Suddenly, she heard Yoongi singing softly into her hair.
“Run to me, run to me – When you need a true friend.
Come to me, come to me – Till the very blue end.
Run to me, run to me – Tell me all your secrets.
Come to me, come to me – Just be brave to speak it.”
Then he hummed for a little while before singing the end of the chorus.
“Come to me, come to me – My door’s always open.
Run to me, run to me – Here in the great wide open.
Come to me, come to me – I’ll be your safe harbor.
Run to me, run to me – I’ll be your blooming arbor.
I’ll be your scent of spring – After the end of everything.”
She felt tears coursing down her cheeks. Yoongi had kept his word. The words of this song. He had defended her. He had been her safe harbor. Would he now be her blooming arbor? Was Yoongi not just the end of her last, horrid season but also the beginning of her new and better season? Perhaps a beautiful, new season?
“Yoongi?” she whispered when he quieted.
“Hmm?”
“What happens now?”
“You’re not out of danger. They arrested him. But he’ll probably be released pending a trial. So I want you to accept a bodyguard.”
“What?” she lifted her head from his shoulder and stared at him, both her blue eye and her green eye wide.
Yoongi nodded. “I want to provide you with a bodyguard. Around the clock.”
“Yoongi.”
“Please don’t refuse me. I’ll sleep better knowing he’s there.”
“All right,” she whispered. “But I can’t possibly pay you back.”
“You don’t need to pay me back.”
“But I feel bad. I dragged you into this…”
“And I am most thankful you did!” He gazed down into her eyes and felt his heart shift. “I care about you, Stasia. That man would have hurt you horribly if you had moved in with him.” He tilted his head to the side. “Can I help you unpack those boxes?”
She nodded. “If you want to. But, Yoongi, you have your own very busy life. I don’t expect you to babysit me.”
“Maybe I just want to get to know you better. Would that be all right?” He felt like he was the one walking on eggshells now.
“Yoongi.” She gazed up at him with shining eyes. “I’ve been in love with you – or your picture at least! – since the first time I saw you.”
He furrowed his brow. “What do you mean?”
“I took one look at your sad eyes, and I was lost. I just knew you would understand my pain. I’ve wanted to know you ever since.”
He pressed his lips together. He wondered how she would feel about him if she knew the real him. The one that the photographs couldn’t do justice to. The one who wasn’t painted or coiffed or prompted.
“I hope when you get to know the real me that you still feel the same way.”
“Yoongi! I do know the real you. You are the one who saved me today. You are the one who pursued me when I fled from you because you couldn’t live with yourself if you didn’t do everything you could to help a damsel in distress. That was you, Yoongi. Not some image on a screen.”
She pulled her phone from her pocket and opened to her favorite picture of him. His left shoulder was turned towards the camera, and he was looking back over that shoulder. His wavy, dark brown fringe was almost in his eyes. His gorgeous, dark eyes were looking sadly into the camera. This picture always made her yearn for him. Especially now that she knew him.
She held the picture up for him to see. “This is you, Yoongi. And I love this man.” There. She’d said it. It made no sense. Except that his eyes had brought her through. “When I didn’t think I could go on, I would look at this picture, and your eyes would show me the way. Your eyes promised me that tomorrow would be better. That someone would come for me. And you did, Yoongi. You did. You sang your song over me. And then you came for me. You kept your word. You fulfilled your promise. You’re still fulfilling your promise.”
She made him sound better than he truly was. Would she still love him when he failed her? Surely, he would. At some point. He would disappoint her. And he would tumble from idol status. Would she still want him then?
