Reports of Kim Taehyung being officially taken off of the market had spread like wildfire. News of the press conference held by Big Hit Entertainment could be found anywhere. From the television to the Internet, it seemed like everyone was talking about the unveiling of the young couple. Arang and Taehyung had even managed to become the number one searched item on sites like Google, Bing and Yahoo!

All of the images the reporters had taken of the pair were also posted all over the web. There was an array of reactions which was shared on popular forums and social media networks such as Allkpop, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Weibo and Soompi. Some people were genuinely happy for them, wishing them the best of luck, others were drowning in their own misery and a few were completely indifferent on the whole ordeal.

Information on Arang's workplace had been leaked and the department store had been flooded with nosy, unpaying bodies ever since. It was safe to say that she wasn't going to be going into work any time soon.

Luckily enough her home address was not disclosed. Arang thanked the heavens that her family had decided to move into the current apartment complex they were residing in a few months ago because back in her old neighborhood, everybody knew them. So it would have been easy for her address to be publicized. At her new home she didn't really communicate with any of her neighbors, everyone kept to themselves which was beneficial in this case.

Not having too many friends was another added bonus. Who knows how fast people would turn on her in exchange for five seconds of fame. It wasn't the reporters that had Arang feeling restless though. It was the crazy, obsessed fan-girls who were enraged about her relationship with their "oppa" that she felt more distressed about.

She couldn't even imagine what kind of psychotic things they were thinking of doing to her. Shivers crawled up her spin, causing the hairs on the back of her neck to stand up.

It had only been four hours since the conference but why was she still nervous?

Her phone vibrated and she pulled it out of her purse. It was another message from Byunghyun. Ever since the conference aired, her phone had been blowing up with calls and texts from him, her unpleasant manager, her parents and her siblings. Arang didn't feel like replying to anyone just yet and slipped the device back into the bag.

She was at a fancy restaurant with Taehyung and Director Wan. To reward them on a job well done, the woman had offered to take them out for dinner which was how they wound up at this four star Italian restaurant located in the Gangnam district. Director Wan had to step out for a moment so Arang was left alone with Taehyung. The boy had been secretly observing her from across the table and he couldn't help but sigh inwardly.

Was this the same annoying and smart-mouthed girl he had eaten ramen with earlier? Because she sure as hell was not acting like her usual self.

Then again he couldn't blame her.

After the conference had ended, she hadn't said much to him or his mother which was really weird but at the same time very understandable. They had to stay at the company for an hour or two until the number of fans and reporters loitering outside dwindled down. As soon as the coast was clear, they took his mother's car and headed out.

The waiter had brought them glasses of water in cups normally used for consuming wine. He asked if they were ready to place their order and Taehyung had to tell him that they needed a few more minutes. "Yah," he softly kicked her foot under the table and succeeded in getting her attention. He thought she was going to snap at him or kick him back but she did neither one of those things.

"What?" She replied in a flat voice.

That was unexpected. "Do you know what you want to eat yet? The waiter is going to come back soon." He announced as he gestured to the book in front of her. Okay, so that wasn't the real reason he had wanted to talk but what she didn't know wouldn't kill her. Arang didn't say anything as she stared blankly at the closed menu. She didn't have an appetite. How could she eat during a situation like this? "Fine, I'll just order for you then." Taehyung huffed.

He waved their waiter back over and told him what they wanted. For starters, they'd have fried calamari and as for their entrees, an order of the Cajun pasta with shrimp and a plate of the chicken carbonara pasta. He recalled how much Arang loved poultry by the way she had devoured them while the two of them were his friends and figured it was probably his best bet.

Director Wan returned only to tell them they she had to get going. "I'll hail a cab. So here are my keys and my credit card." She placed the items onto the table before placing a kiss on her son's head. "If there is even a tiny scratch on my car, you're dead. I hope you have a good night, Arang. Please try to lighten up."

Numbly, Arang nodded.

It was really unsettling for him to see her like this. If he was honest, Taehyung enjoyed it more when Arang was quarreling adamantly with him while throwing nasty insults here and there. "You should really stop being like this," Taehyung prodded quietly. "It's hard for me to see you like this." She looked at him with a quizzical expression."What I mean to say is you acting like this is not fun for me. You're totally killing the mood right now." He explained a bit awkwardly.

"Stop," Arang muttered gently before her face hardened. "Just stop pretending like you actually care about me because we both know that you don't. It's already tough for me as it is. I don't need you here confusing me and make things more complicated than they should be." The last part of her statement was uttered so softly that Taehyung had barely heard her. He was confusing her? He was making things more complicated? What did she mean by that? "Sorry for ruining your mood. I'll leave. Don't worry about me anymore. I mean it." Scooting her chair back, Arang stood up from her seat and marched out of the restaurant.

Taehyung sat there for a minute as his brain worked on deciphering her words. Although Arang might seem like an unbreakable girl, she was still human. She might come off as rude and arrogant but obviously those weren't the only qualities she had. It wasn't like there weren't other people in the world with a similar personality. From what he saw she didn't seem to have that many friends either. If she did, she must not like them very much since the only person she's ever talked to him about was Byunghyun. Her face drained of color flickered into his mind and that was when he knew.

Arang was waving her hand, trying to get a taxi to stop for her but her efforts ended in vain. Every cab zoomed right by her as though she was invisible. Frustrated, she kicked the air and dropped down into a crouch. She hugged her knees together and buried her face. Why was nothing working out for her? She hated feeling weak and vulnerable like this. And the fact that Taehyung had witnessed all of it left her humiliated. Why did it have to be him out of all people?

Arang was mad with herself. How could she be such a coward at a time like this?

She should have held her head up high but instead she held onto his hand! What was wrong with her? How could she think that she could rely on someone like Kim Taehyung? He might be able to say everything he did was all for show but for her, it wasn't the same.

Arang latched onto him because she wanted to.

His touch put her at ease; it made her feel safe.

He kept her together when she was about to crumble into pieces.

She could lie and tell the entire world her actions weren't sincere but no matter how hard she tried, she would never be able to persuade herself.

The truth was she was beginning to open up to Taehyung. She didn't mean for it to happen but somewhere along the way, she had gotten comfortable enough with him without even realizing it. No, Arang wasn't going to tell him her deepest darkest secrets. But spending time with him had gotten bearable.

Yes, he was a jerk but he wasn't a complete jerk.

Besides, it wasn't like she was a saint either. Arang thought she was always going to despise Taehyung with every fiber of her body but that proved not to be the case.

She had basically fraternized with the enemy!

Did she even have the right to still call him her enemy?

She could hear a car pulling over and the door opening nearby. "I told you I didn't like seeing you like this, didn't I?" Arang lifted her head up and saw Taehyung looking at her, his face unreadable. He squatted down so that they were at eye-level."Because seeing you like this really makes me want to take care of you." He whispered tenderly. Arang held her breath, not knowing why she was doing so. Then Taehyung got up and turned away after he noticed her expression. "So if you don't want that to happen anymore, you should stop moping around and get back to being the insufferable smartass you are. Because nothing is going to happen even if you're like this."

He was right; why was she sitting around feeling sorry for herself? That was not going to change anything. Why waste her time? She must have looked so pitiful. Regaining her composure, Arang stood tall and cleared her throat. "Thanks," she murmured. "For being here for me. You're not as useless as I thought you were."

The corners of his lips twitched upward as he looked at her. "Now that's the So Arang I know. Get in the car, loser. I'll take you home."

"What about the food?" She blinked.

Realization dawned on Taehyung, "Yeah, about that..." On cue, their waiter came sprinting out of the front doors. "Get in the car now!" He screamed as he scrambled back to the driver's side. Arang didn't need to be told twice when she saw what was going on. Just as the man reached the vehicle, Taehyung peeled away from the curb. He glanced back into the rear-view mirror and began laughing. "That was close."

"Did we just dine and ditch?" Arang gawked. Couldn't they get into big trouble for this?

"Not really," Taehyung answered. "We never ate the food, therefore we didn't do anything wrong. And if the police do track us down, we could always say that an emergency came up or the wait was too long." He shrugged nonchalantly.

"Obviously this isn't your first time doing something like this." Arang scoffed.

"I was a dumb kid back then. I hung out with the wrong crowd but I won't lie. Those times were probably some of the best moments of my life."

"You're talking like you've lived a long and fulfilled life. You're only nineteen.You have to wait until you're at least eighty to say stuff like that."  Arang rolled down her window and stuck her hand out, allowing the wind to flow through her fingers.

"I wouldn't be able to wait until I was eighty. I'm pretty sure by that age I'd be suffering from Alzheimer's and dementia." Taehyung took his foot off of the gas pedal and moved it to the brakes when he saw that the light was yellow. He stole a glimpse of Arang and found her eyes fluttered shut. He wondered if she had fallen asleep but she suddenly hoisted her eyelids up and glanced around. Quickly, Taehyung focused his attention back on the road. The light went back to green and he resumed driving.

"You know, you're not so bad." Arang declared timidly. He wanted to ask her what she meant by that and to his liking he didn't have to since she carried on with voicing out her thoughts. "When I first met you, I couldn't stand you. I thought you were the world's biggest idiot. You were irresponsible, childish and self-absorbed. Every time I ran into you, I wondered what awful sins did I commit in my past life to have the misfortune of meeting you."

Taehyung tried not to glower. What was she getting at? Because right now, it just sounded like she was insulting him like she normally did.

"However, after I actually spent some time with you, even though it was against my will, I began to notice the little things about you that were actually kind of charming."

Wait... was Arang trying to compliment him right now? First she thanked him and now this?

Without thinking straight, Taehyung pulled over to the sidewalk and slammed his foot onto the brakes. The abrupt halt caused Arang's body to lurch forward out of her seat. "Yah! Why did you do that?" She scowled.

"Say... say that again." He stammered, staring at her with his mouth ajar.

"Say what?" She frowned; she was clearly pissed that her head had almost splattered into pieces all over the dashboard. 

"You—you just said I was charming." He repeated with a wide grin.

"That is not what I said," Arang argued. "I said the little things you did were charming. There's a huge difference. Let's not get over-imaginative here."

"Potato, potahto." Taehyung dismissed. He then leaned in which made Arang draw back. "I knew you were going to fall for me sooner or later. I've got you hooked now, don't I, So Arang?"

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author's note

» these two obviously still have a long way to go because there's something called friendship that needs to be established first! but eeeeeeeeeeep, we get to see more of the weak side of Arang. this tells us that yes, strong people can be vulnerable and scared like the rest of us. and just to explain the last chapter some more, taehyung found arang depending on him to be attractive because she was always strong and prideful and to see her reaching out to him for help when she needed it told him that she didn't let pride get the best of her. in a way, she was showing him that she was beginning to trust him by leaning on him. I wanted to clarify what i was trying to portray.

ehehe what'd you all think of this chapter? We see them interacting more! and and and what about what taehyung said about wanting to care for her and arang telling him he was confusing her! omg i can't! what did i just write? but yesssss, she told him her honest thoughts! go girl! make him fall for you! the frozen frames I picture here are: taehyung looking at arang while they're at the table, arang crouched down hugging her knees while she stares at taehyung who is squatting in front of her and last but not least taehyung leaning towards arang in the car with a grin. totes love this song too! i think it fits well!