The chatter in the dining room faded as blood roared in his veins. His stomach plunged into free fall...and all Taehyung could do was stare, stupefied, at the lady standing across the sofa, not matching his stares. How many times had he dreamt of her, to wake up beside her, plagued with love for her, only to counter this one day? A deadly python of emotion constricted his chest and dripped poison into his veins, glueing his feet to the floor. The deafening lubb-dubb of his heart drowned out every other sound.

He was losing his mind.

Erin's confession sailed through Taehyung's haze of consciousness. His eyes smouldered with disbelief, and Erin couldn't fight the small grin of unpleasantness on her lips.
After several attempts, he spoke,

“Are, —are you married?”
That question was foolish, and the answer was not pleasant. Regardless, she shook her head in disappointment, her face reflecting her feelings.
He paused again, waiting for her to continue.

“I had a husband, but he passed away from stomach cancer six months ago.”
He found this both amusing and disheartening, which added an interesting twist to his emotions.

“I am so sorry, and that was true I never had a boyfriend.”
At this point, Taehyung wanted to die.
Erin felt a sharp inhale from the male side.

“But, —you do have a husband.”
He completed her speech.

She just stood there, eyes closed downhearted. She never hoped for this moment. Her fingers strangled the shining glass in her and. Her face was as pale as white linen. Her breath hissed out in shock.
God, please this can't be real.
She had been spiralling, drowning in guilt and regret and booze, and her usual filter had been down for the count. Without any motion of the male lead, her confessions about her real life tumbled out. Although Taehyung didn't blur out anything by his side, she could tell by the look in his eyes and aura how upset he was.

“I can't do it.”
Taehyung's quiet refusal brought the silence screeching to a halt. She kept her focus on him as she spoke,

“What —you can't?”
Curiousity velvet her voice and confusion dripped her face.

With the last sigh, he whooped out of her house at a steady pace, he ever walked. He couldn't stand anymore there, he had been loving a girl who was already with a child. He forced his legs to run, to be away from this feeling, to be away from her.

Erin was stupefied. She didn't know what to do and ran behind him, not caring about the glass she just threw on the ground. Her steady heels made so sharp sound around her house. She kept walking behind him until she got a firm grip on his elbow.
“Taehyung where are you going?”
She spoke with intense aggression, more like fury.

Her reddened eyes and pink rose on her cheekbones made him somewhere weak. As if saying to kneel on his knees, but she already belonged to someone else. A force ignited him to say something which he never intended to speak out.

“Let me go, Erin, this is —is our last union. Enjoy your life.”

Her mouth dried when he sharply released himself from her, and he stepped out of her house. Memories of what she'd done till now flooded her mind. She can't lose him after she did so many things to get him.

“Taehyung, LISTEN TO ME.”
She growled, but he was so reluctant to hear all those strangles of cries of hers. He was crying too and hurt as well.

She made it two blocks before she fell apart, and collapsed her body on the floor into a heaping mess. As she watched him going out of her sight, she cried more and more, and her eyes hurt.

————————————————
A sob escaped his throat. Taehyung pressed a fist to his mouth, trying to remain calm before he turned into
a boy-crying-over-a-girl-in-a-public-restroom cliché.

Even though his eyes were already glazed with tears. Even though his chest ached so much he wanted to curl up in a fetal position on the floor, germs and potential Cholera be damned.
He was in so love with Erin. But dammit, after all those things she still made his heart pound with one smile and his body rose with one touch. Their physical chemistry had always been off the charts, apparently, the flames still burned hot after all that moment. Smoky memories of long night walks, passionate talks, and whispered secrets crawled into his brain, drowning him in the past.

A call from Jimin on his phone yanked his thoughts of the dangerous path he'd just taken.
Taehyung swallowed and composed himself before answering.

“Hello?”
A slight waver. Pretty good, considering snot and dry tears streaked his face.
Taehyung yanked a few so-thin-they-were-transparent squares of toilet paper from the roll and wiped his face. It was like exploiting his skin with Sandpaper.
“Hey! How'd the dinner went? ” Jimin asked.
Now he decided to elaborate all those things which he had kept in his heart.

“Jimin —”
A cry left from his mouth. This was enough for the other person to get a knowledge about the disappointment in his voice.

“What happened Taehyung? Is everything fine?”

He shook his head and disagreed. He could hear his friend ruminating in the silence that followed, “Just tell me already.”

There was a pause but again in another few seconds, he elaborated all those things which just happened a moment ago. His sobs pierced Jimin's heart. He frowned. He had been so surprised by Erin's sudden appearance in Taehyung's life and hadn't stopped to think about the reasons behind this.

Nd when Taehyung was finished, he uttered,

“She said she had a husband who had died just a few months before. Then there's no fault of you getting her. I mean  — when there's love, there's a way to escape the world. It's important to remember that her past is irrelevant and shouldn't impact what's happening now. You have a great love for her, you should claim it.”

Somewhere Jimin was so accurate. Why didn't he even consider this? Yes, she's a single mother, but she's also a widow. The way she brought tears to her eyes was not acceptable. It's just a chapter to be acknowledged, not a burden to be carried for life.

Jimin sounds satisfied. Now that Taehyung thought about it, he remembered Erin enjoying with him so really much. He couldn't believe he didn't put her happiness first.

He snorted, “Thank you Jimin. You are right, I'll go back to her.”
_____________
Thank you
(1124 words)
-More truth going to unfold in upcoming chapters (SPOILER)
JIYA