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A memory is,

a star

or a stain?

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"Wow."

"You have never complimented my choice of wine. What changed that now?" Jimin gingerly took a sip from the tall lean glass as his eyes busied themselves by staring at one of the fizzing bubbles.

"I wasn't complimenting your shitty choice of wine." Taehyung placed his glass back down on the table, "It's my reflection in the glass that has me swearing at myself. I just don't know how did I end up as a manager in a trading company and not on any magazine cover."

Jimin rolled his eyes, "You sure turn into a narcissist when drunk."

"Alcohol brings the worst of us out. Not my fault though." Taehyung shrugged as he took another big gulp from his glass. Jimin just swirled the dark liquid between his fingers before finally staining his lips red with the same colour.

"But it was sure as hell your fault to drink innumerable glasses of wine without having a drop of water or a morsel of food. You know that you'll get the worst hangover of your life and your father wouldn't want you slacking off during the meeting tomorrow."

The drunken and goofy smile on Taehyung's lips immediately fell at the mention of his father's name. He was solely the reason he was drinking right now and was probably why he was on a remarkable journey to become an alcoholic, but a handsome one at that.

"Why must you mention him?" He whined as his figure cutely flopped down on the table as he stared down his glass with disinterest, completely contrary to his look a few seconds before.

"Because that was the only way to sober you up by not getting yourself dehydrated and maybe alcohol poisoned." Taehyung let out a groan at his friend's words. He thought alcohol was meant to wash your sorrows away but Jimin here was doing a fabulous work of bringing them just back.

"I know what you're thinking, Tae." Jimin began, "Alcohol does erase you from reality but just for a time being, and then poof! You're back in your suit and tie at your workplace on a Monday." 

"Why are you so cruel?" Taehyung groaned once again as he threw his limbs around, whining like a child, "Can I not behave like an adult for once? I am tired of these worldly matters and responsibilities, you know? Sometimes I just feel like getting myself a hot genie who would turn me into a ghost and I would trouble people all day. And you, Park Jimin, will be the first on my list." He threatened as he often fell back on his words and had to repeat them over and over again.

"My utmost pleasure, Wannabe GhosTae. But I need to get you home real quick because you are certainly not allowed at mine. I'm bringing a girl over tonight after I drop your sorry ass on your doorstep." Jimin stood up and folded his sleeves up to prepare to pick up the heavy male.

Taehyung fell onto his knees and clutched his legs as much as he could, almost cutting off the circulation from his leg, "I don't wanna go back home, pwease!" He slurred.

"And why not?!" Jimin shrieked when Taehyung didn't budge when he tried to pry him off by violent means.

"There is an ali-alien there and she weirds me out so much. The way she talks and behaves like she's some sick royalty from the 1500s." He hiccuped.

Jimin's eyes became wide with shock at his friend's very awful excuse of not going back home and not also that, a certain word caught his attention the most. She.

Taehyung was living with a...girl?

He looked in the air where the imaginary words were building themselves. He scoffed and flicked those words out of the window. The wine was surely taking its effects now.

There was absolutely no hecking way Taehyung was living with an opposite gender until and unless it was a dog. He noticed how he avoided the women like the plague who willingly took the nerve-wracking initiative to talk to him only to get harshly ignored and rejected. Jimin had vaguely remembered one time when they were drinking in university dorms when Taehyung jokingly commented that 'he'd do more work than waste his time on a meaningless date' and that 'work was his only way to relieve stress' because nothing stresses him out more than unfinished work.

Taehyung didn't remember it, but Jimin did. And it scared him because of the amount of seriousness he put in his words when he uttered them.

"Whatever dude," Jimin retorted, sighing at Taehyung's other drunk-wailing dramas, "Let's get you home because I want to get laid tonight. Or else I will personally come for your throat early in the morning."

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"...and you add a little salt to taste, maybe coriander leaves to add a bit of flavor burst in the noodles." Younha finished rambling when the main door opened with a frantic clicking of buttons. Both Younha's and Younggeum's ears perked up at the commotion as they momentarily stopped whatever they were doing before.

The duo inside could make out the voices of two males, one who was raging and the other, who didn't seem to care much. Neglecting the still sizzling noodles on the switched-off stove, they both manoeuvred their way to the corridor.

The spatula hanging off Younggeum's dainty fingers were threatening to slip as her eyes took in the sight in front of her. A stranger, holding His Majesty off his shoulders as the latter mumbled some incoherent words which were deemed as alien language by everyone through silent agreement.

"Oh my! You don't have to pick His Ma— Mister Kim!" Younggeum threw the spatula at Younha and bolted towards the stranger before single-handedly getting the whole weight off him. The man released a sigh of relief as his figure leaned against the wall and his eyelids shut down in exasperation. He silently watched as the petite figure drifted farther and farther away from him without faltering for a second despite the heavy man on top of her.

But then his eyes drove over to another figure in the corridor.

Her face was diverted away from him and her eyes darted over all directions. She stood there like a frozen muse of an artist but her face inflicted so many emotions that he could feel the irritation of being left alone radiating off her.

Younha's mind seemed to race over all the mannerism classes she took as a kid to become a 'proper lady' as designated by her mother. Her irises watched in utter defeat as she watched Younggeum dropping her brother's body on the sofa while she was left here alone, battling with her thoughts.

Should she invite him inside and offer him a glass of water? Or should she just evacuate from there as soon as possible? Or should she just kick him out? 

Younha didn't know what came over her but at that moment, her confident stupor seemed to diminish at the sight of someone familiar with whom she can't display dominance over. The third option was a no-go and somehow, the first option didn't seem plausible too.

So she did what an ambivert would do at her place.

"Woah-Would you like to come inside?" She put up the brightest of smiles as the male in the corridor nodded almost immediately as if waiting for her response.

"Sure." He faintly smiled as he ambled towards the sofas and dropped down, equally exhausted. Taehyung wasn't as built as he was, but he sure did have a heavy skeleton.

Bringing two glasses of water, Younggeum placed the tray on the coffee table with extreme patience and poise before she glanced at the big pendulum clock in the living room which was initially meant to be used as decor but the shopkeeper took pity on the buyer and fixed it for real so he could use it.

Realising she could not understand anything on the clock, she decided to have a look at her portable watch. She jiggled around her pockets to find it and her lips curled up when her fingertips brushed against the cool metal of the watch.

A long, rusted, metallic chain connected it as it effortlessly trembled when she jerked it to take a look. A gasp escaped from her lips when she saw that it was way past what was considered to be 'polite' for the ladies of the house to be out. Putting the watch back in its place, she bolted towards Younha who was still recovering from her failed attempt to be civil for once.

Grasping onto her shoulders, she turned her figure towards her so her fierce gaze could match her naïve ones, "Your Highness, you must go now! They mustn't find your presence here. They will look through every hook and crook of the Kingdom if they even found a wisp of your scent here."

Getting panicked by her words, which she shouldn't be as she was known around the neighbourhood to have a great presence of mind, but her emotions were too fragile to realise the words Younggeum was spitting. Frantically nodding her head towards the latter, she grabbed her sunhat and mildly drenched gloves from the coat hanger before she saw her way out.

Once she was out of the door and in the cold and freezing hallway, her dilated pupils finally resized to normal when she realised what Younggeum had done.

She had indirectly kicked her out and Younha hadn't even noticed it. A wail of defeat escaped her lips as her fists banged against the polished wooden door, "Let me in! It is a royal order!" Younha yelled but the answer only boiled her blood more.

"I refuse the royal order! It hasn't been the first time anyway since I have denied one. My apologies, Your Highness." Her muffled voice resounded from the other side. 

This girl is inside alone with two men at 11 in the night, oh my days what should I do?!

Feeling utterly powerless and defeated, her back slid down on the floor as goosebumps arose on her skin due to the chilling breeze of the night signalling that the humid clouds would start emptying their sorrows anytime now. She would not even get an uber at this point of the night and in this weather and neither a cab.

She flailed her limbs around and groaned out of frustration. Sometimes, she hated Younggeum's old morals and practices but moreover, she loathed herself for taking a part in this game. It was like lying to a little girl only to get run over by that same lie over and over and Younha was now paying the price for her sins.

She could have just allotted Younggeum to a mental asylum to keep her safe but she didn't, she thought it would be wise to play with her and her memories. She orchestrated herself into this very situation. 

She could have said to her that night when they first met, that this is the 21st century but she did exactly what other psychologists and her teacher wouldn't want her to do. But what was the use of crying over the things that have already passed? She had her fair share of time to decide to end up not regretting later but that is exactly what she is doing now. 

But a very outlandish thought had been unabating her mind lately. The possibilities of that ever happening are zero but what if that lingering persistence wins and this theory of hers might be true?

What if Younggeum belonged to the 16th century?

Scoffing at her childish thoughts, Younha found herself standing on the grey pavements as an even darker shade began to precipitate downwards. Taking shelter under the wide roof of the entrance of the building, Younha sighed as she tried to push that unconventional thought to the very back of her mind.

Out of the blue, she felt her shoulders drop with a warm cover and a whiff of a man's cologne lulling her senses to numbness. She turned her head to find the same stranger from Taehyung's house smiling controllably by seeing the blurry droplets of rain hit his palm.

Younha espied on the man who seemed to be jovial at such a nugatory thing. It made her remind of those days when she was a kid and wouldn't have to worry about bills and taxes. No one would question the kids about what they do and why do they do it. It was such a pleasant time that she couldn't go back to it. 

She should've made the most when she was still in that time. 

"Don't you just love the rain?" A voice broke the thread of her thoughts as Younha finally acknowledged his presence. The said main drove his attention away from the rhythmic beating of the raindrops and to her with a smile so genuine that Younha felt her lips curl up on their own. 

So contagious. 

"I don't," she said making the male turn towards her again with astonishment, "I hate it." She ended with a conflicting smile. 

"Why, if I'm allowed to ask," The man scrunched up his nose, disagreeing.

"No reason, I just feel like the rain washes everything. Bad memories...along with good ones. And you don't know what it feels like when you lose a part of you that you can't remember how much you've tried." Younha explained as she rubbed her red nose. 

The man seemed to be pondering over her words but an optimistic smile graced his lips, "That is not true, it can also signify rebirth or cleansing." He tried to argue but sensed that the woman was in no mood to do the same so he stopped trying to explain his love for the rain and the smell of petrichor afterwards.

"You know, Taehyung told me a lot about you," He began and he knew he succeeded in grasping her attention. 

"Then he might've also told you that I'm a horrible person?"

"Yes," he answered which earned a sigh from the latter, "But that is his opinion, not mine." He again smiled. 

"Then, what is your opinion of me?"  Younha couldn't hide her eagerness causing another chuckle to erupt from his mouth. 

"Well for starters, you radiate the word 'innocence' and that's quite rare to see nowadays and I just had the honour to meet people who act like one. I still don't know you quite that well so my perception might change depending on how much you try to show or hide." He crossed his arms and looked into the far horizon, knowing that he couldn't see anything other than rain. 

Younha scoffed, she was far from being 'innocent'. This guy had a wrong impression of her but she didn't want to ruin that for him because this was the first time someone had a different perspective of hers. 

It was nice, knowing that she didn't have to act arrogant in front of someone for once. Even though that might not last long given that her narcissism and ego were flourishing day by day.

"I'm Jimin, nice to meet you..." He raised his hand for a shake. 

"Younha." She clasped hands with him.

"We're acquaintances now, you can't run away from me now." Jimin joked earning a ginger laugh from her. Jimin simpered but it was miserable.

She obviously doesn't remember. 

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A/N : yeehaw