Chapter 10

Since You've Been Gone
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Taehyung drove around for about 15 minutes when Youra realised he was driving near her neighbourhood. She looked at him quizzically and he just shrugged.

She sank back down into her seat and wondered just what Taehyung had planned. It must be pretty good if Jackson gave it his approval but she still wanted to know what was going on.

Taehyung parked in front of a field and Youra quickly got out of the car, not bothering to wait for Taehyung to come and open the door for her. She looked over the car and gasped.

The swing set which they had first met at, which was in the middle of the field, was lit up with fairly lights and there was a picnic blanket laid down with a basket in the middle.

She had never walked to the swing set from this side before, she had always walked from the opposite side which was near her house. As she was about to walk towards the field, Taehyung came from behind her and held out his hand. She put her hand in his and he laced his fingers through before walking with her to the swing set.

“This is where I walked to the swing set from, my house is a couple blocks down the opposite way.” He jabbed his thumb behind them. “You’ve probably never come from this side before.”

“Yeah, it’s closer for me from the other side.” They got closer to the swing set and she could see the silhouette of a person. Her mind immediately thought of Namjoon, was that him?

The mystery person turned around and smiled at the two of them. It was Jinyoung.

“Dude, finally! You said you would be here 10 minutes ago. I was going to call you.” He turned to Youra and waved. “Hey.”

She blinked at him before waving back. Jinyoung chuckled at her surprised face.

Taehying patted his shoulder. “Sorry man, had a last minute stop to do. Thanks so much for waiting though. I owe you one.”

“It’s alright, maybe keep an eye out for a pretty girl for me. You too, Youra. Then I’ll consider your debt paid.”

The two of them chuckled and Taehyung nodded good-naturedly. Jinyoung waved to the pair before walking off.

Youra looked to Taehyung for an explanation and he smiled. “Jinyoung lives in one of the houses near the field. Jackson called him up and asked if he would do me a favour. He said he didn’t have anything to do tonight so he willingly came out and set up everything. I dropped the basket off at his house just before coming to yours.”

Youra sighed. “And to think when I told Jackson about you, he thought I was talking about Jinyoung.” They chuckled and Taehyung gestured for her to sit down. He sat down beside her and started pulling out sandwiches from the basket.

“I’m sorry we can’t have anything fancy. The only thing I’m good at making are sandwiches. Chicken’s cool, right?”

“Yeah, chicken’s great actually, thanks.” She took a sandwich from Taehyung. “And you don’t have to worry, sandwiches are perfect. This whole thing,” She gestured to the lights and basket. “is perfect.”

“I’m glad. I thought you would like this but I couldn’t be too sure. Good thing Jackson had my back.”

Youra peeled the saran wrap off her sandwich. “Sounds like something I would say.”

Taehyung smiled and took a bite out of his sandwich. “So in interest of keeping the flow of conversation steady, I thought we could play a little game of sorts.”

Youra swallowed a bite. “Is it a Kim brothers thing to get me to play games?”

Taehyung shrugged. “The Kim brothers find games to be the best way to get to know a person. I’m sure hyung’s mentioned that by now.”

Did you know Plato once said you can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation?

“Somewhat, yes.”

“So do you wanna play?”

“Sure, why not?”

He dusted his hands off and sat up. “It’s pretty simple really, we just ask each other what our favourites are.”

“Simple enough. Shall I start?”

He nodded. “Favourite colour?”

“Purple.”

Youra’s eyes lit up. “Mine too! My whole room is practically purple. Is there any specific reason why it’s your favourite?”

“I don’t know, it sounds sort of silly but I came up with this idea when I was a bit younger. I used to go around telling people I purpled them because purple is the last colour of the rainbow, so it means that I’ll trust and love them for a long time. Only when I grew up did I realise the last colour of the rainbow is violet, but it stuck. I still tell people I purple them.”

“Wow, you had pretty profound thoughts when you were younger, huh?”

“You could say that. My turn. Favourite song?”

“Rain Again Tomorrow by Epik High. Yours?”

“I have a few favourites, um ‘All of You’ by John Legend? That’s a pretty good one. So why Rain Again Tomorrow?”

“You know when someone tells you that things are going to be okay, many of the times we just brush them off because they have no idea what they’re talking about. They don’t know what we’re going through. But then I read about all the things Tablo, the leader of Epik High, has been through. He had a pretty hard life but now he’s come to the point where he’s happy and can truly tell people through his songs that everything’s gonna be okay. I love that thought, it means a lot coming from someone who’s fought and worked so hard to come to where he is. It’s inspiring.”

“Looks like I’m not the only one with profound thoughts. But yeah, I get what you mean. It just means so much more coming from someone who knows what they’re talking about as opposed to someone who doesn’t. They speak from experience.”

“Exactly! Okay, my turn now. Favourite food?”

“Probably hamburgers. You?”

“It’s a tie between KFC’s fried chicken and ice cream. I’d probably die before having to choose between the two.”

They went back and forth like that for a while, asking each other questions and explaining their answers as they got to know each other little by little.

“Okay then, I’d say this is the final question because it’s getting quite late. Favourite band?”

“SHINee! I love their music but my favourite non-kpop band is probably 5SOS. I think they sing really well.” She answered with a shine in her eyes, music and pop culture were some of her favourite things to talk about.

“Oh! Noona neomu yeppeo, micheo, replay replay replay.” Taehyung crooned SHINee’s debut song, well at least he attempted to, using his hand as a makeshift mic, making Youra laugh. “Fits pretty well for the occasion, don’t you think?” He moved closer and looked right into her eyes.

She shoved him away playfully. “I think you’re getting more and more brazen every time I see you.”

“I guess you just bring out the best in me then.” Taehyung quipped with a lazy and what seemed like a confident smile.

It always surprised her how he went from being incredibly shy to someone so bold.

“See, brazen I tell you, bra-” She was cut off by Taehyung’s lips on hers. She chuckled and Taehyung was on the verge of going insane. He wanted to take her all in, her words, her soft chuckles, the gentle touches on his cheeks, he wanted her all.

Youra closed her eyes and ran her hand through his hair, eliciting a small sigh from Taehyung’s lips. She shifted closer and placed a hand on his chest which he used one hand to squeeze, with their fingers intertwining again. He placed his other hand on her shoulder and gently slid it across, to her neck and took in the smooth texture of her skin.

It was like touching silk, it slid off his fingers and he was entranced by the sensation.

Youra placed her hand on his cheek and could feel his jawline right below, sharp and defining. She slid the back of her fingers down his jaw and she could feel him shiver from her touch. She decided to be more daring and slowly bit on his lower lip, making Taehyung gasp.

She slowly traced the outline of his parted lips, but made no further movement. Pleased with his reaction, she instead slowly pulled apart and whispered against his mouth, “It’s getting late, don’t you think?”

Taehyung did not want to open his eyes.

Because he knew if he did, he probably would finally go insane.

Just one look at her after feeling her tongue on his lips and her lips on his, and he knew he would be a goner.

Maybe if he just kept them closed, she would kiss him again.

But he knew that wasn’t likely to happen, so he slowly opened his eyes to a smiling Youra who brushed her lips against his for a brief second before moving away.

Looks like someone had picked up on how to be brazen too.

She looked at him, waiting for him to say something but he was too dazed to formulate words and actually string them into sentences.

He was just trying to figure out how to regulate his heartbeat again.

Youra playfully waved a hand in front of his eyes and he seemed to break out of his reverie. “Hmm?”

She shook her head and the corners of her lips twitched. “Nothing.” She started putting all the saran wrap they had unwrapped into the basket and stood up with the basket in her hand. Taehyung quickly followed and they stepped off the blanket so he could fold it up and put it inside.

Youra then worked on taking the fairy lights off despite Taehyung’s insisting that he could do it himself later. She didn’t mind, because as much as she loved

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MultiStanK
23-09-2020, and we delve deeper into You-Jin's friends. Fun times are coming along people!

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kit_kat_rat
#1
Chapter 29: to be fair I'd be just like Jackson. why you two so slow? stupid fools who get too caught up in their emotions and fail to notice the most obvious path XD
kit_kat_rat
#2
Chapter 28: hello I'm back! after a while of getting settled on new job and finishing off a new story that invaded my brain despite my attempts to take a break from writing I'm back to reading others' stories! I quite enjoyed this chapter, and felt a bit teary during Youra's conversation with Key. Definitely struck a few chords there. One thing, I noticed that Youra calls You-jin 'noona' but that's how a male refers to older woman. A female would refer to an older woman as 'unnie'. Unless this was intentional and was explained earlier in the story and I just forgot in which case you can ignore this XD
kit_kat_rat
#3
Chapter 26: i don't know how you manage to hold back to posting once I month. I tried that once and it did it work out and actually posted 3 chapter a day for a good while XD I just fear getting a backlog of unpublished chapters once I start a new story
kit_kat_rat
#4
Chapter 25: the trio interaction is so cute haha. Also they seriously need to fix their issue of not verbally expressing stuff and talking about their actions. Communication peeps come on. It will make the whole process a lot less stressful XD
kit_kat_rat
#5
Chapter 21: Oh my, that letter definitely brought tears to my eyes. I also had a pretty good suspicion of what happened to Namjoon, especially because of his parting words and his final gift to Youra and Taehyung was each other.
kit_kat_rat
#6
Chapter 19: Well, Mark ain't gonna be happy when he founds out that Youra does actually have a boyfriend now XD You reap what you sow I suppose
kit_kat_rat
#7
Chapter 18: My my, does Youra realise what she's feeling? Or is she just running away from her real emotions and going with what is thrown at her first? that won't do little lady, don't hurt poor innocent Taehyung XD
kit_kat_rat
#8
Chapter 14: hmmmm I have to say I'm not too sure of how I feel about Taehyung. He seems adorbs and all but kissing her out of the blue when you can't yet ascertain how she feels? Though that may be just my personal reaction since I personally am more of a "whatdoyouwanstayawayfromme" haha.

It might have been nicer to tease out all the emotional conflicts a bit more before letting it all explode to have a bigger impact. Because there is the Mark "what do i feel goddamnit" and jackson's "let's have fun yo" and Taehyung's hoobae crush, it might have been nicer to flesh them out individually more for the audience to get a better understanding of what they feel, so that there is a bigger build up.

Hope I don't come off too full of myself haha
kit_kat_rat
#9
Chapter 10: Man, the parents going off on holiday kinda pissed me off? Like don't you realise you should be spending more time with your kid? Especially after the sour note you left it at? I'm really not getting a good impression of the parents now haha
kit_kat_rat
#10
Chapter 8: Whew, this chapter took me on quite an emotional rollercoaster. I was a bit confused at first regarding the timeline of everything though, like when the sister died, how long it has been and how everything unfolded afterwards.