It was mainly the thick clouds of confusion that rained on my brain. A few rhythmic beats added as a background music to my chain of thoughts but they turned out to be Taehyung's new ringtone. "Oh, my God..." He whispered to himself and rubbed his eyes to reread the caller id. 

For a moment, I forgot about the mystery I had to solve and tried to read the caller id too. All I could see were the two purple hearts he put before the name out of affection. My eyes followed him to the door as he was off to some silent spot where he could talk to the caller in private.

My phone dinged up with a text notification from the same unknown creature. Reading his overdramatic reply to my ignorance, I decided to confirm his identity first. 

•••

Unknown

Unknown: So, did I just get left on read?

Should I be sad right now? 

Me: hwo are uou?¿

who*

you*

Unknown: You don't remember me? Like mE?

Me: From the looks of it, only Donald duck cannot guess that I don't know you.

Unknown: I'm feeling offended...

Me: I don't think I feel sorry tho...

Unknown: OoH, Taehyung-ssi got a savage wife

Me: Okay, now you're actually freaking me out

Who are you?

Unknown: I got to go, talk to you later. Bye!

Me: The world uses abbreviation like gtg and ttyl now, ahjussi.

Wait, what if you're actually a 50 year old ahjussi!?

Shit, come back soon and reveal yourself or else I'll asfghgjrtyui

•••

I typed in physical state of panic. I finished chipping my finger nails off and was proceeding to start with toe nails too when Taehee entered the deserted room to give me a company. "Eomma! What are you watching? Can I watch something else?" She gave me puppy eyes and I awkwardly nodded.

"Yeah, I'll be there!" Taehyung's loud excitement filled voice caught our attention. "Oh, Taehee's here too..." He lowly said when he noticed the kid who got herself wrapped in my blankets without any permissions. "Yeah, Taehee, my daughter." He subtly smiled while brushing Taehee's hair back but then he stopped to lean in the other direction and answer the caller. "No, I won't bring her... Hm, I hear you but no... I gotta go now, bye... yea, see you!... Stop kissing your phone... ew... Bye!"

I mouthed "What happened?" He looked down at Taehee and then nodded in denial as if saying "after she goes."

Towards the end of 'Toy story 2' Taehee started showing symptoms of disinterest. Unlike an uncivilized kid, she pressed her lips together to suppress her yawn which bloated her bread cheeks and made her look cuter.

I looked up to see if Taehyung caught a glimpse of the cute incident but instead, I saw him making an expression quite the same as Taehee. I kept staring at him with amusement until he made an eye contact and smiled shyly while saying, "Sorry, it's quite boring."

"You're right, dada. I'll go and play with Yeontan instead." She rolled her eyes to show how much of her precious time did the movie waste and scurried out to left us alone.

"So..?" I asked him and he ditched laziness in a second. It was nice to see him being so bubbly about something.

"Okay, so my very close friend Hoseok is back in Korea..." He waited for my reaction but because I was still waiting for the main part of the news, I easily disappointed him. "Whatever, so he wants to meet us tomorrow at dinner. I'll be seeing him after 5 years... He went to States after finishing uni."

"Oh... But, why did you deny to take Taehee with us?" He was caught off guard and without any excuses by my random question. He thought I wouldn't have heard him but he was bad at whispering.

"Uh... Uh... Taehee... He... He doesn't like kids so I don't want him to uh... Hate on Taehee too." He was acting fishy while his ear turned red from lying.

I pretended to buy his excuse and proceeded to ask another question. "Taehyung..." I called out his name, wondering if I should clear my queries or not. He just hummed, not bothering to look up from his own fingers. "He knows about Minhee's death?" 

He froze a little as if he didn't expect that coming before letting out a deep sigh. Bringing his hands to rest behind his head, he fixed his hurt gaze to the celling. "No and I don't think I'll be letting him know any sooner. You know, we were best friends but then he shifted to States and... We lost the vibe."

"Understandable..." I murmured while resting my head near his on the couch. "Was Minhee close to him too? Like you three went to the same uni, right?"

He looked at me with wide eyes and raised eyebrows that constituted a funny facial expression as though he didn't expect me to catch on the little details. "You're right! Minhee and I always shared friends... More like, my friends were the only friends she had. As she was an introvert, I had to make friends for her." He laughed towards the end before falling in the pit of nostalgia. "Out of all the friends I had, four of them were special to me."

"Mmhm and who were they?" I sat cross legged on the couch and faced him hastily in a way that clearly indicated that I was interested to know more about him.

"Seo Minhee, Jung Hoseok, Park Jimin and Kim Namjoon." He named his old friends without any difficulty. "Honestly, I lost all of them... Minhee died... because of me, Hoseok went to USA and Jimin and Namjoon... We got in a fight. Hoseok was like our bonding factor. When he went away, we got divided. From what I know, Jimin and Namjoon are still in touch while I just get to see Jimin at business parties because we succeeded in the same field."

An uninvited silence tagged along with his statement like a full stop until I spoke out. "It's alright, friends come and go. I don't even remember my childhood friends' names. Presently, I have Yumi, who was my collogue and the one who helped me at my worst, Jungkook, who by the way is a total nutcase and You."

"You didn't describe me?" He playfully asked while turning to face me and copy my position. 

"I didn't want to hurt you." My words made Taehyung go 'aw' to 'wait, what the hell?' when he realized the hidden sarcasm. He tried to  throw a pillow at me but I managed to dodge it single handedly. 

"Woah, you're quick..." He exclaimed while I flexed my superpowers in front of his eyes. He laughed it off and stood up to leave. "Anyways, I'll just get going. It must be so nice to be you... unemployed 24/7."

I threw an empty can at him which thankfully missed him. "Yet a stupid human pays me every month." He did some weird mocking dance before disappearing. Showing clear traits of unemployment, I went to get myself more popcorns and continued watching say yes to the dress. 

A notification from the same unknown, who was threatened to reveal himself by me, popped on my screen. I gulped down the lump formed in my throat before reading the text.

•••

Unknown

Unknown:  Oh, baby, calm down~

Anyways it's your JimIN.

••••

A/N:- OMG! This year will end in few hours (more like a day) and I cannot even express my happiness. Like this year has been so shitty that it makes me overlook all the goods that happened in 2020. I'm excited for 2021 only because of the saying "the dawn before the sunrise is the darkest" but the new strain of covid and my exams are drowning that excitement. How would you describe 2020 in a nutshell? Stay healthy and happy!!!

And of course, happiest belated birthday to Taehyungie. How this book would have been nothing without his beautiful existence. Even the pimple on his cheek adds to his beauty. To my first bias, Kim Taehyung!

^Since us armys noticed a bit of behavioral changes in Taehyung over the past year, I wanted to only include his happy bubbly pics but I just couldn't stop myself from pasting the last 2 pics... I'm sorry for making you drool