In White Houses
Ch.20
It was 11 in the morning and everyone was at work, I must’ve slept in because I couldn’t sleep last night from sleeping all day yesterday and because of Jimin acting all weird. I begged Seoyeon to please let me go to work but she refused, even though I’m feeling better. So, I’m stuck at home all alone, again. I decided to phone my dad, I should explain to him what happened to my phone since I haven’t called him yet.
The phone ranged for a while and my dad finally picked up, “Hello?” “Dad? it’s me.” “Minjoo-ya? You got a new number?” I sigh, “yeah long story dad,” I heard a voice in the background, a female one that is, “yeah it’s her,” I heard my dad answering the voice, “Minjoo I’ll call you back in a few okay honey? I have a few errands to run with Kyunghee, uh, the woman I went on a blind date with, I’ll tell you all about it soon, okay, I love you!” my mouth fell as the line clicked, my dad really went on a date, and…it went well?? What is going on with my life right now?
I walked into the living room still trying to process what just happened when I heard someone walking down the stairs, “ah, Taehyung you’re still here?” “Yeah, the bookstore is closed today,” he walked in and sat on the opposite side of me on the couch, “what do you do on your days off?” I asked, “Eh, I usually read all day, in my room or on the terrace, I like peace and quiet and my alone time.” “Oh well, I guess I should leave you,” I chuckled, “You’re fine,” he smiled rubbing the back of his neck.
We sat in silences just looking around the living room, I was counting how many books were on the shelf and he was just looking at his fingernails. This was an awkward silence, is this how I’m going to spend my whole day? “Do you..” he looks over at me, “Do you wanna go somewhere?” “Like where?” “I don’t know maybe drive around the city?” A wide smile broke across my face, “You’re gonna show me around and be my chauffer?” He got up from the couch trying his best to keep from smiling, “just go get ready”.
A white convertible pulled up as we walked out of the lobby. “This is yours?! Where’s your bike?” He chuckled, “No this is Jin hyung’s he lets me borrow it here and there. We’re using it because it’ll be hard showing you around when you’re squeezing my waist from behind,” I blushed, “Well you drive like a maniac!” He laughs opening the door for me to get in.
Taehyung took me around Seoul sight-seeing, we went to all the places I’ve always read or saw on TV, Itaewon, Yongsan, Gangnam, Seoul is such a beautiful city! “Where are we going to next?” I asked all excited, he lightly laugh with his eyes still on the road, “I swear you’re like a little kid,” “Sorry,” I laughed, “Well if you must know, if you’re in Seoul you have to go to Namsan Seoul Tower…”
“Wow,” I whispered looking at the view from Seoul Tower, “It’s really pretty.” “You should see it when it’s night,” Taehyung stood next to me smiling. The mountains were beautiful, the light clouds surrounding the soon to set sun made Seoul look like heaven on earth, I was in awed. The beautiful scenic view made me think about my mother and how she would have loved to see this view, it made me sigh. “You okay?” Taehyung asked looking out the window and not me, “Oh, uh, yeah, just taking this all in,” I nervously laughed. “Well, have you seen everything you wanted to see in Seoul?” “yeah, kind of.” He raised his eyebrows, “what haven’t we seen?”
“Your bookstore.”
Taehyung unlocked the door to the bookstore, it was dark, “Hold on,” he walked in as I stood at the front of the door. The lights turned on revealing the cute small store filled with thousands of books. The ceilings weren’t high so all of the bookshelves were up to the ceiling, books stocked neatly, small tables in some corners that also had books on it. “Well, here we are,” Taehyung said standing next to me.
I walked in observing each book on the shelves, most of them were a bit old and worn out, a lot of books I have never even heard of. “We receive old hand me down books here, it’s a lot of old school books,” he said trailing behind me. “Who buys these types of books?” I asked picking out a book, flipping through the pages. “Usually older people, people who love to read and writers…like me.” He chuckled, I turned to look at him wide-eyed, “you write too, what like poems?” “Don’t judge me,” he smirked,
“No I’m not I would just have never guessed you know, you’re kind of the quiet observer mean looking type of guy,” I laughed. He half smiled sitting on top of the table in the corner, “I only started writing during the time I was reflecting on my actions, I told you that I did things that I am not proud of back then,” I slowly nodded,
flashback
“Well, That was fun,” the woman said wiping her mouth with a rag, Taehyung ignored her getting up to zip up his pants, “When are you going to ditch the other whores you fuck and stick with me?” she smirked at him, he scrolled through his phone, “I don’t know what makes you think you’re any different,” he said while reading a text message, “You’re my main guy” she said climbing on to his lap, “And I know I’m your favorite fuck buddy,” she whispered in his ear, Taehyung quickly got up having the woman fall on the floor on her ass, “HEY!” she yelled, “I got to make a run,” Taehyung said putting his shoes on, the woman sucked her teeth rolling her eyes, “Well are you at least coming back for the night?” He opened her door and stepped out, “No, I don’t think so Jiae,”
“Ah, Taehyung-ah,” Jonghoon smiled as I entered his little office, an attractive young woman was massaging his shoulders, he waved her off and she walked by winking at me before she exited. I nodded my head to greet him, “I called you in ask for a favor,” he licked his top gold teeth, “I would do it myself but I’ll be busy, I need you to go…’take care’ of Chang for me. Let’s just say he’s been giving me…90% of my earnings instead of 100%...I don’t tolerate thieves in my gang…I’m sure you understand” he smirked, I bowed to him, “It’ll be done.” “Good, good, I know I could always trust you.”
I knocked on Chang’s door, a part of me hopes he’s not home, the door opened and it was his wife that answered. “Uh, hello ma’am, is Chang home?” I bowed, she looked a bit nervous but nodded, “Yes, come in,” I walked in and saw Chang on the couch with his son watching TV. Shit. “Hon, someone is here for you,” he snapped his head back looking terrified, but saw it was me and looked a bit relieved, “ah, Taehyung, it’s you.”
He got up from the couch, “Can I..talk to you somewhere private.” He walks me into the kitchen and he slid the sliding door shut, “what do we have to ta-,” before he turned around I grabbed him by the neck and slammed his head against the wall making him fall to the floor, I got on top of him and began punching him in the face, hard. Blood started to splatter everywhere, mostly on my clothes, Chang’s face was swollen and bloodied, “I’m saving your pathetic life,” I sneered at him holding him by his collar, “You’re lucky Junghoon isn’t here to kill you you bastard!”
I punched him again, Chang said nothing but was sobbing, “You and your family get the fuck out of this city before you’re dead meat,” I let go of his collar making his head hit the floor, I got off of him and started wiping my hands, shirt and face with a clean cloth from his kitchen. I fixed my hair before I went to open the sliding door, Chang just laid on the floor curled up in a ball crying. I walked to the hallway about to exit the apartment…I saw Chang’s wife and son on the floor crying hysterically holding each other, I bit my bottom lip and left.
Taehyung remain quiet looking down at the floor, “Taehyung,” I said going over to him, he turned his head the other way, “I was so fucking stupid,” “We all do stupid things in our past, that’s life Taehyung,” I said, “I’m not judging you or anything okay?” he slowly turns his head to look at me, “Why?” he asked, his face emotionless, “b-because well, I, I see the good in everybody,”
“What’s so good about me?” his dark eyes were piercing through me, “Well, you love books, you love to read, you love stars, and Van Gough, I don’t know any bad people who take the time to do those things or appreciate art,” I said smiling, I could see he was trying to contain himself from smiling so he just faced the other way. I walked over to a bookcase to look at more books, I saw a book on the top shelf by Edgar Alan Poe, the writer he mentioned before, I stood on my tippy toes to reach for the book, once I got it I pulled it out and saw many books starting to fall on me,
“Watch out!!” Taehyung yelled as he pushed me out the way, we both fell on the floor and books fell on his body, “Are you okay!??!?!” I asked in panic, he slightly groaned and looks down on top of me, “You’re such a troublemaker,” his dark eyes soften for a bit, as I looked up at him I slowly reached for his face to brush his bangs to the side, “You look…really good with your hair out of your eyes,” I whispered, he gently grabbed my hand and slowly came closer to my face, kissing me.
Oh my god…we’re…kissing…again! This time the kiss seems so…real. I wasn’t thinking about how I was doing, for some reason I let my body just take over, it was like I’ve been kissing all my life. Our lips were in sync and then he started sucking on my bottom lip, it took me by surprise, I can feel his hand going down to my hips, he then started sucking the lobe of my ear, trailing it down to my neck, “Taehyung, Taehyung,” I said trying to get him to stop, he picks his head up and looks down at me again, “I…I think we should get up,” I said turning beet red.
He suddenly realizes what we were doing and got up quickly, he rubbed the back of his neck facing the other direction. I slowly got up fixing myself before I bent down to pick up the books that fell. “Y-you can leave it,” He says still not looking at me, “It’s okay Taehyung,” I started putting books back on the shelves and saw he was picking the books up too. I had trouble putting the last book back and he slid it back on the shelf for me, our hands meeting again, he quickly pulled away, “We should get going,” he says walking to the front of the bookstore.
