Fragile Longing (Taekook)

Chapter Eight

Today my forest is dark,

The trees are sad and all the butterflies have broken wings......

......................... ........................... ............................

"Oppa.."

"Hmm" Taehyung replied without taking his eyes off the barbeque grills.

"I am gonna earn a looooot of money one day."

He smiled, then fliped the meat over for better cooking."And what are you gonna do with it."

He can feel her head lying on his shoulder now. The night was getting more colder. The breeze getting his hair messy. Jimin and Younjun's voice can be heard even from where he was standing. They had already too much drink. Their loud laughter and giggling at every words was proof enough for him. Taehyung looked once at them before ruffling his sister's hair with one hand while flipping the meat over again.

"I am gonna buy a biiiiiig home. A really big one."

"And you are gonna stuff it with pet cats?"

"NO! Yes!..Maybe but I am gonna buy one. " She came before him sitting on the stool beside the stove looking at her brother with blue eyes where innocent and determination were shining through. He got amazed for a moment like every time. His mother's eyes were just like this. She doesn't remember their parents. He doesn't much either.

But times like this, when she looks at him like this, a face appear on his mind. Kind, affectionate, Happy...and everything he dreamt of sometime. Rare times when nightmares don't visit his dreams to torment him.

"Oppaaa, you are not listening to me." She whined while stomping her foot on the ground.

"Ok ok, I am listening."

She smiled before sitting in a firm serious posture. "I am gonna buy a big house and we are all gonna live in it. Granny, Jimin Hyung, Younjun, Youngi Hyung.....and you. I will plant garden beside the house where there will only be roses, then I will built a swimming pool where we all will swim in the weekends, I am gonna built a adjacent garage for you and...."

She paused making him look at her in confusion. The nonstop blabber machine never stop unless..."And what?"

She smiled at him again. "And I am gonna buy a really big soft bed for you. So that when you will sleep, nothing can disturb you again."

He got stunned. He thought nobody knew about the nightmares that keep him awake at night. He thought...but he should've known better. After all this was his sister. The only person who knows him thoroughly.

"Ok do that. But before that.." He wiped his hand on the towel before going in front of her. "Just make sure that no man other than those idiot enter that house. You know what I mean right? No boyfriend before 60."

"Oppaaaa" She punched his shoulder making him wince in pain or at least he tried to fake it before getting another. "You are unbelievable" With that she stomped off from there leaving a chuckling Taehyung behind. But then slowly his smile got wiped away as Yoona's word settled in. His sister was still naive to think that a bed can solve his nightmares. And for as long as he is alive, he will try his best so that these naiveness never vanishes.

Cause the terror he went through, the darkness that resides inside him, the urge that make him want to just throw himself over the edge every freaking second...it shouldn't effect his sister. He has always made sure of it. And he will keep making sure if it. Until the day he is not there to make sure of it anymore.

"She doesn't know it yet? And you are not planning to tell her."

Taehyung looked at the old woman with a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. "It's good as long as she doesn't know it. "