“Sohyun-ah?”, Yeri called out to Sohyun who was staring at the dark sky through the window.

“Huh?”, startled, Sohyun responded.

“People are already sending in congratulatory messages on your discharge… but you’re still in the hospital room”, Yeri reminded her while dragging the trolley bag away.

“I’m coming…”, Sohyun said while making her way out of the room.

After checking out of the hospital, they were picked up in a car. While the manager drove the car, Sohyun and Yeri took the backseat with the luggage between them. The dark night sky, the faint street lights and the bright stop lights never managed to get Sohyun’s attention.

The phone call fiasco that occurred hours ago kept Yeri’s mouth shut through the entire 1-hour travel back home. And Sohyun stared into the blank space, with her consciousness fully dedicated to the phone that was held tightly in her hand. As they approached the destination, routine roads and familiar sights passed by her; by the time their car reached, the entire city silenced. Carrying the luggage on their own, Yeri and Sohyun got down and thanked the manager. “We’ll manage with the luggage… you need to hurry home, the entire city is almost asleep!”, Sohyun assured before sending off her manager. The weight of the luggage and the staircase in the patio demanded her strength and steady mind. The stable consciousness of her memory replayed a familiar sight that passed by her just a moment ago in the car around the street corner. When the luggage managed to enter the house, Sohyun took off in a different direction. Seeing Sohyun running away, Yeri who just took off her shoes, retracted and went after her. Worried about Sohyun’s condition, Yeri just took off without grabbing her phone.

Lifting her long skirt in one hand, Sohyun ran through the street as her eyes wandered every corner of the alley. Sohyun stopped at a few meters’ distance upon catching a familiar silhouette of a person, with his face covered in mask and hair under a cap.

Taehyung.

He waited behind a tree beside a lamp post to catch a glimpse of her condition and leave without a word. But when she saw through his camouflage and came for him, he was rendered speechless. He walked onto the road under the street light revealing himself before her.

The distance between them never vanished as they stood motionless. When their eyes met, the world came to still. There were no tears, no words, not a silence but just the pounding of their hearts and breathlessness from running.

The night was cold, but the buried emotions burned them. The words that struck his throat brought him pain.

Sohyun never closed the space between them. Forgetting the tunes of time, she stood puzzled, holding her skirt still, at the incomprehensible sensation that surged at the sight of him.

She waited for the words to take her insecurity away; he waited for her assurance to stay by his side. In the moment where the distance should be closed, they waited never taking a step closer.

They crossed miles and walked on the cold streets just to see each other… but inexplicable hesitation and the undefined expectations stopped them at just few steps away.

With a faint sad smile in the corner of his lips, he outstretched his arms for her embrace; defining his expectation; for her forgiveness, for her warmth and… for her love. Though he extended his arms, his eyes bore the fear of rejection and every second that went by while waiting for her took his breath away. Because it will take only a fraction of second to take a step back, but it will consume his lifetime to digest the rejection.

Sohyun’s eyes that stared at his outstretched arms; the eyes that looked at him clearly, suddenly blurred in its vision with tears. The dammed-up anger, frustration, anxiety and pain transformed into tears.

As she wondered, ‘Is it that easy to reconcile?’, she already quickened her steps towards him.

‘Is this a kind of illusion?’, he questioned the reality of her existence before him, while running towards her, impatiently, to receive her.

Just after the blink of eye, their arms wrapped each other tightly with their bodies meshed. With her face buried in his chest and his’ in her nape, her words, “I miss you” met with his confession, “I love you”. Uttered with just a single word of difference, their pain vanished; wounds of the past forgotten; doubts kept at the bay.

When the words she yearned to hear was spelled, the incessant agony that weighed her heart down turned into dust.

She, over his shoulders, is his warmth that not only expels cold but the fear of a tomorrow without her, as well.

Withdrawing from the hug, he cupped her face and pressed his lips against her forehead. After securing the forehead kiss for a second longer, he showered her with series of quick pecks over her cheeks, on the tip of her nose and chin. He leaned in for her lips but halted midway and looked at Sohyun whose eyes remained closed waiting for him. Sohyun opened her eyes when his hands that cupped her face left her cheeks. Worried over the future that awaits holding this history of pain for them, he gazed into her eyes and asked softly, “Are you sure about this?”

“Do you know how long it’s been since we met?”, she asked him.

Not sure of how he should consider her question as the answer to his’, he answered, “74 days…”

“Ask me why I asked you”

“Why?”, he followed her words without questioning it and without taking his eyes off her.

“I’ve been waiting for this kiss for 74 days… Now, I can’t wait another second!”

With a wide smile he welcomed her answer. His eyes scanned every inch on her face and his hand tucked her hair behind ears and slid behind her neck. Closing in, he tilted his head. Staying put, Sohyun pulled his shirt towards her pounding chest. Wanting this intimacy to last, her hands that held his shirt climbed up, ran through his hair and enveloped his neck. Wrapping her waist and pulling her in, his slightly parted lips closed and nibbled slowly savouring her lips. In respondence, she went ahead and gently his lower lip and backed off before she subtly traced his lower lip with tongue. While his eyes widened at her passionate smooch, she broke off for air. But the heat that lingered in his lips, the cold air that tingled him and her breathe that brushed his face, triggered him. He went for her lips again. With one hand around her waist and other supporting her head, he titled her head backward. Grabbing her tighter, he expressed his wish to devour her by and tugging on her lips. Alternating his tug between top and bottom lips, he tried to slip her the tongue. But she immediately backed out with a smirk, saying, “We are in the middle of the street!”

“Shall we go in?”, he uttered as his lips darted between her eyes and lips.

“I’m going in and… you’re going back…”, she whispered.

“Not a chance…”, he said while leaning in and wrapping her waist.

She drew back saying, “You’re drawing trouble… No is a No!”

“You devil!”, he muttered through clenched teeth.

“Huh?”, Sohyun asked though she clearly heard him.

“It’s not fair!”

“It’s called equity!”

“What-kitty?”

“Not kitty! EQUITY!”

He raised his brow as his irked mood didn’t allow him to process her words.

“Making you wait like you did to me is called equality, the quantitative balance… Giving you the frustrations like I experienced is called equity, the qualitative balance! Replacing equity with equality is the new trend!”, she explained with a poker smile.

“I understood nothing, but I can see that you’re trying to get back at me…”

She smiled innocently.

“So, I won’t get kissed for kissing… instead a slap?”

“Mm… Something like that!”, she chuckled.

“That’s an old melodrama!”

“What are you trying you say?”

“I’m saying that it’s not fair-”

She interrupted him, “Tell me…”, she started in a serious tone shedding all the playfulness, “Are you the type who can’t initiate the breakup… and push others to dump you by not giving them attention?” Her downcast eyes never looked at him in the eyes while the question was being spelt.

To the one who fends off serious atmosphere with jokes, she posed a question which when treated the same way will result in a serious rejection. He never knew, he never realized that he pushed her into such thoughts. His heart sank when she pronounced her insecurity. “Sohyun-ah, th-”

“People said-”, she cut in, “…men’s heart is like the colors that appear on the butterfly!”

He listened to her, engraving her every doubts and insecurities. And he waited for her to pour her bottled up emotions.

“My soul felt like being in a war…”, She spoke through her breath while trying her best to contain her voice within her composure. “You’re not in my emergency dialler! If I was ever in a pinch…”, she paused for a moment before she confessed, “I was afraid of the words, ‘I’m busy… I can’t come now’… So never told you about my admission in the hospital… More reasonable and acceptable those excuses sound, the more I’m afraid to hear it!” Fiddling with her fingers, she reluctantly asked, “If I had told you I’m in hospital, what would you have done?”

“Sohyun-ah…”, he called out her name to meet her eyes. He took her fiddling hands and placed it over his chest. He balled her hands to grab his shirt and said, “Throw a tantrum! Be stubborn, be persistent! Till this ire abates…. drain all your anger on me! You don’t have to be understanding, don’t have to be reasonable! Grab my shirt and shout at me! Even if you tore me into shreds, I’ll stay put… as long as you-”, he dropped his sentence midway.

The tears that she preserved in her eyes to not get squandered, ran down her cheeks at his words. Her hand that was grabbing his shirt, pulled him closer and she buried her tears in his chest.

As he kissed her head, “I might’ve forgotten myself in this busy schedule, but not a day passes without your remembrance…”, he spoke caressing her hair like a feather. “I was afraid that you will dissolve like a dream…”, he grabbed her head and pulled her closer in a hug, “I met an old man… at that moment, I felt that I just saw the future version of me…!”

As his words piqued her curiosity, Sohyun drew back from the hug and asked, “How was he?”

Looking into her curious eyes, he took his hand, cupped her face in his palm and caressed her cheeks with his thumb. In a gentle note, he said, “He was serene and stoic…”

“Those seems to be good adjectives…”

He gave her a sad smile unable to spell out the pain and agony that gets buried inside such adjectives and the love that exists in presence and even in absence.

“What happened?”, she asked with her eyes fixed on his hand that had few band aids on.

“Oh, this one!”, he lifted his hand, “In the duel between a cup and a table, the cup lost miserably!”

“You smashed the cup?”, Sohyun raised her brows.

“Aniya!!! The cup was fine in my hands until it encountered the table! So, it was the table that broke it… literally!”, he argued with innocent eyes.

“And those bandaids?”

“A collateral damage!”

Sohyun sighed, “You still-”

“How long should we pretend to be oblivious of Yeri’s presence?”, he cut in her sentence and diverted the subject.

Suddenly conscious of the surrounding, Sohyun exclaimed, “I totally forgot!”, she turned back and called out to Yeri who was behind a lean electric pole waiting to be noticed, “I’m coming!”

As she took a step away, Taehyung tugged her arm, saying, “Excuse me, am I being forgotten?”

She tiptoed and gave a peck on his lips saying, “Even if you forget yourself in busy schedule, I’ll remember you!” and walked towards Yeri.

“That’s gonna be in my song too!”, he uttered.

“Then, I need royalty… 50 percent!”, she said as she walked away.

“Sure… Anything for you!”

“I don’t need that fan service!”

“Meet me this weekend?”, he asked while she took her leave.

“Oh, yes!”, she replied promptly.

Not getting her sarcasm, he asked, “Where?”

“Jeju Island!”

“Huh?”

“Drama filming…”

“So, when?”

She raised her hand in the air and shrugged her shoulders.

“Are you giving me the emoji I hate the most?”, his amplified voice echoed.

Sohyun chuckled leaving Taehyung annoyed which soon turned into a delighted smile on seeing her perky steps.

The moment Taehyung stepped into their dorm, the staffs who went frenzy over his disappearance in the late night, were certainly not pleased with his behaviour.

“Where were you?”, though it was just a one person’s voice, he could hear the words resounding from every other staffs on the floor. “You gotta rumour on the side and you took off just like that? In the middle of this uproar, how did you even manage to escape the premises? Do you think it’s a child’s play? How can you not get the gravity of the situation? Bear the responsibility you have as a member of a team!”

“I managed to escape, thanks to the team”, he murmured to himself.

“What?”

“I know how heavy my shoulders are…”, he said, “I just needed some air…”, Taehyung’s later sentence brought out the giggles among the members.

On seeing the members reaction, “Were you smoking?”, the staff cried which flustered the manager.

“NO! NO! No, I needed just the oxygen!”

Suga interrupted asking, “Did you get it? The oxygen?”

“Before I could fill my lungs, this bodyguard ajusshi dragged me back!”, he said pointing towards the bodyguard who helped him with the escape.

“Good job, Mr. Lee!”, the staff praised him for the effort he didn’t take, but he was more struck with the word ‘ajusshi’

Receiving the appreciation with a forced smile, he bowed thanking them.

“I hope, you can assist him until the rumours die out… We can talk with the management for the reschedule of your work… only if you’re ok with it!”, the staff spoke which lit up Taehyung’s face.

Flustered by the offer and the ordeals that surrounds it, but unable to reject it, he said, “I’ll be happy to assist!”

“Beware, he might be needing oxygen often!”, Suga warned before the members retired to their room chortling.

While the taste of their meeting lingered, weeks rolled by. Taehyung was preparing for his new single album, while Sohyun’s drama filming and airing occurred simultaneously. With the drama gaining increased attention, Sohyun’s kiss scene made the top searches. People were taken aback by the kiss scenes and many wondered about her practise partner(boyfriend) and the possibilities of dating. The drama leads were shipped by majority who saw the drama. And Taehyung made the headlines when one of the idols mentioned Taehyung as her ideal type.

While the orange Autumn gave the new drama of Sohyun, the winter awaited Taehyung’s new solo album.

Once her filming ended, Sohyun was given the reward vacation. Since rejecting the vacation will raise the suspicions on the rumours with her co-star, she accepted the offer. The day before the vacation she met up with Taehyung. Being surrounded by such dating articles, they were on their toes. Taehyung suggested to meet up in the apartment in the outskirts of Seoul owned by his bodyguard which is not currently used by him.

Arriving at the almost empty apartment individually, they met up at his house. With the americano in their hand and snacks on the table, they took their seat on the couch with their knees facing each other.

“I’m sitting here in someone’s apartment whom I didn’t even get the chance to greet! I don’t want him to misunderstand me!”, she said fidgeting.

“He knows you are an angel… I do too”, he assured. “Have we come here before? It was the first time… and we had no choice. He scolded me for even asking him…” Sohyun nodded but her clouded mind and uneasiness never escaped his eyes, “What’s wrong? What’s bothering you, Sohyun-ah?”

“I’ve been lying too much…”

He nodded recollecting the articles full of direct and indirect questions about dating and her ideal type that have been constantly directed at her.

“I don’t like it…”, her worry laden voice conveyed her thoughts. In a low tone, she uttered, “What if it continues like this? What if … the people who love us with certain people begin to hate us for being together…”

“I understand, Sohyun-ah”, he said as he held her hand and his thumb never took a break from caressing her hand. After giving it a thought for a moment, he said, “You received an offer to host a music festival, right? When will the festival be?”

“Hmm… Mostly around winter?”

“I’ll try to wedge in… since my new album is coming out, I’ll use promotion of album as an excuse!”

“After that?”

“Secret!”

Hearing him, Sohyun uttered, “Things aren’t that easy!”

“Wanna bet?”, he challenged.

“Sure!”, she replied confidently. “What’s the wager?”

He gave a sly smirk at her question which gave her a last warning to take back her challenge.

Pic Credit: Instagram account @sohyunbtssss (I don't own the pic or the edit)

Author’s thoughts:

Hello! Long-time no update… I’m sorry for the delay… Lots of things were going on, so I couldn’t finish the chapter on time. I kindly ask for your understanding. This chapter was supposed to hold many things… sorry for shortening this chapter. Thank you so much for reading.

Next chapter update will take more than a week. I’m really sorry about this.

Hope you have a great day :) See you later :)

Just wanted to share this pic with you (a friend of mine who loves horror genre sent it to me)

Asking me the reason for sharing it with you?

Just because ;)