The Red of the Rose | Taeyong

27 | A Peek into Past

The dark of the night seemed to deepen in Taeyong's room, painted a shade of blue, the only light was the faint glow of the moon through the clear door of the balcony. Taeyong and Miah lay wrapped in each other's embrace in the warmth of the thick blanket over them, both awake.

Miah made a short phone call, informing her parents that she is staying the night at a friend's place after the party, which they gladly agreed to. They were happy she had made friends after her isolated years.

'Do you need something?' Taeyong asked for the third time in the span of an hour.

'I am fine, Taeyong.' Miah snuggled closer into his chest.

Miah felt comfortable, with her face on Taeyong's chest, rising and falling with the rhythm of his breath.

'Awake?' Miah asked softly after a while.

Taeyong hummed in response.

'Remember that day you asked me...' Miah began, gathering courage with each word, '...about my school. If something happened?'

Taeyong felt himself suddenly very alert but he knew he had to be careful. He can't push her on the topic.

'Hm,' he replied.

'Well, something did happen,' Miah said.

'I am here if you want to talk about it,' Taeyong said, kissing the back of Miah's hand.

Miah had never spoken about it to anyone. Her family could only guess that something had happened, and she only told a watered-down version to aunty at the old town but never the whole truth to anyone. The wound was fresh then, too recent and having to relive it, would have wrecked her. But now, here she was after two years, feeling safe in the arms of the man she loved, who loved her back equally. All of it didn't seem so overwhelming anymore.

'It was my last year of high school when one day everything changed. You may not know this but Serin and I were actually classmates.' She paused for a reaction.

Taeyong gave a faint huff.

'I kept to myself mostly but I had a few friends, you know exchanging notes, eating together, sometimes hanging out after school, that sort of a thing. But Serin. Serin was popular, way more than she is now. We hardly ever spoke to each other. She was in a different class anyway. But then one day... I still remember it so vividly. It was raining so hard that day since morning. Serin bursts into my class asking for a Jang Miah. Her face was red with anger, with tears in her eyes though she didn't look like she had cried. When I stood up, she seemed to get even angrier. She told me to follow her, that she wants to settle something.

'She stepped into the rain without an umbrella. I tried calling after her but when she didn't stop, I followed. It was pouring and I was wet in no time. Finally, she stopped after turning a corner in this alley we had behind our school and she accused me of something I had heard for the first time.'

Taeyong held his breath at this.

'Apparently, there was this online site for our school where students posted gossip about others. Completely anonymous. And on that site was a picture of her from the previous year, sitting between five of our senior boys. It wasn't taken from an angle to make it look flattering... you can guess what I mean, right?' Miah waited then continued after hearing Taeyong hum.

'The post accompanying that photo claimed that she was sleeping with all of them with the picture as proof. And the reason why she had dragged me from my class was that she believed it was me who made the post on that site because she saw me stay back at school that day.'