Secrets - [TAEBIN FF]

Chapter 42

🎶: 'Blue and Grey' by BTS

So much happened in those two hours on an afternoon that would change the entire trajectory of his life.

An afternoon where an exchange of passports and tickets, giving away suitcases, and walking through the airport meant... a step into a new life.

A new life that was forced onto him.

But all Taehyun could remember were these three: security, waiting, and numbness.

He couldn't recall what he ate in between, what music he heard on the radio as he didn't have any headphones to listen to his own in private, and he was in a public area— hell, none of it.

Taehyun could barely grasp anything until boarding time, where his feet traveled over ground that was meters off the actual ground, into a gigantic bird that would fly him away... from home.

The engine of the plane started running.

After a series of safety measures videos and waitresses reminding others to put on their seatbelts, it was time to go. 

Soon, the wheels of the giant vehicle began to move down the runway, getting ready for takeoff.

Suddenly, the wheels sped up, throwing all of the passengers back into their seats, and the plane lifted itself into the air.

The wheels had finally left Korean soil.

Two hours have already passed since takeoff, and it was dark.

Night had fallen on them all.

Lia was asleep in the seat by the window beside Taehyun, her seat extra cushioned due to her ribs still hurting despite having mostly healed, Ahyeon and Yuna who were in front of the two oldest children were as well— the rest of the plane was sound asleep too.

Everyone had decided to go to bed to get some rest after an eventful afternoon.

Well, except for Taehyun.

Taehyun was just sitting there, in the exact position he had been since the plane took off: eyes wide open in fear, his clammy trembling hands gripping the fabric of Soobin's hoodie.

Soobin...

That name was already so painful for Taehyun to say or even think of.

Knowing that he could never say that name to him again while calling for him... made his heart throb even more.

All Taehyun could thank was that... it was so unfair that he had this pain.

For something that could have been avoided had they been more careful in the café, and not be so carelessly carefree.

And he hated it so much.

Taehyun normally didn't feel that emotion, his heart was regardless of everything that has happened to him since he was 13 still so pure and good, but he genuinely refused to believe that they had all lost everything now.

Their home, their familiar surroundings, their brother/son who they will no longer be able to visit, and him... he lost his lover too.

Not only that, Taehyun was so afraid.

What was going to come for him, for them, in America?

He had little to no knowledge about this huge western land and its culture.

Will they even accept us Koreans? Will we be able to live there without speaking any English? And what if Mr Choi lied to us? What if we land and there is nothing for us there? Then we will live homelessly on the streets with a partially paralyzed girl and another with cystic fibrosis who regularly gets seizures; what if my sisters die when we are in the States? What if... I will never see anyone in Korea ever again?