| mara's point of view

I was waiting at the bus stop, my earphones plugged in both of my ears, Troye's voice sounded heavenly and so was he. Taehyung appeared around the corner, walking with his hands in his pockets. He saw me and didn't even made an effort to smile yet he looked as perfect as ever. He's one of the pretty fuck boys at school and here I am, about to go on a date with him.

I pulled my earphones out and stood up, checking my wrist watch, "You're late."

Taehyung acted indifferent, "I know. Did it on purpose." He said before climbing up the bus.

The bus is almost empty since it's a Sunday. Everyone is in their houses, enjoying the company of their families or their friends because tomorrow they'll be returning to work again. I sighed and wished my family could be like that but that's impossible. Taehyung grabbed my wrist when I was about to take the seat across him, "You're my girlfriend so you sit here."

"Asking me to sit with you would've been nicer." I mumbled when I was seated beside him. I knew he heard me but he chose to ignore it. "Where are you taking me?"

"Somewhere." He said and then looked out the window. Taehyung is really the definition of indifference. I thought he's one of the friendly fuck boys because when I met him, he had that nice but a troublemaker aura around him. But I guess first impressions could be wrong.

He's hopeless. What am I doing here with him? I could be relaxing in my bed right now. I took my earphones again and drowned myself in my music once again. It would be so much easier this way.

"You listen to him?"

"What?" I raised my voice, the volume was too loud for me to hear anything anyone is saying.

Taehyung took one of my earphones off, "I said you listen to Troye Sivan." He nodded towards my phone, the screen displayed the song I was listening to.

I glanced down at my playlist and back to him, "Yeah?"

"I like his music." He added nonchalantly.

"Wait, you listen to him too?" I asked, almost surprised. "I thought you only listened to trap music."

Taehyung laughed. I didn't think he could be so real but what if he was faking it? Maybe it's safe not to assume anything just yet.

*

For the very first pretend date, he took me to the least expected place; the dog pound.

Is this a joke? I asked myself when we stopped in front of the rusty gate of the dog pound. Taehyung confidently waltz inside the premises. He was so familiar with the whole place. He couldn't have visited this place more than once, or did he? Although it was possible, I still gave him the benefit of a doubt.

Anyone who'll take a single look at him would immediately know what kind of a person he is.
Taehyung was always late in class, a popular mischief maker, detention's number one student but on the slightly brighter side; unlike the others from his group, I never heard news of him getting a girl pregnant or picking a fight in clubs.

Yes, he did break a fair number of girls' hearts but that wasn't surprising to me anymore. With looks like that, he was born to break hearts.

Taehyung turned around and found me still grounded outside the gate, "What the hell are you still standing there for?"

"Can't you move any faster?" He yelled from afar, "I don't have all day to wait on you, you know."

"Well, I don't plan on following you around all day either. Unlike you, I got things to do." I rolled my eyes at him but he just ignored me, probably thinking how difficult girls can be. Well, that's just too bad cause I can't help being a girl today or any other day at that.

Taehyung lead me further in the back room, where all the caged dogs are. Apparently, he is friends with one of the employees here. I followed quietly after him as he pulled a ring of keys out and used one to open a cage. Everything he was doing was adding up to my confusion but I stayed silent. It was better to be silent. I didn't want to ask him for a reason nor even complain about being here with him. Shut up and do my part of the deal, that's my mind set.

"Hey fella. How've you been?" Taehyung was smiling. God, he's beautiful when he's not all grumpy at me. He ruffled the dog's fur as the little guy excitedly pounced up at him, "You missed me huh? I know. Sorry I couldn't visit you recently. Things got, you know, complicated.." He was talking to the dog and I stood there just staring.

Finally, he turned to me. I was starting to wonder if he forgot I was there with him. "This guy's name is Bailey. I found him a year ago. I couldn't take care of him at home so I found him another home here. We went through a lot of difficult times together, didn't we boy?" Taehyung said smiling like an innocent child when Bailey licked his cheek. "Bailey, this is Mara. My new girlfriend."

"Pretend girlfriend." I clarified.

Taehyung smiled up at me, "Yeah, pretend girlfriend."

Their moment only lasted for a few minutes longer then Taehyung returned him to the cage, his sad eyes mimicking Bailey's.

"You're probably wondering why I brought you here." He said after locking up Bailey in his cage. "Actually, there's someone else I want you to meet."

"Someone else?"A puzzled look made its way to my face, "Who?"

"Taehyung." He replied, eyes on you and never wavering. "The real Kim Taehyung."

"I'm not getting you at all." I told him.

"In order to make our pretend relationship work don't you think you need to to get to know me first? Or at least pretend to want to know me." Taehyung sent a smirk my way. He grabbed my hand and locked his fingers with mine.

I jerked in surprise and tried to get my hand off his but he didn't let me, "You need to get used to a lot of this because I tend to do this a lot with my girlfriend."

I finally broke free from my state of silence when he began to pull on my hand, leading us out of the back room, "Where are we going now?"

"My place." Taehyung said in response, making my mouth dry as a lake of possibilities flooded my mind.

"W-Why there?" My hands were getting sweaty and I hope he wouldn't notice it.

"Why you ask?" Taehyung once again smirked at me, "Cause it's the perfect place to get to know each other."

*

"Want a cola?" Taehyung asked, placing his keys at the kitchen counter.

I shook my head, "No, I'm fine."

"I'm not going to put sleeping pills in it, you know." Taehyung read my mind accurately. "I maybe bad but I'm not that bad." He opened his refrigerator and looked back at me, "So what will you have?"

"Water is fine." I answered. He gave me a glass of water and then walked to his room, "You live alone?"

"Yeah." He popped his head from his bedroom, obviously topless. Taehyung disappeared for a minute before he joined me again in the small living room of his single apartment. "I ran away from home and haven't seen my family for years now."

"Oh." Was all that escaped from my mouth. What else could I say? I'm sorry? I don't even know a thing about him or what his reasons were. I don't even know if I should care or not.

"Her name is Bethany."

"What?" I snapped back to reality, shaking off the numerous thoughts in my head.

"My ex-girlfriend, Bethany." Taehyung placed his laptop on the coffee table. He typed something on it before turning it towards me so I could see what she looked like on her social network account.

Bethany Green. So she was the one who dumped Kim Taehyung. She must really be something to be able to get Taehyung and then dump him afterwards. I stared at her picture some more and ended up thinking how she's unnaturally pretty.

"We dated for awhile then she went behind my back and cheated on me with the quarterback. I knew she was going to cheat on me, sooner or later. Girls like her can't stay in one place. You know what I mean?" Taehyung said as he closed the laptop shut, making me jump, "You're good in acting, right?"

"I can act but I can't tell if I'm good or not." I replied.

"I watched your play last month. You were actually better than those geeks you acted with." He said with a sly smile, "I did my homework on you."

I was out of words for a moment, "What else did you find out about me?"

"Aside from being a member of the drama club?" He smiled slightly. He must think that being a part of drama club was stupid. "I also found out that you tried out for cheerleading but wasn't picked. You do piano recitals but stopped playing just last year. You started liking Yoongi when you-"

"Stop." I put my out front, "I think I heard enough proof."

Taehyung just shrugged his shoulders as he sent a smile in my direction, "So, starting today, you're officially my fake girlfriend." He stood up and sat next to me, "Is there anything you want to ask me?"

"Uh, yes, like can you not invade my personal space?" I said, scooting away from him. I was trying hard not to punch his pretty face.

"If you don't have questions for me then can I ask you one?" Taehyung still didn't move away. He stretched his arm behind my back but he kept his hands off of me, "Are you a virgin, Mara?"