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Amanda's POV

"Are you serious? I mean...it will hurt a lot, baby" I was worried about his idea.

"It will probably," Taehyung nodded and gave a half-shrug. "But I've made up my mind to get it done. And what better place than Bangkok? See?" He pointed to the line of tattoo shops. "There's an entire street dedicated to tattoo shops. I think it's a cosmic coincidence that we came here," He laughed as we kept walking down the street.

In a few more minutes, we were seated inside a fairly big and decent looking tattoo shop that I picked, hoping it was somewhere they followed some much needed hygiene practices.

"What design to choose?" Taehyung flipped through an entire catalog of designs that ranged from various religious symbols to abstract designs, florals, logos and so much more. Although I was tempted to get one on myself, I was worried that it would hurt too much, and so I decided to let Taehyung test the waters and just wait and watch how he could handle it before getting one done for myself.

"Can I get your name tattooed here?" He pointed to the left side of his chest and looked up at me.

"What? No, no... that's gonna hurt like hell. Get it done somewhere else." I dismissed his idea of a chest tattoo in the blink of an eye.

"How about on my arm?" He lifted up the sleeve of his shirt and stroked his bicep, wiggling his eyebrows at me.

"Yeah... seems okay to me," I showed thumbs up. "But not my name, please. It should be something that is significant to you, something important and meaningful because whether I am there or not, this tattoo will still remain on your body. So make it meaningful. There's nothing in a name." I explained clearly, and he pouted and nodded sadly.

"How about this? A Phoenix?" Taehyung pointed at the intricate design of a Phoenix that had taken up almost half a page on the design book. It looked extremely artistic and attractive, and I could literally visualize it on his strong upper arm.

"Wow... this looks so cool. I love it. What about you?" I took the book to me for a closer look at the design.

He nodded and combed his hair with his long fingers.
"I love it too."

I pulled out my phone to look up the exact significance of a Phoenix bird.

"Look what it says." I read out from my phone. "This mythical bird is a symbol of hope, renewal, rebirth, immortality, resurrection, solitude, and grace. Just like the phoenix emerges from its ashes, so can man after devastation and loss. The phoenix gives mankind hope and urges us to fight on." I turned to look at him, and our eyes met.

"This is just perfect for you, Taehyung. You literally went to your deathbed and came back strong. And every time you look at it, it will remind you that you are a fighter, and you will get past every single hardship." I squeezed his hand lightly and gave him a reassuring nod.

He flashed his cute square grin and nodded a few times.

After about three hours, we were back in our hotel room and Taehyung's tattoo was covered in a bandage that we were told to remove after two days, along with a cart load of other after care instructions.

I helped him out of his clothes, and we got into bed, with Taehyung wearing a grumpy face all along.

"Why are you looking like an angry bear now?" I snuggled up beside him and tried to hold him closer to me.

Taehyung winced and grunted.
"I swear, Amanda, you touch my arm once again, I'm going to ruin your curls" he let out angrily.

"You chose to suffer. Did I ask you to get a tattoo?" I kicked his foot and turned to the other side of the bed, facing away from him.

"How am I going to survive this? God! And she said the pain will be a bit more for the next few days." He cursed in some unknown languages and lay still on the bed, unable to move his arm.

I couldn't stop giggling to myself.

"Mandy, please come closer." He tried to coax me.

"What? You said you'll ruin my curls. I'm sleeping in this corner tonight." I silently giggled to myself when I heard him hiss and whine behind me.

But eventually, I turned around to lie down facing him and accidentally hit his arm with my hand while trying to adjust the comforter around us.

"Aaoooooowwww!" Taehyung yelled and almost cried. "Are you trying to kill me?" He sat up in bed, complaining and sulking.

I sat up too, taken aback by his loudness.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I was just adjusting the comforter."

"What am I going to do with you?" He smacked his forehead. "We're leaving tomorrow, and I haven't even done what I wanted to do." Taehyung sulked again.

"What did you want to do? You can do anything except swimming, sauna, sun baths and steam baths for the next 6 weeks. And, of course, sex is going to be hard until that heals." I pointed to his arm.

"I shouldn't have got this done today." He shook his head and whined, his fluffy hair all over his forehead, and he was pouting with his puppy eyes. It was hard not to kiss him breathless.

"That's okay, handsome. It will heal soon." I patted his thigh, giving it a light squeeze.

"There's a small red velvet pouch in my bag. Can you get that for me?" Taehyung asked in a sudden deep tone.

"Okay" I jumped out of bed and fished in his bag and fetched the small red velvet pouch and tossed it to him.

"Whooa!" He was shocked. "You did not just throw this, did you?" He shook his head and carefully opened the pouch with his fingertips, with a concentrated pout, handling the pouch so delicately as though he was trimming a newborn's fingernails.

I sat down cross-legged beside him and watched what he was doing.
"Are you detonating a bomb, Taehyungie?"

"Kind of" he winked and chuckled, untying the ribbon around the pouch and retrieving a small red box from inside.

"Wow, such a small bomb" I poked his waist and giggled.

"Yeah? Wait until you see what it is." He moved aside the pouch and the comforter and got on his knees on the bed, holding the small box in one hand.

"Get up," he gestured for me to get up, and I got on my knees on the bed facing him.

"Amanda, I really wanted to do this at the beach tonight. But then this happened" he pointed to his arm and then his eyes lifted to meet mine. "I hope you don't mind me doing it here, like this, on the bed, in the most unromantic way....with an arm that is threatening to get me in my grave." He let out a long breath and began chewing on the insides of his lips.

"Baby? Are you getting nervous suddenly? We've done a lot on bed only, right? And you know that I'd be okay with anything done with you in bed. What's making you nervous now?" I crawled closer to him, with my eyes fixed on his eager eyes. We were kneeling in bed facing each other.

He puffed out a few short breaths and held the box in the space between us. My eyebrows knitted in confusion, and my gaze fell on the box and then lifted to meet his eyes.
"Amanda Kimberly, would you like to be Amanda Kim?"

My eyes widened when I heard those words, followed by a small pop sound with which the box opened.
"Will you marry me, Amanda?" Taehyung asked me with his eyes not leaving mine for even a brief second, holding me captive under his strong gaze, drilling through my soul in search of the answer which he already knew.

My heart raced and a swarm of butterflies fluttered wildly within my stomach, as I held his hands in mine and smiled big.
"Yes, Taehyung. I want to marry you. I want to be Amanda Kim."

He smiled big — his smile shining brighter than the diamond on the ring that he now held in his hand. Taehyung lifted my left hand to his chest level and slowly slid the ring onto my finger and kissed the back of my hand, his eyes still locked onto mine.

My heart overflowed with joy and the thought of being married to the first and only boy in my life made all my nerve cells dance in excitement. I cupped his cheeks in my hands and captured his lips in a gentle kiss, one that sealed our relationship for all the years of togetherness to come.

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May 18, 2021

"A couple, are we?" I spoke to Mac and Cheese as I slowly dropped them back into the bowl after I cleaned the bowl and added fresh water. They sank to the bottom of the bowl, slightly terrified by the sudden drop and then resumed swimming and chasing each other as always. I smiled with a heavy heart and sat down on the couch, watching them play happily.

Today was a hopeless day, as there was no progress made in Taehyung's case. I didn't get any leads as well, and it was heartbreaking to say the least. I had spent three whole days and two nights without him by my side, and every cell in my mind and body ached to hold him and love him. My thoughts were completely disoriented, and I didn't even understand how I was surviving this calamity.

"Amanda, let's get some sleep" Jungkook's voice interrupted my thoughts.

I stood up from the couch, letting out a long and tired sigh.
"I still have to do the dishes. You get some sleep. I'll get to bed on-"

"I've done the dishes and dried them already." He interrupted again.

My eyes lifted to meet his bambi eyes, surprised by his words.
"You did? That's so-....thank you, Jungkook." I smiled a little.

"You cooked, and I cleaned. It is no big deal. You want to go to bed or watch something on TV?" He asked me as he dried his hands with a towel.

"No, I want to get some sleep. I'm feeling a bit tired." My lower abdomen was hurting since my period was due tomorrow.

"Alright, let's go then" he ushered me to the bedroom and got comfortable inside his sleeping bag, while I brushed my teeth and did my skincare and got into bed. My hair looked like a bird's nest, and I couldn't bother more. Tomorrow being Wednesday, I missed Taehyung even more. I hoped he would come back to me soon although I could already find the last threads of my hope dwindling away.

Curling up to his pillow, that didn't smell like him anymore, I buried myself among the sheets and drifted off to sleep.

The shrill and tinny ringing tone of my phone pierced through the silence in our room. I struggled to open my eyes, and my head throbbed badly. It felt as if I had been asleep for just a few minutes only.

I hadn't turned off the ringer on my phone for the past few days — something that I had never done consciously in all these years — while desperately waiting for any hopeful information from the police. Squinting at the bright light on the phone, I deciphered that the call was from the police station.

Oh my God!

With trembling hands and with a small glint of hope, I sat up on the bed and answered the call,
"Hello?"

My eyes wandered to Jungkook's broad frame that was curled up inside the sleeping bag on the cold floor, completely immobile and deaf to the sounds in the room.

"Dr. Amanda, we're calling from the Gangnam police station" an indifferent male voice came crackling through from the other end of the line.

"Yeah. Any information yet?" I asked sounding nervous, desperate, and extremely anxious, while trying hard to suppress the upwelling of pessimistic ideas within my head.

"I'm afraid we do have something at hand. You might have to come in directly." the voice informed me, sounding almost apologetic.

My heart was racing a mile a minute as I had already peeled away the blanket covering my bare legs and landed my feet on the cold wooden floor; the sudden contact causing goosebumps to sprout on my skin.

"I will come there right away. But is it anything bad?" I asked him while my feet had already guided me to our shared walk-in closet. I pulled out a pair of sweatpants and a coat and contemplated waking up Jungkook.

"Yes. Let's talk about it when you're here. Arrive safe." Said the Police Officer, and ended the call before I could probe him for more details.

Confusion settled over me as I took off my shorts and wore my sweatpants and the coat. I picked up my purse and phone and slipped them inside my coat pockets. After thinking about it for a few seconds, I crouched down on my knees and gently tapped on Jungkook's shoulder. He was sleeping like the dead, and it really hurt my heart to wake him up. But I feared the worst at the police station, and I felt that I might actually need someone with me.

After a few taps and a vigorous shake, he woke up with a start and squinted at me; his eyelids struggling to stay open.

"I'm sorry for waking you up, Kook. But I got a call from the police station. Can you go with me?" I asked him.

"Right now?" He propped himself up and sleepily scratched the back of his head and unzipped his sleeping bag.

"Yeah" I nodded, feeling sorry for my friend who had to give up his sleep tonight for my sake.

"Alright. Let's go. What did they say though?" He croaked in his sleepy voice as he got up from the floor while his eyes were still puffy and only half open.

I got up too.
"They told me to come in person..." my voice trailed off.

He stopped running his fingers through the thicket of his ebony hair and averted his gaze to me; his eyebrows shooting upwards in doubt, and then he looked away nodding a few times.

In a few minutes, we were out of the house, and a taxi was driving us to the police station. It was almost midnight, and it was indeed a blustery night outside that was causing the dried leaves and dust to swirl all over; the very sight and the whooshing noise perfectly reflecting the turmoil within my heart and mind.

Arriving at the police station after an eerily silent ride, Jungkook and I swiftly walked over to Officer Jin's cubicle. His tired eyes lifted to look at us before he gestured for us to sit down, and we did so immediately.

"What is it, Officer Jin? Did you get any clues? Any other information?" I demanded impatiently.

He nodded and let out a dire sigh,
"We found some of Kim Taehyung's belongings covered in blood."

WHAT THE HELL??

Those words, which were among the worst that I was subconsciously preparing to hear since these three days of Taehyung's disappearance, caused all the blood from my face to flush out abruptly. My shoulders slumped, my hands became like frozen solids and began trembling, and my eyesight was clouded with tears.

"What?" I uttered in total disbelief of the disquieting information that I had just gleaned. Jungkook held my shaky hand as a source of support and wrapped his warm fingers around my cold hand.

Officer Jin nodded mournfully.
"We received information from the crime branch that they located a bag with his ID and a watch and ripped clothing, which we believe could be his too, near a creek on the outskirts. There is blood stained all over it, and we've sent his belongings to the Forensics department. The reports will be handed over to you once the formalities are done."

Sitting next to me, Jungkook was totally silent, as if letting the moment of grief settle over him.

I buried my face in my hands and broke into tears as Jungkook wrapped his strong arms around my shoulders, stroking and squeezing, hoping to calm me down.

My heart shattered into a million pieces. My husband who was happy, healthy, active and making passionate love to me on the kitchen counter three nights ago had now shrunken to just this bag of belongings that this lanky officer was referring to.

The officer answered a call from the Forensics department and quickly returned his attention to us.

He let out a long and deep breath.
"And it looks like the blood belongs to Dr. Kim Taehyung." The officer added, causing the movements of Jungkook's hands and the beats of my heart to come to a screeching halt.

We've finally arrived at the prologue part. And how different does it feel to read this now knowing who the culprit is?
🥶🥶

Open for theories once again. What do you think he did to Tae?
Please vote and comment.

WRATH coming up next...
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Published on : 10/22/2021