BEST FRIEND ; kim taehyung.

11 | we're still liars

"What are you doing?!" Taehyung asked, horrified. He was disgusted, really.

"Knowing you, the kimchi won't have any spice. I need my spice."

"I really believe that reason behind your foul anger is simply spicy food. Eat sweet things like me - and you'll be sweeter as well."

"It's a pity you can't eat spicy food."

"Whatever," Taehyung rolled his eyes, eating a dumpling himself. "Where were we? Right, the drinking game. One person asks a question. The other gives an answer - the whole truth. You drink because more the drunk one is, the more honest he is. Repeat. Easy."

"So that's basically a seventeen-year-old's truth and dare - except, take out the dare," Haneul leaned more on the sofa and looked at him.

His hair had grown long, curtaining his eyes. It had been a while since she had seen him all homely and comfy. Taehyung was always the one to dress up, regardless of where they were going. Throughout college, she had only seen him in eccentric clothes - his style clearly a bit street and preppy and flamboyant, with touches of vintage.

Moments like these felt almost unreal - Taehyung dressed down in a white t-shirt and some khaki shorts - looking all kinds of human. Sometimes Haneul forgot that he was a human. In her defence, he was just too good to be true. Too gorgeous to be normal. Had to be some kind of deity.

Maybe that was the reason why she didn't want him to be disappointed in her.

It was funny, really, because that's exactly how Taehyung thought about her.

You see, that's exactly what their relationship was. Thought the other's too good to be true, some embodiment of a deity. God. The epitome of how a person should be. Someone who deserved every single thing in this world.

In reality, though, they just needed each other. Both knew it, to some extent, but one was too scared to acknowledge it and the other, too delusional to notice it. The solution? Label it as being "best friends".

They are best friends, no doubt, but they're something more. Definitely more than best friends.

It's comical how they thought the other's perfect when in reality they're far from it. Just made it even more complicated. Made the denial even stronger.

At least for Haneul, that is.

Taehyung though - knew he was smitten but was too scared to admit it. Thought about the what-ifs. How it would affect their friendship. He's selfish, no doubt about it - wants her as his. Needs her presence in his life. He thinks that he wouldn't function if she weren't - and hence accepts that she's just gonna treat him as her best friend. Is okay with it, because he wants to be her something rather than nothing.

Wants her in his life than not having her at all.

"Fuckin' hate you," he replied, "Don't inflate your ego too much. Would be a pain to be around with you then."

Haneul rolled her eyes and gulped the alcohol and then took a minute to compose herself. Then she asked him, "Tell me something you are or were too scared to tell me."

"Easy," Taehyung replied, "Moving to Seoul. When I told Jimin, rather than being proud, he was angry at me for acting recklessly. Not thinking through. Rather than congratulating me, he told me I wouldn't succeed," he paused. "I honestly get it - he said it for my own well-being, but I feared that you would act the same way. Feel disappointed in me. That's why I hid it from you."

"Come closer," Haneul said, and then flicked his forehead. "Stupid. You were scared for nothing."

"Fucking hurts," Taehyung exclaimed, holding his forehead. He was silently amused by her tactics. Made him like her a little more every time, "Your turn. Tell me something. Anything."