Step Into My World (and see)

2. Actions and regrets

Taehyung couldn't believe his eyes.

Was that Jeon Jeongguk he was seeing standing behind the rope separating his stage from the audience?

It must be a miracle. There was no way Jeon Jeongguk of all the people would be standing in the audience.

However, the more he looked at the guy, the more he realized that the guy really was his Jeongguk.

He really couldn't believe his luck. After all, how many people had the luck of having their once-upon-a-time crush as their own current fan?

Looking at the enthusiasm with which Jeongguk was cheering at him, it was obvious that he was a mad fan.

And Taehyung couldn't believe it.

He wanted to do something to acknowledge him. He couldn't just let the opportunity go. He wasn't the type to sweep down and shake his fans' hands, but he supposed it wouldn't harm anyone to do it once.

It was his once-upon-a-time crush, after all. The one that he had had a hard time getting over.

The reaction was another thing that he had really not expected. It was just too cute for him.

And in the time that he had had to perform the last couple of songs and then interact with the fans, he couldn't help but steal a few amused glances at him. He was just like how he had remembered him.

Even after the concert, he couldn't stop grinning. "Guess who was there!!!!" he exclaimed the second he got off the stage and spotted his manager.

"Who?" his manager asked, as calm and collected as ever, unaffected by the excitement in Taehyung's voice.

"Yoongi hyuuuuung, show some excitement!! It was Jeongguk!! Can you imagine that?! It was Jeon Jeongguk!!"

"......? Am I supposed to know him?"

"Hyuuuuung!! I told you about him about a hundred times!! My high school crush!!" Taehyung whined childishly.

He was too high up in the sky at the moment to behave as maturely as he normally would. He was just too excited at the moment. He had really not expected his day to go that way, after all.

"Oh, him. Wait...you mean that fan who has.....oh wow..."

"Yeah, wow!!" Taehyung exclaimed and finally decided to get off his clothes. The stylist was fussing over him already and he couldn't delay anymore.

Jeongguk didn't leave Taehyung's mind even as he walked into his luxurious little apartment. It kept his mind so busy that he began to wonder if he had ever gotten over Jeongguk properly.

Maybe he had just learned to live despite his absence when they went on their own ways after high school. Maybe he had thought that that was what moving on meant.

He felt like the second his eyes landed on Jeongguk and the second he realised that Jeongguk was his own fan, the crush and those feelings returned back and hit him with full force.

With a huff, he got off his couch and trodded into his bedroom, falling onto his bed with a thud face-first.

It wasn't like him to think about a man too much anymore. Even when he moved on from Jeongguk and dated a guy named Seojoon in his University for four years, he didn't have a hard time when he met him again a year after their break up.

So why was Jeongguk's appearance eating his heart away?

With a loud grunt, he got up and trudged back to the living room to get his phone. After hovering his finger over Yoongi's contact for a long time, he finally decided to call him before his mind gave up on him for thinking too much.

"H-Hyung?"

"Taehyung? Are you okay?"

Taehyung rolled his eyes even though Yoongi wasn't in front of him. "Of course. I just need a small help from you," he said.

"What is it?"

"You can...umm....access the contact details of all the fans who registered for the fanmeet, right?"

"........is this about Jeon Jeongguk?"

"....yeah," Taehyung mumbled in a small voice.

Yoongi didn't answer for a second, making Taehyung wonder if he had said something wrong. "Tae, do you know why we did not use the regular flashy lights and loud speakers for the fanmeet stage this time?"

"They said it was a low-budget fanmeet, right? What about that?"

"........nothing. I'll just get you Jeongguk-ssi's contact details," Yoongi said with a sigh and hung up. If Taehyung didn't know, then who was he to go around gossipping?

It didn't take long for him to retrieve Jeongguk's email id and phone number. He passed them on to Taehyung the second he retrieved them, making Taehyung gush all over him with gratitude.

Taehyung ran to his laptop, deciding to mail him as it would be too creepy to text him right away.

He wondered if Jeongguk would believe him and text him back. It would be too hard to believe, after all. Thus, he decided to enclose a selfie of himself that he had never before uploaded online.

Fifteen minutes after sending Jeongguk the mail, he uploaded the same picture online with a 'it's me,' caption to prove to him that it really was him.

However, he didn't receive any reply from Jeongguk even after twenty four hours. He spent every minute after sending the mail regretting his action, thinking Jeongguk now thought of him as a weird or creepy person.

It was only three days after the fanmeet, when he flopped onto his bed early in the morning, tired from the rigorous schedule and hardcore new choreography of the new choreographer for his new song, that Jeongguk's name stared bold at him from his mail.

"Hello. It's okay." it said.

Taehyung scrolled down and refreshed the mail more than a couple of times to see if Jeongguk had sent something else, but there was none.

Taehyung scrolled back up to his own moderately long message.

"Hello, Jeongguk-ssi. I know this may sound weird, but this is Taehyung. You know me as Kim Taehyung or V. The singer whose fanmeet you attended today. You even slapped my arm, remember? I'll enclose a picture of myself in the mail and upload it online fifteen minutes later with a 'it's me' caption to prove it to you that it really is me. I hope you don't find it creepy that I tried to contact you by extracting your contact details from the fanmeet's registration."

Taehyung sighed and slammed his laptop close. What had he expected from Jeongguk? A little fanboying? Maybe yes. Atleast a little enthusiasm? Definitely yes.

'I knew it. I shouldn't have sent that mail. It makes me sound so desperate. Taehyung, you fucker, couldn't you have just shut your mouth? You made yourself look cheap now," he scolded himself before gradually drifting off to sleep.