"I just couldn't resist."
"Only sacred things deserve to be messed with."
It all ended with a dead kid near the train tracks.
Six years later, the story repeats itself and two long-forgotten friends might find out that when death tries to play match...
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Taehyung's POV
Living with Sage is a peculiar experience. The more we hang out, the more I realize she's different from the vision I had of her. Maybe my perception was tainted by memories of the girl as a child or maybe the image she projects differs from her true nature, but knowing her now, really knowing her, is not as I had imagined.
She's free-spirited, outgoing, open-minded, and always takes a lively, upbeat approach to life, that much I already knew. However, her personality runs deeper than just being fun and bubbly. She pursuits meaningful emotional connections with the people around her, and is quite introspective, intensely questioning her life at a level I didn't expect.
Just yesterday, we were walking outside together, and were casually chatting about our college plans (or lack thereof) when she suddenly said something that stuck with me. The path was icy, and we were walking close, the back of our knuckles brushing together as we shuffled back to her house, trees sending tall shadows over her crimson hair. Her thin orange eyebrows were frowned over her steel eyes as she focused on trying not to fall.
"I consider myself such a lucky teenager and always thought my life to be easy compared to some people I know. Yes, things weren't always pink and perfect, and I do have plenty of skeletons in my basement, but still, the problems I had never came close to the ones you or your friends struggled with."
It's true that I always considered her life a picture-perfect version of all of ours. No deadbeat dad in a mental institution like Yoongi, no dead brother and unemotional parents like Jungkook, no crazy dangerous relatives like Jimin, and no problematic family situation like me.
"My parents divorced, which sucked," she continued, "But I always had enough food and clothes to dress myself, I always liked my body and kept a relatively positive mindset throughout years which are considered 'difficult' for most people. Our bodies are changing, we get more mature and are told to be articulate and polite, to think critically and have opinions on everything, yet when we raise our voices and try to change things, we're told to shut up, that we're too young or inexperienced to understand."
She's right of course, the teenage limbo isn't a painless path to cross and so far, I thought she had done pretty well at preserving herself from all of it.
"But the more I think about it now, the more I feel things aren't working out as great as they should, especially recently. Having a toxic relationship and an ex-boyfriend who shot someone is kind of a traumatic event. Not telling my two best friends the exact reason why I broke up with him didn't help either. To top it all, I still blame myself for the entire thing."
I immediately stopped her there, ready to contradict her, but she brushed it off with a twist of her hand and a shrug.
"It goes deeper than that. Those current problems are digging-up old wounds which are slowly making me realize I'm not such a good person. I still feel bad for not being able to help you when you got accused of murder, simply removing myself from the narrative instead of stepping forward and trying to help... Yes, my efforts would have probably been futile, but it would have been better than to hide out like a coward. In the end, you all got punished for something you didn't deserve, and maybe I should have been punished with you."
