Chapter 12
Tae drove back to pick up Sophia, my head still a little sore from drinking the night before. I was definitely a lightweight when it came to alcohol but I remembered most of what happened, embarrassed from being pouty and a little needy for his attention. He just thought it was cute, being a gentleman even though I insisted I didn't want him to be, convincing him I was tipsy but not drunk so he'd actually touch me.
And now, as we neared Mum and Dads house, I was looking forward to seeing Sophia again, feeling like something was missing when she wasn't with us. "We're running low on petrol," Tae commented, looking at the gauge on the dashboard.
"There are a couple of petrol stations on the outskirts of town, we'll easily make it there," I answered, checking the GPS to see how far away they were.
When we arrived at the station, I went in to get some snacks as we were getting Sophia and heading straight out of town again. Cities weren't our friends, Tae more likely to be noticed so we'd do a bigger shop when we had reached our next destination further up north. Tae jumped out to pump the gas and clean the windscreen while I was inside, paying at the pump once the petrol had filled up. As I came out, I glanced at the other car across from us and saw a girl with her window down, watching Tae with her mouth open, eyes wide. Clearly she recognised him. He hadn't noticed, putting the window wiper back in the soapy bucket and getting into the van and I pulled my hat down a little over my eyes, dropping my head as I got in the other side of the vehicle.
Leaning over to press a kiss on my cheek, I was acutely aware we were being watched, diverting it with handing a snack over instead, pretending not to notice he'd leaned in and he wasn't bothered, taking the packet and ripping it open as he started the van up and we drove away.
"I can't wait to see BugBug," he said with a huge grin, biting into a candy. "Do you think she will have grown."
I cracked up laughing. "We've only been gone three days Tae, even if she has, we won't be able to tell."
"This is all still new to me Marley, parenting."
His eyes grew a little large and he quickly backtracked. "Not that I'm her parent but I've been taking care of her and there's still lots to learn."
"It's OK oppa," I said, resting my hand on his arm and rubbing it a little and he relaxed. "You have been parenting her and you're doing great, she loves you."
He smiled quickly looking away from the road to press the kiss to my cheek that he hadn't managed earlier. That reminded me I wanted to look at something. "I'm just going to do a little work on my phone before we get to Mum and Dad's," I said and he nodded, eyes back on the road, turning music on to listen to while I worked.
I wasn't actually working though and logged into Facebook, scrolling to the page I was after, the local ARMY Facebook page. I wasn't surprised but my heart still escalated when I saw the post I was half expecting.
"I just saw Kim Taehyung! No joke! He was at the petrol station in my town and looked like he was filling up to go on a trip as he was in a campervan. OMG! He is gorgeous in real life, I was so stunned I forgot to take photos. But seriously, I'd heard he might be here and he definitely is!"
I checked and it had only been posted a few minutes ago but there was already two comments.
"Are you for real? What city do you live in? You're so lucky, I would die!"
"Was he with anyone?"
This was not good. If she said where she lived and if she'd gotten the licence plate, the second half of our trip might be a washout or even have to be cancelled. Refreshing the page, I saw there were four comments now, reading the additional ones. The first, a reply from the original poster.
"Yes, he was with a woman, I think the one we've seen pictures of online in the past but no child that I could see. And I don't think I should say where I live, people might try and track him down?"
"Can you at least tell us which Island you live on?"
I was thinking about mentioning it to Tae when I refreshed the page again, confused when the post seemed to have disappeared. Thinking I'd clicked on something, I went back to the main page and scrolled down, unable to find it. Then a post appeared from the admin of the page.
"Good morning ARMY. Just a reminder of ARMY rules around the members private schedules. If we ever do see them outside of their working schedules, remember to give them space, don't approach and no photos or posting any details about what happened or where. We want BTS to be happy, they share a lot with us because they trust us so don't break that trust by stepping outside of these guidelines. Remember; "Important Business." Thank you for understanding and supporting BTS."
Comments were disabled on the post, not giving anyone else the opportunity to ask questions and I was grateful that the etiquette of ARMY was first and foremost to protect the guys, reminding people of this where needed. I had a feeling I didn't need to worry about checking the page to see if anything else came up, that the admin were onto it and I breathed a sigh of relief, not mentioning it to Tae.
"All done," he asked, seeing my put my phone away and relax.
"Yes jagiya, I'm done," and I smiled, anticipating seeing Sophia and the next place I wanted to take Tae to see. Hopefully we'd be able to do that without anyone tracking us but I felt a little more relieved than I had a few minutes earlier, leaning in to snuggle against Tae's side as we drove the last twenty minutes to Sophia.
Sophia hurtled herself at me when we walked into the house, reaching for Tae at the same time and as I picked her up, she leaned towards him, wrapping her arms around his neck.
"Mama! Hi TaeTae," she said, chirping away in her sweet voice. "You were on holiday and now we go back in the campvan?" She was obviously repeating back what Mum and Dad had been telling her, standing clutching Tinky, ready to go.
"Yes, we are going to go sleep in the campervan again Sophia but don't you have something to say first?"
She turned her head a little, confused. "Ummmm, I'm hungry?"
I laughed. "You're always hungry, that's not what I mean Sophia Bug."
Out the corner of my eye I saw Tae raise his eyebrows at her and carefully point towards my parents. She hadn't learnt any subtly yet and loudly proclaimed, "ah, OK, TaeTae, tank you Nan and Grandad."
"We'll have to work on our signals little one," Tae said, grinning. "Are you ready to go?"
She nodded and I looked at my parents as mum spoke. "We know you have to get to your next destination before it gets dark, don't worry about rushing away. You young people enjoy your time together?"
We exchanged a look and Tae bit his lip, looking away so he wouldn't blush under the questioning.
"Thank you, we had a nice time Mum, we talked through some important stuff too so I can safely say I love Tae more now than I did a few days ago."
His head shot straight back to me as I spoke. "Marley," he breathed out softly, a little embarrassed about how open I had been about saying it and maybe a little surprised.
"Just saying it how it is Kim Taehyung," I joked, reaching for his hand and only looking away as I heard a deep sigh.
"Are you alright Mum," I asked, looking back to her.
"Being in love is the best feeling," she said, looking happy for us and the smile spread across my face.
"It certainly is," Tae said, his voice deep as he squeezed my hand. "Thank you for giving us some time together."
"I'd have Sophia all the time if I could," she replied.
"And when we finally did collect her, she'd be so spoiled, treats anytime she wanted no doubt," I replied, knowing what my parents got up to when I wasn't around.
"Can Sophia have a cookie now," she asked, listening in as always.
"Of course precious, I packed you a snack for the trip," Mum replied, handing it to her and Sophia took it and tucked it under her spare arm.
"OK, we go now," she said and we all laughed, walking to the door and heading back out onto the road.
I'd missed the chatter of a tiny voice and as we drove she told us little snippets of her time staying with her grandparents.
"I love listening to her talk," Tae said from where he sat in the passenger seat. This part of the trip was a beautiful drive and I suggested I drove so he could take in the scenery.
"Enjoy it while you can, soon enough her cute talk will disappear and she'll start sounding more grown up, not so much like a toddler."
"I need to record her, if that's OK with you?"
I turned briefly to look at him. He was wearing shorts, his caramel skin on display as he relaxed in his seat, legs stretched out. "What do you mean?"
"I wrote a song that I've been playing around with for a while, about growing up. I'd love to have the sound of a child in the background as I talk about my past. It will be a happy song, I can play you what I have already?"
"Sounds cute, if you can get her to do that. She doesn't always co-operate, you know that."
"Remember when we were with Yoongi and Jin? She didn't want to put the microphone down, I think we'll be fine."
At that moment, Sophia started giggling about something she was watching on the iPad I'd let her watch. Our reaction was automatic, you really couldn't hear a small child giggle without smiling yourself. When her giggles turned into lots of louder giggles and laughs strung together, Tae whipped out his phone and started recording. When he stopped, he spoke as he tucked his phone back in his pocket. "I'll send it to Yoongi and see if it can be cleaned up enough to use, it's kind of exactly what I wanted, she sounds so happy and free."
"I want that for you Tae. I know you've loved what you've done the last 10 years but I know it has been really hard. It would make me really happy if you were."
"I can't imagine not being happy now that I have you," he answered sweetly and earnestly, making sure I understood he meant it.
"Life won't be perfect," I replied, aware that life with kids was messy and complicated and his life was already messy and complicated.
"I don't care about perfect. We will make our own kind of perfect. And our own team of kids. That will be fun, the making them part." He was smirking at me when I glanced his way, like I knew he would be.
"And the raising them Tae, that part is pretty crazy. They're a whole person you're responsible for."
"Can't wait, Sophia is amazing and having more would make me the happiest ever."
"OK, that's a conversation for quite a long time from now."
"So just practising making the team for now then," he grinned.
"I know how much you like practising," I answered.
"As if you don't," he shot back quickly, laughing loudly. "If I remember correctly, you were very, very into practising last night. Do you remember though, because I can fill in the parts you don't if you like? Like when you were so loud that I thought-,"
"Kim Taehyung," I warned with a growl. "There are children present."
"Sophia is here," she piped up, blissfully unaware of what we were talking about.
"Yes, Sophia is here Tae," I said, raising my eyebrows and biting the inside of my cheek at the look he gave me.
"They do say practice makes perfect," he said. "Although I have to say, things are pretty perfect already."
I blushed a little. "We've had some fun practising haven't we?" My voice was soft, remembering some very intense, amazing times that were forever etched in my memories.
"I have absolutely no complaints. None, not one. OK maybe one."
"You have a complaint," I asked, wondering where this was going.
"Well, sometimes when we're 'practising', you get loud and you bury your mouth against my skin to try and be quieter, for little ears," he said.
"Well, ummm, yes," I answered, clearing my throat, trying to focus on the driving.
"Yes, well, sometimes you bite down and it hurts a little."
"Tae?! I'm sorry," I replied, flustered, trying to remember the times I'd done that. It all kind of blended into lots of slideshows flitting across my eyes.
"Oh no no, that's not my complaint. I like that part, it makes it all the more intense for me," he reassured.
"OK?" Now I was confused. "So what's the problem then."
"The problem is I like to hear you when you c-"
"Kim Taehyung," I bellowed, his laughter flooding the car, my cheeks bright red as we drove onwards, our noise flooding out the open windows, disappearing into the wind.
