Forever, You are Young // BTS Adopted Book 1 ✅

Chapter 1

I slipped down the stairs, careful not to step on the creaks that screamed when I put pressure on the middle of them.

The fourth one to the bottom had always been the worst.

With my phone in hand, I neared the front door to make my escape. But as my fingers curled around the cold handle, someone from behind me gasped. I jumped slightly.

"Sujin!" the voice cried. I turned around to see a six-year-old boy in front of me.

Hurriedly, I put my finger to my lips. "Quiet!"

"Where are you going?" the boy asked. A frown replaced a smile that usually showed on the face of my younger brother, Chinhae.

"Out to practice."

I let go of the door handle and crouched down to match his height. He had thick, black hair that came to his ears in a bowl cut and round, crystal dark brown eyes in a color you'd expect would come from milk chocolate. His round and adorable face had cheeks that were squish-able, and constantly a quiet shade of pink. Of all the kids in the care center, he was the kindest, and my favorite by far.

Not that I was supposed to have favorites.

"Again?" he whined.

I nodded. "My dancing isn't getting any better, and I need a talent if I want any chance of getting adopted. I've told you enough times. No one wants me."

"Why don't they want you?"

"I'm too old." I stood and took a step closer to the door again. "Chinhae, I want to go. Did you follow me out of your room?"

His eyes searched around the room, as if his answer were hiding within the cream colored walls of the orphanage. "I couldn't sleep. It- it's adoption day."

"I've told you, you'll get adopted."

"I know," he answered, glancing at the floor. I raised my eyebrows. "That's the problem. If I leave, then you'll be all alone."

I gave an exhausted laugh. "I see where you're going. I'll be fine. I'm here to help Aecha." I gave his head a pat while he he glanced at me nervously. He didn't understand. "Now I really gotta go, Chinhae. Back to bed, okay?"

"What if you don't make it back before Aecha wakes up? She won't let you in the adoption line today."

"As I said, I'm not getting adopted anyway. Go work on that drawing you did for me the other day."

"The one with the house?"

"Uhm." I thought for a second. "Sure."

"But you said you didn't like that one," he reminded me in his small voice.

He was right. I had asked him to draw something for me a while ago, but it was a memory I wasn't exactly eager to recall.

With the want to proceed with my mission, I nodded. "It's okay. Do that one. But don't show it to me later, since I don't like it. Is that okay?"

"Okay!" He turned and skipped his way back up the stairs. I cringed at every step, hoping he wasn't going to wake Aecha up on the way to his room.

Then, I turned and stepped out the front door, into the cool morning air.

-----

"When you move your right arm down, lift your left leg. Right? So, all together," the dance instructor on YouTube told me. She went through six or seven steps at a time. I tried to follow along, but as I got to the last few steps I had to stop. I couldn't remember that many steps at a time.