Remnants of the Heart | Kim Taehyung

09: départs

ACT 2 ⎯ SCENE 1
SHE STARTS.

SPRING 2016

THE NOSTALGIA comes early.

Looking at all the moving boxes on the floor makes Seojung miss home already, which says a lot because it hasn't even been a day since she touched foot in Seoul. The door to her new apartment is opened, and outside are several more boxes she still needs to move. But for a while, she tries to get used to it, get used to the scent of her new home and the bare turquoise walls that she plans on decorating soon. It's a nice small space with one bedroom, a living room, and a kitchen right next to it. Not the most luxurious, but it'll do for her first years of college.

She plops down on the couch, still a little overwhelmed that she's actually going to start living on her own as of today. She takes her phone out of her pocket suddenly remembering that she hasn't called her mother, which she was supposed to right after she got off the plane. But before she can get to her mother's contact, her phone is already snatched out of her hands.

"Are you sure you don't want to stay in the dorms instead? I mean, it's cheaper, and you'll have less chance of running late for class." He jumps over the couch instead of being a normal person and walking around it to sit down. Seojung doesn't know how she can put up with her boyfriend's energy. Just looking at him tires her sometimes.

"That won't be a problem because unlike you, Jeon Jeongguk," Seojung bops his nose, "I'm actually punctual. Plus, the woman who owns the building is a close friend of my mom. I get a special discount, don't worry."

Jeongguk pouts. "Is wanting to be near you every day not a good enough reason for you to reconsider?"

She takes her phone out of his hand and sticks her tongue out at him. "Get the rest of the boxes outside."

"You do it," he replies, already getting off the couch to probably explore the small apartment again as if he hasn't scoured every inch of it yet. "I carried all of your heavy ass boxes upstairs. What am I, your bell boy?"

Jeongguk is something that still overwhelms her a little too. Seojung was more than delighted when he finally asked her out a year ago after another year of not-so-subtle glances and finding reasons just so he can spend time with her. She admits that she started liking Jeongguk even way before he mustered up enough courage to ask her out on a date.

He had been a new student at her school, a fresh face that knew no one. Seojung had seen him once during the summer at the kims' restaurant. You couldn't really forget a face like that. She was the one who talked to him first that first day of school. Something about him made him seem so approachable, and she doesn't regret being the first one to introduce herself that time. He had been so shy and quiet then, but a month into their friendship proved how much of an annoying dork he actually is (the good kind).

She loved that he was comfortable around her, loved that he liked telling her things about his life before he moved, loved the little quirks about him that she learned about every day. What she hated was how slow he was and despite him not actually being the closed-off and quiet boy, he was still shy. Shy to the core that it only took a single peck on his cheek to have him turning red. That was then, of course, they were accustomed to more than just kisses now.

The melody of big bang's if you echoes through the apartment in Jeongguk's very soft and appealing voice. His singing had always been able to calm her somehow, put a smile on her face that wasn't there before. She wouldn't mind living a life where she gets to wake up to his voice every morning.