Maya

Me:
How's Areum now?

Me:
Did she wake up and eat something?

Jang-Mi:
She did. She woke up earlier and had some soup.

Jang-Mi:
I haven't yet talked about anything after that. She hasn't asked much as well.

Jang-Mi:
She's playing with our neighbor's kid now.

Me:
Okay. Take care.

Jang-Mi:
I will. Thank you.

Putting my phone aside, I walk into my bedroom. Taehyung washed up and fell asleep as soon as we reached home, and after doing the dishes and being on my own for a bit, I have decided to relax in the bath for a while and then go to bed.

I pick out a change of clothes and leave them on the bed before heading to the bathroom with a large glass of wine, softly shutting the door behind me so as not to disturb Taehyung's precious sleep.

After filling the bath with warm water and adding the bath milk, I strip and step into the water, allowing every muscle in my body to relax in an instant.

Leaning the back of my neck against the curve of the bathtub, I pick up my glass of wine and take a sip out of it while my mind keeps going back to Areum, and how I could help her ease with me.

Right now, that seems like a distant reality, like a mirage.

My mind keeps wandering restlessly, and among the other random thoughts, I also think about converting the spare bedroom into a kid's bedroom for her to use whenever she'd be here, but that wouldn't probably happen anytime soon. Yet, it's not wrong to be ready.

We also have to think about where we would all live, even though that's something that can surely wait until she comes to terms with the changes in her life. I don't want to rush into anything and scar her for life.

I tilt my head back and allow my eyes to close after I take another sip of wine, and just then the bathroom door clicks open, as do my eyes.

Taehyung walks in with his puffy eyes and bed head, and he goes down on his knees once he gets close to the bathtub, bringing a big smile to my face.

"Hey," his hand comes around to tenderly stroke my jaw and cheek while his eyes scan the bath and then return to my eyes as he gently leans forward and allows our lips to meet in a slow and sensual kiss, our eyes closing on their own accord.

The ways his lips move against mine is firm, yet delicate, and it feels so different from every other kiss we've ever shared in these past few months, or at least that's what my heart tells me. Tonight's kiss is one where I can put aside everything and everyone else and proudly claim that Taehyung is mine, only mine.

I push myself closer to the edge of the tub while my hand caresses the spot below his ear and glides to the back of his neck, my fingers tangling inside his soft locks and taking hold of a fistful.

Leaning back from the kiss, our eyes open and our gazes stay locked as I slowly rest my back against the bathtub.

"I want to join you," Taehyung's fingers crawl along my wet arm that's resting on the edge of the bathtub, and his sensual, deep voice rings in my ear, making my body react by sprouting goosebumps all over.

"Only if you promise to let me wear something afterwards," I whisper as his fingers intertwine with mine, his powerful eyes not moving an inch from mine for even a brief while.

"Okay," he agrees, smirking and then licking his lips after a few seconds during which something definitely seemed to have been cooking within his head.

Taehyung stands up from the floor and lifts his T-shirt off his body and tosses it on the sink counter, pushing his hair off his forehead thereafter. Holding our gazes, he pulls down his shorts and steps over it to step into the bathtub.

He leans against the opposite edge of the bathtub and places his legs on either side of my body, his hands softly stroking my feet and legs that rest over his thighs and beside his hips on either side.

"Come closer," he invites me to occupy the space between his thighs, and I crawl over towards him, comforting my body against him, with my head leaned back against his shoulder.

Taehyung's arms wrap around my waist as he places soft kisses along the side of my neck, the sound of his breathing seemingly awakening something within me; the uniform rhythm of the rise and fall of his chest making me relax in his hold.

Exhaling softly, Taehyung leans his head back against the curve of the bathtub.
"I'm worried about Areum. She has never cried so hard for anything," he speaks worriedly.

"It is something she must have never imagined. But I talked to Jang-Mi a while ago. She woke up and had light food and she's playing now, hasn't spoken anything about the separation yet," I explain, leaning back against his body.

"It will be hardest to answer her questions at bedtime," Taehyung breathes out in an exhausted manner and straightens up while I only hum in response to his concern because, again, I don't have any power to alleviate his worry right now.

"Maya," he whispers against my ear. "But everything aside, I feel so light right now. I'm a happy man tonight," his lips meet the shell of my ear in a soft kiss, and he exhales slowly, the steady beats of his heart now vibrating against my back.

"Hearing that makes me happy, Taehyung," I offer soft squeezes to his thighs with both my hands.

"I was a little nervous when I went in this morning, and it wasn't easy... My mind was so troubled. Like... I knew that this was what I wanted, but it was hard," he speaks ever so gently.

"I can understand, Taehyung..." my voice comes out much softer too as my hands delicately stroke his thighs.

"But do you know what helped me relax and stay strong?" His fingers tenderly move aside some strands of hair beside my ear.

He doesn't wait for my answer, and he continues to speak.

"I haven't yet told you the best memory of my life so far. Do you want to know what it is, Maya?" Taehyung asks me when I turn my head a little to meet his eyes.

"Yes," I answer softly, and his lips stretch into a smile that makes my heart leap a little.

"You," he continues, "you're the best memory of my life, Maya. The day I first met you, and the way you smiled at me... everything is still so fresh in my mind, just like it all happened yesterday," his eyes turn glossy as he speaks, as do mine.

"I feel so lucky to have you in my life, Taehyung," I turn around a little more to sit facing him.

"Thank you, Maya. Thank you for trusting me, loving me, helping me feel comfortable in opening up about my feelings, and thank you for being with me. I'm so flawed, but you really bring out the best in me. I could say this all my life... thank you for everything," his eyes stay glued to mine as he pours out his love through his words, and then he tilts his head to connect our lips to let them make love.

"We're all flawed, Taehyung," I mumble against his lips before leaning back, and he smiles warmly.

"I want to show you something that you've been asking for a while," I say softly as my hand caresses his sharp jawline.

"The photos?" Taehyung's eyes light up in excitement, and I giggle, nodding.

"But I want to wear something before that"

"Okay," he laughs a little, allowing me to stand up first, and then he tries to get up, but I stop him.

"No, you stay here. It's a little surprise," I wink at him while I step out of the bath.

"Mhm? Alright," he nods a few times and grabs the glass of wine that I was drinking earlier and takes a big sip out of it as he relaxes inside the warm bath with a smile on his lips.

I pick up a towel and exit the bathroom, quickly scuttling over to my wardrobe to retrieve the chemise-baby doll hybrid lingerie that I bought in London. Having never expected to wear it this soon, I hadn't even removed the price tag from the garment.

Quickly cutting out the price tag, I dry myself and wear it along with the matching panties and remove the hairpin that's holding my hair up. My hair cascades down my shoulders, and I spend a few seconds in brushing my hair and applying a bit of lotion over my arms and legs.

Checking out my reflection in the mirror, I smile a little imagining what Taehyung's reaction would be. We're only going to see the photos in my storage box, and this is a funny, inappropriate attire for such an activity. But I don't really mind.

I knock on the bathroom door and tell him to come out, after which I hear the sounds of the bath draining and Taehyung's squelchy steps as he walks towards the door, and then he pulls it open.

His eyes widen a little, and then they slowly travel down my body and back up to my face while he stands there holding on to the doorknob in one hand. And his stare is already making a knot to form in the pit of my stomach.

"Wow!" He says, impressed, nodding a few times. "You look so beautiful, Maya," Taehyung declares as he takes the towel that I hand him, and then he ties it around his waist.

"So then, let it stay on me, okay?" I tease him, and he laughs, flipping his hair back with a flick of his neck.

"I can't promise that," he steps closer and kisses my cheek.

It takes about a minute for Taehyung to dry himself and get dressed in a pair of sweatpants, after which we both go upstairs to the spare bedroom.

"I am thinking of converting this into Areum's room. What do you think? Would she like this? Or should we convert the guest bedroom and use this one as a guest bedroom instead?" I ask him as I turn on the lights in the room and walk inside.

Taehyung slides his arm around my waist and keeps me close to him as we walk to the corner.

"You thought about all this? I'm still thinking about how to handle everything else," he remarks as we both settle down on the floor facing each other, and then I pull the cardboard box closer to us, placing it in the space between us.

"I'm thinking of many things, and this is just one among those," I smile at him, carefully removing the top few things in the box and placing them on the floor.

"Look at you. You still have these posters? Why?" Taehyung makes fun of me and laughs seeing the ridiculous collection of things inside my box, and I put on a sad face, making him cackle even more, and I end up laughing too.

He watches as I carefully pull out the binder that holds all the group photos and crawl over to his side.

"I keep all the group photos taken at the end of each school year inside this," I send a smile his way as I pass the binder into the safety of his hands.

Taehyung takes it from me and flips open the first picture taken at the end of grade one, his eyes peering as he takes a close look and scans each girl by moving his fingertip over the picture until he spots me quite effortlessly.

"Wow! You're so cute when you were seven, and your hair is so short in this," he flicks under my chin with his finger and chuckles, and I can already sense the sheer embarrassment that awaits me when he sees my middle school pictures.

Those pictures are the reason I chose not to show him this collection all these months. But tonight, I don't know. I just felt like it.

As we flip through the photos, Taehyung keeps telling me how I look cuter in each picture, more than the previous one, and he even notices how there's one particular boy who seems to be standing somewhere closer to me in all the photos.

Honestly, I hadn't noticed it myself in all these years, and he even concludes that it must have been this boy who had stolen the letters and snacks that I left inside Taehyung's desk.

Fortunately, he doesn't laugh over my middle school pictures. But I think he tried hard to hold in his laughter, and I really appreciate that.

We finally reach the high school photos, and Taehyung's smile widens as he swipes his finger over me in the picture, and then his eyes turn to look at me already looking at him.

"This is the girl that stayed... The image of you that lived inside my head all these years," his eyes stay glued to mine as I link my arm with his and kiss his shoulder with a shy smile.

"And that's the you that never left my mind," I point to him in the picture.

We see the last two photographs, and he laughs softly seeing the heart stickers on the top of his head. Taehyung speaks with animated hand movements and vividly explains how he planned out his position right behind me in our second and third year photos, and here I was, thinking all these years that I was the one who had sneaked past the taller girls to stand close to him in our third-year photograph.

I also show him the yearbooks, and the cheesy love poem and his pet name, 'TaeTae', that I treasured so much, and at the end of it all, we both get a little emotional.

"Maya," Taehyung says as he turns around to sit facing me. "I want all our future kids to look just like you, and I want them all, along with Areum, to be much better humans than me. I want them to follow their heart and make good choices, and I want to watch them all grow beautifully, give them all my love, and I want to love you more with everything that I have. You really mean so much to me," he takes both my hands in his and brings them to his lips, kissing the back of my hands as his eyes lift to meet mine.

"I want us to be happy together for a very long time, Taehyung. I love you so much," I pull us closer and climb on to his lap, linking my arms around his neck when we get close enough.

Taehyung's hands hold me close to him, his gaze moving over my lips and neck, and then it falls on the garment that I'm wearing.

"I think you've worn this for a very long time," Taehyung speaks softly, the tone of his voice oozing desire as he glides his index finger past my collarbone, dipping it into my cleavage and sliding it further down to my stomach that's veiled behind the soft lace. He slips his hands inside the slit of the sheer fabric of the garment and firmly squeezes my waist on both sides, making my body stiffen.

"The longest actually," I laugh, putting our foreheads together and resting my elbows on his shoulders, letting my fingers play with his hair while he dips his neck and brings his lips to touch my collarbone in feather-soft kisses.

Taehyung drags the tip of his nose over my throat and my neck, making my head fall back as he leaves a trail of wet kisses along my neck and then my jaw while his hand supports the back of my head.

Before I could react, he smoothly snaps the front hook of the bra, and the dress pops open, making me emit a low gasp which he silences by pressing his lips to mine.

Just seven more chapters to go before the epilogues. I'm actually sad now.
😭🤧

Published on : 06/02/2022