Taste | Changbin

Chapter Seventy-Eight

A/N: Holy fucking shit, you guys are eating this story up. 5,000 reads is absolutely incredible and I cannot put into words how happy and thrilling it is to see you guys commenting and voting on my story. Thank you so much, it truly means the world to me. Enjoy <3

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The hazy bathroom light had disappeared beneath Lennon's eyelids. The tears on her face were wiped away with the gentle stroke of Changbin's thumbs. Chan stood in the doorway with a frown as he watched his friend pick Lennon up out of the bathtub. Turning to the side, he sidestepped the two of them out of the bathroom. 

Lennon's chest rose rhythmically up and down. Her lips were parted while she slept. The sight of her curled up into herself nearly brought Changbin to his knees. She had locked herself in the bathroom for two hours. He tried texting her phone, but she hadn't responded. He tried calling, but she never picked up. 

She spent two hours in the bathroom going through Twitter and Instagram. She read through every notification. By the time she finished with one tweet, there were five more. Calling her a whore, insisting she only had the job to use the boys, it never seemed to end. 

Her nose was too big, her teeth were too crooked, her eyes were too far apart on her face. They were like monsters; tearing, clawing, jabbing, and ripping into her flesh. Pointing out every insecurity and shoving it into her face. Even the things she hadn't thought about had been pointed out. New insecurities had been unlocked. 

She had fallen asleep with her phone in her hand. Twitter was still open when Changbin lifted her out of the tub. It slid out of her opened hand and slipped onto the bottom of the tub. While Changbin took her back to tuck her into one of the bunks, Chan grabbed the phone. 

He hated being nosey, but he couldn't stop himself from reading the notifications. His stomach swirled at some of the things people were saying. How could these people call themselves their fans? Fans were supposed to be happy for the guys. How could they nonstop tweet about the band members and create stan pages while shitting on every girl the guys got close to? It wasn't right. 

He turned off her phone and shoved it into his pocket. He'd keep it for now. If nobody took it, she'd just continue reading the hate. He understood from firsthand how addicting reading hate could be. It took him months before he could stop listening to the people that hated him. 

Changbin came out of the bunks and headed back towards the front of the bus. "What are we going to do, hyung? I don't know what to do. We fucked up, JYP is going to be pissed." 

"Lennon isn't going to get fired, if that's what you're worried about." 

"Look at her! She's miserable and I caused this! I should have been more careful. I should have never planned that picnic last night. I should ha-" 

"Hey," Chan placed a hand on his shoulder, "it's going to be okay. Things are shitty right now, but we're going to figure it out together. We always have figured things out together and we always will. We're always going to be there for each other, that's what family is about, right?" 

Changbin nodded and pursed his lips together. "I'm so scared, Chan. What if I fucked up our relationship for good? What if she decides she can't do this and she leaves? I don't want to lose her, I can't lose her, I love her! I can't," he blinked back tears. "She makes me the happiest guy in the world. I know we started out roughly and that was my fault, but I truly have fallen for her." 

"I know you have, we all know. We see how happy she makes you and nobody is going to take that away from her, I promise." Chan shook his shoulder a bit. "Remember when things like this have happened before? We've had rumors and bad things have happened, but there is always a rainbow after the storm. We'll take it day by day and get through it together." 

"Thank you." 

"Now let's go get some food. I heard that Felix somehow sweet-talked his way into using the hotel cafeteria. Apparently, they let him make brownies. He told me he was saving them for today's bus ride because he knows how cranky we get when we're on a bus." 

"You should have started with that." 

"I wanted to let you get your feelings out first." 

"Felix!" Changbin hissed at the blonde towards the front. 

Felix flipped backwards while sitting on the edge of the bench, "yeah?" His hair fell towards the ground. Since they had been in the sun a bit, his freckles were darker along his cheeks and nose. 

Lee Know sat across from him with a raised eyebrow. 

"Brownie me."