❝Just be yourself, all of us deserve a life.
Whatever big or small, you are you, after all.❞
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WORD COUNT: 17.6k

That's right, its too long. I've paraphrased and emphasised on some details in a vein attempt to improve my grammar therefore please consider this as my excuse. ツ
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N A R R A T I O N

The notion about soulmates isn't something that was recently discovered a few years back; the concept dates back to ancient civilisations and has been tied to several theories flung between destiny and spiritualism.

A common philosophy professed by spiritual scholars and philosophers is that when the universe was created after the Big Bang, two atoms landed near each other and were so strongly drawn to each other that they refused to separate; and as the universe started expanding, these atoms kept coming back together again and again in every life with the passage of time.

Although the origin of the philosophy continues to remain a debatable topic, there are millions of people in the world who continue to believe in the legend — that once anyone turns eighteen years of age, they shall receive a soul mark imprinted on their arm that would lead them to their soulmate.

And of all the people, Lalisa was no different in the belief in this theory, or fate in general. For someone who grew up hearing fairytales and the movies and songs that sang all along about the happily ever after cliches, it was too obvious to be barely named a superstition.

Lately, things hadn't been going well as she'd expected; it had been nearly four years — yet there wasn't a slight trace of a unique scar, a tattoo or any sting that her friends had narrated. Her bestie Jisoo already got hers two years back which set her off onto a chain reaction of some sorts for finding her only love and Minnie recently got hers too; whilst Lisa would usually scoff when she'd hear every person in close vicinity beaming with happiness of having found a soulmate.

Finding a soulmate was frustrating, the toughest thing ever than anything else in the whole world; and Lisa was slowly starting to grow out of patience.

The memory of her eighteenth birthday was still bitter as she recollects it — she remembered how she was thrilled in amusement, bright eyed and bushy tailed as she'd hop around the house, stand before the mirror and wait for the clock to struck twelve with fingers crossed. The night passed as she kept wondering what soul mark she'd get — for Jisoo's case they were words, for Minnie a half heart symbol.

The highly anticipated sting never came.

Nothing.

Exactly. Lisa was unlucky.

And Lisa was extremely disappointed. She called in crying on her very own birthday, incomprehensibly babbling a few words to express her plight; she remembered crying so hard that her mother had to calm her aching heart by spoiling her with a copious amount of chocolate and a generous number of soul-soothing words.

Her faith had indeed started to falter ever since. She would often think her life was better in a black canvas yet her soul still ached for a happily ever after with the one chosen by God — she still pondered her soulmate may be as clueless as she was, in some corner of the world, waiting for destiny to play a role in (re)-uniting them in this birth.

Literally a child at heart, Lisa would still naively fold paper cranes under the moonlight sunshine reaching her bedrooms window — because she'd heard folktales and saying from older generations that someone if folds 1000 paper cranes, they shall be granted one wish.

Her only wish, rather the only yearning was to meet her beloved soulmate (if they still existed in some part of the world) at the earliest possible moment.

Over the recent months, it seemed like her prayers did get answered — well, sort of. Though Lisa couldn't affirm if it was only a mere coincidence or a fortunate stroke of serendipity, her mind had been conjuring images of a pair of eyes.

They weren't just any pair of regular eyes — rather a very beautiful pair of them. They weren't the perfect pair of eyes as one would say, because one of them was a double eyelid and the other, a monolid. The fairly dark brown irises that would amazingly lit up as if they descended from heaven and effused a sense of wabi sabi, a beauty in imperfections.

Lisa was certain she had never seen those deep-set pair of orbs before, apart from her dreams, despite the thousands of people she had met in the twenty-two years of her life. Yet they felt ever so familiar, just like a slight sense of déjà vu being washed through all over again. The long eyelashes that would perk a uniquely shy and curious expression for divine omniscience, a mysterious glint contained in them.

It's often said that eyes are the getaway to the soul and Lisa could've sworn that the bearer of the eyes she used to see in her dreams had a thousand stories to say.

And she wanted to hear every single one of them.

「 ──────── 」

Lisa just recently shifted to a two-bedroom apartment complex in a decent neighbourhood in downtown Seoul. Her parents had obviously tagged along to facilitate the move, given that they had raised her in the safe environment of the suburbs and this was the first time their only daughter was about to live on her own — even if she was only an hour's drive away from them. Just when the move was complete and most of the things unpacked, her parents wished her an 'emotional' farewell before they left.

Having absolutely no idea of what it was like living in an apartment, Lisa wasn't sure what to expect from her neighbours — she hoped, maybe she could establish friendships just as convenient as the scenery out of her room's balcony — pleasantly artistic.

Although there wasn't anything artistic about the landscape as Lisa would've described, it was plainly a stereotype of what city view was like; the area filled with rundown shops, roads bustling a freeway of honking vehicles.

There were a few things to put away here and there and Lisa felt worn out already, therefore she plopped herself on the bed to randomly take a look at her SNS feed. She soon felt giddy, her eyelids feeling heavy with each passing second before an alarm blared loudly beside her, causing her to immediately snap her eyes open.

Oh!— how could she forget it was Wednesday — aka, the only day of the week the laundry card offered a special discount?

"Shoot." She mumbled, rolling over her torso to sprawl out and off she hurried, scurrying her basket along to the laundry room downstairs.

Naturally, it was past seven in the evening and no one seemed to wait up this late to do the laundry which was a win-win situation for her. Lisa seated her basket by the door to rummage for her laundry card and just when she was about to swipe the card against the slot of the laundromat, she heard a voice shout.

"Watch out!"

"Eh..?" Lisa turned to look but it was too late — a huge mass of charcoal fluff straddled on top of her as she stumbled to the floor, letting out a small whimper. A moment after she felt the creature lick her cheeks soft and wet and that's when she realised she had been struggling beneath a dog.

Soon Lisa heard the same voice that has presumably warned her just a second before the disaster as she darted her head to find an older woman, probably approaching her late forties tugging the leash to make her pet get down.

"I'm so sorry, dear child." She hastened to explain. "Yeontan gets a little too....excited to meet new faces. I guess he likes you already."

"Oh, that's okay. It was indeed a bit jarring but in a fun way, naturally." She answered after getting up, as the lady stood by the washer next to hers, loading a bunch of clothes into it.

"I shifted a day back, into unit 901 actually."

The elder raised a surprised brow, a smile adorning her chapped lips. "Its only a floor above us! We live in 802 by the way."

Lisa looked in disappointment as her card wouldn't swipe in, on having a sudden realisation that she couldn't use it until next week when it was fully registered and activated.

"Any trouble my child?"

"Oh, I'm....its my card..."

Nodding her head in an understanding way, the lady offered her card despite Lisa's polite refusal. She insisted that it was okay now since neighbours help each other in need and as Lisa loved to phrase it, she just met the most kindest human on earth.

"I am so very thankful ajumma!" She expressed elated and the two chatted for a decent five minutes until it was time they went on separate ways. Just when she pressed the elevator push button, the feeling of happiness had wafted away on a second look on the woman's face. She didn't necessarily greet welcome back and her eyes looked somewhat hopeful.

She resembled of what could be exactly described as a mental breakdown.

"Ajumma, you seem worried. Everything alright?"

"My dear," her lips quivered as she started and groped on the leash to refrain herself from falling weak into Lisa's arms. Yeontan had also mirrored the expressions of his owner and suddenly her stare felt as if a saviour had arrived. "I have a favour to ask you!"

"Why yes, ajumma. What is it...?"

Ajumma couldn't even sustain herself from fluttering the words; she broke down into tears which suggestively implied she must've been in a troubled state for a chronic amount of time that made her sob erratically before a stranger she hadn't been completely acquainted with yet.

"I want to....please....uh..." She says amidst sobs. "Please be my son's friend!"

....What?

Why did she want Lisa of all persons in the world, to befriend her son? Especially when it had been only a few minutes of talking with her after the laundry favour?

"I'm sorry...?"

The atmosphere was engulfed in awkwardness and discomforting though Lisa pitied the woman's sadness and chose to seat her by the lobby near the elevators instead of going back into her unit.

"I sincerely apologise for my careless and rude behaviour." The woman blowed her nose onto the tissue that Lisa offered. The latter dabbed another napkin on her wet cheeks while rubbing her back.

"I-Its okay, ajumma. I understand you must have had a rough patch lately that might've caused....an outburst."

Feeling slightly better, she levers her head up, eyes shimmering in hope. "I am still embarrassed about it, I didn't mean to scare off you as the new tenant, but I had been pushing the thought down my throat since yesterday when I saw you moving your boxes in."

So she really did come prepared? Then it must be nearly impossible to turn down her request.

"I don't know how to phrase this, but I am not quite sure if we can get along."

"My son...he is...nearly the same age as you...if not, maybe a year or two older. He is not a bad person, but he is different....he gets misunderstood too many times. But please if you can give him a chance....I'll even write you a monthly check or pay for your laundry bills!"

"That is not the need ajumma, I don't sink that low to offer deals in exchange for money...but I—"

Ajumma seemed to be utterly distressed and pained, so out of words that Lisa could do nothing but pity her. To Lisa friendship wasn't an issue, although she seemed more worried for the woman — what was so different about her child that narrowed to a point where a mother had to spread her arms out and beg for it?

Does it have anything to do with how much of a toxic person he was, just so that his mom had to justify he had a good heart?

Lisa was one of those who instantly made judgements but just this time, yet she wanted to throw her questions aside and just help the woman — or at least try to.

So she deeply sighed. "I will be his friend, give me a week's time to know him better. If I can't find myself get by, I am sorry but I will have to—"

"Thank you! Thank you so much!!!"

She couldn't finish her words as the elderly woman grasped both of her hands, sobbing — not out of pain, rather contentment that she finally found someone to confide in.

There was this one odd feeling in particular — a foreboding that Lisa was about to meet a boy who possibly didn't have any friends at all and maybe refused to open up to anyone which could be largely intimidating when given a thought.

Oh boy, Lisa, this might be even more pesky than you think it is, her conscience alerted.

「 ──────── 」

Nearly two days after the move, most of the stuffs were successfully put in place and Lisa proudly sat on one of the emptied cartons, looking at her lovely little abode arranged in perfect harmony. Her stomach grumbled in hunger and brows knitted in sorrow to find everything but food inside her fridge; she closed the door of the little refrigerator and took a step back and with crossed fingers, charged towards the door to have anything magically appear inside.

But to her dismay, magic wands were only confined to the walls of fiction and didn't exist in the reality of life.

Looking out of the window, the grey monsoon clouds reflected into Lisa's honey-brown irises. She had already procrastinated grocery shopping assuming there was sufficient amounts of lunchboxes her mother had packed to sustain herself during the move and if she didn't venture out today, maybe she'd starve herself to death.

And Seo Lalisa positively didn't want to die without meeting her soulmate, or at least not without discovering the mystery behind the pretty pair of eyes that would haunt her at night.

Despite being the rush hour of the day, the supermarket had a sparse number of customers. Lisa thought it was her lucky day, because the store being the only reliable one within the reach of her apartment was otherwise usually crowded at all times. Looking around for the foodstuffs from her grocery checklist, she accidentally collided against the back of a stranger, the impact causing a box of cereal slipping off from their hand.

"Oh fuck." She whispered to herself chasing behind the paper that fell from her hand before finally catching it safe. She also picked up the cereal box to hand it back to the stranger who now turned back to face her.

"God, I am so sorry—!"

OH BOY.

Lisa swore her heart stopped beating and her breath seized in her throat the very second she made her first eye contact with those pair of orbs, one of those she'd recognise anywhere. They looked even prettier and more angelic in person, even after strands of hair concealed them from plain sight; the eyes were so detailed up close that Lisa rebuked herself mentally for not noticing the cute little mole under the monolid sooner.

Dopamine levels surging up, the effect of which was captured by the redness of her tinted cheeks, her eyes now softened to utmost euphoria, squinting delightfully as she stared at the (rather confused) boy in awe.

This was it, she could hear her palpitating heart; the search was over; Lisa had finally found those mysterious eyes and well, her soulmate.

"You....You're h-him...I...I found you!" Lisa's lips quivered and she hadn't the slightest idea why she was acting all dazed and covered in cold sweats of nervousness. Perhaps it was meant this way, the overwhelming sensation had unexpectedly ushered a tragic load of anxiousness with itself.

The boy who first looked shy and befuddled had suddenly got pale out of embarrassment. With his head hung low, he reached his arm out to quickly grab his cereal box before making his way to the cash counter in fast paced steps.

Lisa just stood there, her smile awkwardly stretched out, as she watched in bewilderment the boy disappeared from her sight as soon as he had appeared.

She hadn't even introduced herself to the guy properly neither did she ask him for his; instead she freaked out before him as if he were a Kpop idol and probably even had him terrified.

What if this was a mere coincidence and her heart was destined for someone else? She was certain the guy from earlier was the one; she couldn't be wrong of the thousand sentiments she felt all at once — she had to stop introspecting herself.

Even if she wanted, she could've followed him but Lisa didn't want him to think of her like a creepy loony who lives in a dream world of her own. Utterly distressed, she dragged herself to purchase the line of pending items to forget the incident from moments ago.

That was only until Lisa accidentally stepped on a flat and hard object. Panicking, she crouched down to find a phone — one that she hadn't recognised as hers; nor did she remember it lying before she came. The screen turned on by itself and surprisingly there wasn't a passcode to lock it, a very careless user in Lisa's opinion. The home screen wallpaper consisted of a picture of a dog and....him!

Toggling onto the settings for the phone information, she finally recovered the name.

"...Kim Taehyung."

Wait...Taehyung?

As in the said boy in need of friends as ajumma had stated about?

She did say a few details here and there and everything correctly matched. It was sinful to look inside somebody's phone without there consent but Lisa's quest for answers was driving her mad.

This boy couldn't have been a doppelgänger unless he was closely related to the family.

And Lisa didn't require a lot of math to figure that out and she needed to find him in the quickest possible moment.

「 ──────── 」

Taehyung sighed for a brief moment after having exited the glass door of the store; Yeontan was jumping around like a young, energetic pup playing with pebbles nearby when Taehyung got out. He slowly walked down the streets as the lamp posts lit up fairly in the darkness, absorbed in a deep thought.

He caught a glimpse of her appearance and stared wide eyed, astounded at the surprising occurrence of events. She was the same girl who repetitively made appearances in his dreams; he had never seen her face or had known how she looked but it was her light, honey glazed voice that would recite some of his thoughts — it was implicitly distracting.

He resented the voice at first because it seemed to mock his loneliness, but slowly had accepted to live with it. And without a second doubt did he ever realise it was an indication of clairvoyance — he never had much faith in fate, but maybe this was it, maybe it was accidental change of fate.

He had never shared the incident with anyone, mainly because they'd take him for a fool to visualise nonsensical things.

And even if he did, it wasn't like they were to hear him out anyway.

Yeontan was behaving strangely, trying to tug at his trousers as if wanting to take him back inside the store. He could only think about the girl, the strange occurrences of events that had clouded his mind enough to have intrusion of another thought.

This was the second time he heard the voice again. It continuously kept hollering him to wait like some silly incessant badgering of a little child. He snapped out of his trance when he heard the voice call his name.

"Taehyung!" He halted with the mention of his name and turned around to find the same girl from earlier run towards him. The adrenaline rushed into his body warning him to flee away from an alerting danger but he was shocked beyond belief that he felt his legs being rooted to the ground.

What even more confusing was the Yeontan kept waddling his tail in enthusiasm as if he already knew the girl that made Taehyung question if his little pet pictured the same dreams as him. She panted heavily and placed her hands on her knees before she finally made eye contact with the boy who kept looking sideways.

Probably he was awaiting the apology for her exaggerated act minutes ago.

"To clear your confusion, I wasn't stalking you, it was never my intention to freak you out. You dropped...this."

Taehyung widened his gaze and in an instant, swiped his phone from her hands, hiding it inside his pocket.

"I wasn't sure if this was yours so...I....I looked into it...only for a second, I swear." Lisa pinched her neck to emphasise the gesture in the sweetest way she precisely could. "I don't know if you gave a notice, but we reside in the same apartment complex. I met your mother with Yeontan the other day." She added, kneeling down to Yeontan's level to pet the dog who rubbed against her legs.

Taehyung merely nodded, eyes blinking away in tremor.

"I am Lisa by the way! It's nice to finally have a conversation with you." She cutely smiled, in hopes to bring up a conversation starter although Taehyung looked the least bit interested.

"I hope we can be good friends in the coming days, yes?"

No response.

She sighed heavily, blowing a breath of air, making her bangs fly up momentarily as she peered with creased eyebrows out of frustration.

Still giving her best to come into notice, Lisa jogged up after Taehyung who had already started walking; although her hands were filled with groceries making it impossible to keep up with his pace. She felt discouraged already, he didn't have the ounce of courtesy to extend an arm to help, literally the opposite of how humble his mother was.

Was he deliberately trying to ignore her like a speck of dust?

"Do you always walk around? They say walking is a nice exercise, maybe we could go out on morning or evening walks if you'd like."

Lisa could comprehend why Taehyung had no friends; nobody could level up to his egoistically toxic mentality as he literally stayed unresponsive to everything. It was starting to annoy her even more, because for one, she was already embarrassed about the situation earlier and second, it sounded as if Lisa was talking to herself at this point.

Just as they neared the apartment building Lisa was concealing her silent rage by whistling some songs to stay calm and put. She even asked if he liked to listen music or any artist who fascinated him but never got an answer. She sighed heavily in defeat, she stopped initiating the one sided conversation as she patiently waited for the elevator to descend while standing beside him.

The bell chimed followed by the robotic voice indicating that the elevator had reached the eighth floor and the doors opened. Still giving it a last shot, she delivered a quick goodbye.

She couldn't recount if Taehyung's mother forgot to imply that he was incorrigibly stubborn and Lisa definitely couldn't imagine being stuck up with a darned asshole who completely ignored her in the literal sense—

"Aspergers." She heard an almost inaudible mumble because of which she couldn't catch the word.

"Sorry?"

Her supposed soulmate looked into her eyes momentarily — his lip curved into a crooked half smile.

"7 A.M at the park, tomorrow." Taehyung spoke on a higher octave than the last time, voice breaking in between as if this was the first time he had the privilege to say the word.

And his voice too, was as unique as his eyes — a soulful grave and husky baritone, a symphony of gold bathed in melted honey.

The elevator doors closed and Lisa immediately held her palpitating heart, the amplified rhythms of her heartbeats that blossomed a feeling of twisted warmth.

A part of her wanted to have herself buried six feet under the ground for having misjudged the boy which was a common notion considering how silent he was; but at the end, he did prove he wasn't ignorant. The second part wanted to dwell in his voice and hope for a better way to reintroduce herself.

Moreover, she had expected that he would simply walk off leaving her humiliated and upset. She was trying to jump onto conclusions while Taehyung wasn't that bad as he made himself to look like; he was listening to her all along and even acknowledged the offer of friendship, even when she could understand how difficult it must be for him to do so.

Although Lisa was certain that she knew she would have a jarring ton of challenges to make herself feel loved by her so-called soulmate, but the building block of friendship wasn't really a bad idea from a holistic point of view.

Or so as she thought.

「 ──────── 」

And thus, this was how it commenced.

Even if the early morning jogs mostly consisted of one sided conversations, Lisa didn't mind as long as Taehyung would hear her out. He would rarely utter a word or two and soon enough it didn't take quite long for Lisa to understand that Taehyung was mute — or rather he considered himself to be. He would often stay quiet or communicate via pen and paper he usually tore off from his small notepad in his shirt pockets and that seemed okay with her, because she wasn't nice with hand gestures.

He even took routes that had little to no people around and Lisa could easily guess what Taehyung had wasn't a simple chance of shyness and soft spoken human but the tip of the iceburg.

"Good morning, Lisa-ssi." Lisa jumped after hearing the feminine voice behind her as she turned to find her neighbour, Eunbi.

"Oh, Eunbi-ssi. Morning." She greeted back, before retrieving back to her mailbox to check for the envelopes lying inside.

"I don't quite mean to pry but, you seem to be close to the Kim's downstairs. Do you happen to know them before?"

"Ah, no, no..." Lisa shrugged her shoulders. "Mrs Kim helped me get adjusted with the some things here and there when I moved in, her help came really handy to me and that's how I know her."

"Oh..." Eunbi sighed, as though she just took a breath of relief. "I'm relieved, because her son...he kind of scares me whenever I happen to get close to him."

"I'm not sure if I get you." Lisa passed her a half-suppressed laugh.

"I do understand you are technically new here, but I have been living in this complex for about a year now. So usually if someone is new, its a normal behaviour to greet and have a talk to make new friends. I shared the elevator with him a couple number of times but he just simply ignored me word...he even glared at me a couple number of times as if I were bothering him. Eventually when I talked to a few others I got to know that everyone kind of has the same opinion."

Based off what her neighbour next door kept telling her, Taehyung's behaviour was indeed similar to how Taehyung had treated her the first time they had met. So instead, she decided to stay mum on the issue and let her continue.

"You know my husband Wonwoo, right? He loves bonding with new people and so he invited Taehyung a couple number of times to our place. But whenever he'd even greet him a simple hello, the man impertinently tells him to fuck off cause he never did 'consent' to be friends with him."

"Nobody talks to him here?"

"Nope, nada. I'd say you're quite the black sheep over here, because you can talk to him. We even thought he was mute or something but it came out that the guy was simply a narcissistic pain in the arse. If he wants to space out, even we concluded that we won't talk to him anymore. There's something called society kinships and how you need to stay connected with everyone in order to sustain, you need friends at some emergency, right? His mother on the other hand appears to be quite fatigued, I feel sorry for her to live with a pricky person she has raised."

There was something about the way she said that that made Lisa somewhat feel sympathy for him. Of course, there were many others in the resident complex who easily didn't open up and were introverted, but Eunbi did remark a point that Taehyung purposefully pushed everyone away who wanted to be friends with him. It made her dubious about her own relationship with him as well— what if all those times she talked to him were actually bothersome to him?

And besides, what made her feel easily discouraged more than the other persons was the sense of responsibility that she carried on her shoulders; a promise she'd made to his mother and these events were simply proving she wasn't doing a great job at it.

She knew Taehyung probably never whole-heartedly perceived their friendship because he usually stayed aloof, which was understandable yet somewhat, infuriating.

Taehyung never acted how friends did which posed as a problem cause Lisa would never know why he was different until she heard it from him and possibly, help him out of it.

On one such event while it was raining cats and dogs, Lisa ran down the lane after getting off work early and took refuge underneath the shelter of an ancient-themed bookstore. Her local bus commute wasn't about to show up in a good thirty minutes which gave her enough time to walk around the stall. Being an art curator herself, Lisa loved illustrating theories out of simplest of art forms and relate them to reality of life. With changing times people had deterred from literature, refusing to understand the emotional landscapes one could draw with a simple painting of curtains blowing past.

Amidst the stocks of books neatly arranged into respective genres and themes, Lisa found one in particular that seemed to be misplaced amidst the genre of fictions. A guidebook on behaviours and emotions for Aspergers.

She remembered the word instinctively when she first heard it from Taehyung. Could this provide for the missing clues he had left her with? Maybe.

And the only way to know, was to understand what this book had to say about it, Lisa pondered as she clutched the book.

「 ──────── 」

Taehyung was grasping onto his phone, keenly reading an article whilst seated on a park bench when Lisa joined him in.

"Good morning, Taehyung."

As usual she didn't quite expect an answer so she sat beside him, trying to peek into his phone from time to time. He wasn't bothered by the action at all.

"What are you reading?"

"There's this asteroid that's been making the headlines recently. Its called 1950 DA and is considered to be the most hazardous asteroids with a potential chance of hitting the earth given the calculated trajectory of its path. It weighs nearly four trillion kilos and has a diameter of a kilometre and its said to be an accumulation of several rock particles composed of iron and nickel instead of a complete monolith. The asteroid has a faster speed of rotation than the estimated breakup for its density which increases the chances of it colliding with the earth however it's still about a hundred years at the bay."

*Note: this asteroid does exist and the information cited in the above passage were picked up from wikipedia.

"Woah, so you're interested in space?"

He nodded, a smile naturally lighting his face up. He suddenly pointed towards Lisa, attempting to ask her opinion about it.

"Oh cool, unfortunately I never really had the chance to learn more about celestial objects apart from what they used to teach us back in school. It was more of bookish facts and timelines than a practical approach towards a topic. Seems interesting though."

"Do you want to know more? I can tell about the universe, comets, stars, nebulae, exoplanets, the quasar, red giant and even more ─ I have read about them all."

"Oh...uhm sure!" Lisa nodded, accepting his invite not only to garner some words of knowledge from him, but also to observe him closely, to unfold the unruly art Taehyung hid within, fortifying a feature of Apollo himself.

"Come with me." He tugged at her hand and dragged her all the way to his apartment, describing about the theories of how the universe was formed, how it keeps on expanding in its enormous virtue, how there's a major part of universe us humans haven't discovered yet on the way and this was probably the first time Taehyung had been this much interested in a particular topic.

His mother was busy making breakfast when they barged in and while Taehyung straightaway led Lisa into his room, Lisa tried to halt and greet his mother who passed her a surprised, awkward smile.

The room easily explored Taehyung's side that was otherwise concealed from the rest of the world; he was an astronomical buff, his books and encyclopaedias on space and celestial objects lined up in bookshelves, a lamp that resembled like a space shuttle, a pinboard with a collection of notes and newspaper clippings of observed stars and satellites pinned onto it.

Just while Lisa was curiously examining the room, Taehyung closed the door behind him and proceeded to draw the curtains, before switching a particular switch that formed a hologram from the central light fixed atop the ceiling ─ and an amazing constellation of stars and telescopic view of the night sky instantly flashed before them, the intricate details were exactly mirrored as though they were delicately sought to be recreated with foremost perfection.

"Did you...Taehyung...you made this?" Taehyung nodded in response with a smile that perked his interest to continue explaining his subject of research. Lisa's jaw dropped at the brilliance with which Taehyung had designed everything she was seeing with her own two eyes, using the minimal of tools he could find.

Who could've guessed she was practically living next door to a self-made genius?!

"...and thus Einstein and Rosen were one of the first physicists to further expand Theory of Relativity and theorised the concept of bridges that would exceptionally connect space and time and are referred as wormholes, the reverse of black holes. Which means we can actually facilitate time travel if we get past the obvious complications and find the mouth of one wormhole and twist it in a particular manner."

Taehyung's eyes gleamed in the same spark as Lisa used to envision in her dreams back when she hadn't met him; as though studying about constellations had offered a warm furnace to Taehyung making him feel like his second home, just like how art and photography were to Lisa.

Lisa remembered that Taehyung had briefly mentioned that he had pursued a degree in mathematics and had been working in an outsourcing company, targeting financial projections for various companies who provided the subsequent statistics. Regardless of that, he rather seemed mentally disturbed and exhausted with his present job and this substance of space exploration and astronomy didn't click as a hobby.

His words seemed to trespass Lisa's mind because she had been caught up in her own string of thoughts involving him; she was flustered earring the clarity in his voice — she was certain he would've made an amazing career in music as a singer had he been artistically inclined. It was the first time in the past two months since she met and witnessed him speak so fast and so clear which was a rare event to embark upon.

It was too hard for Lisa to comprehend that the same quiet man she had been talking to was in fact a rare species of humanity; he was just as remarkable to easily qualify as a research graduate in astrophysics, maybe it was his anxiety that appeared to tie him up like that.

Taehyung finally breathed out after summarising his speech and Lisa lurched forth and started clapping, still amazed beyond belief.

"I never knew you would've have such heavy interest in outer space! It's...magnificent."

"Thanks..." Taehyung shyly replied with a blushing face. "It's the first time somebody listened to me for so long, because otherwise..."

"Otherwise what, Tae?" She questioned his silence.

"They'd say I'm a tape recorder back in school cause I'm a space geek, very boring to talk to."

Lisa couldn't comprehend why, but she could identify a pain that lingered in the depth of his voice; she felt it sting her heart which seemed to subside when he smiled.

"I have this habit when I can talk uninterrupted whenever I feel too nervous or excited. And this makes a tendency to cross my boundaries and makes me feel as if I never belonged here at all. So thanks for your time, I guess."

"I wouldn't mind, you can speak to your heart's content with me, I'm all ears." She spoke in a comforting tone, even when deep within she already knew she couldn't comprehend the facts with the limited aperture of her scientific conscience.

「 ──────── 」

Taehyung trudged into his apartment with an exhausted sigh as he recounted the events that happened earlier at work today. His junior had misplaced the inputs and he bluntly calculated the wrong set of records without correctly revising through the document unlike his usual perfectionist self that only resulted him in being reprimanded by his supervisor. He was pretty much disappointed in himself for having overlooked such a thing and his junior scapegoated him to take the blame over himself.

His mother had informed him that she was going out for some work that he hadn't bothered to ask, so it was only him and Yeontan at home as of now. He slumped over his bed and glanced over at the telescope, when he heard the doorbell.

Taehyung instantly jolted in surprise when he twisted the doorknob and opened the door, as Lisa ecstatically jumped before him.

He certainly wasn't expecting her presence in the late hour of the evening and her sudden greeting almost made him jump in fear.

"What are you doing?"

"I was trying to pull off a prank, did it scare you? I am so sorry if I did."

"N-No...I-I-I kind of knew it m-must be a prank..." he pried off an excuse while playing with his fingers as he looked down to his shows.

Kim Taehyung was a certified bad liar.

"Are you here to meet eomma? She's not at home right now."

"No, I came to meet you. Honestly I don't think of staying too long, I wanted to know if you're free the coming Friday."

"Why so?"

"There's an art exhibition I recently curated and its organised to celebrate the era of the Renaissance. Its this Friday evening so I was hoping if you would like to come along with me."

"Oh...I...I'll be sure to notify."

"Great! It will be nice having you around." She warmly smiled, before taking the stairs to her apartment. Lisa was so generous that she made his heart melt, it also struck up a realisation that it was the first time he got an invite to go out with someone. However, the familiar feeling ghosted over him all over again: an exhibition meant a lot of people he couldn't avoid, even if he wanted to. And almost a second later, the smile washed away in his undying worries.

The evening came faster than expected. Lisa had already texted that they would meet at the lobby at eight before setting out to the exhibition. Mrs Kim, who was unaware of her son's hangout plans was watching some program on the TV in her room. Meanwhile seated on the sofa, Taehyung anxiously kept tapping his foot on the carpeted floor as his gaze shifted from the wall clock to his wrist watch on an alternate basis.

7:45...

7:49...

7:56...

8:00.

He got up and his hand hesitantly grazed the doorknob, when the same unavoidable sensation crept down his arm effectively restricting him from opening the door.

"You are nothing but a disgrace, I never raised a twit."

BANG!

"So you think you are so high that everyone around you is a cheap moron? What a narcissist, can't even hold hands properly."

SWAT!!

"Look at you, what a fucking wimp. An unwanted waste of space."

Taehyung violently trembled, feeling the top of his head to check for any wounds. Instantly his hands went to cover his ears and he rapidly shut his eyes, praying for the voices to go. The nightmare was exceptionally realistic, because it stirred the scarred memories of his early childhood ─ something that never helped him recover in the twenty four years that he had lived.

His insecurities had overpowered his overall being, slowly eating him up out of guilt. Within seconds, Taehyung felt his muscles were convulsing, his palms sweaty and he was hyperventilating, quaking in his boots, he crawled over to the corner of the room and brought his knees closer to his chest; this was the usual consequence whenever he suffered a meltdown. With nobody to understand him, he usually sat by the dark spaces in the house and silently cry to escape the chaos in his mind.

The badgering intensified when there was a loud knock on the door and he heard the dulcet of a woman from the other side of the wall. "Taehyung?"

Yeontan's ears perked up and he barked twice, before Taehyung's weaknesses finally gave away and he teared up; he brought his palms and bent before the dog in a pleading position to slowly restrain his barking. The poor dog sympathised with his master's terror-stricken state and dejectedly whimpered, lowering its lashes in grief. Lisa continued to call him a few times more before she eventually ventured out, the sounds of her stilettos faded away as she walked.

Just a minute later, Mrs Kim stepped out of her room to find her son crouched before their family dog in a clumsy state, beads of sweat and creases formed on his forehead.

"Taehyung! W-what h-h-happened son?!!"

She hastily stepped closer to him however however Taehyung dissuaded her actions and bawled her out to move further away from her touch.

"Don't." He soughed, before running inside his room in a downcast, puzzled state.

It was past midnight after Lisa returned home, being a night owl she usually worked overtime and today was a special event, since it was the first time she was given a tedious responsibility to take over with and she had smoothly managed the exhibition to put up a good show. How badly she had wished for Taehyung to see her part of the world too and she was hurt when he didn't show up.

She unlocked her door and was about to step her foot inside when she found a succulent plant lying by the side, a folded note of paper fluttering beneath it. She quickly picked it up and rushed inside and left it by her study before she decided up to take a quick shower and freshen up.

Initially thinking it would have just been a silly prank played by the kids who lived upstairs, her mind couldn't pry off the plant she left by her study. She opened the note and it contained only a simple word, Sorry.

At the back of the page, there was a tiny little signature and within a fraction of seconds she could recognise it was from Taehyung.

Lisa pushed past the sliding glass door to stand in the breeze that gently brushed against her skin. She inserted her legs between the railings and settled down, swinging her legs back and forth to stay sometime for the night. From the corner of her eyes, she noticed a warm golden light blinking from the balcony the level below her, it was the list from Taehyung's room.

Strangely, there were a few crumpled papers lying around near and there as the shadow reflected in the light, before the silhouette of a person moved closer to draw the curtains.

"Taehyung." She voiced and soon enough, the said man stepped out, dressed in a taupe coloured pair of pyjamas.

There was a sound of paper flapping against the wind and on a closer look, Taehyung identified it was his writing.

"I found your note. I understand you must have a busy time at office too, you didn't need to apologise. I'm keeping the plant by the way, it's cute." Lisa snickered.

It was impossibly difficult to hide his lies especially when he witnessed Lisa's beautiful smile. He wanted to keep the things to himself and was planning to do it, until Lisa noticed the worry in his face.

"What are you worried about? Something bad happened at work?"

"N-no...Lisa...actually I...I was at home...when you called. But I was afraid...I couldn't...."

"....Oh. It's still okay, even if you would've told me earlier. I'm glad you're being honest."

Taehyung sucked in a fragile piece of guilt within himself. It was about time he classified the truth about him. And so he did.

"Lisa, I have Aspergers Syndrome. It's an autism-like defect that affects my social flexibility. It causes me to have emotional meltdowns in situations when I have to meet a lot of people and makes me feel socially awkward."

"What terrifies you the most, Taehyung?"

He was hesitant to answer, the question almost throwing him off. Nevertheless, he took in a deep breath before his voice wavers.

"People."

"And why is that?"

"Because...I...I don't like to initiate conversations, I don't speak up when I am expected to. I...I don't live up to their expectations."

"Is that why you always stay so quiet all the time? Do they make it hard for you to speak?"

"....Yes. Sometimes it's even more difficult to understand what they say versus what they want. Because they digress from what they say and what they mean. It is common in Aspergers." He pursed his lips back into a thin line, anticipating Lisa's reaction.

On the other hand, Lisa had already tried to relate his words with the book on Aspergers she had started reading sometime back.

She did remember the frequent mentions of terms like sensory overload, repetitive behaviours and mind blindness to understanding emotions. In simple words, he couldn't interpret that somebody is expected to coo a number of sweet oohs and ahhs when they meet a cute baby, or help in lifting heavy boxes unless asked to. And so, Taehyung limited himself to a fixed routine of a number of dos and don'ts instead of living his life like a free bird and aspire what he wanted to be.

"Tae, if you don't mind...would you like to come over to my place? I want to show you something."

"I...uhm..."

Taehyung's gaze slowly fell over Lisa's orbs when she slowly nodded in consideration.

"Okay."

Taehyung reached for a chair that sat on his balcony and placed it just a few inches away from where his railings ended. Lisa stretched her arm out for him to grasp it, even though he was doubtful at first whether he could make it.

"Ready? Okay so in 3...2...1...."

Lisa pulled his arm closer to her chest in order to push him up; the distance between the balconies of two neighbouring levels were small enough for him to easily climb inside, as he succeeded in climbing in — before he collapsed over Lisa's torso in the attempt.

Lisa burst out laughing at the scene that had just incurred to them, she already caught the vibe of being the protagonist of a young adult romance film. Staring in bewilderment, Taehyung giggled in a similar fashion, before Lisa pulled him in.

After having Taehyung comfortably seated on the couch, Lisa brought a chair and placed it before him and seated herself on it, trying to look into Taehyung's eyes; he did the exact opposite, bend towards the other side and his cheeks tinted a shade of scarlet.

"Wait here for a sec, please." She excused herself and entered one of her bedrooms as Taehyung glanced a the interior before him. Lisa's house was modestly furnished, a few art clippings scattered on her study as though she had been studying a particular set of ancient artefacts. She had fixed a canvas just by her study corner and a similar number of sketches and paintings that she had supposedly crafted herself.

"Are those paintings yours?"

"Yes." Lisa answered from afar. "It's safe to say painting is my hobby. Do you like them?"

"They do seem....colourful. I'm not sure if I can explain what they mean." He answered while scratching his nape.

Despite his perplexing awkwardness, honesty was a trait that comprehensively made Taehyung stand out from the people Lisa would usually meet. For example, her own friends never seemed to acknowledge the beauty of art and she couldn't complain, for she had to settle down with their opinions in order to avoid being called a maniac for literature and history. She could admit, that there was something about Taehyung's stringent and honest actions that made her feel at peace. Neglecting the fact that he knew absolutely nothing about art in general. At least Lisa didn't have to put up a mask of fake smiles and fascinations for haute couture lifestyles when she could stay contented with the minimalistic life she chose to live at her own terms.

Taehyung peered over as Lisa brought wth herself, a vintage style polaroid and a marker from he room across.

"Can I take pictures of you?" She was careful to ask for his permission and her face lit up when Taehyung gave her the permit.

"Why are you doing this... in the middle of the night though....?"

"Taehyung, I've always heard that your oldest fears are always the worst ones. It's the time we face them...together."

Lisa slouched on the stool as she adjusted her lens before proceeding to ask Taehyung a number of random questions — like how he felt about his job, his seniors exploiting his skills and scapegoating him every time there was a mistake; how he felt when he observed the blanket of stars in his telescope; how he would react in situation if he was asked to mend the stereotypes with certain groups of people and Taehyung answered every question, passing a surprised glare when the camera shutter clicked as he kept answering the questions in a sub sequential order.

Though Lisa had an undying passion for photography, her purpose of bringing the camera in was not to showcase her picture capturing skills, rather perform a cognitive test of emotions for Taehyung and help him resolve the internal conflict within himself.

For she could conjecture that Taehyung seemed to doubt his own qualities. Maybe his lack of self confidence along with the diagnosed Aspergers that seemed to question his self confidence and complicate the ability to master social interactive schools. Maybe he had always been misunderstood for his silence, which got his mother worried whether he would ever be granted a choice to open up before others.

She laid the captured pictures across the length of her central table, which were rather a collection of several emotions contained within every human.

"Look at this." She quoted, labelling every picture as a unique emotion: anger, distress, fear, excitement, loneliness and happiness.

"Do you realise a pattern how you can never have one stoic expression, but you have a gift of expressing yourself in a thousand of emotions? Breakdowns are normal for every other being, Tae. Everybody has their own share of ups and downs. The only way you could get past your inner conflict is through self introspection."

"I'm not sure if I can...do that."

"Why yes, you can, Tae. Just be yourself, whatever big or small, you are you, after all."

She reached her palm out and Taehyung was taken aback by her warm nature. Until now, he had only thought that Lisa was casually interested in talking with him only because she was new to the area and she would soon stray away and give up after being discouraged once or even twice, just like the others had. It was impossible to witness such empathy coming from an outsider and honestly he couldn't comprehend the unfathomable reason this girl had to make friends with a wretched weirdo when she could settle down for even better people than him.

"Lisa, w-why...do you keep doing this?"

"Do what? Keep talking to you?"

"....Why are you so nice with me? Even after I...I always try to blow you off?" He looked away, already feeling bashful to ask the question.

"Because I love talking to you. I feel like you understand me. And if life were a puzzle, I'd say we fit each other like the two imperfect pieces of a jigsaw."

Taehyung had never truly grasped what it meant to desire something until Lisa ignited a spark in him for it. It was impossible for him to not desire something. She was like a flower that had blossomed in his scarred heart but at the same time, he knew it better....

He never truly deserved her.

「 ──────── 」

"Taehyung-ssi, you're being called in." A junior intern rushed into Taehyung's office cubicle, where he was absorbed in formatting a chart.

Taehyung got frightened at the voice behind him and he nodded, before halting his work to enter his supervisor's cabin, with trembling hands.

He knocked twice before entering in, his boss intently staring onto a file, or more particularly, his recent report.

"You're here? Have a seat."

Nodding, he slowly moved and settled right before him, as the older man slid the file towards him — tapping his calloused fingers on the paperweight as the atmosphere was engulfed in a blanket of silence.

"Explain me the blunder you have created."

"Blunder? Wh-what blunder, sir?"

"You you even have an ounce of realisation of what you have done? The estimation you've been providing for the next product sales — its gone out of budget, we will not be able to mass produce if we invest tons of money into this." He chastised.

"S-sir, I....I checked all attributes...if we really want the product to stand out we will have to purchase better quality of motors and gears —"

"Kim Taehyung. We don't look for making the best-est product in this department, procurement of goods at a reduced cost is our agenda. And I am done with your ignorance to this strata, we might as well go bankrupt if we continue to work with you, with the recession round the corner."

"B-but—"

"No ifs and buts, it was a great time working with you Taehyung ssi. You have been a considerable employee and I am sorry to say, your journey with us ends here. Clear up your desk for you departure."

Taehyung tried to retort, but the decision made was final. With a heavy heart, he trudged his way out to find people motioning around him. His colleagues with whom he shared his cubicle were expressing their pretended sorrows in form of words like "its okay, don't be upset, it was to happen one day, its not the end—" and so on; it was as if Taehyung was the last person to know about his own dismissal.

"Taehyung why are you—" Mrs Kim stared in horror at her son standing by the door with his eyes rheumy, hands grasping onto the carton of some of his office belongings. He wasn't strong enough to face the questioning of his mother — it would only result in a heavy turmoil with their kinship and doubt if he was financially stable enough to manage his exposes until he could get hired elsewhere.

"I'm sorry." He spoke a sotto voce before isolating himself in the four walls of his room.

The following evening he was taking a stroll around the park, with Yeontan (after his mother pestered him to), he found Lisa sitting on the bench before a pond, wearing an overcoat as autumn leaves withered by her side. She was sketching the scenery in her notebook, biting on the other end of the pencil to perfect the drawn landscape.

"Lisa?"

"Oh Taehyung? Hey. Would you like to join me?"

"O-Okay."

"Do you like sketching?"

"Hmm." Lisa nodded. "I always wanted to be an art illustrator, however I can begin the course of action only after my art internship is complete."

"...I see."

Lisa was fixing some minuscule details in her sketch when a few strands of hair fell over her face that she overlooked. Taehyung admired her soft features he had never thought he noticed before, despite being an avid observer for details. His hand subconsciously went closer to her ear to push the falling strands of hair although he paused midway, curbing the action by fisting his palm.

"What are you trying to do?"

"Oh....uh...nothing."

Lisa glanced at him with furrowed brows before showing him her final sketch.

"Wow....I....Its good."

"Thank you!"

"It is getting dark, I think we should leave."

"Yeah..." Lisa agreed, stuffing her tools back into her tote bag as Taehyung escorted her back.

"You seem off today. Something happened?" She asked when she stood right outside her unit.

"No, no no...wh-yeah." Taehyung hung his head low, wanting to escape the situation after the foolish slip of tongue.

"Woah, you seem nervous. we should be talking inside."

Lisa insisted, grabbing him by his cardigan before she locked the door.

"So tell me, what is it that's bugging you."

"Its....I....I'm..." He pulled his lips inward, feeling tense.

"Taehyung. Look into my eyes."

Fearfully he looked into her brown orbs that he wondered were wide only cause of the dim lighting or out of concern.

"I lost m-my job."

"What—"

"I just don't wish to talk about it now....please. I was rightfully deserving that, for I make mistakes and blunders."

"Who ever told you that Tae? You are some of the most hardworking people I know. I've noticed you stay up late at night by the study to complete your reports, its simply not—"

"Everyone looked happy when I left. I am a disappointment to everyone." He turned away, clutching the doorknob to leave the very instant.

"You are not a disappointment to me. And stop thinking of yourself like that, you shall never rise up if you keep thinking you have failed."

"But what else can I do?" His voice echoed in frustration and remorse. "I take time to get used to my surroundings, I am impaired to empathise with anybody, why am I so hard to be understood?"

"Shhhh..." Lisa pulled up her finger against his lips, humming a sweet lullaby as her hand grazed his thumping heart.

"Everything will be alright, unless you truly understand what you truly deserve."

"Huh?"

"Why don't you try for placements in meteorological or space research programs?"

"Me...?"

"Yes, you." Her hands paved their way to his shoulders to gently press his clavicle, in an effort to calm him. And surprisingly it worked, for he softly inched closer to absorb the feeling.

"Maybe your job wasn't meant for you— even if it helped in improving your budget and relieve your financial stress, you weren't into it for your sake. You should aim higher and work in places where your skill is recognised and appreciated, Tae. For its a path you can continue to go on, forever."

"But I don't have what it takes to be a research scientist or a physicist. I can never be at par with them and they might not even want to work with me."

"Taehyung would you please stop worrying for Pete's sake?! You can't predict the future without stepping into it. What should be more important to you is the fact that you tried; and besides, you do have a degree in mathematics and applied physics, don't you? You know the technical aspects of some of the most crucial advances which doesn't make you any less than a candidate who opt for the training programs! You have the skillset and potential for everything this job requires. You don't happen to acknowledge it yet."

"Even if I send an application, will I able to present myself in the interview? I can piss in my pants to have a board of directors bombarding me with questions."

"You have me to prepare you up. Happy now?"

"Lisa..."

"Give it some time. I'm sure you will ace every single one of them."

"How can you be so sure about it?"

"Fine." She sighed. "I hope, that you would ace them perfectly."

And what followed for the next two weeks was Lisa polishing Taehyung's speaking abilities with finesse. There were times when he'd stutter and she could sense his perturbation that would tie up his tongue and pull the plug from talking any further — sometimes it would be the exact opposite, when he would feel worked up on his ardour to talk on a scientific topic for long, hours even.

"Tae, Tae....calm down." She would usually hand him a glass of water when he'd feel breathless, hold him palm to rub soothing circles over it.

"Taehyung, they won't ask you how things work or what you know in the job interview. Remember, job interviews are not to accept the availing candidates, but to reject and refine among the people who apply. So be to the point instead of a straightforward intellectual birdy; be slow and calm while answering their questions and act like a potential candidate who wants the job. Do you get me?"

Lisa stood up and stared onto his eyes in anticipation of a positive reply; Taehyung pulled away as Lisa frowned..

"I....no."

"Guess we have to start all over again."

She made him stand by the entrance, to teach basic language etiquettes — to always knock the door twice before entering in and properly introducing himself before the panel of interviewers with a suitable salutation and an upright posture.

"What you need to remember next is maintaining eye contact— if you keep looking elsewhere while they ask you questions you might put off the mood for them, even if you don't intend to."

"Eye contact? B-but you know I-I'm incapable of it...."

"Look into my eyes. You are allowed to blink, but you can't look anywhere else. Challenge?"

"Ok." Taehyung sighed. "Accepted."

"So we start in 3...2....1...Go!"

The contest went around for nearly a minute, then two, and then three. The two of them intently gazed onto each others eyes, noticing tiny, picky details of how the colour of their eyes deepened and the pupils dilated, the surroundings blurred as the world around them disappeared, until Lisa felt her eyes dry; she was on the verge of losing and she knew she couldn't keep up for another minute, so she shifted in her position although Taehyung looked rather unfazed, his gaze hooked onto her pupils.

Unable to take the constant tendency to rub her eyes, Lisa pulled away and blink, sighing in defeat as she lost. Taehyung tittered at her funny pout when he exclaimed his win.

"See! You're already too good in making eye contact—"

"In case you didn't know I can sleep with my eyes open, I actually dozed off until I heard you rub your eyes and blink repeatedly."

"You—WHAT!" Lisa's smile faded as she melodramatically widened her eyes, as if she was betrayed.

"What?" He asked, trying to suppress a giggle.

"You're one unique human being, Kim Taehyung." She answered before comically engulfing him into a hug.

Over the past six months of having known Taehyung, Lisa seemed to notice some changed characters in herself as well, most of which became very handy to focus on her projects; since a majority of these habits were influenced from him.

「 ──────── 」

She didn't know why but somewhere her hearts sailed the thought, precisely she felt a sting of pain whenever she was around Taehyung and shared menial and philosophical conversations with him, it ripped her heart apart yet tended to be only way she could conceive love — it wasn't a string of coincidences rather it was how fate had enforced it on her, how she could feel his pain and wanted to delve onto it.

She yearned for love and justify her feelings to him, she wished if she could confess to him and she wished to know if his liking towards her was just a token of friendship or did it mean something more than that, maybe a trope for friends to lovers — and she prayed it was the latter. Her wish wasn't selfish and it wasn't demanding, for love came naturally and could never function on aspects of selfish demands.

Maybe cause soulmates connected with each other beyond science; Taehyung didn't have to feel uncomfortable around her because Lisa loved him more than anything, although she was apprehensive of admitting it to him, fearing that it would terrify him to the core in case if he was ambiguous about their friendship. She did tell her colleagues and closest friends about her love for Taehyung, only to be discouraged with their remarks — Kim Taehyung was not prime relationship material as they liked to put it in simple words, but Lisa felt otherwise. And just like a hopeless romantic, she wished if one of her wishes could become a reality — of Taehyung liking her back.

"Clubbing? But I have never been to a club before."

"Exactly! It will be a new experience for you too, plus I want you to meet my friends—"

"You never said there will be other people. They will not like me." Taehyung said at once, attempting to ask the taxi driver to halt the car midway before Lisa placed her palm over his mouth to refrain his action.

Apparently, Lisa and her school friends were meeting up again for a reunion, bringing their respective partners as a plus one and Lisa had already lied to him about two things: one, her low tolerance for alcohol and two, she had told her friends she would be bringing Taehyung along with her to make him meet more people. Taehyung didn't seem to object at first, but he soon panicked over her excuse which he found lame which is why Lisa had to promise to him that he could hold her hand or stay up close with her throughout the length of the party they were going to attend.

Lisa ran in the arms of her past schoolfriends, most of who looked different than what they used to back in middle school. There were approximately twenty new faces Taehyung was seeing in the booked private hall and even opted a regime of greetings he had earlier learnt, usually a hello, what is your name?, what do you do and so on. His behaviour obviously became a question to Lisa's friends as robotic, however he chose to maintain his presence around Lisa, for she was the only known face he was comfortable around with, in whatever setting it could please.

On the bright side, he did feel the joy after watching the smile cast on Lisa's lips because it had been ages since she had met her friends, it released a dose of serotonin to know how perfectly Lisa's joy adapted to his stoic life as well, explaining why he wanted to see her smile so often.

The glee on Lisa's face was transient, for it quickly subsided on meeting her friend Siyeon and her twin brother Sewoon. The boy was known to have the biggest crush on Lisa for the longest period of time, but Lisa just couldn't accept him. Mostly because one, he used to be her bully back in middle school, teasing and calling her random names (which she did slide off after he apologise in the later stages) and second, he had always been that goddamn arrogant tedious rich kid who loved to express his flamboyant lifestyle and tasteless gaudiness — Lisa was certain she couldn't develop the patience to deal with him.

Not today, at least not now.

Siyeon, however, was quite the match-making person who felt like her brother and her friend would make the nicest pair of all couples she had known—mainly because her brother was now a glitzy artist and Lisa, well, the art curator. And Siyeon tried her level best to ensure she would bring up the topic of her brother being single and still being oh-so-in-love with Lisa.

And once Lisa had the allusion of it, she knew it was time for au revoir.

"Siyeon please, I'm—" Being already tipsy, she could hardly form a coherent reply.

"Just a five minute talk, I promise he won't be a bother for the rest of the party. You can learn to love him, can't you? He's amiable so please, give me a moment to bring him."

Just when Siyeon excused herself Lisa chugged down the glass of whiskey in her hand, for knew she had to come up with an act that would keep Sewoon away from her for the time being, or perhaps longer.

However, it wasn't quite in her plan to find herself straddling Taehyung on his seat with her lips sealed over his own.

She was in a semi conscious state when it happened and she could only remember the scene in form of film reels — Taehyung approaching her drunk self as she fell over him after a possible twist of her leg, his lips glimmering in the grim neon lights imposing an incessant damper on her sanity when she captured his lips into a kiss.

Lisa heard a scoff before Sewoon stomped off and her plan oddly worked; however the bliss was immediately taken over by regret after which embarrassment set in. Because her eyes widened in shock of her own wrongdoings, making an accidental eye contact with him before breaking away the kiss. Taehyung pressed his lips inward, pushing past the crowd towards the nearest exit.

"Lisa-yah..." Simeon held up a frightened and regretful expression. "I didn't have an idea that you were already dating. I should've inquired about it first, I am such a dumb bitch—"

Siyeon got cut off right in between as she swallowed some of her words when Lisa hugged her tight, thanking her for the ruckus she unintentionally stirred in, almost making her confused. She watched startled as Lisa scooted after her supposed boyfriend towards the back door that paved way to the exit.

"Taehyung...." Lisa dashed in haste, standing beside him as his head was tilted up, staring at the moonlight and the stars. Suddenly, Lisa felt something fall on her shoulder, making it feel a tad bit heavy. She noticed that it was the snow, the first snow for the year.

"If you are here to say sorry to me, don't."

"But I owe you an apology for being so irrational. I wasn't in my right mind and I kind of forced myself—"

"I liked it." Taehyung breathed out.

"You...did?"

"Y-Yes...it felt tingly at first, the sensation on my lips, but I don't know, the feeling was new to me but it was good while it lasted. Did you feel it too?"

"I did." It was weird to bring up the topic of sexual excitement but Lisa had grown used to it; for she had learned about Taehyung's inability to express his emotions, she had asked him to be verbal about how he felt. And this, well, she hadn't expected such an answer from him.

Neither did she expect what his next response would've been.

"C-Can I kiss you again, Lisa?" He coaxed.

Lisa could sense the eagerness in his two orbs, with a scope of hesitation in them. His hoarse voice and delicate request did nothing but simply set her heart on fire. The conversation would've been perceived ridiculous from a third person's point of view and Lisa didn't mind it; after all, some things don't make sense and they just don't need to.

"You can." She passed a warm smile that made his heart flutter. "You can kiss me all you want, Tae." Her voice could barely qualify as a whisper, but Taehyung heard it all.

Instantly, he swivelled her around to face him, his eyes hooked onto hers as the world soon faded out yet again; dithering of what to do next, he inched a step closer and placed his cold hands on her shoulder. With his face lowered and lips only a few centimetres apart, Taehyung slightly hesitated, before he pecked her lips — and pulled her into a deep kiss.

The kiss wasn't rough and teethy, rather just Taehyung's relatively warm lips just moving past Lisa's soft, luscious ones. Taehyung kissed her lips over and over again as Lisa smiled coyly in between short, hasty breaths. Every kiss was savoured in affection, it was dreamy and saccharine just like the ones they showed in romantic kdramas Lisa would binge over and over, fantasising her first kiss she had reserved for her soulmate all the way along.

He pecked her lips sweetly and every time he did, there was this exuberant surge of emotions that would soothe him and milk his body in warm tingles flashed all over. It felt like the sensory problems he's had for years had their own therapy now; Lisa's voice and her intoxicating presence around him that had him need her more than friends do....could he have possibly been in love with her?

There were some sparks of light followed by loud sounds of explosions, particularly fireworks being released on account for an undisclosed celebration. Lisa immediately flinched realising that the fireworks were most definitely being released at a close range where they had been standing.

She looked around to return her lost attention back to Taehyung, only to register that he was nowhere to be found.

"T-Tae...?" Lisa voiced as another spark of light flashed, almost blinding her. Just when her reflexes worked, she saw Taehyung appalled at the impact before her eyes shut close.

Making dizzy and heavy moves, she walked close to him. Taehyung had his hands placed over his head, curled up into a ball by the stairs of the exit door, ands vividly shivering with fear as each firecracker skyrocketed above the city.

"Taehyung! What happened?! Are you okay?" Lisa instinctively got on her knees beside him reached her hand out, without having an idea of how to help him; but got rather shunned when Taehyung simply slapped her hand away.

"L-Lisa please...d-don't come closer..."

"B-bu...But why?"

"Please! Lisa, don't." He shoved her away by pulling up his palm as if commanding her to cease her actions completely. His petrified exertion, only brought about an unrest in Lisa's state of mind, she was more concerned about his condition than the fact that she felt offended when Taehyung rejected her offer of help.

"Tae, please." Her voice weakened under another loud explosion of sound waves, which made Taehyung scoot closer to his torso even more, practically sheathing himself between his knees. Lisa could even hear his teeth clutter and his unsteady breath at this point and she couldn't only pray for the fireworks to terminate the very instant.

Eventually it did, after another five minutes of wait. Lisa felt deflated of her hopes; just when she was about to confess to Taehyung her true feelings and promise him that they could rely on each other, Taehyung sought to step further away from her.

Was she really being deceitful to accepting her fate that Taehyung could never consent anything beyond their ambiguous friendship? Or was it that her conceit of loving Taehyung had blinded her to a point where she simply couldn't find the error in her ways of being constantly rejected by him?

And she honestly didn't want to be that cumbersome bitch wanting to care about her feelings when her love sat trembling by her side—she couldn't be selfish in her grief. So this time again, she had to neglect her emotions once again to favour Taehyung's first.

"T-Tae. I-Its alright, they're gone...shhh." She calmly whispered as her voice kept breaking when she tried to swallow her tears down her throat. It was ironical how Lisa always asked Taehyung to express himself verbally before her, when she couldn't do it for once.

"I was a-afraid....afraid that I might hurt you too." He spoke inaudibly.

"B-but why?"

"L-Lets just go home, I insist. P-Please." Was all he could say from he curve of his lips before he stood up and left; Lisa following him with eyes soaked in a pool of tears.

「 ──────── 」

Lisa rolled about the bed feeling uneasy the whole day; she regretted drinking the past night cause she ended throwing up the whole night and had to skip work for today. The early winter days weren't particularly thrilling as always, so it was better to relax by her balcony and absorb what the little of the sun's scarce heat could provide amidst the cold weather.

"Good afternoon, Lisa-yah!" She heard Mrs Kim exclaim from her elevated balcony making her turn around to greet her in response.

"Good afternoon, ajumma. I'm sorry had I been so busy with work that I completely forgot to ask how things have been going on with you." Lisa bowed.

"No, no my dear, don't be sorry about it! I heard you were keeping unwell, how has the day been?"

"Better, perhaps for the stomach ache has reduced to an extent. Though I still feel dizzy during some jerks of time."

"Ahh..." The woman nodded, understandably. "Why don't you come down and join me, I can prepare a bowl of soup for you!"

"N-no, its fine ajumma I don't want to be a bother..."

"Its completely okay! I'm having quite a knack for having soup in winter days and besides Taehyung is out for his interview as you might already know, so its never a hassle to have you around, my dear."

If there was a token of appreciation for different kinds of emotions, Mrs Kim would've definitely been a perfect representation for persistence. She was just too sweet that made it impossible to turn her favour down.

"Okay." She nodded. "I'll be over in just a couple minutes."

By the time Lisa descended down, Mrs Kim had already set the water to boil. She asked Lisa to feel comfortable around the place while the soup was ready in another fifteen minutes.

The home decor had changed and looked much refined than earlier when Taehyung had impulsively dragged her in. Yeontan had a sweet cushioned corner where she crouched and petted the dog, along with some kitchen cabinets that had some glass and porcelain dishes inside. It also had some old planet models with a gibberish, school label which were visible from the see-through glass doors, magazines and cookbooks kept separated from more rocket science based encyclopaedias in the reading section.

Lisa was quick to notice some quirky details showcased in the shadier portion of the cabinets, which had a bunch of photo frames — mostly about Taehyung's schooling life and class photographs, where he appeared with the same poker face in every photo, devoid of any emotion. There were indeed a few pictures where he looked happy—or at least appeared to. Those were his toddler days to early teens, the transition was strange; he had a few scars around his arms and limbs, mostly caused by cuts and burns. She didn't know if she was visualising things out of nowhere, or maybe these pictures had accumulated dust that resembled the scar marks.

There was another detail Lisa had almost missed until she hastened a step closer at the corner cabinet— a dump load of plaster-of-paris models of rockets and spaceships. Until now, Lisa had only assumed Taehyung's avid passion for space was only limited to discovering the celestial bodies and outer space; she hadn't known he had an ambition contained for making spacecrafts too.

"Those are some graphic designs of spaceships Taehyung always sketched when he was a child." Her train of thoughts were interrupted by Mrs Kim's voice. "He always wanted to become an aeronautics engineer."

Lisa turned around to find Mrs Kim serving the soup bowls on the dining table.

"Oh I'm sorry, I didn't want to bug my nose into things."

"Its completely fine." His mother chimed. "I remember there was a time when he used to ace those quizzes about space rockets and missions. He had the opportunity to go to NASA when he was thirteen, yet unfortunately we could barely afford to pay for the trip."

"NASA?!" No possible way.

Foreign scholarships weren't the trend a mere decade back, so it was more like a golden opportunity for someone to travel abroad to space research centres.

"He should have been following his dream from the very start. He could've also trained to be an astronaut! I certainly hope he bags the interview this time."

"Maybe he could, yet  wonder if his fear would allow him to take a profession thats so....public. What I mean by that is well, he usually strays away from the stage and prefers to be the background artist. I would've supported him a hundred percent, but...Taehyung never applied for space programs until now, only out of fear that he might have to face the cameras and address himself to the public."

Mrs Kim spoke in a tone that was wary. As if there was a hard pill stuck in her throat for long that she was unable to swallow it down her gut nor barf it out.

"Ajumma..." Lisa stressed, taking a sip of the soup his mother had prepared. "Why does Taehyung fear loud noises?"

"D-Did he tell you? Ab-About his fear?"

"No...I mean, last night there was this firework event some miles away from where we went and he...he had a breakdown."

Until now Lisa was well aware that Taehyung significantly had anxiety and his cognitive skills differed from his reduced emotional thought process, making him deliberately avoid people. She could never stir the question as to why he lived a life under a strict routine, why he was sensitive to hearing loud noises and why, why did he blame it all on his supposed syndrome. His mother's hesitance was only adding suspense to the existing mystery.

She glanced at his mother, a painfully deafening silence diffused throughout the room.

"Lisa-yah, I am thankful to you for acknowledging Taehyung and your patience to understand him. I usually observe him talking with you during morning walks or by the balcony during the night."

"I did nothing special than just talk with him ajumma, your son is naturally gifted. I just made him relive his dream, what else?"

"Dear, you don't know how much of a boon you have been in Taehyung's life. His eyes would usually sparkle with light in them when he's around you...as if he had never been more alive in his entire life. My son, he didn't really grow up in the safest of environments." She surged in an effort not to cry.

"His father used to hit him."

His mother brought up a topic that left Lisa speechless; she wasn't mentally strong enough to endure his past yet. The heaviness of the subject was evident in her trembling gaze, and Lisa could only stare at her reflection in the clear soup, her fingers tracing the rim of the bowl.

"I know its hard to risk sharing our personal issues with someone we haven't known entirely yet, but you are Taehyung's first friend, so it is important for you to know it since he relates to you more than anyone else he knows." She heaved a heavy sigh, to muster up some confidence to talk about something that was even more difficult for her, probably because she had never shared this with anyone and Lisa was about to be the first and perhaps, the only exception.

"Taehyung was born out of wedlock; I shared an illicit teacher-student relationship with his father and I was barely twenty when I got accidentally pregnant. My parents wouldn't accept me nor my child so his father was the only person I could look up to. Things got worse when everyone eventually found out and the school authorities charged him with indictment and he had to do away with his job and his wife, who left him too. It brought about a psychological change in his behaviour which soon blossomed into hatred....against his unborn illegitimate child. He started a number of dark habits, stayed drunk all day. He abused me thinking I were one of his possessions, but Taehyung suffered the worst ordeal; for he was abused from birth."

"Th-thats so...inhumane. W-why d-didn't you..?" Lisa couldn't bring herself to hear those wicked things. But Taehyung had to physically experience it every single day, being pushed into a swamp of hell.

"I tried. Many times. I tried to escape because we were forced to live like hostages. The society was bound by extreme prejudices against women two and a half decades back, it was conservative more than it is today. Taehyung's father possessed undeniable amounts of hate against him the very second he was born, because my attention was always diverted at him. So he started poisoning his mind with stories and hurled abuses of how he had always been an unwanted child, that his birth only brought misery to his family since his father was confined to a domestic environment and he was a pathetic excuse for a man...Taehyung was slowly brainwashed into believing that his existence was never meant to be and he didn't deserve happiness or fancy a better lifestyle, because he had snatched them all away from his father..."

Lisa couldn't fathom the toxicity Taehyung had to bear living with his parents. His mother herself, teared up and her voice cracked multiple times as she unwounded the scars of her damaged heart. She looked up to the ceiling to avoid her tears from falling to the ground, before she wiped them with her thumbs.

"With time as Taehyung was slowly getting into his teens, he started to conjure up a rebellion against his father. Once when he tried to escape from home in the wake of the night, he was caught by his father who grew so enraged that he swerved his frail body with a cane stick to let his hatred till his demise. It provided a distraction for me and I could contact the cops, who made it right on time and took him away from all the misfortune in our lives he had cost us. Tae was rushed to the hospital to treat for his wounds, that had left permanent scars across his body, the miserable imprints his father had left him with. He blankly stared out of the window for days, fearful to talk with anyone; I tried to apologise multiple number of times, how I should've left the living hell with him long ago yet regrets only set in when it was too late."

It was unimaginable for Lisa to think of how poorly her soulmate suffered his early days of childhood, growing up surrounded by hostility and melancholia. She could finally understand why he avoided making friends or do things he liked; because he was told he deserved nothing in this world. After hearing all of this, Lisa couldn't help but sympathise with him a little more, being reminded of all the mishaps that occurred to him, how he kept being misunderstood for his ignorance that were merely a side effect of his neurological trauma his father cursed him with.

"Countless number of times, I tried to speak to him and so did everyone when we moved past our old town to start afresh. But he would refuse to talk; as if he had lost his voice. This was the common complaint I would usually get to hear in parent teacher meetings, he would panic when its time to speak or present himself. What they thought was simply stage fear but they knew very little about what else my child was fretting for years. His classmates disliked him and he was off in his own world, nobody wanting to empathise with him because he pushed everyone away. That was then, until you stepped in Lisa-yah."

His mother smiled wistfully through her tears and held onto her hands as if Lisa had sought the beginning of a happy ending in Taehyung's twisted life. The only reason his mother requested her to help Taehyung in opening up wasn't solely for Aspergers, rather because she had lost all hopes within herself as a mother. And maybe seeking help from Lisa to help understanding the silence Taehyung conceived within himself was probably a way in which she could feel a little less guilty of her hideous crime— of not being able to give a healthy childhood to her son.

"Just a few days after you started going out with Taehyung on routine morning walks, he finally started forming phrases to address me in many years. The very first thing he said to me, Lisa is nice to talk to, and I starting from that very moment he would share some things little by little each day. Most of his talks were about you, as though you were a stepping fortune in his dreams, the centre of his life. And no matter how strongly I thank you, it will always fall less Lisa-yah."

Lisa's heart unintentionally skipped a beat after listening to Taehyung's mother. It was truly hopeless how she could expect Taehyung to love her when he had already been through so much. If anything, it was only for Taehyung that she could inculcate a few changes within herself. She never really did anything with Taehyung apart from talking but was able to bring positivity into his life. And within his cold attitude from the outside, she melted his heart.

「 ──────── 」

The next week, Lisa woke up to the sound of Yeontan's enthusiastic barking outside her door. She unlocked it to find Taehyung standing with Yeontan and an envelope.

"What's this, Tae?" She asked before letting him enter in; Lisa leaned against her kitchen platform as she uncased the envelope to find a letter inside of it.

"My acceptance letter...they are hiring me in a space navigation observatory, headquartered in California. I will be joining from next year, in February."

"What?! You got in! I'm so happy for you Tae." She rejoiced in an overjoyed tone, before she paused.

"Does it mean you would be—"

"I will be leaving next month." She heard him say monotonously.

"...Oh." The news was devastatingly amusing. She was happy for Taehyung— well, he was finally being recruited somewhere he truly deserved and was capable to be in. And devastated for herself, because  her journey with him had terminated here.

"Will you not come with me?" He perked his brows in anticipation of a reply, when Lisa met his eyes.

"W-why do you want me to come with you, Tae?"

Was she someone who just shielded and protected him against the world outside, or was his interest in her a tad bit romantic? The only time to know, was now.

"I....hoped if you could come with me. To help me house hunting and just...you know...the ways you always tend to help me out."

"I can't. I'm sorry."

"But why?"

"The things you said....ajumma can help you with that, in much wider scapes than I can. Besides, I still have three years to complete my internship."

"You were a really important milestone in my life, Lisa. So thanks a lot, I guess. But will you....are you upset at me?"

"Me? Oh, no...nothing." She tried to laugh it off, before she leaned down to find Yeontan feasibly sad, as she mumbled an aww and brushed its fur back and forth.

"Oh....good." Taehyung nodded, his gaze fixed to his feet.

"Hey Taehyung." Lisa called out to him, making him dart his gaze at her.

"Can you give please me a hug? Before the last time you go."

The sourness in her gut was rising along with the bitterness of separation that reflected from her heart and her hands were turning cold. Taehyung 's strong arms wrapped around Lisa's waist, pulling her closer towards him as he manoeuvred her from beneath.

His lips were set in a thin line and Lisa exactly knew she was in dangerous territory. He didn't like talking about his future, especially if it involved being away from her. His presence and innocent yet amiable actions used to warm Lisa's heart, how much he prioritised her more than anyone else in her whole life. And this was what made Lisa nervous; Taehyung was interesting, unique, passionate and determined to his line of work, she didn't want to hold him back for her selfishly deemed love.

She felt a teardrop on her forehead, to find Taehyung was silently crying too.It clenched her heart; he made her terribly nervous, terribly frightened, and terribly loved.

"Will you come see me someday in the future?"

"I will. Till then, there's a wait. I'll miss you so much, Tae."

"I will too...." Taehyung whispered to her lips before kissing her for the last time before his departure.

"I will miss you too."

「 ──────── 」

"Lisa unnie!!" Lisa's junior Yuna chimed the first thing in the day, carrying a bouquet of beautiful daisies and dahlias. "This one's for you."

"Keep it aside and come on, we're yet to pick the collection of paintings to be displayed from our catalogue.

"Yah! Its rude...first read what your long distance boyfriend has to tell you!!"

"Yuna, I swear to God, don't tell me you read my letter again!"

Yuna's eyes sparkled in a glint of mischief as she chuckled and sprinted off, out of Lisa's reach as Lisa's lips twitched tiredly in a smile.

It had been nearly three years ever since Taehyung and Mrs Kim had departed to the States. He would send her postcards from time to time, usually twice in an entire year— once on her birthday and second on Chuseok. The postcards consisted mostly of a two line greet followed by everything Taehyung got to learn in due course of time, as if he were documenting his experiences in form of letters he mailed her. It was his classic way of expressing himself, using handwritten notes to vent out his excitement nervous states. Lisa wasn't expecting much from this letter too, until she noticed a golden rim of what appeared to be a ticket placed hidden amongst the token of flowers she received as a present.

It indeed turned out to be a ticket— of an orchestra performance four months from now. Orchestra? As far as Lisa had known, Taehyung felt extremely unsettled and couldn't even seat himself for a good ten minutes in a musical opera. This man and his ways— they were peculiar and enigmatic; and just like him, his ways were irresistible.

A base line from his postcard said "Hope to see you soon." And Lisa exactly knew it was time for her to meet her lost love once again, as she smiled elated, clenching the postcard closer to her heart.

"Oh my....so how well are we doing, Kim Taehyung?" Lisa called out, finding Taehyung seated in the park benches in the gardens near the concert hall.

"Wait, are you really here?!" Taehyung stared in surprise as Lisa twirled around in her evening gown, looking absolutely breathtaking.

"I thought you might not make it." Taehyung answered before he pecked her forehead and encapsulated her into a hug.

"Why would I not? Not when my friend right here is full of surprises."

"You haven't changed a bit, have you?"

"What I see is you haven't too." She chuckled, pinching his nose tip in a jittery fashion.

"The show doesn't start in another thirty minutes..." Taehyung said while checking his watch. "You want to go out on a walk?"

"Ensure that we won't go too far, its impossible to run in high heels."

Taehyung appeared to be a little buff than the last time she saw him— his physical features had stayed the same and his eyes still with held the spell bounding power like before. He just looked exactly like the person she had fallen in love with.

"Have you settled here well?"

"It has been a comfortable life; I also happened to meet another lad from Busan, his name is Park Jimin— who keeps on insisting that we two are soulmates because the similarity in our work systems. He's like my only best friend here."

"Heyy!" Lisa feigned an anger. "You seemed to have forgotten me, I really need to have a talk with this Jimin guy and inform him that I'm the first soulmate, he has to wait in line after me."

"Of course, of course. How was your internship?"

"I finished it half a year back! The year has been great, for I am working with a publisher to craft images for a children's fables book."

"And how about we talk about your newly discovered orchestra obsession?"

"Its not exactly an obsession..." Taehyung started. "This is the very first time I am keenly taking in music actually, for it sort of overlaps with my field of work."

"And how precisely is that?" Lisa asked in a curious overture, feeling baffled with the twisted way in which Taehyung was putting up his facts.

"We have ur eyes set on a particular galaxy from our deep interstellar space— recently multiple observatories reported of catching certain uncommon radio frequencies which were uniquely pitched; it wouldn't have been possible to propagate such sounds at a definite pitch especially in space which has no medium. But what's even more astonishing is the fact that these sounds when arranged in a particular pattern sound exactly like the syllables that make up the octave— the do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti. It's just so incredible as...if....they created symphony out of sheer silence!"

"Woah," Lisa exclaimed in wonder. "That must sound like an enormous fairytale the just got real."

"How are ajumma and Tannie?"

"They are keeping up well. Ajumma found a good community of friends and they participate in frequent potlucks together and Tannie is the old, sunshine flower he has always been...I don't have to go under the mute undercover anymore, for everyone comes together and shares their eccentric ideas and theories and nobody discriminates between no one. However...one thing always feels like its missing, as if a void that has formed in my heart which gets expanding like a black hole."

Taehyung's words came out only in form of a muffled whisper, some rays of sunshine peered in between the cloudy sky and casted light directly on his face, illuminating it like a natural spotlight.

"Why Taehyung? Is there something that upsets you?"

"Yes....having you not around me."

"What?" Lisa was baffled at his response. She had never expected such an answer from him and on a second gaze, she could find herself looking back at the old Taehyung who still struggled to put forth his emotions, despite learning of ways to cope up with the world.

"Can we go back just like we were in the past?"

"Taehyung...that's a very rhetorical question. We live in an era where a time machine hasn't been invented yet."

"N-No....I really mean it. I want to tell you something...if I don't do it now, I will end up regretting it for pushing it away so many times."

"Tell me." Lisa persuaded and Taehyung immediately halted on his tracks.

"I think I....I love you, Seo Lalisa."

Lisa was taken aback by what Taehyung had just said, her plump cheeks had attained a soft shade of scarlet in contrast to her pale, fair skin . Her wide eyes stared back at him in shock when he addressed her by her full name, causing his heart to break into a tense number of heartbeats, looped like a crescendo.

"I....I don't know what to say...I'm..."

"It took me very long to figure out...I wanted to say this the night you showed me the different versions of myself, in those pictures. I wanted to say this when you kissed me the night of the party. B-but there were somethings...questions...I couldn't find answers to and it kept driving me away from my confessions."

"What questions were they Taehyung?"

"Will you laugh if I asked, they are silly?"

"Have I ever laughed whenever you've asked me a silly question?" Lisa perked up her brows as Taehyung shook his head sideways.

"I was confused...I always tried to push you away at first, kept warning you about the dangers...because I...I don't deserve you. I'm incapable of it...I am hard to love."

His face had conjured up an expression of fear, his reply from earlier had already set an aching sensation down her throat. His words stung her to depths she could've ever imagined. Taehyung was scared to love, after all the misery and domestic abuse he suffered under the threat of his father.

Despite the many years his scum of a father had been rotting away in jail, Taehyung had taken each and every sense of his words by heart and abided to them as if it was inscribed in law itself. He was tormented enough to the mental state where he could only believe he was incapable of love.

"And what makes you think of yourself like that? You're a wonderful person to be in love with, Tae. You were the first person who seemed to accept me in the crazy, fun ways I am, I like myself better whenever I am around you. You always make my day better, even with the sweet nothings you say to me. Does that make you a hard person to love? You have never been hard to love."

"You don't understand...my Appa always blamed me for bringing misery in everyone's lives. But why, why do you contradict whatever he had told me? W-why...why are you everything I needed in a person?" He asked, biting his lips with a grip that he could draw blood from them.

"Maybe because it was a twist of fate, how fate had enforced it on us. Maybe this is why even I love you, because you're all I've ever wanted."

"You love me....?"

"Yes." She mumbled in a breathy voice.

"Can you please....can you please tell me that you love me? I don't wish to believe its a dream, for my hands are empty and so is my heart—"

"I love you, Kim Taehyung." Lisa blushed as she finally let those words out.

"And I love you, more than you can imagine. And oh! look at your hands—they aren't empty anymore." She smiled, lacing her soft, adorable fingers with his slender long ones.

"Thank you...thank you so much for loving me." Taehyung whispered in his deeply hoarse voice.

Lisa warmly smiled, stepping on her toes to kiss him, so that she could imply that she loved him back. She had made herself a promise the very moment her lips touched Taehyung's— she would never make him feel lonely again, and always nurture him with all the love he deserved just so that he could blossom not an even beautiful, colourful flower than he was now.

"We might have to rush back, we are already late for the concert—"

"Shhh..." Lisa pecked Taehyung's lips again. "Fuck the orchestra, I want to delve myself in this symphony of silence, with you."

And off they went hand in hand down road where the golden paths led them, in the search for forever.

FIN.

「 ──────── 」

Veryyyyy long and non sensible oneshot, I know right? ツ

Originally, my idea was to actually emphasise on troubles faced by people who are actually mute or have speech defects. However I came to quite a few realisations when I was developing and modifying the plot. I can hence conclude that the central theme of the story justifies the title; that sometimes the silent minds can make the greatest of innovations — and it's their novelty that scintillates like a beautiful symphony crafted in silence.

I hope this fic is interesting to the readers despite how heavy and long it was ;-;

Anyway, if you made it this far, thank you so very much for reading this! If you have anything to say, please don't be afraid to message me or comment! :)