Sunrise at Night | K.TH

Why I Love You

LEAH

My eyes flutter open.

Something soft and firm is wrapped around my hand, and I tilt my head to see V. He's asleep, breathing quietly with his head rested on the edge of my bed.

His hand is the one holding mine.

It's so peaceful in the room that I almost believe that everything was just a dream. The flames, the pain—

My legs.

My dazed eyes snap wide open, and I scramble to sit up. I can't feel my legs at all, and I'm about to lift the covers to see when a hand wraps around my wrist.

I look, surprised.

"I— I tried my best." Taehyung's awake, exhaustion ringing his eyes as he grips my hand. He lifts himself from the ground, his lips pressing against mine.

"Don't scare me like that ever again."

"I'm just glad I'm alive." I smile brightly at him, but he just turns his face away. His eyes are shadowed and black.

"If only I could've gotten there faster." He whispers, his body tensing. "I failed to protect you."

My features scrunch together in distaste. "Stop blaming yourself. Never do that— it was me who chose to go, you know. Besides, I'm pretty sure everything's perfectly fi—"

I lift up the covers, and in the corner of my eye I see Taehyung turn away.

White bandages replace my legs. I can see the shape of it, the shape of my legs. But when I try to move my toes, I can't. It's like I've lost all my nerves.

"It'll take a while before you'll be able to f-feel it." His soft voice rings out from my side, and I look at him in worry. He sounds worse than me.

"I won't leave your side, I promise."

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A day later

"Yeah, let's go!" I say playfully, tightening my arms around his neck. I can hear him laugh that breathy, soft laugh as I rest my chin on his shoulder.

"Did I ever tell you how nice you smell?" I pipe up, breathing deeply. "Even the scent of you is pretty."

But when he doesn't smile and keeps looking even more depressed, I ruffle his hair with my free hand. "Tae, you know it's not your fault, right? I told you that already."

"......."

My expression creases into a frown, and I tilt his head towards me. His eyes slightly drop down, avoiding my searching gaze. A sigh escapes my lips.

"Taehyung, it's not your fault."

"Yeah." He mumbles, but his expression hasn't changed at all. Wrapping my arms around his shoulders, I press my lips together.

Then tilting his head, I kiss the side of his throat.

"W-What are you doing, Leah?" He asks, his gaze fixed on my smirking expression. "Why are you making a face like that?"

"Actually, that's a good idea." I pipe up as he lets me down on the edge of my bed. "Come here. Sit down with me."

With a confused expression on his face, he sits down across me. He cocks his head curiously to the side when I smile excitedly.

"I'll show you all my expressions, okay?" Then before he can say anything back, I split my lips into a wide smile and let my eyes crinkle into happy crescents.

"So this is when I'm happy."

And then my lips curve down, and I feign the face I make right before I usually burst into tears.

"And that's when I'm sad." Then I yawn widely, my eyelids drooping sleepily. "And this is when I'm about to go to sleep."

I make a few more expressions before he finally stops me.

"Leah, I've seen all of this— I've been with you for so long now." He says, but with an amused look on his features. "But thanks. That was cute of you."

"Wait! I bet you haven't seen this before." At that, he looks up curiously. I put as much love into my eyes as I can, the corners turning down softly as I stare at him. My lips tilt up into slight curves, just the ghost of a smile showing.

It's not that hard to do, and I don't know how to feel about that.

"Love you, Kim Taehyung."

With that, he bursts into the sweetest laughter I've ever heard him, and I smile wider, knowing that I'd distracted him from my legs.

He brushes my hair away from my face.

"This is why I love you."

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A/n: This is most likely the end of this short sequel!!! Thank you so much for reading this!