***
"You look gorgeous" Taehyung walks up from behind you while you were glancing around at the people in the huge celebration hall.
"Thank you. You look decent in that navy blue and white suit too" you playfully downplay the compliment.
"I tried" he smirks and starts looking around too.
"So, what is this dinner about?" You ask.
"This is more like a business gala. We arrange this year to maintain our professional and positive image as businessmen" "It is a way to conceal our other identities as one of the most powerful people in South Korea" he answers, still looking around.
"So you guys actually have a business that you do other than just being the top most mafia of Korea?"
"Of course!" "We own the top companies in construction, textiles, media, tech and so much more"
"And if I am not wrong, just under the names of these companies you turn your black money into white?" You speak with your eyebrow raised.
He scoffs before answering. "You got it"
With a cheeky smile on your face, you match your eyes with him. Just a second later, you watch his eyes shift from yours to someone behind you. As soon as his eyes shift, the smile on his face disappears and nervousness sneaks up on him.
That makes you look behind you at whatever Taehyung was looking at. You watch a couple walking towards you, matching their eyes with Taehyung.
Why would be Taehyung, such a powerful and confident guy, be nervous in front of these two?
"Taehyung-ssi" The man forwards his hand towards Taehyung.
"Seongjae-ssi, how are you" Taehyung immediately shakes his hand, still looking a little nervous.
"I'm doing great, how are you"
"Good" he talks to the man but his gaze keeps shifting to the lady with him. You also notice his eyes quiver.
"Annyeong, Taehyung......." "Taehyung-ssi" the lady is unable to maintain eye contact with Taehyung after bowing to him.
You sense tension in the air but couldn't really tell whatever was happening.
"Annyeonghaseyo, Mrs. Hwang" Taehyung bows back but listening to Taehyung being so formal with the greetings, the lady's expressions worsen for a second as her jaw trembles.
"And this beautiful lady is....?" The man looks at you up and down while expecting Taehyung to introduce you.
"Oh, she is my friend Ahn Y/N" "Y/N this Mr. Hwang Seongjae. He is one of our top vendors in the textile industry and our good friend too" Taehyung introduces you two.
"Nice you meet you miss Ahn" he puts his palm out to seek your hand.
"Nice to meet you to too, Mr. Hwang" you softly slide your hand in his hand letting him leave a peck on the back of your hand, respectfully.
As he does that, he holds your hand near his lips still and stares at you for a long second. You swear to yourself that you watched him glance down your dress quickly.
"Your hand is very soft, Miss. Ahn" saying that he smirks and the moment he does that, goosebumps rise up your skin, giving you the cold shivers. You immediately snatch your hand from his and give him a smile, uncomfortably. As a lady, you can never go wrong sensing them foul energies.
"It's a nice party, Taehyung. We will stick around" Mr. Hwang takes his wife and starts leaving, still looking at you up and down one more time with a weird smile on his face. "See you around, Miss, Ahn"
You bow as they leave.
"Is she the one?" You immediately question watching Taehyung still follow her sight as she walks away.
As soon as you question, his head snaps at you taken off guard. "What do you mean?"
"Is she the girl you told me about when we were drinking together earlier this week?" You explain.
"How did you know?" He asks being curious yet stunned.
"It's a gift. A gift almost every woman has"
He then calms down and leaves out a huff, going back to watching her with all the shine and delicate emotions in his eyes. "Her name is Miyeon. Isn't she the most beautiful woman in this world?"
You watch Taehyung getting softer and notice his eyes dampening a little. It sounded like he had asked you the question, but actually he was just talking to himself seeing the love of his life in front of him after a long time.
"She indeed is" your heart sinks looking at Taehyung. You could feel him. As you start to understand him, you are reminded of Jungkook, for whom you feel the just the same way.
Thinking of him, your eyes start to find him through the crowd, wondering if he was there yet. As you turn around towards the entrance, you stop in your tracks as you spot his silhouette.
There he was, jogging towards the entrance, in a whole black suit, striding through the rain and ruffling the water out of his hair. At that moment, watching him slightly drenched in rainwater with his fingers going back and forth in his wet long hair, the surrounding noise of people talking loudly with each suddenly drops for you. They are now the white noise in the back of your head. You could feel the air getting cold as the breeze enter in through the doors as he walks in. You watch his soaked lips, mutter a few curse words as he hates getting wet in the rain.
As he settles in, he starts registering in the ambience of the hall and the faces in the crowd, still ruffling his hair. While continuing to scan the room, his eyes meet yours and just in that moment, his hand freezes in his hair and starts lowering down as his eyes go up looking at the dolled up you. His distressed and foggy eyes clear up and widen looking at you.
Without realizing, you start walking up to him. As you get closer to him step by step, your heartbeats go up second by second. Something about him is just so magnetic.
"Hi" you stand in front of him, close, not letting go of your eye contact.
As you speak, his eyes were still stuck to your face, going back and forth from your eyes and lips. "You look......." "You look........." "Nice....." he leaves out a soft exhale as he gets lost in your aura.
You chuckle softly listening that, thinking he would use a bigger and stronger word. "You look......" you speak while moving your eyes down his outfit, noticing his shirt only buttoned up the half way. "You look like you rushed here and forgot to button up"
"Jungkook" you hear a familiar voice interrupt your moment with Jungkook.
You both turn your heads at the person.
"Raeyeon" Jungkook mutters before he finally snaps out of the moment you both were having. His expressions do a 180 and he walks past you, almost showing you away.
"I didn't think you were going to be here" he adds as he walks closer to her.
"I come here every year with my parents, Jungkook. Just because you broke up with me, doesn't mean I will stop being around"
"About that. I am glad you are here" he takes her hand and leaves a hard kiss on her palm. "I was thinking about you. I miss you. I should have never broken up with you" he speaks looking into her eyes and pulling her close.
At that moment you were just starting to process his words while being extremely confused.
"Are you serious?" Raeyeon's eyes light up as she steps closer to him.
"Raeyeon....." as he speaks her name, he cups her cheek, pulls her closer to his face and looks into her eyes for a hot second before diving into a deep kiss with her.
At this point you were turned around towards them fully and as you kept hearing Jungkook's words, your body grew heavier for you. The kiss, you refused to comprehend the sight of them making out. It did not feel real for a good few minutes.
"Do you believe me now?" He asks her as he leans out from that long and deep kiss.
"Jungkook, you've never kissed me like this ever" she holds his jacket with her hands, pulling him closer to her.
"So, can we go meet your parents now? Can't wait to meet Mr. and Mrs. Hwang and your brother Seongjae" He asks watching her eyes fill with content.
"Yes, let's go!! My father is going to be so happy seeing us back together. It means so much to him" saying that she drags him with her.
As you watch them run off, your eyes meet Taehyung's who had watched everything. His eyes were screaming that he was heartbroken and concerned for you. He also seemed furious at Jungkook.
You couldn't break down in front of him so you pass him a small smile before storming off to the restrooms with your pounding heart in your chest and tears waiting to escape your eyes.
As you stand in front of the mirror, making eye contact with your reflection, you start breathing heavily, uncontrollably because the feelings had started to feel. The pain in your heart had started to grow rapidly and you could feel it rushing through your body. You couldn't stop watching him kiss her in your mind.
Before you could let the tears bolt for freedom, you hear someone unlatching a bathroom stall and soon watch them walk out of it and stand beside you. You realize it was Miyeon.
You immediately control your tears and dry your eyes out, pretending everything was alright.
"Oh hi" she greets you as soon as she notices you.
"Hi" you greet her back in a raspy voice with your throat feeling very soar and heavy trying to hold your tears back. Your jaw started to hurt because of holding back so hard.
You notice that she had been struggling to size up her maxi dress. It looked like it was stuck.
"These dresses you know" she nervously smiles at you.
"Let me help you with it" you offer.
As soon as she watches you reach out for the zip, she immediately turns around at you and faces her back towards the mirror. She looked horrified and extremely nervous as if she was hiding something. "No I'm good!" She exclaims with a high pitched tone.
You were startled by her reaction and questioning her response.
"Miyeon-ssi-" before you could say anything, your eyes spot something in the mirror. Your eyes widen at the sight out dark purple bruises all over Miyeon's back. You instantly join the dots together and understand why she didn't want you to help.
She discovers you finding out about it after watching your expressions and looking at what you were staring at being terrified.
"Y/N-ssi, I beg you not to tell anyone about this" she immediately bows her head dow, joins her hands, and starts rubbing them together, begging you literally.
"Miyeon-ssi, did Mr. Hwang do this to you?" You interrogate being extremely worried and recalling how anxious she was around him earlier. You suspected domestic violence and assault.
"Doesn't matter. I just want you to promise me that you won't tell anyone about this, especially Taehyung" she holds your hand with both of hers.
"Miyeon-ssi. This is very concerning. I am worried about you. If you need help, I can help you"
"No, I don't need yours or anyone else's help. The last time someone was this worried about me, they married me off to a stranger who does these things to me"
"Who would do such a thing?" You ask being horrified.
"Your friend" she answers silently, heartbroken.
"Taehyung-ssi?"
Instead of using words, she speaks with her eyes as she stares at you with damp doe eyes. "You can't tell him, he'll be terrified knowing he himself put me through what he was trying to prevent by not marrying me"
You didn't know what to say, there was a lot going on.
"Will you please help me zip this dress up?" She turns her back at you, getting herself together.
Your hands subconsciously travel to the little zip and start pulling it up, concealing her back. As you do that, you match eyes with Miyeon in the mirror and watch her smile enduring her neverending mental and physical trauma.
Coming towards the end of it, you both were abruptly interrupted by a loud crowd cheering.
"Thank you, Y/N-ssi. I hope you remember your promise" saying that, she walks out of the restroom hastily.
You gulp listening to her and not knowing what to do. It was lot.
You then follow her and step out of the rest room yourself. Trying to figure out what the chaos was about, you discover Jimin, who was on his knee with a ring box open and held up to Hyeyeon.
He proposed!
"Oh my God, yes!" "Yes, I will marry you!" Hyeyeon immediately takes Jimin into a tight hug and showers him with kisses after he slides the ring through her finger.
You suddenly forget what all had happened in the last few minutes and a grin forms on your face watching your best friend being the happiest person in that room.
Helping herself through the contentment, HyeYeon's eyes start finding you in the crowd. As soon as she spots you, she runs to you and takes you into a tight hug.
"He proposed, Y/N!!" She jumps in excitement while raising hair hand up for you to see the ring.
Your eyes tear up. This time with happy tears.
"I am so happy for you! I can't believe you are engaged, Yeonie" you grab her and give her another tight hug.
You and her then walk towards Jimin to congratulate him. All the other five boys were surrounding Jimin, celebrating his grand moment with him.
"Congratulations, Jimin-ssi. I'm very very happy for you two"
"Thank you, Y/N-ssi, soon to be my sister in law" Jimin speaks with a playful grin.
"Soon!" You smile back.
"Jimin-ssi. Me and HyeYeon have been together for each other for a very long time now. We've seen each other through our worse times. She is the sister I never had. She means the world to me. Seeing her so happy, I couldn't be happier. Thank you for unlocking new level of happiness for her. I've never seen her so excited" you speak looking at Hyeyeon and Jimin back and forth.
"People think women are very emotionally demanding but all we want is someone who loves us more than anyone has ever loved anyone, even when we aren't looking or aren't with them. It's not that complicated but it sure is very rare. I'm glad to see that my Hyeyeon is one of those lucky girls who is finally getting what she deserves. Please promise me you'll never take this away from her and protect her happiness at all costs" everyone who heard your words went silent feeling the emotions behind it. Hyeyeon hugs you from the back and digs her face your shoulder getting heavily emotional.
"I promise. You can trust me" Jimin rubs your arm softly.
"God forbid, if you ever fail, please return my child to me. I'll take care of her" you hold HyeYeon's arms wrapped around you.
Listening that everyone chuckles.
"I will"
"I love you" Hyeyeon peeks at you with her teary eyes.
"I love you more" you leave a kiss on her head.
"Alright come on. We need to take pictures together" she holds your arm and starts dragging you with her. As soon as she turns you around and pulls you carelessly, you bump your shoulder with Jungkook who had heard everything you just said. You both have a very brief eye contact but that was enough for you to see that he wasn't himself after hearing you. As you passed him, your hand rubbed with his and that one second lasted too long for you to remember everything that had just happened.
***
While you took pictures with Hyeyeon, you thought a lot about how you were dealing with certain things in your life. You learnt something about yourself. You invest yourself into ideas which are all real, but only in your own world. You're not delusional but excessively and unrealistically hopeful.
This resulted into you giving all of yourself to the idea of being with someone who might not even be in love with you let alone wanting to dedicate their forever to you.
This is sadly normal. Humans are designed not to be alone. They will always run towards love. Ultimate happiness for most of us comes from where love lies. You could be on the top of the world but still be unhappy because no one loves you or even if the person you love doesn't love you back. It's just the natural human tendency. It's not your fault.
Then what do people do to escape that unfortunate destiny? Chase after their career/become workaholic to not have the time to feel the loneliness, dedicate their lives to making as much money as they can because they think money will solve their loneliness or......they resort to making other people's lives miserable because if you can't be happy, no one else can. You think it's unfair.
The most important thing everyone refuses to accept is that at the end of the day, being loved will always outweigh every other happiness in the world. Being loved is even greater than being able to love.
***
You say your goodbyes to Hyeyeon and everyone else before leaving for the day. You were heading back to Seoul tomorrow morning so you had to leave a little early to pack your things. It was already past midnight. You were still feeling numb from watching Jungkook kiss Raeyeon and say those words. Moving on wasn't possible so instantly so you could still feel your heart ache physically.
You walk out of the venue still thinking about it. It was raining so you make a long run to towards the parking lot which was on the other side of the block. Clutching your purse tight, you make your walk towards it, all cold and wet.
Struggling to remember where you had parked the car, you try to navigate around the multiple lots. Walking for a few minutes, you start to hear someone's faint giggles and chitter chatter coming from the direction you were walking towards. They grew louder and were more recognizable as you kept getting closer.
After taking a few more steps, you spot Raeyeon who was smoking cigarettes with a guy whose back was towards you. It doesn't take you more than a second to recognize Jungkook from behind. You freeze in your steps and contemplate whether or not to put yourself in the awkward situation which was lingering over your head. Raeyeon was literally leaning on your car, which was coincidentally parked beside Jungkook's car.
"You have to teach me how to make those smoke rings, babe" you hear her chuckling.
Jungkook scoffs, letting out the smoke towards the roof.
"I love spending our time like this together" she added. "Do you?"
It takes his time to answer that by taking a long smoke. "What do you think I am doing here with you leaving my best friend who just got engaged back at the Venue?" Jungkook answers but his tone doesn't match the feeling he pretends to express. He said it in a very emotionless way.
"Are you sure you're here for me and not because you're trying to avoid y/n?" She counter questions him.
Listening to that you take a step back and hid behind a pillar, desperately wanting to hear what Jungkook has to say.
____
**Next chapter is updated too. Please don't forget to leave comments on these chapters. The only thing that makes me continue this fanfic are your comments!! Thank you for reading!! <3**