Present

24 | "When the insanity occurs" 

Run, run until your lungs are on the verge of collapsing — that devil on Nina's shoulder sneered in her ear. 

The touch of classic music, hushing chattering and laughter of the guests ripped her skin open like outrageous slashes of sharp talons. 

She was depressed, you asked why? Well, the reason wasn't something particular. It was the last place Nina could desire to visit. Wish she had the supernatural power to vanish away, she could only just imagine. It would be so cool if she could snap her fingers and evaporate in the air to run away from Taehyung — Nina mentally wheezed at her thought.

Yes, she was losing her shits and before she lost her little bit of senses, she had to collect herself. As much as the place was pleasing to hang around. Nonetheless, she was invisibly choking and suffocating under her limbs.

The lavish Kim mansion was impressively huge, nothing changed in these years. The foyer was wide and crammed with a sea of guests. White and golden marble flooring was radiating ultimate prosperity, people could delightfully see their reflection on it. A wooden imperial staircase with a lacquered shine and a crystal chandelier was gracing the view. 

So classy. So unrelatable. Nina didn't belong there. For her, it was heaven-like hell.

"Wrong decision, coming here was the worst decision." Nina thought, looking at the guests with a tight chunk in the back of her throat. Her guts wrenched painfully, a buzzing hiss trickling in her bones to leave her a clattering mess. She could tell it wasn't the chill peppers effect, but the new tension brewing beneath her lungs. She was scrutinizing the crowd, but her eyes were blank like a dark space as her palm flew to clutch her red pendant. 

"You got this baby. You have steel in your blood, don't fret. You are not that teenage girl anymore." Nina coated herself with brand new, polished confidence. Her back straightened, and she tipped her chin up, smiling at the guests— a fake smile that seemed too real, something that she had learnt from her best friend Talia. 

Every ounce of her being was grim at the apprehensive fact that she had to join this unwanted social gathering at Kim's mansion. Each gust of breath creaking out of her lungs went to whack her chest, fueling her private gloominess. 

"Red." Her bone dangerously sputtered upon finding a palm sliding on her lower back, leading her inside the hall. It was Taehyung, showing the Kim's decorous world his delicate possession— he didn't utter that yet Nina felt like his personal possession, only his to keep and adorn.

Fuck, Nina hated this situation even more than before. No worries— after this night, Nina would make sure not to bump him anywhere. This was Taehyung's last fuckery she was going to bear . . . she mentally finger-crossed.

"You look cute when you have this confused pup-like expression on your face. So fascinating to watch you struggling to take every breath." Taehyung whispered to Nina in his rich, suave voice. So hellishly malicious he was to enjoy her getting agitated.

Taehyung was taunting her while politely nodding his head at some known guests. That's what he loved, poking the beast sleeping within her— Nina let out a low growl, resisting the urge to snap at him, scream at him, beat the life out of him.

Oh, she felt instant satisfaction wafting in her veins upon imagining Taehyung getting punched by her. Nina didn't want to create a scene and didn't want the attention that would come with it, so she uncurled her fist. 

They stood in front of a bar counter arranged on the corner, but not away from the visitors. Nina buckled her arms across herself, her eyes were bitter, betraying the soft expression etching her face as the faint smell of liquors tickled her nostrils, she scrunched her nose. 

"What? Not gonna bite me back?"
Taehyung coolly turned his head to his date who was without an ounce of mercy slaughtering him inside her head in as rigorous way as possible. 

"Good, I like it when you are silent." No, Taehyung didn't like it. When she was tight-lipped or ignored his breathing presence or pretended not to hear him, it made him grim. The whole car ride she ignored him and his cackling and babbling mouth. 

Of course, The man would never agree but it hit him with utmost contentment when Nina hissed at him with a murderous glint in her eyes— She looked way more seductive fighting him, and the more she fought him, the more he draws towards her with a lewd stir in the valley of his chest.

Taehyung would not deny either, Nina's changing expressions and moods excited him, tickling a feral part within him. He loved the urge that Nina wrenched out of him. The urge to throw her on his bed and toy and taunt her underneath him while tangling around her bare figure. If only he could peek inside her head to detect if she was as innocent as a lamb as she appeared all the time— Nina wasn't a lamb, he could see the devil dancing beneath her eyelids, he just wanted to hold the devil at his mercy. 

"I hate you." Nina grumbled, without missing a beat. She snarkily eyed him up and down, the loathe unmistakably. 

"And stop staring at my cleavage, Taehyung." Nina slapped his biceps, every inch of her body reddened under his smitten eyes that were shamelessly savouring the view of her slight cleavage and curves of her breasts spilling out of her dress. 

Taehyung's chest rumbled for a cheeky laugh, the crinkle and curve of his cheeks deepening. Seeing him in his usual devil-may-care attitude, blossomed flowers around her battered ribcage. The effect that Taehyung had on her, unnerved her beyond words. 

"Darling. My gorgeous darling." Taehyung called her. The ultimate tenderness ladling his voice, the impact was like a bunch of numerous sensations assaulting her backbone. Whenever this vicious man used this nickname on her, it elicited a weird sort of emotion in her lower belly— a giddy and dirty type of emotion with a hint of excitement.

Nina let out a questioning hum, her stomach felt as if someone had tied it to a brick and thrown it from the top of the cliff. Taehyung flashed her a wolfish grin, his palm went lower to her waist, his finger felt feathers skimming her bare skin, erecting the hair of her nape to the roots.

"Fine, I know you hate me. You know I hate you, but we both can't deny the sexual tension between each other. We better do something about this issue, don't you think so?" Nina's heart lifted to her mouth, beating dully at the tip of her tongue. Her feets ruffled when Taehyung had sneakily pulled her toward him until their chest nearly bumped, a humm of jolt sprinted through the tip of her nipples, hardening the tiny muscle.

"You know you are killing me, don't you darling?" Taehyung drawled, hungrily eyeing her red, lush pair of lips.

Yes, Taehyung yearned for her in every way possible. His intentions were apparent, he wasn't going to keep it confidential anyway. He would let his red know that watching her wasn't enough for him, holding her wasn't something bearable now. Taehyung was ravenous for her taste, the taste of her red world, the taste of her hatred and desire that she carried for him. Taehyung's gut feeling was howling, convincing him that he was going to have the greatest meal of his life tonight.

"Uhm. . . no, I—" Nina forced the sketchy words to come out, the blush around her cheeks scorching.

The more Nina looked at Taehyung, the more he emerged heart-shatteringly handsome with the wavy bangs falling in the cocky arch of his brows, cheekbones that were unbelievably chiselled, eyes so viciously golden that Nina could cup out the colour in her palms. And the way his black, Italian cut suit fitted around his sculpted body, bringing out the right amount of delicious muscles with that waist— damn, that narrow waist. Her bare legs would look sexy wrapping around there, Nina wondered while unabashedly, breathlessly consuming him just by her eyes. 

Taehyung was enjoying the attention that Nina was showering him with. Good, he was aware that their sexual tension was at its peak as it should be.

"So fucking hungry for me, aren't you red?" Taehyung squeezed her waist, dropping his smirk-curled mouth against her ear to steal a heartfelt kiss, his soft lips grazing the cold stone of her stud earring as he darted his tongue out and traced the curve of her ear. 

"You can fuck off." Nina collected her thoughts and softly uttered profanity at this sexy, inappropriate man. She felt Taehyung's flirty words dusting her tongue, feeling mawkish. Her nails grazed his chest through the suit as she clutched his biceps, celebrating the flex of his muscles pressing against her palm and she flared a quick glance around her. 

Taehyung was smooth with his actions, always was. He knew how to take advantage of the circumstances and surroundings. The lightening around the hall was dimly lit, and the moonlight was casting in through the vaulted windows. For the guests, it may seem like Taehyung was whispering something to her date and because of the guests, Nina would not be able to threaten to kill him for touching or kissing her. 

"Teahyung, behave. . . otherwise, I won't care about the guests. You don't want them to see my fist swinging on your face right?" Nothing could stop this woman, she didn't care about the guests or their thoughts. Nina sweetly chirped out like a bird, playfully arching her left brow in a challenging manner, meanwhile attempting to avoid the potent need of blowing her insides like fireworks.  

Gosh, Nina was this close to pulling him for a kiss.

"Why can't I have something which is already mine?" Taehyung sneered, his undertone was clipped and scarcely upset. Nina was startled by the way his fingertips squeezed the groove of her waist, his touch was possessive and intense just like his eyes. Taehyung pulled his lower lip between his teeth and towered over her like a beast in ease, his golden eyes darkened with impulsive sentiments. 

So many sentiments that it effortlessly choked Nina's heart and abandoned it with limping beats. Nina was bewildered, not expecting him to come off all serious and bothered just by her remark. They usually bicker a lot, as he often enjoys her sarcasm than what suddenly triggered in him to ruin his mood. A few seconds ago, he was cheerfully dick-ish, shamelessly flirting with her and now strangely he appeared critically melancholy. What's with this guy? Was he bipolar? She had always seen him like a devil, who feasts on angels with a shrewd smirk on his bloody mouth, angels like her. 

"You should understand what you are doing to me. You should know that I'll bleed to be the man who will have you at the end. I don't care if I have to cross every damn line to get you, Red." Nina couldn't breathe, her chest was falling up and down in an enticing rhythm. Her finger tightened around his coat, nails gripping his muscles, almost digging it into the surface of his skin. 

He wasn't teasing or fiddling with her anymore, there was nothing playful in his words, in his tone, in his face— Taehyung was dead serious.

Everyone was watching the couple whose presence alone embezzled their attention, they were radiating a different kind of aura. Powerful, untouchable. It was a sight to behold how the couple were so much drowned in each other, they were in their own world. Though Nina and Taehyung didn't seem to care about the countless eyes and the curious whispers drifting here and there. Taehyung was always dazzling, attractive beyond imagination, but the woman he was holding in his arms appeared otherworldly. 

Everyone was engrossed gaping at the maidenly girl with red hair, her backless red gown fitting around her breasts to her small waist like a second skin, the fabric flared down to her legs, sliding in the ground as her long legs teasingly peeked through the slit while she was walking around. Some eyes were criticising, some were envious and some were stunned by the woman's sexy presence. 

"Yes, princess. You figured it out right, you are playing with my sanity. You are making me awfully possessive. . . and you expect me to back away now? How could you? No, I won't turn away from you and I won't allow you to do that too." Taehyung hissed in his raspy whisper. Nina dared to peek into that golden set of the abyss, just to get her heart demolished into pieces. This man would never change, only thinking about himself, focusing to keep his ambitions whole.

"You only know how to take and take and take. Stop being so greedy. Stop— chasing me." Nina's jaw ticked, her voice was brittle as her fingers feebly loosened around him yet she couldn't seem to let him go. That was the problem, a deep, crazy part of her being didn't want to let him go. She learned the truth a long time ago about how selfish and absurd Taehyung was, yet she couldn't shut the insane passion clashing in the darkest chamber of her soul. 

Was she mad at him or the words that he tossed at her? No, she wasn't mad at Taehyung. Nina was furious at herself for letting him slither inside her chest and permit his every maddening declaration to engrave on the solitary walls of her broken heart. A heart that was cracked for him, nonetheless for some fucked reasons still dared to throbs for him. 

"Yes, I'm greedy, a bad guy who has no limits on his greed. And, I'm only greedy for you, red. I don't know how to stop chasing or desiring you." Taehyung's face was serene, his voice was smokey and sinful, completely different from his insides which were a tangled mess. His blood hotly swayed as if a big lump of coal settled in his veins.

The never-ending abyss which was threatening to swallow her appeared ferocious, ravaged— and Kim Taehyung only allowed his red to see this side of him, the real, the raw, the ugly side of him. The longing and desire in those pools were naked and so sharp, eviscerating Nina entirely. 

"Nina, is that you?—" Nina and Taehyung got interrupted by the presence that had especially approached Nina. Taehyung's eyes ticked, he glared behind Nina as Nina veered at the person.

"Ji-hoon?" 

+++

Just so you know, the night for Taehyung and Nina is going to be long. Jealousy, anger, lust, affection, everything is gonna blend. So I'll proceed to write present chaps, not past ones. Okay?

Byeeeee

Shany~