"So," I said, my mouth full of food. "What prompted that? I mean, like how come all of a sudden you decided to tell me about this?"

About an hour later, we were sitting on the edge of the path in the garden, next to a little fountain with no water in it. Tae and I had filled our plates with the delicious food and then escaped from the hall through a back exit to come sit outside. 

His mood had improved considerably since we started eating, and he was almost back to his normal chirpy self.

"Well, you obviously weren't paying attention to my client conversation, y/n." Before I could open my mouth to say anything, he continued. "I closed the deal, and once I had, Choi told me that I'm just like my dad." He didn't sound bitter or upset, just resigned to the fact. 

"It comes in waves, you know. Sometimes I think that there's no point trying to fight it, and it doesn't seem so bad. But other times..." his voice trailed off. "I mean, there's no problem with being like my dad, he's a great guy. I don't mean to be disrespectful or thankless for everything he's given me, but I just don't want to be him, you know what I mean? I want to be a regular kid for a while, and maybe later-" he stopped abruptly, as if embarrassed. 

"Maybe later, if I have a family, I want to be there for them. I don't want my kids to grow up not even knowing me. And I mean, I don't know how my parents would react to this, but maybe the real reason that I haven't told them yet is that some part of me wants to be recognised as their son, as someone who they're proud of."

He looked up at me and smiled apologetically, and yet again I was struck by how wrong I was about him. I had thought that he had left the boys for his own interests, and thought that he was a selfish person, but after all this time, it turned out that he wasn't doing all of this because he wanted to.

The wind blew around us and I shivered a little. I hadn't realised how cold I was, completely ignoring the goosebumps rising on my arms and legs.

"Shit," he pulled off his black jacket. "Here. Chivalry is not dead." He handed it to me and I pulled it over myself gratefully. It did almost nothing for the cold, but the gesture warmed up my heart, and I wasn't going to tell him that his chivalrous gesture was not so useful after all. 

He stuffed the remaining food in his mouth, and picked up the plates and cutlery we had brought with us. Standing up, he walked over to a room service cart with a bunch of used plates in it. Leaving our dishes there as well, he walked back to me, and I got up to leave. 

Suddenly remembering, I pulled out my phone to check if Rina had updated me every half hour. I hadn't even looked, but still. Until forty minutes ago, she had kept her promise, with alternating texts of 'food' and 'video games'. 

I glanced at the time. It was ten. Had we really been here for three hours? It had felt like one, or one and a half, tops. How had so much time passed by?

"Hey, you wanna go somewhere?" Tae's voice jolted me back to reality. "There's a place I used to go with the boys when we were younger, I think you'll like it."

"What, at this time?" I usually stayed home after dark, so being out this late made me a bit uncomfortable. But then again, this was Tae. It'd be fine with him. He had sense, and I knew he wouldn't take me anyplace that could be even mildly shady. "Um..."

"I'm taking that as a yes." He led me back to the front doors of the hotel and his chauffeur arrived there to pick us up within a minute. He leaned forward and said something to the driver while I was getting back into the car, and then slid in beside me. 

He pulled out his phone and scooted closer to me. It took me a second to realise that he was taking a selca. I moved closer to him and wrapped my arm over his shoulder and he did the same for me. In the picture, I was smiling tentatively, but his boxy smile was the same as ever. I grabbed his phone and sent it to myself before I forgot, so I could use it in some collage or the other.

About five minutes into the ride, the car slowed down, and then halted completely. We were in an upmarket neighbourhood, where all the houses were independent rather than apartments. 

I figured that we must be near the home that Taehyung grew up in, or rather, was supposed to grow up in- he pretty much lived at the others' homes all the way through school. 

He got out of the car and I did the same, walking on the sidewalk and clutching the jacket around me tightly. 

The car backed into another road and parked right in the middle- wait what? That wasn't a road, it was a driveway. Shit. That meant that this house we were in front of, it was Taehyung's?

It was nice enough looking, in the sense that it was pleasing aesthetically. The grass was cut close to perfection, as well as the shrubs, which were so perfectly shaped that they seemed unreal. The house rose into the darkness a few yards into the property. 

It seemed like what a typical rich businessperson's house would look like in my head: angular, white with no- nonsense rectangular sections and, in my opinion, lacking any sense of individuality. 

In the mind of someone older, it would seem luxurious and people would enjoy staying there, but in a child's mind this would be a boring, predictable house. That child's mind was still mine though, deep down, and I still felt the same way- that this would be a terribly boring place to have to stay in without any friends or family. 

With a jolt, I realised that this was what Taehyung had been subjected to for most of his childhood; no wonder he had stayed with the boys.

Taehyung didnt seem interested in going towards the front door, though. He led me around the side of the house towards the back. In the shadow of the house, there was close to no light and I stumbled a fair few times, so I leaned over and took off my shoes, holding them in one hand. 

Taking my other hand, he led me across the lawn as though he had done it a hundred times, and a few seconds later we emerged in the back. It was almost pitch dark, the only light being from the moon, half shrouded in clouds. 

At the back of the house was large window, above which there was a small balcony. Placing his foot on the protrusion beneath the window, he reached up to the bottom bit of the balcony, and, to my amazement, pulled himself up. 

Latching his arm over the railing, he hoisted himself over with ease. I stifled a scream when I thought he was slipping, but it turned out that he was just turning over to face me. He held his arms out down towards me, his teeth a flash of white in the dark.

I had no idea what he was trying to do. He wanted me to climb into the balcony? Right. Like I could.

I reached up towards his hands, but even on my tiptoes the tips of my fingers barely grazed his. He giggled softly. "I'm so sorry I didn't think of this. The last time I came here was in high school with the boys, I thought you might be at least as tall as Jimin was in the tenth grade," he started laughing again. "Oh, I'm sorry," he said, through the little breathy laughs. "This is too funny."

I couldn't help but smile. This was so embarrassing, but part of me felt that it was funny too. "So I'm just gonna stand down here while you chill on the balcony?"

"Uh...no. One sec." He turned around and went towards the balcony door. He pulled it, and surprisingly, it slid open with ease. He went in, and I heard a few scuffling sounds as he made his way through the house. 

My mind began to wander as I waited for him. I tried to imagine what the backyard looked like in the daytime, from the little bits that I could see, and I thought about how I would add different plants to particular parts of the garden to make it seem more interesting. 

I walked over the lawn a bit, the grass tickling my bare feet. About thirty seconds later, Tae emerged with a huge grin plastered on his face. "Success!" In his hands was a big plastic box, the kind used for packing and storage- I would know, after packing and unpacking so much.

 "Climb on this." He bent over and passed it down. 

I placed it on the ground and took a tentative step onto it. It held my weight. I put my other leg on and reached up to the balcony railing, curling my fingers around it tightly. I pulled myself up as high as I could, but I was now just hanging off the rail of the balcony just by my fingers. I felt the sudden urge to just burst out laughing, which would probably cause me to fall and break my leg (you know when you just realise how ridiculous something is and you just feel like your body goes weak and you need to laugh), but I flung one arm over the top bit of the railing in a last-ditch attempt to get over. 

Taehyung grabbed my other arm and helped me climb onto the balcony. We both sat down, breathing heavily, and I thanked him for helping me up.

"No problem, y/n, it's not your fault that you're short." He giggled again, and I slapped his arm.

I leaned back against the wall and looked out of the balcony. The view was nothing spectacular, just the plain lawn and some trees behind that, but I figured that this place had a significance to him. I turned to ask him about it, but he was gone. What the heck?

"Taehyung?" The note of panic in my voice was unmistakable.

"Yeah?" His voice came from behind me. I jumped, and realised that he hadn't closed the balcony door. He was sitting inside the room on a box, looking out of the window with a kind of longing expression. "You okay y/n?"

"Yeah." I let out a deep breath. "I didn't see where you had gone." Stepping into the room, I sat down on the edge of the bed, a large king-sized one with a soft beige blanket over it. The room was plain and had no extra ornamentation, though it was full of storage material and old things. It was fully furnished with a desk, a bed, and two nightstands with lamps.

"Tae, how come this room is furnished? Nobody lives here anymore."

"There was already furniture in the room that my parents got me to move into, so I didn't take anything from here. I mean, it's not like I was attached to anything in this room in any way."

My stomach plunged with the realisation that this was his room. This boy, so full of life, growing up here? The idea was so ridiculous that I wanted to laugh. 

But the little details began to make sense- the way that there were a few toy boxes in the corner, a gaming console, and what looked suspiciously like a mini fridge. There were books in the shelves, too- notebooks with doodles over the covers and some business textbooks with those little page markers sticking out from between the papers.

Tae sat on the bed next to me and leaned back, closing his eyes. "I don't even know why I brought you here. I thought it'd be fun, but there's nothing interesting to do. I disconnected the console, too." He sighed. 

"I don't wanna leave tomorrow, I wish I could stay here for longer. I'll miss you guys. I'll miss everything about this trip, I loved every bit of it." He was silent for a bit. "Except that dude Daehyun, I mean. That was not fun."

"I still don't know what happened that night," I said, leaning back on the bed, and facing the ceiling. I could feel the cool wind from outside on my legs, and the warmth of Taehyung right next to me. "But whatever it was, thank you."

"It was fine y/n. You went away, Rina went to check on you. I walked in the direction you had come from to see what had got you so upset, and I found this drunk-ass guy calling out your name. He was trying to walk in the direction of the womens' room, so I just grabbed his hand and held him back. 

He was so incapacitated that I doubt he could even tell. I put him in a chair on the the other end of the bar, and he passed out right there. Didn't think he deserved to get a cab ride home. Turns out I was right. And this guy was a friend of yours?"

"Yep. We met at the mall and he took me out for ice cream. We went as a couple to get a discount, and we texted a bit. He was sweet, you know. In the flirty kind of way, but sweet all the same. Cute, funny, seemed smart too. But turns out, people aren't always what they seem."

"You're right. They're not." He said, genuinely sounding like he'd given it some thought. 

"I was wrong about you, you know. I was jealous at first when Jungkook started hanging out with you instead of me. Do you know what it's like to have one of your best friends stolen from you by a girl who's like half your height? You guys seemed to have so much fun together, and I felt so lonely. But turns out you didn't try to steal him. You helped him out when I didn't even have enough time for my best friend."

"Excuse you? I am way more than half your height. I'm five two! Besides, if you think that's bad, I thought you were a stuck- up kid who left Jungkook and the other boys for a business after they brought you up."

"But aren't I? What's wrong about that assumption? Where is the lie?" His question was a deep whisper. He turned to face me, and when I turned to my side to face him, I became suddenly aware of how little space there was between us.

"Well..."I was having a hard time thinking straight with his piercing gaze focused do intently on me. "You're not stuck up, you can't help the fact that you're rich. And, um... Uh, you didn't leave the boys on purpose. You didn't want to hurt them. You're a good person, Tae. Don't ever beat yourself up about decisions that you didn't make." 

He was silent, and I closed my eyes, thinking about how random and unpredictable this situation was. I was with a boy who was one of my friend's best friends from childhood, in his mansion-like home, in his bedroom which I got to by climbing through the balcony, laying on the bed and giving him life advice. That too, in the middle of the night.

"Shit!" I sat up suddenly. It had to be at least an hour since we had left the hotel. "I have to get h- Tae?"

His eyes were closed, his breathing soft and steady as he lay sprawled on the bed. I giggled quietly and got off the bed, pulling the blanket over him gently and leaving it there. I was pulling out a pillow from the headboard of the bed when he stirred, looking up at me with round, confused eyes.

"Y/n? What? How long was I asleep? It felt like only a few seconds..."

"It was only a few seconds, Tae. Are you planning on staying the night here? Because I need to get home."

"No, I'm staying at Jungkook's," he yawned. "I'll drop you off at home."

He got up and walked onto the balcony. "I'm gonna go down, okay? I'll help you down from there."

"What?"

"Close the door behind you, I'll ask the cleaning staff to lock it tomorrow. Unfortunately the front door is padlocked from the outside and I don't have the key, so we need to get out from here."

"Tae- oh my GOD!" Now, I'm an expert on stupid. I live off the stuff, but what Tae did next was so unbelievably stupid that I screamed out in terror. 

He swung one leg over the railing, then the other, holding onto the rail with his hands. Then he dropped like a stone, and I'm sorry to say- I screamed. 

It's not like I had never jumped off a height- my brother and I grew up in a house with a huge yard, where we would climb the trees sometimes, and I was no stranger to watching him jump of different branches to land on the ground, no stranger to doing the same myself. 

But seeing someone fall from a balcony is not something I'd say I was used to. I rushed to the edge, breathing heavily, praying and praying that he was alright. 

What I found was worse than what I expected. The idiot was perfectly fine, grinning up at me like a dork. "Great," I grumbled. "That just reinforces in your mind that doing that was okay."

"Y/n, now do what I tell you, exactly how I tell you to. Climb over the railing like I did, and then I can help you come down. The height of the fall will be more for you, so I can try and make sure you don't hit the ground with too hard of an impact."

Taking his advice, I lifted my leg to put it over the railing, but it was a bit too high for me to reach, and impossible in the skirt. "I can't put my leg over the railing in a skirt," I called out to him.

"Shit! Why'd you have to wear a skirt?"

"You bloody told me to, that's why!"

He seemed stumped by that.

"Okay, um... y/n, go into the room and check if there's anything in the closets."

"What?"

"Check if there are any clothes in the closet! Change into them."

I didn't have a better idea, so I went back into the room and walked over to the closet. I was about to open it when I realised that I might be attacked by dust bunnies or moths if there really were clothes in there, so I leaned over and switched on a lamp. It was a dim light, but the sudden illumination still partly blinded me. 

With a deep breath, I pulled the closet open with a flourish and found, to my pleasant surprise, a few pairs of nylon shorts, a T-shirt, some formal shirts, a hoodie, and a pair of sweats. No moths. No dust bunnies.

"Tae!" I called out loudly.

"Yeah?"

"There's so many clothes here!"

"Okay."

"They're nice."

"Okay."

"Do you want me to bring them down?"

This time he took a little longer to respond. "Okay."

I picked up the sweats and a T-shirt and placed them on the bed. Then, bundling up the rest of the clothes, I walked over to the balcony and chucked them down to Tae, who caught them all, except for one pair of shorts that fell to the ground. 

As he was picking them up, I went back into the bedroom and took off my skirt, pulling the sweats up as fast as I could to avoid the cold. Folding them up a couple of times, I pulled the T-shirt on over my top to help with the cold, and chucked my skirt and his jacket over the railing as well. 

Once he had placed them all in the box that I had used to climb onto the balcony, he turned towards me and began to instruct me on where exactly to put my feet and what hold. Swinging my leg over the railing, I clutched the bar tightly before taking my other leg across. I was just balancing on the edge of the balcony, holding on by just my arms. 

Slowly, I took off one leg, and then the other. I was now just hanging off the railing of the balcony, my arm strength being the only thing keeping me from falling to the ground and breaking more than a few bones.

"Okay, um, now let go," Tae called out.

"Are you insane? I'll break my legs if I fall!"

"You won't fall, just trust me!"

"I don't trust you!"I yelled, but my grip was beginning to weaken. Taking a deep breath, and praying that I wouldn't break anything, I let go and my body dropped. 

What happened next was a bit confusing. Taehyung had tried to catch me, and at the same time my feet had hit the ground, the impact causing arcs of pain going up to my knee for a few seconds, but then it was gone. 

Nothing broken. He hadn't been hurt. I had just jumped off a balcony. The thought made me burst out laughing.

Tae looked at me like I was insane, which I probably seemed at the time. Doubling over, I fell on the lawn on my back, and lay there giggling until the urge subsided. Tae sat down next to me on the grass, twisting his fingers through the blades while I looked up at the sky.

"This is so cliché." I blurted suddenly.

"Huh?"

"Laying on the grass, looking at the sky."

"Stargazing in a very teen- movie type way?"

"Right. That's if I could see the stars," I snorted.

"There's eight stars in the sky right now y/n."

"Nine."

"Whatever," he replied, smiling. "So, was that fun or what?"

"Which part? Jumping off a balcony? Yeah, super fun." I got up. "Come on, I should really go home now. It's late." I looked at my phone. "it's past midnight! Shit shit shit. I have to go home!"

"What, you have a curfew or something?"

I glared at him. "I live alone, I don't have a curfew. I just get home early. I stay home at night. I have reasons."

"Okay," he sighed. "Let's go." He picked up the clothes and led me back around the house to the front, and we got back into the car. 

As we drove back towards my apartment, I could feel my eyelids beginning to droop, and I made sure to change my alarm to half an hour later in the morning before I forgot. God forbid I woke up at dawn after sleeping so late. I would be grouchy for the whole day. 

Before I knew it, we were pulling up in front of my place, and I got out of the car to leave. Taehyung got out and walked up the stairs with me, and we stopped at my door.

"Thank you for coming, y/n. I'll make sure to keep in touch with you, at least more than last time. Come and visit me if you can."

He handed me the clothes and I fumbled to unlock the door. It swung open, and Tae walked in and dropped some of clothes on the counter. "Do you want any of these?" He asked. "I don't really need any more clothes than I have already."

"Uhm, sure."

"Take the T-shirts and the sweats, I'll give the shorts to Jungkook, if that's okay with you. He wanted shorts anyways, and I think these are his."

"Sure." I separated the two piles and was about to chuck my set onto the couch when I saw them. 

Rina and jungkook had fallen asleep on the couch, her head on his chest, his arms around her. They looked so cute that it made my chest hurt, and, as usual, I took a picture of them. 

I had a feeling I might need it for a couple collage soon. Their breathing was in sync, and it was so cute. So incredibly cute that I just felt like I might explode. 

I called Tae over to see, and he walked over. 

Grinning mischievously, he flicked Jungkook's forehead so hard that I flinched at the sound. Kookie's eyes snapped open wide and he glared at Taehyung, which would have been absolutely terrifying if his hair wasn't flat on side and all ruffled up on the other. 

He looked like an angry bunny. He propped Rina, who was still asleep, up against the couch, and got up, stretching. "Sorry I stayed longer, y/n. I fell asleep. But then again, you two were out for longer than you were supposed to," he said. 

His eyes widened suddenly. "And you're- ohmyGOD YOURE WEARING HIS CLOTHES PLEASE DONT TELL ME YOU GUYS- NO NO NO, YOU WERE PURE YOU GUYS NOOOO!" He screamed as if he was completely mortified, and I realised what this must look like.

"Oh god, Jungkook, no! Oh my goodness, why would you think that? No what the heck!"

Rina was awake now too, watching the whole scene through her fingers. "Y/n? What? You guys did not. Please tell me you didn't."

"We didn't! Oh my goodness we didn't!" Taehyung interjected. "Why on earth would that be your first conclusion? Couldn't she have just spilled food on her dress?"

"Oh." Jungkook looked at the ground. "Oops."

"That's not what happened, but still!" Taehyung was bright red, and I'm sure I was too. "I wouldn't- she- we would never do that!"

Rina squirmed. "What happened then?"

"Dude! The skirt was uncomfortable, so I changed! Nothing else happened! Nothing!" I defended myself.

The atmosphere suddenly became awkward and I decided to take charge of it before things got worse. "You," I pointed at Jungkook. "Out. You're going home with Tae. You do not have my permission to spend the night here."

He walked over to the counter and patted his hair to make it flat on top. "Hyung! These are my shorts!" he exclaimed, pointing at the ones I had kept for him. "These were the ones that disappeared when you left! You brought them back? Thank you thank you thank you!"

He picked them up and walked out the door, leaving the three of us in silence.

"So, um... I guess this is the last time we'll see each other before I leave." Taehyung began awkwardly. "I guess, we can keep in touch, better than last time?"

I went up on my toes and threw my arms around his shoulders, holding him tight until he began struggling to break free of my grip.

"I'll miss you," I said.

"Keep in touch. Properly, this time, okay?" He whispered his breath tickled my ear, and I held him tighter.

"I will."

"Promise?" He held out his pinkie.

I twisted my pinkie around his and held it there. "I promise."

Hi there! This is my second update today, hope you guys like it! Don't forget to vote and comment if you did, and I hope you have an amazing day or night wherever you are!

Love ya <3