Blood Brothers

23 | HEART TO HEART

Jungwoo falls asleep in Taehyung's arms- mouth wide open and head arched backwards.

"Your food knocked him out cold," he teases.

"You enjoyed it," I say, remembering how he lied about liking my food just so he wouldn't hurt my feelings. Even then, I was secretly enjoying torturing him for the fun of it.

Jungwoo starts speaking in his sleep and shifting uncomfortably before Taehyung decides to put him down, letting Jungwoo roll to the middle of the bed and take up all the room. I was positive that Taehyung would have to sleep on the couch tonight.

"About Jin-"

"I've taken care of it," he says. "I know why you did it and I don't blame you."

"The thing about my brother is that if he truly wanted to come back- he would've done it the moment he got off the island."

Taehyung takes my hand. "I hate to tell you this, but he isn't coming back."

The cold, hard truth.

It was time to come to terms with it all. "Yeah," I say. As much as I didn't want to believe it, I knew I had to. "Are you tired?" I ask him. "How's your wound?"

"I'm fine," he answers. "Have you eaten?"

I shake my head. "I'm not hungry."

After Taehyung has a nanny to watch over Jungwoo, he takes me to the garden where dinner is already set. Fairy lights streamed all around us and dripped to the ground, becoming walls that surrounded us with dreamy lights. He sits me down beside him and holds up a fork of chocolate covered strawberry to my mouth.

"How'd you know?" I grin before taking a bite of the yummy sweetness.

"I know everything," he says.

I felt bad because I hardly knew much about him. I fell into another hazy trance as he feeds me the next one, his eyes never leaving me as I slowly chew on the strawberry. Taehyung leans in and presses his lips against the corner of mine, gently licking away the excess chocolate that I suppose I smeared.

"What's on your mind?" He asks, breath hot against my neck.

"You," I answer.

He looks at me with confusion, his doe-like eyes wandering mine for an answer. I couldn't believe that I actually fell for him. I truly did have feelings for him despite everything we've been through, I couldn't fight it off.

He wraps his arms around me.

"Why do you keep hugging me?" I ask out of curiosity. Not that I didn't like it, but he did it ever so often.

"Because I don't want to lose you," he says.

Taehyung looks up at me. "Now that I have you, I don't want to lose you."

I could feel my cold heart melting at his words. As sure as I had been once before, I was crumbling at his mercy now.

He had me.

I pulled away so I could look at him face to face in order to read his emotions. I had no doubts of his feelings for me- but I knew too well of what he did for a living, and that didn't leave much room for love in his heart. Just pain and cruelty.

Mafia men were all the same- hearts tainted by their cold-blooded actions. There was no reversing it or saving them from what they did.

Love in their profession was a privilege to their own disadvantage.

Either way, there was no running from this lifestyle. I was born into it and so in it I shall eventually perish.

This is it, Ara.

"You won't," I tell him. At the time I meant it, every bit of it.

He was a good man regardless of the things he'd done, his intentions by far have only proven time and time again that he meant well. And who was I to deny myself what I deserved? I deserve to be happy- even if it meant that it wasn't with Jungkook.

He chose to be free of me, therefor I choose to make my own happiness.

His fingers clasp onto the tiny strap of my dress and tugs it down my shoulder, revealing almost half my breast if I wasn't wearing a strapless bra. I lean backwards on the couch as he hovers on top of me, eyes never leaving my chest.

I was starting to wonder if he'd seen me naked before after what he said before... "When you said you had eyes everywhere-"

He shakes his head. "Except our bathroom," he grins.

When I feel him reaching for the hem of my dress I stop him before he could pull it up and expose me in front of Mother Nature. "I haven't shaved," I lied to him.

"You're lasered," he confirms.

I furrowed my brows. "How would you know?" Who was he to tell me whether or not my vagina was hairy?

"Because I asked Jungkook," he chuckles.

Ugh. Really?!

I push him off of me and he falls against the pillows in bouts of mischievous laughter. He found it funny but I was more annoyed and outright EMBARASSED.

He sits back up and presses his chest against my back. "And I know how you're the same color of your lips," he whispers, thumb brushing across my lips.

My face was heated and my blood was boiling at this point. "How does it feel, sharing the same girl as your brother?" I ask to spite him.

"We shared a lot of things growing up. You aren't the first," he nibbles on the brim of my earlobe.

"Ok," was all I said before I got up and left him there by himself.