4k words
(non)idol!taehyung X female!reader
no warnings other than fluff and maybe some swears.
The moment you woke up you could feel the goosebumps rise on your exposed legs. The blanket had gotten pushed off the bed like it did most nights with both your restless legs and usually it wasn't an issue since your boyfriend was so clingy in his sleep. Always wrapping himself around you like a space heater.
Without opening your eyes, you reached across the bed in search of the man in question, searching for any sort of warmth and you did. But this warmth wasn't who you were look for, this one had...boobs?
"Can I help you?" A female voice snorts, causing you to jolt awake and actually scream out in surprise. Beside you was a woman around your age, leaning her back against the headboard of the bed with her phone in her hand.
"Y/N? Y/N! What happened?" The woman asks in a panic, dropping her phone and getting off the bed to come towards you. But you kept backing away until you bumped into a night table.
This wasn't your room and by the looks of the area outside, this wasn't your apartment either. How did you go from sleeping beside your handsome boyfriend in your own warm bed....to ending up here with a stranger?
"Y/N." The woman says again, firmly this time. Grabbing your shoulders, causing you to shove her away out of reflex. You had no clue who she was but she looked genuinely worried which only confused you more. "What's gotten into you? It's just me."
"And who might that be?" You barely manage to ask through gasps of worried breathes.
"Aera. Choi Aera." She says carefully, scared you'd react negatively to her again. "Y/N, seriously. If this is you trying to prank me that you lost your memory again, I'm not having it. You scared me last time and you swore you wouldn't do it again."
"I-I...I don't think I am, who you think I am. Where's..." You stutter, realizing you couldn't even remember your boyfriends name or his whole face. You just knew him, his existence. "My boyfriend?"
"Boyfriend? Y/N seriously, stop." She pleads, not sure if she should be taking your reaction as a joke or to rush you to the ER.
You looked to the nightstand where your phone sat...or at least what you thought was your phone. You weren't sure what your password could be but your thumbprint worked like a charm. You sat on the side of the bed, scrolling through your photos which were mostly scenic and selfies of you and....Aera? Who was she?
"Are we....?" You swallow, trying to figure out the relationship.
"Stop." She warns.
"Seriously...Aera, was it? I'm just a little confused right now. Can you just explain where I am, who I am, if I'm in a relationship....what the fuck is going on?" You beg with tears, your heart thudding rapidly in your chest.
"Sure. Your name is Y/N. You've been my best friend for 8 years and my roommate for 5. Your at home, in our apartment in Daegu, South Korea. You aren't in a relationship and haven't been since you dated Ji-Hoon in school if you could even count that as a relationship. And as for what's going on, I have no clue. You felt me up and then started screaming."
Instead of responding you stared at her, hoping you'd recognize her but nothing came to mind. "I think I need to take a walk."
"I think you need to see a Doctor."
You shook your head, walking toward the first door you saw, hoping it would be the one out of the room but you walked straight into a closet. Might as well get dressed properly if you're going to be outside in the cold.
You grabbed a sweater and a pair of jeans that you hoped belonged to you, not recognizing the materials. Aera was watching you in disbelief as you scurried toward a nearby dresser, opening the drawers a s turning to her.
"Are these my underwear?"
"Y/N seriously?" She asks, genuinely concerned now. You nodded sheepishly on the verge of tears. You knew you didn't know her, this wasn't your life. But you couldn't remember anyone you loved, couldn't remember your life...
After arguing with Aera again over what was yours and her informing you that it was in fact summertime and you'd have a heat stroke with the outfit you'd grabbed.
She insisted that you walk with her to the store to grab a few things for the house. Truthfully she just didn't want you wandering off alone if you truly didn't know anything.
At the store you stayed nearby to her. "Do you know what this is?" She asks curiously holding up her hand.
"An apple. I'm not stupid." You sighed, frustrated by how you'd explain this to her.
"Just checking..."
At checkout you stood behind her quietly while you waited in line. To your left was a magazine rack that caught your eye...well more so someone specific caught your eye.
"Who's that?" You ask, grabbing the magazine and pointing out the tiny picture of the man in a group of six others.
She leaned over with her arms holding what she couldn't fit on the belt. "Oh, that's Kim Taehyung. Wait— are you serious? You don't know who BTS is?"
You shook your head slowly, feeling some sort of familiarity to this man. You knew him. You knew him well, but how? You didn't quite recognize the others, but you were certain that you knew him, even his name was more familiar than anything you'd seen or heard all day.
"We're listening to them when we get back to the apartment." She rambles on, telling you how much you're going to love their music. But you just couldn't tear your eyes from him, skimming through the pages in hopes to find a bigger photo.
On the way back to the apartment with Aera, you decided to look him up on social media but he didn't have any, just the bands. You scrolled through, looking at only the photos of him. A feeling of safety washed over you, comfort. Who was he?
At the apartment you sat at the counter, trying to find any connection between you and Taehyung but everything came up blank.
"You really like him, huh?" Aera laughs, glancing at your screen while she put things away. "Yoon-suh better be careful if you ever meet her man. You might just snatch him up."
"Who?" You ask, her name seeming familiar as well.
"His girlfriend. Maybe fiancé, there's been rumors."
You nodded looking her up and unlike him, she did have social media, in fact she was a travel influencer. She was beautiful, almost unearthly. And surely enough, she had photos of both her and Taehyung scattered through he posts. Both of them seemed happy.
You viewed her story. He was in it. They were in the backseat of a car, singing along to whatever was on the radio. A wave of anger, pain and jealously washed over you and why? You didn't know. You weren't sure why either of them had such an effect on you...but they did.
You watched her story so many times, staring at the beauty that was her handsome boyfriend, pushing his thick hair from his eyes. Those eyes. They were so familiar.
And then something caught your eye. Something you did know. Not a person, but a place.
"We're in Daegu?" You ask Aera, looking up from your phone and toward her. She nodded, secretly googling memory loss symptoms and so far you were hitting all the marks. "Can you take me here?"
She looked at the blurry building you'd screenshotted and cropped. With a hesitant sigh, she nodded and stood up to grab her keys. If she could help get you back to normal she'd do anything.
"So why this place? I don't think we've ever been here." She finally questions after a good half hour of driving.
"I've been here. Not with you, but with someone and I thought if I could maybe see it, it would remind me." You explain, staring out the window.
When you arrived at the book store/cafe you instantly felt happiness, an overwhelming feeling of joy. Aera however was still confused but followed you inside.
"It smells like old books." She mutters under her breath, holding onto your arm.
"Good afternoon girls!" A woman smiles, coming up from behind the counter with an apron tied to her waist.
You approached the counter with Aera, greeting her politely. She too was familiar but in a sense that maybe you'd seen her in passing or saw someone who resembled her before.
"What can I get you...I've seen you before."
"Me?" You ask, pressing a hand to your chest and she nods. She looked just as lost as you did.
"Yes, but I don't remember where or when...I just know it was you and it was a while ago...maybe you were with someone else?" She murmurs, wracking her brain for an answer. "It's probably just my old brain."
She brushed it off with a laugh and continued taking your orders, handing you your drinks and going back to what she had been doing.
Aera picked a small table in a nook and sat down, looking around at the shelves fed with books of different sizes and colors. "Should we read some? Just relax a little after today?"
You nodded, grabbing the first one you could reach from your seat. You weren't actually going to read it but you needed something to distract you from your mind. That woman knew who you were...really know you.
Aera returned a few minutes later with another book and a smile on her face. "This one is a romance."
You smiled acknowledgeable and looked back down to the random page you'd flipped to, skimming a sentence or two out of boredom.
"Look, this is cute." She grins, holding up an old pressed flower. It was blue and before you knew what you were doing, you were taking it from her hand to examine it more closely.
Taehyung? Kim Taehyung. That was his name.
"Taehyung." You whisper to yourself.
"You still thinking about him?" She laughs, swinging her feet.
It had been his idea to take a walk around the area you both lived near. There was a specific street you both found most interesting, it was a row of old stores that were still miraculously open. One sold homemade jams and jelly's, another sold antique treasures and one was a book store that just so happened to sell coffee as well. You weren't a big reader but he was and he claimed the store itself was his "aesthetic". Outside the store was single flower sprouting out from between the cracks in the sidewalk. You had picked it as a joke, putting it in his curls and cooing at how cute he looked.
Inside he ordered your drinks while you picked a book out to read. It was a love story, one about soulmates who were having trouble finding one another after a storm that had pushed them apart. He read the sentences quietly to you, mindful of the other customers. The woman who owned the shop had awed over the sight of young love, quietly listening along to his comforting voice.
When the sun began to set and your parents wanted you home you frowned and he shook his head with a smile, taking the flower from his hair and pressing it between the pages. He promised you'd come back one day when things weren't so busy and finish the book. But you never did find the time, or even remember the shop so far from the busy city you usually found yourselves in.
"Stay here." And with that you were rushing back to the counter where the woman was cleaning the machine, turning to you with a warm smile.
"Is there something I can help you with sweetie?"
"Was I with a boy who had brown eyes and curly brown hair? We sat in that corner." You nod, pointing to a hidden area where she now kept the cleaning supplies.
She stared at the corner, chewing on her lipstick stained lips and scrunched her nose. "You know what? I think you're right. The mop's been there so long I almost forgot I used to have a table there."
You ran a frustrated hand through your hair, still confused by what was going on and how you could forget the most important person in the world to you. But the relief of remembering was the best you'd felt all day.
"How is he?" She asks with a little smile, drying the cups to stack on the shelf beside her. "The boy? Well I suppose he'd be a man now."
"He's good." You smile, not actually knowing how to respond. Was he good? Who was that girl you'd seen in those photos with him? How did you end up here?
"You two were so cute. It had been so long since I saw two young people come in here that were really in love."
You snuck the flower into the back of your phone case and left with Aera, waving to the shop owner on your way out.
"So you're trying to convince me that in some alternative universe, you were in a relationship with Kim Taehyung? And he wasn't insanely famous?" Aera asks from the other side of your shared bed, twirling the noodles she ate around her pink chopsticks. She hadn't even taken a bite, just twirled them while they got cold. She was too invested in your story.
"Yes. I met Taehyung at the store we worked out when I was 17. We started dating a few months after meeting and we've been together this whole time. I went to sleep next to him last night in our apartment and woke up here instead." You sum it up, your own food long forgotten on the side table.
"Damn, I really wish I could have dreams like that." She laughs, finally taking a bite. "Was Jin in your dream too? I always had a soft spot for him."
"Who? No, okay. This wasn't a dream Aera. This is my actual life and I want to get back to it but I don't know how." This was so frustrating.
"No Y/N. This," She waves her hands in directions of the room, "is your life. You don't know him, believe me, I'd know about it. That was a dream."
"It wasn't..." You croak in desperation. "I was my life and I miss it. I miss him."
By now tears had started to slip from your eyes and that concerned Aera more than she had been all day. You could hear her setting her noodles down and crawling off the bed.
"Come on. Get your shoes on. We're doing to the Doctor. Something is going on with you and I'm not going to sit here and let you suffer." She insists, pulling on your top.
"I'm fine. I just need to find Tae." You argue, tears still pouring.
"Y/N...please." She begs, starting to tear up herself.
You nodded, following her out to the car. This was the only way to show her that what you had been saying is true, not just something your mind had made up.
After hours of sitting on a plastic sheet that made too much noise when you moved, you finally got the results back from the tests they'd ran on your brain.
"I don't know what's going on miss." The Doctor sighs, looking over the papers on his clipboard. "Nothing seems to be wrong. As far as the tests are concerned, she's perfectly healthy."
After that day Aera was a bit off put by you. Not sure what had changed or why. You weren't the person she'd remembered sharing the last almost decade of her life with. You were an identical stranger to her best friend.
Nonetheless, two or three months had gone by with no change so you both thought it better to get to know one another. And things had been going well. You'd actually become very close friends and she'd finally began to believe what you'd been telling her about your life.
"BTS are having a concert a few hours from here in a few days. The tickets are all sold out but maybe we could drive out there and hope to run into them?" She offers one night before bed, drying her hair out with a towel.
"No it's fine. I miss him, I do. But he seems happy with Yoon-suh. I can't take that from him...plus if he was looking for me, he would have found me by now." You admit sadly. You loved him more than you'd ever loved before but he genuinely did seem so happy in his current relationship. And he didn't remember you, that was for certain. Plus his new life in this new universe was so much better for him. He went from a tired grocery story bagger to an international pop star.
"Hey, you didn't remember him at first...maybe he just needs someone to jog his memory?" She nudges, crawling into the bed and laying her head on your shoulder while you scrolled through Yoon-suh's Instagram again...
"If he needed his memory jogged it would have happened by now." You smile sadly, turning your screen off and sat it by your lamp, curling down face to face with Aera who stared at you with sympathy in the dark.
"At least your have me. Right?"
"Yeah. I'd be a wreck without you."
The next week the whole town wasn't as busy as it usually had been. You assumed it was because the concert was nearby so everyone was taking their ARMY children to see their idols.
Like most of your days off, you ended up at the book store, finding a random book and reading through, trying to start your new life in this new world. You even changed your drink in hopes it would help. But it never did.
Today was no different. You sat at the same table you and Aera had the first time, a book about an old woman and her cat opened in front of you and a plain black cup of cold, untouched coffee beside it.
You were halfway through the book and couldn't remember anything about it. It just wasn't catching your attention, nothing had and Heejin, the older store keeper noticed.
You were trying your best to get through it when she walked up to you with the tea you had once ordered and the romance book you'd first read.
"Listen, I'm still not sure what's going on. People are asleep around here and not many realize things have changed but we do. So instead of trying to fall asleep like everyone else let's stay awake and do what we know." She smiles, taking the cat book and the coffee and going back to what she had been doing before.
You sipped the tea, humming to yourself as you opened the all to familiar book and began reading it with ease. You know the voice in your head when you read quietly? That voice was Taes young one all those years ago, every stutter and chuckle when he didn't pronounce something right...they were his.
The bell over the door rang, signaling another customer had come inside. Heejin called out from the back that she'd be with them in a moment but they didn't speak. You glanced up from your book and almost choked on your saliva. It was him. It was Taehyung, his mouth opened slightly in wonder...déjà vu?
Your heart was beating wildly out of your chest. You wanted to run to him, to wrap your arms around him and not let go, to tell him how much you love him and how much you missed him over the longest, strangest months of your life. But you were silent, planted to your chair.
His eyes finally landed on you and the room somehow got even more quiet. He stared, longer than a stranger should...but he wasn't a stranger, he was your lover, your soulmate. "Do I know you?" He asks, his voice low and full of honey just like you remembered.
"I—" You croak, wondering if you would confess but then she came in, loudly and giggling.
"Taehyungie, what are you doing in here? The concert starts in a while and if the guys find out you're three hours away they'll freak. Let's go." She laughs, tugging on his coat.
It was Yoon-suh. You recognized her. You should since you practically stalked the poor girl. You envied her.
She glanced toward you and you could have sworn the color drained from her face as she tugged a bit harder. "Seriously Taehyung, let's go."
"You're right, sorry. Sorry for bothering you Miss, have a nice day." He smiles sweetly, breaking your heart further.
You bowed your head as a goodbye, too broken to speak. Yoon-suh gave you one final look before ushering him out the door and in the direction where she had come from.
Heejin appeared a few minutes later and looked around. "Where's they go?"
"Huh? Oh...it was just a tourist. I think they were running late to something." You smile weakly, closing the book and holding it up. "Can I take this with me?"
You told Aera what had happened as soon as she returned from work and to say she was excited was an understatement. "You saw him? Did he recognize you?"
"Maybe? I don't know. He looked at me like he did but then Yoon-suh came in and took him away. But she looked like she knew me too." You explain, still confused by your earlier encounter.
"Okay well let's try and think. Do you know who she could have been in your other life? Maybe she was a friend or a neighbor? Oh! Maybe a coworker?" She smiles as if she figured it all out.
"I don't know, I can't remember. I barely have any memories of before. Just fleeting ones, here and there."
"You have to run into him again. He obviously has some feeling of remembrance...so maybe if you actually have time to sit and talk...he'll wake up?"
"You didn't see how he looked at her Aera...he's in love with her. I can't take that from him." You whimper sadly, falling into the two thin pillows behind you.
"Why not? It's not real. He got taken from you. You're just...taking him back." She explains as if it was the easiest thing in the world to do.
"Oh yeah, you're right. And then when I talk to him I can say, Hi, you don't remember me but I'm your girlfriend. We're living in an alternate universe where most of our memories were erased and I can't tell why."
"Okay, so maybe it won't be that easy but it's love Y/N, come on. You've read the fairytales, you know how they end. True love overcomes." She grins, nudging you excitedly.
"This isn't a fairytale Aera. This is a curse." You huff, looking down into your lap and carding your fingers roughly through your hair. "I don't get my Prince Charming."
The argument got tossed back and forth after that, not leading anywhere helpful. All you could do was learn to live your new life and let him live his. Even unknowingly he still held your heart and part of you was terrified that he always would, even if you no longer had his.