07. You knew how to do it, right?
Written by Malranggong.
“So, you’re going to leave me to die, Prince Yeonhwa?”
“I will go to the grave, Princess.”
“……Why, of all things, visiting the graves?”
Taehyung let go of the back of Yeonhwa's neck and stood up. Yeonhwa acted as if nothing had happened and resumed eating the apple she had left on the table. What Taehyung had done just now was clearly an attempt to seduce Yeonhwa, but instead, he ended up getting even more excited for her. There wasn't really anything exciting about it, just a teasing remark about visiting her grave, but Taehyung was thrilled just from seeing Yeonhwa's face up close.
Have you ever been this in love with someone? Taehyung was dumbfounded at himself for falling for Yeonhwa, but he was also happy that his life was finally not boring. How could he be bored when his heart was pounding nonstop? Taehyung lowered his head to hide his flushed cheeks, picked up the apple that had fallen on the floor, roughly washed it with water, and took another bite. He bit into it roughly, making a loud crunchy sound for no reason. It seemed like Taehyung wanted to hide the sound of his pounding heart with the crunchiness of the apple.
“Oh, you don’t have any clothes to wear.”
“That’s right. It fell from the sky…”
“I’ll go out and buy some clothes tomorrow. I’ll pay for it, so don’t worry. Oh, but it won’t be free. You have to work extra hard to compensate for the money I’m paying. Got it, Taehyung?”
“Yes. No, Yeonhwa…! Please… let’s use the word labor. Please… leave out the noble word, ‘to fill up with such a body’… I beg you, Yeonhwa.”
Yeonhwa chuckled, finding Taehyung's reaction amusing, and replied, "Okay." Yeonhwa found Taehyung's flustered expression so adorable that it made her wonder if he was allergic to the phrase "body-slapping." Perhaps that's why she continued to use the phrase "body-slapping," even though she knew it had a sinister connotation.
“So cute…” Yeonhwa kept mumbling those words to herself. Then she thought. “Yeah, it’s just something that friends say without hesitation, ‘cute.’ It doesn’t really mean anything.” Yeonhwa thought. It was like a period of indecision when she became a fan.
Morning dawned. The morning light filtered in through the slightly open curtains. Yeonhwa was the first to wake up, blinded by the light, and Taehyung, rejecting the light, pulled the blanket all the way over his head. Yeonhwa looked at Taehyung like that and thought he was cute again, and giggled before coming to her senses and lightly slapped herself on the cheek. She told him to come to his senses, what's cute about that? No, cute is just a casual word used between friends, it's okay. That's how Yeonhwa woke Taehyung up in the morning, her ego splitting up.
Taehyung woke up half-asleep and opened his eyes, which were barely open, and looked at Yeonhwa who had woken him up. Taehyung was smiling brightly, thinking that Yeonhwa was truly beautiful even in the morning. For some reason, Yeonhwa thought that Taehyung was like a baby teddy bear and that he was cute. Now, Yeonhwa thought that just when he smiled, she found him cute. She couldn't understand how she looked.
“…Get up quickly. I’ll buy it and come over.”
“The sleeping princess… the prince’s kiss…”
Yeonhwa threw a pillow at Taehyung, who had been singing about kisses since morning. Perhaps because she was in a period of indecision about becoming a fan, she found Taehyung's singing about kisses cute and wanted to deny it, so she threw it. The pillow hit Taehyung squarely in the face, and although it didn't hurt because it was a pillow, Taehyung felt a sense of pain and disappointment.
“……Yeonhwa.”
“Oh, I’m sorry.”