1945; Love during War

Chapter 11: The Savior

With every passing town, Taehyung's heart was beating faster, faster than the speed of the train that was headed to Correze. Thousand thoughts were crossing his mind. For instance, he had finally known the name of the man whose writing had touched his heart and soul. To make things better, he had come to know the author had romantic interests in men, not women. Now why was such a simple piece of information making his heart flutter, given he already had a boyfriend right?

As Taehyung was getting ready to board on the train, he bid farewell to Namjoon, Jin, Yoongi and Hoseok who had come to drop him off. At first, they had been skeptical about Taehyung travelling all the way to Correze, that too to meet a complete stranger, whose name was the only thing he knew. But when he had convinced them, more like convinced Jin, that it was for the article and it was an amazing opportunity for him, then only he had agreed. "Now young man, you better keep calling me and write to me orelse I will come down all the way there and beat you up, you get me?" Jin said worry laced in his voice. "Gosh, Jin. Tae is not a kid anymore. He is fully capable of taking care of himself" Namjoon said. "You mister, please don't say he is not a kid, for me he will always be my baby boy. And for your information, had I not been in your life, you wouldn't be any less of a lost child too."

"Okay, so you two sure you want to say goodbye while fighting with each other?" Taehyung asked giggling. "We are not fighting sweetie, we are chatting, aren't we Joonie?" 

On the other hand, Yoongi had been sad about the fact that Taehyung was leaving for three whole weeks. Just when he though things was would take a pace in their relationship, Taehyung was departing. But because he knew this would make Taehyung happy, he was happy too. As Jin and Namjoon were "chatting", he went up to Taehyung and said, "Well, travel safe Taehyung." He paused for awhile. "I will miss you. Please try to come back soon"

"Sure Yoongi. I will miss you too." he replied with a sweet smile. And as Taehyung was about to turn and hug Hoseok, Yoongi held Taehyung's wrist, which surprised Taehyung. With hesitation in his voice, he said, "Tae, I know this very random but I have been meaning to tell you something, more like ask you something. I -I wanted to ask you if, that is if you wan--t to be , I mean will you be my boy-boyfriend?"

As soon as the words spilled out of his mouth, it seemed everything paused. Namjoon and Jin stopped talking and turned their heads to Yoongi, Taehyung was taken aback too but more than this, a certain someone's heart stopped. The said man had met his friend's "prince charming" a couple of times after the ball and it was safe to say he had fallen for him. What he hadn't expected was for him to confess to Taehyung this quick.  He could feel his heart aching but there wasn't anything he could do about it.

Taehyung, however, seemed calm about it. In a way or other, he was expecting this since they had gotten quite close. He liked Yoongi, without a doubt but did he love him? That was questionable. But he felt very secure in his presence and Yoongi had  always been so caring and respectful towards him, he mistook his comfort and liking for Yoongi  as love. After a pause, he took Yoongi's hand in his and smiled warmly, "I would that Yoongi". With that he boarded on the train, with one happy and one heartbroken soul left behind.

The engine made a large sound when it finally reached the station which brought Taehyung back to reality from his thoughts. He  took off his luggage and got off the train. He had informed the author about his arrival and with Jin's help, he had reserved a house there as a paying guest. The house was near Jungkook's house. But to get there, he had to cross a small lake. As he got on the boat, he admired how beautiful the town was. It looked a country side yet had a urban touch to the houses and buildings. The distance was short so he reached deck at other side quite quick.

Taehyung asked the boat driver to help him with the luggae. There were other passenger too so the driver was occupied with getting off other luggages. So, Taehyung being the kind soul, decided to get off himself. As he was stepping outside the boat, slowly and carefully, his feet stumbled and right when he thought he was about to fall of the boat and into the water, a strong pair of hands held his waist tightly and swiftly pulled him upwards. Taehyung was so shocked by what had just happened that he shut his eyes tight and held onto whatever he could, more like hold onto whoever had saved him. As his head was rested on his savior's chest with his hands strongly hugging around the person, he could hear faint hearbeating and hitched breathing, slightly faster than the usual pace, for the person must have rushed to help him from falling off. After 10 seconds of being stable, Taehyung slowly pulled away and looked up to the person's face who had saved him. The moment his eyes fell on to the beautiful face, it seemed the entire surrounding just disappeared and all he could see and admire was that beautiful face, the very beautiful face he had seen two months back. Taehyung still had his hands wrapped around the man and so had the other man wrapped his hands around Taehyung's waist. Taehyung was so lost that he wasn't even listening to what the man was saying, he could hear his lips mumbling something but he was so lost in admiring the other's beauty that he didn't hear it.

The incoming boat made a huge sound and Taehyung snapped back to reality. "Hey are you okay? Excuse me mister, are you fine?" And this is when Taehyung was hit hard by the present situation, the position they were in.  After quickly realizing that the both were still holding onto each other, Taehyung pulled away and bowed, "I am so sorry. I thought I could get off by myself but then my feet stumbled and I lost balance and then...." Taehyung was speaking so fast in nervousness that the man held Taehyung's arms slightly bending down to his height and said, "Hey, hey it's fine. Don't worry. But why is that everytime we meet, I end up saving you and holding you in my arms?"