In Between Heartbreaks » TaeRoseKook

XIII

She had no idea what she was looking for in particular. So she filled her cart with anything that caught her interest.  She didn’t realize that she already had too much in her cart until it felt too heavy for her to push around.

“Need help, Miss?”

Chaeyoung was about to decline the offer. With a smile on her face, she turned to the person behind her. But she bit back her words when she saw Jungkook smiling widely at her.

“Jungkook!”

“Chaeyoung.”

“What are you doing here?”

“You make it sound like I shouldn’t be here. It’s the mall Chaeyoung, which is a public place. So I can be here as much as you.”

She rolled her eyes at him. “That’s not what I mean.”

He chuckled, “Oops! My bad. I guess I’m doing the same thing as you do. But . . .” He looked down at her cart. “I think you’re way behind your shopping list than I am.”

“Oh!” She sheepishly smiled at him before rambling rapidly. “I was originally done with my Christmas shopping. I completed everything about a week ago. But there’s this small party that we’re having at home. My family will be celebrating Christmas together with Lisa and her parents. Both our families almost always celebrated Christmas together ever since. You remember Lisa, my best friend? I think I’ve talked to you about her.

So about this party . . . I was assigned on decorations. I basically have everything at home. But when I checked our old decorations, I felt that I’m missing something. I don’t even know what it is. So when I came here, I just picked everything that I found pretty. But I guess I found a lot of pretty things today. As a result . . . here’s my dilemma.”

With a visible pout on her face, she asked, “Can you help me?”

Jungkook scratched the back of his head.

But how? When the only thing that I find pretty among all these things here is her. Should I be honest and tell her that?

“Uh . . . To be honest with you . . . You’re pretty . . . good at this. I’m sure that you’re way better than me at these kind of things. So I don’t think I can be of much help. But for you, I’ll do what I can.”

“Oh! Thanks, I guess.”

“So how do we do this?”

Chaeyoung and Jungkook spent their time sorting the things in Chaeyoung’s cart. They carefully examined each item until they settled with only a few things left in the cart.

“Maybe I should go look around one last time.” She suggested before pushing her cart forward.

But Jungkook quickly grabbed the handle of her cart to stop her from moving, putting his arms on either side of Chaeyoung. He unintentionally trapped her in between him and the cart looking like he was giving her a back hug. And they both stopped moving altogether after realizing the proximity of their bodies.

What am I doing? I could easily push him away. Maybe . . . that’s what I should do.

Oh no, what did I do? I should probably take a step back. Yeah . . . I could do that.

In an instant, Chaeyoung and Jungkook both let go of the cart’s handle as if they got burned from holding it. When she took a step backward, he unexpectedly took a step back at the same time. And this incident did not go unnoticed to the both of them. They even found it amusing that they broke into fits of laughter while facing each other.

After they recovered, Jungkook straightened up and got hold of the cart’s handle once again. He was about to push forward when he stopped and reached out his left hand to grab Chaeyoung’s right hand. He interlaced their hands and proceeded in pushing the cart towards the cashier.

“I need to make sure you’re not going to add more items in your cart.” He said while looking sideways at her, afraid to completely face her and see her reaction at their interlaced hands.

When she did not say anything, he continued walking with a triumphant smile glued on his face.

… … … … …

Knock! Knock! Knock!

“Come in!” Chaeyoung called.

Lisa went inside Chaeyoung’s room before explaining herself.

“I’m really sorry for being late. We had a team meeting before I got off work.”

“It’s okay. So what did you want to talk about?”

“I told you about our family reunion two days ago right?”

“Yeah. What about it?”

“About Taehyung,” Lisa mumbled.

Chaeyoung gasped, “What about him?”

“We talked about you. He asked if I could help him get to talk to you.”

“We already tried that. But the result was not very pleasant.”

“He acknowledged that. And he knew it was his fault.”

“Good for him.”

“But can’t you give him another chance to talk?”

“I can think about it, but not until he asks me himself.”

“I see. Chaeng, if you don’t mind me asking, don’t you really have feelings for Taehyung anymore?”

“Are you asking that as Taehyung’s cousin or as my best friend?”

“I’m asking that as both. You know I care for the both of you.”

“I understand. But honestly, I don’t know.”

“Is it because of Jungkook?”

“Jungkook has nothing to do with what’s going on between me and Taehyung. I just realized a lot of things about our relationship after we broke up.”

“Hmm. Let me change the question then. Do you have feelings for Jungkook?”

“I . . . I don’t know. I just liked spending time with him. I feel comfortable with his company.”

“What does he think about Taehyung?”

“I don’t know, I didn’t ask him that.”

“Of course I did not expect you to ask him that. I mean, what do you think is his opinion of Taehyung?”

“I’m not sure. We did not talk about Taehyung that much. After he learned about my breakup with Taehyung, we did not talk about him anymore.”

Then Chaeyoung contemplated before asking, “How about Taehyung, did he ask about Jungkook?”

“He did. I told him that you only met Jungkook recently. I also mentioned that the two of you hang out sometimes.”

“Why did you tell him that?”

“Because he asked?”

“Fine.”

“Be honest with me, you like Jungkook, don’t you?”

“I told you I don’t know.”

“But he’s your type, so it shouldn’t be a surprise if you fall for him one of these days. That is . . . if you have not fallen for him yet.”

“Hmmm. We’ll see about that. We will see.”

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Is it too soon for Christmas? 😁😄

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