THE PROFESSOR AND HIS OBSESSION JJK [COMPLETED]

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

A small fortune is hidden behind the glassed shelves.

My room has always been a sanctuary, a soft bubble nothing could burst, because the dragon, aka my brother, guarded the territory with his fire.

But for the first time ever, it doesn't bring me relief or a sense of peace; instead, it creates more restlessness within me, as if I no longer belong here.

And if I don't belong at home... then where do I belong?

Antonio's voice pulls me back from my despair, giving a temporary reprieve to my exhausted mind. "We hadn't expected you until Saturday, Y/N. We barely had time to prepare your room. We thought you might want fresh air."

Despite everything, a chuckle slips past my lips, and Antonio grins at me while concern still flashes in his gaze as he extends the tray to me, silently asking me to take the cup.

As far back as I can remember, his go-to action to fix all our problems has been to prepare jasmine tea and hope for the best.

Forcing a reassuring smile on my face, because chaos sinks into my every cell and makes me question everything in this little world of mine, I reply, "Thank you." Wrapping my hand around the cup, I give him a little kiss on his cheek as he blushes. "And I love fresh air." I lift the cup to my mouth, taking a sip, and wince as the hot liquid burns my tongue. "Is my brother home yet?"

He puts the tray under his armpit and clasps his glove covered hands. "You showed up here all alone without Henderson... wearing a man's shirt. I was very concerned. I had to call him." I never doubted he would.

Antonio loves us both equally, but his loyalty belongs to Yugyeom and not me. He could never keep a secret from him, even if I asked.

And I did.

A year ago, after my disastrous date that resulted in me losing my virginity on the backseat of a car, only to discover the guy did it on a bet. The only reason I even slept with the guy was because everyone else did it. That's when I decided to spend a year in Greece rather than go to college right away. Well, that and the fact that he told the entire school, so I was too humiliated to stay in Chicago.

Antonio knew and then apparently told Yugyeom, because shortly after that, all the universities declined the guy's college applications, and his rich family had to send him abroad for the scandal to die down.

And here I am one year later, none the wiser. Jungkook didn't bet on me, but he still used me for his own agenda with the only difference being that this time around, my heart was involved, and it hurts so much it's hard to breathe.

I should write a book on the biggest screwup of the century.

"Great. Can't wait to see him." And this much is true.

The sooner he knows, the better I'll feel without this heavy weight of guilt looming over me.

Antonio beams at me. "Dinner will be ready soon. Would you like to go downstairs?" I grab the cookie and munch on it, moaning at the sweet taste while he continues. "Although you'll have to eat in the kitchen. The renovations make it impossible to walk anywhere without breaking your neck." He frowns, the wrinkles around his cheeks and eyes deepening. "If your brother paid better attention to all my notes, we'd be done by now."

I swirl my finger in the air. "Our mansion is enormous, so I highly doubt it." Considering Yugyeom has barely resisted destroying the house completely and building something new altogether, he has kept only the foundation and is renovating the entire thing so no traces of the past mar the walls.

Most of the time, he stays at his penthouse in the city and travels around the world on his favorite yacht, exploring different locations and learning about their culture—mainly medicine, since he finished med school—so he doesn't devote much time to the renovations.