❝Rain brings with itself, a melancholia that is difficult to part from. But everything is meant to go someday; even the pain, to allow the joy to prevail.
After all, there's no rainbow without a little bit of rain.❞

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word count: 4.15 k

genres: angst with scattered bits of fluff but overall a comforting piece

warnings: character death (implied), featuring jimin! so you could say there's a vmin moment here, jimin is a fairy, taehyung is an old man, there's just general themes of sadness and coping from grief/loss, the ending is bittersweet need i say more

a/n: I KNOW i haven't updated here in so long & i'm extremely sorry about it! for starters, i was finishing up a few other books of mine including a 2-hour taelice read, scintilla (crappy self promo i know lol) & then i was totally off wattpad (social media in general) since i took a break for my studies & it's difficult to get back into the creative mode due to lack of motivation :| this is just a little something from my abandoned drafts compilation, i mixed and matched up a few old stuffs with a few newer ones that couldn't get incorporated into a proper plot so here we go :P

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N A R R A T I O N

White clouds hovered over the clear blue sky, occasionally blocking away the sunlight to open for a perfect sunny day, very much unlike the realisation that summer was already approaching an end.

A pleasant gush of wind blew past the foothills of the Namsan park, as people strolled along the brick laden path that led them to the star attraction of the tourist spot — the Namsan tower. Some of the tourists opted to admire the picturesque view of the city and bask in the nature's warmth, posing for photographs before the vast expanse of flower beds as they walked.

Amongst them was a man, older than most of the common folk. With a cane resting on his right palm for support, the eighty-four year old sat down on one of the park benches. A smile bloomed over his features, bringing the wrinkles to a fade as he looked up front at the artist setting up a canvas a few steps away from him.

"Thank you for doing this for me." He spoke, garnering the attention of the young artist who waved his hand instead. "No, harabeoji, I should be the one thanking you. You've already blessed me with a grand favour indeed."

Taehyung observed as the boy's eyes turned crescent shaped when he returned a smile, whilst mixing the paints in his palette.

"So you're an art student, I presume...?" The old man started, tracing away a half-empty question as he sensed the same kind of awkwardness the younger was experiencing when he knocked his easel a few times already.

"Uhm...I'm Jimin. And yes, it's correct."

"Oh, good to hear." Taehyung sighed, looking for icebreakers to converse with a boy who was nearly two generations younger than him.

He happened to accidentally notice Jimin sitting on the park bench looking visibly disheartened as he stared at his empty easel. So when he approached the boy and inquired the reason behind his distress, the boy had answered that he was lacking ideas for a certain project. And when Taehyung put forth a request, he noticed how the boy's face brightened up like the clear sky today, immediately agreeing to work on it.

"I hope you're comfortable, harabeoji?"

"Oh, 'course I am. You...seem a bit tensed."

"Y-Yeah, actually..." Jimin started, "my art professor wanted the class to have a facial sketch drawn just on basis of physical details described by someone. And I've never done this kind of activity before so it's making me fret in a hope that I do your partner justice."

"Ah..." Taehyung nodded understandingly, feeling his heart get warmer by Jimin's words. The boy was an aspiring artist who was using his art to craft something emotionally raw. "When I think of it, I guess it would be hard to make anything of Lisa look bad."

"Lisa, is that her name?"

"Hmm." The elder answered with a gentle nod of a head. "She was my wife."

"Was?" Jimin articulated thoughtfully, sensing the old man's bittersweet nostalgia when he closed his eyes as if to remember something.

"Yeah. She has passed."

If Taehyung were to admit with blatant honesty, the words tasted bitter and stale on his tongue. He wasn't sure how he had managed to live so long after his only lifeline was cut away from him, as his tired organ bested within the confines of his chest, as if in search of her heartbeat so that he could identify the rhythm of his own.

"Oh. I'm so sorry for your loss, harabeoji." Jimin's hand fell away from the canvas the minute he heard the words being verbalised by the old man's deep voice, until he restored himself back into the scapes of reality.

"Please don't be sorry, we can't part with certain bitter truths of life. Lisa may not be by my side anymore, but I'm thankful that she has left me enough memories to hold onto for the rest of my life."

Jimin only hummed, before heaving out a sigh; the emotional attachment of his subject to the man describing her had strengthened his will to sketch a beautiful portrait that was ornately accurate, something that Taehyung would be proud of.

"Okay harabeoji, could you tell me how she looked like? About her face or anything — it doesn't have to be physical, this is more about emotions."

Taehyung observed the determination in the young boy's eyes, taking him back in the days when he was his age, ambitious and inquisitive to discover more about the world and it was only around that time when he had first met Lisa — and eventually fell in love with her.

"She had round cheeks. A face too perfect to fit into my hands." Taehyung took a minute to stare at his palms, reminiscing how he'd scoop Lisa's face in them just to revere her beauty. "I remember there was a time when she'd say she was insecure of her forehead and tried to cover it under her heavy bangs, but I've always found her beautiful either way."

Jimin, who followed Taehyung's description by simultaneously tracing faint outlines on the blank canvas, couldn't resist the pang in his heart as the old man went on with his endearing account of describing his lover. He switched on to a finer brush that rested on his free hand to capture the most intricate of details, letting his mind meander an imagery of the silhouette of a woman seated beside the man on the park bench.

When Taehyung lovingly brought his hands close in a cupping gesture around what could've been his lover's face, a fond smile reflexively surfaced on Jimin's lips. Instantly, he knew what set of emotions he could embed into the portrait.

As Jimin continued to manuever his hand over the canvas, he silently listened to Taehyung who happened to be reciting the nostalgia of his thoughts out loud to him. Jimin's brush had been hard at work, dutifully detailing every stroke to perfect as he painted and materialised every hint of love into the portrait.

"Her smile was the most genuine ones you'd ever see on the planet. Every time she'd smile, my day would just get better. It reminded me, that with her, I was always home."

Hearing this, Jimin added, "sounds like your wife was very happy with you, harabeoji." He finished his comment with an added stroke to the philtrum, giving a perfect shape to Lisa's lips. Just like what Taehyung had described, Jimin put his best effort into crafting the warmest of smiles to rekindle the one that Taehyung cherished with his whole heart.

"She was a happy person indeed. But sometimes she was sad too, somewhat, angry... and let me tell you, you would never want to see her angry."

A hollow chuckle slipped past Taehyung's tongue at the funny recital of the countless times Lisa would scowl at him for doing something particularly dumb or for spoiling their kids and he would mostly hear an earful along with them before they'd devise a fun plan to make up to her and eventually her heart would melt.

"Though it killed me from inside to see her ignoring me after any small argument, but if I were to swear by myself, I'd give anything to see the disgruntled expression she'd give out every time she was angry."

Jimin only added in a chuckle when he directed his gaze at Taehyung for a second, a question crossing his head. "If there was anything that always drew you near her, then what would it be? Anything apart from her smile?"

"It has to be her eyes..." Taehyung went on, "her eyes were one of the most striking features in her appearance. They held this... sparkle in them, as if she had trapped the moonlight in her eyes alone. For one thing I've known, she has always hated crying. She thought crying made her look ugly so she always hid her sadness before the world. Not with me though." Taehyung paused for a brief second, the memorial of Lisa's eyes made his inhalations feel somewhat weighted.

"She always used to look up into my eyes with care and trust, and sometimes she'd say, that I was forever her comfort. Even if she'd cried for uncountable number of times, you could've mistaken her tears for diamonds."

The image of their wedding day was imprinted in Taehyung's mind, taking him sixty years back into the time capsule when they had exchanged their wedding vows before the world. What the world thought was a honest declaration of love in those vows, it was only Taehyung who knew that those paths were not meant for him.

Truth comes bitter. And this was the truth.

Masked from the world but never concealed before his eyes.

Although every single promise that Taehyung took that very day was a slow confession of his feelings to bind their hearts forever, Lisa's vows were meant to be exchanged with someone who she loved.

Someone who wasn't him.

Even if Taehyung had pined over Lisa for years on end, he had known better that he wasn't her first choice. The kind of bond they shared with each other was different from those that they shared with other people in their respective lives.

It was true that Lisa always addressed Taehyung as her comfort, and he was okay being that. He was okay to sideline his feelings for the sake of hers, as a true friend. So when she was heartbroken and left alone by the only man she'd loved, the man who had promised to marry her, it was Taehyung who had stayed.

"All I've ever strived my entire life is to see her happy. I can't assure how successfully I was able to achieve that goal, but I hope I did well enough."

"You have, harabeoji." Taehyung was too lost in the conflict of his own heart that he almost grew deaf to Jimin's nod of approval. The boy finally gazed at the nearly completed portrait before parting away to look at the elder man sitting on the bench.

It was amusing to hear all what Taehyung had to speak for Lisa, making Jimin feel present in the wonders of the pair despite the fact that he was very much inexplicably absent from their lives.

All these words were not being spoken from the functions of Taehyung's brain, rather every sentiment that flowed from his voice was sourced straight from his heart.

A heart that had deserved a lot more.

A heart that had yearned for his love being reciprocated.

A heart that always heavy with regrets yet also one that felt incomplete without its other half.

Jimin took pity on the poor man after noticing the wistfulness in his words. Still, a part of him felt guilty for being a witness to the man's whole life, even if Taehyung wasn't aware of who Jimin actually was. He had to inject a considerable amount of courage in a question that he hoped wasn't overstepping any boundaries.

If he had descended down amidst the earthlings only because he wanted to grant a second chance to Taehyung to experience an alternate reality of his life, this was it.

"Do you ever miss her?"

"All the time. Sometimes I wish if times were different, maybe I could know how she felt about me. Even when she was breathing her last moments, she repeatedly kept apologising to me. I didn't understand why. I still don't. I didn't want her to live a life of regret, but remembering about it just throws me into ambiguity if I was able to give her all the joys in the sixty years of our married life."

A crack fissured through Taehyung's voice as he raised his hand to wipe away the tears, looking away from Jimin. His hands intertwined with each other as if to feel the warmth encased in Lisa's palms, the wedding band resting on his ring finger still a reminiscent that his love was more than just a promise to stay by her side. That a piece of jewellery could not entail what he had in his heart for her, even if he never got to know what she felt for him.

Jimin's gaze softened, fathomed by Taehyung's actions. So spacing away from Taehyung to give him a minute to get over his grief, Jimin took the time to carefully turn the easel until it was facing the old man.

When Taehyung's gaze fell on the canvas, his eyes beheld the painting which etched the fruition of closure ever since his wife's death.

"I...It's...it's beautiful!" Taehyung instantly got up, walking close towards the canvas to observe the intricate detailing as tears filled the bay of his eyes again. "It looks exactly like her... like my Lisa. I— I don't know how to put this son, but thank you. This is the first time I've found closure in anything since the passing of my wife."

"I'm glad I could make you happy with this harabeoji, but I still don't feel satisfied enough."

"What... what do you mean, Jimin?"

"Harabeoji, if you were given a chance to relive your life from a different start, would you accept it? A second chance to mend all the regrets in your life, along with your wife's?"

"If I am to end up loving her in any lifetime, I'll just say yes a thousand times."

"Okay then." Jimin paused, inching closer to a confused Taehyung before fishing his hand into a taupe coloured pouch that hung close to his waist.

Fisting his palm, Jimin brought it close to Taehyung, softly whispering:

"The flower of your love deserves to bloom too, Taehyung."

Before Taehyung had the chance to react to what was happening, Jimin's lips were upturned into a warm smile when he loosened his fist and blew what seemed like golden dust into Taehyung's eyes.

All of a sudden, Taehyung felt like he was engulfed by an invisible force that slammed him into a tunnel — terrified, he closed his eyes wondering what was to happen next.

When he opened his eyes, he wasn't in Namsan anymore. He had been transported into his memories.

He examined his hands, turning them in every direction only to be met by a gesture of surprise. His hands were no longer coarse and wrinkled, neither did they tremble against his will. He was in the comfort of his apartment, a cane no more by his side. When he stood up to approach the mirror fixed above the wash basin, he realised his legs weren't wobbly anymore and his spine was straight and strides were strong.

Taehyung almost didn't recognise his own reflection in the mirror. He had seen the figure like this in old pictures and remembered it in his mind, but it was decades since he had been in the same flesh as the one that was facing him in the mirror.

Because he was no more an eighty-four year old man. He was sixty years younger. His hair a brilliant shade of chestnut brown instead of stark grey. He looked healthier again.

This was something he wasn't used to seeing everyday.

The dress clothes immediately made him realise what day it was. The same pair of clothes he had worn when Lisa had called in after reporting an emergency over the telephone — she had broken down that very day, realising that she was pregnant and left alone.

The same day when Taehyung had promised to her a marriage of convenience and had vowed to become a better father of the unborn child, to give a legitimate identity to a child that wasn't even his own to begin with.

He could hear a distant humming and it didn't take him more than a mere fraction of seconds to recognise Lisa's voice. His steps had now grown hesitant, his breathing ragged and the beating of his own heart beating deep in his rib cage, afraid of what he was about to find.

"Lisa?"

He saw her in the balcony, her back facing him as she was watering the plants. A thick lump formed in his throat, inhibiting him from uttering another syllable. It was right in that moment when Lisa turned, the smile old cheerful smile he had missed, the beautiful young features as she was just the same age as him — twenty-four. The playful glint in her previous eyes was difficult to be missed, it had never dissipated even in the subsequent years of the ageing process.

"Tae?" Lisa softly called out, a bewildered frown on her lips as she opened the sliding entrance of the balcony before walking into the room.

Taehyung was unable to resist; the man immediately wrapped his hands around her waist. The action almost surprised Lisa, as she could feel the tense beating of his heart pressed against hers and her legs rising above the ground with the strength Taehyung had held her in his arms. He was holding onto her tightly, as if  his whole life depended on it (in all technicalities, it did) and he didn't want to lose her for a second time — he savoured her scent, finding it hard to let her go.

When his hold loosened and he finally placed her on her feet, Lisa walked up to him with a meek giggle. "Hey, what's wrong? Don't tell me you broke the sink with your exquisite plumbing skills—"

"Where's Jungkook?"

He observed how Lisa's brows furrowed, looking even more puzzled than before. All she could sum up was a "huh?" before composing herself.

"What do you mean, Tae?"

For a second, Taehyung wondered what was wrong. Jungkook had left Lisa pregnant with his child when he left for his ambition to become a musician. But it was only after a month into Lisa and Taehyung's marriage when they were informed that Jungkook had passed away in a reckless car accident.

"Jungkook, as in—"

"Tae, I obviously know who Jungkook is. He's probably on your right now. And did you forget already, that we attended his first concert in Seoul just three weeks back?"

"We did?" Taehyung was dumbfounded. Lisa's answer had suddenly rendered him speechless and he didn't understand what was happening. "But weren't you supposed to marry him?"

"What?!" Instinctively, Lisa burst out laughing. "Taehyung, you really need to stop playing your stupid amnesia prank on me. Let me refresh your memory: Jungkook proposed to his girlfriend in front of the thousands of fans that attended his concert. And wait a second — why would I marry Jungkook when I'm already married to you, silly?"

Taehyung was beyond stunned as his feet stood rooted to the ground. He could feel a scalding sensation on the shell of his ear with each piece of information that Lisa, his wife let out.

"N-No but... Jungkook had proposed to you. He had promised he would marry you someday when he would successfully accomplish his goal."

Lisa crossed her arms, the frown slowly fading away into a subtle grin. "Well Kim Taehyung, Jungkook proposed to me once in college. And as far as I remember, I rejected his proposal ages ago because it wasn't meant to be anything serious because we were only fooling around. He seems to be pretty happy with his girl anyways. And I'm happier with you."

In the same instant, Taehyung laughed. His eyes squinted and a wide, enormous smile took over his features as Lisa snickered with him too, as she hit him playfully on his shoulder, alleging that she almost thought he had developed a partial memory loss with his weird antics.

But before Lisa could berate him further, Taehyung intertwined his fingers with hers and stroked the wedding palm that rested on her ring finger with his thumb.

Bringing her hand close to his lips, he first kissed the ring, before pulling her closer to press his tender lips against hers. The kiss felt sweet and amorous yet slightly desperate, full of a kind of yearning which was somewhat unknown to Lisa. But when Taehyung welcomed her into his arms again, she didn't hesitate to melt in his warm embrace again. If Taehyung was Lisa's comfort, then his embraces were her home. One that she could never imagine parting away from.

"I love you, my wife. Thank you for choosing me." Taehyung whispered in a slightly hoarse voice, sending shivers down her spine as Lisa allowed her back to rest against Taehyung's chest.

"I love you more, Tae. You're my one true love, dear husband."

The next time Taehyung finally opened his eyes, he found himself sitting on the rocking chair facing the window.

It was raining outside. The pitter-patter of the raindrops pelting against the glass windowsill were heard as the window was left slightly ajar to allow gust of cool air to flow in.

Taehyung looked down and stared at his hands again. The ring was still there, but his hands had changed into their old, wrinkled stage. The wallpaper of the room appeared to be worn out and instantly, Taehyung remembered his son Yeonjun had advised him to remodel the room and give it a makeover to give it a better look than a dusty-looking attic.

Taking support of his cane, he got up, walking close to the wall to trace the myriad of photo frames assembled in an aesthetic fashion.

The first photo was the one that Jungkook had snapped for Taehyung and Lisa when Taehyung had proposed to her, the second from their wedding day, the picture of Lisa being six months pregnant with their first child, a family picnic with the two of their children, Yeonjun and Yuna, pictures of his kids' graduation ceremonies and Yeonjun landing up his first job.

The pictures rekindled the memory long forgotten, being a solid proof of how these sixty years of marriage had passed away in a glance. When Taehyung turned, he found a canvas of his wife hung up on the opposite wall, the same one he had seen in his dream. And the boy, Park Jimin? The young lad had signed the picture at the very bottom.

This was a dream no more.

It was a reality, of his life.

That he was never the second option. No. Lisa had chosen him.

The pleasant blow of the wind diverted his attention back to the window again.

It was raining outside.

With glistening eyes, he stared outside, reminiscent of all the pleasant memories he had crafted with the woman he had loved all his life, his late wife. Though she was no longer alive in the earthly world, Taehyung's love was still very much alive and still very young, breathing joy in his life. There was still an unquantifiable amount of love pouring from his chest without a hint of diminishing.

This unworldly beauty of their love was no more breathtaking than the beauty of her. A smile finally rested on Taehyung's lips, blissful tears pouring out at the euphoric realisation that dawned over him; he stared at the rainbow arc that formed over the horizon as he returned the colourful smile softly, having no more regrets whatsoever.

F I N .

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A/N: ngl, i usually hate my own endings most of the time. with this one though, it's a bit satisfying. really.

none of this is proofread so if you find any errors, please do let me know! also, share your feedback and please don't let it flop. lastly, thank you for reading!ツ

— authornim.