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Hours later, Tia turned towards Tae in the car he’d rented earlier this afternoon.  “Where are we going, Tae?”

“I’m taking you to my favorite restaurant for dinner.”

She smiled.  “Does it have chocolate croissants?”

He snickered.  “Maybe?  I don’t know.  I’ve never ordered any there.”

Tae was grinning on the inside.  He couldn’t wait until later tonight.

—

After dinner, once they had left the restaurant, Tae reached for Tia’s hand.  He laced their fingers together, and they swung their intertwined hands back and forth as they walked down the road.  

She glanced up at him.  “Where are we headed, Tae?”

The darkness was growing, but they were surrounded by many lights.  “You get one guess,” Tae replied.

She could already see it.  Shining in the near distance.  She beamed up at him.  Just like the tower they were approaching.

“Are you prepared to stand in line for hours?” she asked him.

“My coat is dry now,” he grinned.

She smiled up at him.  “Tae, thank you so much for bringing me here.  To Paris.  With you.  I haven’t been on a vacation with anyone since my parents died.”

“Really?”  He gazed down at her.  Compassion was glowing in his eyes.  

She shook her head.  “I travel all over the world.  Alone.”  She sighed.  “It’s not the same thing.”

“I want to take you so many places, Tia.  There are so many beautiful cities in this world.  I’d like to take you to all my favorite ones.”

Her heart shining out of her eyes, she looked up at him.  “I would love that, Tae.” Then she sighed.  “But you are mobbed at airports by your crazy fans.”

“I don’t call those people fans,” he muttered dryly.  

“I just meant: how would we leave on a plane together?  People would notice me.”

He nodded.  He sighed.  “It might happen.  But, if I was traveling alone, I’d be much less likely to draw anyone’s notice.  I think I’d just charter us a plane.  We could leave from a smaller airport.”

Her eyes wide, she asked, “Is it really possible that I could go with you?  That we could travel together?”

“Perhaps to some remote region where I am an unknown.”

“Is there such a place?”

He nodded.  “Sure.  I think.  Although, it might be a third-world nation.”

She sighed.  “Never mind.  Let’s just enjoy tonight!  We’re almost there.  Oh, Tae, I can hardly wait to be at the top again with you.  I’ve lived there for months in my imagination.”

“Me too.  How is the reality holding up?”

“What?”

“Do you find me as fascinating in person as I was in your imagination all those weeks we were separated?”

“So much more, Tae.  Flesh-and-blood Tae is better than the figment of my imagination.”

“Even with all my flaws?”

She heard an underlying tone of insecurity threading his voice.  It made her heart ache.  “I love you, Tae.”

Abruptly, he ceased walking and stood trapped in those words.  Did she realize that this was the first time she had spoken them?  But she wasn’t done yet.  Jarred by the sudden stillness of his hand holding hers, she too had come to a stop.  She turned to face him.

“I love your flaws too, Tae.  You—how can you, of all people, ask me such a question?  Tae, you love me.  And you know the very worst thing about me!”

“Tia.  Don’t mention it.  It’s forgotten.”

Is it?  

But she bit it back.  She hadn’t forgotten it.  It still haunted her in the middle of the night.  Would it one day haunt him too?

—

He had pulled her forward as he’d begun moving again.  They’d walked the remainder of the distance to the Eiffel Tower in silence.  Both uncertain what came next.

Suddenly, as they stood in line, Tae tipped his head downward to stare into her eyes.

“Woong.  You know how much I missed you, don’t you?”

She loved it when he called her Woong.  She gazed up into his intense, dark eyes.  Beautiful eyes.  Captivating eyes.  A girl could get lost in them.  

“You mean, while you were in America?”

He nodded.  “And here waiting for you to arrive.”

“I missed you too.”  She sighed.  “Like crazy.”  Then she remembered the upcoming tour.  “I keep reminding myself that at least I’m no longer like Eileen.  Living on a different continent than Jimin.  But I’m not looking forward to your tour.”

He sighed.  He was.  He loved touring with the guys.  But he knew that this time it would be different.  A new element had been introduced into his life since the last tour had ended.  Tia.  She was a completely new and unknown factor.  

Part of him acknowledged that he would be too busy much of the time – and too exhausted – to miss her much.  But the other corner of his heart was going to sorely miss her presence in his life.  

“We have months to go before then.”

“But, Tae, you leave for the United States in less than three weeks!  And you’ll be gone for nearly two weeks.”

He grimaced.  “Actually, I’m heading to Buenos Aires first.”

“What?” she turned astounded eyes towards him.  “You’re visiting my hometown?  Why?”

“For the unveiling of the Connect we’ve established there.”

She pouted.  “I wish I could go with you.  When do you leave?”

“We’ll fly into Buenos Aires on the nineteenth.”

“The nineteenth?” she whispered, visibly upset.  “That means you’ll be gone two and a half weeks!”

He nodded.  “But then, I’ll be home again.  For quite a while.”  Then he had a thought.  “Have you ever been to the United States?”

She shook her head.

“There’s lots to photograph there, you know.”

She smiled at him.  Then a disturbing thought came on the heels of his intriguing one.  “But, Tae, you’re under a microscope when you’re there.  I don’t think that’s a wise place for me to follow you.”

He sighed.  She was right, of course.

How could they now be surrounded by such greatly glowing lights, yet he felt so dark?  He longed to see her smile once again beaming brightly up at him.