Yunhee's backside was growing numb.
The fountain rim was not the most comfortable of seats, nor was the fine mist wetting the back of her hoodie as it spurted from the cherub's mouth. She supposed she could move, but she was under strict instructions to meet Jimin at this specific spot at ten on the dot.
That was thirty minutes ago.
Funny how when they'd awoken earlier, he'd told her to "be there or be square", but had the nerve to doze off again while she was rushing to take a shower. She was tempted to smack the drooling baby with a pillow, but Yunhee had left him to sleep a little more, knowing he'd get his arse in gear as soon as-
'Fuck, this stuff is heavy!'
Speak of the devil.
'What the hell is he up to?' Yunhee stifled a laugh when she saw Jimin nearly trip down the patio steps.
No wonder. She could barely see his face behind the heap of gardening tools piled high in his arms. But damn, did he look sexy in those jogging pants and that grey vest top.
Rising to her feet, Yunhee walked to help the panting man as he approached with two sledgehammers, a spade, and three industrial waste bags sailing in the wind like parachutes.
'Are we committing homicide, or going paragliding?' Yunhee ridiculed while taking a shovel off the stack to lessen the burden.
'I can think of someone I'd like to push off a cliff before burying.' Shooing her backwards with a wiggling foot, Jimin squatted and dropped the supplies before collapsing onto the fountain's perimeter wall. 'Thank God. My poor back is wrecked.'
'I'll give you a massage later.' Yunhee sympathetically drove her fingers through his messy, black hair, observing the tools he'd dumped on the grass while Jimin braced one foot over his knee and began to untie his laces. 'What are you doing now?'
'What does it look like, Little Legs?' he chuckled as he removed his shoe and chucked it aside.
Yunhee shook her head.
Jimin never failed to surprise her with his peculiar behaviour, but if this was his way of dealing with their current predicament, then so be it.
He was chomping at the bit, silently expressing his reluctance to put her in danger every time he looked into her eyes. She understood his internal struggles; having to sit back and watch Tae take her out on date after date was not easy. Especially when he was impatient to whisk her away himself.
Two days had passed since their last excursion to Dream Bean. Jimin had done his utmost to obey the rules as she anxiously chatted to Tae in the café, while his motivation was keeping her occupied with his come-to-bed-with-me eyes and wandering fingers.
At least there wasn't a certain blonde on shift to distract him this time.
For two prolonged hours, she and Tae made conversation while Yunhee kept a close eye on the Ridge Tree across the road. Unsettlingly, neither Hoseok nor Taehyung made an appearance.
They say the third time's a charm.
Tomorrow, the team would try again, but after that, Jimin wouldn't need to knock the ploy on the head because Yunhee was seriously ready to call it a day and suggest they come up with a contingency plan herself.
'You might wanna take that sweater off.'
Yunhee's thoughts materialised back to the present, the space between her eyebrows collapsing when Jimin - now completely shoeless - swung his legs over the fountain ledge and plunged them into the water.
'Why?' Yunhee asked, gripping the drawstrings of her hoodie as Jimin dipped his hand in and blindly patted along the slimy floor. 'It's freezing out.'
'You won't be freezing soon. Besides, if it gets ruined, I'll never hear the end of it,' he lightly chastised as his fingers halted in their quest. 'Ah, there it is.'
Ruined? Yunhee frowned as Jimin's arm sank deeper into the liquid depths.
His expression was determined, his bicep flexing as he tugged swiftly on whatever he'd found. The water ceased flowing from the cherub's lips, and then a stream of bubbles gurgled to the surface around his shins.
'Take your sweater off, and after my massage, I'll blow your mind with an orgasm,' Jimin instructed as the fountain started to drain. 'Oh, and grab a sledgehammer and get your arse in here.'
Still none the wiser to her boyfriend's hair-brained antics, Yunhee removed her jumper and shoes, rolled up the bottom of her jeans, and lifted one of the hammers before hoisting her leg into the basin.
'Careful, it's a bit slippy,' Jimin warned as he waded over. Hooking a palm beneath her elbow, he helped her step in while perversely ogling the peaks of her breasts in her strappy tank top. 'Phwoar, darling.'
'Jimin,' Yunhee whined, almost slipping on the greasy floor as she blew a strand of hair out of her eyes, 'what the fuck are we doing?'
Placing a pair of steadying hands on her waist, Jimin gently whirled her around to face the lichen covered cupid while he eyed it over her shoulder like some deadly opponent.
'I want you to smash its head off.'
Smash its head off? What the...? Oh...
A huge grin encompassed Yunhee's face as the water around their ankles filtered to nothing but a shallow pool.
Of course, Jimin had told her at the masquerade that his father had fitted the fountain when he was five and had dreamed of destroying the monstrosity ever since.
Maybe we should do that together someday.
On that starry night on Taehyung's balcony, when chemistry and universal law drew them together like a gravitational force, Yunhee never imagined that his heartfelt suggestion would one day become a reality.
All she knew was that if he kissed her there and then, she would die a happy woman.
Fuck Kim Taehyung and his piss poor timing.
'Let's do this.'
'That's my girl,' Jimin growled, securing her hips while she widened her stance to brace herself. 'Now, get a firm grasp on the handle, aim high and- whoa!' The mobster ducked when Yunhee swung at the angel's crotch and its tiny penis whizzed past his ear. 'You savage bitch! I said smash its head!'
'That is its head!' Yunhee argued as the mallet slid from her palms and plunked into the puddle.
Sniggering at her dirty mind, Jimin vaulted out of the reservoir to grab the other hammer before jumping back in. 'You might wanna stand back.'
Yunhee retreated three steps, appreciating the rippling muscles in Jimin's back as he winched the hammer sideways like a baseball bat. With an almighty roar, he swung it upwards at a curve, smacking the statue's grimy cheek so hard that its head decapitated, arced across the lawn, and crashed into a shrub.
'Aw, buggering bollocks!' Jimin thundered. 'I damaged my Pink-A-Boo azalea!'
Yunhee shimmied forward with her weapon, patting him sympathetically on the shoulder before saying, 'Shift, Park. I want another shot.'
Two kids, young and dumb.
That's what they were for the next two hours after the committed couple got to work. It was a wonder Jin didn't dash out to investigate the jubilant racket echoing across the estate; hysterical laughter disturbing the wildlife, shouts of warning as Jimin shielded her body from flying debris.
Yunhee felt alive and liberated, helping him obliterate the garden feature until there was nothing left but bags of rubble and dust particles glittering in the November sun.
Throwing his sledgehammer aside, Jimin squinted at her through his sand-covered lashes, wiping a smudge of dirt from her freckles as he tugged her closer. 'Guess what I'm thinking.'
'Hmm, that you did this as an excuse to shower with me?'
'No, that's a given.' Jimin coughed as he brushed earth out of her hair and wafted it away. 'I was thinking about my mother, actually. I can't change the past or bring her back, but if I can help others in her memory...'
'The association,' Yunhee smiled, recalling what he'd spoken of on their date, 'to help victims of domestic violence.'
'The Park Areum Association,' Jimin emphasised. 'I want to register the charity in the near future, find trustees to get the ball rolling. You said you'd help me, so...would you do me the honour, Miss Hahm?'
'Yes,' Yunhee choked, her heart swelling with pride at the use of his mother's name, 'there's nothing I'd like more.'
'Thank you, my darling,' Jimin whispered as he inclined his head.
Yunhee clung to him like a lifeline when he parted her lips with his.
Park Jimin: strong, brave, selfless. The only sturdy source of reliability in her tottering world. And as he thumbed away the rivulets generated by her tears; a rising tide of tenderness had her sinking into his meaningful kiss until she was sure she could no longer breathe.
'I'm so in love with you,' Jimin proclaimed, catching her sob of surprise with his mouth before feathering kisses across her jaw. 'Enthrallingly,' he added while kissing her nose, 'devotedly,' her eyes, 'unconditionally...sort of disgustingly, really,' he finished while searching the skies with a grimace.
'Disgustingly?' Yunhee's laughter tinkled across his dirt-ridden face.
'Yeah,' Jimin sucked on his teeth, though his irises sparkled with life above his reddening cheeks as he glanced down at her. 'I miss you when I'm not around you. It's like I'm suffocating and you're my only supply of air. That's pretty disgusting if you ask-'
'I love you, too,' Yunhee declared. 'Just a whole lot of simply.'
That smile.
That enchanting, devastating smile Jimin gave her before pulling her into a tight embrace. Yunhee couldn't pinpoint the exact moment it first made her insides quiver. It could have been the afternoon he'd taught her to shoot, or the night they'd run from the brothel after a gun wielding brawl.
It could have been as early as the day he kidnapped her.
She had no recollection. All she knew was that it had slowly but surely crept up on her, claiming her heart until it belonged to no one but him.
'I love you,' Yunhee repeated against his ear in the gentlest of whispers. Retracting out of their hug, she clutched the straps of his vest and examined his filthy clothing. 'Whaddya say we head inside for that shower, Mr. Park?'
'And massage?' Jimin posed with a diabolical grin.
Yunhee kissed him and took his hand. 'Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.'
*
Lipreading was not his forte, but any man and his dog could discern a declaration of love when they saw one.
I love you, too?
Long fingers tightening around the drapes, Taehyung remained rooted to the floorboards, his eyes eclipsed in shadows and his features set like black granite as he covertly spied on the loved-up couple down in the garden.
I love you, too.
The phrase would not leave him, twisting through his mind like a snake on desert sand, so much so that he couldn't recall how long he'd been standing at the window. It could have been hours since he'd awoken and opened the curtains to the bewildering scene of Jimin and Yunhee breaking up the fountain.
I love you, too.
At first, it was an amusing spectacle to behold. Taehyung surmised that Jimin's mission to demolish the water feature had everything to do with his bitch of a father. Their relationship had been a rocky one, after all.
But then Park Cad had the gall to inappropriately wipe grime from Yunhee's cheek. He'd stolen her lips until they were kissing like Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler, and now, the woman confessed her love while Jimin smiled at her like a fucking sap.
'Enough,' Taehyung hissed and withdrew from the windowpane, unable to bear the sight of her leading her "soulmate" up the patio steps.
Throwing on a pair of jeans and t-shirt, Taehyung departed the shithole of a bedroom that Jimin had placed him in, unlocking his phone as he walked along the landing.
There was already an email from Alexander's new PA sitting in his inbox. Their agreed contract was in the making, and he needed to confirm a time and place to sign on the dotted line in the coming weeks.
With a celebratory smirk, Taehyung sent a prompt reply to approve their next meeting while padding down the staircase.
'Have you ever given a massage in the shower?'
Taehyung's eyes snapped to the west wing corridor as he reached the ground floor.
'If we use oil in the shower, Jimin, someone will slip and crack their skull open. Probably me!'
Jimin and Yunhee were indoors, harping on about aching muscles and rewarding orgasms as they approached the front of the household. There was no telling how he would react if they came face-to-face, and so, backing away from the stairs, he slipped inside his next port of call and quietly shut himself out of sight.
Angling his head with a ticking temple, Taehyung inspected the red activation button beside the door before weaving his way through the minute apartment.
Cabinets stocked full of water, medical supplies, and food. Cash, weapons, flashlights, batteries, blankets, and clothing. There was even a cosy sofa bed snug enough for two and a discreet bathroom tucked in the corner.
The safe room was similar to his own, a haven he'd never had to use, but knew how to operate like the back of his hand. There was no doubt that Jimin had given Yunhee a 101 on how to control the integrated system should she find herself in here.
And find herself in here she would.
Shifting to the communication facility affixed to the wall, Taehyung flipped the panel to reveal an LED screen and keypad, but frowned when he saw the live feed of the main hall.
The sandalwood décor and black and white tiling were no more. Instead, a chilly canopy of cerulean swathed the foyer like a blanket of winter sky.
When a blinding sun appeared in his peripherals, Taehyung snarled in frustration, slapping his palms against the wall in preparation for what was to come.
Every darn minute of every tiresome day beneath this Godforsaken roof, he yearned for bygone memories of Yunhee and her ex, but now was not the time. His priority was preparing the safe room for-
'It's only been a couple of months since we became official,' his doppelgänger's voice resonated around him. 'There are so many things we don't know about each other yet.'
'Tae, it's alright. These things take time.'
Taehyung's head whipped up when Yunhee's mellow cadence reached his ears.
Gone was the monitor and keypad, replaced with the mesmerising woman perched on a park bench beneath an ocean of blue sky and brilliant sunlight. The ends of her hair were awry in the breeze, her brown eyes and button-nose peeking at him from between her woolly hat and matching scarf.
'Wait, here me out.' Taehyung's brows flew north, surprised by the urgency in Tae's voice as he sandwiched her tiny hand between his elongated palms. 'I know I'm not perfect, and you're probably starting to see that it's hard for me to open up to people.'
'I am indeed,' Yunhee smiled through a cloud of condensation, 'but I figured we could work on that.'
'I want to, baby, I do,' Tae insisted while squeezing the life out of her fingers, 'there are silly, insignificant things you're going to learn, but the important things - the things you have every right to know about - they're harder for me to share-'
'Did you murder someone?' Yunhee teased, earning a beguiled snort from Taehyung.
In another world, yes. Many people, in fact.
'No,' Tae chuckled as he playfully tweaked her nose, 'it's not that bad.'
Hmm, Taehyung mused, is he talking about being forced to have sex with a woman after being raised in a mafia-infested environment, or coming back with a vengeance to embellish money from dear Jiminie?
'Whatever it is, you can tell me when you're ready.' Taehyung felt his loins burn when Yunhee dotingly fiddled with the tips of his fringe. 'I'm not going to push you. Not yet, at least.'
'Christ, I don't deserve you.'
No, you do-fucking-not, Taehyung sneered as Tae shoved the heel of his palms into his eyelids and gave them a rub.
'I...I guess what I'm asking for is your trust until I can get my shit together.' His throat was gruff and coated with gravel, but Taehyung knew he meant every word as he rasped, 'I would never hurt you, Yunhee. I want you in my life. It's sad, but I think I may actually need you...'
At least we're on the same page about one thing, Taehyung mentally spat at his meagre twin as Yunhee chewed on her lip and considered his plea. Come on, precious. Say something that'll please me.
'Well...'
Yes? Taehyung reared to his full height when Yunhee gave pause.
'I believe you're very much worth the wait, Kim Taehyung.'
'Thank you.' Lifting her hand to his lips, Tae's eyes fluttered shut while he kissed the back of her gloves. 'I love you.'
Taehyung almost coughed up a lung hearing the admission. They were not his words, but as the alien pronouncement leapt around his dysfunctional brain, an unusual emotion tried to revive the lifeless blood in his veins.
'I'll always love you,' Taehyung found himself murmuring along with his clone.
'You promise?' Yunhee whispered, her cheeks as red as the dress he longed to see her in.
'Until the end of time.'
A deafening thump perforated the affectionate moment, and it was only when Taehyung's fist began to sting that he realised he was the cause of it.
Breathing erratically, he blinked at the LED screen inches from his face, bitter to see Jimin and Yunhee kissing at the bottom of the staircase, relieved, however, that the vision was dwindling and taking with it the lying woman and her broken promise.
Love? Until the end of time?
Yunhee had shattered her end of the bargain. She'd left a wretched version of himself and fallen straight into the arms of her pitiful abductor. And yet, despite learning of The Dark Energy, she still couldn't see where she truly belonged.
Regaining his composure, Taehyung centred his focus on the keypad and entered Jimin and Yunhee's favourite date to gain access to the security settings.
The outbound alert to Jimin came first. He switched it to his phone number so that he would receive the notification instead, before disabling the function to call the police, along with all speed dials to Jin and Namjoon.
Next, he altered the six-digit code to give him complete control over the room, and hinder Yunhee's escape.
She wasn't going anywhere without him.
***
#soon
11th March 2022