Bound By Words | Taekook

5. The Wrong Letter

Too often are people
Invisible in this world.
Too often are people
Unnoticed and uncared for.
It isn't until you can see
Their name carved in stone,
That you begin to care.
A sad truth that once 6 feet under,
The world finally begins to focus.

Hey tiger,
These long waits are killing me. I wish we could talk everyday instead. Your vanilla scent is still stuck to the paper. Making me wish I could smell it person, it makes me feel comforted, it stops the voices exploding in my mind. Your beautiful handwriting, makes me crave to feel those hands on me. But you are not here, all that here is pain and an itch. I want to run away.

I want to tell father I don't want to learn Hangul. I don't want to learn about a country I have never been a part of. I want to tell Hobi to just shut up and stop smiling there is nothing to be happy about. I want to shout at Jimin and tell him how my world is just upside down and nothing is sunshine and rainbows, it's all just pretend. I have been living a lie for a long time and now I want it to just stop.

I don't even know why I'm writing this, I'll never even post this, anyway. It's like writing a diary I never had. Hey tiger, I wish someday we could meet and may be you could hold me, while your vanilla soothes me into a deep slumber, I have to never wake up from.

Yours
Bunny.

─※ ·❆· ※─

T A E H Y U N G

I felt my eyes well up, I wiped off my tears before they could fall on the paper in my hands. It was already splotched with Bunny's tears.

My Bunny

The happy boy I had seen through the letters was nothing, like the real life person. I felt like shit. Would my words have hurt him? I wondered, I couldn't even remember what I had written in my last letters. I remember spraying my favourite scent on the letters before sending, just for fun, I had never thought it would be of so much importance to someone.

"Hey get out! You have been there for a whole lecture. You got diarrhea or what?" Rosé banged on the door.

I wiped off my nose and eyes once again. Secured the precious piece of paper back into its envelope, putting it into my back pocket.

"What are you doing here? It's the men's room!" I whispered shouted.

She ignored my comment as she looked at my, probably red, face.

"Hey what's wrong? Have you been crying?" She asked, worry laced on her words.

"It's nothing, I got something into my eyes." I said before walking to the faucet, I opened the tap and splashed my face. The boy still all over my thoughts. I was scared for him. I felt utterly bewildered, what can I do? I didn't know the boy's face, not his name nor did I know where he lived. But he had trusted me with something that is like a live wire, I didn't know what to do with the information, that was thrown at me.

Will he safe? Isn't it my responsibility to look out for him, now that he had told me. But what did he mean at all?

I could not make sense of my thoughts.

"Earth to, Mr. Kim, what's wrong with you? You haven't been paying attention in the class at all. Are you alright?"

"Yes ma'am. I'm sorry."

"Are you sure? You don't look well, you should go visit the nurses office. Rosé would you mind helping Mr. Kim to the nurses office?"

"No ma'am, it's fine," Rosé hurried to my side. The curly haired girl walked besides me as we walked down the corridor besides me.

"Hey Tae, wanna flunk classes today?"

"What- No." I looked at her startled for even suggesting something like that.

"You are in no mood anyway, it would be just as useless sitting in class, as it would be in bunking. And you could cheer up a bit."

"Umm.. but I have never done that before."

"You did it just this morning," she chuckled. "Let's go!" She said pulling me towards the back gate.

_________

It had been so long since I had went to a fair. I hadn't felt the thrill that one felt at the top of the ferry's wheel. Hadn't popped the balloons with the fake rifle. The experience was exhilarating. I wanted to bring Bunny to this. To make him happy, to show him the world isn't as small as he thought and there could be a lot to be happy about.

"Hey want a bite?" Rosé asked holding her candy floss. I politely declined.

"What's wrong? You have been sad the whole day. Is this not fun?" She asked draping a hand around my shoulder, showing the empathy she thought I needed. But it wasn't me who needed it but a boy with scrawny handwriting, across several seas and oceans.