[ PARK JIMIN ]
"Are you sure it's just empathy? Are you sure you're not feeling... attracted to me?" There was a shift in his voice as it became more silky, pleasing to listen to. I could feel my muscles relax in response to the soothing sound. "Don...
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⊰ T W E N T Y S E V E N ⊱
SING
"Taehyung?"
Tae stared at the woman with wide eyes. He slowly stood from his seat, making his way around the table to approach her.
"June?" He stopped directly in front of her, both of them hesitant to make a move. Her bottom lip quivered and she raised her arm. I expected her to pull him into a hug, but jumped in my chair when she slapped him harshly across the cheek. The sound echoed in the quiet room.
Taehyung held his reddened skin as he turned back to look at her. "I deserved that."
"No shit, you bastard. What the hell is wrong with you? Did you think I wouldn't find out that you showed up here? My friends told me they saw you headed to the tavern last night, so I decided to see for myself if you really had the nerve to come back," she spoke angrily, her voice wavering with emotion.
I thought back to the two girls I'd seen staring at Taehyung on our walk through the village last night. They must've been the friends she was talking about.
"We only planned on staying here through the night. We're leaving soon, so I'll be out of your way," Taehyung muttered, leading her to scoff.
"So you really were planning on leaving without saying anything to me. Again," her voice cracked and more tears spilled down her cheeks.
Taehyung reached out to grab her hands, but she pulled away, spinning around and running out of the building. He sighed and turned back to us.
"I'll be back," he muttered before chasing after her.
I looked to the others and found that nearly everyone had as much confusion on their faces as I did, save for Jungkook and Mr. Kim.
"What just happened?" Jimin asked, his lips pursed after witnessing such an awkward interaction. His eyes found mine as they always did, and I shrugged.
"That was June, Taehyung's childhood sweetheart," Jungkook spoke up, everyone turning to face him. "When Taehyung and I joined the crew, he didn't tell anyone he was leaving. Not even her."
Guilt tangled it's way through my gut as I finally understood the situation. I'd originally thought the girl was crazy, appearing so unstable. But I would have probably reacted similarly if my childhood sweetheart had secretly shown back up after disappearing for years.
"Why wouldn't he tell her? If they were together-"
"They weren't exactly together by the time Taehyung left. They were constantly fighting about their future plans," Mr. Kim started, "She wanted to settle down and get married, wanted to stay here and live near her family. But Taehyung was set on travelling, on seeing the world and doing something adventurous, so they wanted very different things. They claimed to be broken up, but most people knew they were still seeing each other since neither one wanted to admit that they didn't have a future together."
