic accompanied them. But those never reached them as thoughts flooded the way. Questions and words piled up to get uttered, but only the silence spoke. As the distance between them and her house decreased, the speed of the vehicle reduced. When her house was just around the corner, he felt reluctant to send her off like that. He took his legs off the gas pedal but couldn't step on the break. So, he just rolled the vehicle down the slope rather than driving it. As the vehicle halted in front of her house, Sohyun saw him through the corner of her eyes and got off after a head bow and without a word.

The night sky was clear with full of stars, but it rained in their sky.

Her next day started with the buzz of her phone with his text which read,

Waiting for a sweet smile ... Are you smiling at my text now?

His text made her smile, but she didn't reply anything to him or rather she didn't know how to respond to it. Ignoring his text, she got ready for the day. Getting into comfortable Tee and shorts, her morning started with a French toast. After keeping the phone aside, her hands reached out for newspaper, but the phone buzzed again.

My heartbeat has gone missing since I met you. You're the thief!

She gripped her hold on the phone unable to bear the cheesy lines and the cringes. To save her phone from being thrown away by his messages in the future, she texted him, 'what are you trying to do?'

I am a poet who got spoiled by your sight!

Balling her fist to put up with those lines, she typed, 'Stop with those cheesy lines!!!'

Shall I speak honestly? Or will this do?

Honestly?

I asked for something that nobody has dared to... Why won't you give it without a fuss? I'll be grateful if you bestow it upon me!