Chapter 85: Need like Prayer 🔥

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From where I stood in the dining room, I could see the soft blush of the evening setting in, the city glittering like scattered confetti beyond the glass.

It was 5PM.

We still had hours to go before the countdown, but the buzz of celebration was already humming in the air-low, warm, steady.

Noona and I had just finished setting the table.

She smoothed out the table runner with a little flourish, then carefully aligned the last pair of gold-rimmed wine glasses

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She smoothed out the table runner with a little flourish, then carefully aligned the last pair of gold-rimmed wine glasses.

I added the center candles-flickering softly-and arranged the cutlery, more for something to do with my hands than anything else.

Everything looked beautiful. Comfortable. Inviting.

But I couldn't feel it.
Not fully.

Not with the weight of the past three days still lingering like smoke in my lungs.

Every time I blinked, I imagined my phone lighting up with a notification that never came.

Every laugh, every toast we were preparing-it all had a little gap in it.

Jungkook.

He was supposed to be part of this.

He was ours. Mine, in some strange, aching way I didn't yet understand. And yet...

Silence.

Still.

He hadn't said a single word.

"Tae?" Noona's voice nudged me gently back to the present.

I looked up, blinking. She tilted her head with a soft smile that didn't quite reach her eyes.

"You okay?"

I nodded. Too fast. Too rehearsed.

"Yeah. Yeah, just thinking."

She didn't press. Just offered a knowing look-the kind soulmates gave each other without needing to say a word.

But then, without warning, she stepped closer, her gaze soft and shimmering with unspoken understanding.

Gently, she reached up and kissed my forehead.

Not quick. Not fleeting.

It lingered-warm and full of meaning.

Like she was trying to pour every ounce of comfort she had into that one kiss.

Like she was telling me: I see you. I feel you. It's going to be okay.

And then she leaned in again, slower this time, eyes locked on mine-checking, asking without asking-and kissed me on the lips.

Soft.
So soft.

It was slow and tender, with the kind of care that made something ache behind my ribs.

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