"Don't forget to take Kei with you." Her mom said when Natsuki was about to head out.

Where? Oh, that day they, Natsuki and Taehyung had decided to take a look around the neighbourhood.

"Why? No, Mom he will create trouble and he doesn't even get along with Yukio's dog." She whined but her mom had no plans of listening to her whining.

"And that is why you should take him with you, so today, if he brings his dog with him too then they can get along." Natsuki pouted upon having to unwillingly bring Kei with her.

Nonetheless she ended up walking behind Kei as one of her hand was occupied with the leash that kept Kei from running away as always. Kei was a small dog and thus he was, in fact, very energetic, tended to run around doing naughty things.

Today's weather was clear. The sky was clean blue with pretty white clouds in the shape of cotton balls scattered around.

She waited in front of Taehyung's house, wondering about why she hadn't met Taehyung's patents yet; just then...

"Hey, you must be Natsuki, right?" A woman stepped out of the house. She seemed really warm because of the subtle smile on her face as she looked at Natsuki who was standing there with Kei.

"Oh, hello. Yes, I'm Natsuki, it is nice to meet you." She bowed as the woman smiled at her.

"Taehyung will be out in a moment. I thought I'd come and greet you first." Natsuki assumed that this was Taehyung's mom and nodded at her words politely.

"Mom," a voice boomed loudly from inside the house.

Natsuki and Taehyung's mom turned around at once as they heard the voice.

Taehyung came out with Yeontan in his hands and talked with his mom about something in Korean while Natsuki didn't understand so she had no choice but to walk a little far from them towards the other end of the road, gazing at the ocean.

After they were done talking he ran towards Natsuki while waving at his mom.

He greeted her and she greeted him back as they started walking aimlessly.

"That was quite amusing and interesting to hear you speak Korean." She spoke up, trying to come up with a conversation starter.

"You think that's cool, no?" He looked at her smiling.

"Yeah, kind of," she was the one wanted to start a conversation and now she had nothing to answer.

"Why don't you let him walk?" Natsuki gestured towards Yeontan who was calmly sitting in taehyung's lap.

"Oh, he can't walk too much due to health problems so I'm just used to carry him around like this everywhere I go." He explained and she nodded, glancing at Kei.

"They're not barking at each other today?" Taehyung exclaimed, surprised.

"Good for them," she said curtly, looking ahead as Taehyung hummed.

"I can call you Yukio, right?" She asked suddenly.

"Sure," he said, "where are we going exactly?" He asked while looking at the surroundings.

The silent noise of nature, constantly crashing waves could be heard from afar as the sound of pelicans coming from the seashore was really common and mixed in really well with the environment.

Taehyung could see a little hill and stairs leading to the top of the hill ahead of him.

"Is there a ghost here?" He asked purely out of curiosity.

"What?" She looked at him in disbelief.

"No, I mean, this place looks like one of those that I've heard in the Japanese scary stories podcast back when I was in Korea. Perfectly secluded and a hillside too." He explained everything properly as she listened.

"You've been listening too much of those podcasts. There are no ghosts here." She shook her head and started walking up the stairs.

"Hey, wait for me," Taehyung jogged, trying to catch up with her.

Natsuki let go of Kei's belt, letting him run around freely. Kei ran far ahead of them as Natsuki yelled, "Don't go too far, Kei".

Taehyung was busy looking at the trees around him as he walked by them. Some of the branches of those trees were really large which resulted in them coming in the way of him as the tender leaves brushed against his face, shoulder and neck but he seemed to be enjoying that rather than feeling annoyed.

After fifteen minutes of walking at a slow pace they reached the top of the hill, at the shrine gate.

"This is the shrine." Natsuki told him, turning around as he was walking behind her all this time.

"Let's go inside," he suggested and they both stepped inside. He put Yeontan down so he can take a look around freely.

It was a small shrine, so the place was not that huge that's why the dogs could run around freely without their owners getting worried about them getting lost.

"It's so hot outside but inside the shrine, because of the trees it feels really cool so I like this place." Natsuki said, grabbing Taehyung's attention.

"Do you come here often?"

"Not really, but Kei loves it here so I take him here sometimes." She said and Taehyung nods.

"Let's pray to the Kami-sama." She walked inside, in front of the alter. Kami is the word normally used for referring to 'god' in Japanese.

"Do you have a coin?" She looked at him.

"Maybe..." Taehyung looked for a coin in his pocket and luckily found some. He gave one to her and kept one for him.

"Just do as I say," Natsuki instructed him as she saw confusion clearly written on his face.

She gently tossed the coin into the offering box. Taehyung looked at her closely and did the same, being careful not to make a mistake.

Then she shook the rope to ring the bell before bowing down in front of the alter two times and clapping her hands two times as well. Taehyung watched and did the same as she watched him do so. The sound of the bell echoed in the shrine grounds as there was no other sound as loud as it.

"You're being so careful." She laughed but Taehyung just shrugged his shoulders. "It's good." She added.

"Now pray and make a wish," she said before closing her eyes, joining her hands together.

Taehyung glanced at her while joining his hands as well.

When he closed his eyes, a smile was visible on his face as he made a wish. Because he had his eyes closed, he could hear the sound of tree leaves more clearly, even the gushing sound of wind was clear inside his head.

It was easy to concentrate in this type of environment but at the same time, it was easy to get lost in the addictive, calm white noises of the surroundings too.

Natsuki was done making a wish now and she opened her eyes only to find Taehyung still praying to the god. She saw him smile when the wave of wind blew past them making his hair sway and tickle his eyebrows.

She watched him in silence, not being able to tear her eyes away from him. She didn't notice before but realised now that he sure was really a good looking person.

Long eyelashes, soft hair fluttering with wind as they disturb the calm and steady eyelashes of his closed eyes, the perfect bridge of his nose and pretty lips. Even the mole on the side of his lower lip was attractive.

She blinked, still looking at him when he opened his eyes, turning towards her and tilted his head.

"You sure pray a lot," she said, looking away and bowed again. Taehyung bowed too, following Natsuki as she walked out quickly.

"Kei!" She called out and heard a bark from behind the shrine, but even after a while, he didn't stop barking.

"Wait, there's Yeontan's voice too," Taehyung said in a panic, running towards the direction of voices.

When they got there, the scene in front of them was... pretty strange.

"Tannie, why are you biting his belt?" Taehyung ran to them where Yeontan was biting the leather belt wrapped around Kei's neck as Kei struggled.

Natsuki was afraid but still went to Kei for his rescue. Taehyung managed to get Yeontan away from Kei somehow.

A gasp escaped her lips when she picked Kei up.

"What happened?" Taehyung asked.

"Is your dog a vampire?" She was still gaping at the collar of Kei.

"What?" Taehyung wnet near her to take a look at Kei. "Is he injured?" He tried to touch him but Kei was quick to jump down from her hands and leapt towards the calmly standing Yeontan which made him grab Natsuki's forearm instead of Kei.

"No! Kei," she yelled at him but he still jumped at Yeontan without caring about anything.

Yeontan ran away from him but he didn't run so far before Kei jumped on him again and they stumbled down in the little pond which was situated at the back of the shrine, a little away from where they were standing, while Natsuki and Taehyung watched them fall into the water with their mouths open in shock.

Luckily, the pond was really shallow and because of summer the water was less but it wasn't so good, because instead of clean water, they fell in a pool of really muddy water.

Taehyung forgot that he was still holding onto Natsuki's hand in all of the chaos and when he did realise, he was already running towards the pond with her.

He quickly let go of her hand and bent down, picking up both of the naughty puppies together.

"Oh god! Now I have to bathe him again. This is your fault, you, vampire dog!" She said loudly, pointing accusingly at Yeontan and takes Kei from him.

Taehyung blinks in surprise. "Excuse me?" He said, patting away the mud from Yeontan's furr but it was useless. "Kei was the one who jumped on him, my Tannie is innocent." Taehyung hugged yeontan closer.

"But, he was the one who started chewing on Kei's belt." Natsuki talked back.

"First of all, Kei came to our house, eating Tannie's food without asking." Taehyung now looked like he was losing his composition.

"And how can he ask for food?" She put Kei's leash back and put him down, "like, Woof! Woof! Woof!? Will you even understand him?" She said, literally barking in front of him.

Taehyung couldn't hold back now. He started laughing his lungs out, almost stumbling on his feet while laughing too hard.

"You- Argh!" Natsuki walked away, stomping her feet on the ground, humiliated but mostly embarrassed.

"Wait for me, Natsuki" Taehyung ran behind her but she didn't stop.

"You sure sound just like Kei, huh?!" He was still laughing.

"Shut up, Yukio!" She yelled back, running faster now. She kept running without turning back while Taehyung's voice echoed in the background inside her mind.

So basically, their first hangout ended up being an embarrassing event for Natsuki.

■□■□

I'm not sure how to feel about this chapter...?!
Vote and comment for clear skin! ♡