CONTRACT MARRIAGE ||KookV||

22

Yep, he must've still been like that. He was probably born that way, Taehyung thought before he returned his gaze to the newspaper's contents.

The article from five years earlier was about a web game competition where Jungkook, who was invited as a mysterious guest, received a great deal of attention from the media. It also had quite a number of people guessing whether his acceptance of the invitation to a competition like that had something to do with the next direction his company would advance in.

Taehyung was not very convinced by that report. Due to the strength of the Jeon Group, if they really wished to step into the online gaming industry it was unlikely they'd set their sights on an average teenage web game compe— Wait a minute! Taehyung remembered something. He then swept his gaze back to the article's title, reading the headline twice.

Taehyung paused, 20xx... Isn't that the competition I participated in?

Back then, it just so happened to be the summer vacation period, and along with the son of his homeroom teacher, he had formed a team who then entered that competition which they even won the "Most Creative" consolation prize for at that time.

Taehyung had been accepted to a high school in the city and due to his family's situation, the homeroom teacher looked after him a little more, and also because their son was in the same grade as him though the other boy's grades in every subject were unbalanced. The form teacher's son had the problem of focusing seriously on some subjects at the expense of others, so after he and the boy were more familiar with each other, Taehyung took it upon himself to help him make up for those lessons he was falling behind on; and it was because of this guy, that Taehyung got his first chance to interact with computers.

Back then, his participation in that competition was accidental. Still unfamiliar with computers, he could not help much but with his that clever mind of his, he did provide them with many new ideas and directions. In fact, the concept for the end product that went up for the competition was thought up by him, while the concrete design was the work of the homeroom teacher's son and another team member's. Little did he expect that they would win a prize for it in the end.

Taehyung also recalled the picture he had of all his teammates from when he took part in the competition, which now rests on his desk back at his family's home. Grandpa would frequently take out that picture to look at it, and say how that event still made him very happy.

But why would this newspaper be here? Taehyung continued reading. Below the article, his eyes falling on a photo with him standing in the first row to the far left, looking very reserved while wearing a white shirt and black trousers.

"...inside it is the answer to what you want to know."

Yoongi's words echoed once again, and an unbelievable thought slowly formed within Taehyung's heart. His mouth now slightly agape, he did not dare believe what he just saw in that newspaper, considering the speculation now forming in his heart as simply preposterous.

"...how can something like this be possible?" Taehyung mumbled. Folding up the paper recklessly, he then picked up the box again to find there were a few more news clippings inside that was from the same time as the one before. Apart from the newspapers, there were also several pictures, with not even one failing to be a photo of him from that competition.

His heart "ba-thumped" as it pounded, seeming as if it wanted to burst open, giving him no way to control its throbbing. He then, very carefully, picked up those photographs upon making contact with them, to his shock, every one of his fingertips emitted a scalding heat.

It was the same as the time when he saw the contents of the journal, except now it was the box in his hand which felt like it weighed a thousand pounds, and yet again it seemed as if an invisible hand had churned the seas within his heart and tossing that place into chaos.