I couldn't wait, I had to post this next one because...well, because...stuff happens and stuff so yeah... I'm impatient more often than patient >///< But yes, here is another update!!! I hope you enjoy~! Ke ;)

*twirling away, spinning around in circles like a madwoman* You are... a fantasy~! Just...a fantasy~!

~

He came back carrying a bag of caramelized popcorn, his cheeks already puffed out like a chipmunk’s. I smirked at him playfully, my eyebrow quirked. “So you needed to buy snacks?”

Chewing so he couldn’t answer me with his words, which I doubt he would have anyway, he nodded and started walking in the direction of the clothing stores, leaving the food and snack stands behind. He headed towards one of the bigger department stores in the shopping center, stepping onto the ascending escalator. He turned back to make sure I was following, and when he found me right behind him, he grabbed a couple of kernels and offered me some of the sweet treat. I opened my mouth without thinking, accepting what he was offering, and the popcorn melted in my mouth deliciously. Blushing, I peeled my eyes at him and he smiled back with understanding, then offered me the bag to grab some more. I did, taking a handful, and we both stuffed our mouths as we ascended.

Stepping off the escalator, he continued to lead the way towards the store’s entrance. We walked by cosmetics and creams, jewelry and accessories, and he kept on going until we were by the colognes and perfumes. He approached a station that specialized specifically in men’s products, and spoke politely to the guy manning the kiosk. He pointed at a few things, and the guy pulled out a couple boxed sets with body wash and cologne. Taekwoon nodded once he saw they were the right ones, then took out his shiny plastic card to pay. He’d also paid for our food despite all my protests, and seeing him pay a little over one hundred dollars for some cologne and body wash only raised my suspicions that they were all secretly billionaire werewolves.

Carrying the paper bag holding his purchases with one hand, he offered me more popcorn with the other. I took another handful, and then I started feeding him too since both his hands were busy.

We went to another store where he bought two pairs of pants that were obviously not his size, so I wondered if he was doing someone else’s shopping, too. He paid for those, but I took the bag this time, wanting to help.

“Those aren’t for you,” I stated, and he agreed with a silent nod, still chewing on his popcorn. I didn't ask who they were for, preferring to wait.

He pointed towards a vending machine and headed over, and I followed after him with amusement. He gestured towards a bottle of water and I laughed, taking out my own wallet to pay.

“No, here,” he protested, trying to get to his wallet in the back pocket of his jeans.

I stuffed my dollar and quarters in quickly, and pressed the buttons for the water before he could even pull it out. He glared at me mildly and I smiled triumphantly, twisting the cap on the bottle to offer him the water after retrieving it. He took it with a mild glare after setting down the paper bag with the cologne and took a few huge gulps, leaving a little bit left in the bottle. He offered me the last of it, and I drank it without hesitation, needing a refresher after all the sweetness of the caramel popcorn.

He picked up his bag again while I disposed of the empty plastic bottle in a recycling bin, and we were off towards another store where he bought two different sweatshirts.

After that, he said he was done, but proceeded back towards the food court to get some frozen yogurt.

Carrying our collection of bags, we walked back towards his car while holding two big paper bowls of frozen yogurt doused with an assortment of candies and cookies, ready to eat as soon as we left his purchased items in the trunk of the sedan. Free of the extra baggage, we started to take a stroll around the shopping center’s perimeter, passing by the outer entrances to all the stores we’d seen inside. The refreshing autumn wind danced against us, fluttering tendrils of our hair, kissing our faces with cool lips. Eating our frozen yogurt as we ambled proved to be a very genius idea, and the sun started to disappear, joining with the earth to allow the moon time to play. The time we’d taken walking around inside had flown right by us without us noticing, and now it was just about time to go back home.

There was a bit of a commotion up ahead, and I focused on the erected building that hadn’t been there before. It looked like a castle, but the walls were fake and not real stone, although it was hard to tell at first glance. There was smoke billowing around it, lights flashing from some of its open windows, and people milled about, entering and exiting, some laughing, some looking shaken up. There was ominous music playing, and every now and then, screams pierced the night.

I started to grin. Reaching for Taekwoon’s sleeve, I tugged on it gently and then pointed excitedly. “Shall we?”

He looked over at the castle too and raised both his eyebrows. “There?”

I nodded, grinning. “It’ll be fun! I haven’t gone into one since I was…” I had to think about it to remember. “I was thirteen, I think.”

He scoffed quietly. “Why go into one now?”

Smirking, I arched my eyebrow at him tauntingly. “Are we afraid?”

He scoffed again, louder this time. “I’m not human, I have no reason to be.”

I pulled him after me. “Perfect, let’s go!”

We walked together towards the haunted castle despite his reluctance and my knowledge of how much of a scaredy-cat I was. After paying the entrance fee, we were told to wait in a dark room with only a flashing red light to keep us from standing in complete and total darkness. Standing in the empty room with creepy haunted music playing from unseen speakers, a weird smell permeating the air like dirt or dust intermingled with iron and rubber, we remained quiet for a good while. My heart was already pounding, but I was also really excited to get spooked.

Taekwoon sighed noisily next to me and shifted his weight from foot to foot. I turned to stare at him, needing to open my eyes really wide to get a good look at him. He looked impatient, his right leg shaking a little as he tried to keep himself calm. He didn’t look scared, but he did look unhappy. “What’s the matter?”

He looked at me, his face hard to read in the near-darkness. “I don’t enjoy small spaces.”

I could tell by his heavy breathing. I grew worried immediately. “Are you claustrophobic?”

He shook his head and cleared his throat, but his hyperventilating didn’t seem to stop at all. “No, I just…” He turned to look at me, narrowing his eyes. “You’re not making all that noise?”

I shook my head quickly, confused. “What? No, you are.”

We both froze, aware that the music had stopped playing altogether in our room. The only noise was the heavy breathing behind both of us, and when I turned around slowly, my skin already crawling, and caught sight of the man with scratches all over his gray face, I squeaked. I backed up immediately into Taekwoon, my hands grabbing fistfuls of his clothes, and he pulled me back behind him when the scratched-up man roared and surged towards us menacingly.

I noticed Taekwoon was about to get ferocious on the poor actor, and I decided to save the guy’s life by dragging him backwards and out of the room. I guessed right, and the actor stayed behind in the red room, his mission accomplished. Now that Taekwoon and I were out in a dark hallway, the scratched-up man disappeared out of sight to wait for the next group of people to scare.

I was still a little shaken up, though, pretty breathless, but I was starting to get giggly too. I tugged on Taekwoon’s arms. “Come on, it’s just a haunted house. No need to kill anybody.”

Listening to me and calming down, Taekwoon started to walk towards the end of the corridor with me, looking back over his shoulder intermittently, making sure the man wasn’t coming after us. I focused on ahead, though, so I didn’t notice anything else when Taekwoon did.

He pushed me forward to speed up, and out of bewilderment, I turned to look at him and saw him looking back, so I turned to see too.

I screamed seeing the woman crawling towards us in a rusted tank top and skirt, her long black hair covering most of her face. Women with long black hair over the face scare me enough, but a woman with long black hair over her face that also crawled the way she was scrabbling towards me? Hell no.

Practically sprinting, I yanked Taekwoon, unwilling to leave him behind to the creepy chick.

Rounding the corner, we were now in a different room, this one illuminated more, but the added lighting didn’t help ease the creepy factor. There were actual people hanging from the ceiling by their feet, squirming, jerking, and screaming, reaching out towards us with dirty hands, their faces done up so it looked like they were missing their eyes. Taekwoon was looking around with his eyebrows up, clearly in disbelief, but he jumped and jerked around when he heard chains rattling from the side of the room. I turned to look too, and we caught sight of a man in a butcher’s apron coming towards us with a mask made of eyeballs over his face, his clothes dirty with old brown grime and fresh red blood, holding up both a chain and a machete. He didn’t freak me out as much, but I wasn’t going to hang back and ask him how his day was going, so when Taekwoon hauled me after him, I kept up as best I could with my shorter legs.

Now that I was really panting, Taekwoon didn’t notice, but that was a good thing because I was also breathless due to his hand holding mine so tightly.

We crossed into yet another horror scene, and more ladies with black hair were walking around, some wearing flowing white hospital gowns, others in loosened straightjackets. As soon as we showed up, they turned to look at us with wide eyes peering through the locks of their dark hair, their pale faces nearly blue from how gray they were painted. I gulped, facing one of my worst nightmares, and clung onto Taekwoon again.

He was a little shaken up by this scene too, and backed up slowly when the females converged with their hands reaching out.

“I think they like you,” I muttered, and he took a second to glare at me mildly.

Catching sight of the exit, he jerked me after him again, but I practically ran him over trying to get out of there faster. Clearing the asylum room, we entered a maze-like passageway that had the sound effects of water dripping and eerie singing. Invisible hands pulled at my clothes and hair and I jumped, reaching out blindly for Taekwoon. My hand closed around a palm that was cold and wet, and I knew that wasn’t Taek, so I squeaked again, letting loose a few profanities as I sought the right person and more hands d.

I started, exclaiming indignantly. “That was my !”

Mumbled guiltily, Taekwoon apologized, “Sorry.”

I blushed a deep red. Some of the hidden actors and actresses started snickering, amused by the little scene, and then we were let go to exit.

I think the best moment of the entire experience was when Taekwoon was caught completely and totally by surprise by a contorted woman by the stairs of the castle’s exit. The sound he made when she latched onto his calves would forever remain in my memory.

I was still laughing about said sound when we arrived home, and continued to giggle quietly to myself when we entered the living room where everybody was gathered playing video games. They saw us and cheered happily, but the ones with the controllers in their hands, Ken and Hyuk, didn’t keep their eyes away from the TV screen for long.

Hakyeon got in their line of sight, though, and waved his hands at them. “Put it on pause for a second, don’t be rude!”

After lots of exclaiming from the two boys playing the game, especially from Jaehwan, the game was put on hold and all attention was on us.

Noticing how red Taekwoon was, and also taking note of the way I was giggling, Ken narrowed his eyes mischievously and started to smile wryly. “Oh? What’s going on, you crazy kids?”

Ravi arched his perfect eyebrow and started to grin, too. In a sultry voice, he murmured, “Something happened.”

Sanghyuk covered his ears. “Don’t make it sound like that something was dirty.”

Hongbin fought his smile, but his dimples peeped out too much. “Hey, maybe it was.”

“Woo!” Ken hooted, batting his eyelashes at me. “It looks like our sister’s saucier than we thought, because the blushing beauty is this brother over here.”

Before Taekwoon could give him yet another bruise, Hakyeon came to the rescue, yet he was still cackling as he held Taekwoon back. He beamed at the taller man, shaking his head. “Now, now, let’s not get violent again.” He looked at the bags we were holding. “Let’s see what you brought instead.”

I sat down between Ravi and Hongbin because there was no clear space to sit on the floor with both Ken and Hyuk sprawled out for the video games, and Taekwoon was forced to sit down next to Hakyeon on the fainting couch.

“Oh, hey,” Hyuk blurted, getting up from the floor. He grabbed me gently by my wrist and pulled me up off the sofa from between Hongbin and Ravi and redirected me over to the loveseat. He pushed on me lightly so I would sit down, and I watched dubiously as he went over to Hakyeon and Taekwoon. He retrieved one of them and brought him over to me, sitting us both down together. Triumphant, he beamed at everybody. “Since they both went and bought everything, they need to present it together.” He grinned at his other pack mates as they cheered and applauded proudly.

Taekwoon cleared his throat while I blushed, and crossed his legs at the knee regally, pulling items out from the bags. He handed one of the pairs of pants to me and made me hold them up while everybody oohed and ahhed.

“Those are the expensive kind,” Ravi noted, and Taekwoon nodded silently next to me, a wise wolf-man.

“They’re for Hakyeonnie,” he announced, and Hakyeon burst into a round of delighted applause, crowing excitedly. I handed the jeans over to Hongbin so he could pass them onto Ravi, and Ravi passed them onto Jaehwan to hand them over to Hakyeon.

“Thank you!” Hakyeon cheered, dancing in his seat as he looked over the pants.

Taekwoon gave me the second pair, this one a little longer and darker than the first. “Jaehwan.”

Ken cheered happily, stomping his feet a little while Ravi and Hongbin both moaned their unhappiness, wanting the jeans for themselves.

After handing over the jeans to Hongbin again, I lifted the bag with the couple of sweatshirts and handed them over to Taekwoon. He extracted one and unfolded it to hold up a bright white sweatshirt with a spunky emoticon on it, the smiley face sticking its red tongue out with multicolored X’s for eyes. Everyone exclaimed, wanting it immediately.

“Wonsik,” Taekwoon said, and I knew that had to be Ravi even before the mocha-colored boy launched out of his seat, grinning widely.

“Yes?” Ravi launched up while everybody else made unhappy noises, including the ones that had already received their items. He smiled hopefully, his face lighting up.

Taekwoon tossed the sweatshirt over lightly. “Give that to Hyukkie.”

While Sanghyuk cheered merrily and thanked Taekwoon repeatedly, even bowing at the waist, Ravi handed over the piece of clothing sullenly. Sanghyuk held it up to observe it better up close, and made lots of happy noises. Hakyeon and Ken both leaned over to inspect the pullover with him, making little jealous noises.

A deflated Ravi plopped back down, but Taekwoon called him again. “Wonsik?”

Ravi sprang back up, smiling still but warily now. “Y-yes?”

Taekwoon handed over the box of expensive cologne and body wash. “That’s for Kongie.”

“Ah… Right,” Ravi mumbled, smiling dejectedly as he handed over the box to Hongbin.

As soon as Hongbin saw what it was, he gasped and brought it up closer to inspect better. “Hyung!” he exclaimed, confusing me, but I deduced that it was another word in Korean.

I told myself to ask Taekwoon about it later, but nudged him then and there. I reached over and smacked his knee, admonishing him lightly. “Quit teasing him.”

Hongbin got up to thank Taekwoon much like Sanghyuk had, smiling from ear to ear, looking at the cologne in his hands with stars in his eyes. “I can’t believe you got me this, thank you so much!” Sanghyuk and Ken came over to analyze the box too, and then also exclaimed surprise seeing which brand and scent it was.

Ken pointed at the cologne and grinned. “I can borrow this now and then, yes?”

Taekwoon nodded at Hongbin’s thanks and then, after glancing at me with a small smirk, he pulled out the second sweatshirt and held it up. It had the smiley face like Hyuk’s, but this one was black. “Shikkie,” he called out, and Ravi turned to look again, the pout fading from his handsome face as soon as he realized Taekwoon was offering the sweatshirt to him.

He hurdled over a crouching Ken and dashed over, taking the sweatshirt in his hands. Then he paused and looked at Taekwoon warily. “This is for me, right?”

Taekwoon opened his mouth, a wicked gleam in his eye, so I elbowed him again and he laughed, nodding instead. “Yes.” I laughed with him, shaking my head at his antics.

Ravi grinned and bowed deeply, too. “Thank you very much!” he enthused, and then sat himself down next to Sanghyuk again, the two of them bouncing in their seats with their sweatshirts held up.

Hakyeon grinned proudly from his perch on the fainting couch and clapped his hands lightly. “Thank you very much, Taekwoonie, we all appreciate your spontaneous Christmas day.”

I bit my lip, my heart fluttering in my chest for the caring wolf-man sitting next to me. Especially with his teasing towards Ravi—Shikkie—it was obvious that he was very happy to give them all the personal gifts. Also, while they all pretended to be super jealous of each other’s items, it was evident by the way that they held onto their individual presents and didn’t let go that they treasured what he’d chosen for each of them.

And so I discovered the father figure of the wolf pack, which made me laugh quietly to myself.

I also started to think about this father figure wolf-man at the haunted castle and burst out laughing louder than I’d meant to, remembering the last memorable yell he’d let out.

Everyone turned to look at me, wondering what was so funny, including Taekwoon. When Taek noticed my laughter intensified every time I looked over at him, he realized just what it was that was so funny to me, and his face turned angelic with a scary glint in his eye.

“What, what, what?” Ken chanted quickly, smiling grandly already as he watched me crack up.

“What’s so funny?” Hyuk wondered, looking between us.

“I want to laugh too!” Hakyeon exclaimed, leaning forward in his seat with his hands linked tightly on his lap, smiling expectantly.

Taekwoon kept his eyes on me. “It’s nothing.”

Trying to regain control, I nodded quickly in agreement with him. “He’s right, it’s not that funny.” Remembering again, I burst into another fit of giggles while Taekwoon burned red next to me.

Ken gasped. “Is it the saucy thing?”

They all started whispering amongst themselves, trying to figure out what could have happened, also looking scandalized.

I shook my head quickly. “Nothing saucy happened.”

Ken winced, shaking his head with disappointment. “Like I said, someone’s not doing something right.” I wasn’t one-hundred percent sure, but judging by the sassiness, that had to be Kenjumma again.

I held Taekwoon back this time, protecting Ken’s body from more embarrassed violence, and he ended up falling onto me with his chest sliding down mine and ending up on my lower belly, knocking the wind out of me. I ended up laughing again, though, because I was still remembering his face when the lady grabbed onto his legs.

Hakyeon and Ken sat together with their eyebrows up, hawk-like eyes on Taekwoon and I. “Saucy,” they said together.

While Taekwoon righted himself, laughing with me this time, Ravi joined in with the curiosity.

“Hey, I want to know, too,” he said, looking at Taekwoon pleadingly.

Hongbin made an adorably confused expression. “Did someone do something funny?”

Both Taekwoon’s and my eyes widened because he was guessing in the right direction.

Hyuk clapped once loudly and pointed. “Yes! I don’t think Mia would be laughing so much if she did it, so—”

Hakyeon burst up from his chair, grinning hugely as he asked Taekwoon, “What did you do!”

Taekwoon sat still while I fought back more laughter. He was keeping a tight hold on my forearm, warning me to keep it to myself, but the others were starting to converge, holding their hands up threateningly with their fingers wiggling.

Clearing my throat nervously, I managed to say around a few giggles that bubbled up, “Taek, I’m super ticklish. I don’t know if I can hold out.”

“You better,” he mumbled, just as Ken lunged with a battle cry.

I stuck both my legs and arms up to stop him, shaking my head quickly. “I’ll tell you, I’ll tell you!” Taekwoon whipped his head around to look at me sharply, flabbergasted. I smiled sheepishly at him. “I don’t particularly like being tickled, okay?”

He got an idea and turned to glare at his friends. “If you touch her, I’ll break your hands.”

Hakyeon swooned dramatically. “That’s the manliest thing I’ve ever heard you say.”

Hongbin nodded, impressed. “And you’ve said some pretty manly things.”

Taking that chance to run, I lunged up from the loveseat and started for the stairs.

Exclamations boomed, and they all started after me, catching up to me in a second.

Hongbin caught me, the fastest of them all, and carried me easily with my legs dangling back towards the loveseat where Taekwoon was being pinned down by Hakyeon, Sanghyuk, and Shikkie and Jaehwan.

Taekwoon’s eyes were starting to lighten to the gold of his wolf when Hongbin approached with me, my arms pinned to my sides because he was lifting me by way of back-hug. Hongbin let go of me pretty quickly and backed up, holding his hands in the air.

I landed with a tiny thud onto the soles of my feet, my shoulders slumping a little in defeat. I sat down next to Taekwoon again and crossed my arms. The others lifted off of Taekwoon, and I held his elbow when he started to go after them again, but I was unable to keep his legs from kicking Hakyeon on his hip.

Wincing, Hakyeon stepped into Ken. “Violence isn’t the answer, Taekwoon!”

Ken and Ravi raised their eyebrows in unison, staring at their pack leader. “Sounds funny coming from you,” Ravi muttered, earning himself a light cuff on his head.

Feeling high and mighty, Sanghyuk folded his own arms over his chest and narrowed his eyes at me, smirking a little. “Okay, sister. Spill your guts.”

Taekwoon blurted before I could divulge all the juicy details, “We went to a haunted house and I yelled.”

I turned to look at him slowly, clearing my throat. “I would have used ‘screamed’, but that works too.”

While the boys broke into a fit of giggles—yes, giggles—I raced away from Taekwoon, although he caught me pretty quickly just as I was about to make it into the kitchen. He took the guys’ idea and started to tickle me mercilessly, driving me to collapse onto the floor. He slid to his knees next to me, laughing earnestly along with me, and I squirmed and wriggled, slipping and sliding on the wood floor whenever I tried to get up to run again.

Once he gave me a chance to breathe, I crawled into the kitchen and got to my feet, making my way over to the breakfast nook, sitting down. Our laughter died down after a few more giggles, my tummy aching from so much laughing, and I pulled my legs up to sit crisscrossed on the bench of the nook. I looked at him quietly, my smile still light on my face, observing his beautiful features with affection. He was still smiling like me, except his expression was far more special due to the rarity of his unabashed joy. He was always hiding, always using a stoic façade to keep anybody from guessing what he was truly feeling and thinking. The moments that he let the mask slip were exceptional, and I was merely an earthly creature wondering at the extraordinary revelation of his delight every time I caught a glimpse.

Taekwoon was truly a special being that obviously had no idea of his brilliance. He had no idea how very thoroughly he lit up my world after years of absolute and total darkness.

He leaned against the kitchen island, his arms folded loosely over his broad chest. His body was facing the exit, so I was catching an excellent view of his lithe profile.

Something in his gaze changed as he continued to stare at me, and my heart started to thump erratically. Practically holding my breath, I sat still without making any moves to leave. His smile grew more pronounced and he pushed away from the counter, his contemplative stare unwavering. “What are we?”

Unsure of how to answer his loaded question, I remained inert while he started to approach me, his long legs taking each step with bold resolution. My heart broke its own speed limit in its cage, and I shook my head slowly, holding my hand up with reluctance. He didn’t stop, however, and continued to come closer until he was finally standing right before me. I closed my eyes hesitantly and wished for my heart to be still. Not brave enough to look at him, knowing I was a goner, I was only able to say breathlessly, “Let’s not risk ruining it. I don’t want to ruin…”

His hand came up to my jaw and he touched the tips of his fingers very gently to my chin, tilting my face up towards him. A strong force I was unable to name urged me to open my eyes, strengthening my greed to see his handsome visage. I gazed up at him longingly, unable to successfully hide my feelings. I didn’t want to risk ruining the relationship we already had, fear waiting quietly in the back of my mind; I was still inhuman, on the verge of becoming a full-fledged vampire, and he was still very much a wolf. It was growing to be more and more difficult to kill Jekyll, and I was constantly on edge, always so close to losing my mind and forgetting about control, always on the verge of giving into the bloodlust that was the vampires’ true nature. What was worse was my uncontrollable desire for his blood specifically.

The sound of his heartbeat and the rush through his veins was exotic song to my darkening soul.

My reserves started to melt away and I lifted my own hand to his waist, grabbing a fistful of his buttoned shirt while simultaneously hooking my fingers into the waistband of his black jeans. I leaned forward on the bench and unfolded my legs from under me, pulling him closer with just enough strength to move him, looking up at him as he looked down at me. His legs came between my thighs and I tugged lightly on his clothes, getting him to lower himself down onto the floor in front of me. While he was on his knees, we remained eye to eye, and his scent blanketed over me like a shield from the world. His hands landed to rest on my legs and I held his face gently between the palms of my hands, not daring enough to look away from his beautiful gaze. His full lips parted slightly, lungs catching and releasing his shallow breath, and I heard his racing heartbeat match to be in time with mine.

Only he mattered; his existence was my reason to breathe.

He leaned in towards me at the same time that I moved forward into him, my eyes closing instinctively. I felt his fingers touch my jaw gently again, angling my head, and I held my breath in anticipation of our first kiss.

“Hey, the guys want to know if we’re going to have dinner anytime soo—oh, my god, please don’t kill me.”

I jolted, startled, and turned my head away, dropping my hands to Taekwoon’s biceps. I stared with wide eyes at the floor, quite mortified, while Taekwoon’s hands tightened on my legs with impatience. I had to take a moment to gather myself, still too embarrassed to look over at Hongbin.

I looked at Taekwoon as he twisted around to undoubtedly glare at the unintentional interloper. “I’m never cooking for you again,” he told the younger guy, cross but still soft-voiced. Even though he was clearly unhappy, he still didn’t raise his voice at him. I read that as him being unable to mistreat the kids, and my heart warmed with affection.

Finally able to look at Hongbin, I watched as the chestnut-haired man held his hands up in a placating gesture, his own face pretty red as he laughed sheepishly. I noticed he couldn’t quite look at me for long either, almost as uncomfortable as I was. To Taekwoon, he said, “That’s okay. I’m really sorry. I’ll go now—you can continue, or, you know.” He took several steps back before finally whipping around and zipping away.

With a disgruntled sigh, Taekwoon twisted back around to look at me. He leaned back onto his heels, keeping his hands on my knees, and looked at me somberly. “I’m too embarrassed now.” Although he was indeed turning a pretty pink, I appreciated his bravery at admitting his chagrined feelings.

I was unwilling to let the moment go now that I’d finally tossed my own fear out the window, but I wasn’t going to make him kiss me.

Just as I thought the opportunity was lost, he cupped my face, leaning in towards me swiftly to press his lips very gently to mine, not giving me a chance to run away. I responded, and although I was highly inexperienced, I prayed for my feelings to be felt through the passionate gesture.

We separated slowly, and while my lips tingled, I looked at Taekwoon expectantly. His eyes had closed when our lips had touched, and they were still hidden away from me now.

His eyelashes parted gradually, finally showing me the golden eyes I’d grown to be so fond of. Pulse racing, I whispered, “You stole my first kiss…”

Surprise crossed his beautiful features, then disappeared like a lightning strike. His cheekbones blossomed with color and he pushed himself up off his heels again, bracing one of his hands on my thigh, cupping the back of my neck with the other. He pulled me into him, our lips colliding; he robbed me of breath but breathed life right back into me, setting fire to the love I felt so intensely for him. It was even better knowing that, somehow, I was able to set him on fire, too.

Giving me a chance to breathe, he pressed his forehead to mine and mumbled, “I guess I stole the second, too.” His lips brushed mine very gently again, the kiss impossible to overlook. “And the third.” He leaned back enough so our eyes could meet, and he made his promise while our gazes were locked. “I’ll also steal the fourth, and the fifth, and I’ll keep going until my heart stops beating.”