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Chapter 5: The Sky Is Falling – August 12, 2019

Tae stood staring out the window after Yunseong. 

Was she mad at him? 

Why?

He felt an odd desire to follow her.  He glanced at Gran.

“You’d better go after her.”

He frowned.

“When you’ve hurt a girl’s feelings, it’s best not to leave her to stew too long.”

“Hurt her feelings?” he asked, clueless.

Gran glanced at him pointedly.  “Tae, are you unaware that that girl is in love with you?”

Poor Tae.  Another cookie was going down the wrong pipe. 

“Excuse me,” he sputtered as he coughed and another piece of cookie came flying out of his mouth.

“Son, perhaps you’d best put the cookies down and run after that girl.  No woman wants to be compared to a baby by the guy she loves.  It’s undignified.  And completely unromantic.”

Tae just gaped at her.  Yunseong was in love with him?  Since when?

He thought back over the past couple of months.  He and Yunseong were buddies.  They played video games together.  They ate junk food together.  Sometimes, they watched a good drama too.  But they had never – not once – discussed anything remotely romantic.  They had never had a romantic moment together at all.

Except for that kiss.  And the other one.  Memories he pushed to the back of his mind as much as possible. But suddenly, they were both crowding in on him.

He also couldn’t avoid the parallels between his friendship with Yunseong and his relationship with Eunji.  For all intents and purposes, they had been just buddies too.  Except that Tae had harbored a secret love for her.  As she had for him.

He contemplated following Yunseong but decided against it.  He hadn’t the foggiest idea what to say to a girl who fancied herself in love with him.  Perhaps Gran was wrong. Yunseong was just miffed because he’d called her a baby.  He sighed.  And reached for another cookie.

––

Jungkook drew reluctantly away from Yunyeong.  He wanted to hold her in his arms forever.  He could happily stand here under their apple tree kissing her for a long time.  And if he happened to get hungry, a refreshing snack was hanging right over their heads. 

Yep.  He had everything he needed right here in this garden.  And in this girl.  He beamed down at her.

Her eyes left his to travel around their garden again.  “Jungkook.  I don’t even begin to know how to thank you.  This is so…beautiful isn’t even a good enough word.”  Her eyes locked on his.  “You crawled inside my heart and took a picture and then crawled back out to recreate it.  It’s just perfect.  Nothing else in my whole life will ever be this perfect again.” 

Tears filled her eyes.  One escaped to slide down her cheek.

He smiled at her as he reached up to slide his index finger through that tear.  “I’m a bit euphoric myself,” he whispered.

Then he bent his head and brushed his lips across the tear stain that was glistening on that cheek.  He enjoyed that kiss so much that he repeated it.  His lips skimmed her skin as his hand came up and caressed her other cheek.

She felt heat bloom within her.  She gasped and pulled away from him.  Panic filled her eyes.  He saw it before she could distract him with her words. 

“Let’s go find my sister.  I want to show her the extravagant gift you’ve given me.”

But he wasn’t going to let her run away that easily today.  He reached out and curled his long, slender fingers around her wrist.  His hold on her arm arrested her movement.  She froze for a moment before turning back towards him.

“Kookie,” she whispered.

His eyes caressed hers.  “I scared you, didn’t I?  How?”

He could feel the tension in her.

She swallowed and evaded his gaze.

He took a step closer to her. “You like me.  I know you do.  There’s something between us.  I know you feel it too.  So, why are you hiding from me?”

Her eyes filled with tears.  “Not here.  Not now.  Please.  Please don’t make me explain.  Not today.”  Her gaze met his then, and he saw the tremors in her eyes. 

He tugged lightly on her wrist, pulling her towards him.  Then his slender fingers released that tiny wrist so that he could slide his arms around her.  He rested his chin against the top of her head as his arms wrapped tightly around her.  “Okay.  Not today.  But tomorrow.  Yunyeong, you have something you need to tell me.  Please find the courage to do so.  I don’t want it to keep coming between us.”

She buried her nose in his shirt and inhaled as she was swamped by an intense sorrow.  If she told him tomorrow, then today would be their last day together.  She’d best make the most of it. 

As she breathed in his spicy scent, she murmured, “I want to take some selfies with you here.”

Something by which to remember this beautiful dream. For tomorrow, she would awake from it. 

“Of course!” His eyes lit up, and he grinned. 

He grabbed his phone and opened the camera before holding it up over their heads.  He glanced behind him and then maneuvered her slightly so that a good view of their apple tree and the rose bushes was behind them in the picture.  Then he snapped several pictures.  In one, he bent towards her, and his lips whispered across the top of her head.  In another, he surprised her at the last instant by kissing her cheek.  Her expression was priceless.  So was the look in his eyes as he gazed at her.

They took several smiling poses.  At the last moment, he captured her lips in another kiss of such ineffable sweetness that she completely forgot he was photographing them, and she turned her head to follow his kiss.  He snapped a couple pictures and then dropped his arm to pull her closer as his lips played along hers, thoroughly enjoying their sweetness. 

After a little while, he murmured against her lips, “Come.  Let’s find Tae and your sister, so they can see what I’ve spent my summer building.”

“You won’t mention my drawing, right?” she queried.

“Not if you don’t want me to.”

She bobbed her chin.

“But, Yunyeong, I think you should show your sister.  Tell someone about your dreams.  They’re beautiful.  They deserve to be seen.”

She gazed up at him.  This beautiful, beautiful boy.  With the angelic voice.  And the soft lips.  And the lovely dreams.

And she mourned the loss of him.  Intensely. 

Why, oh, why, had she ever dated Eunho?   Why had she thrown herself away on a guy who never loved her? 

She could have had such a beautiful future with this man here.  But for one thing.  One horrible decision she’d made.  When she was sixteen years old.

But she was going to have to tell him.  Kookie deserved the truth.  He had proven that to her today.  This captivating sweetheart of a man was the only one she could trust with the truth.  But she knew that telling him the truth would be the same as kissing him goodbye. 

But they couldn’t go on like this.  After today, in light of this extravagant gift, she could no longer leave him in the dark.  Tomorrow she would find the courage to spill her secret to him.  Afterward, she would crawl back into her cave and hide away from the world again.  This time…for the rest of her life.  Nothing, and no one, would ever top today.  None could compare with Kookie.

Just then, Jungkook reached up and grabbed a branch of the apple tree.  There was one thing he hadn’t been able to finish.  The apple tree wasn’t strong enough yet.  But someday, in the future, he would complete the dream she’d created.

For now, he tried to pull himself up against the bark of that branch, but all he succeeded in doing was raining apples down on them.  As one bonked him in the head, he grimaced and announced happily, “The sky is falling, I think, Yunyeong.”

She gazed forlornly up at him.  Indeed, the sky was falling.  And there was absolutely nothing she could do about it.