My Temptation - KTH FF (under rewrite)

20.

"Taehyung, don't hold me like that, I can stand up on my own."

Taehyung snickered, mocking her as he nodded. "I'm sure you can but I'm not exactly sure you'd share my need for speed, you'd probably fall over."

"Then why are you even risking it?" She asked, ripping her hand from his. "Seriously, I can go to a hotel for a night and—"

"No hotels," Taehyung decided abruptly. "Someone from Bangtan or their little groupies might see you there. I'm pretty sure they're all out partying so we go to my room, I have a personal bathroom attached in so you can shower and won't have to worry about anyone walking in."

That made her waver a bit, on one hand, a hot shower sounded nice. On the other, what... was she sixteen years old or something? She staggered back a bit, "Yeah, as tempting as taking a shower and hitting the hay sounds, I think I'm going to pass on this whole thing— the sneaking in thing. So what if they see me at a hotel? Don't they like— I don't know, tolerate me now or something like that? Whatever it was that they said."

Taehyung hesitated and it made her chest ache with worry. She pretended not to notice as he contemplated and bit his lip. "No worries, I can order a ride to the nearest one or something. This seems like it'll be too much trouble in the morning and I know I'm going to be hungover, I don't want to deal with having to sneak out while battling nausea and a migraine."

Even in her drunken state, she could see Taehyung's conflict. "Look, it's fine! This seems way overly complicated," She noted. "Seriously, we—" She stopped speaking to motion between the two of them. "We are adults. Not children. If we have to hide— that just seems like overkill, do they hate me that much?"

"I know that," Taehyung frowned. "And no. They don't hate you."

"Do you know that though? Because from the way I'm looking at it— it seems like I'm just a dirty little secret and—"

"You aren't, Lor. Don't say that."

"I am though! I'm like the stray cat you fed as a kid but kept as a secret from your parents so they don't shoo it away!"

Taehyung cocked his head at her, "What? I didn't have a cat as a kid?"

"You know what I mean!" When he just stared blankly at her, she frowned and rolled her eyes. "You know, when there's a stray animal and you want to feed it but can't because then your parents will lecture you and say something like 'Don't feed it, it will follow us home'..."

Taehyung just continued staring at her blankly. "And you're comparing yourself to the stray cat? I'm sorry, I'm still not totally getting why. I mean you do kind of act like a grumpy cat sometimes and I—"

"You know that's not what I mean! This isn't the time for jokes!" She was seriously sobering up while scolding him. "I'm like the stray cat because I have to sneak into your apartment which I guess is fine— a weird boundary or whatever considering how much your friend group is known to get around but who am I to judge? But I can't even go to a hotel in case one of them sees me. Like really?"

Taehyung sighed, leaning his head against the wall."It's not a super weird rule," He muttered. "You're right, it's fine. I'm just being stupid. Come on, I'll just text them all an explanation and if they're mad about it, well— I can deal with that. Staying in a hotel by yourself isn't safe and I'm not too keen on hotel beds."

She lingered, not really accepting his outstretched hand to her. Why did this feel like a weird test of some sort? Still, she could deal with being uncomfortable with a walk of shame in the morning, what she couldn't deal with was some random druggie seeing the hotel room she was sleeping in. "Okay," She reluctantly agreed, following him inside their apartment lobby.