The Red of the Rose | Taeyong

12 | The Bell Statue

Miah suddenly shifted her focus from Taeyong to her phone and opens the chat with Doyoung. 'Do you know where...' -she located the particular text- 'room number 309 is?'

Taeyong knew exactly where room number 309 was. It was not too far, in fact, it would only take one right from the corridor after climbing the first set of staircases.

The last time Miah had asked him for directions, was when she had accidentally bumped into him and he stupidly pointed her towards the library. This time, he was not going to waste the opportunity. He didn't wake up so early for nothing.

Smiling, again a little too broadly, that it almost looked weird, he said, 'Ah, that's at the whole other side. You'll get lost. Follow me, I'll take you.'

'Uh.' Before Miah could complete, Taeyong had already started walking, prompting her to follow. 'Thanks,' she said softly.

For the length of that long corridor, the two of them walked beside each other in silence comfortably. The daze of the morning surrounded them, wrapping them in a quiet calm, just the two of them.

But inwardly, Taeyong was far from this calm. He was roughly creating a map in his head to figure out the longest route to room 309, while also trying to come up with something to say to her.

'How is it you transferred in the middle of your degree?' Though Taeyong had spoken into the perfect silence, his voice didn't seem to disturb it.

Seemingly a plain question, for Miah the topic of her shifting was not as simple. 'I missed home, so I decided to come back,' she replied.

Taeyong led her up the stairs, at the top of which was another long corridor.

'How much further?' Miah asked.

'Just a little bit more. Our department building is huge.' Taeyong didn't lie here. Their department building was indeed huge with lots of corridors and stairways.

'Why did you leave if you loved your home this much?' Taeyong was being cruel but he couldn't stop himself from asking. He was not being calculating here, he was genuinely curious to hear her side of the story. Having heard about the incident first from Serin then later reading about it in the file on Miah, he was invested and wanted to know more.

'It was stupid, I guess.' Miah made up something for Taeyong.

Taeyong dropped the topic when he heard this reply.

'Do you know there is a legend in our college?' Taeyong looked back at her with a smile on his face.

'A legend?'

'Yes.' He nodded.

'What is it?'

'I'm glad you asked. Decades ago, when this university was first built, the foundation stone seemed to shiver in the core.'

'Shiver in the core? What does that even mean?'

Taeyong was annoyed at this disruption.

Miah laughed. 'Okay, sorry continue.'

'The foundation stone seemed to shiver in the core. They had to call in several architects, engineers and other...' -he tried to think of the other people- '...important people to check the foundation but they could not find a fault. Are you even listening?' Taeyong happen to look at Miah only to find her checking her phone.

Miah had a grin on her face, amused, she looked up at him. 'Sorry sorry.' She waved her hands. 'Please continue. By the way, are you sure we are on the right path?'

'Of course, we are!' Taeyong said confidently.

'Where was I? Yes!' His voice became deeper. 'Obviously, nobody could use the university building because of the shivering core. Then one day, out of nowhere appeared this priest. He was the wisest of the wise and the cleverest in all land. He could see things nobody could.