The Secret Admirer (A Kim Taehyung fanfic)

8. Ice cream

As soon as we reached the front garden, I whipped off my heels and wriggled my toes in the moist, green grass in freedom. I sighed and smiled and skipped to Taehyung who was already walking ahead. I marched in happiness next to him and he chuckled at me.

"Aren't you tired?" He asked, as he fidgeted around for something in his pocket.

"Nope." I said happily, I was glad because I didn't have to wear my heels anymore and the pain from dancing in them was wearing off.

"Good." And with that he grabbed some cash out of his pocket, interlocked his fingers with mine and ran off, dragging me behind him.

My steps became heavier and heavier as the pain started to build up again.

"We're here." He panted and stopped so quickly that I jolted forward and back to his side.

In front stood the ice cream parlour, it wasn't a very big one and it wasn't fancy, but it was special. Taehyung's mother used to bring us here every Saturday when we were kids. I would alway have triple chocolate fudge and he loved his funky monkey, and before we took a bite from our ice creams, we would always give the first bite to each other.mThat's the way it always happened. I smiled at the thought. I'm glad this place was still open for all these years, and I was glad it's open this late, I glanced at my phone and it was 00:57.

I entered through the door, and the little bell rang, Taehyung followed me in and went to order our treat.

"One triple chocolate fudge and one funky monkey." He told the cashier.

My head shot up and he looked at me at the same time, we smiled at each other, he still remembers. The cashier nodded and went in to prepare our ice creams, Taehyung came back to join me. I looked through the clear table and down to my feet, which I stretched after all the running, still smiling about our childhood.

Our desserts had arrived and we scooped up the first spoon, I looked at him but he was already looking at me. I pushed my spoon forward to his mouth and he took the first bite. He fed me the first bite of his and then we both continued eating our ice creams. I smiled to myself. Just like old times, little Areum and Taehyung with their ice creams. We didn't speak to each other, and we were the only ones in the store. But I didn't mind, the silence was a compliment to us reliving our memories.

Half my ice cream was left, I looked at him hopefully, "Could you.." I started but he already knew what I was going to ask for.

"Go on then." He replied still spooning his ice cream into his mouth.

I smiled at him and emptied my content into his bowl. I pushed my bowl to the side, and swung my feet while I waited for him to finish. It was already 01:06, and my eyes began to slowly shut. I couldn't fall asleep now. I still had to get home.

I forced myself awake, Taehyung had done so much for me today and basically everyday, the last thing I wanted was for him to carry my heavy weight all the way home. He was finishing his last spoonfuls while I was gradually dozing off. He sat there for a while.

"Are you done?" I asked, my eyes still closing.

"Yeah," He said, "But I want to stay here awhile."

Those were the last words I heard him speak before I couldn't fight my sleep any longer and fell into a slumber. The bell that was knocked when we opened the door, was still ringing and got quieter as my eyes shut close.

Those blue eyes flashed into my head again. Jeong. Why couldn't I get him out of mind? Was I falling for him? Of course, I wasn't. I'm not stupid enough to get hurt, he probably doesn't even see me in that way.

But then I remembered his lip brush against mine. I wasn't mad at him, nor was I upset. It shocked me, the fact that I didn't mind it. Did I want it to happen? I didn't, right?

'You look beautiful today, Areum.'

His voice rang in my head. I was falling for him. I didn't want to, I hated the idea of it. But I couldn't do anything about it, whenever I saw his dazzling eyes I would always fall for him harder.

"Areum?" Taehyung broke my sleep and my eyes opened to see him with my phone.

I didn't mind at first but when I realised that the pink paper was missing, my eyes widened, panicking. I snatched my phone of him, and examined the back, my see through phone case didn't hold the pink paper anymore. I removed my phone from the case and searched everywhere for it.

"Looking for this?" Taehyung questioned, he had his cunning smirk on his face with the paper between his two fingers.

"Yah, give it back!" I tried reaching for the note but he got up from his seat and had already reached the door.

I ran after him, my legs weren't as I tired anymore after all the stretching I did while he engulfed his ice cream. Eventually I caught up with him, but he had already begun reading it. He stopped in the middle of his tracks and I ran into him.

"Give it back, Taehyung, please." I begged him.

"When did you get this?" He asked.

I gulped, I told him everything and he listened to me throughout my explanation.

"I think it's stupid though, I'll just throw it away." I said as I reached for the paper.

"No, you shouldn't, maybe it is someone who purely loves you, why would anyone go through the trouble of making notes if they didn't love you truly? You should keep it." He told me still holding the paper high up so I couldn't reach it.

Taehyung was vertically better than me, which meant my jumping up and down to get the paper from him was useless.

"I doubt that, plus it would take more than just notes on paper to make me fall in love." I retorted, holding my head up high.

"Oh I see, you really do want to marry me, that's why you don't care about your secret admirer." Taehyung had that stupid smirk on his face again.

My eyes widened and I smacked his arm. He chuckled at my reaction. He lowered his hand and I quickly snatched the note and tucked it back into my phone case. We continued walking down the path, I wasn't sure where we going and I doubt he was either, but his eyes were set in front.

"Taehyung?" I broke the silence and he looked at me.

"Yes?" He asked. I bit my lip and played my bracelet with my sweaty hands.

"Why did you want to bring me to the dance?" I looked back at him, waiting for his answer.

He turned back to look straight ahead, "Because, you're fifteen now, it was the last one you could go to. I wanted you to have a good memory so you wouldn't remember the times you were missing with..." He trailed off, not mentioning my father.

"Oh." I said.

I was reminded of my father again, but the thought quickly wore off as I clicked back to reality.

"Come give me a piggyback ride, it's punishment for taking my things while I was asleep." I ordered him.

"Fine." For the first time ever Taehyung had finally agreed with me on something without arguing back to get his way.

He crouched down and let me curl myself round him. He carried me home, we talked on our way back, and eventually I fell asleep again.