Taehyung couldn’t hide the smile on his face as he reached out his free hand (the other, intertwined with Sooyoung’s) to open the door. He couldn’t wait to see the expression of the all the others when they walked through the door hand and hand. It was about damn time. This little cat and mouse chase had been going on for a little less than half a month and he was glad he could finally put an end to it.

“Taehyung,” she slightly tugged his hand, causing him to stop midair before he could reach the door.

“Hmm?” He turned to the girl who looked nervously at the door before them.

“Can we, can we not go in yet?”

“Why?” Asked the confused boy, while she bit her lips embarrassedly, “I don’t think I can face them.” 

He gave her a comforting smile, “you’re going to have to face them sooner or later. We can’t sleep out here on the beach you know. I mean unless you want to get eaten up by the ocean.”

“No, I don’t mean it like that and I know I have to face them sooner or later, but….” she eyed him grumpily, “I can’t believe you guys knew who I was for a whole week. You knew who I was this morning yet you were pretending the entire day. I feel so stupid.”

“Well, I’m glad you finally realized how stupid you were. I think you have a serious problem Sooyoung, we should really get it checked out. Not only are you stupid, but you’re a chronic liar as well and I can assure you both are horrible for your health.”

“Hey!” She shouted at him, only to be shushed by him, “do you want them to know we’re out here?” And she immediately covered with her hand.

“So where do you want to go?”

She raised her eyebrows at him, “didn’t you say you didn’t want to go in yet?”

She shook her head eagerly.

“Hmm…I guess the only place we really could go this late at night would be the beach. You okay with that?” He asked as he started leading the way, their hands which had been closely enclosed the entire time remained intertwine as she followed him, a small smile replacing her once grumpy frown.

♥

“So, how did you find out about me?” Sooyoung asked, interrupting the rhythmic crashing of the waves in front of them.

Taehyung looked at her proudly, “Intuition.”

“Intuition my , Yeri told you, didn’t she?”

A chuckled was heard before he corrected her, “actually, Irene noona was the one who kind of spilled the bean.”

“What? How could she do this to me? After all I’ve done for her?” Sooyoung spluttered.

“Whao, calm down. It wasn’t like she willingly told me, I kind of sprung it upon her….”

A week ago….

Damn, did he missed her? Taehyung was currently standing in his designated spot against the brick wall waiting for Sooyoung, to get out of her class but he had been waiting for almost an half hour and she had yet walked by.

He had wanted to believe that she wasn’t Jungeng and it was merely a coincidence because she had seemed so adamant about not being Jungeng, but a scene from the café kept replaying in his mind causing him to think otherwise.  

“Oh so you two are in band together with five other students?” Sooyoung could be heard asking Jungkook who had just finished telling her all about their band when his phone suddenly starting ringing.

“Hello? Yes, this is him. What? She’s in the hospital? How, never mind, I’m coming right now.” Hanging up the phone he felt two pair of eyes staring at him, and a very concern Sooyoung.

“Unnie?” He thought he heard her whispered, but didn’t have to time to interrogate her about it.

“Sorry guys, but I need to get going first. Jungkook you’ll see that Sooyoung gets home safely?”

“Leave it to me!” Jungkook replied. He nodded towards Sooyoung before he ran for the door.

That “unnie.” She had muttered the word unnie, he was sure of it, but how did she know the phone conversation was about Taeyeon and why would she look so concern unless…..unless she really was Jungeng.

Argh, he rubbed his head in frustration, why was this girl giving him so much trouble?

“Excuse me,” he heard a small voice.

“Huh?” Looking up he saw a pretty girl standing beside in front of him.

“Are you by chance looking for Sooyoung?”

“Why yes, do you happen to know where she might be?”

“She left a while ago,” she informed him much to his disappointment.

“Oh,” he sighed defeatedly.

“But she told me she was meeting some friends at that popular café near the university,” she quickly added. She couldn’t stand the sight of him looking all disappointed.

“Really?”

She nodded her head, happy she could make him smile.

“Well, thanks for the head up, I’ll get going. Thanks again,” he bid the girl goodbye, unaware of her blushing cheeks.

The café had to be none other than Tiffany noona’s café. Spotting the café ahead, he slowed down to catch his breath before looking through the window.

There she was, the girl that had constantly been in his mind. His eyes bulged when he saw who she was sitting with. Irene noona?

Okay, this was weird, why in the world would Sooyoung be meeting Irene? Unless Sooyoung was….but Irene noona and Jungeng weren’t really all that close as far as he could tell anyway. There was a slight possibility that they could have gotten closer without him knowing, but that was impossible, for Jungeng spent every waking moment pestering him, there was no way she had time to start a growing friendship with Irene.

And who were the other three girls sitting with them? All of them seemed to be pretty close, suspiciously close and he couldn’t help but wondered if something was up.

Alright, he had no choice but to wait out here for them to finish and the mean time he needed to come up with a plan. Jungeng, or whoever she was would most likely not come clean, he didn’t know the other three girls, though they looked awfully familiar, perhaps he saw them at the spring festival, that left only Irene. He could get something out of her, she owned him one anyway, for breaking his heart and all. The least she could do was provide him with answers on the girl who was currently eating his heart away.

He heard the doorbell ring, thank goodness, and quickly hid behind the corner as to not get spotted.

“Bye Irene unnie, enjoy your date with Jin oppa,” he heard them shout and he was sure he could hear Jung-Soo-, or whoever she was in the voices.

Carefully peeking from the wall, he saw four girls (the one he wanted to know more about included) leaving Irene alone in front of the café. He waited till they were out of sight before he made his way towards Irene who was busying texting on her phone.

“Noona,” he surprised her, as evident from her shocked expression followed by a harsh punch on his shoulder.

“Ow,” he winced. He never imagined such a tiny lady to have so much power.

“Sorry Taehyung, I wasn’t expecting you. What are you doing here anyway?”

“Actually I had something I wanted to ask you. You have to promise to tell me the truth though.”

“Uh, okay,” she blinked confusingly at the young boy. What could he possibly have to ask her. She thought for a moment before bringing her finger to as she bit it nervously, “you didn’t see who I was with did you?”

He shook his head, his face serious and she knew Sooyoung’s little charade was over.

“So you’re telling me that Sooyoung and Jungeng are one person and her name is really Sooyoung and that you two were already friends before she came to me as Jungeng, but the reason she became Jungeng was because you asked her to?”

Irene nodded her head, it was a horrible thing they did to him.

“Look Taehyung, I know this a lot for you to handle, but this isn’t Sooyoung’s fault. It’s my fault, so please don’t blame her. She was only doing this for me. If I hadn’t been such a coward she wouldn’t have never met you.”

It was a lot to take in. He need a few minutes to process everything. His thoughts went back to all the times the others had questioned if she was actually his fan. It all made sense now, why she suddenly popped out of nowhere, why never praised him like the other girls, and why she didn’t even know he had an older sister.

“I understand completely if you never want to speak to me, but I want you to know that I really did value you as a friend and I just didn’t know how-“

As much as he wished he didn’t understand, he understood perfectly well; love made you do stupid things. Besides his heart no longer yearned for the older girl’s so in all truthfulness it was best to leave everything in the past.

“It’s alright noona, you don’t have to explain any further. My pride’s a little hurt but it’ll recover soon,” he mustered out, he wasn’t exactly sure when, but it will.

 “So you’re not mad at me?”

“Not really, in fact I must thank you.” But some things couldn’t be kept in the past.

“Eh?” Was he really the Taehyung she had known? The old Taehyung would have already stormed out of the café by now, but here he was sitting calmly in front of her, thanking her, despite everything she had told him.

“Thank me?” He laughed at the confused girl, no, perhaps he was laughing at himself. Despite learning the truth, he couldn’t deny that this Sooyoung seemed to be a blessing in disguised.

“It might have all just been pretend, but she really was fun to be around with. I know I have a lot of fan girls, because you know I’m so popular, but she was different. She made me feel really special, like she genuinely cared about me. My only regret now is how didn’t properly thank her for her efforts. I was such a douche to her,” he lamented solemnly. It was odd, he should have felt some sort of anger or even hatred towards the girl. No one should be allowed to play with feelings the way she did, but in her defense, she didn’t know his feelings were being toyed with. He had made it real clear that she was nothing but a nuisance to her. It was only fitting that she disappeared once Irene and Jin were finally together.

“Omo, don’t tell me….” Irene started as she looked at the regretful boy, “you’re in love with her.”

He squirmed in his chair, startled by her sudden accusation.

“What? No noona, you have the wrong idea,” he tried to refute her ridiculous claim, but Irene wasn’t buying it. There was no way he wouldn’t be mad at them for what they did to him, unless he had developed a soft spot for her and judging by the way the lad was shyly fidgeting in his chair she was sure he had. She sighed, Sooyoung was going to kill her, but-oh screw it, she couldn’t just sit there doing nothing when it was obvious they had somehow grown fond of each other.

“Sooyoung likes you too,” she blurted much to the surprise of Taehyung.

“It’s true,” she added on to convince the skeptical Taehyung.

“But why?”

“I wondered that too,” she laughed his hurt expression.

“Oh come on, you weren’t exactly Prince Charming to her. But, despite everything, you managed to make her fall for you. There must be more to you than you let on, isn’t that right Taehyung?” She stared at him, it was true that he came off a little aggressive, a bit rude to those who annoyed him, maybe even conceited, but she had seen his softer side occasionally, and if she had those glimpses she was sure Sooyoung had seen them too, otherwise the young girl would not have fallen in love with him.

“You sure about that noona?” She giggled at his behavior. It mimicked that of a high school girl wanting to know if her crush liked her back.

“Positive,” she reaffirmed.

“Then why lie?”

Irene sighed, “I think it’s best for her to tell you why she’s lying.” She had already told him too much. Sooyoung was sure to kill her, but this was for the best and she was positive she would thank her later.

“But how? I’m sure won’t just tell me the truth.”

Taehyung was right, Sooyoung wouldn’t just tell him. She had to be caught by her own lies.

“Hey, what are you doing this weekend?” Irene suddenly asked, an idea popping in her head.

“This weekend? Nothing. Why?”

“The girls and I were planning to go to the beach for our annual get-away-weekend trip. How about you and the boys tag along and let’s say coincidently meet up with us?”

“I don’t kn-oh, I get it. If we see her with you there’s no way she could get out of that one. She’s bound to come clean.”

“And that’ll give you guys a chance to sort out your feelings with each other.”

Taehyung smiled at her.

“Oh, by the way, she also goes by Joy, so she might try something with that.”

♥

She couldn’t believe it, ratted out by the granny and here she thought Yeri was the devil.

“What’s with the face?” Even in the dark, he could see her shaking her head.

“Irene unnie,” she grunted.

“Oh come don’t be mad. You should thank her you know. I mean if it weren’t for her you would still be lying to me and we wouldn’t be where we are right now,” he tried to knock some sense into her as he swung his arm around her shoulder. The weight of his arm felt heavy around her shoulders, but she couldn’t help the smile on her lips. It was a weight she didn’t mind carrying.

And as the two of them sat side by side under the moonlight, ten bodies stood watching in the background.

“Well, about freaking time,” one of them breathed before getting hushed by the other nine people. 

And that was how Taehyung found the truth about Sooyoung, not really exciting right? Lol, do forgive me. I find it is alwasy easier to start a story then to finish it, so I'm debating on whether or not I want to make this the last chapter (this has been a long journey hasn't it? and I'll miss you all very much). There's not much to write about anymore, but I might add in a bonus chapter later. Though I'm sad this story may or may not be completed (as I always am with all my stories, the ones I can acutally finish anyway) I actually have another story already planned out for TaeJoy and I'm really excited to get that one started. Like I said, it's always easier to start a new story than to finish one, but I'm TaeJoy trash so the more story about them floating about is better than none right?