Remnants of the Heart | Kim Taehyung

20: raison

"Well, Jeongguk's right. You should listen to your boyfriend. You guys haven't been hanging out that much lately, right? Hoseok told me he's now a part of his dance crew."

"He is? Huh, Jeongguk never mentioned anything like that."

"Exactly."

So unlike her boyfriend to leave such an exciting thing out of their conversations, though they hadn't been really having a lot of those recently. Seojung always found it cute how he always rushes to her first whenever he has big news. Thinking about it, she's starting to feel like she's not a part of his life anymore. There's really nothing else to blame other than the fact that both are just too preoccupied with everything at the moment. But that shouldn't be a reason for them to start neglecting each other, right?

And yet, that's exactly the case right now.

"There's actually something else I wanted to talk to you about," Arai adds after a brief moment. The girl puts the bag of chips down on the coffee table.

"And that is?" There's a sudden shift in her tone that Seojung can't help but notice, one that makes her anxious. Her friend has always nothing but fun and games most of the time and Seojung loves that, so when she gets serious, it's something that she should worry about.

"Taehyung."

Seojung should've seen it coming. There's really no obstacle in their friendship except for the boy living right across the hall. Though Arai has her own disputes with Taehyung, she's considerate enough to not let it come between them.

"What about him?" The girl avoids looking at her best friend by busying herself with the papers, tidying and stacking them up in a pile.

"You guys have been getting close lately. Awfully close."

Seojung can't decipher what Arai is trying to do by bringing the subject of Taehyung up, but she can't say that her friend is wrong. Having seen Jeongguk less and Taehyung being just a doorbell away makes it hard for Seojung to avoid the latter, even if she wanted to. She did try the first few weeks, but no matter how much effort she put into pushing Taehyung out of her life, the boy would always find a way to be a part of it. Besides, she found no harm in hanging out with Taehyung. He was a great company from time to time.

"And?"

"And don't you think you're letting your guard down too much?" Arai moves from the couch to sit on the floor beside Seojung instead. "It's just that you and Jeongguk are slowly falling out and I don't think being all buddy-buddy with Taehyung is going to help anything."

Seojung feels a sudden need to be defensive—over herself or Taehyung she doesn't know—but she knows that she doesn't like hearing Arai make assumptions about the boy like this. It almost pisses her off how Arai thinks that because of the person Taehyung is known to be, it's automatically a bad idea for her to be friends with him when in fact they had already been close years before.

"How many times do I have to tell you that Taehyung and I are just friends? I've known him for years." Way longer than you have is what goes unsaid.

"Then you should know better than to trust that he won't fuck things up—"

"He won't."

"Fine," Arai sighs. "What about Jeongguk, then? What does he think about Taehyung? Don't you think he'd be uncomfortable knowing that his girlfriend is friends with someone who only keeps girls around to warm his bed, and just happens to be the guy she crushed on for all her high school years?"

Seojung doesn't know if Jeongguk's even aware that she and Taehyung are on talking terms, hasn't really brought it up for obvious reasons. Tells herself that this isn't lying, just her avoiding telling him the whole story and so she avoids her friend's gaze because she knows that Arai has a point.

"But he would've told me if he had a problem with it," Seojung reasons. She's lucky enough that Jeongguk's the most honest when it comes to her and their relationship. She knows that he's not one to express his opinions and feelings, but he does so for both of their sakes, and she appreciates that about him a lot.

"Look," Seojung feels a hand on her shoulder, "the last thing I want to do is argue about that pretentious asshole. You're a smart girl and I believe that you'll make the right choices, so just remember to hold on to the things you already have, okay? I'm just looking out for you."

The only response she gives her friend is a weak smile that she hopes masks everything else her heart screams.   

—
seojung: [talks about taehyung]
me: [sighs] sweetie,,,

sorry for not updating for a while omg this was supposed to be a chapter with two scenes but im putting that for the next chapter so you guys won't have to wait too long! we're nearing the end of act 2 im so excited. tell me what you think of the chapter, i'd love to hear your thoughts as always! hope you enjoyed this short filler chapter as i try to get my shit together and finish act 2. sorry for any mistakes you know my ass is too lazy to proofread. 

love and kisses, 
mara