I knew I loved you then
But you'd never know
'Cause I played it cool when I was scared of letting go
I know I needed you
But I never showed
But I wanna stay with you until we're grey and old
Just say you won't let go

The first time they met was years ago, when she was just a rookie in the K-Pop music industry. They met at the backstage at one of the many music shows, he doesn’t remember exactly which one. Back then, Jiyong didn’t think that she would be anyone important to him. She was just his junior and that was about it.

One day, everything changed. Jiyong got to know her better when they accidentally bumped onto each other in a famous club somewhere in Gangnam. He didn’t think that seeing her there was even possible since she looked like the innocent and pure type. Turned out, she got lost while on her way back from the restroom. Since Jiyong was a usual in the club, he pretty much knew every inch of the club so he had offered to help. She had gladly agreed and followed him as she tried to contact her friends. By the way she was talking and behaving, Jiyong had concluded that she wasn’t a hundred percent sober. Afraid that she might slip, Jiyong had put a protective arm around her waist and tried to find someone who might know where her friends were.

“Excuse me, do you know which room is SNSD in?” Jiyong asked when a waiter passed by. The waiter didn’t look surprise at all to be questioned by G-Dragon since the club was frequently visited by celebrities.

“Oh, they are in that room. I was just there to deliver their meal,” the waiter had replied as he pointed to a closed door at the end of the hallway.

Jiyong had thanked the waiter before guiding Taeyeon towards the door. When Jiyong opened the door, 8 girls were very surprised. They immediately took away Taeyeon from Jiyong’s arm and helped her to sit on one of the couches. Sooyoung was the one who was sober enough to thanked him for helping Taeyeon.

“How many drinks did you guys have? You all look pretty drunk!” Jiyong had asked as he looked around the room to see that some of the girls had already passed out and others were doing some pretty crazy things that were hard to describe.

“Yeah, we were just relieving stress. I’m sorry that you have to see us in this state,” Sooyoung had apologized.

“No, it’s fine. This was supposed to happen so you can let everything out,” Jiyong had said. “I think it’s better if you go back now, it’s getting pretty late and you don’t want reporters to see you like this, right?”

“Yeah, our manager is on his way here,” Sooyoung had said.

He had bade her goodbye before leaving the room and went back to his room, where the rest of his crew were.

IT was a few days after when he received a text from an unknown number.

From: Unknown

Hi Jiyong sunbae, this is SNSD’s Taeyeon. I’ve heard of what happened a few days ago at the club. I’m so sorry about what happened!

From Jiyong sunbae

Hi, Taeyeon! It’s no problem!

Jiyong quickly saved the SNSD leader’s number to his phone.

From: Taeyeon

Still, I feel bad. Is there anything I can do to lessen my guilt?

Form: Jiyong Sunbae

It’s really okay but if you insist, maybe we can go for dinner? It’s on you though

From: Taeyeon

Dinner on me sounds good. Are you free tonight?

From: Jiyong sunbae

Yeah, which restaurant?

From: Taeyeon

What about Jung Shik Dang?

From: Jiyong sunbae

Fine dining? Huh, that’s so unexpected but I’m in!

From: Taeyeon

Alright, I’ll see you there at 7. I’ve booked us a table for two.

From: Jiyong sunbae

That’s great!

It was only 5 pm but because of excitement, Jiyong was already dressed up and ready to go. He went for the ‘gentleman’ look with a long-sleeved white shirt, a black trouser and dress shoes plus a black suit to complete the look. He had his black hair slicked to the back. He was checking himself in the mirror when someone suddenly barged into his apartment.

“Wow, where are you going this early?” Youngbae was taken aback when he saw his best friend all dressed up.

“A dinner date,” Jiyong grinned. “Why are you here?”

“I was about to ask you to go to the club, drinks will be on Seungri,” Youngbae said.

“I’m sorry I can’t go,” Jiyong said as he checked himself once again on the mirror.

“You can come later after your date, right?” Youngbae raised an eyebrow.

“Maybe, we’ll see later,” Jiyong said.

“Okay, just call me later. I’m going to pick Seunghyun and Daesung up at the office,” Youngbae said as he walked out of his apartment.

--------------------------------------------------

It was a couple of hours later when he found himself face to face with the SNSD leader, she had asked the restaurant manager to give them a private room so they could talk freely. It was awkward at first as the two of them weren’t really a good talker and were both very shy when meeting new people. But as time passed by, they’ve become closer and shared a lot of things to each other-not personal ones though.

“Taeyeon-ah, it’s been a great night!” Jiyong said as he sipped the last of his wine. “I had a great time with you.”

“Yeah, me too. Thanks for agreeing to come tonight. I’ve been felling very guilty about what happened that night,” Taeyeon sighed.

“I heard you and your group mates were having a pretty hard time?” Jiyong dared himself to ask.

“Yeah, something happened,” Taeyeon didn’t want to go into details and Jiyong respected that so he didn’t ask any further. He unconsciously reached out a hand towards hers and held it tightly.

“Whatever it is you’re going through, know that everything will be alright. Your groups will be stronger than ever when the hard time passes,” Jiyong assured her by squeezing her hand.

She looked up at him and for a minute there, it felt like the whole world stopped and he got lost in her eyes. For a moment, no words were said as they stared into each other’s eyes. Later on, Jiyong’s eyes traveled towards her nose and then her lip and he began studying her face, stamping it into his brain. He knew right then and there that he loved her already. You might think that it was impossible since they’ve only got to know each other for only a few hours but well, love is a crazy little thing, isn’t it?

All of these happened in the year 2014, when everything was hard for Taeyeon. First, she was bashed by her alleged boyfriend, EXO'S Byun Baekhyun’s hoard of fans when they weren’t even dating for real. They were used by SM to cover up a lot of issues going on in SM. Second, she and her group mates were blamed for Jessica’s leave from SNSD. It wasn’t fair because those who blamed them don’t even know the full story of what happened. Jiyong had stayed by her side through it all and loved her with all his heart but he played it cool.

Jiyong dared himself to confess to her in the early 2015, when things were so much better. She had told him she loved him too that night and he was the happiest guy on earth. They’ve been dating ever since then.

It’s now April of 2017, both Jiyong and Taeyeon were busy with their own things. They haven’t seen each other since January and it was killing him because he missed her too much. He was having a hard time recording for his solo album in his studio in YG when he decided it was time to take a break and go see his girlfriend. He called her up only to find out that she was busy practicing for her upcoming concert in Seoul and also her solo Asia tour. It’s a big step she’d be taking and he understood it well so he decided to pay her a visit.

The word ‘shock’ was an understatement when Jiyong walked into the lobby of SM Entertainment with boxes of food in his hands. The receptionist had a hard time replyin when he asked her of Taeyeon’s whereabouts. It took some time for Jiyong to understand the receptionist, thanks to Heechul, who suddenly showed up and told him where Taeyeon was. Heechul even helped to guide him over to her practice room.

“Thanks,” Jiyong high-fived Heechul as the Super Junior member walked away.

Jiyong peeked through the glass on the door and saw Taeyeon practicing very hard inside. It was a few minutes later when her manager walked out of the door and almost had a heart attack at the sight of Kwon Jiyong.

“Jiyong! Oh my God, I almost die of heart attack!” her manager complained as he held his chest. Jiyong laughed so hard he almost fell on to the floor. “Go inside, we are having an hour break before continuing.”

“Thanks,” Jiyong patted her manager’s shoulder before walking inside. Everyone was so busy that it almost made Jiyong dizzy as he walked towards Taeyeon. She didn’t see him coming because her back was facing him while she was talking to one of the dancers that Jiyong recognized as Kasper. Kasper was about to inform Taeyeon of Jiyong’s presence but Jiyong mouthed him to shut up so the dancer shut his mouth and pretended that nothing was going on.

Taeyeon yelped when he closed her eyes with his two hands from behind. Kasper quietly excused himself and walked out of the practice room and so did everyone when they noticed Jiyong’s presence.

“What the hell? What is this? Who are you?” Taeyeon tried to get his hands away from her eyes but he was stronger.

“It’s me,” he whispered into her ear before letting go. Taeyeon squealed before turning around to face him. She had this huge grin on her face as she looked into his brown orbs. “Hello beautiful, it’s been some time.”

She chuckled before tiptoeing to peck his lips. “I miss you, my handsome Jiyong.”

“Hey, I miss you too!” He pulled her into a hug.

“What’s that?” Taeyeon motioned towards the boxes of food he had dropped earlier on his feet.

“I’m here to deliver food for Ms. Kim Taeyeon. It’s from her boyfriend, he said Ms. Kim should eat more so that she’d gain energy to practice more,” Jiyong said playfully.

“Best boyfriend ever!” Taeyeon squatted down to check on the food.

He was happy to see her very enthusiastic about the food he bought. She pulled him to a corner of the room, where there was an empty table. She laid out all the food before sitting down beside him.

“Should I put on some songs before we eat?” Taeyeon asked as it was so quiet in the practice room. Everyone had walked out to give the two of them some privacy. Taeyeon connected her phone to the speaker in the practice room and pressed the ‘shuffle’ button. Unexpectedly, James Arthur’s ‘Say You Won’t Let Go’ began playing. She was about to press ‘next’ when Jiyong told him to just let it be and to start eating.

“Just let this song plays, I think this song is perfect at the moment since I have a confession to make,” Jiyong said as soon as Taeyeon sat back down on her seat.

“What confession?” Taeyeon asked in confusion.

“Just listen to the song, absorb the lyrics,” Jiyong said as he reached out his hand to her cheek.

“You know that my English isn’t that goo, right?”

“Liar, you are pretty good and you perfectly understood English!” Jiyong pinched his cheek lightly.

I met you in the dark, you lit me up
You made me feel as though I was enough
We danced the night away, we drank too much
I held your hair back when
You were throwing up

 

Then you smiled over your shoulder
For a minute, I was stone-cold sober
I pulled you closer to my chest
And you asked me to stay over
I said, I already told ya
I think that you should get some rest

 

I knew I loved you then
But you'd never know
'Cause I played it cool when I was scared of letting go
I know I needed you
But I never showed
But I wanna stay with you until we're grey and old
Just say you won't let go
Just say you won't let go

 

I'll wake you up with some breakfast in bed
I'll bring you coffee with a kiss on your head
And I'll take the kids to school
Wave them goodbye
And I'll thank my lucky stars for that night

 

When you looked over your shoulder
For a minute, I forget that I'm older
I wanna dance with you right now
Oh, and you look as beautiful as ever
And I swear that everyday you'll get better
You make me feel this way somehow

I'm so in love with you
And I hope you know

Darling your love is more than worth its weight in gold
We've come so far my dear
Look how we've grown
And I wanna stay with you until we're grey and old
Just say you won't let go
Just say you won't let go

 

I wanna live with you
Even when we're ghosts
'Cause you were always there for me when I needed you most

I'm gonna love you till
My lungs give out
I promise till death we part like in our vows

So I wrote this song for you, now everybody knows
'Cause now it's just you and me till we're grey and old
Just say you won't let go
Just say you won't let go

Just say you won't let go
Oh, just say you won't let go

 

The song had come to an end, and oddly, it began playing again. Turned out, Taeyeon had accidentally pressed the loop button so the song played again from the start. So Jiyong decided to speak up.

“This song perfectly described how I feel about you, you know,” Jiyong began as he played with his food.

“What do you mean?” Taeyeon shifted her attention towards Jiyong, her food suddenly became forgotten.

“When I met you, I was in the dark. I wasn’t able to produce any song back then and caused everyone to be very worried since BIGBANG needed a comeback. And then, I met you. At first, I didn’t know you were going to be this important to me. Then, you asked me out for a date. That night, I suddenly realized that I have fallen for you and I have loved you since then,” Jiyong finally confessed.

“You’ve loved me since then? Why didn’t you tell me this earlier?” Taeyeon reached out and intertwined her hand with his.

“I was afraid that you didn’t feel the same way and I was afraid of losing you,” Jiyong looked deeply into her eyes before continuing. “So I played it cool and didn’t even try to show it too much.”

“And you waited for a year to finally confess to me?” Taeyeon asked as she began making circles on the palm of his hand.

“Yeah, I actually wanted to confess when I was sure about your feelings for me but then Jessica happened and I thought there were just a lot of things going on in your life so I waited a bit more,” Jiyong smiled.

“Thank you,” Taeyeon said as she gave him a smile. “Thank you for being by my side ever since then.”

“That’s no problem. You know what,” Jiyong stood up from his seat and went towards Taeyeon’s side. He then pulled out a blue velvet box out of his pocket. “I’ll be by your side always, just promise me you won’t let go.

He took out the ring and offered it to her. “Jiyong, a-are you proposing?”

“No, this is a promise ring. I want you to promise me that you’ll wait for me. I want to marry you so bad right now but I still have to go for my military service soon and I don’t want to leave you alone so instead, I will give you this promise ring which mean that I will marry you as soon as I finished my military service and please just don’t let go of me. I’ve been picturing you in your wedding dress and then I picture that we’d have a huge house, three kids and dogs and oh, we’ll be the best family ever,” Jiyong smiled as he imagined it again. At this point, Taeyeon’s eyes got teary.

“Oh, Jiyong…” Taeyeon buried her head in the crook of his neck as she cried happy tears. Jiyong chuckled at his girlfriend being emotional and patted her back to calm her down. It was a very beautiful moment and little did they know that a few people have been watching them from a few meters away. These few people were none other than Taeyeon’d dysfunctional family, the SMTown members. Though not all of them were there but well, it was pretty crowded in the practice room.

“Hey, don’t cry,” Jiyong pulled away from her and wiped her tears with his thumbs. Taeyeon saw the crowd of people over her boyfriend’s shoulder and gasped in shock. “What?”

Jiyong then turned around just as the crowd of people began singing along to James Arthur. It wasn’t intentional, Wendy and Seulgi were the ones who started singing at first and then the others began joining.

Taeyeon buried her face in the crook of Jiyong’s neck again in embarrassment. Jiyong wrapped his arms around her and sang along to the song too. A few people suddenly barged in and caused a commotion as they rand towards the couple, with murderous looks. They suddenly began attacking Jiyong with punches and caused the couple to be confused.

“Aw, aw. Yah! That hurts! What the hell?” Jiyong said as he tried to protect Taeyeon so that she wouldn’t get hit by this barbarians.

“Who said you can propose to Taeyeon without permission, huh?” it was Sooyoung’s voice.

“That’s right! You have to get our permission first, oppa!” this time, it was Yoona.

“I DIDN’T PROPOSE! I ONLY MADE HER PROMISE TO NOT LET GO OF ME!” Jiyong bursted out and the girls stopped attacking him. The crowd of people had stopped singing and laughed instead as the romantic scene suddenly turned comedic.

“That’s the same thing!” Tiffany protested.

“YAH! You are all ruining our moment!” Taeyeon scolded as she galred at the girls. “Out now, everybody! I only have a few more minutes left to my break time and I want to be alone with my Jiyong.”

“My Jiyong? OMO,” Sunny said. Taeyeon told them to shut up and began pushing everybody out of the practice room. Jiyong chuckled as he watched Taeyeon struggling to get everybody out since she looked so cute. Once they were alone again, Taeyeon went back to Jiyong and hugged him.

“As I was saying, I’m never going to let you go, Jiyong. I will wait for you,” Taeyeon said as he leaned in to kiss her. The kiss lasted for a few minutes before her manager interrupted and told them that Taeyeon’s break time was over. Taeyeon groaned in annoyance and reluctantly let Jiyong go. Jiyong chuckled and ruffled her hair.

“When will your practice end?” Jiyong asked. She put her fingers up, 2. “Two hours? How about I wait for you and then we can go and maybe watch movies later?”

Taeyeon nodded in excitement before hopping towards her spot to continue her practice.

It was a wonderful day for the two lovers as they had made a promise that they won’t let go of each other.

END.

I'm literally cringing after writing this!! And I probably got diabetes because of too much sugar in this!

Anyways, I hope you liked it! You might find some part weird,please do forgive me!

I'm sorry for any grammatical or spelling mistake, I'll proof-read it again soon!

Please do let me know by commenting down below!

I'll see you soon.

Xoxo, PinkBlood09