"So, you'll be there right? The party starts at 10 p.m."
"Yeah, I will. I don't have anything better to do anyway. My boyfriend would be busy with lessons so I won't be able to talk to him either. Will my parents be there too?" Jungkook asked.
"Yeah they would. Mr. and Mrs. Jeon were busy so I thought I would inform you myself." Ara smiled.
Jungkook returned the smile and looked down at his phone. He just blankly stared at it and scrolled at nothing. The phone displayed his home screen, a wide-angled picture of Taehyung and him in front of a giant rollercoaster. One that would look horrendous and horribly terrifying to someone who feared carnival rides. But Taehyung and Jungkook had had a blast that day, they ranked that date amongst the top 3 most amazing dates they had had. So, he wasn't really looking at or reading anything on his phone, he just used the device as a means to reduce the awkwardness in the conversation. He had known Ara for a week and half now, but they were still not even near comfortable with each other, even as colleagues.
So he looked at his phone, and looked at Taehyung's huge boxy grin. A few months in their relationship, Jungkook had realized how rare and unique Taehyung's smile was, it just made him love it even more. He stared at his face and was about to smile as he started thinking about his boyfriend before Ara's high pitched voice disturbed the silence.
"Uhm, if you don't mind, may I ask you a personal question?"
Jungkook looked up with a soft frown, he locked his phone and put it into his pocket as he nodded his head.
"I heard about what happened with your boyfriend and parents back in South Korea. Is everything okay now, like, is he fine?" Ara's eyebrows were slightly twisted in worry too as she looked at Jungkook with a soft gaze. She knew this was a sensitive topic for him, so she wanted to be as careful as she could.
Jungkook sighed as he began speaking, "Fine is a very subjective word." He sadly smiled.
"He's choosing to ignore the fact that that incident ever took place so there could be peace in our relationship. He smiles and laughs like nothing ever happened, and it may seem like he's 'fine' to you and me. But deep down, I know he isn't. His parents have always been very open with him being gay, while my parents are the complete opposite. So it's a little difficult for him to cope up with this new, unusual change in perspectives. But, to his defense, he's doing absolutely amazing. I've never seen someone so strong." Jungkook smiled like a lovesick puppy, one that he was for his Taehyung. The only reason he was still sane in the United States with his parents by his side all day long was because of the constant and frequent texts and calls he exchanged with Taehyung. If it weren't for him, the boy would've gone crazy by now.
Ara looked at him with a smile, "You really do love him huh? He seems to be very lucky to have you."
Jungkook shook his head instantly, "Nah, not at all. I'm definitely the luckier one."
As soon as he was done speaking the sentence, his phone rang in his pocket. He removed it and flipped the screen to show 'TaeBear✨💜' on the screen with his signature bunny smile.
"Looks like he heard us all the way from Seoul." Jungkook chuckled as Ara laughed.
"Please excuse me." He said and walked away.
From the distance, Ara heard Jungkook speak, "Was just telling Ara how lucky I am to have you baby."
She smiled in adoration and was about to leave the office building to go to her house too before she heard Mr. Jeon's voice from beside her, "Ara, could you please come with me?"
Assuming he had to tell her a few things related to work, she unhesitatingly followed him.
Though, it was when Mr. Jeon started locking the door of his meeting room did Ara get suspicious.
"Sir, why are you-" She started asking but got cut off by a loud "Shh." from Mr. Jeon.
"I need to talk to you about something no one else but your father and I know."
"Yeah, I'll call you later, bye love." Jungkook's voice bounced off the silent office walls and echoed in the empty vacuum. Normally, he would've been way more careful with the amount of noise he was making so as to not disturb the employees and also make sure that his parents didn't hear him speaking to Taehyung. But it was way past working hours right now. It was 8:30 p.m. and work hours got over in the USA by latest 5 p.m. There were rare cases of people working post 7 p.m. So he knew he wouldn't disturb anyone if he talked a little louder than normal, and he was pretty sure that his parents had also gone home to get ready for the night's party. They always needed a little extra time to get dressed.
So it came to him as a surprise when he heard his mother's voice calling out to him from behind, "Jungkook?"
With a startle, he turned his back, "Yes mom?"
"You haven't gone home to get ready yet?"
"Ah no, Ara just told me about the party ten minutes ago. Why haven't you gone home?"
"I had some work."
Jungkook nodded his head, and though he wanted to assume the conversation was over due to the heavy, almost suffocating tension in the air, he could see that it definitely wasn't. His mother's hesitant and expectant eyes delivered that message.
"How long would you take to get ready son?" Mrs. Jeon asked, breaking the awkward atmosphere.
"I won't take too long mom, you wanted to speak to me about anything?"
Mrs. Jeon nodded her head, "Could you please follow me?"
With a quiet "Yes." and a gulp, Jungkook reluctantly followed her in her office.
Mrs. Jeon took a seat on the couch instead of her usual desk, where she would give Jungkook instructions on what business related work needed to be done. This was enough to tell him that she had not called him inside to talk about work.
Jungkook sat across her.
"Your dad isn't here so I thought this would be the perfect time to talk to you."
Jungkook looked at her with confusion, even though he knew what this conversation was going to be about.
"First off, let me start by asking how you've been doing. Just generally. How has university been? I haven't asked you this question in years, but I know it's my responsibility, so tell me son."
For the first time in more than a decade, Jungkook saw love in his mothers eyes. But not only that, he also saw guilt. The usual stern and controlling, demanding, stiff eyes had softened themselves after years. And though Jungkook knew he should've been happy, should've broken his shell and acted vulnerable in front of his mother like all children do, he couldn't find it in him to trust his mother so easily after all that he's had to go through because of her.
"I've been fine mom, university is also great. I have an amazing bunch of friends that love me to no bounds and spending time with them is also just amazing."
Mrs. Jeon nodded her head, "That's great. Is there something bothering you though? You look so... dull when you're with us. You were never like this before." She said, referring to Mr. Jeon as 'us'.
With a mental eye roll, Jungkook wondered what his mother meant by 'before'. It was definitely not a couple or more years ago. He hadn't seen his parents in the same light since he was 12, since he overheard their heart breaking conversation. So did her 'before' mean ten years back?
"No mom, everything is great. I'm fine." He lied, not wanting to bring up Taehyung in this conversation. He didn't want to talk about him now, didn't want to hear those heart shattering words from his mother again. He had felt happy right before he stepped into this office room, and he did not want to change that.
Mrs. Jeon shook her head, "No Jungkook, no! You're not okay! I am your mother. I can see it in your eyes that you're hurting even if you don't express it verbally. Don't lie to me Jungkook, I know you better than anyone else."
Jungkook raised an eyebrow at his mother, silently asking whether the last sentence she spoke was true. And Mrs. Jeon understood that, so she corrected herself and completed the sentence, "Less than Taehyung, but still, I know you enough to know you're not okay."
Jungkook could see the way the way it pained Mrs. Jeon to say those last words, and he almost fell bad. Almost did.
"What do you want to know huh?" He asked, getting a little rude to her. But he knew it was okay, knew it wouldn't hurt her even near the amount of pain he has felt because of her.
"You want to know how many tears Tae and I shed that day you came over? Want to know how broken Tae had felt that day? Want to know how much it broke me to see the love of my life in so much, too much pain? Want to know how I have been suffering because of your and dad's stupid, delusional ideologies for the past ten years? Want to know how I doubted myself and pulled at my hair every night and asked myself why I was gay? Why I wasn't 'normal' like all the straight people in my school? Want to know how I asked myself why my parents didn't love me?" Jungkook was gritting his teeth by the time he was done speaking. His eyes were glassy as tears threatened to roll down his cheeks. His face twisted in rage, but he restrained himself from losing his cool because he needed to respect his mother, no matter what.
Mrs. Jeon shook her head and Jungkook could see the tears building up in her eyes too. She whispered, "Why? Why didn't you ever tell m-"
Jungkook cut her midway with a mocking chuckle and a dismissive hand wave, "Cut the bullshit mom. You knew I was suffering, but you chose to ignore it. Didn't you ever notice my bloodshot eyes? You did, didn't you? But did you ever care to ask why I had been crying? But I can't blame you, can I? You rarely saw me. What like, thrice a year? How would you ever know what I had been going through." Jungkook's eyes were cold and his face was devoid of any emotion except for the falling tears. His tone was harsh as he spoke to Mrs. Jeon who too, was crying now. She covered her mouth and constantly shook her head as she finally realized what she had done.
Jungkook spoke again, his tone grueling, "I grew up as an orphan Ma, I grew up as an orphan."
The words felt like a blade cutting right through Mrs. Jeon's heart. Her heart cracked to pieces and she finally felt the pain her son was feeling. What made it worse was that Jungkook called her 'Ma', something he hadn't called her since he had turned 18, since things went really south in between them. 'Mom' had always been considered as a formal word in their household. And hearing Jungkook start calling her that regularly at the time had made her feel so much sorrow. But like everything, she chose to ignore that too.
Today, she couldn't believe she finally got to hear that word from Jungkook, but in such a pathetic, shameful context. She couldn't believe her son just called himself an orphan when both of his parents were alive. But she admitted that she couldn't blame him. She knew this was her fault. Her and her husband's.
As she sobbed, she saw Jungkook getting up from the couch. She frantically tried to reach out to him and called him, "Jungkook!" But he was already standing at the doorstep.
"I'm sorry I can only handle so much today. If you seriously want to talk to me, I will be ready. But now I need to go back to the house and get ready Mom." And with those final words, Mrs. Jeon saw her son's retreating back. And she couldn't help but to think that if she didn't take immediate action, she would see Jungkook walking away from her life in the same way.
On the other hand, Ara's astonished being shakily walked out of Mr. Jeon's office. As soon as she stepped out of the room and closed the door, she ran towards her car and locked the door. She smashed her head against the steering wheel and felt the wet tears flowing down her face.
She repeated the words Mr. Jeon had said to her back in the office and stared into space with wide eyes. She had been given instructions, strict instructions by him, and she didn't want to carry them out.
She thought, 'That man does not deserve to be called a father.' And with that and her shaky hands, she started the car and drove back home.
~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~
Thursday Update!!!
Ugh why am I up at 2:00 a.m. again? 🥴🤦♀️
Lmaoo anywayss, here's a really sad chapter for all my lovely readers out there!!
Just a warning, the coming chapters aren't going to be the happiest. That's the reason I dropped that cute, fluff filled chapter on Tuesday, so I could give y'all a little break from these depressing chapters.
Tbh, they're making me feel sad too 😪
Anyways, I LOVE Y'ALL LOADS, TAKE CARE!!! 💜💜
Thank you so much for reading! I love you 💜❤
Take care lovelies
Stay safe, Stay home
~Love,
TheTaeBTSLover ✨❤❤