Tori looked back at the older man and didn’t like the way Taehyung reacted to him, causing her to push him behind her.

“May I help you?” an officer slid in front of the two of them and they looked up.

“Yeah, my friend Kim Taehyung was called to come here?” she said after a silence, waiting for him to speak.

“Kim Taehyung…” the officer turned around and asked if anyone was looking for ‘a Kim Taehyung’.

“Oh yes!” someone exclaimed, raising their hand. Tori weaved her fingers through Taehyung’s and started walking to the officer.

“Hello,” she bowed to him, though the corner of her eye she saw Taehyung do the same thing, although his expression was of shock, of expectation; he knew what was coming next.

“You are the son of Kim Min Jae, correct?”

“Yes,” he said dejectedly and when the officer turned and motioned for the man from before to walk over, she felt his hold on her hand get looser, instead his own started trembling.

“He was found pointing a gun at a few teenagers, demanding them to give him some money, and a phone,” the officer showed him the handcuffs, “Would you like to bail him out.”

Taehyung’s eyes scanned over his father and then he squeezed them shut.

Say no, Tae, say no.

“I’ll bail him out,” he muttered quietly but they all heard, causing Tori’s eyes to widen.

What are you doing?

He knew he couldn’t just walk away, he was his father.

“Okay, you’ll have to come with me,” he told Taehyung, leading him to another office station, leaving Tori and Kim Min Jae alone.

She eyes him up and down, her gaze more of a glare than anything else.

“So, you his girlfriend?” the man drawled and she couldn’t help but think that he was going to give Taehyung so much trouble after today.

She had hated the man ever since the day Taehyung told her how he walked out on his mother, leaving the both of them in a difficult financial situation to deal with by themselves.

Not answering his question, she looked over to Taehyung and she could feel his anxiety from across the room. His nervous blinking, his shaking hands, his rapid breathing. She wanted to run over to him and place her hand over his, to tell him everything was going to be okay.

But she didn’t want to leave the man alone.

“Okay, let’s go,” Taehyung’s low voice could be heard approaching and Tori looked up to see him indicating the door. “Where do you live, sir?” he asked his father and she couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow.

“Taehyung, I told you, I’m your-”

“It’ll take a bit more than a phone call and getting arrested for me to think of you as my father,” he interjected and started pacing to the door, “Do you want me to drop you off or are you alright finding your way back?”

“Aren’t you curious, at all? About how I found you? About where I’ve been?” the man asked and this time Tori saw the desperation in his expression.

And she pitied him.

“No,” he replied curtly, reaching his car, “I’m guessing you don’t want a ride?”

“Is there a chance we can see each other again?”

“You ruined that chance when you walked out on us 13 year ago,” he told him, “don’t get arrested again just to see me, please.”

Taehyung got into the car while Tori just looked from him to his father, watching the pained expression strike his face.

To say she felt sorry was an understatement.

“Give him some time,” she said, “Wait for him to come to you.”

She joined Taehyung inside the car and he turned the ignition on.

“Tae-”

“Where do you want to go?”

“We should probably get to sleep,” she suggested but he shook his head.

“I’m not ready to sleep yet, do you want me to drop you home?”

“Where are you going to go then?” she asked, ignoring his question.

He thought for a moment, “The lake.”

“And you think you’re allowed to go there without me?”

She didn’t want him to sit there, wallowing in self-pity on his own.

He changed the gear, “Let’s go then.”

--

“I remember this one time,” Taehyung told Tori as they both lay on the grass, staring at the stars, “My dad came home super late. When he opened the door, I ran up to him and hugged his leg, asking him over and over again where he was the whole day. He leaned down and gave me a plastic bag with a toy in it, my first ever toy, kissing my head, he carried me to my room and tucked me in bed. After he thought I was asleep I heard him talking to my mom, back then I didn’t understand what he was saying but now, I guess I do.”

Tori looked over at him when he stopped speaking, only to see his eyes squeezed tightly shut.

“He kept apologizing to her, saying that he was sorry, that he couldn’t do anything to help the ‘’ that he was in, he wouldn’t stop apologizing.”

“Why?” Tori whispered and he shook his head.

“I don’t know, I don’t remember,” he opened his eyes, looking up at the sky, “I just can’t help feeling like he was doing it again today, apologizing, again and again.”

“But he didn’t,” Tori reminded him, thinking that it would have been comforting but it wasn’t, “He didn’t apologize.”

“Couldn’t you see it in his eyes? He felt so guilty… and I couldn’t do anything but turn him away.”

“Baby,” she said softly, sitting up and looking down at him, “Don’t do that, don’t blame yourself for any of this,” her thumbs went to his cheeks as she wiped them away. “You didn’t cause anything, none of this is your fault.”

“But he was asking me for help, he was asking his own son- I called him sir,” his eyebrows tied in an eternal knot, as his tears continued flowing from his eyes.

His eyes flew to his face as he covered it, feeling ashamed of himself. But she wasn’t letting him do it.

Pulling him up to sit, she wiped the rest of his tears and held him in place, looking into her eyes with her two fingers pinching his chin.

She wrapped her arms around him and let him melt in them, his sniffs getting louder into her shoulder.

“You didn’t do anything wrong,” she recited, the back of his hair, “Don’t blame yourself.”

He listened to what she was saying. How could he not? This was the first time someone was comforting him in times like this and he couldn’t help but feel so lucky to have her in his life.

But he hated the fact that he would just receive everything she was doing for him, he always felt like he was just taking and hardly ever giving back to her.

He pulled back, lifting his eyes to look into her own but she wasn’t looking back at them. Instead, her gaze was on something a bit higher than his eyes and she saw her leaning in before he felt the warmth of her lips against his forehead.

“Let’s straighten out these eyebrows,” she said, pecking his forehead again, this time, however, he relaxed his eyebrows, realising she was probably talking about how he had them furrowed. “Good, you’re gonna get wrinkles too early.”

He flashed her a tired smile and she puffed out some air, “We have classes tomorrow.”

“We do,” he nodded, finding his smile widen when he remembered that the class he had tomorrow was Chemistry, his favourite, while she had Population Health, her least favourite.

“What are you doing after?”

“I think I might visit my dad,” he told her and she gave him a look of surprise, which softened immediately after.

“Good,” she nodded, “I’m proud of you, baby.”

He blinked, tears threatening to fall, no one had ever said that directly to him before.

“Remember, everyone deserves a second chance.”

He looked away, over her shoulder and at the sea behind her. He didn’t like the thought of giving his father a second chance but he knew it had to be the right thing to do.

“We should get going,” he looked down at his watch.

“Okay,” she smirked, using his arm to anchor him closer, “Soon.”

Her lips overcame his and she felt him sigh into them, as if he was letting go of everything in those few seconds.

And because she was Tori, he could free himself of the thoughts he had had of being a terrible son.

Because she was Victoria.

--

“So what happened?” Tori asked into the phone, as she sat in the last row of the bus, travelling to work.

“He said that he was sorry,” Taehyung’s guilty voice said, “Victoria, I don’t know what to do, he’s been leading a pretty bad life up until now, stealing, dropping acid, taking drugs…”

“Did he tell you that?”

“No, but the police officer guarding his house did.”

“He has a police officer guarding his house?”

“Uh-huh,” the bus reached her stop and she got off, walking to the supermarket she worked at.

“But he did tell me that he wanted to change,” he admitted, “That he wanted to stop his bad ways and start anew.”

“Do you believe him?”

“He looked genuine, but I don’t know.”

“Give him the benefit of the doubt,” she advised.

“Huh?”

“Believe him, help him become a better person, you want your dad back, right?”

“I guess so.”

“So let him change, and if it truly works, you’ll see his sincerity.”

“Thanks,” Tori put the ‘In’ card next to her name in the break room and entered her station.

“I need to go, Tae, let’s talk tonight, alright?”

“Okay.”

“Love you, baby,” she said and heard him fidget with something before replying.

“Love you too.”

That was something they had hardly said to each other, they didn’t often end their phone calls with it, nor did they ever say it face to face. But the few times they had said it, those were the times they needed each other most.

Tori put the ‘open’ sign on her aisle and waited for someone to walk into it.

“Just these?” she asked, see