Hanahaki Disease
**Song suggestion: Ghosting by TXT. 🎶
Eunwoo's words rung circles all through the night in Sooyeong's mind and she didn't know what to make of it because she most definitely didn't want to hurt Taehyung in any way yet somehow she felt as if she was, just by existing.
"Yah~ Where are you lost?" Sooyeong was suddenly thrusted out from her thoughts by Taehyung's fruity voice. "Aren't you going to take a picture with Beomgyu?"
"O-oh yes." She sheepishly laughed and got up from the table she was seated at, unconsciously put down her smartphone next to her desert plate, and grabbed Beomgyu's gift before heading towards him.
But as Sooyeong got her picture taken with Beomgyu in the now Harry Potter themed Genius Lab, Taehyung took notice of the back of Sooyeong's smartphone, which held a picture of her parents as well as Tata.
When she first asked him for Tata's picture he thought that she just found him really cute but when she replied to him and mentioned hope he thought maybe the message he wanted to deliver could be conveyed because after all he created that character just for her since she had lost a significant amount of love after the loss of her parents. He wanted to create a foundation of hope for her through his artworks.
He turned to face Sooyeong and he noticed just how brightly she smiled and it fathomed him because after he spoke to Hoseok the other day, he realised just how much her pretty smile was hiding. From where he stood he watched her quickly embrace Beomgyu and peck the top of his head before making her way back toward him.
He was glad that she had others who she cared about so it was not like she was completely alone but then again it was not like she could completely open up about it since Taehyung and her were bound by the rooftop secret.
"Did you take your picture already?" Sooyeong asked and broke him out of his thoughts.
"Oh, yeah I did but..." He lifted the smartphone up to Sooyeong's eye level. "Do you really find Tata that cute or even the slightest bit important to have him on your phone case?"
"Both," She smiled, "But are you trying to say that you're important too because you're on my lock screen?" Her sweet laugh hit his ears like a melody.
He pouted and looked away, seeing as he felt shy. "You're not that important, I just did it because Jungkook thought it was cool."
"Really?" She manoeuvred to make eye contact with him but he avoided her eyes and gave her a stupid nod, but those words reminded her of Nayeon; when she had called her an insignificant seatmate.
This encounter threw her thoughts into the air. It made her wonder if he was being ambiguous and thought how Eunwoo's words fitted into all of this. Maybe she needed to look at the facts and not her fantasies. Perhaps it was time to stop. Perhaps it was time to safe-guard the one she immensely cared about and to listen to Ahro and Nayeon.
"Alright, fine." She stood, feet firmly to the floor and she crossed her arms. "I find Tata really cute but I don't like the colour red so I was hoping that he'd change my mind. It's nothing too deep so don't think too much."
With that she snatched her smartphone and turned towards Taehyun's direction.
"Ah?" confused, he watched her walk away. "She doesn't like the colour red... Why?"
He sat down to think for a bit. To think about everything Hoseok's told him, to try and remember if he had mentioned anything about the colour red during their discussion. Yet, he could not recall anything. He looked up at Sooyeong, to see her getting cloaked up in the Hufflepuff uniform by Taehyun then hyped up by Soobin shortly after.
"Maybe I should have made Tata's head purple instead, like the door she liked in C. Through Café..."
While Taehyung sulked, the boys of TXT messed around in their robes and wands together with Sooyeong whereas Yoongi and Hoseok just chilled whilst eating cake, to which Yoongi pretended was Tofu.
"Aigoo, Taehyungie~ for how long will sit around like this. Go playfully poke someone with a wand or something." Jimin whined in front of Taehyung's slouched form, after he noticed his friends' depressed stature.
"Like you're doing to my cheek." Taehyung sighed.
"Don't be like that, it's Beomgyu's special day." He continued to poke his cheek, nevertheless.
"At least Hoseok didn't drop the cake on him." Taehyung said whilst he watched Sooyeong have fun without him but Jimin only laughed. "And give me that." He took a hold of Jimin's wand and got up in a rush.
"Yah!" Jimin called behind him, with his robe hanging off his shoulder. "You forgot the robe!"
Jimin sighed and watched Taehyung march towards the snack section, there he pretended to be busy but alas, he had his eyes locked on Sooyeong but as he stood there, Yeonjun suddenly walked in front of him, which broke his concentration.
"Yah, Yeonjun." Taehyung quickly grabbed onto his wrist and the blue-haired boy turned to look back. "What are some of the spells I could use on Sooyeong."
Yeonjun smiled a devilish smile at his elder.
"What?" Taehyung choked, trying to hide his flustered cheeks.
Yeonjun's smile only turned into a smirk.
"Don't look at me like that," he countered. "Her mood's been off and you know why..."
"I won't tell anyone hyung." Taehyung sweated bullets. "If you have the hots for noona, I ship it."
Straight after he pulled an embarrassed Taehyung to face the snack table, "Do exactly as I say because it's a classic."
After a few minutes of chattering between the two, Taehyung's prep, according to Yeonjun was ready to hit centre stage, but Taehyung on the other hand wasn't too sure. He didn't want to be too obvious, he just wanted to lighten the mood, more specifically his mood.
"Are you sure this is gonna make her smile and not think I'm into her?" Taehyung's tone filled with concern and Yeonjun looked defeated.
"Honestly hyung, you're confusing me. If you like her then why not just tell her?"
"I've got plans that you won't understand because you're still a baby."
"Then why are you asking me for help?" he asked perplexed.
"Because you just happened to walk by and you look like you can keep a secret." Taehyung uttered and neatened out the Slytherin robe which Yeonjun gave to him. "And is this gonna work or not?"
"Soobin liked it when I mentioned it to him so that counts for something." Yeonjun smiled nervously.
"Right..."
"Now go," Yeonjun shoved Taehyung in her direction, and he followed closely behind.
Once Taehyung was close enough to Sooyeong, he cleared his throat to steer away her attention from Jungkook and to his surprise she did turn around.
Upon the sight of him, all dressed up as a wizard like she was, a small smile tugged at the corners of her lips, and she waited for him to speak up.
She watched him slowly elevate his arm to his chest level then he extended it so the wand pointed directly at her chest. This made her really curious, but she didn't want her heart to begin oozing from the softness of whatever he did next so she kept an unwavered stance.
"Alomora~"
He chanted, ever so subtly and the tip of the wand lit up from the delicate touch of his thumb against the button buikt onto the piece of plastic.
The others oohed at Taehyung's sudden wizardry knowledge but Sooyeong only asked, "And what are you trying to unlock with that spell?"
"The doorway which I believe leads to your heart..."
Her expression softened up way more than he had anticipated and he panicked just like she did, internally. It came out too forward for his liking because much like Sooyeong everyone else was surprised too.
"Uhh... Because Tata and everyone else here like me wants to fill it up with love just like we did for Beomgyu today." He nervously confessed and Yeonjun slapped his forehead in defeat.
Those words of his indeed wavered her heart, and although it was sweet she still knew what she needed to do; she had an agenda, a demand, which she planned to execute by tomorrow but for now she raised her wand towards Taehyung.
'I just want one more happy memory with you to cling onto... before I do what Nayeon and Ahro asked me to do...'
"Wingardiam Laviosa." She spoke, softly.
Taehyung panicked internally and briefly looked to Yeonjun for some help since he wasn't familiar with the term.
'Before I do what you did to me just months back...'
"Noona ah!," Yeonjun called out, "What do you want to levitate with that spell?"
'I just want one last cough of a cherry blossom petal before I let you go...'
"Taehyung, so he can lead that love straight into my heart without any obstructions." She smiled sheepishly, and she didn't wait for him to come forward, instead she embraced him, tighter than ever before.
'Before I ghost you just as you did to me...'
She felt her heartbreak when his hands slung around her waist. She wished with all her might that falling out of love could be as easy as falling in love.
'I'm doing this to protect us, Taehyung.'
• • •
Sooyeong let the morning run its usual course- where Taehyung shared his snacks and the four bantered as usual but for her, not as much since her mood's been off from the thought of distancing herself from Taehyung again. This time round it was going to be much harder than before.
When lunch rolled around, Sooyeong asked Taehyung to meet her outside by Yeontan, and he happily agreed. Meanwhile, she took a quick detour to her locker. There, she pulled out the little gift bag for Taehyung but as usual her eyes spotted that inevitable pastel pink sticky note.
"All the bad things, they're nothing to me, with you." She heaved a sigh and shut her locker. "Cute. But whoever you are, I really wish that could be true because love doesn't shield you from hurt, it causes it."
Even though she walked down the hallway with regular steps, she wished time could just stop and stand still for awhile mostly because she didn't want to do this to Taehyung. It was going to be tough since she knew how it felt to be abandoned by a close friend.
But, she had to do it.
She took a breath in before she pushed open the door to the hallway entrance and that was when she saw him petting Yeontan with a beaming smile.
"Oh good, you're here," her smile was weak as he motioned for her to sit beside him but she declined, and thrusted out the little gift bag in his direction. She wanted to get it done and dusted with minimal casualties to her heart.
"Ah?" he looked confused and got up. "What's this?
"Just like Kang Boksoo," she held back her tears at his innocent form. "You're My Strange Hero. Thank you for that day on the rooftop."
He smiled subtly, "Ah, it's fine but you didn't have to get me anythi-"
"Taehyung, please." Her voice was firm and he took notice of that.
"Alright, thank you," he accepted it with a little chuckle and peeked inside to find a little box. "So do you want me to call you Soojeong instead of Sooyeong now?" he joked.
"Maybe you should," her voice was softer than usual which made him look up. "Because she abandoned Boksoo didn't she,"
"I was just teas-"
"I think we should stop spending time like this together; stop interacting because we both lost something because of this friendship." She spoke, and when the tears brimmed in her eyes she looked down, not noticing the step Taehyung took toward her.
"Sooyeong... What are y-"
"Let's just go back to the way things were, when we barely spoke to each other. Things might be easier that way." She turned away from him. "And you've done it once so you should have no trouble doing it again."
"Sooyeong, if this about Nay-"
"I'm really sorry Taehyung." She pulled back the door and quickly disappeared from sight.
"Sooyeong," Taehyung took a step forward to follow her but the door closed on his face.
He clenched his jaw and tightened his fist in frustration while Yeontan barked feverishly in the background. He knew all of this was Nayeon's fault and he had no idea how to fix it so from that moment, what Taehyung thought could be a forever, began to fall apart right in front of him.
Three days passed after that incident.
After that day, Sooyeong didn't speak to Taehyung except for a simple hello in the morning whenever they were in class, and truth be told, he waited everyday for that simple acknowledgement from her because he realised that was the most he'd get from her.
Even if she spotted Taehyung on her way to school or at Café Shooky she made sure to stay clear of him. Her lunch breaks were minimally spent at the cafeteria and more with Yeontan or Eunwoo and his friends near a staircase overlooking the school's assembly.
On the surface she seemed totally fine, but internally, it hurt like hell. Even so, Nayeon and Ahro didn't interfere with her thereof so that counted for something, and she even received her Sticky Notes as normal. As for Taehyung, he was annoyed and moody so by the second day of their broken friendship he approached Nayeon who once again played innocent and made desperate attempts to be with him but he had none of it.
He just decided to leave everything as is and hoped that everything would work out again, but what annoyed him the most was the amount of time she spent with Eunwoo. Those two just seemed too close for his liking so he decided to do something to clear his conscience even though he already knew that she wasn't into Eunwoo. As he walked through the hallway after abruptly leaving the cafeteria, he glanced over at his wrist.
On it was a sterling silver bracelet which Sooyeong had gifted him three days back and since then he's never taken it off. He valued it just like he valued her.
'I can't believe I put her through this ten months ago... What the hell was I thinking? I'm such an idiot.'
He clicked his tongue at his thoughts and stopped when he noticed Eunwoo's clique. From afar, he just observed as the two conversed whilst the window stood as their backdrop. Miraculously enough, he thought they both complimented each other quite well because they're of the same gentle nature (despite Sooyeong having her moments) whereas he was more outgoing.
He shook his head to rid himself of his distressing thoughts and approached them but as he did so he noticed Nayeon making her way down the stairs, probably on her rounds to ensure that those two were in fact keeping apart as she initially wanted, which Taehyung found sickening but alas, on the second last step she suddenly slipped.
She hit the ground with a thump and a squeal left her lips. That was when all eyes of Eunwoo's clique turned to her, including Sooyeong but as Taehyung walked he noticed Eunwoo, indecisively, attempt to help her up so he sped walked, grabbed Eunwoo by the wrist and said, "I need to talk to you."
Eunwoo was surprised but quickly stood upright next to Taehyung instead of helping Nayeon, but before the two boys could leave Taehyung briefly looked at a confused Sooyeong, who didn't really know whether to help Nayeon or not.
"Don't." Taehyung said sternly. "And Jungkook was looking for you."
With that, the two slipped away leaving poor Moonbin to help Nayeon up, who in fact tried pushing him away at first because Taehyung completely ignored her.
Taehyung took Eunwoo passed a couple of staircases down the hall, where it was quieter. He released his arm and Eunwoo stared at him expectantly. For a short while he said nothing. Instead, all he did was tuck his hands into his pockets and Eunwoo had done the same shortly after.
"You said you needed to talk so why are you just standing around?"
At Eunwoo's words, Taehyung looked out at the window beside him and pouted ever so slightly, "I saw you both at AstroBucks, you seemed happy, do you maybe have the hots for her?"
Eunwoo smiled with an unnoticed distress then looked straight at Taehyung, "It's clear that you like Sooyeong but on the other hand it's a little harder to tell who she's into because she keeps her emotions hidden. So is that why you're asking? To rule me out as a rival?"
"I'm not looking to start any trouble or mark you as a rival because I know you two go way back but I just want to know. To clear my conscience."
Eunwoo sighed and leaned against the window, making himself more comfortable. "I know something happened that day; the day you carried Sooyeong." Taehyung furrowed his eyebrows and only listened, "Then you both didn't show up the next day and I'm sure that because of whatever happened you both grew a lot closer than before."
"What are you trying to get at?"
"Sooyeong and I may go way back but the fondness she holds for you and I are worlds apart. I've seen the way she smiles whenever she's with you and the same goes for you. It feels like she completes you, doesn't it?"
Taehyung analysed Eunwoo's form and he seemed genuine with his words and demeanour.
"Yeah, it does." Taehyung answered rather subtly. "But you would only know that if you've liked som-"
"I've liked her since middle school, Taehyung."
Taehyung's expression warped in surprise and he unconsciously took a step forward, "But if you've liked her for that long then why haven't you've told her anything as yet?"
"Why would I want to destroy something as beautiful as the friendship I have with her? So I'm not going to force something that's never going to happen." He admitted rather calmly. "Because the way she treats me is the same as she treats Jimin and Jungkook; like brothers. There's no need to overcomplicate things."
"But how would you know for sure, you said it yourself that she's good at concealing her feelings." Taehyung panicked for Eunwoo even though he knew he shouldn't be feeling that way.
"I've always just known. Plus she sealed the deal when she called me a good friend on Saturday but I'm okay with just that." Eunwoo chuckled softly but the underlying pain was still felt by Taehyung. "You're one of her closest friends at the moment Taehyung. Her best friend, and perhaps the only person with a shot."
Taehyung looked down at the bracelet around his wrist, "I don't think that's true Eunwoo, she doesn't even want to talk to me anymore."
"If you want to win her heart you've got to do more than just sitting around and thinking about her or praying that she'd suddenly like you back." Eunwoo removed his hand from his pocket and handed him a crinkled piece of paper.
Taehyung opened up the paper which revealed some information about the Spring Festival which was set to be held just next week.
"Maybe you should ask her to this," Eunwoo tucked his hand away and Taehyung looked up at him, perplexed. "I don't know if you knew already but Spring is her favourite season and she's never missed a festival."
Taehyung smiled softly because he was well aware of how much she appreciated the Spring time, and that flyer only took him back to when Namjoon was covering the Season's of Life poem because he remembered exactly how many times he encircled that one phrase; in Spring we start our new journey.
"Are you smiling because you already thought this far ahead or did your defeated rival actually help you out?" Eunwoo joked.
"I don't want to hurt your feelings more than it already is Eunwoo." Taehyung smiled and patted his so-called rivals shoulder. "So I'm gonna lie and say that I haven't already thought that far."
Eunwoo playfully clicked his tongue and swung an arm over Taehyung's shoulder, "I can handle rejection, you don't need to lay it on me sweetly."
Taehyung laughed and looked over at a smiling Eunwoo, "You really are a good friend Eunwoo, and I know you'll find someone who makes you just as happy."
• • •
It was last period, History, and Taehyung's mind could only focus on Eunwoo ever since lunch ended. He couldn't fathom why in the world would he give up on a girl like Sooyeong, who he now stared at intently, because she was sweet, adorable, smart- literally everything in one tiny little package.
'Maybe she really does look up to him as a broth-'
"Can you not look at me so intensely," his thoughts were interjected by Sooyeong's voice. "It's distracting."
It sure as hell was distracting because it made her heart thump wildly.
He smiled sheepishly, "I wasn't looking at you, I was looking at the bird in the sky."
He cutely pointed out the window and Sooyeong turned to look, something he hadn't expected.
"There's nothing there, Taehyung."
He laughed nervously, "It flew away."
"Right," she lazily said and looked forward.
As Adora lectured, a student from the 11th grade class interrupted, and everyone's eyes followed her hands as they watched her deliver two pink slips and a document to Adora.
Adora gave it a quick glance as the student left then she placed it over her desk, "Eunwoo ssi, Sooyeong ssi, detention after class. Room 09."
Sooyeong's lips parted in shock because she had no idea why she had just gotten detention because as far as she knew she did nothing wrong. She looked passed a surprised Taehyung and exchanged confused glances with Eunwoo before they looked back at Adora for more information.
"See me after class."
A U T H O R ' S N O T E
ALL I HAVE TO SAY IS THAT I'M INSANELY IN LOVE WITH HAN SEOJUN! I LOVE HIM SO MUCH OML 😭
P.S. Please vote and comment. I'm not seeing a lot of comments on this book and it's kind of discouraging 😭🙈
Author, Lu 💜