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CHAPTER 49
⸻ BITTERSWEET
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｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆

T A E H Y U N G' S  P O V

"HONEY, CAN I ASK YOU SOMETHING?"

We were basking in each other's warmth in silence as moonlight radiated upon us on the balcony of our bedroom. Her fingers softly wander across my hair, twirling and playing with my brown curls that slowly brings me into drowsiness.

With a blanket wrapped around our bodies, I lift and pull it further upwards. "Hmm?"

"When did you start having feelings for me?" she finally speaks up.

I raise an eyebrow in suspicion to her sudden question as I turn to her. "Why do you ask?"

She lets out a breath, shrugging. "Nothing, just curious,"

"Why? Do you want to know if I fell for you at first sight?" I tease with a smirk twitching against my lips.

"Tch— of course, not!" she stammers, her cheeks blushing. "Never mind, forget I asked anything,"

I laugh, kissing her cheek as I find her extremely adorable. "I was joking, darling,"

She rolls her eyes and scoots away sulkily. I continue to laugh and cross my arms around her waistline tightly, immediately missing her lavender scent and warmth.

"Don't be mad, hmm?" I prop my chin on her chest and look up, battling my lashes.

"Baby," I call her but she ignores and glances up to the sky with a frown.

"Mia,"

"Hello, my dearest wife? Do you hear me?" And still, no responses.

I jut my lips out into a pouty face until a sneaky idea comes into mind. With a smirk, I gently cup her jaw, pecking her lips in a heartbeat.

She turns to me, bewildered with her cheeks flushing red. I continue to pepper kisses all across her face and tickle her sides, resulting her to chortle which makes me smile in triumph.

"I love you," I whisper, almost quiet and soft. "You don't know how much I'm in love with you. God, I couldn't imagine a life without you. Even just saying it makes it terrifying,"

Her lips turn upwards as she lifts her thumb to caress my cheek. "You declare those words like a thousand times today, Taehyung. Well, not that I'm complaining, I mean, it's really endearing and cute to hear you say it but I'm just worried that you might have something on you—"

I simply cut off her rambling by closing our distance and meshing my lips against hers. A noise of surprise rises from the back of her throat, telling me that she's in fact perplexed upon my actions.

Before I let myself fall deeper, I pull apart with heavy breaths, her lips still lingering on mine.

"I just wanted to express how much I love you. We've been busy these days due to the latest project but now that we're having a day off, I just wanted to bathe and shower you with love," I confess, feeling the fuzzy and warm feeling inside my chest as my heart skips a beat.

She stares at me with wide but loving eyes, her mouth parted. "I-I'm still not used with the fact that.. you love me. It feels surreal because you're so perfect to be true,"

"Do you love me?"

"Of course, I do!" she admits confidently.

"Is that so?" I raise an eyebrow in a challenge before a smirk appears on my lips. "Show me then,"

She furrows an eyebrow, catching up with my playful remark before she punches my chest gently. "Naughty,"

"What were you thinking about, hmm?" I tease as I bite my lower lip, licking it softly. "But I wouldn't disagree if that's what you're thinking. We could do it all n—"

Her eyes widen as she lets out a breathy gasp. "Oh my God, shut up,"

I start to laugh uncontrollably when she nuzzles her face into her hands in embarrassment. Bringing her closer, my hands roam down her arms and intertwine our fingers together.

"You're seriously so adorable. Do you want to be responsible of my heart attack because of you?" I place a hand on my chest dramatically and she looks at me with a ridiculous smile.

"You should look at yourself in the mirror. You're literally the cutest!"

"Mhm, debatable," I press open mouth kisses on her neck and her body reacts naturally, straddling my waist. "You're the most adorable. More than any puppies and baby koalas,"

Her expression contorts with adoration and desire as her arms winding around my neck, laughing as her eyes twinkled. "Whatever you say, handsome," she chastises and pulls my neck closer to connect our lips.

With the feeling of her soft lips on mine, I grow desperate and deepen our kiss. My tongue gradually traces her bottom lip, asking for an entrance as my fingers dug towards the hem of her sweatshirt and she groans, raking her fingers into my hair before she stops shortly, gripping my forearm.

Catching my breath, I meet her eyes, cheeks red and flushed. "What's wrong?"

She bites her lower lip slowly while staring at me with unreadable eyes. "I think I'm ready,"

"...Ready, for what?"

She sighs before intertwining our fingers together. "To have a baby with you,"

My heart leaps and drops to my stomach after her revelation. The new profound excitement and happiness were inexplainable.

"I-I.. Are you sure?! You're absolutely sure? You're not joking, right?"

A grin spreads across her face as she chuckles. "I'm very sure. I guess it wouldn't be so bad to have little kids running and playing around the house..."

I couldn't hear the rest of her sentence as my heart jumping with absolute excitement over the news. Little kids. Plural.

"Taehyung, can you hear me?"

The happiness shrinks when the sound of her sweet, mellow voice quietly echoes into the surrounding. The sight of her in front of me appears to be daunted, which causes my head to spin and swirling with headaches.

"Tae, can you hear me?" her concern voice continues to question.

Just like that, the moment shifts into reality in a split second. Everything was dimensionally different. Everything was white.

"He's awake! Doctor, nurse! Somebody!" A soft but loud voice calls.

The smells of medicine engraved my nostrils as I gradually register the atmosphere. I find myself lying in a hospital bed with my arms diffuse into several IV tubes. What happened? Where is she?

"There he is. He's awake. Could you please check on him?"

A tall, male doctor walks towards the bed as he begins to check my condition. I turn panic, my heart beating and racing.

"What happened? Why am I here?" I try to recall things but my mind was too weak to remember anything.

"You were stabbed and slipped into a coma for three days but you're alright, now. Don't worry," he smiles and nods his head. "Your wife is here with you. She has been dying to see you awake,"

I inhale a sharp breath. "Where is she?"

"I'm right here,"

I attempt to sit up but fail when the stitches on my stomach inflicted pain from insides, causing my body to fall back on the bed.

"Mi—" I call in a cheerful, dry voice but the word dies on my tongue. "Why are you here? Where's Mia?"

She forces a chuckle as she sneaks a careful glance towards the doctor leaving to give us privacy. After he leaves, she turns to me with an innocent smile.

"That wasn't a very nice welcome," she says and trudges closer with her arms behind her back. "Is that all I get after taking care of you for three days? Where's my lovely kiss?"

I give her a look of disgust and shake my head in disapproval. "Where's my wife? Did you do something to her?"

She scoffs in disbelief, rolling her eyes. "Why do you always assume the worst about me? You're treating me like I'm a criminal,"

"Where is she?!" I ignore her remarks as I begin to panic.

Her eyebrow raises slightly as she stares at me, bemused. "Just so you know, I hadn't seen her because she was never here. There, you happy?"

"You think I believe any words that's coming out from your mouth?"

"She doesn't care about you, Taehyung. But I do. I care so much about you, I know I made a lot of mistakes but—" she rambles and pauses when I pull out the IV strings from my arms. "What do you think you're doing?"

I ignore her and use every strength in me to get to the door but I couldn't since she was quick to stop me by grabbing my arm.

"You need to get some rest. You're not fully recovered yet," she says in a sweet, fake voice.

"Don't touch me!"

She grimaces, her lips pressing into a grim line. "Fine. But you need to rest," she demands sternly.

"No. I swear, if you've done something to her, I will not hesitate to put you behind bars,"

She groans, clearly losing her patience. "God, could you please.. just one second, not talk about her? It's so sickening!"

I ignore her bipolar attitude and gather my strength to push her out of the way. "Move!" I shout but it backfires when she abruptly steps forward and pulls the back of hair in a harsh grip.

I scream in pain as the strength in my body weakened. Blinking my eyes rapidly, I could feel her breathing down on my neck as she whispers closely to my ear.

"Unless you want nothing happen to her, you better listen to my words carefully,"

•••

M I A' S  P O V

"Mummy! Dohyun is trying to steal my cookies!" Eunbyul's screeching, loud voice echoes the whole apartment and I look at them in raw amusement.

They are watching cartoons in the living room with individual plates in front of them, filled with chocolate cookies, sitting side by side on the carpet.

"She's lying! Eun is the one who's trying to steal my cookies," Dohyun calls out, pointing a finger at her with a scowl.

I only chuckle over their siblings-like banter. "I bought the cookies for you to share. And Eun, I saw your little tricks there, little fella,"

Eunbyul gasps, her eyes bulging as if she hasn't done anything wrong. "But he ate so many!"

"I'll buy you some more. Now, don't fight over some cookies," I declare in a stern voice.

Upon hearing my words, Eunbyul's and Dohyun's eyes light up as they simultaneously clap their hands.

"Yay! More cookies!" They cheer happily as their mood abruptly turn upside down. I scoff in amusement.

Despite everything ripped apart, I couldn't help but feel incredibly blessed to have them by my side. I would be lying to admit that I was doing well in spite of what had occurred at the hospital few days ago.

Deranged and disrespectful words were thrown to my face. It was too much for me to bear as I dispersed myself out after being mocked and bullied, knowing it would caused more troubles if I stayed longer.

Because of that, I avoided from going to the hospital with their presence. I was afraid that I would bumped into his parents, especially Haera.

With Hyoseop's help, I secretly visited Taehyung every night since they weren't around. I froze as my tears fell freely the first time. His lips are chapped, his face pale and white as he laid there unconscious. My heart felt heavy and numb, guilt growing as I began to think that I had caused him this unwanted torture and pain.

"Aunty, when will papa be here?" I feel a small tug on my arm, pulling me from my deep thoughts and I look down to see Dohyun staring up at me with hopeful, twinkling eyes.

Taking care of Dohyun has been the easiest since he is very mature for his age but lying to him has been the hardest.

"Don't worry, sweetheart. Papa will be here soon. He has some things to take care of," I bend down and caress his hair gently.

He sighs then pouts. "But I miss him,"

"He misses you too, baby,"

"Do you think he misses mama too?" he suddenly asks in a curious tone, referring to his mother.

"I—Of course, he is,"

"Really? But mama is bad to papa. Papa always cry," he mutters sadly, his shoulder slumped. His eyes begin to water as they look down, avoiding my eyes.

I panic and silently embrace him into a hug. His small figure flinches but then he nuzzles his face into my shoulders as he softly cries, causing my heart to break. Poor boy. He must've suffered so much at a young age.

"Shh, don't cry,"

He continues to cry as I stroke his back until it turns into sniffles.

"Do you want some fruits, sweetheart? It'll make you feel better after eating cookies, I promise,"

With a small nod of approval, I hastily open the fridge and give him strawberries, which he happily complies with a red nose.

Supposedly, I was going to visit Taehyung tonight but a sudden pang of worry and guilt resurfaced to leave them alone. Over the last two days, I asked Ryujin a favour to take care of them while I visited him. Luckily, they were already asleep when I got back.

A loud ringtone from my phone startles me and I quickly pick it up, answering it without glancing at the screen.

"Hello?"

"Mia! Where are you?" Hyoseop's voice echoes on the other line but a false tone in his voice doesn't go unnoticed.

"Hyoseop oppa? I'm in my apartment, what's wrong?" I ask, suddenly worried.

"I'm sorry for not telling you sooner but um, Taehyung's missing," he perpetually inquires and my heart sinks to my stomach.

"W-What? What do you mean?" I let out a shudder breath as I could feel my heart stop momentarily.

"I was going to check on him after hearing that he was awake but when I got there, he was gone," He's awake?

"Did you check the CCTV?" I exhale breathily, having it hard to breathe.

"I did but the footage outside his room was deleted. No one was allowed to enter the hallway without a pass through the VIP room except doctors and nurses,"

"W-What are you saying?"

"No doctors were available at that time, meaning someone was pretending to be one and allow that person to enter his room," he starts to explain further and my mind begins to put the pieces together.

"So he's been kidnapped? By who?"

In the meantime, a loud knock pounds on the apartment door and I recoil, startled from the sound.

With a thumping heart, I walk towards the door and turn on the doorknob. The person standing before my eyes has me gripped the handle to steady myself and sigh in relief to see the very man that has claimed to have gone missing.

"Taehyung,"

He looks tired, but determined as his eyes speak with a hidden meaning. "We're leaving. Right now,"

"I—What do you mean?" I mutter, my eyes trailing down to where his hands pressed on his stomach. "Oh my God, are you okay? You're not healed yet! What the hell were you thinking? How did you—"

"There's no time! Pack your bags. We need to leave! Now," he pleads desperately.

"Taehyung, what's going on?" I begin to panic without knowing the reason.

He closes his eyes, exhaling and breathing in the air. "Please, I'll explain on the way. You have to listen to me. Bring Eunbyul and Dohyun as well,"

I hastily nod and before I obey his request, I turn back to him. "But where are we going?"

"Somewhere far away,"

•••

A/N: Hello, I am back after what.. three, or four months? I've lost count but I'm surprised to see that this story is growing and I couldn't help but feel bad that I haven't updated in so long and I'm truly sorry for breaking my promise for not updating sooner. But thank you for everyone who's still here and read this crappy fanfic. I adore and love you so much! I'll try my best to update whenever I can! I love you guys xx