*One week later*

*Taehyung POV*

"Let me help you with that," I said, reaching for the bag belonging to the man behind me.

"Thank you," he said as I handed it to him, looking at me over the top of his silver- rimmed glasses. He was slightly older, and reminded me a bit of my dad.

"No problem."

The ride back home had been relatively uneventful- I had slept for the first hour or so and then played games for the rest of the time on my phone,

I craned my neck to look over the line of people trying to get their way out of the train car. The line was not very long at all, and I figured I wouldn't have to wait much before exiting.

As I pushed my way forward through the line, I began to plan out my day. It was around eleven am right now, which meant that I would probably be able to pick my bags and head out somewhere for lunch. Then maybe go to a hotel for the night and start the moving process tomorrow. 

I decided to move back home, and not into a new apartment yet. Maybe I'd go hunting for one later, but for now I figured that I would stay at home. I was just getting out of work, and wasn't keen on getting into more financial work by selling a house or renting one at the moment.

I had two suitcases and a backpack with me, so I needed to find a place to keep them asap, out of the way of other people since there was no trolleys. Hauling them off the train, I made my way towards the exit. The entire place wasn't very crowded, probably because it was the middle of the day.

Pushing my bags to the side after exiting, I looked around to gauge whether I should eat nearby or go and eat at a hotel, where I'd see if I could book a room to stay the night. 

Before I could make a decision, though, I was knocked off balance by something slamming into me. Caught off guard, I stumbled backwards, my arms flailing around for the support of anything around me, but my fingers only grazed my suitcase, not able to form a firm grip on the handle. My body hit the ground with far less force than I had expected, but I cringed when I realised why.

*Y/n POV*

I seriously think there should be an award for most embarrassing thing to happen to you in public. If there was, I would be grand ambassador with what had happened.

Taehyung hadn't told me what time he was coming today, but Yoongi just looked up the schedule online and figured that he was coming in the morning. We were waiting for Tae outside, and when he appeared at the doors, something in my brain just snapped.

I wasn't aware of the way my feet carried me to him and my arms threw themselves around him. All of that had been something of a blur until I realised that I was falling, and threw my arms out to break that fall.

My entire right side was grazed by the tarmac, minor scrapes up my right leg and my palms. The major damage, though, was to my right arm. It had taken the majority of the impact, and though it wasn't bleeding much, it burned like hell. Dazed from the fall, I tried to sit up when he first made eye contact with me.

"Sorry. I'm so so sorry," I mumbled.

I turned away, embarrassed, expecting him to be irritated, but, placing his fingers under my jaw, he turned my face towards his and smiled up at me, as if he was amused by it.

"Y/n," he said softly. "Hi"

Without really meaning to, I broke into a little smile, my face still flushed from embarrassment. "Hi." I must still been in some sort of daze, because it took me way too long to realise what was so, so wrong. We had fallen into an awkward heap on the ground, but as I tried to get up, and Tae had stopped me, my position had shifted.

The position we were in on the ground was not suitable for public. And we were right outside the station, very much in public.

The sudden realisation slapped me in the face and I scrambled to get up, my face burning in embarrassment. I dusted off my jeans as Taehyung stood up and did the same, but he didn't look nearly as embarrassed as I was. Probably because I knew about the teasing I was going have to endure from Yoongi, while he was yet to endure it.

Yoongi had been insufferable over the past week, ever since I had lent him some clothes which had happened to be the ones I had got from Tae the night of the dinner. I don't know what he actually thought about how I got them; probably that I stole them or something, but he had been constantly teasing me about hooking up with Tae.

He obviously knew that no such thing had happened, so it didn't bother me much, but he almost let a joke slip in front of my brother, leading me to have a mini panic attack. But now, with me... straddling Taehyung in public - I cringed just thinking of it- I dreaded what was to come.

I walked back to where Yoongi had been standing, not lifting my eyes from the ground. I kept my gaze fixed on his navy sneakers as I stood next to him, waiting for someone to start a conversation.

"Hi Taehyung," he said, breaking the ice. I could hear the cocky smirk that I knew was on his face.

"Hi hyung. How come you guys came?" The poor guy was embarrassed too, his words softer than usual.

"Just like that," I interrupted before Yoongi could say anything that would embarrass me any further.

"Yeah," he said, smirking. "Just like that."

***

"Oh. My. God." I groaned, putting my face in my hands. Yoongi had just gone to the restroom while Taehyung and I sat at the table awkwardly, looking at the lunch menu.

We were in a crowded restaurant, a place which I hadn't been to before, but I had eaten some food from there when my brother had got it delivered. Taehyung was sat opposite me on a chair, and I was on the little couch sort of thing.

The car ride here had been unbearably quiet. Yoongi had (on purpose, no doubt) put taehyung's bags in the front seat- who puts bags in the front seat?- and so I was forced to sit with Tae in the back.

 The whole time I avoided any eye contact with him and passed the while staring out of the window, not really processing anything that I saw.

The scene of what had happened kept replaying itself in my head until I wanted to punch something. This was so embarrassing. So embarrassing.

"Don't think about it. The more you think about it, the worse it gets. And let's be honest, it could've been so so much worse. The station could have been full of people," taehyung said.

"Ugh. It's not...I just... in public! Are you seriously not embarrassed?" Every time I thought about it the humiliation was fresh.

"I am, a little bit. But honestly, it'll be one of those things that's embarrassing at the time but funny later." He said to me.

"I'm so so sorry, Tae."

"It's fine, it'll be fine." But I could tell he was just saying that for me.

I scanned the menu. Nothing jumped out at me, so I just closed my eyes and pointer at some place, deciding to order whatever my finger landed on. But when I opened my eyes, my finger was on the logo/ picture thing. Frustrated, I snapped the menu shut.

"Do you need help with ordering?" Tae asked. He really was being too nice for his own good.

"Yeah." I mumbled. "I don't know what to get."

"Okay, lemme help you." To my horror, he got out of his seat and came over to my side of the table, sliding onto the couch next to me. I held the menu out to him, but he put it back in front of me, reading over my shoulder.

"How about this one? You like spicy food right?" He asked, pointing to an item over my shoulder.

"Yeah." I said, turning to him. "Thanks-"

I broke off suddenly, startled by the closeness of his face to mine. Flustered, I looked away and he cleared his throat, moving a little further away.

I hated this. I hated the awkwardness of everything right now just because of something stupid I did. I wanted to get over it, and to get our friendship back to normal.

"Tae?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm over it. That's it. Like, I'm still embarrassed, but in a few hours I can look back on it and it'll be funny."

He smiled. "It is kind of funny."

"Not that funny."

"A bit."

"Yeah. A bit."

*** 

It's funny how much can change just by your mindset, and I don't just mean that in terms of some old saying. Just by my decision to move on and not wallow in my embarrassment, my day got so much better. Conversations came easily and I pretty much forgot about the earlier events in the day. 

After lunch, Yoongi drove us to an ice cream place, where he got a cookies and cream, I ordered mocha flavored ice cream, and Taehyung ordered a rocky road.

"Can I have some water?" Taehyung asked me, finishing the last of his ice cream.

"Yeah. Once sec." I dug into my bag for the water bottle and handed it to him.

As he took a sip Yoongi asked him. "So...What do you plan to do the rest of day, Taehyung? Do you need me to drop you at your place?"

Taehyung screwed the cap onto the bottle and handed it back to me. "Actually I was planning on staying at a hotel for the night, but home sounds good. I'll just put my stuff from my bags into the closets and get some things dusted and stuff. There's housekeeping staff, but I've given them off the past whole week."

"Why would you do that if you knew you were gonna come?"

"Because I wanted the house to be dusty when I came back."

"The heck? Why?" Yoongi asked, incredulous.

"Because then it feels like really moving back in. You dust everything off, and then clean out some old boxes and stuff. It's fun!"

"You're weird, Taehyung," he said, shaking his head.

"Thank you."

"You want help with that stuff?" I asked. He seemed taken aback by the question.

"Yeah. Yes, please. That'd be great, actually."

I smiled. "I'm pretty good at unpacking and packing."

"Yeah. Thanks."

We reached Taehyung's house at around three o'clock, and for first time I actually got a clear view of it in the daytime. The house looked similar to how I remembered it, but the garden was even more manicured than I remembered. 

No plant grew even the slightest bit out of place- someone had obviously taken great pains to tend to the garden- but to me the effort seemed wasted. The roses on the other side, near the driveway, which I hadn't seen before, would obviously look better creeping up the wall at different lengths, they didn't have to be chopped in a straight line. The bushes looked like they were made out of plastic.

The three of us clambered out of the car, Yoongi pulling Taehyung's suitcases out of the front seat. I grabbed the backpack and handed it to him. Instead of slinging it over his shoulder like I expected him to, though, he opened the bag and pulled out his wallet. Flipping it open, he pulled out a key and smiled at me.

"We don't need to climb in through the balcony this time," he told me.

Returning the smile without hesitation, I followed him up to the front door before I realised that Yoongi was still struggling with the suitcases.

I ran back to help him pull the second bag out of the car and onto the pavement.

"Thanks." He said. He looked a little green.

"You okay?" I asked. There were little beads of sweat lining his forehead.

"Yeah."

"Are you sure, Yoongi?" I placed my palm against his forehead. It wasn't warm, but he did look really sick.

"No."

"What's happening? Is it your stomach?"

"Yeah."

"Was it the ice cream?"

"Probably."

"Do you want something? I think I have a panadol." I said, opening my bag.

"No, that's okay. I'll just- use the bathroom? I guess? It's fine, y/n. Seriously."

"Okay. Come on." I held my hand out to him as we walked to the front door, where Taehyung was messing with the lock, dragging the suitcases behind us.

"Tae?" Yoongi asked.

"Yeah?"

"Do you need help with the lock?"

"Yes."

"Give it here," he said, gesturing to the key. Taehyung handed it over to Yoongi, who then went forward to unlock the big padlock on the front door. He had it unlocked in two seconds.

"Taehyung, I'm not feeling too good, I'm just gonna use the restroom and then I'll come help you guys with the unpacking stuff, okay?"

"Sure, hyung. You remember the way to the bathroom?"

"Yeah." He ran inside the house, the sound of his footsteps echoing in the emptiness of what I assumed to be the entrance hall.

There was a slight awkward silence between Tae and I which quickly passed.

"Show me around the house," I instructed.

He took my hand and led me in. "Sure."

***

The light. That was the only thing about the house that truly captivated me. Apart from that, it was nothing special, just a standard house that happened to be really big. The entrance was large and spacious, and I could see al the way up until the back window from here. 

I began to take off my shoes, wanting to get a better look at the staircase the spiralled upwards so much like the one in my house when I lived in the States with my family.

"Keep your shoes on," he said, seeing my begin to take them off. "It's really dusty."

"Okay," I said, and began moving through the house. It was only then that I realised that he was still holding my hand.

"You're not showing me the house, you're just standing there," I said, as he watched a little spider crawl up the wooden shaft.

"Oh, yeah. Sorry." He led me forward. "So, as you can obviously tell, this is the entrance hall," he gesture around the room we were standing in. "And if you come ahead, and let's go left, here I'd the living room." The room was fairly large, with a couch all wrapped up.

"Here is the media room, one of my favourite places in the house," he led me past the living room area and into a long room at the back, where I recognised the window ledge we had used to climb up. On the left end was a little fireplace, and on the extreme right was a mini bar sort of thing.

In the center, though, was a huge screen. "Wow." I said. "This shit's a full-fledged home theatre."

He looked up. "Yeah. I think I'm gonna end up using this a lot."

"You got any drinks here?" I asked, gesturing towards the bar.

"Uhm, I don't know. Let me check." Releasing my had, he went over and opened some of the shelves below the counter.

"Success! We have wine!" He held up a bottle in his hand. "Do you wanna have some later?"

I laughed. "Okay."

Placing the wine bottle on the counter, he gestured for me to follow him. Placing his hand on my shoulder, he steered me in the right direction.

We exited the passage sort thing between the TV room and the room next to it, and my jaw dropped.

To my left, on a little raised platform, next to a window which overlooked the back lawn, was the most gorgeous grand piano. The smooth ebony reflected the light, and the acoustics of the room, now that I came to think of it, seemed amazing.

"Wow...Taehyung, that piano is...wow."

He looked at me. "Do you want to play? I've never heard you play."

I was a bit surprised that he remembered that I played. I mean, sure, it was a big part of who I considered myself to be, but we had never actually spoken about me playing the piano much. It had been a while since I'd practised; I wasn't able to buy a piano right now, seeing as it was expensive and I lived in a small apartment, but my parents did still have the piano that I used while growing up.

Do I play? Heck, yeah I play the piano. It's like the only thing I'm good at. The one thing that I'm really, really good at.

"Oh, no, that's okay, really." I said. But it was a lie; my fingers yearned to meet the smooth ivory, and fly over the keys like they used to. It seemed impossible to me that once upon a time, piano practise seemed like a chore, and that now I yearned to play, yearned to be transported to another reality like I was every time the music flowed so effortlessly form my fingers.

But I didn't want to tell Taehyung this. It had been a while since I'd played, so I was obviously quite rusty, and I didn't feel up to playing in front of an audience.

"You sure? Come on, please..." he pleaded as I shook my head profusely.

"Fine," he grumbled. "You're so stubborn."

"Wait, Tae."

"Yeah?"

"Do you play? How come you have a piano?"

"No. Just chords, that's the most I normally do. This is actually my mom's piano. She plays."

"Really?"

"Yep. They got a new one there, though. Didn't want to move this one away. Although that one is just a regular acoustic, not like this one." He brushed his fingers over the top, where there was a fine layer of dust.

Suddenly I heard a loud bang. Startled, I whipped around, but it was just Yoongi, coming out of the bathroom.

"You feeling better?" I asked him.

He grimaced. "Not really, but I'll be fine."

"Yoongi, I'm serious, if you don't feel good I can drive you back home." I said.

"Are you kidding? If you drive me then I'm guaranteed to be sick!" He looked at me, incredulous.

"Hey! I'm not that bad of a driver!" It was true, I was actually quite decent. It was just that Yoongi had been the one who sat with me after my first few driving lessons, when I was still getting used to being at the wheel. 

I had been constantly terrified of accelerating too much, and so had a habit of making a lot of small jerky movements. But I was a way better driver now, even if I didn't own a car currently.

"Yoongi, I'm serious. If you barf in Taehyung's house, you have to clean it up. And I'm not going to help you." I said.

"Fine, I'll go home," he replied. "I'll call you if I feel better, and then I'll come back, okay?" He asked.

"Okay." I replied.

"But then how will you get home?" Yoongi asked me.

"I'll call rina or my brother or something, I'll figure it out, don't worry, okay?"

"Okay. Bye guys," he called out over his shoulder, as he left the house.

"Bye," we chorused back.

Once he had left the house, Tae took me to the guest room and kitchen, and then showed me around upstairs. Finally, after a full tour of the house, we got down to actually cleaning, after which I would help him unpack.

The time had flown by, and we didn't realise how late it was getting until the sun began to sink down onto the horizon, painting the sky with streaks of orange and pink.

"Shit." I said, glancing at my phone. "It's five thirty already?"

Taehyung looked up at me from the shelf which he was dusting. "Yeah. What time do you have to go?"

"I should leave by like six or six thirty. I need to be home by seven- my brother doesn't like it when I get back late, even if it's from Rina's. Plus, today is my turn to make dinner."

"How do you plan on going back?"

"I'll figure something out. How close is the nearest bus stop?"

"Too far to walk."

"I'll call him then, one second, and see if he can pick me up." I grabbed my phone and dialled my brother's number.

"Hello?"

"Hi y/n," his voice was a bit unclear, so I moved away from the room we were in, trying to find a better signal.

"Hi, so there's a bit of a problem."

"Is everything okay?" He asked sharply. "Are you fine?"

"Well, yeah, I'm fine, but there's a problem. I'm still at Taehyung's house, and I came here with Yoongi. But Yoongi got sick so he went home. So now I don't have a way of coming back home. What should I do?"

"Uhm..." his voice came through slightly garbled again, so I moved a little further until it was clearer. "The thing is, I'm also out right now. I'm not at home."

"Okay, so what do I do?"

"Can you stay there until seven thirty or eight? I know it was your turn to make dinner today, but I'm meeting a friend for an early dinner, just decided, so I went out to get something. I'll come pick you up after that?"

"Okay, but how?"

"I'll walk," he said, as though it was obvious.

"It's really far from home" I replied.

"That's fine, I'll come there and pick you up after the dinner, we'll walk together until the bus stop and then take a bus, okay?"

"Yeah. Fine. Thanks."

"You order something to eat there. I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier, I just decided to go out."

"That's fine, seriously." 

"Times like this, I really wish I had a car. Shouldn't have sold my old car." He grumbled, and I smiled. He had been excited to drive as long as I could remember, and was so disappointed that he had to sell his car when he moved.

"Well, now I know what to get you for Christmas," I joked.

"Don't get my hopes up," he laughed. "I'll see you, okay? Eight o'clock."

"See you."

A/n : Hello! Soooo... it's currently exam week and I have an exam tomorrow lol but im here. Sorry for the irregular updates, I've been busy for the last couple of weeks, and I have a BIG dance performance coming up (my debut actually) in January, so updates might be slow until about the second week of Jan but I promise they'll be more regular after that.

I hope you have a great day or night wherever you are <3

Also, a HUGE thank you to @softaura for the amazing and helpful feedback, I really really appreciate it <3 you're super talented and I love love love your writing, even though I tend to prefer all things happy :)