╔═━━▒ ۞ ▒━━═╗
PIED PIPER
╚═━━▒ ۞ ▒━━═╝

Yi-Seo

Once I get home, I turn on the lights and head inside to find the voice message alert light on the security device blinking. Wondering if it could be Taehyung or Mi-Yang eonnie, I narrow my options down to Taehyung because Mi-Yang eonnie could have called my phone. I, then, press the play button to listen to the message.

‘Hi, Miss Kwon. This is Taehyung. I came by to return your bowl, but you aren’t at home. Please meet me when you’re back’ his deep and husky voice is the only sound that’s resonating inside my home, and it makes my skin bristle.

I’m desperate to meet him with all the new revelations too, and I also want to have dinner together with him because eating together and sharing meals has almost become a habit. And even though we met for lunch yesterday, it still feels like forever since we had a proper, sober meal together.

While picking out a fresh set of clothes, I suddenly decide to read up about Kim So-Dam, the new character who I learned about today; the woman who had triggered the need for serious romance in Taehyung’s playboy life. I’m definitely curious to find out what was so special about her that made him want to consider dating.

Sitting down at the edge of the bed, I type in her name and open up the images first. She looks straight out of a magazine’s cover page, perfect in every way. I mean, she wasn’t obviously crowned Miss South Korea for no reason. It isn’t at all surprising that Taehyung felt attracted to her and wanted to be with her because her looks are so magnetic, and she is everything that I can’t even reach in my dreams.

Her photos succeed in making me feel super ugly, and I have no idea why I’m comparing myself with her and even feeling a twinge of jealousy that seems to be simmering somewhere deep within my chest. But everything dissipates in a fleeting second when I read up about her on the main Naver page, only to discover that she had died in a tragic accident seven years ago while bungee jumping in Finland.

I know that I can never be So-Dam to Taehyung, but nevertheless, an evil smirk forms on my lips when my confidence reunites with me after a short-lived breakup, and I feel a wave of physical relief washing over me when I read this news.

At this point, Taehyung would be totally creeped out if he ever came across my browsing history because he is everything that I’ve been searching for ever since I met him.

Somehow the facts that I just read up make me feel recharged all of a sudden. Not wanting to waste another moment, I rush to take a quick shower and change my clothes before I could cook something for us and head outside to meet Taehyung before he gets drunk once again. In a corner of my mind, I’m also hoping he should be sober and bring up topics similar to what he talked about this morning, and the very thought of it is making me blush like a fool.

After deciding to whip up some kimchi fried rice for us, I do a fairly good job of setting up the dining table for the two of us to have our meal together later. I make up my mind to meet Taehyung first and then come back to cook because it doesn’t take much time to cook anyway, and I also don’t know if he’s in a state to come over and eat.

Locking my front door, I ring the doorbell at Taehyung’s home and wait outside. A few seconds later, the door is opened, but the sight that assaults my eyes bursts my short-lived happy bubble and rapidly deflates my heart within my chest.

 
Taehyung

*about an hour ago*

I wake up not knowing what time of the day it is, and a pulsing headache as well as a menacing pang of hunger accompany my waking.

Rubbing my temples, I sit up on the couch, feeling aches in various parts of my body. The fact that my body is growing old always shows whenever I wake up on the couch, and I hate it.

After taking care of myself, I wear a shirt and pick out a cigarette to energize myself. Standing by the window, I notice that the sticky note I put on my window pane last night is still there. I have no idea if she saw it, but I’m wishing she did. I truly missed her presence last night, and I tried to tell it to her very subtly.

Turning my focus to Yi-Seo’s home, I see that it is dark, but the sky outside isn’t dark enough for her to go to bed already.

As I pull in a few puffs of smoke, faint visions of Yi-Seo coming over to see me earlier flash in my mind. They seem like hallucinations, but I’m not entirely sure what happened. I hardly slept last night because I tried to go to sleep without drinking a drop. As always, it was impossible, and I eventually had to give up the battle early this morning and drink myself to sleep on the couch. And the messed up routine is making me feel so dazed that I’m unable to differentiate between dreams and reality.

Honestly, after that tense moment in the kitchen yesterday, I haven’t really been able to meet Yi-Seo.

Did she feel the same way as I did? Is that why she’s shying away?

If I remember well, she went away to surprise someone, a male to be precise, and she hasn’t been here ever since. So, she is probably seeing someone much younger than me; someone who she might actually want to kiss.

I even get vague and hazy memories of talking to her about kisses, but I have no clue if I was bold enough to do that. Shit!

Running a tense hand through my hair, I tell myself that I should stop thinking too deeply into this and about her, which I’ve been doing a lot lately. My luck with romance and people in general has been so terrible in the past, and I absolutely don’t want to put myself through any kind of heartbreak ever again. I know that I’m also in dire need of some major form of distraction to take the heat off things and reset my mind to think straight.

It has been a few years since I had some company in bed, and I’m convincing myself that the lack of distraction is the reason why I’m thinking about her so much.

Taking in the last bit of smoke in the almost fully burned-out stub in my hand, I exhale the smoke through my nostrils. As I pull out the sticky note from the window and turn around to crush out the flame in the cigarette, my eyes find a bowl and a bottle at the edge of the dining table.

It must definitely be her. But how did she come in? Did I open the door for her earlier?

I go closer to the table and see that it’s a bowlful of cereal covered with a cling film, and there’s a small bottle of milk sitting beside it.

Laughing softly, I open the bottle of milk and take a sniff of it to check if it’s still good because I really can’t remember how long it has been resting outside the refrigerator. Luckily, it still smells good, and I pour it into the bowl of cereal after taking off the cling film.

Who even has cereal for dinner? But I guess my body was in urgent need of food because I managed to empty the large bowl full of cereal and milk in less than five minutes.

Somehow, she always seems to know exactly what I need, and these small gestures that she does are louder than any words could ever express, and they make me go all fuzzy. Food really seems to be an excuse to keep meeting her many times a day, but by no means am I complaining. Although, I doubt if she even thinks about me as much as I think about her.

Picking up the bowl in my hands after rinsing it, I take it to her front door to check on her—my excuse to meet her now being the bowl that has to be returned to her.

The doorbell isn’t answered, and my suspicions that she isn’t sleeping inside are confirmed. Pressing the voice recorder button on the security device, I clear my throat and leave a message for her.

“Hi, Miss Kwon. This is Taehyung. I came by to return your bowl, but you aren’t at home. Please meet me when you’re back,” I end my message, followed by a beep sound from the device when I release the record button.

Sighing, I turn around to go back home, and just then I spot someone standing behind me at a few feet distance. I raise an eyebrow, studying the woman as she looks back at me with her eyes twinkling in awe. She looks to be in her thirties, slim and attractive, and I don’t remember seeing her around, but if she’s here, then I’m sure she must be a resident.

“Taehyung? What are you doing here?” She asks me, making my eyebrows knit together in confusion.

“Who are you?” I tilt my head to one side and shift my weight between my legs as I question her with a raised brow.

“I’m the Silver Springs residents welfare association president’s wife,” she says with a kind of proud arrogance, raising her chin and crossing her arms under her chest.

“Why does that define you? Don’t you have a name?” I quirk a brow at her, and I don’t know what part of my question sounded funny enough to make her chuckle.

“Mi-Yang’s the name,” she gives me a flirty smirk as she takes a couple of steps closer to me with a sudden boost of confidence.

“Mi-Yang is a nice name,” my tone deepens as I flirt right back, and she stands face-to-face with me, looking me straight in the eye. I bet she knows who I am and who I was, given that she just addressed me by my name.

“I haven’t had the chance to meet you in all these years,” she says in a sing-song voice, smiling and fixing the strands of flying hair that are misplaced from her hairdo. I have to admit that though she isn’t the kind of bewitchingly beautiful chick, she certainly looks hot, and bonus points because she’s flirty. Hot and flirty is a heady combination that always works.

“I haven’t met you as well,” my answer makes her cheeks sport a visible blush.

“I’ve been your fan for a long time, and I’ve never imagined that I’d ever be talking to you this way,” Mi-Yang laughs softly, and so do I because she just confirmed my suspicion from a moment ago.

An ex-fan, probably.

“Good to know that. I haven’t met any fans since long,” I rake a hand through my hair, ruffling it a little, and I don’t miss to notice the way she pushes out a heavy breath through her mouth as her eyes quite literally devour my fingers. She’s making it effortlessly obvious that she’s propelling herself into delusional fangirl mode right now, and it somehow pipes up my mood.

“What’s that?” She points to the bowl in my hands with her raised eyebrows.

“I came to return this to Miss Kwon, but it looks like I can’t now,” I shrug a little, keeping my gaze strong on her and licking my lips in a slightly provocative manner.

“Miss Kwon?” She laughs heartily, crinkling her eyes. “Aah... okay. It’s the same with me. I was here to meet her too,” she says when she’s done laughing, tapping her feet on the floor.

I trail my eyes down her slim but curvaceous body, watching her fingers nervously curl around the purse that she’s clasping in her hands.

“We could wait at my home,” I suggest, pointing in the direction of my home with a small tilt of my head, and the way Mi-Yang’s face glows upon hearing that gives me all the sneaky ideas.

We walk over to my front door, and while I unlock it, I contemplate how to bring up the topic. Even though what I might want from her is plainly physical with absolutely no other goal, bluntly asking her to lie down for me would be so uncultured. And her being a married woman who resides in the same community sounds like a potential threat to her dignity. But I also feel the compelling need to keep my thoughts elsewhere to quit being delusional about the one-sided attraction that I’m developing for Yi-Seo.

“So, have you vowed abstinence?” The bluntness of Mi-Yang’s question makes me fumble a little with the doorknob, but I cover it up pretty well by turning to face her with a cheeky smirk.

“Not at all. Why do you ask?” I ask her as I school my expressions to look a bit more poised, and I don’t at all need too many guesses about where things are headed tonight.

I’m quite convinced at this point that if she’s willing to take it further, then she would be the perfect distraction that I’ve been wanting a little too desperately because alcohol hasn’t been working well in this regard. But seeing how eager she is, I’m pretty sure that I just have to play my pipe and lead the way, and she’s sure to follow me in her state of trance.

“I ask because I’ve noticed, and I’ve always been curious to find out what you’re capable of,” Mi-Yang confesses boldly as she steps closer to me, making the first physical move by sticking out her index finger and tracing up my forearm with her painted nail, her desire-filled eyes following the moves of her finger.

“Do you mind finding out?” My voice drops to a sensual whisper as I raise a brow at her, and the moment my words fall out, her eyes fly to meet mine, and she readily gives her consent, smirking.

⚜
Oop-
😶

Published on : 02/03/2023