𝐀𝐑𝐂𝐇𝐈𝐕𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐎𝐖𝐍 𝐅𝐈𝐂𝐒 | 𝐊- 𝐏𝐎𝐏

𝖼𝗁𝖺𝗉𝗍𝖾𝗋 𝖿𝗂𝖿𝗍𝗒 𝗇𝗂𝗇𝖾

A bit of your confidence slipped out of you and your chest tightened. You couldn’t tell if she was lying or not and that scared you. If Taehyung really did call her when he knew that you were coming … didn’t that mean you were through?

“Why did he call me, you ask?” Sangmi grinned wolfishly. She didn’t wait for an answer before shooting her mouth off. “He told me he had something very important to discuss. Don’t you find the way he talks now so mature and attractive? Anyway, he sounded a lot happier than he has in a while, ever since you ran away.”

You felt a stab of guilt right in your heart.

“I’ve called a few times, but he never sounded quite right, like you had broken him. But last night, he sounded almost relieved. I guess he moved on – ready for something real, rather than a child.”

It was getting harder to hear her as blood rushed in your ears, drowning out the taunting tone dripping from Sangmi’s voice. Her smirk cut through the last of your confidence. You tried to stop your lip from trembling and kept your eyes on the top floor. You didn’t want to look at her beautiful, smug face any longer, knowing that if you did, you would get sucked in by her – maybe – lies.

You tried to convince yourself that she was wrong, that Taehyung was stronger than that, but you remembered the way Seokjin described him when he would stop by; Red, puffy eyes, blotchy face, lips bit until they bled, hair mussed in every direction. Maybe you had broken the camel’s back. But he had always been stronger than that; it seemed unlikely that something as trivial as you disappearing for a few days to take down the confident, successful man.

Craning your neck, you found Jamie’s eyes again and gave her a distressed look. She shook her head, pointed toward Sangmi, made a gesture like snapping a branch (or a bone). You sighed and silently denied her request to kill Sangmi.

“You know, I don’t hate you for no reason,” the girl suddenly spoke. You looked at her with a small noise of curiosity. She gave you a sideways glance, lips pursed irritably. “I admit that I didn’t love Taehyung back in high school, but I really do now. I realized how blind I was to what I had back then and regret the mistakes I made. I don’t hate you because you found me at school with that boy or that you told Tae; I’m actually really thankful that you did.

“The reason I hate you is that even though I was right beside him, touching him, kissing him, taking care of him, Taehyung was always looking at you. He was so protective of you and would never shut up about you; wondering what you were doing, if you were home, if you were eating, and all the other shit that drove me crazy! I couldn’t stand it; So, after you found me, I told him that you were harassing me, and you hated us together just to get him on edge before you spoke with him. I thought it worked when he began ignoring you and you ran away to college. But even after you were gone, and I realized how I really felt about him; he was already pulling away because he could only focus on finding you. He stood me up and left me alone countless times in order to find you, and I hated it. I hate you. All you ever did was hurt him and then disappear, over and over again, breaking him down even though he built an empire for you, but he still worshipped you and pursued you like a madman. You ruined every chance I had with him, but now I’m not too keen on letting you do it again. So, I advise you scurry away like the little cockroach you are and leave Tae and I alone.”

You felt your heart beating in your chest like a bass drum, trying to break free and leave you to die, suffocating in your shame and guilt. You wanted to throw up. You had never heard that side of the story or those details before – it was so much worse than you thought. You had destroyed him, even though he did everything for you, trying to find you and building his international company with you for motivation. The mural he painted for you flashed before your eyes – the brightly-colored sunflowers, the yellow background and the two-toned vase with your name lovingly painted onto it. He did so much for you, and you had no idea.