"Oh , is that you Jung Wheein-ssi?"

Taehyung's voice woke me up from my daydreaming. I hastily opened my eyes and turned around, only to find him stand right next to the bench, backpack hung on one shoulder and the outfit he wore to work today was still on. Taehyung looked all surprised to see me here, and so did I.

"Oh Taehyung-ssi?" - I exclaimed and pulled off the earphones hung loosely on my ears . - "Well, I was just passing by. . ."

"And you didn't tell me that you came here. . ." - Taehyung interjected, pouting as he took a step forward and sat down on the bench, right next to my seat. - "That's a bit selfish of you to enjoy the scene yourself, Wheein-ssi."

Having known Taehyung for a while, I had been getting used to his way of joking, just like how Hyojin's nagging became so predictable to me. Therefore, I just asked back and casually handed him a random candy I pulled out from my bag - I usually carried candies around just in case I needed an urgent dose of sugar.

"I thought you'd be home early today?"

Taehyung took the candy, unwrapped, threw it into his mouth and made chewing sound as he replied me.

"Plan cancelled. And this is my back up plan. But why are you here?"

"Just for a bit relaxation. . . And thinking."

"About. . .?"

"How we could increase the number of requests for the program."

"Oh come on, again?"

Taehyung sounded as if he couldn't believe I brought that stuff up even outside working hours. I nodded to him admittedly. It had been an ongoing problem to me, to which we had tried different methods to resolve but the situation kept stagnant.

"Listen" - He wiped a corner of his eyes with his index finger's knuckle and turned to me - "That's somehow beyond our control. We just gotta do best what we do."

"But honestly" - I admitted with a sigh - "It agonized me a lot. Like, people said they liked the show but they didn't send in requests. . ."

"You know it's natural of people to prefer things to be ready for them instead of working towards it."

I sighed again in response to his hard cold fact and leaned back on the bench, looking to the afar where the stars and the city lights blended together into a bokeh artwork. The scene was as breathtakingly beautiful and peaceful as usual, so suitable for a place to relax. I just couldn't lift those worries off my mind, though.

"I hate it. . ." - I kicked a small rock at the toe of my left boot flying. - "When people take things for granted."

"Understood."

"And speaking a bit selfishly, I hate it for affecting my performance appraisal."

"It won't if you set your indicators to be anything you can control." - Taehyung crossed his arms and slight shook his head - "And the number of requests ain't one of them."

"Oh yeah?"

"Well, that's the magic of understanding your scope of responsibility. I can. . . erm. . .tutor you on that if you want to."

He winked mischievously and that brief action just made my lip corners unconsciously curved up.

"Thanks."

"But above all, why caring about things out of your control? That's just. . . unnecessarily exhausting."

"I know. . . But can't help it."

"You'll learn to stop that thought somehow. I'm sure."

"You're even confident about that?"

"Geez. Is there any moment I am not confident?"

He shrugged and we then both made a funny series of actions, which was to look into the other's eyes, mouth pouting, body leaning to a side as if we had heard something cringy from the other and finally burst out laughing. I even gave Taehyung a few slaps on his shoulders as a bonus. He overreacted by rubbing his shoulder and hissing as if I hit him hard and that just made me crack up even more.

Well, that way of overreaction was another thing from Taehyung I also got used to beside his way of joking. Annoying it might sound, those overreaction and the innocent yet goofy expression he usually put on his face was somewhat cute to me. Perhaps because it made me laugh and temporarily forget all the bothersome thoughts. One way or another, it seemed to me that Taehyung possessed a magic, to motivate and cleared out all the depressing thoughts just by his effortless playfulness.

I was so proud of this little insight that I made a mental note to jot down an entry about Taehyung and his special power later on the the way home. Aside of carrying around candies, I also carried around notes on my phone, which contained my scribbles about lovely moments I stumbled upon in my course of life. It had worked as my source of positivity since I picked it up per Hyojin's advice. Once I did mention Taehyung when writing about my impression on the term serendipity at our first recording together but today would be the first time I had ever written about him himself.

"You know what, I've been considering this place my hideaway. . ." - Taehyung said as we strolled along the streets with skewers of spicy fish balls we grabbed after getting down from the pavilion. He tried to walk as slow as he could for his tall figure would allow him to completely outpace me. - "But it seems like I gotta share it with you now, huh?"

"I will call you the next time I want to go up here."

"Erm. . . Would that be a risk for this handsome face?"

He must be referring to the incident when I accidentally hit him on the face with my bag. But of course, I didn't mean to bring up that embarrassment.

"Nah. . ." - I made random in the air with the thin wooden skewer as if I was using a magic wand and the tip of the skewer finally pointed at him. - "It's just . . . I have a feeling that this place always reminds me of you."

"Is that supposed to be a good thing?"

He asked and I just smiled. Late autumn breeze was lightly ruffling his messy brown hair, frizzy strands of hair was glowing in the warm shades of lights from the stores we were passing by.

"If not, why do I bother coming here all over again?"

"Great. I want to ask more. . ." - He took a deep inhale of the cool air caressing our skin. - "But knowing that I'm doing something good for you is enough, I guess."

"That sounds too much philosophical, Taehyung-ssi."

My half-baked joke made him snicker. Swallowing the last piece of his fish balls skewer, he pulled a satisfied grin before going on with speaking.

"To paraphrase that, I assume you are happy being my friend, correct?"

I nodded without any hesitation. I was pretty confident about this response anyway, even though it might also sound too much philosophical.

"Yup. For someone without a lot of friends like me, I'm grateful to have you, Juyeon and Hongsol in my life. You guys could be upbeat, could be laid-back, could be at any tempo I expected. That's just. . . amazing for me. Just want us to be like this for very long."

"Just like this?"

Later on, when I finished my entry about Taehyung on my notes, I had to keep it buried deep down so that Taehyung would never know it existed. Otherwise, I would get totally embarrassed from his never ending teasing for me being so serious! Just like how he spoiled my emotional mood then as he looked at me suspiciously, nose wrinkling and waited for my gullible response.

"Yeah, any issue with that?"

"So you don't want Juyeonie and Hongsol to move any further?" - He exclaimed pathetically, as if he tried to squeeze all shades of disappointment in just a few words - "Oh my gosh, I'm so disappointed about you, Wheein-ssi!"

I deemed it as another joke from Taehyung. I couldn't ask Juyeon and Hongsol to move further, it was all up to them. What I could do was to nurture their relationship, just like how I, along with Hyejin and Byulyi helped Eric with his grand plan a few days later.

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