2.1 | The Better Half and Half ✓

NINE>> Bad Start Has An Ugly End

I recoiled in the memory and felt embarrassment pricking at the back of my neck. I cleaned my mouth thoroughly with my tongue and invited his attention to my words. "Just a reminder, Molan will surely fall for you if you don't brag about your status. She will not mind marrying a bartender if he works really hard for his job."

I noticed Jimin's expression miffed and he immediately brought the glass closer to his lips. "Don't have to worry. I'm pro, you see."

A sound escaped from my lips was somewhere between laughing and sobbing. I for some disguised reason didn't have faith in him. "Well, I'll judge your performance tomorrow."

Not for a second did he absorb my statement and spoke with the same intensity, "That girl is continuously staring at you."

I whipped my head to look at a girl in a red hot con dress, sitting with two boys around the round table on the corner. "Yeah, strawberries on my shirt would turn everyone's head out here. I look at an oddball."

He shook his head and drew in a breath, "We had a little thing like ─"

"Woah," I interjected.

"─a couple of weeks ago." But ideally he should be with that Singaporean girl two weeks ago, as per the tabloid. Nevertheless, he continued, "now she's bringing different losers every day just to set my ass on fire. Geez." He turned his head away. "She's unpredictable."

I too averted my gaze into nothingness and pondered over the probability of her so-called ex ruining the game tomorrow. "We should do something about her."

"Like?" His voice attuned in a honeyed texture.

"Like . . ." I puffed up my chest by capturing the extra bits of perfumed air. I unthinkably suggested, "Me putting my arms around your neck and acting like a fake date."

"No, no, no, no." His eyes grew bigger than their normal size, as he raised a finger slowly. He coughed and crouched into a loop, hammering the empty glass on the counter.

I blinked and repeated carefully, "Like a fake date. That reaction was not needed." At several times when I believed that I deserved a pat on my back for acquiring a quick solution; my solutions always made the other person awkward but this person right here seemed so convinced with the idea, that he might develop a jaw ache after smiling for this whole time.

"Wonderful!" He snapped and looked really excited. "Come here." He opened his arms wide like a magician's cape inviting kids to come in his cape and he would play his abracadabra trick.

I looked at his sleek chest and back at his face to judge the red shade on his cheeks as belying for the sake of getting closer to me. Who cares? I knew whom I belonged to, and a mere hug wouldn't change my mind for sure. I reluctantly got on my feet and stood only to have him squeeze my frame into a heart-to-heart hug.

The diamond-hard buttons of his wide-spread shirt dug around the inappropriate places on my upper body. I coughed lightly and asked, "Is she watching us?"

"No, she did spare a look but I think we need something more than that."

I felt his arms going a little hard on my waist. I planted my hands on his arms with equal brute strength. "What more than this? I won't sit on your lap."

"Pick one: on the cheeks or the lips?" he asked hurriedly.

"I would love to know the full context, Sir. Your statement is vague," I replied in mock. Suddenly feeling an urge to retreat my steps from here but only his hands slackened.

He suddenly twirled me around with one hand to make me sit on one of the barstools he sat on and charged forward, my hands glued on his chest. "Just take a long breath in, I'm coming for your lips."

"Wha-"

***

Badly hurt by irony, I was reminding myself of my own words that it was a fake date which resulted in a fake kiss as I walked back to my car. Period. I had never been so sensitive about kissing another guy casually but this kiss really brought up a crack on the foundation of trust I had built toward Taehyung. I rummaged my hair as I approached the cheery red car. Inside, Taehyung was laid back, with his arm clung to his forehead.

I feared that my loud heartbeats would overpower his low snores. I raised my one leg and placed it carefully on my seat, crouching my legs against my chest, without announcing my presence. I gaped at his peaceful state, finger outlining his forehead, nose and when it came upon his lips, I brought my hand down. White street light washed his features, even his little pores were visible to admire.

Suddenly my phone ringed and broke through silence around. Taehyung fluttered open his eyes, and I texted back Uncle Mojo that I was coming back in ten minutes. I lied because I knew we were really far away from the mansion and Uncle Mojo would get worried unnecessarily.

"Shall we leave? Did you talk with her?" Taehyung uttered in his thick voice, yawning as he turned on the engine.

I hummed, failing to face him fully.

A/n

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