Music Lovers (Taennie Version)

6🎆

Driving with the windows down, the smells of pine and sweat and sunbaked dirt braided into the wind, Jennie admires the way the highway outside of Gimhae curves and slices into the side of the mountains. The shaggy treetops tower on one side and unfurls beneath on the other. She has never seen anything quite like it.

The man next to her in the driver's seat is a rare sight too. He has the kind of forearms that authors could spend full pages on, thick with muscle and dusted with fine dark hair. He hums along to the trot song on the radio, fingers drumming on the steering wheel and the clutch. 

When Jennie climbs out of the truck at their destination, she can't help but gasp, a dramatic, audible reaction. 

"Bet you don't have views like this back in Seoul," he says proudly.

Her eyes scan the area, stunned by the view and a house that sits on the ridge, overlooking the valley below them. At its far side, the sun sinks toward the horizon, coating everything in a honeycomb gold that might just be her new favorite color.

"It's gorgeous," she sighs.

Jennie looks over her shoulder to find the man pulling a cooler from the bed of the truck along with a blue moving blanket. He sets the cooler down and shakes out the blanket, gesturing for her to sit. She tucks her skirt against her thighs and lowers herself to the ground, just as he pulls two canned beers from the cooler and drops down beside her.

"It is beautiful," he agrees. They gaze over the valley again, purples and pinks swarming across it as a shadow unspools from the horizon. Trillions of gnats and mosquitoes dance in the dying light, nature's own sparkling ballet. "Except for the bugs."

They share a laugh, his low, pleasant sound rumbles through the ground. Jennie gets that shot of adrenaline that any laughter from somebody else sends through her, but the drunken-butterflies-in-the-stomach feeling is obnoxiously absent. She adjusts her legs a little closer to his, lets their fingers brush as she accepts a beer from him. 

Nothing.

"You know, Jennie," he starts. "Eyes talk."

"What do you mean?"

"You were staring at him the other night when we had dinner together."

"Just when he wasn't looking," she reasons.

"Funny. He was doing the same thing," he reveals, with a hint of sadness.

Jennie gulps. "Well...thanks for bringing me here...Jiyoung."

~~~~~~~

Let us back up a bit and explain how Jennie and Jiyoung ended up on another date. After working a couple of hours in the studio, Jennie and Tae had called it a day. Just as she was leaving, an angelic man with dimples and gemstone eyes was entering the music/book store.

"Hey Jennie! Hey Tae!"

"Jiyoung," Tae said, somewhat stiffly, his chin dripping in greeting. It's not like there were daggers in his eyes, but he didn't seem happy to see him.

Jiyoung was facing Jennie now, his smile widening. "I thought I'd find you here."

Jennie had read once that sunflowers always orient themselves to face the sun. That's what being near Kim Taehyung was like for her. There could be a raging wildfire racing toward her from the west and she'd still be straining eastward toward his warmth.

So despite having Jiyoung's attention, of course she looked straight toward Tae. 

"Hey," Jiyoung said, "Any chance you're free right now? I could give you that tour we talked about?"