ROSIE’s POV

 

 

“It started to get colder outside,” Taekwoon said, huffing some steam with him. I muttered a low ‘thank you’ as he handed me a cup of warm latte, and went back focusing to a composition I’ve been working on.

 

“How’s it going?” Taekwoon asked.

“So-so.”

 

I heard him grunting as he threw himself to a couch behind my working desk, pretending not to notice his disappointment.

 

“You know what? When you said second date tonight, this is not what I was thinking about,” Taekwoon annoyedly nagged.

 

I almost burst out giggling, but I held back.

“Well, it’s my turn to plan out the second date, and you agreed anyway. So just lay back and enjoy. Not many people get to see me working like this.”

 

Taekwoon snort at this.

I sighed.

 

“Well, tell me your day, then. Where were you?”

I could see his faint reflection on the side of my iMac’s monitor, he was lying down completely on the sofa.

 

“Ugh.. went to practice boxing. Then to a car dealer. Then two radio shows. Then two online recording. 4 hours practice. One event. And now, a supposed second date,” he ended up with a long sigh.

“Car dealer?”

“Yeah. Planning to buy a new one.”

“What kind?”

“Secret.”

“Bah. Then how was the boxing went?”

“Tiring. The coach was cool. But I never knew it could be this tiring. I mean, I practice one set of moves the whole day.”

“No wonder your arms got even more muscular.”

“You think so?”

“Yep.”

 

 

I finished the last bit of my composition in another 30 minutes when I heard a slight, faint snore from behind. I turned around, and... turned out Taekwoon fell asleep.

 

I stood up and walked towards him, examining his figure, his pale complexion, his tired face, his hair that had already grew way longer than before. His luscious, pink lips that parted a little bit. I had a hard time resisting, but in the end, I couldn’t resist letting my fingers caressing his long, soft locks. As long as he snored, he wouldn’t notice, I thought.

I sat down on the floor next to the sofa, watching the sleeping face of the man I loved so much, I almost die for him. Literally.

He wore no makeup, and I thought maybe he already removed it, even though I knew he often went to events with nothing more than just BB cream. Even so, his pale skin seemed to glimmer in the dim lighting of my work room. He didn’t even take off his long, black coat and sleep in his full clothes. And then, I drown in the sight of his lips, and I couldn’t stop staring at it. God, I miss them so badly.

 

“Done inventarizing?” suddenly Taekwoon whispered.

“Wha—uff”

 

He pulled me closer, and he kissed my lips.

 

Finally.

 

Almost three, four months since the last time I had a taste of these glorious lips that he has. I could still sense his sleepiness in the first few moments, that he kissed me sloppily, yet lazy, but soon after he started pulling me closer, and he kissed me even more passionately. I his lower lips, asking him to open up, and he let me to explore his wet, lovely cavern as our tongue danced together. I almost forgot to breathe, as I could sense him ‘awake’, being more tense than before while placing his hand on my jaw.

 

How long have I missed this.

The bittersweet faint taste of his lips.

His scent.

Him.

 

 

It’s like our first kiss all-over again, but this time, it’s Taekwoon lying on the sofa, not me.

 

He suddenly broke the kiss, leaving me sighing.

“You know what?”

“Hmm?”

“This reminds me of our first time together,” he said, cupped my face with his hands.

“I was just thinking about the same thing.”

“Get up here.”

 

With such strength, Taekwoon lifted my body, and I was instantly on top of him, sitting on his pelvic area. But he didn’t seem to bother.

 

I rest both of my hand on his stomach lightly.

 

“You said... You wanted to re-create our memories,” I said.

“Yeah.”

“But...” I gagged on my own words, resulting in silence.

“But what?”

 

I sighed.

 

I have to let him know, anyway.

 

 

“Taekwoon... I’m not stable anymore.”

“Huh? What do you mean?” Taekwoon seemed surprised, yet confused, and he held both of my hands.

“I... When I was discharged... Doctor Shin told me, there’s a.. permanent impact on my emotional stability as a result of my depression.”

“And what is that?” Taekwoon grew impatient, as he raised his body, and finally sat up right next to me.

“I... I might be having a slight bipolar disorder, along with anxiety attacks.”

 

My guess was right, Taekwoon seemed to be shocked.

 

 

“But... Ever since we made up, you never seem to...”

“Hyperactive? Manic? Mood swings?”

“Yes.”

“That’s because I tried hard containing it... They prescribed so many medications that helped keeping the symptoms invisible to many. I had lots of activity everyday, physically exhausted until my body was left with zero energy to afford being extremely over-excited... So the brain damage resulted in overwhelming depressive state,” I explained, not even having the courage to look into Taekwoon’s eyes.

 

I was afraid of seeing rejection in those pointed, guarded eyes.

 

But what Taekwoon said next surprised me.

 

 

“Alright, so what can I do to help? What triggers it? I’ll try avoiding it.”

 

My jaw was dropped.

 

“You..?”

“Are going to help? Yes. I’ll help you with anything.” The way Taekwoon spoke was like he was confused as to why I was still asking if he was going to help or not.

 

Like it was obvious that he was going to help.

 

And at this moment, I prayed to God of how thankful I was to have this man.

 

“Well... I don’t actually know what triggers it yet.”

“Then, if that’s the case, I shall try to help making you feel comfortable all the time,” Taekwoon said, lightly, as he caressed my cheeks. “By the way, I’m going to go to China in two days time for a schedule, maybe for two-three days. Will you be okay?” he asked, worriedly.

 

“Yeah, sure. You have my number anyway.”

“So, I thought I’m going to give this before I go,” Taekwoon suddenly said, as he rummaged for something in his coat pocket.

 

I frowned. “What is it?”

 

And right at that time, he pulled out a silver, shiny, small present box from his pocket, and opened it.

A couple earrings. Platina, to be exact. The design was very simple, yet it glimmer oh-so-brightly under the dim lights of the room.

 

 

“Happy first anniversary,” Taekwoon calmly said, with a blank expression.

 

“Wh--?”

 

I honestly couldn’t respond. Not when he finally smiled, not even when he took off one of my usual titanium piercings on the upper part of my ear, and replaced it with the new platina earring. After that, he wore his own new piercing on his right ear.

 

This was not an engagement ring... but, given by Taekwoon, of all people, this could mean just as much.

 

Don’t cry. Don’t ruin the moment.. Don’t...

 

 

“I thought you might be forgetting the date, since you never even talked about it, so.. it’s my duty to remember,” he said, placing the box in my bag at the corner.

“Taekwoon—“

“It’s another mark, that you are mine,” he smirked, and kneeled in front of me, holding both of my hands.

 

I couldn’t think of any way to respond to him, and so I went down, and hugged him with all I had. I tried putting in so much emotions in the hug as Taekwoon hugged me back, even tighter.

 

“I love you,” I whispered.

“I love you more. Remember, you are mine.”

 

I nodded.

 

 

“Well, isn’t this a lovely moment,” suddenly a familiar voice was heard.

 

Taekwoon and I jolted awake at the sight of the person who entered the room all of the sudden.

 

 

 

 

 

 

LEO’s POV

 

 

 

“Sajang-nim,” I stuttered at the sudden sight.

 

CEO Hwang walked into our studio, with an unreadable expression lingered by cold aura about him. This was unusual for someone who used to be so welcoming, warm and loving towards us. I glanced at Rosie, and she was frozen on my right, her jaw dropped, with a fixed, shocked stare at CEO Hwang’s face.

 

It felt like a balloon suddenly burst inside my heart.

 

“How lovely. I thought I had warned you both to not seeing each other again.”

 

None of us had the strength to say anything, due to the anger that had sparked from each words fallen from CEO Hwang’s lips.

 

“Was all those scandals, those accidents not enough for you two? I worked damn hard covering both of your asses, yet here you are fooling around like a flock of pigeons. What else would you want to give a wind for now, huh? A threat to terminate both of your contracts were not enough, so what now, you want, say, humiliation?”

 

He was furious.

 

I still stared at Rosie. Her face had been hung down and I couldn’t see her clearly, so I didn’t know how she would respond.

 

But... I knew for sure what we had was real.

 

 

“Scandals happens when proofs were publicated, yet people decline the truth of it,” I burst out.

“What?! How dare you—“

“Please do forgive me, CEO-nim, but I believe that you had a misunderstanding as to what I have with Rosie was just some child’s play. It’s not.”

 

I could sense that Rosie was shocked as well. She finally lift her head and stared at me.

 

Also, the CEO was shocked. I knew it from his face.

And I continued.

 

“No matter how hard you try to separate us, we will always be back to be together, always. No matter what you would do to deny the facts, the truth will be out and soon people would know anyway. You saw us. Even through all those catastrophe, we united yet again. Do what you want...”

“Taekwoon!” Rosie held my right arm in fear. “Please don’t..”

“... We will always be back together. We did nothing wrong. Both of us are legitimate enough to be together. We are both adults with responsibility. And we have our fans on our side. So.. you are welcome to threaten us, threaten Rosie, deny everything. But the truth will eventually be out.”

 

 

That’s it. I’ve had enough.

 

 

“Taekwoon..” Rosie whispered weakly.

I look down to her tear-soaked face, cupped her cheeks.

“Everything will be fine,” I whispered.

 

CEO Hwang was clearly frustrated. He grit his teeth, and sat down on the couch. He ran his finger through his hair.

“Sit down, both of you,” he suddenly said.

 

We obeyed him, and sat on the floor facing him.

 

“I’ve had enough with this. Come on, Taekwoon-ie. Think clearly, don’t let your emotions affect your judgement. Do you think this is good enough reason to cause riot among netizens, say, if it went out?” he asked.

 

I nodded.

I got nothing to hide.

We caused no trouble, our groups are quite successful, and our fans are mature and calm enough to deal with problems before.

 

“I read the news regularly, CEO-nim,” suddenly Rosie spoke. “I have received less and less negative comments on my SNS nowadays, and people had cease interest on the rumours of our relationship, to be honest..”

“Two months ago, a representative from Dispatch came to me,” suddenly CEO Hwang cut her.

 

Oh this can’t be good.

 

“They gave me so many snaps of you two, even though it’s just proof-shots of your couple items. They gave me a copy of all their proofs about your relationship. And no, they hadn’t caught you two going out together at all. They also said, because the name of Jellyfish Entertainment was still clean and nice, and the fact that we treat our idols well were well-known, they didn’t want to set us into trouble. But they did said,” CEO Hwang looked directly into both of our eyes. “If, say, one day you two would come out publicly, Dispatch will... well, help to change the direction of netizen’s attraction to the positive side.”

 

 

None of us said anything about this.

So... should we come up with it, Dispatch, known as the best paparazzi in South Korea, would help keeping our names clean and free of trouble. But if we keep on denying everything... things might gone worse.

 

I actually knew what I wanted, as I have always had it in mind ever since I gave Rosie my ring.

 

I looked at Rosie. She was silent. But that stare... I knew she was thinking the same with me. Her mind was obviously busy.

We both came from newly-succesful groups. We still have a long way in front of us, and just to think about the consequences made me feel uncomfortable.

 

 

What if our fan number decreased?

What if our sales decreased?

What if we risk the goodness of our members by being selfish?

 

What if... both of our groups got drown..?

 

 

“We should have a meeting with all members of both of our groups.”

 

I was surprised when Rosie suddenly spoke her mind. CEO Hwang and I stared at her.

And yes, her old-time cool aura had oozed from her, again.

She’s back to her old self.

 

“CEO-nim, in my opinion, we both couldn’t answer this just based on our own opinion. We are also responsible of our groups’ wellbeing, despite of how much we would like to be together. Even so, me and my group’s dating-restriction contract is going to be expired this December. So, it’s best to first have a discussion between me, Taekwoon-sunbaenim, VIXX members and CALIGULA members on whether or not we should let our relationship be spread publicly. They deserve to know the truth. After that, then we could be sure of what to tell Dispatch, don’t you think?” she explained.

 

 

Oh, she got a point.

Our minds turned out to work alike.

 

 

I loved her even more, until I didn’t realize I smiled listening to her.

 

“Well, that’s a good way of thinking,” CEO Hwang sighed. “Taekwoon-ah, do you agree with her?”

“Always,” I said, holding Rosie’s cold hand. She didn’t smile, she just sighed, as if she was very nervous.

 

CEO Hwang examined both of us for a very long time, until he finally came up with something to say.

 

“Actually I was impressed knowing you two never get caught going out together, even though I couldn’t say if this is an act of responsibility, or just sheer good luck. But...”

 

He paused for a moment.

 

“Yes?”

“Convince me,” he finished.

“I’m sorry?”

 

CEO Hwang sighed, again, as he slowly stood up from his seat.

 

“Convince me, that what you have now isn’t just some temporary matter. If... we are going to make a big sacrifice, then, convince me, in every second, every minute as long as you are under this company,” he said, as he walked towards the door.

 

“CEO-nim...”

“I’m not taking this lightly. So, be careful with every step that you take. We’ll have the meeting tomorrow night. I’ll tell them to empty their schedule.”

 

And just about then, he left, closing the door behind him.

 

 

Right then and there, I pulled Rosie to my embrace.

 

“Finally,” she whispered.

“Finally.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CANDY FOR YOU GUYS.

EVERYONE DESERVES A HAPPY ENDING, ayt?? XD