Chapter 21 - Quickie

Two weeks went by and school started again. With the return of work also came the return of my routine, and it was rather comfortable to have other things to focus on for a while, so I threw myself into it. Before I knew it, it was the eve of Taehyung’s return, and I was giddy with excitement at the thought of seeing him again. That said, that visit was much too short, and I dunno if it wouldn’t have been better for him to just not come at all since it hurt even more when he left again afterwards.

They arrived in the middle of the day on the 12^th, but I couldn’t meet up with him until much later that night, since they had schedules all day and then ended up throwing an impromptu birthday party for Rapmon in the evening, which I wasn’t really invited to. I’d already made my way to Yokohama though so I ended up sipping on several cups of coffee in the hotel restaurant until he came back. Actually, he couldn’t even come and pick me up when he came back because some fans were waiting in the lobby… so he texted me his room number and I had to stealthily make my way to his room without being noticed by anyone.

He was rooming with Jimin this time, whom I was glad to see was totally recovered from the ordeal of the last time I’d seen him. He was giddy and talkative, and so friendly with me. In fact, looking back, I can really say that Jimin was the first one of them to really make me feel welcome in their little group… He was always so sweet. He chattered at me in a mix of elementary English and Japanese, relating how they went to a famous ramen restaurant during the day and it was really cool. And then went on saying that they’d gone to another famous restaurant for dinner, this time to eat sushi for Rapmon’s birthday.

“All we do is eat today!” he exclaimed, with a great, big, throaty chortle of a laugh and his trademark eye-smile. I could’ve fallen for that if I wasn’t already head-over-heels for my own adorable little monster.

We all talked together for a good long while; Tae and Jimin constantly talking over each other trying to relate the story of how they managed to make Jin eat a whole chunk of wasabi and it was really funny when he choked… and generally we just had a really good time.

As the hour grew late, Jimin suddenly got up and announced that he was going to crash with Hobi for the night, flashing me an extremely greasy look, and winking at Taehyung before heading for the door. But just as he was about to leave, he turned around again to warn us, “Just not too loud, you know? Wall is not so big…” snickering as he ran away, just barely avoiding a pillow that Taehyung had tossed at his head, while I died in a mixture of laughter and shame.

Waking up in his arms the next morning was the best feeling ever, it was the first and one of the very few times where that actually ended up happening. Tae’s usually a very heavy sleeper, but when I woke up that morning, he was already awake, looking down at me with the gooey-est of smiles and running his fingers through my hair.

As I slowly came to, he brought his face close to mine and whispered, “Annn-nyeong.”

I blinked a few times, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes with one hand and he chuckled.

“Sleepy noona is so cute.” he beamed at me.

I stared at him. Our eyes were only millimeters apart, and the closeness made my heart do triple summersaults in my chest. I didn’t wanna be so weak in front of him and I tried to think of a witty comeback but I just stared dumbly, completely bewitched by his face. It was really unfair to be this beautiful first thing in the morning.

I guess he thought my idiotic expression was funny because he chuckled again, before leaning over and placing a soft little peck on my lips with his eyes closed. I closed my eyes too, expecting more, but when I opened them again he was just looking at me again, smiling.

We managed to sneak in a little cuddling session before suddenly being interrupted by Jimin’s voice, coming from the doorway, shouting, “I come in, now!!” I dunno if he thought that we’d be in the throes of passion or what, but it was pretty cute that he thought to announce himself in order to save all of us some embarrassment. He apologized profusely the moment he walked in, saying that he had to pack his things before they left, but he did it quickly and exited the room with his suitcase in under 15 minutes – I assume, to give us time to say our goodbyes. Because it was that time already. Even though they still had several more hours in Japan, they would be flying back right after the show so these would be our last moments together in a long while.

I must say, I bore it a lot better than our separation in Osaka. Without Jimin’s drama to make us all overly emotional, it was simply sad, and not overly heart-wrenching, to have to pull ourselves away from each other. Again there were lots of hugs, and kisses, and hair petting. I don’t know if it was because he was so tall, or because he just really liked touching my hair, but Tae had a funny habit of showing his affection that way. It was kinda cute.

Soon he left for work – rehearsals and whatnot – and I went off to wander around Yokohama for a few hours before the concert. I was supposed to meet up with a friend who had wanted to attend the concert with me, but she was terribly late so in the end, I waited the whole time alone and entered the venue by myself. Our tickets were , anyways, so it made no difference, but watching Bangtan perform was always an enjoyable experience. Plus, there were 6 or 7 other groups there too, so it was interesting to see those as well.

The ride back home was horrible though, since all 17,000 people who had attended the concert were apparently riding in the same train as me, and it was hot, and I had to stand the whole way. But even that, I managed to survive that because, while I was on my grossly packed train, Tae was on his way to the airport, and he spent the whole time texting me stupid things and funny pictures to try and cheer me up. It definitely worked. I smiled nearly the whole ride back home. Well. Until my phone died.

***

The next two months . I’ll be honest with you. I couldn’t see him even once. They were busy preparing for their new album and he was working all day, every day. Even if I had flown to Korea for a weekend, it was doubtful that he’d have been able to make time for me. Plus, I know that if I HAD come, he would have insisted on spending the few hours that he was supposed to sleep in my bed, and I didn’t want him to get sick, so…. I did not do that.

We still talked every day though. It wasn’t so bad. And when the HYYH On Stage concerts were announced in late September, I immediately set off to planning a trip to Korea for them, so we had that to look forward to. Tae even had a little countdown running off his kkt account name, which cracked me up. It would go D-30, D-17, D-5, D-4, D-3, D-2… but he wasn’t counting down to the concert day, he was counting down to the day I’d be landing in Korea, two days before.