Blood and Roses || Lee Taeyong

Chapter 38 | "only for you"

Over the next few weeks, Chaerin slowly fell back to normal. It wasn't possible for her to forget what happened or to ever truly be okay with it, but she tried. With the help of the boys and Taeyong, she was able to grieve for her family and get back in touch with her life to the best of her ability.

She was still occasionally vulnerable, but she'd gone back to going on missions and training with the guys like normal. While she couldn't ever shake what happened, she was happy again.

"Hey Tae." She said, skipping her way into the garden one evening. "Whatcha doing out here?"

"Oh just... enjoying the night." He replied, sliding over to make room for her on their bench. "Which is even more enjoyable now that you're here."

"Mmhmm, back to bring flirty, huh?" She joked, nudging him in his side.

"Only for you." He joked back, giving her a light shove in return.

The two of them chuckled together before something on his hand caught her eye.

"What's that?" She asked.

"Whats what?"

"That. On your hand." She replied, pointing to a small black mark on his wrist.

"Oh, this?" He asked, raising his hand and holding it out to her. "New tattoo. Actually, I got it a few weeks ago but it's been healing."

She gently held his hand in hers and examined it, a smile instantly making its way onto her face.

"Is this...?"

"Yeah." He said with a nod. "I washed off the other things you doodled on my arm that night but I wanted to keep this one."

"Why this one?" She asked, looking at the small, scraggly attempt at a rose that she'd scrawled onto his skin. "I'm no artist."

"No you're not." He chuckled. "But it's special to me because you did it."

"You're really sweet, you know that?" She said, resting her head on his shoulder.

He let out a sigh, shaking his head with an amused chuckle.

"Only for you."

"You know, it's crazy." She said, sitting up straight. "If you told me a few months ago that one day we'd be sitting in the garden and just talking to one another without fighting, I'd say that your crazy."

"And I'd probably agree with that." He laughed out. "Oh how far we've come."

"What changed?" She asked. "I mean, I know you figured out that I wasn't going to listen to you or leave the gang, but this?" She held up his hand, rubbing her thumb over his new tattoo. "How did we get here?"

"I started to respect you." He mumbled.

"Really?"

"Yeah." He said with a nod. "When I met you, I just thought you were some superficial stubborn school princess who was just looking for some temporary entertainment."

She shot him a look but waited for him to continue.

"I didn't want you dragged into this if you couldn't handle it. But you proved me wrong." He said with a sigh. "I could see it in your eyes every time you stood up to me. There's a fire there. Courage and determination."

"I'm sure it was quite annoying." She chuckled.

"You're not wrong there, but it made me realize that it was only annoying since we were opposing one another." Taeyong replied with a sigh. "You weren't gonna back down but more than that, I misjudged you."