It’s been three days since our last mission. Since Aera wasn’t originally gonna come with us, there weren't enough rooms so she’s It’s It's been three days since our last mission. Since Aera wasn’t originally gonna come with us, there weren't enough rooms so she’s sharing a room with me. Aera hasn’t said a word since Sakura attacked her but she’s taken a liking to Kimchi and Yeontan. Taehyung and I both have tried to get her to talk, but she won’t.
“At least try to get some sleep ok?” I tuck Aera in bed and she nods. I sit down next to her. “How are you feeling today?” I ask, combing my fingers through her hair. She just blankly stares at me. “You can talk to me.” She nods and then rolls over on her side. I chuckle. “Ok then. Goodnight.” I switch off the light and crawl under the blankets next to Aera. Within seconds she’s snoring and asleep. I roll over and face my back to her. I close my eyes and try to sleep but for some reason I can’t. I spent half of the night tossing and turning. I’m fed up with it so I quietly climbed out of bed and tiptoed to the door. I carefully open it and walk into the hallway. I walk down the hall to Sakura's room. I quietly knock on the door. She’s either ignoring me or is asleep. I try to open the door but it’s locked. I roll my eyes and walk to Taehyung’s room. I slowly open the door and peek through.
“Taehyung, are you awake?” Whisper as I walk into the room. He shifts positions and sits up, turning on his lamp.
“I am now.” He mumbles tiredly.
“Sorry.” I chuckle.
“No, it’s ok. I’m always happy to see you. Come sit.” He pats the spot next to him so I walk to him and sit. “What’s the matter? It’s 11:45 pm. You should be sleeping.”
“I can’t.” I reply.
“Why not?”
“Well, I’ve just been so worried about Sakura. She’s taken this so hard. She hasn’t come out of her room in three days and she won’t talk to me. She’s never shunned me like this. It hurts.” I sigh. “But I mean I know she’s struggling with this. I mean she hasn’t eaten in three days. I’ve been sending her little notes and sliding them under the door but she doesn't respond.” I sigh. “Sorry I’m kinda just babbling here.” I fidget with my fingers to keep from crying.
“That’s ok.”
“It’s just that… she means so much to me and she’s the only family I have left. But now it kinda feels like it’s just me. Like I’m alone now.” I sigh. “I hope she recovers soon. I look up to her a lot.” A tear slides down my cheek.
“Well, ya know everyone has been constantly worried about Sakura. We’ve all been checking on her and asking her if she’s ok. I mean I’m really worried about her too. But Akari?”
“Yeah?” I look up at him.
“How are you doing?” I shrug. He puts his hand on my cheek and slowly kisses me.
“I don’t really know.” I shrug again after he pulls away. “I’m torn.” Taehyung stands up, takes my hand, and walks to the window seat. He sits down and pulls me into his lap.
“Maybe you should…take a break.” He starts kissing my neck. I giggle and then push him away.
“Taehyung, this is serious.” I grab his face.
“Exactly. Everyone’s alway so serious nowadays. You're only 17 and you’ve been through more trauma than most adults. You lost both of your parents. You nearly died. Your brothers gone-“
“Where are you going with this? Cuz you’re not helping.”
“Sorry. My point is, I think you should take a break…. You know from all the seriousness. You’re way too stressed out. You need to relax.”
“And how would you suggest I do that, huh?” I stroke his face with the back of my hand. “Like this?” I kiss him slowly. He responds immediately by pulling me close to him. He parts my lips with his and his tongue begins to explore my mouth. He gently tugs on my bottom lip and starts sucking it. Not gonna lie, this is pretty stress relieving. He parts his lips from mine and starts kissing my collarbone. Then he leaves a trail of kisses from my collarbone all the way back to my lips.
“How am I doing?” He asks between kisses. I pull away from him.
“Not bad. But-“ before I can get another word in, his lips devour mine again. This time his hands start roaming around my body. A burning, fiery sensation spreads throughout my body. This is all new to me. I’ve never had a boyfriend before Taehyung. Never before have I felt this way. He finally pulls away from me, both of us out of breath. I bury my face in his shoulder and wrap my arms around him.
“Taehyung?” I say, after finally catching my breath.
“Yeah?” He holds me close.
“That’s the first time anyone’s ever kissed me like that.” I admit.
“I figured.” He replies. My face goes red.
“It was that bad?” I ask. He chuckles.
“No, I meant that you seemed really shy at first. Not that you were bad.” He laughs. “Sorry if it sounded like that.”
“That’s ok.” I stand up and peck his lips one more time. “Thanks. It helped a lot.” I wink at him and he smirks.
“Good.” He hugs me. “Now you should be able to sleep.”
“I hope so.” I sigh. “Goodnight Taehyung.”
“Goodnight Akari.” He kisses my cheek. “We’ll talk more tomorrow.”
“Ok.” I smile. As I turn around to walk out of his room, he slaps my butt. I look at him.
“Really?” I roll my eyes at him. He shrugs.
“I couldn’t help it.” He smiles and climbs into his bed. “Goodnight for real.”
“Goodnight.” I say, walking out of his room. I smile to myself as I walk back into my room. I quietly slip back into bed so I don’t disturb Aera. She rolls over in her sleep and snuggles next to me. I smile, wrap my arms around her, and drift to sleep.
When I open my eyes the room is empty. I look around and see a note at the foot of my bed. I quickly grab it and open it.
Akari,
I’m really sorry for being a burden to you. I hope you don’t mind, but I took some of your clothes and one of your bags. I’m leaving. Thank you for caring for me these past three days. I really appreciate it. Please don’t come after me.
-Aera.
I sigh. She’s gone. I lay back down and curl into a ball. She was the only girl left in my life who actually talked to me. I reluctantly climbed out of bed and walked to Sakura’s door. I sat against it.
“Sakura.” I pause. “I really need you right now. It’s hard to talk to Taehyung about stuff like this. You’re the only one who understands. Aera left.” I inform her. “I know you probably don’t want to talk to me but I really need you.” I wait for a reply. When she doesn’t answer, I slowly stand up and start walking away. Before I make it to my room, her door opens. I turn around and walk up to her. Tears fill my eyes when she hugs me. But I pushed her away.
“You just shunned me.” I reprimand her. “You left me for three days.” I start to cry.
“I’m sorry.” She says quietly.
“You should be.” I hug her. “Sakura, I needed you.”
“I’m sorry.” She says again. “I’m really sorry.”
“Look, I understand it’s been hard for you, but you have to talk about it. Keeping it in will only hurt more. Trust me, I’ve had to learn that the hard way.” I tell her. We spent the next four hours talking about the incident. There were tears, anger, hatred, but we worked through all of it. She told me how she feels like this was all her fault. I don’t know why. It was an accident. It’s not like someone pushed our brother into the river. It was extremely hard because we never found his body so we never got to give him a proper burial. When we finished talking, I rushed into Taehyung’s room.
“What’s wrong?” He asks worriedly. I hand him the note that Aera left.
“She’s gone. I mean I know she told us not to go after her, but I really want to.” I say.
“When did she leave?” He asks.
“I’m not sure exactly when she left. She was gone when I woke up this morning.” I reply.
“Well I guess I can ask my dad to check the security cameras. That way we’ll know when she left and which direction she went.” Taehyung suggests. I follow Taehyung as he goes to his fathers office. We both enter and Taehyung asks his father to check the cameras. It turns out, Aera left an hour ago and went west towards the airport.
“We should at least try to find her. She couldn’t have even had enough money to board the plane unless-” I pause. “Unless she stole my money too.” I rush back into my room and check the backpack in my closet that had all my money. “Yup. She stole all of it.” I sigh. “Now we gotta hurry. She didn’t have a ride so she couldn’t have gone far.”
“But she said not to go after her.” Taehyung says.
“Yeah but she stole my stuff.” I point out. “You don’t have to come if you don’t want to. But I’m going to go get my stuff back, and Aera if she agrees.” I say, walking to the garage. I grab the keys and hop in the car. Right before I pull out, Taehyung opens the door and gets in the car.
“I couldn’t let you go alone.” He smiles at me.
“I was hoping you’d change your mind.“ We drove towards the airport and kept an eye out for Aera. After driving for a while, Taehyung spotted her. I parked the car and we all got out. She looked at me and then looked to the floor as I walked to her.
“Aera.” I say calmly. She immediately starts crying and I hug her. She drops the backpack and hugs me back.
“I-“ she starts. I look at her. “I’m s-sorry.” She cries into my shoulder. “I just didn’t want t-to burden you.” I chuckle and stroke her head.
“You’re not a burden. You were the only person keeping me from drifting into depression. I enjoyed spending time with you these past couple days.” I reassure her.
“R-really?” She sniffs.
“Really.” I reply. “So don’t cry.” I wipe her face. “Will you come back with us?”
“But I stole your stuff. You still want me to come back?” She asks. Taehyung steps beside me.
“Of course we do.” He says. I nod in agreement with him.
“Please come back with us.” I plead. She sighs.
“Ok.” She nods. “I’ll come.” She hugs me.
“I’m really sorry, Akari.” She says as we walk back to the car.
“I forgive you.” I say. She hands me the backpack. “Thank you. Hey and you’re finally talking to me.” I joke.
“Yeah.” She laughs as we get into the car. We arrive back at the mansion and walk into my room.
“Now, I have one more training session today and then we can hang out before the party. Stay here ok?” I ask.
“Ok. I’ll put all your stuff back.” I smile and walk to Sakura’s room.
“Ready?” She asks me.
“Oh yeah.” Sakura and I walked outside with the others. Jungkook immediately walked over to me.
“You ok?” He asks me.
“Yeah. I am. Thank you.” I smile sweetly at him and Taehyung joins us after seeing Jungkook with me.
“How’s sakura?” he asks.
“I wouldn’t ask her about it. She said she didn’t want to talk about it anymore. She’s doing better though.”
“That’s good.” He says, glaring at Jungkook. I smack his shoulder.
“So Mr. Kim said that since your brother died I would have to become either yours or Sakura’s mission partner. So do you think maybe-” Taehyung interrupts Jungkook.
“She doesn’t need a different partner. I’m already her mission partner.” Taehyung protectively wraps his arm around my shoulder. I chuckle.
“Well I’d be more comfortable if all four of us could stick together on missions.” I turn to Taehyung. “Could you ask your father if that’s possible?”
“I can try. But my fathers pretty stubborn.” He kisses me and then looks back at Jungkook. “Now we should probably go over to our teacher.” He says, grabbing my hand and walking to Mr. Ha-da. I look at Jungkook and laugh. “What?” Taehyung asks.
“Nothing.” I say quickly. He squints his eyes at me.
“Tell me.” He gets in my face. I roll my eyes playfully.
“You’re just…really cute. Cuz you’re jealous.” I grab his hands.
“Am not.” He protests.
“Yeah you are.” Sakura says. He rolls his eyes and I kiss him.
“But I said it was cute.” I rub my nose against his. “Now stop being jealous of him.” I nod towards Jungkook. “Ok?”
“It’s kinda hard when-“ I peck him on the lips and walk to Sakura.
“Ready?” She asks me again. “You haven’t been to training in a while.”
“I’m ready.” I reply.
“Alright, gather round.” Mr. Ha-da instructs. “We’ll begin with conditioning.”