✔Private Affair [Taennie Adaption]

8 [FINAL]

It was no consolation knowing that Taehyung was dating the beautiful Irene only because Jennie had practically pushed him into her arms.

Watching him leave the office with Irene on his arm, Jennie felt the full weight of what she'd done. Beside her, Lisa was still trying to muster up a head of steaming anger toward Taehyung.

"If he proposed to you earlier this week," Lisa was saying, "he certainly shouldn't be taking Ms. Perfectly Perfect to that benefit tonight."

Jennie closed the door to her office and leaned against it with sigh. "No. I did this. I was afraid of how he made me feel, so I pushed him away."

"To that tramp, Irene? What was he thinking?"

Jennie just shook her head. "Irene is perfectly nice and you know it. It doesn't matter who he's dating. He could be dating a dog and—"

"That's not very nice."

"Oh, I don't mean 'a dog' as slang. I mean, he could take an actual Pekingese to this benefit and it wouldn't matter. He asked me to marry him and I turned him down. He's not the kind of man who gives second chances."

Lisa's ire died down enough for her to give Jennie a quiet nod. The gesture said it all. Lisa agreed. Taehyung wasn't an unforgiving man, but he was decisive. Once he made up his mind, he never changed it and he never looked back."I said no and he took me at my word. He didn't invite Irene to the benefit to rub my nose in it. He did it to show me that he's moving on."

Despite Lisa's generous offers to supply sympathy, alcohol and dark chocolate, Jennie insisted she'd rather be alone.

By the time she made it through her front door, she was feeling as bruised and battered as a hit–and–run victim. But she dutifully trudged through her personal e–mails, which she'd been avoiding all week.

She had likewise been avoiding calls from her mother, who had a preternatural knack for knowing when her daughters were emotionally traumatized. But her mother was the last person Jennie wanted to talk to just now.

Just then she reached an e–mail from her sister Kim Jisoo and a link to a YouTube video. "Hey, Jen, check out this press conference that Jimin just held. You think this means we can get free jewelry?"

Confused by the reference to jewelry, she clicked on the link. After a minute the video started playing. It showed Jimin, her brother, in some hotel conference room. On one side stood Kim Seokjin, the CFO of FMT, and on the other stood a beautiful brunette with the sort of ripe, luxuriant beauty of a 1940s film star. It seemed FMT, her brother's company, was buying out Biedermann's Jewelry. The beauty was Park Chaeyoung, the heiress to the company's fortune.Watching Jimin, Jennie noticed the unusually protective gleam in Jimin's gaze as he watched Park Chaeyoung. Was it possible he'd fallen for the heiress? It seemed impossible, and yet...

Even as Jennie pondered the issue, one of the reporters in the audience asked the same question. Jimin deflected it with his usual easy charm. Of course. Whatever affection she'd thought she'd seen in Jimin's expression must have been a trick of the light.

Classic Jimin. After their father's death, he'd swept in and taken care of everyone. He was dynamic and charming...but completely emotionally unavailable. If you needed a job or a loan or, hell, even just a fancy new pair of shoes, he was your guy. If you needed someone to talk to, then you were SOL. He could charm the socks off anyone, but he never let anyone close.

After the video ended, she sat for a minute staring blankly at the busyness of the YouTube screen. Then she clicked Play again and watched it a second time. This time focusing on Jimin.

After all, part of the reason she was so reluctant to deepen her relationship with Taehyung was because of Jimin. When she'd first met Taehyung, he reminded her of Jimin. They were both self–made men. Both handsome, in their own way. Both powerful and wealthy. Both free with their money. Both used to getting what they want.Watching Jimin now, she realized what a disservice she'd done by not reevaluating her opinion of Taehyung once she'd gotten more involved with him. On the surface he may be similar to Jimin, but that's all it was. Surface similarities. In reality, they were no more alike than...she was like her mother.