Bec's POV

     I grab my phone and headphones and change into some workout clothing. My life is getting so chaotic right now I feel like my head is going to explode. I'm pretending to be in a relationship with Taemin, sort of, Minho has confessed to me and kissed me, and to make everything worse, Devon has come back. I thought that once the news calmed down about Taemin and I everything would slowly go back to normal, but nope. The universe hates me and brings in more trouble.

     I run aimlessly for at least an hour. I don't even notice how tired and thirsty I am until I stop at the park that's close by the dorm. I sit on a bench that I used to sit on in my trainee days. Parks bring back good and bad memories, but today is a day of stress so I don't have the energy to reflect.

     "B- Taehee?" I hear a voice say. I open my eyes and tilt my head to the side to see Jonghyun in disguise. I groan internally, but I give him a bright smile. I scoot over on the bench and beckon over to sit next to me.

     "How have you been, Jonghyun-ssi?" I ask politely.

     "I've been good, but the other members have been all weird, except for Key. Key is . . . Key." I crack a smile at that. Key is Key, I have to admit that.

     "That's concerning. I hope everything gets better soon. It would be horrible if something bad happened because of all the chaos happening in your dorm." I'm genuinely concerned, but I have a feeling that it's my fault for the chaos.

     "Thanks for your concern. I'm sure everything will turn out well in the end." He gives me a nice smile. "You know, Taehee, Taemin has been looking for you for a while."

     I look at the ground. I had a feeling that he would look for me after my phone call. "Oh, really? I called him earlier saying that I couldn't make our date this afternoon. Something had cOme up and I wouldn't have been able to make it."

     "Then what are you doing here? It doesn't seem like something came up. What's wrong Taehee?" 

     I want to tell him for some reason, but the less people know the better. It's already pretty bad having Minho know. Yuri I'm not that worried about, but I don't know her that well enough yet. "Nothing is wrong. I did lie to Taemin about something coming up, but only because I didn't really want pictures of me being taken. Even with disguises some people can see right through it."

Jonghyun's POV

     I look at Taehee while she's talking and I instantly know that she's lying. I want to call her out on it, but I want to give her her space since she seems to be stressed. After a stretch of silence I grab her wrist loosely and start dragging her. She doesn't try very hard to escape, and I know that she could've easily broken my hold.

     Along the way, I buy balloons, paper, a portable helium container (pretend those exist, cuz I don't know if they do), and a packet of pens. Taehee gives me weird looks when I was buying the stuff, but she didn't say anything. She seemed to be okay with weird behavior. I walk back to the park and we sit down on the bench again.

     "What are we doing Jonghyun?"

     "You'll see. This is a great way to relieve stress. Even if you don't admit it, I know that you're stressed or a lot of things are on your mind." I give her a wide smile, which she returns half-heartedly. I pull out a sheet of paper, write something on it and then roll it up. I then grab a balloon and start blowing it up. Part way through, and with difficulty, I put the rolled up piece of paper in the balloon. I finish and tie off the balloon so the balloon is floating with paper in it.

     "Now what I did was write what was stressing me out on the piece of paper and put it inside of the balloon. After a few moments you should let go of your balloon, and in a way, your stress." I give Taehee my balloon to hold and give her a piece of paper to write on. After she's done I make her balloon for her.

     We are holding each other's balloon. "Okay. On the count of three we'll let go together, okay?" She nods her head and I start counting down.

     3

     2

     1

     "Let go!!" We open our hands and watch silently as our balloons float up and out of sight. When I look at Taehee, she seems a bit more relaxed. She looks at me and gives me a very warm smile. "Thank you Jonghyun-ah. That really helped. You were right . . . I was stressed, but you helped me." She suddenly hugs me and says, "I'm glad we're friends and I'm glad you did this for me." 

      She unwraps her arms from around me and gets up. She brushes off the nonexistent dust on her pants and gives me another warm smile before turning around and walking back to her dorm. I sit on the bench with a smile on my face. I'm glad I'm able to help her.

     With a determined shake of the head to myself, I decide that I will be her shoulder to cry on. Her steady friend that will help her through all of her tough times. I will protect her like an older brother would.

Author's Note:

Wow, did you guys like this chapter? Sorry I haven't been updating much. I've been really busy with church activities. But I'm back, for now . . . I'll be some what leaving again on the 8. I promise that I'll try my best to update while I'm there, but I have no promises. 

Readers and Subscribers, thank you so much for reading and being patient with me!!!! I lvoe you guys so much!!!!! I hope you will continue being patient!!! I'm thinking of an idea for whenever I'm not around a computer and internet. I'm going to start writing another story, but I'll only be writing it on my phone, so that way I can write whenever, because I like writing this story and "After the Gunshot" on the computer. I don't know if that made sense . . . but oh well.

~HAPPY READING!