When The Tiger Lilies Bloom | Taekook

24. Loving You Right

"Thought you'll be over once he doesn't reciprocate, but you're quite a stubborn one, right?"

Taehyung only chuckled at the words, shaking his head and turning towards Yoongi. The elder looked at him with wide anticipating eyes.

"Thought I'll fall out someday, but guess what, I'm falling deeper all over again. Anyway, don't mind me, I'm just curious on a daily basis but hyung, have you ever fallen in love?"

The question made Yoongi pause on his track, obviously taken aback and Taehyung wanted to disappear somewhere far. He mumbled a soft sorry and lowered his head in shame.

"9th grade. Thought it was nothing serious, like the usual crush and flings of that age. Until one day he decided to move to the city and transfer to another school.

That's only when I realized, that what we think is insignificant in fact held the power to shake us from the root. That we take feelings and people for granted, without realizing that nothing is permanent."

Their steps slowed down, eyes sparkled as they both fell into a bearable silence. The pause between them held a lot of meaning, as they were both neck deep in the oceans of their feelings, remembering the bitter past and the melancholy of wanting to be loved. They both didn't say anything for a moment and then, Yoongi broke the silence again.

"I always thought Hoseok would stay the same, maybe I will be the one changing in both of us. I always thought Hoseok wouldn't run out of reasons to stay because I wasn't intelligent enough at that time to think he could get tired of it too.

One can get tired in a relationship of two when the other is not putting any effort to work on them. But--"

"Wait, are you... perhaps talking about the Hoseok I know? As in Hoseok hyung ?"

Taehyung blurted out, stopping on the track. He never thought that way about the both of them. But Yoongi nodded in a yes, and Taehyung felt his heart cracking, maybe because he had seen Hoseok smiling from the heart more beautifully than anyone and also witnessed Yoongi playing piano in the dark, wishing no one to be around to hear him. Love always plays unfairly. Or maybe the players are not that clever.

"He left after that year, transferred to another school, and still tried to contact me. I thought I would be fine without him. If he could leave me, then I could live without him too, right?

But as days passed, I slowly realized- it wasn't Hoseok who needed me, it was me. I was the one who needed his love, his warmth, and his comfort and I was so freaking coward, and I still am"

"Why don't you just--- go and talk to him?"

"Talk what Tae? What's there to talk about? He might even not remember me and what happened between us. He might have moved past all that. He is happy now. That's what matters the most."

Yoongi took slow steps forward but when he looked at his side, Taehyung wasn't keeping up with him. He turned to face the younger standing still and a dumbfounded expression took over his face.

"What?"

"You don't know, do you?"

"Taehyung- what are you---"

"Do you know what you guys' problem is? Do you know how stupid you are? I mean, how could you--- how you just--"

The elder still looked at him puzzled, yet he could spot the way Taehyung's eyes sparkled with tears. He couldn't understand anything at that moment, so he let Taehyung complete whatever he wanted to say, maybe for the sake of both of them.

"How could I what--?"

"How could you just decide he is happy without you?"

"Huh?"