"Okay, you can open your eyes now." Tae finally removed his hands so Y/N could see the surprise he worked so hard on making perfect for her.
"Tae you did this?" Her eyes wide as she took everything in.
"I did, do you like it?" He was nervous, it wasn't like the two of them hadn't gone out on dates before but this was different. Tae had done this himself plus this date wasn't going to be a standard one, this was where he would strip himself down and become emotionally vulnerable in a way he never imagined he would with another person.
"Tae are you kidding me....this is so beautiful."
"I'm glad you like it my love." Tae gently brushed her hair around one shoulder so he could kiss along the curve of her neck. "Now go sit down, I want to take a picture of you."
Y/N gave a nod and Tae chuckled at how she blushed. "Look out at the lake, I want to take one of you enjoying the view." Taehyung moved closer as she got comfortable on the blanket, the soft glow of the tealights he made sure Jungkook lit before they arrived cast beautiful patterns across the blanket. She looked like a fucking angel....his angel.
There was soft click from behind her as Taehyung took the picture, she smiled and waited for him to join her as she looked over the lake.
"You look adorable." He sat down beside her and held the camera closer so she could see.
"I can't believe you did all this." She smiled, turning her attention back to the stunning view. A deep sense of serenity overcame her as she stared in rapture at the expanse of blue that lay before her. Rays of lights danced delicately across the water, birthed from the afternoon sun that both limited her sight and made the view all the more beautiful.
"I always believed that lakes are like the finest of mirrors, never showing exactly what is above, but converting it to a image so beautifully smudged and broken. The weeping willow, the clouds above, all become a Monet - all free for the looking. Sure, it's transient, changing by the day, but that's what makes it all the more precious. I can walk here every day and always it will be both different and the same." Taehyung spoke softly, his arm wrapping around Y/N's waist and pulling her closer.
"Tae that was beautiful, I didn't know just how poetic you could be." She teased as he placed his chin on her shoulder.
"You'd be surprised at what I can do sweetheart." He playfully nipped the lobe of her ear as his long legs came around her so she could lay back against his chest.
"Tell me your story Taehyung....please." Y/N desired to know more, she wanted the connection she already felt for him to run deeper and knowing his story would do that.
"I loved my family, we didn't have much but that didn't matter because the most important thing to us was each other. My parents had their own farm, we worked the land and my job was to look after the horses."
"You ride?" Y/N turned her head so she could look back at him, Taehyung gave a nod and smiled.
"Yeah but I haven't done it since my family.....since they...." Tae swallowed the lump in his throat and suddenly he felt soft lips against his cheek.
"Take your time Tae, I'm here." Y/N gently squeezed his thigh and he smiled....she was simply breathtaking.
"Just one touch from you and I know I'm safe my love." Tae nuzzled her neck, inhaling her scent deeply as he felt the lump in his throat vanish. "I had a younger brother, his name was Deok-su. I was nine years older, he was my best friend and always knew how to wrap me around his little finger." Taehyung laughed, recalling memories of all the times Deok-su would look up at him with innocent wide eyes. "Hyung can you fetch me the cookies, hyung can we play a game, hyung can you take me riding." Y/N chuckled as he raised his voice to imitate his brother.
"This is him." Taehyung opened an album on his phone and turned it around for Y/N to see.
"Tae he's adorable, you look so cute together. I can tell he means the world to you, why didn't you tell me about him before?"
Taehyung fell silent for a few seconds before answering. "He's dead, so what's the point in talking about him anymore."
Y/N felt her heart break, she knew something bad had happened to his parents but she never knew that Taehyung lost a brother too.
"Every Summer the four of us would go camping, it was family tradition but one year everything changed. I went to get wood for the fire, Deok-su was taking a nap and my parents were pitching the tent."
~
Taehyung's POV
A small way east the river drops in close to the hillside and runs deep and blue. The water is cool and refreshing, for it has slipped twinkling down from the mountains by the stones. The water is lined with trees, pine, birch, redwood, fresh and green with every spring, carrying by their roots the debris of last winter's flooding. I inhale the air, thick with late spring's presence. The sky has vanished almost completely, only a few fragments of blue remain. The air is rich with the fragrance of leaves and damp. Even after the rains have passed, the soil remains wet, slowly releasing its milky white mist. As I enter the daylight of the rivers clearing, the powerful rays of the sun strike me, but despite this the breeze has a pleasant coolness and the bright colours contain the softness of the time just after sunrise. The sound of running water in the river has a relaxing, hypnotic quality, I want to stop and stay here, I just want time to stand still. The leaves in the wind are like sails without boats, carefree and joyful. Their colours sing to the blue of the sky and the green grass below. I imagine myself as tiny as an ant, riding one. The leaf would feel like paper, yet shine as church glass. My fingers would curl about the edge. Gravity pulling, air pushing and me just along for the ride. The branches of the many different trees reach their limbs across the sky, clouds passing as ships above. They appear is if brought into our world by oils upon canvas, by an artist who knows there is both beauty and order in chaos. For they reach this way and that, the buds now open, gifting their new foliage to the community. They are not straight, nor curved, yet organic and each supporting perfect blossom amid the green. I think of them as arms rather than branches, and perhaps that's why I love them so, the trees, deeply rooted and stretching upward, drinking in both sunshine and rain in equal measure. The bird on the branch moved its head from side to side like it was clockwork, like there was a switch in its brain that flicked to choose the direction to look but not the speed of the motion.
I collected more wood for the fire eager to return back to camp and eat, hopefully get an early night before our hike tomorrow. I look up when birdsong interrupts my thoughts, in a tree above I see it....every turn was rapid, almost too fast to see. But in the moments it was still I could see the glossy black eyes set in the plumage of an impossibly bright blue. It was the kind of blue that belonged on an artist's palate, yet better than that, it was so brilliant as to almost look like a source of light rather than a reflection of the sun's rays. The bird was small too, no bigger than a navel orange but far from round. It was shaped like an English robin, with the wide breast, but the tail feathers and wings elongated the body, giving it an elegance. It had a short beak, but curved and strong like a wolf claw. After singing a few notes it spread it's wings and in a flurry of blue it ascended to the tree tops and out of view. I sighed, 'To be a bird,' I thought, 'how nice that would be.' I retrained my eyes to the woodland path ahead, I didn't want to keep my family waiting so decided to head back.
"Mom....dad? Deok-su?" I called out as I stepped through the clearing to our makeshift campsite.
The wood from my hands dropped with a heavy thud, the scene before me almost stopping my heart. The numbness pounding in my brain, the salty tears that flowed unchecked from my eyes, the shear nothingness that now took hold of my soul threatened to engulf me entirely. My legs buckled, knees sinking into the blood sodden earth.
"Taehyung...."
"Dad." My voice broke as I crawled across the ground, taking my father in my arms once reaching him.
"Attacked.....some kind of creature....t.....tt.....tried to fight but t....to st....strong."
"Dad it's okay, I'll get all of you to the hospital....it'll be fine....everything will be fine."
The silence shattered my heart, to look down and have my father's cold lifeless eyes staring back at me would forever haunt my memories. I gently ran my hand over his weathered face, fingers shaking as I closed his eyes before stumbling to my feet.
"Deok-su, Mom!" I let my feet lead the way, stumbling over the debris left behind by the attack and pushing open the tent flap only to let out at anguished scream at the sight of Deok-su and my mother torn apart.
I cried as if my brain was being shredded from the inside. Emotional pain flowed out of my every pore. From my mouth came a cry so raw, I stumbled back and grabbed onto the tent so that my violent shaking would not cause me to fall and from my eyes came a thick flow of tears. We expect to bury our parents one day, but never our younger siblings. The whole world had vanished for me, now there was only pain enough to break me, pain enough to change me beyond recognition.
~
Y/N couldn't stop her tears from falling as Taehyung sobbed behind her, she wanted to hold him.....she needed to comfort him.
"Taehyung." She whispered, her heart breaking in a million ways she didn't think was possible as she turned around and pulled him close.
"Please don't let me go." Taehyung sobbed as Y/N ran her fingers through his hair.
"Never, I promise."