[21+] Tropical Kiss [Y/N x Maknae-line]

Part 28 - Pandora's Box

Walking with quick steps along the beach, Taehyung let his eyes look right and left. It had been half an hour since he had left their cottage, and he had still to find Y/N. He had hoped to find her outside, but as she had nowhere to be seen, he had continued to search on the way towards the hotel.

His heart beating faster every minute he was looking for her, and his mind playing images of this morning. Her face, glazed with a shine of passionate dampness, her teeth biting on her lips as she moans from Jimin's thrusts into her. The images that had all turned him on so much this morning were now laced with a dark layer of mistrust and fear.

"Fuck..." He mutters to himself, at this point he had just about given up. His mind convincing him that she didn't want to be found... by him to be more specific.

Suddenly, he heard a familiar sound coming from the seaside just up ahead. He made his strides wider, closing the gap between him and that sound. When he got there, his heart practically burst from his chest.

There she was, squatting between the sea and land. Running her fingers through the water as the waves played at her ankles. She was singing, 'Dazed And Confused' by Ruel - something he hadn't listened to in months.

Taking a deep breath Taehyung slowly walks up to her.

"Y/N?"

The song stopped instantly, and she looks up at him as he squats down beside her.

"You're singing..." He begins, unsure of how to proceed. All he wanted was to find her, but now that he has, he is unsure what to say.

During his search, his head had been filled with worry for her safety as well for their relationship. Although still shaken up from the news of the makanes, he knew he had fucked up - more than so. As place after place revealed no signs of his love, he had slowly begun to realize - what was threatening the relationship was not fully the other, it was his own feelings about the matter.

"Y-yea... I was... I thought the lyrics were fitting..." She says staring blankly at the water. Her fingers still swirling through it as though she wanted to be swept away with it.

He chuckled softly, "It's ironic. There were a ton of negative thoughts running through my head while I was trying to find you." He looks over at her. She still hasn't taken her eyes off the water, but he knows she's listening. So, turning to the only way he knew how to get some of his feelings out, he began to sing:

~"I would need a million words
If I tried to define
All the things you mean to me, yeah
For you, I'd die a thousand lives
Special kind of energy
'Cause love is born when hearts collide
Every time you touch me
You remind me that I'm still alive"~

"17 by Pink Sweat$... That's not fair, Taehyung." She finally looks up, her eyes covered with tears. "Why... Why do you do this to me?" Her voice trails off.

"Do what, love? Make you angry and happy all at the same time?" He smiles and raises an eyebrow at her.

No words escape her lips, just a slight nod.

"If two people didn't drive one another crazy to some degree, it wouldn't be called love. Now I'm not saying that I'm perfect - and I'm sorry about earlier... It's just..." Taehyung runs his hands through his hair, thinking, trying to make his words not sound wrong. "It's harder than thought... It's like a box, a pandora's box inside of me. It was closed for so long, and didn't know what would happen if I ever decided to open it... It could bring joy or destruction... Opening it... It wasn't something that I would ever dare to do... But I did... I opened it up in a moment when I was clouded; letting you see all, and giving them their opening..."

He stops, trying to find the words that would make her see, that would make it possible to understand at least a small fraction of what he was feeling. "I got what I wanted - what I had desired and longed for - I got it in more ways and stronger than I had imagined... I thought I was safe then - that all had turned out the good way, that I had been lucky and that it was defined..."

Taking a deep breath, he continues, but this time, his voice is deeper; more troubled. "I didn't think it would bring both pleasure and pain, that the greatness it had given me would also reflect what would come after... That, although I know how they act - what they always do - thought that it would not be a factor in my - our - relationship..."

He sighs. "Coming to the grips of it... it's harder than I thought, and I'm not sure how to deal with it. It also had brought up a bunch of my own insecurities... Things that I've kept buried. And now, it's just exploding from me... I worry that I'm not good enough, that maybe you'd be much happier with someone who doesn't have such a busy schedule. Someone that could be there for you all the time - not have to be away for months on end... someone who-"

Before he could get another word out, her arms were around his neck. Tears still streaming down her face, she seared his lips with a deep loving kiss.

"That's the most you've ever said to me about how you really feel without sugar-coating it - it's more than I could have hoped to hear you say. So, please remember, Tae, that we're both in this together and that your hardships are my own. We aren't just two people - we are two halves that make a whole." She beams at him with the biggest smile.

Taehyung cups her face in his hands, "So, does this mean I am forgiven." He pushes out his bottom lip playfully.

"Well..."

He watches her nervously as she seems to think this over. Although it seemed likely that he was, he did not feel like he could fully trust himself and his impressions right now. "Love?"

Her eyes soften as she sees his uncertainty. Placing her hand on the back of his head, she pulls him closer to their forehead meet. Staying like this, connected, she gives him all he wants: "I forgive you, Tae. I forgive you because I love you."