“Are you crying?”, Taehyung asked tenderly after realizing the kiss cheek on Sohyun’s cheek has brought her to tears. He was so sure that she felt the chemistry between them like he did but her tears questioned it. “Why are you crying?”

“I’ve been waiti-“, she discontinued her sentence and resumed with, “It’s been a year… Am I visible to you only after you’ve been dragged here again? Am I a complimentary gift that comes with your three months’ vacation?”

“Were you crying to profess your love to me?”, he asked her and held her hand.

“Don’t touch me!”, she said as pulled her hand back from his hold.

He grabbed her hand again and puller her towards him. His gaze was gentle on her.

“Did you stay here for me? Or Did you choose me for passing your time here?”, she shot her insecurities through her questions.

He closed in, and wrapped his arms around her waist saying, “I chose you as my reason for staying here… you are the only reaso-”

“ok, I understand”, she cut in his words to escape from the proximity and pulled back saying, “I have some conditions to be in a relationship, only if you accep-”

He pulled her embraced her in a tight hug thus, interrupting her conversation, upon understanding that it’s a ‘yes’ from her.

“What’s happening here?!”, Hwayoung who just entered the room exclaimed on finding them hugging.

They broke their hug stood with their heads held down in embarrassment.

“It has just been 2 minutes since I left you two alone… and… You two are already…”, Hwayoung said with incredulity. “Leave here… now!”, she told him.

He silently walked out into the hallway.

Before he could vanish from her sight, Sohyun asked, “Will I see you after this night or after a year?”

He turned around; rushed to her and wrapped her in his arms to convey his answer.

Hwayoung flustered and tapped on them, “I’ll get in trouble if someone finds you two like this… Please leave…”, she pleaded.

As they drew back from their hug, Hwayoung sighed in relief.

When he turned around to take his leave in dejection, Sohyun stopped him by grabbing on to his sleeve. He faced her with a wide grin and soon they found themselves in an embrace again.

Hwayoung perplexed at the sight, and cried, “My goodness! What’s this?! Let go of each other… you can meet again tomorrow…”, they didn’t bat an eye. “I’m calling the warden…”, she threatened but received a sharp stare from Taehyung who refused to break free from the hug.

“I still have a year to go… So, let me finish my masters peacefully….”, Hwayoung pleaded.

As her words reached Sohyun’s ears, she tapped on his arm to let go of her. He reluctantly let go of her and took his leave making tardy steps. Leaving a smile on Sohyun and a sigh of relief on Hwayoung, he got back holding a contented smile on his face.

Two months passed by with hugs and pecks; fights and fits; long phone conversations which lasted all night and small fights which never lasted for more than a day. Though those fights never lasted longer, they’d have lot of ego about who should speak first. She waited and waited that he would give in, but it was her who ultimately reached out to him. But, when she came close, his ego will get crushed by her fragrance of love with just a simple gaze.

Love, hesitates but holds on!

“Are you nuts?”, Kim Yeri reprimanded Sohyun. Clearly, disclosure of recent happenings with Taehyung didn’t get on her good side. “Just a year ago, he….”, she sighed recollecting the nightmare, “and, you just briefly met him and hardly know him!!!”, she expressed her disapproval, “Are you crazy?”

“I guess so”, Sohyun answered with cheeky smile.

“Get your acts together!”, Yeri snapped at her, “You have an audition to prepare for… I really hope it’s still in the top of your priority list…”

She hummed.

Yeri sighed again, “He is a trainee… You’re applying for audition… Can you understand what I’m trying to say?”

She hummed again.

Her despondence infuriated Yeri. “You-”, her lecture was interrupted by a Sohyun’s ringtone.

Sohyun looked at her phone and back at Yeri with pleading look.

“Is it him?”, Yeri asked infuriated.

“He is waiting for me downstairs…”

“You gave him my address?”, her voice erupted.

“He dropped me here…”, she said with a sheepish smile, “Shall I go?”

“Does my answer really matter? What if I say no?”

“If it’s a no, then I won’t go…”

Yeri looked at her surprised and a second later, a delighted smile appeared on her face, “Go… be careful!”, she gave her reply.

Sohyun grinned at her response and gathered her things to go downstairs.

“Remember me when your tear slips…”, Yeri gave her words.

Her words made Sohyun emotional. She hugged Yeri tightly before bidding goodbye.

Taehyung who was sitting on the motorbike waiting for her, saw her running towards him and he welcomed her with a wide smile. Handing over her helmet, he said, “When I saw you running towards me… the feels I got was…”

She slapped his arm to stop him from sprouting nonsense and got on the bike asking, “Where are you taking me?”

“To help you study…”

She grimaced saying, “While others go out to beach and movies… You’re taking me to study…”

“We’re going to beach… and to study…”, he said smiling.

Wrapping her arms around his torso, she hummed delightedly, “Ok, then”

Carrying her shoes in one hand and clasping the other one with him, she walked along the sand coast which was nearly empty with only few heads. When a ball accidently hit Sohyun’s arm making her to let of his’, he cussed at the person, “What the f-”, but dropped midway when he felt her stare.

She took the ball which fell at her feet and threw it back to the couple who were playing with it. They received the ball after giving them a sincere apology. As soon as they left, Sohyun looked at Taehyung asking, “What the… what?”

He knew, her question is to remind him that she hates curse words, “I said ‘what the fire truck’”, he tried his luck with a bizarre word.

“Fire truck?!”

“Yeah… that F word is fire truck… When you’re stressed, the words come out all wrong!”, he tried his best to stand on his point.

She chuckled.

“By the way, they look like newlyweds…”, he diverted the topic.

She bought it, “They look pretty and very happy together…”, she said looking at them.

“It’ll be fun for a while Hunky-dory…”, he said smirking.

“Wedding and honeymoon”

“The hugs and kisses…”

“Love…”, she said softly while grinning.

“Lust…”, he said softly smirking.

She hummed agreeing. “Definitely…”, she said and stared at him saying, “Now, take your hands off…”

“Oh! Sorry”, he said but his hand didn’t take rest from enveloping her waist.

“What’s the use of saying sorry… your hands are still on me….”

“Sorry…”, he said leaning in, “My hands aren’t listening to me…”.

“Someone said we are her to study…”

“Breathing is a paramount factor in singing… So, I’m observing yours to-”, his voice silenced as he closed in.

“If you move in any closer, then it’s a problem…”

“Problem for who?”, he asked as he tilted his head to kiss her in the lips.

She chuckled and drew back, saying, “For both of us-”. Before she could finish her sentence, a big wave drenched them.

He shut his eyes tightly while clenching his teeth to deal with the anger on the waves that created a fiasco out of his kiss and mess out his clothes.

The very sight of him controlling his temper brought laughter.

“You knew about that approaching wave, right? Come here…”, he said holding a sly smile while approaching her.

She pushed him away making him stumble and fall on the shore. He rolled over and grabbed her ankle to prevent her from running away. As she lost her balance, he pulled her in making her fall over him. He caught her on him and secured her position by embracing her tightly. Not comfortable with her position where her body is tightly held against his and her face just an inch away from his, she wriggled her way out in vain.

“Stay still…”, he said sternly. He titled his head again to kiss her. When she closed her eyes to receive it, he brushed the tip of his nose against hers’.

At the brush of his nose, she opened her eyes and stood up in embarrassment.

Catching onto her embarrassment, “We need to change into some dry clothes…”, he said. The night fell as they rode on the bike with wet clothes. The cold air didn’t help with the drying instead it sent shivers. Worrying about ‘his responsibility’, he pulled over near a hotel saying, “We are staying here…”

When Sohyun gave him a dubious look, he said, “Don’t worry… Hwayoung’s brother is managing this hotel…”. When he realized that her look didn’t fade away, he asked, “what?”

“It has been two months since we started dating… but-”, she hesitated to continue her sentence.

He nodded, “Yeah… So?”, he asked innocently.

His innocent look made Sohyun to feel guilty of her thoughts, ‘May be… he didn’t mean this in that sense…”

As she waited in the lobby, he came back with only one room card.

‘May be… there are two bedrooms…’, she walked with him silently. On entering the room, she found that there was only one bed and took a step back and his eyes caught that.

“I didn’t bring you here with that intention…”, he said in a serious tone which had major proportion of anger. “We can only afford one room… I’m running on pocket money from my father and I can’t use the credit or debit card given by my agency… I don’t want you to spend the money on this…”

she asked, “Can you promise to behave while sharing the same bedroom with me?”

“No way!”, he confessed without giving it a thought, “I’ll sleep on the couch with the room divider…”

“Do you think I can behave?”, she asked slyly.

“Can you?”, he asked expectantly.

“Sure”, she answered casually.

He sighed saying, “what an anti-! What if you change your mind?”

“That won’t happen…”, she said resolutely.

“Why not? An unexplored space, a brand-new moment, your hesitant words… seems plausible…”

“You are the person with a lot of flirting after a simple hello, aren’t you? So much and so soon…”

“What don’t you like? Is it my gaze, flirting or me?”

“Who says I don’t? But to save your breath, I’m saying again, this won’t work”

“My heart seems to say otherwise?”

“I may not be a doctor, but I know, hearts don’t speak…”

“What would convince you?”

“Mmm…”, she paused for a thought, “After you achieved great feats, and everything seems like a pit because you’re standing on a peak… even being in that euphoria, if your heart still feels the same for me, then… I will be convinced”

“Tall order!”

“Then, it’ll be very difficult to convince me…”

“If you had a change of heart-”

She cut in saying, “No thanks”, and covered herself with blanket to sleep. “Good night!”

““If you say so…”, he said giving up. “Good night, my pleasure!”, he closed his eyes after switching off the lights.

After few minutes of darkness, her wide-awake eyes adjusted to the night, “Fate, serendipity, destiny… do you believe in them?”

“Sleep!”, he said without giving her an answer.

The curtains curtailed the morning light from being poured on them, somehow, they got up before the alarm could sound.

As she hopped on the pillion, she confessed, “I didn’t sleep a wink last night!” and put on her helmet.

He immediately took off his helmet his helmet and turned his head to face her, answering, “Me neither!”

“Really?”, her eyes widened.

He smiled at her sincere question of confirmation and stared into her eyes. As the gaze lasted a second longer, he hastily took off her helmet after releasing the chin strap. He slid his palm over her face and gently brushed his lips against hers. Their proximity never broke, and they closed their eyes as they tried to align their faces. While he positioned her upper lip between his lips, his hands rested on her neck and his thumb rubbed along her jaw. In an instant, they stole each other’s lips while locking it dearly. After the kiss which lasted for a few moments longer, they let go of their proximity hesitantly and self-consciousness knocked in sneakily bringing the rosy tint on their cheeks.

When they entered the campus riding the bike, a few girls who were enjoying their stroll walked blocking the road. He slowed down to make time for them to clear the road. When they were too engrossed in their talking to be aware of a bike behind them, he honked continuously which lasted longer than the seconds he waited. As they stood frozen startled by the horn, he overtook them and stopped while shouting, “If you wanna die, walk blocking the road again! MOVE AWAY!” Sohyun slapped his arm, “Don’t say that!”

He didn’t say anything further to them and took off silently abiding to her stare.

After she got down by her dorm, to his angry scrunched up face, she said, “It was the best day ever!”

Hearing her words brought smile to his lips. “You have a class in the afternoon, right? Take rest…”, he said.

One of the guys in the gang who was passing by them, on hearing his words, he said, “Take rest in the morning? What did they do all night?”

Taehyung clenched his teeth and looked at them with a piercing stare.

“Don’t mind them, Tae…”, she said.

“Tae?”

Her words managed to grab his attention back. “Taehyung or V… both feels distant…”, she said.

He smiled saying, “I’ll meet you here in the afternoon… before you leave for your class…”

“Hmm…”, she said and took her leave.

Before he left her dorm, he turned his head to look at those guys and registered their faces.

Later in the afternoon, when he walked her to the classroom, he saw those guys again. On seeing Sohyun and Taehyung together again, they shouted, “Guess… she couldn’t take rest after all…” Though Sohyun didn’t hear them clearly, Taehyung did. When turned his head towards them, Sohyun asked, “What happened?”

He shook his head, “Nothing…” and feigned a smile.

After sending her, he called Jimin and asked him a favour and then, he marched towards them tightening his fist. “Wanna go for a match?”, he asked with a sly smirk. Realizing the reason behind his invite, they smirked back and accepted the challenge.

Taehyung arrived at the basketball court before them and met Jimin. Taehyung asked, “Managed to find any info on them?”

“Just some troublemakers with backups to cover their troubles… So, safe to play…”, Jimin assured clearly understanding the intention behind this match. “I found some good players too…”

Taehyung looked at his team players and said, “They look spirited!”

“Of course! Everyone has a past with those troublemakers… especially that number 11, they gave a really hard time to his girlfriend…”

The match started and soon a fight broke out with a foul serving the purspose. He released his rage through his fists and landed heavy punches on the guy who commented. Soon, crowd gathered to witness the fight. When those guys lost their rage, strength and energy to fight back, Taehyung called out, “Number 11!”

“Yea sunbaenim!”, he answered.

“What’s your name?”

“Song Hyung Seok- nimida!”

“Hyung Seok-ah… hit him!”

He hesitated, “I’m not good at it…”

“I’m not asking you to hit them hard, I’m asking you to vent out your anger and frustrations from all that hard time-”

The second he said it, Hyung Seok landed a punch on one of those guys.

“It’s not good to keep in your frustrations… throw it all!”, Taehyung shouted.

The people who were gathered cheered for him and he punched him again with all his might.

Before things got worse, Jimin interfered, “Ok! Let’s stop… he is already regretting…”, he told the crowd and asked those guys in an amplified tone, “Aren’t you sorry?”

They went on their knees and apologised.

 After their apologies, the crowd dispersed after giving an applause. As the crowd cleared, Jimin saw Sohyun standing with worried look on her face on witnessing Taehyung’s fight. Jimin nudged Taehyung saying, “Sohyun is here…”

“What?”, his eyes widened and wandered in search of her. And he found her not pleased by his act.

“All the best”, Jimin whispered to Taehyung, as he took his leave.

Taehyung looked at her innocently and touched his bruised cheek to explicitly show that he is injured.

“Do you consider yourself as a legend, seeing others cheering and applauding for you?”, her words sounded strict.

“It’s better to beat up rather getting beaten up, right?”

“I’m scared about you behaving ruthlessly for every damn thing…”

“It’s because of this age… It’ll be fine with time”

“Keep in mind that you’re still a trainee… Watch your actions…”

He hummed like a student being reprimanded by his teacher.

“If you’re being like this… I don’t think I can introduce you to my mom…”, she said.

“As?”

“As my life partner…”

He stood stunned

“You don’t want to?”, she asked, “It’s alright, let’s-”

“I do, I do, I do!”, he said promptly.

“You do what?”, she .

“I do want to marry you…”, he said with a cheeky smile.

His words took her back, “Marriage?”, she hummed for a second to give it a thought, “Like I said before… even after achieving great feats, and when everything seems like a downfall because you’re standing on a peak... That is… if you could still say that even while you’re living your dream career, then I’ll consider that seriously…”

“Hey! I’m not like other guys… Even if I become a world-renowned artist, I will take care of you, nicely, gently, lovingly…”, he listed the adjectives while grinning from ear to ear.

“You’ll take care of me… But, will I be able to take care of you? What if I fall out of love?”

“I don’t understand… how does one fall out of love?”, he asked clearly irked by that question.

“It was a hypothetical question! What’s in it to get angry at?”, she said angrily and walked away.

He caught up to her and said, “Don’t worry, with a heist secret plan, I will take you away and will make you fall for me… like before!”

Sohyun chuckled saying, “I came to find you coz, I want to introduce you to someone…”

“Ok, let’s go and meet that person…”, he said.

“Not like this…”, she said pointing out his shirt which was drenched in sweat.

“Who are we meeting?!”

“Someone important…”, she whispered.

He smirked and said in whispers, “Just give me ten minutes…”

“Take twenty and meet me in the visitor’s room…”

As he nodded agreeing, she took her leave. After taking few steps, she turned around to catch a glimpse of him leaving. But she was surprised to find him looking her way without moving an inch. She threw him a smile before she walked away.

She rushed to the visitor’s room to welcome the person who has been her moral support through all her years on earth.

“You came back!!!!!”, Sohyun exclaimed as she ran towards him with open arms to hug him.

He smiled widely, but drew back saying, “I came here straight from my travel… Haven’t washed myself yet!”

“What’s the rush? And since when did you become mindful of hygiene?”, she wondered. “By the way, you still got two more months left in your fellowship, why did you come? Anything happened? Did you miss me?”

“I visited your house in Gyeonggi-do, during my weekend… Your mom allowed me to stay in your room…”

Hearing the known information and irrelevant answers, Sohyun said, “Don’t beat around the bush”

“During my stay in your room, I found your personal dairy… accidentally”

Flustered by the disclosure, she stood dumbfounded.

“I read it… not accidentally, out of curiosity, intentionally. I’m sorry…”

She stayed silent, but his words never failed to pique her anger. But, what that mattered to her the most was the lines that she wrote heartfelt and were still fresh in her memories. Those lines which she never wanted him or anyone to read, ‘In middle school, my friends always told me that I look at ‘HIM’ differently, but I never gave it a thought. But now I am in High school and I realized what my friends meant… It’s not that the way I looked at him changed but, it’s that I looked at him differently. But I realized it too late. He already got a girlfriend! But-’

“Every time I saw him, I screamed silently ‘I like you, Kwak Dongyeon’”, he recited that one line from her dairy and said, “Sohyun-ah, actually I-” A loud bang on the door, demanded their attention. And their eyes fell on Taehyung who stood exasperated with his fist still in contact with the door.

Author’s thoughts:

Hello! How are you doing? Hope you’re giving your best! We’ve few more chapters to go… * ‘how much more?’- I don’t know* Thank you for reading this chapter! Meet you again with a new chapter :) Have a great day :)

Pic credits: I don’t own any pics *I wish I could*. They belong with their rightful owners! Credits goes to them!