Chapter 18 – Complications

He dropped by my hotel room sometime just before midnight, and we spent a few hours together before he had to run off back to his hotel at the crack of dawn; this time, with a proper goodbye. I think trying to control himself all afternoon must have been especially taxing for him, because he was especially grabby… not that I minded.

The next day, we repeated the charade of me pretending to be staff, and since I’d kept the hoodie, I didn’t even need Silent-Noona’s help to get in. I made my way back to the artist’s room (only getting lost once) and again, the most people would ever do was cast me the occasional strange glance, but they generally kept out of my way; wanting to avoid the strange foreigner, I suppose.

Jin informed me that V was busy filming his “mission” video when I arrived, so I had to wait for a little bit. Since I had nothing else to do, I decided to help him out with his homework again. I lost track of time, but when I looked up again, I noticed V had returned to the room, and was sitting on one of the armchairs near Rapmon. I thought it was weird that he hadn’t come to say hi at all, but then I noticed one of the staff girls, filming him from the back of the room. I guess his mission video wasn’t quite over just yet.

I sighed, excusing myself with Jin, and headed out in search of a bathroom. As nice as it was to just be “chilling with Bangtan”, I wondered why V had wanted me here in the first place since he was too busy to see me anyways. Finally, I found the place and I stayed in there a long time, not really wanting to return to my teacher duties right away. When I came out, someone was standing right there, surprising me with a rather wide grin.

“Taehyung!” I exclaimed, completely taken aback.

His only answer was to grab my head and kiss me. A long, languorous kiss that left me totally breathless.

“Hi.” he grinned at me as he finally pulled away.

I wanted to laugh but I was too stunned.

“Tae, what if someone sees?!” I scolded him in a hushed voice, glancing left and right, though the corridor seemed completely deserted.

He shrugged, a kiddy smile on his lips, and grabbed my hand, dragging me along behind him. I knew better than to ask where he was taking me so I just followed. Eventually, he pulled me into another room – which seemed like some sort of staff kitchen, though it was now dark and completely deserted – and quickly pressed me against the wall, kissing me again.

“Tae, oh my god, what are you doing?!” I giggled amidst his ministrations.

“I was so busy before, I’m sorry.” he just said, not even looking up at me, “I’m sorry,” he repeated, kissing my cheek, “I’m sorry,” again, he kissed my forehead, “I’m sorry,” my nose, “I’m sorry,” my lips, “I’m sorry,” my neck, “I’m sorry,” my ear…

I chuckled at how ridiculously adorable he was being, and once he was done apologizing, he returned to my lips, parting them open with his tongue and switching from “kiddy-mode” kisses, to “man-mode” ones.

I’m not quite sure how long we were going at it, but it seemed like only a brief period of time had passed when the lights suddenly flicked on, making my eyes pop right open, and every inch of my body freeze up in panic. Both of our heads turned towards the door in slow-motion to look at the man who was standing there, dumbstruck.

I’d seen him before. It was one of their managers, though I didn’t remember his name. He was older – maybe in his 40’s – short, plain-looking, and a little on the chunky side. His eyes widened at the sight of us, and for a moment everything stood still before he erupted in a string of angry-sounding Korean.

Taehyung turned towards him, stepping in front of me protectively as he argued with the older man. I had no idea what was being said, of course, but I could tell it didn’t sound good. Finally, during another of the man’s tirades, Tae bent down to whisper in my ear “I think you should better go…” casting me a look that was both apologetic and disappointed. I nodded quickly, and pretty much ran out of there, the sound of the manager’s harsh voice chasing me out.

I don’t remember anything that happened during the show that night. My mind kept replaying that scene over and over in my head and all I could do was stress about it. Just how much trouble had I gotten Tae in? I would never be allowed back there, that much went without saying… would they tell upper management? Would he be asked to stop seeing me? All these questions played in my mind and I couldn’t concentrate at all. V on the other hand seemed totally fine on stage. He was just as cheeky and adorable as usual. I had to admire his professionalism.

I returned to my hotel, not even bothering with dinner, and spent the rest of the evening trying – and failing – to distract myself. It didn’t help that my phone remained unusually quiet. Finally, around 12:45am, when I was just about ready to give up and go to sleep, a soft knock came on my door.

I literally jumped out of bed and ran to open the door. Tae stood on the other side, looking up at me with giant, puppy eyes. He stepped into the room as I quietly closed the door behind him. He stood there, looking down at me, with his big brown apologetic eyes, and sighed. Then he brought a hand up to cup my cheek and gave me a soft smile, finally.

“Is everything ok?” I finally dared to ask, staring back at him, my heart beating so fast in my chest for some reason.

He nodded, and pulled me close into a hug. He didn’t seem to want to talk so I just let him hold me like this, feeling comfort in the warmth of his arms, and waited until he was ready to say more. Finally, he pulled away and grabbed my face with both hands. I don’t know what it was about him and this need to constantly hold my face like this, but it was kinda cute, so I just let him. He bent down to give me a small, lingering kiss on the lips, ending it by rubbing his nose against mine.

I chuckled and he mumbled, “I missed you.”

“I missed you too kiddo,” I cooed, and though there was humor in my voice, there was no denying I was totally smitten.

“I’m sorry about today.” he said, dropping his hand and smile at the same time.

“It’s ok…” I said. It was my turn to reach for his face, “are you in a lot of trouble?” I asked, keeping my voice as casual as I could.

He shrugged, walking away and sitting down on the edge of the bed. “Manager-hyung is not happy, but there’s nothing he can do about it.”

“They won’t ask you to break up with me?” I asked in a small voice.

“What?!” he exclaimed, then he started laughing, “of course not!”

I felt embarrassed, and relieved, but not nearly as reassured as I thought I’d be.

“Noona,” he called, reaching for my hand, and I walked over to give it to him, “don’t worry. If I want to have a girlfriend, it’s my thing. They can’t say a thing.”

“They won’t tell your big boss?”

“Maybe.” he shrugged again, “but he never say we can’t have girlfriend.”

He seemed so unbothered by it, I finally started to relax. Seeing that I was still worried though, he pulled down on my arm to bring me into his lap. Once he had his arms around me again, he put his chin over my shoulder and cooed at me, “Don’t worry noona…”

“So I guess I’m not coming tomorrow, huh?” I asked him.

“What?! Wae?!” he exclaimed, his face transforming from y, comforting boyfriend, to hurt 5y.o. in under 5 seconds. I bit back a laugh.

“I just don’t think it’s a good idea…”

“No, you come!” he argued stubbornly.

I chuckled, rolling my eyes.

“He gonna get used to it eventually.” he told me, waving a dismissive hand in the air, “Just don’t mind.”

I gave him a flat look, unconvinced, but he decided to shut me up with a kiss. And it ended up not being such a bad end to a horribly stressful night after all.