Yoongi and May were strolling silently along, simply enjoying each other’s company on the short walk back to her hotel. She’d wondered why he hadn’t accepted the quick car ride which Jin had offered. He was taking Sherry to the same place. But Yoongi had quietly declined Jin’s generous offer, preferring instead to walk beside May. She would be eternally grateful to him for desiring this time alone with her. She had been wanting to get to know him for so long.
Suddenly, he turned his head to look behind him. Then his voice found her ear, “It appears they’ve found us again. Come on!”
Yoongi reached out and wrapped his fingers around her wrist, pulling her along with him. As they rounded a corner, he slipped behind a door that was standing open, dragging her into his arms as they both sheltered behind it, praying their pursuers kept moving past them.
But as May was pulled roughly up against Yoongi’s chest, she found herself experiencing a new kind of danger. She stared up at his chin. Even drawing herself up to her full five feet of height, Yoongi towered over her. She felt oddly excited, off-balance, and eminently secure all at once. She didn’t even fear the men chasing them anymore. She was safely wrapped in Yoongi’s tender embrace. She couldn’t think of anywhere else she’d rather be. But she knew she was in peril of losing her heart to the Bangtan Boy with the sweet face, the one the world called Suga.
“I’m beginning to think walking with you is dangerous,” she whispered.
Yoongi was once again breathing in the delicious fragrance clinging to her hair. He could happily stay here all night if he didn’t have back-to-back concerts this weekend. He sighed. He should force himself to finish walking her home. But in this moment, he had no desire whatsoever to move.
“Hey!” A voice suddenly yelled from behind them. They both jumped at the unexpected sound. “What are you two doing here? We’re closed for the night, and no one is allowed back here.”
Yoongi glanced at the perturbed shop owner. “Sorry. We were being chased by some hoodlums, and your back door was open, so we hid in here.”
The man instantly calmed down, shaking his head. “Joe! That kid! He’s always leaving this door open when he takes the trash out!” He squinted at the couple momentarily. “You were being chased, huh? Sure you weren’t just looking for a private place to canoodle?”
Canoodle? Yoongi looked at May, and she looked at him, shrugging her shoulders. She had no idea what canoodling was. Yoongi thought he might have a guess.
He grinned before responding, “Though I think I’d thoroughly enjoy canoodling with May, we really were hiding.”
“In that case, come with me. I’ll let you out at the front of my shop.”
May, still privately wondering what canoodling was – and determined to google it at the earliest possible moment – smiled gratefully at the burly man. “Thank you,” she spoke softly.
Yoongi released her, allowing her to walk ahead of him as they followed the man into his store. He let them out through the glass front door, bidding them a good evening before locking the door behind them.
Yoongi glanced down at May. “Perhaps we should get an Uber.”
“Yoongi, maybe I should just grab a cab back to my hotel alone. I don’t want to risk being photographed with you. I know it would cause us both a lot of grief.”
Yoongi’s heart dipped. He sighed. “If that’s what you want, I’ll find you a ride.” He pulled his phone out of his pocket.
Suddenly, her hand was covering his own. “It’s not what I want,” she asserted quietly. “I want to spend the entire night with you – the whole weekend even.” The rest of my life! “But I need to think of you and what’s best for you. And myself too, I suppose.”
There it was again. That vision of him kissing her dimples.
“Come with me then.”
Her heart flew upwards. “What?”
“Tomorrow morning. Let me pick you up. You can come to practice with me. Before the concert.”
His dark eyes delved into her own as they stood on a street corner in downtown Chicago, two lonely hearts connecting with each other.
She nodded her head, her lips tilting upward, causing those dimples to dance. “I’d love to.”
