White Lies
chapter vi. last call
"Taehyung. I—I didn't think you would answer the call."
Taehyung had no idea what to expect when he accepted Mina's phone call. He barely had a chance to recover from the emotional wreck that he was left with after meeting you and reliving the past that he felt completely detached as he listened to Mina's voice. Not even a stir appeared inside his chest as he listened to her releasing a deep sigh into the call, making it sound as if it had taken a toll for her just to pick up the phone to contact him after going on months without a word.
He had half expected that he would feel something; be it anger or something similar to what he was supposed to be feeling after revealing the dark secret behind her actions and his own fallout. He had expected that he would feel the urge to express his frustration and despair over all the lies that she had fed on him for years which he had just recently unfolded.
Surprisingly, he found no need to do any of it.
In fact, he was shocked to find that he was feeling completely numb and oddly empty inside. It was the kind of feeling a person would get once they experienced pain so deep there would be no more energy left inside to even react.
Silence fell as he said nothing in return, finding her broken voice still stirring nothing inside him, not even when he heard what she said to him next,
"I've missed you."
In the past, those words would be enough to cause a turmoil inside him, to have him reacting. Except that what she may have thought as an attraction, something deeper than the friendship that he had to offer or perhaps something to return whatever it was that she had ever felt for him, what Taehyung had actually felt then had been nothing more than guilt.
For years, Taehyung had been living with this feeling; the guilt, the shame, the belief that he was the one responsible for giving Mina all the false signs and leading her on to make her think that he had felt something more for her when his heart had always belonged to another. For years, he had been haunted by the remorse that he felt for using her many years ago when he had his heart broken and while he was losing hope. When the event that happened in his small studio back then had awakened a deep and strong feeling from Mina, it had only made him feel tainted and soiled for giving himself to someone he had absolutely no feelings to.
Not only that sleeping with Mina then had opened the door for Mina to continue to manipulate him and turn the entire course of his life around and making it from bad to worse, it had also ruined the memory of his first lovemaking as something that was sullied and vile. Though in his mind, he was the villain for allowing himself to cross the line and to use her to heal his injured pride.
Those thoughts had been the reason why Taehyung had continued to do her bidding after what happened that day. For him to dedicate his time and energy to play his role well for Mina as a way to make up for his faults, and for him to put her first despite knowing what it would have been perceived by you and everyone else around him knowing what he had once vowed to do.
He had never failed to remind Mina of his true feelings, that he may never feel a thing for her no matter how much time they had spent together or how many times they had to act as lovers in front of everyone. He had tried to make it clear that nothing could wake his cold heart the same way you ever could, not even when Mina would cling to him and touch him as any doting girlfriend would.
"Taehyung?" she called for him when he still gave her no answer. Slowly, Taehyung sat down near the window, keeping his eyes looking far away into the city when he finally spoke,
"Why are you calling me now, Mina?"
The silence that answered him showed that his reaction was not exactly what she had expected to get from him. Especially not the cold tone he was giving her then.
"I—I've been thinking about you. I heard that you flew to England, and I thought—"
"You thought what?"
He never meant to sound so harsh, but perhaps his emotions were still there after all, finally making themselves known. He could picture Mina flinching on the other end of the call when there was a subtle gasp sounding from her. In the past, he would have backtracked and apologised for startling her, when at some point he had actually believed that Mina was too soft-hearted and too sensitive to deal with his mood swings. This time, however, the remaining anger that he had felt earlier was beginning to return to him, and he felt no remorse in showing her how he felt.
There would be no more subtlety or sympathy left for him to give. Not after what she had done. And certainly not after all the damage that had happened and for the time that he had lost for being so blinded with her lies.
But how could you blame her when you were the one who allowed things to turn this way?
Taehyung closed his eyes, trying to ward off the voice inside his head that kept chastising him for his faults in the past so he could find his own voice to speak again. "You thought what, Mina? Why did you think I came to London?"
He could already imagine the expression that she might be having right about now as he closed his eyes. The way her eyes would go hard with her stubbornness and her lips pursed with disdain the same way they would when things were not going her way. It was the look that she would always give him whenever he wouldn't follow her rules, and the look that he had begun to despise so much at one point that he would do anything just not to see it, even if it meant doing anything she wanted of him.
"I just...I thought—" he heard her stuttering on the call, and he was glad that he wasn't able to see her face when they were talking like this, knowing how easy it would have been for him to fall for her innocent act if she had been standing right in front of him.
"You went there to see her," Mina finally said with a cool voice, dropping her act without Taehyung ever having a chance to say a thing.
"Did you think I came here to find you?" Taehyung sneered at her, chuckling bitterly at the thought of her still wishing he would turn her way. "Even after years had passed and after all the things that I've shown you in the past, you still don't get it, do you?"
Shaking his head, Taehyung thought back to the moments when he would talk about his dreams and all the things he wanted to accomplish in life, when he sat down to share it all with her, allowing her to see his vulnerability, not once had he ever thought it would be the start of his down fall. At first, he had never brought up your name whenever he was talking to her, wanting to keep you to himself for a long time while avoiding to hurt Mina's feelings by letting her know that you had always been a part of everything that he had planned for his future, that his dreams would have never existed if not for you.
To this day, he regretted it the most. He regretted not being so open with Mina about his feelings for you and that you had always been a part of his end goal. Perhaps he would have been able to stop all of the mess from happening. Perhaps if he had been clear from the start, she would have never believed that she would be able to claim your place by his side.
"Did you really think I would come for you? That I'm simply dropping by here before I can start searching for you?" Taehyung questioned her while keeping his voice steady the whole time despite the way his anger was rising. "What is it that you want from me, Mina? Did you really think I'd be opening my arms for you after everything that you've done to me?"
This time, Mina didn't even bother to hide her shock as she gasped on the phone. "Why are you being so cruel? All I've ever wanted was to help you. Would you even be here today if it weren't for me? I opened up the way for you to be in this spot, Taehyung. Don't you forget about that!"
"Oh, I will never forget it. I'll never forget how much you have changed my life and helped me climb out of the gutter and out of that small town. But I'll also never forget how much you've ruined me," Taehyung answered her then, barely keeping his voice calm when his anger was boiling from within. Taking a deep breath, he tried to shake away the need to curse on her or to even scream at her, knowing that none of those things would be able to show her how he truly felt or to make her understand what he wanted to say.
Clutching his hand tightly on the phone, his voice were filled with a sneer when he spoke again. "You know, you should be happy. You have had your whole life written down on a blueprint, planned out clearly for you to have an easy life. All you had to do was to sit tight and wait until they would all come to you on a silver platter unlike some of us who had to crawl out of a ditch to get where we are."
"I never wanted it!"
"Just because you hated the way your life had been lined up for you, it doesn't make it okay for you to play with other people's lives!" he finally lashed out, as if her scream had snapped his last restraint.
"My only question is—" he added after taking a deep, calming breath. "Why did you have to involve me on your games, Mina? Why me, of all people, when you had so many people around you, worshiping you like a goddess when you moved into our town? And why did you think it was alright for you to make a fool out of me?"
"I don't—I don't understand," she said, her voice suddenly growing small and wary.
Taehyung held his tongue for a moment, not exactly sure how to bring it up without blowing up. With a sigh, he finally spoke up, "I know about the ring, Mina." The moment those words came out of his lips, his anger soon followed, coming out to the surface for him to start shaking with pain and rage taking over him. "I can't believe how stupid I was to actually believe you. How? How did you find out about the ring? How did you manage to play me and _____ so well?"
Mina gasped on the phone before sputtering her denial, but Taehyung wasn't having it. This time, he didn't bother to hold back, letting his rage come out, and he was growling with his voice so loud his whole body was trembling, "Who told you?"
The next thing he heard was a deep sigh, before Mina finally spilled the truth. "No one told me," she said then with a small voice, before a scoff came from her. "It wasn't hard to figure it out. We lived in a small town, where everyone and their mothers knew how infatuated you were on her. Our relationship may have been nothing but a sham, but my feelings were—" she stopped with a bitter chuckle that almost sounded as if she was hurting. And it almost made Taehyung feel guilty for yelling at her.
Almost.
"Did you know what it felt like, going around acting as your girlfriend, and yet people looked at me as if I was a home-wrecker because everyone seemed to know everything about the arrangement you had with her while I was the only one left in the dark? You talk about me making a fool out of you but do you even know how much of an idiot I looked like then?"
Taehyung said nothing, but he also understood what she meant because he knew exactly what it was like. He couldn't say that he never regretted it. He still had regrets for not being upfront with her from the start to prepare her for what she might encounter by announcing to the public that she was having a relationship with him. It was one of the reasons why he had wanted to keep it a secret, to keep the whole ruse as a play that they would only act out right in front of her family and not to the other people around them. But Mina had been so stubborn about it and had announced their relationship even before Taehyung could stop her or even prepare for the fallout.
It started during that summer fair, and then it continued on at school, where all of their friends took notice, and the rumour soon spread like a wildfire before he could help it.
But what Mina had never figured out was that she had not been the only one who was affected by it. For a time, Taehyung was treated as the villain, the traitor, the guy who had dared betray one of their own that his own friends turned their backs on him. That was the reason why he had to admit everything to Seokjin when he had confronted Taehyung about it, and it was the reason why Taehyung had decided to tell the truth about you to Mina and let her know about your part in motivating him to change his life for the better.
Both Taehyung and Mina had become pariahs due to the ruse among their friends. A pair of laughingstock for the relationship that they had acted out in so well that people actually believed it. He had thought that Mina had been completely oblivious about it or that she never truly cared, just as long as people would buy their act and that he was playing his part well. But he finally figured out that he had been wrong the whole time.
"I came to the clubhouse where your friends would hang out at while you were busy with Granddad, knowing that ______ would be there. She was with Jin when I got there, and they were talking so seriously they didn't notice me standing on the other side of the opened door to the room where they were hanging out in," Mina kept on talking, completely unaware of how Taehyung's thoughts had been flying back to the past. But he was listening to her closely now, only to understand just how she had managed to play her tricks on him.
"I've noticed for a while now that she was wearing a certain ring, and I've seen you watching her, mainly searching for the ring on her finger whenever she was around. I got curious, and what a coincidence that they were talking about that ring specifically while I was there. I didn't get a clear look at them at the time, but I heard everything. Jin was asking her why she wasn't wearing her ring that day. She said something about being a hopeless idiot for wearing that piece when it no longer served a purpose since you were dating me. It took me a while to figure things out, that for some reason, even if you were still hiding the truth behind our relationship from her, she still knew that you would eventually return to her."
Taehyung covered his mouth with trembling hands. He had known that you were no longer wearing that ring at some point after that summer. He had noticed if for a while and it had been the reason why he wasn't completely himself then, when he began feeling as if all of his hopes were slipping away from him. It was probably one of the reasons why it was so easy for him to fall for Mina's lies.
As if she knew where his mind was wandering off to, she immediately confirmed it by continuing on.
"I only figured that it was what the ring meant. I knew that she wouldn't be wearing it for a while, but I knew that it would change the moment you would have a chance to let her know that our relationship was a sham. I remembered how the ring looked like, and it wasn't so hard to draw it for my family's jeweller for him to create a copy of it. I told him that it was a ring that you gifted to me and I'd lost it, so he was more than pleased to make one for me."
Taehyung was livid. He was so angry for listening to this that everything around him seemed to spin. With his hand trembling around the phone, he clenched the other when he felt like punching something, so hard that it hurt. Raising up from his seat, he spun around and took the vase beside his bed and threw it against the wall with a loud growl.
"You lying witch!" he screamed at her. "Did it make you happy knowing you played me a fool? Did you have fun ruining people's lives?"
"No, I—" Mina quickly said, sounding completely shaken. "I hated seeing you hurt, but I had no choice."
"You had no choice?" Taehyung scoffed at her. "Oh, you have some nerves to—"
"I couldn't lose you, okay?" She immediately cut him off before he could even finish his sentence, though her words only angered him even more.
"Answer my question. Why did you choose me to mess with? Why the fuck did you come to me?"
"I didn't...At first, I didn't plan to ever get involved with you and I wasn't planning on hurting you, I just—" At this point, Mina was openly sobbing, but Taehyung had no more sympathy left in his heart for her to care. But he listened to her, keeping his anger in tact just to understand why someone would go all the length to ruin his life. "You were different. So different from any others I've met. Before we met, I was surrounded by people who were complacent, who had no fear in life but had no big dreams, not one desire to have one look far away into the future since they all have their own futures written down for them. People around me who were my age had been born into money, future leaders to business empires that were built by their families, rich kids that would forever live with trust funds made up for them so they wouldn't have any worries of running out a dime from their bank account to even wonder how to earn them when they never had the need to."
As Mina's voice raised with spite, all Taehyung felt then was bitterness. Bitter because he had seen them, had known these people, everyone in the circle of friends that Mina had belonged to before she had moved into town. And he had obviously seen it in her at some point, but he chose to keep these thoughts to himself.
"But you—you looked so far ahead into the future. You had always wanted so much more, you had big hopes, and I loved seeing that from you. At first, I thought that maybe I could learn something from you and I could actually help you achieve it. I admit, I didn't know what I was doing at first, but I just wanted to understand why you had such a drive when—" she stopped herself all so suddenly, but Taehyung already knew what she was going to say. "I, I mean—"
"You wanted to know how I had the drive to find a way when I came from a troubled life with poor family, is that what you're trying to tell me?"
He could see what she saw from him then. The boy from a small town in the middle of nowhere, whose Dad was having trouble keeping a steady job, and their family was struggling so badly that he couldn't find the courage to ask for money to join the exclusive art class that his town had to offer, much less to tell his parents that he had dreams of using his art to survive and to reach success in the future. It had seemed like a dream that was so out of reach, but for some reason, he had no fear in venturing into that path as long as there was a chance for him to actually go through with it. Yet he also realised that his family would never understand.
But he continued to refuse to let his limitations and his family's financial problems get in his way of becoming someone that he had always pictured himself to be, someone who would be suitable enough to stand by your side as you reached for your own success. Someone who would make his parents proud.
"No, I—Please understand, the more time we spent together and the more I got to know you, I started to admire you for who you were. Before I knew it, I was feeling more. I started to like you, and I took pride in giving you a chance to become what you had always wanted to be," she kept speaking with a soft voice, before her tone turned bitter when she added, "But then when I finally figured it out your reasons, none of it made me happy, knowing that once you've reached your dreams, you wouldn't be celebrating it with me. I had to do what I did because I loved you too much to let you go. Not for her."
Taehyung let out a bitter laugh. "That wasn't love, Mina. That was an obsession. You only saw me as a property to win over and not a person."
"I can do better. Please, give me a chance," she pleaded to him, while Taehyung could only shake his head, even if he knew that she wouldn't be able to see him.
"A chance to do what, exactly? You are already engaged, Mina," he said to her, as if she was too deluded to remember what her life had become. "Your life, the one that your family had planned for you, has already started. There is no point in any of this."
When Mina said nothing in return, Taehyung was quick to realise that the only reason why she had contacted him then was her last attempt to win him over, to use him as her ticket to escape the life that she had somehow grown to despise. No matter what she said about him and her reasons earlier, he had found it hard to believe that what she felt for him was nothing a completely misguided sense of love and affection which she had learned from how her family had treated her, when she was seen as nothing else but a pawn or a bargaining chip for the sake of their family's fortune.
Sitting back in his chair, Taehyung tried to calm himself down and thought back into the past. It was one and a half years ago when Taehyung finally found out the truth about her family. When one night, her mother had come to see him and sat him down, then proceeded in telling him everything about the arrangements made for Mina by the family, and most importantly, about Mina and her actions.
"She has done this many times before," Mina's mother had said then.
At some point, Taehyung had felt deep sympathy for Mina and had genuinely wanted to help her get out of her bind so she could find her freedom while he continued in search of his own. That was until he found out that there was never a need for Mina to be saved in the first place.
"She might act like she would be happy with her freedom, to be able to live peacefully by getting away from her family. But look at her, did you really think she could survive out there, without us, without all of this?" she asked him then, opening his eyes a little bit more to see who Mina truly was. That Mina would always be the child whose life had been handed to her on a silver platter, not realising that she was just one of the rich children that she had been so up against. Looking at everything that Mina had at the time, it was absolutely impossible for Taehyung to imagine Mina living without all the luxury that she had from her family.
"She has known her duty as a member of our family for a long time and has been preparing herself to take part of it. It's not like she knows how to live outside of all of this," Mina's mother had added while looking awfully remorseful that Taehyung himself started to feel bad for even thinking about deceiving her in the first place. "We all know what she's been doing, but we chose to play along. We figured it would be best to just give her the chance to enjoy some freedom and to live the way she wants to before she would have to return to play her role and fulfil her responsibilities. At least, she was staying in the positive route this time around by having you with her instead of creating havoc wherever she goes like she did last time. I've also been letting my father to help you because it's the least that we could do for all the trouble that she's given you and because you deserve it for being there for Mina."
It was one year ago when Mina showed him just how right her mother had been about her, when she left for Europe to fulfil her part by going to the school which she had been admitted to in preparation for her becoming the leader of her father's company. And it didn't take long for him to hear about her engagement. It was impossible to miss, after all, when Mina's engagement was announced publicly through the media. Though it was done not because of who she was or how important her family had been to the public, but for the man she was engaged to who had appeared to be someone with an important role in their lavish world and, more surprisingly, in politics. It was another reminder that she would always be a part of the world that Taehyung would never want to be involved in.
Taehyung wanted to laugh as he was reminded of the conversation he had with her mother then. It was then when he finally realised just how much Mina had been making a complete fool out of him. The only reprieve that he could get out of the entire ordeal was that he was still be able to have the chance to change his life. No matter how badly he wanted to take everything back and change the past, it was probably the only thing that he would never let go of, not when he was finally right where he was meant to be.
"For what it's worth, I really am sorry for everything that I've put you through." Mina surprised him for speaking again, and for sounding so calm and genuine about it. But what was more surprising was how easy the forgiveness came to him, making him realise that this confrontation was exactly what he needed to move on.
"You have a good life, Mina. Don't take it for granted."
Six months later...
No matter how long you had been living in this city, you still found it hard to get used to the weather. You could almost never decide what to wear for the day, not knowing if your sweater would be warm enough or if you would need to wear a coat on a day which started with the sun shining warmly before the temperature would suddenly change.
It wasn't that much different today, when you had left your home without an umbrella only to regret not paying close attention to the weather forecast this morning. You clearly were not ready for it when the sky opened up and rain started to pour just as you were only minutes away from reaching your destination.
At least, you had thought you were getting close. At least, you had to be at some point, right?
Searching for the place that you were heading to had not been easy since you weren't exactly familiar with this street—especially not this part of the city. Nor were you ready to find rows of identical-looking flats that you couldn't be sure if you have been stuck in the same block ever since you stepped out of the train.
"Damn it," you cursed as the rain grew harder and you ran in search of a shelter, using your purse to cover your head from the rain and hoping that your boots would be solid enough to stop you from slipping down the wet sidewalk.
You were grateful enough that all you had was a light rain and it barely drenched you when you finally managed to shelter under a canopy standing nearby. You pat down your wet jacket and purse, trying your best to dry your hands before reaching inside and grab your phone. Though you soon found that there was no need for you to make an emergency call at all. Looking up, you realised that you had magically found yourself right where you were supposed to be, judging by the noticeable sign hanging from the building right next to where you were and the number plastered on its front. If those hadn't been enough to let you know that you were not as lost as you had thought you were, Taehyung slipped right out the door with an umbrella in his hand. He appeared so worried as he was looking at the sky, too busy to notice you standing close by as he was unfolding the umbrella and preparing himself to run. That was until you called out to him, making him turn and the sight of pure relief came to him as he laid his eyes on you.
"______! I knew you'd be caught in the rain. Come on, follow me," he said, quickly rushing to you while you could only give him a nervous smile. He didn't seem to notice how you have grown stiff, as he had already started pulling you along by your elbow to come with him as he headed to the next door building, not even noticing how you had suddenly become nervous the moment he approached you.
"Were you coming to get me? How did you know that I won't have any umbrella with me?" you tried to start a conversation to ease your tension a little. It had taken you quite some time to get used to being this close to him since you met him again months ago, and you were quite surprised to find that there were things that have yet to change.
Unaware of what you were thinking, Taehyung simply scoffed and continued to usher you into his building. "I just knew you wouldn't be keeping up with the weather forecast. You never did back home, anyway."
His words made you smile, and you were grateful that you were walking behind him when he guided you towards the stairwell that he wouldn't be able to see your face.
"My room is on the third floor so you'll be pretty warmed up by the time we're there," he joked with you, making you laugh. At this point, you were no longer surprised to find yourself joking and laughing so easily with him. Although it is not as if you had been transported back into the past, when there was still an air of awkwardness brewing between you when you were together.
For the past few months, your relationship with Taehyung have been pretty—decent, for the lack of a better word. Though you weren't quite sure yet how to describe things going on between you.
Taehyung had made good of his promise of making an effort to remain patient as he tried to make things up for what he had done in the past, taking one step at a time as he carefully worked his way to earn your trust again and for you to re-build the friendship that you had once moulded together. Neither of you had ever brought up the day when you were first reunited six months ago or to even talk about any part of the painful past. Neither of you had been willing to open up those wounds again once everything between you had seemed to be moving on with a positive light, and things had just started to feel right. The only times when either of you would do so and bring something up, it would be something more like a slip of a tongue and a brief nostalgia just like what Taehyung did earlier, though they would only serve to remind you just how well you had both known each other in the past.
It hadn't been so hard to put the past behind you, knowing how the painful memories would only get in the way of your effort to move on. Taehyung had only shown you nothing but remorse over the pain that he had caused you then, and you knew that it was time for you to forgive him and to allow yourself to heal through it. It was the only way for you to be able to focus on the future, to give both of you the chance to start over.
Taehyung had only stayed in London for a week after the day you met him then, when he had first reached out to you and you came to him to find the closure you needed after the falling out you had in the past, though he never truly explained to you if he had other purposes in staying around longer than he should have other than to see you in person. It was nearly a month later when he returned, surprising you by moving permanently into the city to continue his study.
Months had passed since then and you still had so many questions for him, with him constantly throwing surprises after surprises at you. From revealing to you that he was attending one of the fanciest art school in the country—all through scholarships and recommendations—to letting you know that he had already been working on building his career in the art industry after finishing an internship in an art gallery back home. But each time you would ask him for more explanation, he had only kept asking you to be patient and to wait until he was ready to explain everything else, to each time, you had only told yourself to remain patient.
Just like how he had given you enough space to allow you to be where you were, you had chosen to give him the same thing.
It might sound a bit too much to offer for someone who had given you such a hard time, but it was the only way you could allow your guard to stay up, to remain distant even when you were close, just to make sure that you would be able to protect your heart from any chance of getting hurt again. No matter what you had now with Taehyung, you refused to let any hope grow bigger, knowing that even if you would be able to rekindle the old friendship that you had once cherished, you were still too afraid to let your feelings grow back the way they used to.
But you were not the only one keeping each other at arms' length.
It was more than obvious that Taehyung had been taking his sweet time to open up and show you his new life and the new person that he had become. You may have missed it then, shaded with Mina's presence and your own heartbreak, but Taehyung has changed a lot. Not only has he grown more mature from the boy who he used to be, but it was clear that he had accomplished so much more since the day you parted ways.
As you followed him all the way up to his floor, you began to realise even more just how little you had truly known him.
It was hard to picture the old Taehyung to be in this place. Not because of how lavish this place had seemed or to think so low about Taehyung and his family's condition in the past, but only because you had once thought that none of these material things would matter to him. You couldn't even imagine seeing him here, of all places. To be so far across the ocean and to be near you long after you had left, when you had always pictured him to be a permanent part of the small town where you grew up in.
It didn't seem fair to think about him that way—you realised this as you reached his floor—but he had never shown you a part of him that ever wanted to have any of this. He had talked about wanting to change his life, but never once you had pictured that it would come to this.
"Welcome to my—current home," Taehyung said to you as he opened the door to his flat, chuckling to himself.
Giving him a smile, you walked past him and entered the threshold, only to hold back a gasp as you looked around you in awe. "This place looks nice," you muttered to him as you continued looking around, and you weren't exactly giving him the compliment lightly.
The building he was living in had seemed quite old compared to the other flats down the road, but the inside of his own flat seemed to have been set up so nicely that it felt incredibly homey and comfortable to live in.
"Thank you. I got this place for a fair price in rent. I'm glad I managed to save up some money so I could get these furnitures and set the place up the way I wanted to," Taehyung explained this as he followed you inside, locking the door behind him.
"You did all this by yourself? Wow, I like what you've done to this place," you said, gesturing towards the cozy living room welcoming you at the center of his home. "Is this why it's taken you so long to show me your place?"
Taehyung grinned at you. "I just wanted to show you the best," he said, before lowering his voice and added, "I always have."
You stopped in your tracks, caught off guard by his words. For the past few months, you had known that you would have to revisit the past at some point and talk about it, but you were obviously unprepared for it to happen now. Taking a deep breath, you tried to remain calm and turned to look at him, only to see him turning away from you before you had a chance to respond to his previous blunder.
"How about some drinks?" he said without turning around, and you simply followed along.
Moments later, you found yourself sitting with him on his small yet comfortable breakfast bar, sipping on the hot tea that he made for you while listening to him talk about his new life here in London.
In the months that you had spent with him, rarely had he ever talked about the trivial things that he had gone through. He had never even shared with you anything about his studies, despite your curiosity. But just like how he had opened the door to his home to start showing you more of this new side of him, he was finally starting to let you into his life and into his secrets. He began by telling you more details on his move to this place and how he had turned the place into the cozy home you were in today. Then he talked about school, about his lessons and the things that he had learned since he moved in.
At the beginning of your new friendship, Taehyung had briefly shared about Mina's part in getting him to where he was. You had known that his scholarship was made possible from the internship he did with Mina's grandfather, though he had never made it clear the true length of her family's help in getting him here or if he still owed Mina for what she and her family had done for him.
Suddenly, you felt bitter to think about it. To think that they had parts in Taehyung's life while you were kept away from it, unable to support him the way you had always done when you were kids.
Shaking your head, you pushed the thoughts away and forced yourself to focus on the present. At least he was here with you, and that he was sharing all of this with you and nobody else. You looked at him for a moment, seeing him smiling proudly as he talked animatedly about his plans for the other rooms in his home and his next classes, and you couldn't resist a smile. "You just keep on surprising me. I'd always known that you would do well once you put your mind to something, but you still surprise me with everything that you've accomplished so far. You've been doing great, Tae. I'm so proud."
Taehyung looked away sheepishly with a smile, before he suddenly leaned closer. "You know that my new home isn't the only thing I want to show you by inviting you here, right?"
You were taken aback at his question, though it suddenly became clear at this point that Taehyung had made it his mission to constantly put you on the edge. Tilting your head, you studied the look on his face while you were unable to find any word to respond to him. Not when he was looking at you expectantly the way he did.
"Come with me tonight," he suddenly said, before laughing at the way your eyes grew wide in shock. "Don't look at me like that. I'm not trying to trick you into anything. It's just that I—"
Pulling back, he rubbed the back of his head nervously before reaching into the pocket of his shirt.
"I just want to show you something," he nervously said to you as he pulled out an envelope, slowly sliding it your way.
Taehyung's uneasiness gradually grew more intense as you reached out to pick up the envelope, though you paid no attention to him as you focused on pulling out the content, revealing an invitation card with an intricate design on its cover that you instantly knew that it must have had everything to do with his art and the business he was venturing into.
Reading out the words written on the card, you instantly raised your eyebrows. Taehyung may have changed a lot over the past few years, but he sure did love his surprises.