He was seized by a sudden desire to kiss her. But he knew how unwise that would be. He was in the middle of Paris, surrounded by people, two ARMYs standing in front of him. There could be fan cams around. He’d already been stupid enough holding her hand and resting his forehead against hers. Pictures of them together would probably be plastered all over the internet by midnight. He cringed at the thought. More for her than for himself. He was used to the insanity. But he had dragged an unsuspecting girl into this situation. She hadn’t even known who he was. And if ARMY ever discovered that, they’d be outraged on his behalf.
“HOW COULD SHE NOT HAVE KNOWN WHO YOU ARE, BEAUTIFUL BOY?”
He sighed. “I am like you. A normal person. And you are…stunningly beautiful.” He wished his English were better. He’d been studying hard along with Jungkook to master English in order to assist Namjoon with interviews. They both wanted to relieve some of the constant stress that their leader dealt with because he had been the only English speaker in their group.
Right now, Tae felt like he was struggling for words. It frustrated him. He was a thinker, but he could also be a man of action. Every cell in his body was screaming at him to show this girl how precious she was. But how could he effectively do that? Even if they were all alone, it wouldn’t be wise to kiss her. It would get her hopes up, and tomorrow he would return to his real life. Tonight was but a pause in the constant performance that was his life.
Woong stared up at him. No one had ever told her she was beautiful. And here was this gorgeous guy speaking the words her heart longed to hear. If only they were true. He was just being nice. Except…she remembered the look on his face in the picture.
“Can I have that picture?” She gestured towards his phone.
She was easily distracted. She hadn’t responded to his assertion about her beauty. He sighed again. She hadn’t absorbed it. She still didn’t believe it. But now he had something she wanted, so he was going to leverage it to try to convince her of how wonderful she was.
Did everyone have such cracks in their souls? He thought of how confident she had seemed when she’d rescued him from a crazy mob. And when she’d bought him clothes and fed him dinner. Yet now, he could see the chinks in her armor. They had to do with her own self-worth.
Love yourself, baby.
“I might be willing to share the picture if you will…”. What was the word? His mind searched for it, found it in Korean, and searched again. “Humor? I might be willing to share the picture if you will humor me for a minute.”
“What?” What was he talking about? Humor him?
“Take out your phone and open the camera. Flip the image so you can see yourself.”
She furrowed her brow at him, but she did as he commanded.
“Look at yourself. But only at your forehead. And pretend you’re looking at someone else. Your own daughter in the future.”
She wrinkled her brow, and her lips formed a small pout as she looked up at him. What on earth was he up to? Her own daughter? But she recognized she’d been very unfair to him, and she wanted to make it up to him, so she played along.
Woong stared at her forehead. Her chestnut hair was falling across one side of her tan brow.
“What can you tell me about this person’s forehead?”
“She’s tan.”
“Does she like being tan?”
“Yes. Although pale skin is pretty too.”
“But we can agree that she has beautiful skin?”
She looked at her whole face now, her eyes caressing her own skin in the makeshift mirror. Her complexion was pretty. She’d even had friends who had been envious. Once she’d befriended a girl from the United States. A girl with gorgeous, blond hair and crystal clear, blue eyes. Woong had envied her because of her fair complexion. But the American had waxed eloquent about her tanned skin. It was quite clear the other girl wished to be a pretty shade of light brown. Which Woong was.
“Ok. I will concede that my skin is nice.”
Tae grinned at her, revealing all his captivating teeth in a boxy smile. She was stunned for a moment as she gazed at that beautiful mouth of his. What would it feel like to kiss those lips?
WHAT? What on earth was she thinking? She tore her eyes away from that gorgeous mouth and looked at herself in her camera phone again.
“It’s your largest organ, you know? Your skin takes up more space on your entire body than anything else. So it’s good that you like it.”
She giggled. What a fascinating perspective this boy had!
Tae was still smiling down at her. “Look at your hair. Do you like it?”
She stared at her plain, brown hair. She supposed it might have a few red highlights in it. But it was relatively boring. It was pretty common in her country.
She shrugged her shoulders. “It’s nothing special.”
Tae bent over her so that, as he faced her, his lips were an inch from her ear. Her heart picked up speed at his proximity. Their cheeks were nearly touching. What was it about this guy that he could make her so nervous?
“I think your hair is beautiful. I want to run my fingers through it and wind it around them. I bet it’s silky soft.” He was so tempted to touch it right now. What would it feel like to bury his face in it?
He had no idea what his words were doing to her. She was slowly melting on the inside. But she knew that if he actually ran his fingers through her hair, she’d dissolve into an instant puddle at his feet. She sighed only to discover she couldn’t breathe. He was still so close to her. If she turned her head to the side, her lips would collide with his own. Then, sadly, he stood all the way up to his full height which was several inches taller than her, carrying his face away from her own.
“Can we agree that your hair is beautiful?” His eyes caressed her long locks. “I love the way it curls.”
She just stared at him as a tear formed in her eye. Oh! That she could see herself through his eyes! She blinked, and that rebellious tear slid down her cheek. Tae noticed it instantly and wishing to spare her any embarrassment, his hand flew up to dash it away. As the back of his hand slid swiftly across her cheek, carrying her tear with it, her heart melted all over again. She stood staring up at him, and she mourned the loss of her heart. He was going to steal it tonight. She just knew it. And she would never be the same ever again. Why, oh, why had she driven down that street tonight?
His hand was pulling on her phone. He drew it up closer to her face. “Now,” he spoke with awe, “look at your eyes.”
They were his favorite feature. They were on fire all the time.
“What do you see?” He was whispering, his deep voice compelling her to glance at her reflection.
Her eyes. They were such a weird color. People had commented on them her whole life. Some people had made fun of them. Some people had exclaimed over their beauty. They were nearly transparent sometimes. This feature had freaked out more than one of her peers. Sometimes they almost appeared like a reddish brown. Most often they were a copper color. Though, they also shifted to a glowing gold from time to time.
“I have strange eyes.”
“Yes, you do.”
She looked sharply up at him. He agreed with her?
“You don’t like them either?” She whispered it. Why was her heart breaking?
He shook his head. “No.”
Her heart fell down to her toes, lying there splintered into a million pieces. She didn’t like her eyes. Why did it hurt so badly that he didn’t either? She should have expected it. They had been ridiculed her whole life. Why would it surprise her that he saw what others saw?
“I LOVE your eyes.”
Her head flew up, and those eyes he loved connected with his own chocolate brown ones.
“You do?” Now that heart was mended and flying over their heads.
“Your eyes look like they are on fire. You have flames dancing in them. They are my favorite feature of yours.” His eyes glanced up to the top of her head and then traveled all the way down to her toes before traveling the length of her again before coming to rest on his favorite feature. “Although, I love them all.”
She could feel a warm flush spreading throughout her body, everywhere those eyes had touched her. He loved her eyes! He loved all of her? Yep. Her heart was gone. Could she get it back?
“Look at your nose.”
Oh, no, please, not her nose! She had never liked her nose! She had always wanted a petite nose like her mother’s. But unfortunately, that wasn’t the side of the family she’d inherited her nose from.
Tae could instantaneously feel her disdain for her nose.
“Come on. Look at it. I can tell you don’t like it. But it’s the perfect complement to the rest of your pretty face. It rescues your face from being simply sweet. Your nose is bold and brash, like you were when you rescued me tonight. You have the nose of a hero.”
She laughed. She actually laughed about her nose. She wasn’t sure what she’d expected him to say. But it wasn’t that! The nose of a hero?! Really?! This boy had the strangest perspective on life. She found she rather relished it.
She looked down at her nose in the phone mirror. Her eyes slid down the straight slope of it to find the more bulbous end that she had never before liked. The nose of a hero, huh? She tilted her head to the side, so she was faced with her profile. This had always been her least favorite view of her nose.
“Your nose is noble,” he added.
“Is that what that is?” She pointed at the tip of her nose that she had never loved. “Nobility?”
Tae nodded definitively. “Definitely.” God bless Jungkook and his English vocabulary lists!
“Ok,” she responded as her eyes caught sight of her lips. “What about my lips?”
They were the one feature she’d been at peace with. They were nice enough.
He bent towards her again to speak confidentially. “I don’t think I can comment on your lips.” But his eyes were caressing them right now.
“Why not?” And why had her heart just flown into her throat? She coughed, trying to dislodge it. It didn’t help. It was still beating furiously within the confines of her neck.
His lips found her ear again. “Because then I’d have to kiss them.” His whispered response floated over her skin.
Now she was eating her heart, for it had ascended into her mouth at his words. And it was fluttering all over the place like a butterfly suddenly set loose from a tiny cage.
They stood inhaling each other’s air for several moments. Two hearts beating as one. Out of control. Tae was wrestling with himself. What was going on inside of him? He’d seen a zillion pretty girls, so how had this one managed to crawl inside of his consciousness? He wanted to keep breathing her air. He longed to stare into those fiery eyes of hers. He was sure they held mysteries the depths of which he had yet to plumb. And somehow, he knew those lips would taste like the sweetest honey. He sighed. He couldn’t do it. He couldn’t kiss her. Most of the time, he couldn’t do what he wanted to do. Tonight was no different. He pulled away, and they both felt the loss of it.
Then the line shifted, and it was their turn to ascend the tower. Woong was pretty sure that she would find her heart at the top, dancing among the lights.
