The next day, Taehyung returned home with numerous food. There were salted duck meat, beef tendons, frozen wontons, and even braised quail eggs. His grandmother had even taken out the remaining precious pumpkin glutinous rice cakes that he had saved, and like a salesperson, insisted that Taehyung took two back. Taehyung tried to refuse helplessly.
Mrs. Kim was at the hospital and only Principal Kim was at home. He was reading a military magazine. When Taehyung entered the house, Principal Kim glanced at him for a brief moment. Before Taehyung could see him doing so, he quickly shifted his eyes away and pretended to be deeply engrossed in the magazine.
Taehyung stuffed the food into the fridge. When he entered the living room, he merely glanced at his father. Both father and son did not intend to be the first to speak.
Then, Taehyung picked up the pair of skates that he left behind in the living room yesterday night and prepared to leave with his bag.
Principal Kim could not hold it in anymore. He blurted to Taehyung's leaving figure, "Where are you going?" His tone was odd, a little awkward and stiff from being caught between the need to be stern and being unable to fully steel his heart.
"I'm going to elope with Jungkook," Taehyung said.
Principal Kim gave an unamused smile. "Go ahead. After you're gone, I'll use your dowry to buy a pig farm. Raising pigs is so much better than raising a child. It's less worrisome and I even have meat to eat."
Taehyung turned to look at his father and said gravely, "Dad, you can put down anyone in the world except for me."
"Oh?"
"I was brought into this world and also raised by you and mom. If you put me down, it's equivalent to putting yourself down, and oh, also equivalent to putting mom down."
Principal Kim snorted, "You have wonderful skills at accusing people of imaginary crimes." As he spoke, he put down the magazine in his hands. "Tell me, what exactly happened?"
Taehyung put down the skates and spoke as he walked over. "First, thank you for giving me the chance to explain myself. I hope that as we continue this conversation, both of us will be able to keep our cool and trust in each other."
"Fine, fine, quickly explain what happened."
Taehyung sat down and said, "Dad, do you remember how I once injured my head while picking up tree branches as a child? Jungkook was there as well."
Principal Kim's eyes drifted as he attempted to remember the incident. After a while, he nodded and said, "I remember it. After seeing a magpie's nest in the tree, you were very envious of it and wanted to build yourself one as well, which was why you went to collect tree branches... I didn't remember wrongly, right?"
Taehyung: = =
"I also remember that your mom had to probe you for half a day before you were willing to confess what had happened." Principal Kim's face was extremely perplexed as he shook his head. "Can you tell me what in the world were you thinking? A human living in a bird's nest? Should I call you a birdman instead?"
"Cough." Taehyung was very embarrassed. "Let's, let's not sweat the small stuff."
"Mm, continue your explanation."
"That incident left a scar and Jungkook still remembers it. That day, he only wanted to see if the scar was still there. It just happened that someone took a photo of us when he was pushing back my hair."
At this point, Principal Kim felt that something was fishy, "How could things be so coincidental?"
"You don't understand. Jungkook is famous at our school. Here, I'll show you." Taehyung spoke and fished out his phone. He clicked into the account 'Jungkook's Gossip Information Counter' and showed it to Principal Kim. "Look at the number of views."
Principal Kim swept his eyes over the articles and felt that universities these days were comparable to the chaotic Murim.
"That's why there's always people secretly taking photos of him. I was implicated by him."
Principal Kim pondered over this for a while and asked, "So are you together with Jungkook or not?"
"No way!" Taehyung quickly waved his hands.
Principal Kim grumbled, "Pressing a persom whom he has no relationship with into the ground in broad daylight? He's not a decent fellow."
Taehyung thought, what a coincidence, I'm not, either.