Winter Falls // Taegyu

11 | Anniversary -pt.2

After eating, we decided to stop by the shopping mall.

"Where do you wanna go Hyunnie? Today is all about you."

"Firstly, it's about both of us," Taehyun gave me a side-eye, "and secondly, I wanna go to build-a-bear!" Taehyun smiled at me before he grabbed my hand and took off through the large walkways of the mall.

I chuckled as he speed-walked past the abundance of stores, almost missing the one he intended on going into. He realized with a pause in his actions before turning around and taking long strides into the store.

An employee greeted us as we walked up to the counter. "Hello!" she bowed. "Welcome Build-A-Bear Workshop! How can I help you two?"

"Hi, we'll just get 2 of the stuff your own bears," Taehyun spoke.

"Okay.. That'll be an initial $70. Any accessories for your bear can be purchased in the post-stuffing process."

I nodded my head at the information before swiping my card at the register.

Seventy dollars for two bears is wild, but if that makes my Taehyunnie happy, then that's a price that I'll just have to pay.

"Okay, thank you! Just to the right over here is where you can choose which bears you want."

Taehyun and I walked over to a wall decorated with the skins of various animals. There were bears, cats, foxes —you name it, it was there.

Taehyun immediately bounced over to where the different breeds of cats were. "Ooh! I want that one!" He pointed to a skin of a striped fluffy gray cat.

He reached for the cat but was short a few inches, even on his tippy toes. Moments like this make me appreciate our height difference. Even though it's not very much of a difference.

I just stuffed my hands into my pockets and watched him struggle with nothing but adoration laced in my attentive stare. He's always been a bit hesitant to ask for help.

After multiple failed attempts, he gave up. I saw his hands ball up in tiny fists before he released the round-formed tension. He turned around to face me, looking like a wobbling penguin as he did so. His attention was diverted toward the ground for a moment until he lifted his head to look at me, a sheepish smile adorning his face.

"Hyung.. can you get that for me?"

I chuckled. "I almost thought you wouldn't ask."

Taehyun steps out of the way and I step forward, using my few extra centimeters' advantage to grab the fluffy unstuffed animal.

"Thank you, Gyu hyung~"

I stuffed my hands back into my pockets after fulfilling his request. "Of course, Hyun-ah."

"Which one do you want?"

Which one? Um....

"You choose for me."

Taehyun turned toward the wall decorated with a vast variety of candidates, looking for the best one. His eyes landed on the fluffy hide of a light brown bear with a circle of dark brown just around its right eye. He took it off of its hook and handed it to me.

"It reminded me of you." He smiled.

I smiled back, "Thanks, Bambi. ..So where do we go now?"

Taehyun grabbed my arm and led me to the next station. "Just follow these arrows hyung."

We followed the candy cane-designed arrows across the shop to a huge transparent container filled with stuffing.

"Okay, so what do we do with this?" I pointed to the large box.