CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
"How is she? Is she alright? She's not sick, is she-" The worried man bombarded the young lady with questions as soon as she stepped out of the room.
"Calm down, Taehyung." Margeret stated sternly, putting a full stop to all of Taehyung's questions, "She's perfectly alright, for now."
She noticed how the man's brows twitched in confusion, "I've taken some samples of her urine. I'll let you know if it's anything serious."
Taehyung nodded hesitantly and greeted her a farewell, leading her outside.
The constant tapping of the foot broke the silence that was surrounding Anna. Her teeth continuously chewed on her fingernails as her mind raced with forming conspiracies.
Taehyung.
Margaret Parker.
Armelle.
Mr Jeon.
She was beginning to piece everything together by herself. Grabbing a pen and notebook from her study desk, she began to scribble down everything she had been seeing in her dreams ever since Taehyung stepped into her life.
Okay, so, first comes Taehyung. He fell in love with Armelle.
She recollected the two times her name was mentioned other than in her dream. One, Jimin, who said she was Taehyung's former girlfriend who Anna still had to discuss about. And two, Sara's granny who mistook Anna as Armelle when she had a temporary memory loss.
But it was absurd to think that Taehyung and Armelle where alive back then and the weirdest part being that Jimin had confirmed that Taehyung's ex was Armelle, the name she often heard in her dreams.
The girl who looked like her...
Anna's breath got caught in her throat as a preposterous hypothesis lit up in her mind. She knew it couldn't be possible, but...
Why is everything connecting so perfectly to each other?
A sudden buzz of the phone interrupted the storm in Anna's head. She clumsily picked up her phone that almost slipped through her fingers, and looked at the caller ID.
Taehyung...
After much contemplation on whether to answer or not, she finally swiped the green button, "Hello?"
"Hey, Beth!" Taehyung chirped, "I miss you!"
"Taehyung." Anna cleared her throat and Taehyung on the other side stiffened when he heard her serious tone, "Th-there's... we need to talk."
A cold shiver ran down Taehyung's spine. This did not sound like good news to him, "Y-yeah, sure. Is... is everything okay?"
"Yeah." She said it almost breathlessly.
"Okay... I'll pick you up in 20 minutes?" Taehyung bit his lower lip, until the pink flesh turned white.
"Sure. I'll see you then."
When Taehyung honked, signalling his arrival, Anna slipped on her shoe in a daze as her mind thought of how to initiate the topic.
She stepped out of her house and stiffly walked to Taehyung's car and got inside.
"Are you okay?" Was the first thing Taehyung asked when he noticed her rigid posture as if she was just struck by lightning.
"Mhmm." Anna nodded hastily, "Can... can you take me to your place?"
"Sure."
The car riding was stuffy.
The tension in the air was too thick to ignore. While Anna was constantly chewing on her bottom lip, Taehyung was getting anxious. Was she tired of him already? What did he do to get her to behave like this?
He began to doubt himself, scrutinising every moment he spent with her to find a fault or mistake that he had committed.
"Beth..." his voice almost came off as a squeal as he throat had turned dry, "Is something wrong?"
Anna's eyes met his briefly before his landed back onto the road, "I, uh, it's..."
C'mon Annabeth! Confront him! You can do it!
"It's nothing... it's about my art project. I'm kinda... scared for it." Anna mentally slapped herself for saying such a crappy lie.
"Oh." Taehyung exhaled in relief and smiled, "Why are you scared? You have me all to yourself now, I could help you!"
"I need to do some research before I finalise my idea." By now she had already slapped herself a hundred times in her head.
"I have a library at home. You coul-"
"You what?" Anna gasped. Sure, his house was massive but a library too? That was a bit too much for a mere art teacher.
Taehyung's chuckle broke her out of her thoughts, "I do, and you can use it anytime."
The library was in fact pretty large. Larger than twice the size of her living room and kitchen combined. Books were stocked, not leaving a single gap for a new one to join in. In the middle of the library was a long mahogany desk with a matching chair.
"Whoa..."
"The books are arranged alphabetically. So please put away the books where you found them. I have a bit of an OCD when it comes to the arrangement."
Anna just nodded in a daze, lips parted a little as her eyes carefully scanned from one side to the other.
"I'll bring you some snacks." Taehyung ruffled her hair and left her all by herself. She began to explore the library, fingers roaming on the spines of the books. After a quick look she plopped herself onto the chair, now scanning the table before her.
It was tidy and organised with a little succulent in one corner and a pen stand on the other. As she leaned onto the clean desk, her eyes fell upon a little brown leather book. Casually, she picked up the book and flipped the pages.
A journal?
She opened a random page in the book and held it up to read it, in an attempt to look for answers. But her answers were given to her in a way she never expected.
Anna bent down to pick up the photograph that had fallen from the book. She held it between her thumb and index fingers and decided to take a quick glimpse before placing it back in the journal.
Her heart dropped.
In the bottom corner was a year and name mentioned.
1888, Ar-Armelle Gracen...?
Her breath was knocked out of her lungs. It was the same photograph she saw Taehyung capture in her dream. The first ever picture he took of hers.
This... I-I look just like... her?
"Beth?"
Annabeth quickly shoved the photograph back into the diary and paced out into the kitchen from where Taehyung called out for her.
"Y-Yes?"
He had his back facing her as he poured tea into two cups, "Could you please take that tray with you? I'll bring us tea."
He quickly threw her a smile over his shoulder when Anna agreed to help. Anna placed the tray on the mahogany table and let out a breath she didn't know she was holding in. She leaned against the table and took in deep breaths to calm her pounding heart that seemed as if it would jump out of her throat any second now.
Soon, Taehyung walked in with two teacups and set them down beside the snacks tray, "Why are you standing? Take a seat, Beth."
Taehyung patted his lap as he swirled in his chair, with a cheeky grin on his face.
"No, I'm good." Anna gave him a quick smile and walked away to one of the shelves.
Taehyung felt a sting because of the blunt rejection, but he only smiled in return and followed her like a lost puppy.
"There's something I need to tell you!" Taehyung and Anna exchanged surprised faces when they uttered the exact same words at the same time.
"You first." Anna tucked her hair behind her ear.
"No, you go." The tall man urged her.
"Okay..." Anna gulped the knot stuck in her throat, "Who's... who's Armelle?"
Anna wanted to slap herself for being so direct about it, but she was quick to notice the colour draining off Taehyung's face, wiping his smile away with it, "How do you know..."
"It - doesn't matter. Who is - or was - she?"
Taehyung's blood boiled because who else could've told her other than his best friend, Park Jimin. The boy who loves drama and mischief could never lose a golden chance like this to rile things up. Even though Taehyung wanted to punch a wall at this very moment, he calmed himself down by counting numbers in his head.
"Beth... the reason why I wanted to meet was to tell you about it." He paused, leaving a deep breath out through his pink lips, "About my past."
Anna pursed her lips and gestured him to continue by a little nod of her head.
"Armelle... well, she was my former lover. But, things didn't end well." Taehyung looked over at Anna's frown and continued, "S-She... she died."
To say that Taehyung was confused was an understatement. Why, you ask? Because not a muscle moved in Anna's face. He expected her to feel upset, sad, sympathy, shocked... just, anything! But seeing the lack of expression on Anna's face, he came to realise that maybe Anna knew more than he thought she knew.
I'm going to bury Jimin alive after this!
"Is that it?" Anna broke Taehyung out of his thoughts. He didn't know whether she was angry or suspicious or disappointed. Again, the lack of expression wasn't helping him.
He knew he had to say more, but how could he? She would leave him thinking he's a mad man she would want nothing to do with!
I'm totally screwed!