No Strings Attached

three

But the compliment didn't send her stomach into a frenzy of butterflies like she had expected. The way she felt each time Jongin uttered the same words to her. She was used to hearing these same words every day and this time felt no different from the rest.

The waiter then walked over to them to take their orders and Taeyong gestured for Jennie to order whatever she liked.

"I'll just have a glass of water for now." She told the waiter before turning to look at Taeyong's confused face. "There's something I need to tell you first."

He ordered the same as her and told the waiter to come back later.

"So, what is it that you wanted to talk to me about, Jennie-sshi?" He asked her, giving her his complete, undivided attention.

"I truthfully don't know where to start from," Jennie fiddled with the napkin in front of her nervously.

Seeing that Taeyong leaned forward and hesitantly placed his hands on her fidgety ones, "start from the beginning, I'm listening." He promised her.

Jennie took a sip from the glass of water the waiter had placed in front of her before sighing and emptying her whole heart out to Taeyong.

She started from the beginning and told him everything, from how she met Jongin, what happened between them, how she had fallen in love with him and eventually gotten her heart broken with him, Sehun's advice and how he had come into the picture leading to this date.

Taeyong listened to her with a calm expression on his face and urged her to go on whenever she felt like her voice cracking and a panic attack coming her way. He was extremely patient and kind with her and that made Jennie feel all the more worse for this ordeal she had gotten him into.

"I didn't want you to feel cheated or used as a rebound. That's why I came clean to you before we started anything." She finally confessed, ending her story.

Taeyong was silent for a few moments and Jennie's mind raced with various thoughts of the worse that could happen as she bit her bottom lip anxiously awaiting his response.

Taeyong just smiled at her which completely caught her off guard. She had expected him to be mad at her, even scream at her for wasting his time but never even in her wildest dreams had she expected him to smile at her.

"Thank you for telling me all of this." Taeyong finally spoke.

"I don't understand.." Jennie trailed off, confused. "Aren't you mad at me? Why are you smiling at me?"

"I have no right to be mad at you, Jennie-sshi. This is only our first date and I don't have any right to dictate your private life or whatever you do with whomever. I'm really glad you confided in me and I can only offer you my support from here onwards..." He continued.

Jennie could feel the blow coming. This was it. The only thing she could muster out was an inaudible "oh."

He saw her facial expression and it gave him the courage to do what he did next. He grabbed both her hands in his and looked her in the eyes before saying, "I've liked you for over a year now. I only had my eyes on you, even when you had your eyes on him. There is nothing I want more than to pretend like I didn't hear whatever you just told me and finally have the courage to properly ask you to be mine but it's not fair of me to ask you that, atleast right now, knowing you're still in love with him and will probably be miserable in a relationship with me."

Jennie's eyes glossed over at his words and she choked out a "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I should have never dragged you down in my mess."

Taeyongcgot up from his seat and did something that even surprised himself, he walked over to her and lifted her up from her seat by the arms before enclosing the space between them and pulling her towards himself in a hug that Jennie didn't know she needed till she felt the sense of security that came with him envelope her like a warm blanket and she hesitantly wrapped her own arms around his shoulders letting him comfort her.