7.

| 𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐬. |

"So you're just going to follow me around like a lost puppy?"

Yuri turned back to face Taehyung, who was already staring at her.

They had been at the mall for five minutes now, and Taehyung had done nothing but follow Yuri around, indeed looking like a lost puppy.

The mall was a pretty old one, but it was still well-maintained. After all, it was dubbed as the city's best mall, and had a reputation to live up to.

There were multiple floors, each having various types of shops and stores.

For reasons unknown to Yuri, there were flowers and other such decorations hanging from the walls, and stuck to the escalators. A few shops even had a special discount offer.

"Yes."

Yuri sighed with exasperation, stepping on the escalator. "At least act like you're interested in shopping; roaming like this whilst staring at me is straight-up creepy."

"There's no one here to judge me."

Taehyung followed Yuri, shrugging.

And it was true; the mall seemed deserted, save for a couple people who were minding their own business, looking through racks of clothes in various shops, or eating food in the food courts.

It was a weekday, and apparently no one wished to come to the mall for shopping.

The parking lot had a lot of vehicles a while back, but were all gone now.

Yuri didn't mind it, although it seemed a bit sketchy.

It was gradual, however, so Yuri didn't think much about it.

She held the laptop in her hand a bit more tightly, making her way towards the small shop she had bought it from. It was located in between the staircases and another shop for buying chocolates.

Taehyung followed her, his hands tucked in his pockets.

"Uh, hi there. I had bought this laptop from this shop a while back." Yuri placed the device on the counter, in front of a man.

Soojin, read his name tag.

He squinted his eyes upon seeing the laptop, as if recognising it.

"How long ago did you buy this, miss?" Soojin delicately touched the laptop, as if a mishandled touch could damage it.

"Nine years ago." Yuri blinked furiously, a bit embarrassed. Taehyung, standing behind her, raised his eyebrows.

"Ah. This model brought back a bunch of memories." Soojin chuckled.

"Uh, yeah," Yuri laughed along awkwardly.

"Anyways, I need this laptop repaired. I had left it for charging overnight. When I woke up, it had steam coming out from it."

Soojin opened the laptop, and tried switching it on, but was unable to do so. He harshly tapped the screen thrice.

"Are you sure you still wanna use this old model? There are much better ones out there, which are more modern with better and improved features."

"Will I be able to transfer the data from this laptop to the new one, if I happen to buy one?" Yuri asked after a pause.

"Did you have the data stored in an external device? Like a USB or something?"

"Not really, no."

"Then, unless I switch this laptop on, there's no way to transfer the data, nope." Soojin shook his head, chewing his lip, finally looking at Yuri, his eyes moving up and down.

"Can you switch this laptop on then?"

"Of course I can, I'm an expert." Soojin winked.

"Then I would like to stick to this laptop itself, please." Yuri ignored the wink, although she did feel slightly uncomfortable.

Taehyung noticed the wink, and clenched his jaw.

"Miss, are you sure—"

"She said she wanted to stick to this laptop itself, can't you hear? Just fix the damn thing, and don't annoy the shit outta us." Taehyung, who had been oddly quiet all this time, suddenly burst out, his tone sounding annoyed.

"Sir, I was just asking, because this laptop is older than my son, and using a newer one is much preferable," Soojin said.

"Your brain clearly isn't that old, because it's not able to comprehend simple instructions. Fix the laptop, and keep your oh-so helpful tips to yourself." Taehyung shot back, sarcasm dripping with each word.

"I was just trying to help the pretty lady here, sheesh." Soojin rolled his eyes slightly.

"By when will it be done?" Yuri hurriedly asked, noticing Taehyung's increasing anger.

"Two hours."

"Two hours?! To just switch it back on?"

"No, I can fix this in thirty minutes. The remaining time is for maybe a visit to the coffee shop?"

Soojin was shamelessly flirting with Yuri, giving her weird glances, and leaning towards her a bit too much. He even touched the sleeve of Yuri's dress, which was angering Taehyung more and more.

"If I hear one more word come out of your mouth, I will shoot your fūckīng tongue out, and you won't be able to speak another word." Taehyung growled, pushing Soojin and his hand away from Yuri.

Yuri widened her eyes and quickly stood in front of Taehyung when Soojin muttered a very audible curse, obviously directed towards Taehyung.

Taehyung brought out his favourite gun, but it was quickly pushed back inside his pocket by Yuri, who furiously shook her head.

"Just fix the laptop! I'll be back in an hour!" She called out, whilst still pushing Taehyung away from there.

Yuri heard a faint, 'But it'll be done by thirty minutes,' but chose to ignore it for now.

When they had reached the far end of the mall, Yuri stopped to catch her breath. Taehyung's furious gaze was still on the shop.

If Yuri wasn't there to stop him, Taehyung would've probably shot Soojin dead by now, that's how angry he was.

"What was that about?!" Yuri cried.

"This is why you shouldn't go anywhere alone," Taehyung said.

'People are really disgusting these days. I cannot let anyone snatch you away from me. You're very precious to me.'

"What do you mean?!"

"Look at your right sleeve," Taehyung muttered.

Yuri saw a scratch mark on her arm which she had failed to notice earlier. Her sleeve was unkempt, and was pulled down.

"That's what I mean." Taehyung fixed her sleeve, and ran his fingers over the scratch, gentle as ever.

Yuri stared at Taehyung. 'Was he the same person who was threatening to shoot someone's brains out? He's being so gentle right now. . .'

Last night's events played through her mind, which made her flinch away from his touch.

Taehyung stared at Yuri sadly. 'She's still upset. But she has every right to be.'

They stood like that for a while, Taehyung's arm outstretched, caressing the air where Yuri was standing before.

Yuri stared into Taehyung's eyes, wondering what was going on in his head.

She was still deeply affected by yesterday. How could he play with someone's feelings so easily? Was it fun, leading someone on, only to say that it was nothing but a mere joke at the end?

'Why is he being so gentle, so caring and protective with me, if he has no intention of being romantically involved with me?'

Taehyung, on the other hand, admired her beauty, falling deeper and deeper into her charms.

He was brought out of his reverie when Yuri cleared her throat before saying, "We have an hour, let's browse around for clothes."

Taehyung nodded, becoming more sure that there was no going back out of these feelings.

x x x

A / N

Shorter (and boring) chapter again.
But I hope y'all remember that there is always a (boring) calm before a (drama) storm :"D

pls don't leave me and this story, I promise that y'all won't regret sticking with me 🤧

I just roughly calculated that the story will be around 40 - 50 chapters long.
Is that long enough, or do y'all want me to add extra chapters in between, dedicated solely to TaeRi's past interactions?
(yes I made a ship name for them sksk)

I love y'all~
Vote and spammm <3

Ciao~

-xo-
:]