(*unedited*... insert meme to describe all of your reactions:)

(enjoy xx)

✧･ﾟ: * twenty-one *:･ﾟ✧

Taehyung tells Madeline it's the perfect time now for them to visit the Sistine Chapel. At first he had wanted to take her back to the hotel to rest since she's still not feeling her best, but she refused. Tomorrow is their last day together. They have a few more hours of sunlight left, and she'll be damned if she wastes it because of some post-surgery nausea.

So the Sistine Chapel it was, especially since it was nearest the doctor's office.

As soon as she steps outside, even with the prescription sunglasses, everything is so bright. Full of color. Full of life. She gazes up at the sky, crystal blue, catches the trees sway gently with the breeze. She could always hear the leaves rustling, but now she watches them fall carefully to the ground. Across the street is a public garden, pink roses identifying the entrance.

Okay, so Sistine Chapel will be next.

Taehyung lets her tug him towards it, her jaw already slack from the variety of flowers awaiting inside the gate. It seems so simple being so awestruck by flowers people pass by every single day. But she's forgotten what they look like. She's forgotten about the intricate way the petals weave together, how each flower opens, how each one shines if the sun hits it just right.

Taehyung picks a yellow daisy, turning to her. "Which is this?"

"That's a daisy, I think," she says, picking her brain to make sure she's correct. Truth be told, the only ones she can confidently identify are the roses. She's forgotten about majority of them.

"It's pretty," he remarks, picking another. He finds white ones too, mixing them together.

"Are we allowed to pick these?" she inquires, watching him grab flowers at random now for his mini bouquet.

Taehyung frowns. "Allowed?"

"Yeah, like... Is it okay for us to pick them?"

He shrugs. "It is public park. Public means for everyone, right?"

She smirks. "I don't know if the owners would see it that way, but you're technically right. Pick away."

"They are for you," he tells her, placing a final rose in the middle of his handful of stems.

She had blushed when he gave her a flower before, but now when her eyes meet his and she sees the hand-picked bouquet he's holding out for her, she blushes even harder. Especially with that adorable smile on his face.

"Thank you," she murmurs, taking them. "I'll treasure these stolen flowers until they die."

He gasps, eyes widening. "Stolen?"

"I told you. I don't know if this is allowed."

"Let's leave, okay?"

She laughs as he hurriedly pulls her out of the garden, back onto the road. He flags down a taxi to transport the two of them to the Sistine Chapel about ten minutes away. She holds the bouquet to her chest, trying to pinpoint each flower. She can't remember half of them. That's okay, though. She doesn't need to know their names to know Taehyung picked them for her.

And albeit he could've done it as a cheesy joke, somehow it has her feeling loved.

Or maybe that's the feeling of her falling.

***

After touring the chapel, the two grab dinner at a tourist restaurant close by. Madeline can't remember a day she enjoyed more than this one. She was actually able to admire the incredible artwork on the ceiling with Taehyung, rather than him losing the amazement by having to stammer through words to describe it for her. Both of them had stood there, staring upwards, lips parted. There aren't words to explain it, anyways.

Taehyung's phone suddenly rings in the midst of their dinner.. Naturally Madeline's eyes fall to it, and she almost cries when she sees it. It's going to be like this for a while, she can tell. Seeing something and wanting to cry because she can see it.

Oh well. Who can blame her?

"You can answer it," she says with a laugh when he gives her an uncertain look, not wanting to be rude.

He answers in Korean, which somehow makes Madeline feel incredibly relaxed. She watches his lips move, oddly relaxed by the foreign syllables leaving them. A thought strikes her, and so she doesn't seem like she's eavesdropping (even though she literally has no idea what's being said), she pulls out her phone. She isn't wearing her prescription glasses since she's indoors, so the brightness of her phone makes her squint. She quickly finds the option to lower it, then pauses.

She's never used her phone properly before.

She has a touch phone, only so she could find the phone app easily, which is mainly the only app she used aside from the voice control. Her mother helped her memorize where her contact name is and such, but other than that, Madeline has never navigated her phone before. She's not even sure she knows how.

A bit awkwardly, she slides her index finger across the screen, making out each icon. Luckily it's simple to find the Google one. She purses her lips then, trying to remember what Taehyung said his band is called. Maybe she can just search his name. Is he famous enough to come up? But wait.

She doesn't know how to spell it.

She scrunches her nose, pondering hard.

He called their fans "ARMY," she remembers that much. She tests her luck with Google and types in "k-pop army," hoping for the best.

"BTS ARMY" is the first result, the name finally ringing a bell.

She taps on images, noticing there's quite a few of them. Taehyung did say he had six brothers, which she found out was his bandmates. So there's seven of them. That's a whole lot of heartache for a fangirl. Madeline can only imagine the stress.

Especially when she sees that not one of them is unattractive.

Not in slightest.

She zooms in on each face, leaning closer to her phone as if that'll make any difference. She scrolls through a variety of different pictures, then somehow makes her way onto fan-made gifs, her brain overwhelmed. Are they models too?

She jumps out of her chair when Taehyung taps on the table in front of her.

"Sorry, Maddie. I just, uh, want to know if you are done," he says carefully, thinking about each word.

Her cheeks flush a little. She'd basically be stalking his group while he was on the phone. "Y-yeah, I'm done. Ready to go when you are." She bites her bottom lip. She's genuinely curious. "Hey, Taehyung. Who are the boys in the group with you?"

"Their names?"

Madeline nods.

Taehyung smiles as he lists them. "There is Namjoon, our leader. Then Seokjin hyung, Yoongi hyung, Hobi hyung, Jiminie, and Jungkookie, the... uh... baby?"

She chuckles. "You mean the youngest?"

"Yes, he is youngest." Taehyung grins at her as he pulls out his card for the waitress. "You will meet them one day, okay?"

Madeline face flushes as she laughs nervously. "I doubt it."

"Doubt?"

"I don't think it will happen."

His grin immediately falls, his forehead creasing as he frowns. He doesn't say anything then, and Madeline knows she should've kept her mouth shut. He'd been talking as if he's going to see her again, though, and she just can't bring herself to hold onto that fantasy. She's already going to be broken when she leaves. She doesn't need to keep giving herself heartache precariously.

The silence continues between them, even when they stand to leave. Madeline hesitates reaching for his hand. She can see now, after all. She shouldn't be instigating anything when she just crushed the kid's dream of her meeting his best friends. However, it's Taehyung that reaches for her hand, so she uses that as an excuse to hold on tight. It's definitely not for her to selfishly absorb how it feels since she'll never feel his hand in hers again.

The hotel is right down the street from the restaurant, so the two decide to walk the distance. It's night now, the stars beginning to twinkle above them. There's a gentle breeze that sweeps by every now and then. The nights are steadily getting cooler as they get further into the August month. At least in Europe it is. Madeline knows back home in her tiny town it's still reaching for a hundred degrees.

This is nice, comfortable weather though.

After a few more minutes of silence, Madeline can't take it anymore. She halts, tugging Taehyung to stop as well. She pulls him to the side of the walkway so as not to block the people that are spending their night out.

"I'm sorry," she says. "Trust me, Taehyung. I... I want this to work too, okay? I just..." She lets out a deep breath, unsure how to put her feelings into words.

He gives her a weak smile. "It's okay, Maddie."

It's not okay, but he doesn't give her a chance to argue before he starts walking again. She wants to stop once more, but she doesn't want to dwell in negative energy, not when tomorrow is their final day. She doesn't want to waste one second of their time being upset.

That's why when she spots the arcade sign across the street, she ecstatically suggests they visit it.

The night doesn't have to end; not yet.

She manages to get Taehyung smiling genuinely again, laughing when she absolutely fails at air hockey. He's just as bad, but somehow she keeps ending up playing by herself. She can't get the puck to go anywhere other than the wall directly in front of her, just shy of the slot. She distracts him by pointing elsewhere, which he unbelievably falls for, then she lays across the table to get a more accurate shot, finally making it into the slot. Taehyung catches her and nearly dies laughing.

"You are cheating!" he accuses, but he's laughing so hard that he doesn't seem to care when she does it on her next turn too.

"I'm short, it doesn't help that much anyways," she defends.

After brutally beating her in the air hockey game, Taehyung finds a basketball game next, telling Madeline about his "hyung" that plays basketball. She asks why he keeps saying "hyung" every time he mentions his friends, and he explains it's a respectful title to an older male.

"So... should I call you hyung in Korea?" she asks, trying to make sense of the honorifics.

Taehyung giggles. "No, silly. Only men say hyung."

"Then what would I call you?"

Taehyung's cheeks flush a little, but he smirks when he says, "Oppa."

"Oppa," she repeats, then immediately cringes. "Yeah, um. Don't take offense, but I can't call you that." It feels like when a fangirl calls their favorite "daddy." Madeline cringes harder. Good thing Taehyung doesn't seem disrespected, rather, he keeps giggling.

"Taehyung is fine," he tells her.

She watches him play the basketball game, surprisingly not doing too bad. He keeps saying "lay up" as if that will magically make him better at it. He sighs when it ends, but he must've forgotten about the extra round because it starts again. His eyes light up with delight and a shocked, "Oh really?" leaves his lips. (i had to add this, it's too adorable to not):

https://youtu.be/nGhjC8ZJAk8

Madeline grins. It's like watching a child.

Afterwards, the two walk around with cotton candy, debating on which games to play next. The arcade is pretty full of people, but there's so many games in the space that it seems less crowded. Madeline is about to suggest the driving game when Taehyung excitedly pulls her towards a photobooth.

"Oh! Pictures!"

Uh oh.

It dawns on Madeline that she has no idea what her face looks like. She hasn't looked in a mirror yet, hasn't really wanted to if she's honest. By what she can see of her body, she isn't the slimmest girl, but not necessarily the biggest either. She would've hated to see her bikini body when the two kayaked, though. Taehyung must've been petrified.

"Pictures," she murmurs, frowning a little. "Do we have to?"

Taehyung mimics her frown. "You don't like pictures?"

"I just... I haven't taken any in a long time."

He purses his lips, then says, "Maddie, I want to have picture with you. To keep. Okay?"

Then it's impossible for her to say no, so she sighs begrudgingly before ducking into the booth with him. The screen is already on, and Madeline sees her face almost instantly. It's a bit underwhelming, if she's honest. She's not drop dead gorgeous, so puberty didn't answer her prayers. She's not ugly, she supposes. She's just... eh.

And she's next to someone like Taehyung.

As if her insecurity meter wasn't low enough...

She tries not to look at herself, instead focusing on Taehyung's face in the screen. He asks her which poses she wants to do, the types of faces she wants to make. She doesn't care. The only reason she's taking a picture is for him. She may keep one too, if only to prove to herself later on in life that these two weeks actually happened.

He decides to be random each time, telling her to do whatever she feels like.

This ought to be interesting.

He pushes the "start" button, and Madeline instinctively goes for a peace sign, puffing out her cheeks. Guess her cringy pre-teen self hasn't entirely left her just yet. It had always been her go-to pose before.

The next she smiles normally, trying not to look at her own smile by hiding her face in Taehyung's shoulder. She's a little embarrassed. She doesn't know how to smile for a camera. She hasn't had to do it in six damn years, after all. It feels so unnatural now.

"Maddie," Taehyung says, causing her to look up.

He catches her by surprise when he presses his lips to her cheek, the flash for the final picture going off.

"Sorry," he murmurs, but there's a small smile on his lips to show he doesn't really mean to apologize.

It makes her blush.

She's been doing that a lot today.

He goes to get out but she stops him, grabbing his wrist. She has to say it. No matter how hard it is, she'll fight through her awkwardness.

She meets his eyes, captivated automatically. She inhales a short breath, saying quietly, "I want to be with you too."