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Yoongi has one of the best memory. He can't seem to forget anything, small details of past days still stashed deep. However, he can't seem to remember people. He reminds himself to avoid clubs, to avoid drinking of any sorts. When he grows older, the last thing he wants is to sleep with a stranger he wouldn't know the name of the next day. He'd wake up to an empty bed and only remember someone touching him, just not who. Yoongi doesn't want that.
It's probably also why he feels no remorse when he separates from his friends. Why keep them when he can't seem to remember their names after a week. It's useless, it'll only hurt both parties. Though a week has always been such a small number to him, a small amount of days.
A week.
After seven days, person after person, name after name, becomes distant. He remembers the punchline, but never the joke that always ends with him alone wondering who made him laugh like that. Who made him love like that? Who made him hurt? He doesn't associate with people anymore, why bother? Right?
His family are the only people he remembers, though there are times where he stumbles. Where he wakes up to see their faces and just wonders, who? Who are you? Though after analyzing, a wave of familiarity comes to him and he understands. It's not like that with anyone else though.
Was it a curse? His friends, he doesn't remember who but he remembers laughing at the statement, had said someone casted a spell on him as a baby. Waved a wand and accidentally hitting him too hard in the head. Yoongi laughs at that, naive to the fact that he was being made fun of.
He doesn't associate with people. He doesn't want to break it to his friends that as a matter of fact, he can't remember them. No matter how hard he tries, no matter how important they are to him he can't.
Loneliness is a word that describes his so well. He wants to reach out and ask for others to help him remember, but he's a lost cause. Everyone knows he can't remember people, so why would they try helping? Schooldays are spent on the roof during passing periods. He shrugs when he hears about the new student, girls swooning over him. Yoongi recalls someone introducing themselves to his class, a smile so bright.
The faint whisper of the new kid's name is thrown at him randomly, and Yoongi is starting to get curious.
It was the same for the new student too.
Taehyung had only been at the school for a week, maybe even a week and a half if he cared enough to count. He always finds himself curiously staring at the student that disappears from sight. The student who talks only when needed, soft voice echoing inside of him. Taehyung wanted to get to know him, befriend him. The other was always alone, and Taehyung tried to get a glimpse of him when he was outside the classrooms. His friends had noticed the sudden interest.
"You still staring?" Taehyung looked over to see his friend, Jungkook, raise an eyebrow. Jungkook slightly nodded his head towards the student Taehyung was staring at and he sighed, nodding his head to say yes.
"Who is he?" Taehyung asks. Jungkook shrugs, since he was a year younger, he had no classes with Taehyung or the mystery classmate. All hope was lost when he heard a tray being slammed onto the table suddenly.
"His name's Yoongi," Taehyung jumps in his seat slightly, only seeing it was his other friend Jin. He was very involved with school activities, so it's no surprise he knows a lot of the students. "Apparently he's a bit..." Jin taps his head and shrugs. "Weird up there. He isn't stupid, it's something about his inability to remember things." Jin takes a bite of his food.
"And you know this how?" Jungkook asks.
"Its something that's stuck since the beginning I guess. Yoongi's handicap or whatever has been with him for a while," Jin takes another bite. "Something about not being able to remember people? Poor kid seems to lose his friends after a full week."
Taehyung stared where Yoongi had stood before. The other rushing to another place after gathering his things.
"He's not a bad person, no one really knows much of him, but everyone knows he's sweet," Jin says, adding in once again. "That's why no one bothers him, why mess around with him for doing nothing wrong? This isn't a drama." Taehyung rolled his eyes at his friend.
"You should talk to him," Jungkook says. "Nothing wrong with that."
Taehyung smiled, that's exactly what he was going to do.
So Yoongi wasn't ready for the door to the roof being opened suddenly. Yoongi looks over to the being now in his vicinity. Yoongi scans him before nodding and going back to his food. He takes a few bites to remember that he was the kid he heard about. Yoongi watches when the said boy walks towards him and sits a far distance away from him. Yoongi stares a little more before going back to his food. It stayed silent before Taehyung spoke again.
"Hey-" and the bell rang. Taehyung watches as the boy packs up his stuff in a hurry before rushing out the door of the roof. Taehyung lets his head fall back in frustration, running his fingers through his hair. "Fuck."
And he isn't successful the next days either. Either forgetting to go the the roof, seeing that Yoongi isn't even on the roof, or just going to the other side where they'd have to shout if they wanted to communicate. Taehyung takes a deep breath when he sees Yoongi, slowly approaching and sitting where he sat the first day he decided to come up here. Taehyung can't seem to find the right words, mind going blank as he searches deep inside for something to say.
"Hey." Taehyung's eyes widen when he hears that Yoongi initiated conversation. Taehyung smiled, able to work with this.
"Hello!" Taehyung turned his body to the other. "My name is Kim Taehyung! You are?" He waited gleefully.
"Min Yoongi". Yoongi replies back, nodding slightly. Taehyung held out his hand for Yoongi to shake. Yoongi reluctantly took Taehyung's larger hand, shaking it slightly.
"You're in my classes! Born December 30th, 2000. You?"
"March 9th, 2001." Yoongi replies.
"I'm older then, I don't care of formalities, whatever you find comfortable." Yoongi wondered if Taehyung could smile any wider than this.
"I've heard of you, and I really wanted to get to know you," Taehyung doesn't know when he started to ramble. "I thought it'd be cool to be friends-" Yoongi cuts Taehyung off at that.
"You've heard about me?" Taehyung nods. "And you know about me?" Taehyung nods again, hesitant. "So you know that after this I won't know you?" Taehyung once again, nods.
"That's not going to make me leave." Taehyung says bluntly. He wasn't going to leave, not at all. He wasn't leaving him alone until Yoongi was okay with him.
"Okay." Yoongi says, deciding to drop the subject. He goes back to eating his food, trying to ignore the older's presence to see if that'd make him leave. Much to Yoongi's dismay, the older is a persistent guy. Yoongi has a feeling he won't leave.
He doesn't.
Days on the roof is now accompanied by Taehyung once in a while, and it's a Thursday when Taehyung decides to interact more than usual.
"Can I try some?" Yoongi stared, eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "Your eggs, can I have some?" Yoongi starts to look over his lunch then back at the student. He nodded before pushing the box to him. Yoongi blushes when he noticed Taehyung was sitting a lot closer now, maybe at arm's length. Yoongi waits anxiously, watching him take a piece of his food. Taehyung's face lights up.
"This is good!" Yoongi releases a breath he didn't know was being held. "You should make some for me." Taehyung says teasingly. Yoongi looked down to his hands on his laps, playing with his fingers slightly.
Yoongi stays up to make sure the eggs were perfect. Not noticing when someone approached him. He looked over to see his brother watching him amusedly.
"What?" Yoongi asks.
"What are you doing?" He asks, trying to take an egg from the big batch on the table. Yoongi huffs but doesn't do anything. His brother puts a thumbs up, seemingly approving his knowledge of eggs. He watched his older brother skim at the other dishes laid neatly on the table.
"Trying to impress someone?" He says jokingly, laughing at himself.
"Go back to your room dumbass." And it ends there, his brother's laugh still resonating before his door to his own room his closed.
"Did you make all of this?" Taehyung looks at the many lunchboxes in front of them. It's a Friday.
"Yeah..." Yoongi says, shy. "I had some leftovers and I knew I couldn't finish, so I thought I'd bring a lot of it with me." A big lie. But Taehyung doesn't need to know that. Yoongi opens up the small boxes to show to of the bigger boxes with white rice, and the smaller one with small dishes. The last one, of course, being the eggs.
"You're the best." Taehyung whispers, mouth agape. He digs in and moans in delight, the only other cook, Jin, never sharing his food with him. Yoongi blushed at the words, rubbing the back of his neck.
Taehyung ate the last few bites while Yoongi read a book quietly. It was when the older finished the food did Yoongi start speaking again. He didn't bother to look up from his book as he spoke carefully. It was important to ask, it was important for Taehyung to know.
"It's Friday," Yoongi draws out slowly, Taehyung once again nodding. "And if you didn't know, once we come back on Monday, I'll forget you. What are you going to do?" Yoongi watches Taehyung look up as if to think.
"Come back of course," he says. "What else? I'm going to come back everyday and ask for the same food." Taehyung turns to smile at Yoongi softly.
Yoongi has never been happier. Even if he remembers sharing days with a person but not knowing who the person his exactly, it's okay. Yoongi feels the same sense of familiarity when around Taehyung. It's the next Friday when Taehyung plops right next to him and gives him a light blue book with blank lined pages. Different pictures of animals drawn on each corner.
"What is this?" Yoongi asks. Flipping through the blank pages. Cute.
"For you to write down about me!" Taehyung pauses before quickly saying something. "Well, to write about anything important so that if you can't remember me, just look back to this! Maybe it won't help, but this'll get your memory jogging and I don't have to introduce myself again. And you'll come back on Mondays with a full picnic because you love me." Yoongi smiled, hugging the notebook to his chest.
"Thank you."
"Don't mention it!"
Yoongi writes and writes. Writes about Taehyung's smile, Taehyung's jokes that he made, his deep voice, warm hands touching his. Yoongi every Monday morning flips through and feels a warm feeling in his chest, skipping slightly to school. Mornings became so bearable, so great.
Taehyung reads his notebook occasionally, adding in any detail only Taehyung knows of himself for Yoongi to remember.
"Do you think we'll stay like this forever?" Yoongi asks. "You staying?"
"Of course." Taehyung says.
"You know, I always thought why make the effort of remembering when no one would remember me either," Yoongi says. "That was the problem. No one made the effort to remember me, to know me."
"Except me?" Taehyung asks hopefully. Smiling in anticipation at the answer that he knows is right, the answer they both knew.
"Except you." Yoongi says.
They've been doing this until the end, where their so close to graduating. Where seniors keep going into the world and choose different paths. Days before graduation, Taehyung tells Yoongi to meet him on the roof, something being urgent. Yoongi sees Taehyung staring at the bottom of the school, smiling. He turns to see Yoongi. It's a Sunday, the dreadful Sunday.
"Do you remember the first time I came here?" Taehyung asks. "What happened?"
"Of course. I said hey, and someone, being you, said hello." Yoongi wonders why Taehyung's questioning his ability to remember certain scenes, certain days. Of course Yoongi remembered.
"And the bell rang before I could say anything else," Taehyung laughs softly. "I kept going back, and now we're here. Tell me Yoongi, you can't remember people, but you still remember, what's it like?" Yoongi doesn't know how to explain it, how to guide Taehyung into the world he's so used to. Yoongi doesn't meet eyes with Taehyung, fidgeting.
"I see everything that happens, I see every scene so detailed, it's like I'm reliving the entire day," Yoongi closes his eyes, trying to find the words that stray too far for him to use. He hopes these words are enough. "But there's no one, no person is there. It's always blurred lines, and my eyes hurt looking at them." Yoongi says.
"Is it the same for me?" Taehyung asks.
"Almost," Yoongi whispers. "You're not a blurred line, it's just...you. A little frayed at the edges, missing a few pieces, but I can still find you in all of those handicaps. No matter how many times my mind tries erasing you, I can still make out words from a book. Your book, my book." Yoongi says, proud that he was able to say such things.
"Yeah?"
"Yeah, before I knew you, I couldn't stop thinking about you," Yoongi says. "Sundays would end and Mondays would begin, yet you're still on my mind."
"Stop talking Yoongi," Taehyung whispers almost inaudible. He takes a few steps towards the younger before engulfing him in a tight hug. "Don't make me cry." Yoongi laughs before wrapping his arms around Taehyung's neck.
"Sorry."
"I love you, Min Yoongi." Yoongi's the one in tears now, burying his head into Taehyung's chest.
"I love you too Kim Taehyung." And they stay there. It's Sunday.
Yoongi runs home and scribbles onto the notebook.
'Kim Taehyung is your boyfriend, don't forget that!'
He tapes it on his ceiling, on his door, on the floor, his desk. He describes Kim Taehyung, describes the depths of his voice and how it affects him so beautifully. Describes the smooth edges of his smile that Yoongi wants to flatten with his thumb to keep it like that. He writes and writes, in hopes to remember.
'Don't forget him.' Yoongi looks at the paper surrounding him, mocking him that he'd forget. Yoongi falls asleep to the sound of Taehyung's voice. He prays he doesn't forget it. He doesn't want to forget the warmth when he'd be held, the warmth in his heart when he knows someone is still there.
Yoongi is walking to the roof when he hears footsteps behind him, running.
"Yoongi!" A deep voice, so much joy evident.
Yoongi smiles brightly before he could turn to look at the other person's face. He feels a wave of familiarity.