17.

| 𝐦𝐢 𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐚. |

Yuri P.O.V

I woke up the next morning with a start when I heard something fall down.

Pulling myself upright, I turned around to see Taehyung frozen in his spot, his heavy, leather belt fallen at his feet. He looked guilt-stricken and horrified that he had woken me up.

I sighed, plopping myself back in my previous position, trying to get some more sleep, since the sun had just risen, at least that was what I could make out from the dim sunlight entering the room through the shades.

I don't know for how long I had slept, or what had happened while I was asleep, but the next time I woke up, sunlight was flooded in the room, and Taehyung was sitting on his bed, a bandaid on both his knuckles.

I sat up straight once again, rubbing my eyes, body feeling a tiny bit sore.

"Oh, you're up. Good. Get ready, let's leave. We'll stop for breakfast on the way. Or," he glanced at his watch, "brunch would be more appropriate."

"What happened to your hands?" I asked bluntly.

"Oh, this?" He waved his fingers a bit, but immediately regretted it, wincing. "It's nothing."

"It's obviously not nothing," I said, walking closer to grab his hands and examine the damage beneath the bandaids. It looked as if he had had thrown a few more punches since yesterday's encounter.

"Why are you getting hurt all the time, recently? I've noticed this past week you've gotten a new injury everyday, which I've got to treat. If I didn't know any better, I would assume that you purposely choose to get injured so that you can spen—"

I abruptly stopped in between my sentence, and dropped his hands.

"Do you think I'm a fool to purposely get hurt, and cause pain to myself?" Taehyung demanded, but I had a feeling that he did do all that.

Why, I didn't wanna know. It would only add fuel onto the flame.

Wait a minute.

Was I mad at him, or not?

God, I was hopeless.

I don't even remember how I'm supposed to be feeling towards Taehyung, and the fact that I just woke up, on an empty stomach wasn't helping.

"Don't know about yourself, but you're definitely causing pain to someone else," I muttered under my breath.

"What was that?"

"I'm hungry, let's leave soon," I said, before walking into the bathroom to refresh myself.

Ten minutes later, we were walking out of the shabby place wearing the same clothes as yesterday, while passing the creepy receptionist, who just glared at us, but didn't dare to say anything.

I noticed that his face had a few shadows, which weren't present yesterday.

Before I could examine the marks closely, I was pulled along with Taehyung, who clearly wanted to get out of the place, and go as far away as possible, as soon as possible.

I didn't comment on his firm grip, as I had no wish to be scrutinised any further by the receptionist's shameless eyes, and wanted to be shot of him, and the place.

It just had an unpleasant vibe.

The same couldn't be said, however, about the place we stopped for brunch; it was a pretty little cafe with wooden furniture, and climber flowers allowed to grow on the walls and ceiling.

I was more than happy with the delicious food they offered, and didn't mind the slightly burnt taste on one of my pancakes.

I suspected that it was because the young cooking lady, who took our order due to a shortage in staffing, wasn't pleased with my snarky comments about her flirtatious attitude towards Taehyung.

I just told her to do her job, but I suppose she took offence and accidentally burnt the biggest pancake.

But that didn't deter my joy; I was surrounded by the most beautifully magenta flowers, and I was in my element.

I've always liked flowers, but any flower ranging from the deepest shade of magenta, to the palest pink took the crown for me.

Pink shades just looked so pretty on the flowers, enhancing their beauty.

"I thought you were hungry?" Taehyung asked, shaking me of out of my reverie. I stared down at my half-empty plate.

"I am," I said defiantly, shoving a forkful of pancake into my mouth. Taehyung smiled, shaking his head, averting his gaze overhead.

"Beautiful, aren't they?" He asked, nodding towards the flowers.

"Yeah,"

'like you,' I wanted to add, but decided to hold my tongue.

As we left the cafe, having satisfied our stomachs with delicious food, I looked back at the flowers one last time, before settling myself back in the car.

After about half an hour of driving along the peaceful environment, I realised that we were driving further away from where we had come.

Then, it hit me that we were shifting.

"Where are we going, this time?" I asked Taehyung, who looked sure of himself whilst driving to this unknown location.

"It's a surprise, you'll see when we reach." He sent a wink in my direction.

I let out an exasperated sigh. "Fine, be that way."

"Okay, well, I'll just tell you a little about it. It's. . . a place I had been wanting to go, for a while now, because, uh, it's. . . unique. And, uh, the house is really beautiful, and I've heard that. . . the neighbourhood is also very pretty."

I hummed in response, my mind automatically creating various types of houses that Taehyung would love and favour. He wasn't someone who demanded the world to lie at his feet, just because of his position, and didn't like showing off much.

Unless you count the times he playfully teased me about his vast richness.

Nevertheless, he adored luxury as much as the next person, just in decently moderate amounts. This humbleness of his is something that I've always loved, among other things.

However, the mental image my mind had created wasn't even close to what I was witnessing; it was everything I wanted and more.

The house was a multi-storey one, as usual, but this one was much more spacious. All the interiors were modern, and beautifully made, giving the place a homely vibe and aesthetic.

The outer part of the house was like any other building I had seen, but the surrounding areas were what made it prettier; in the distance, I could see a park filled with cherry blossom trees, and that view in itself made me love the place even more.

The previous three houses didn't have any flowering plants in its vicinity, so getting it now, especially cherry blossoms, was a pleasant surprise.

All our furniture, utensils, luggage, everything was arranged neatly where they all belonged, so none of us had much work to do about it.

"I like this place," I said, after dropping my things onto the floor to have a better look inside. This place had more paintings, and decorative pieces, so I instinctually warmed up to it.

"I told you. As you can probably make out, I put in a tiny bit more effort on the interiors of this house," Taehyung said, leaning against the white marble countertop, looking around, silently appreciating his own efforts.

Or at least, that was what I thought.

"Ah, Tae, you're here, awesome."

The familiarly cheerful voice of Hoseok reached our ears. We watched as he came down the stairs, eyes scanning Taehyung.

"Okay, you look fine. That's a relief. And, you, Yuri." He nodded in my direction in acknowledgement.

"Everything went smoothly?" Taehyung asked, referring to the shifting.

"No problems, none at all. I must say, that kid you found is a real gem, he's been very helpful," Hoseok said.

Taehyung smiled. "I'm happy to hear that."

"Also, he left this," he gestured to a USB laying on the countertop Taehyung was leaning against previously, which I had failed to notice before, "saying that it's for your eyes only. Yoongles thought that it was suspicious, but we didn't touch it."

Taehyung picked it up, examining it, before smiling again. "Thank you for that."

As he put the USB into his pocket, Hoseok asked, "Will you be able to work now? According to what I've heard, you had to fight."

Taehyung nodded, holding his bandaged hands up, causing Hoseok to grimace.

"So, no work?"

"I'm afraid that's not possible," I spoke up, walking forward. "He needs lots of rest, with minimal physical activity for a few days, unless he wants to risk his health."

"Now, we don't want that, do we? Alright then, Tae, don't be stubborn and listen to her for once, take proper rest. Yoongles and I can manage a while without you," Hoseok said.

Taehyung rolled his eyes. "Rude."

"Your stubborn āss needs a firm hand at times, don't blame him, he's doing this for you," I said, supporting Hoseok.

"You both can't team up against me like this!" He feigned offence, hand on his chest.

I laughed along with Hoseok, who patted his shoulder before going back up to his room.

I took Taehyung's hand and pushed it gently, urging him to move forward and go to his own room.

"You've had a very eventful week, you need all the rest you can get. Now, go."

Taehyung stared at the hand I had held for a moment, before looking at me again, contemplating something. He then nodded slowly, obediently, and went upstairs.

I shook my head, smiling.

'Good boy.'

x x x

A / N

Filler chapter ugh, I dislike them, but they're necessary, as they help the plot to progress
for weird reasons, the filler chapters have the most beautiful writing, and idek why that happens but because of that, I just can't hate my filler chapters jsjjs

Also, I've added chapter names, so do check them out!

Vote and spam </3

Ciao~

-xo-
:]