The Tree of Heaven-Vmin ✔

It Whispers things

Taehyung's frozen in shock, mouth hung open, eyes wide and glazed over. He furrows his brows and studies the tree, then behind him, then behind the tree. It's then he decides that he's lost his mind entirely. One too many beatings perhaps had done some damage. 

"Who..." Taehyung begins, but the voice is quick to interrupt.

"You're not crazy. It's really me," the voice says once more as if to make Taehyung feel better for his sanity.

Taehyung swallows, promptly collects his fallen book, and scurries away as if he heard nothing at all.

"Wait...sorry..."

One day--

Taehyung returns after many days apart, strangely missing the comfort of the tree and reading by its side. Going straight home after school wasn't a schedule to look forward to. He had merely decided to dismiss the abnormalities, that it wasn't what he thought, and that all would be quiet and peaceful and normal when he returned this day. 

How could it not? This was real life. Trees don't fucking talk. He's more likely to be sleep-deprived, dehydrated, or even have acquired a form of psychosis, he reasons.

He hesitantly lays down a blanket, for the ground was wet from the one day of snow last week, sits down, and opens his book again. He's unable to focus, of course, folded leg swinging in his unease and the thing in the back of his mind still making him wary of the strangeness.

After nearly half an hour of silence, the hollow, sweet voice speaks again. "Didn't think you'd be back."

Taehyung's breath stills and he doesn't move a muscle.

And the voice does not speak.

And nor does Taehyung.

"Sorry to startle you," the voice tries again and guilt immediately washes over Taehyung, despite the situation and the origin of the strange voice. It's sweet and reluctant and maybe Taehyung is crazy but he's not one to be harsh.

"You-you're the tree...aren't you...?" Taehyung stumbles out almost disappointedly before deciding to slowly lift his back away from its bark, as if it's a stranger's shoulder he was not meant to be resting on.

The tree giggles. "Yes. Well... not exactly. But I suppose that's reasonable."

Taehyung scoots away, moving the blanket with him, and slowly turns around to face the tree in both wonder and horror. Taehyung didn't live in books or movies, but he often lived in his mind where he visited wild fantasies of far off places and where only wonderful things happened to him.

"Hi," the tree greets him in such a lovely and cheerful voice that Taehyung can almost picture it smiling back at Taehyung's instead petrified expression.

"H-hi..."

"What's your name?"

"Taehyung...?" he forms as a question, merely because the action of talking itself was such a questionable thing right now. Taehyung was always one to be the social butterfly whether they liked him or not. But talking to a tree. This was...a new low for him.

"Taehyung...that's a nice name. Mine's Jimin."

"Jimin..." Taehyung breathes out in wonder. "Do all trees have names?"

Jimin giggles brightly. "I wouldn't know. I can't talk to them."

Taehyung's only more confused, but Jimin merely brushes the topic away.

"Why did you decide to come here every day? Seems a bit boring for someone your age."

Taehyung feels almost shy speaking to the tree, yet he isn't particularly scared of it, merely unknown as to what and if a tree had standards it would judge. Taehyung wasn't familiar with their social standards, you know. Perhaps a tree would find it normal to bark but find a person with red hair quite funny.