HANEUL WAS JUST done with the whole marriage chapter. She had enough of it until now, and she wasn't going to tolerate someone pushing her boundaries and pestering about the same like a mosquito flying near her ear again.
Well, the prospect of marriage hadn't been that bad around a week ago, but we all know how that turned out.
The morning after her birthday was laced with hangovers, headaches and some vomiting she had no interest in thinking about again. Some was an understatement because she knew she had thrown up more than she ever did in her entire existence in those five hours.
As soon as Haneul's mother had knocked on her bedroom door calling them over for breakfast, Taehyung was up and fucking out of the house before she could say "What?"
Gathered from her mother, Taehyung had quite literally run back to his place because of a couple of missed calls from his parents, probably out of concern. Haneul's mother had brushed it off 'cause it was believable and that they might be worried (although she did swear to Haneul that she had tried to stop him for breakfast) and 'cause why would Taehyung ever lie to them?
Oh, how naive she was.
Taehyung and Haneul were becoming nothing but better liars with each passing day, and she was dead sure that one day, their lies would catch up to them and set everything they'd built aflame.
Liar liar, pants on fire, motherfucker; she sourly thought as she stapled the stack of documents into neat piles.
It had been a week since her birthday, and four days since she had moved to Seoul.
She hadn't officially moved, because she didn't have a place to live and was currently living out of a hotel, but she was as good as there.
Taehyung had, undoubtedly, offered her that she could stay with him, but she was too selfish for the sanity of her mind to live with him, even for a couple of days. Instead, she was fine spending her own money on the hotel room.
You see, Haneul was giving him the cold shoulder, similar to how he had given her before her birthday, yet very opposite. Taehyung had not replied to her. A part of her told her that he might have been simply busy. The same part also refused to believe that bullshit she was feeding herself. Haneul, on the other hand, did reply but kept her replies curt, to the point and cold. They mostly varied from yes, no, alright, no need and I've got it settled. She was being unnecessarily cold, and she knew it.
The telephone in front of her rang, startling her. Exhaling, she picked up, "Secretary Seo speaking from CEO Jung's office."
"Miss Haneul, this is Kang Jia from the sales department," a soft female voice introduced, "I had things to discuss with Mr Jung about the new sales plan so that my team can jump right into it. What time would be best to drop by?"
Haneul clicked on the desktop in front of her and checked her boss' schedule. "He will be leaving in half an hour, Miss Jia. I can book you in for tomorrow?"
"Is there any chance I can come right now? It's a bit urgent," Jia went on, desperately trying her best.
"I'm afraid not," Haneul answered, clicking her mouse and checking the next day's schedule, "Jeon from accounts is in a meeting with him right now. I can book you in for 10 tomorrow morning, though."
"That will do, I guess. Thanks." The line went dead.
Haneul was hyper-aware that she had five more things to do, but her feet and back were hurting so she sat down on her soft office chair and leaned back, and sighed softly, sinking into the spongy cushion. The clock displayed it was just past six thirty.
The concept of nine to five was lost on their company, the official work timings being ten to seven for most employees and nine to nine for her, but the company privileges were very good and the pay was excellent, so there was little scope of complaint.
Breathing deeply to calm down for a few minutes, her hands organised her little desk right outside the CEO's office. Put some things back into their places. Their company wasn't very huge, but they had around three hundred employees alone working for them.
She picked up the pile of stapled papers together and knocked on his door. After a come-in followed through, she entered the office and shut the door behind her.
"Jeon, look through these people for me," the CEO gestured to Haneul to hand over the stack of papers to him, and she silently did. He continued, "Let me know their entire details by the day after. You are dismissed."
"I'll take my leave," Jeon bowed slightly and walked out of the office.
Haneul waited as her boss scrolled through his phone. He hadn't dismissed her yet, so she stood by, waiting for his next command.
A low curse word came out of his mouth before he could stop, and Haneul's head snapped up to look at him. He looked frustrated, and his mood changed. Remembering that he hadn't told her anything yet, she resumed waiting for him to tell him what to do next, not staring at him anymore.
"Haneul," he said, sighing and rubbing a frustrated hand over his face.
"Yes, sir?"
"Please clear my schedule for tomorrow. I have personal matters to tend to."
"Sure, sir," Haneul replied and then typed something into the tablet she was holding.
"What is the remaining schedule for today?"
"You need to attend Shinhwa Construction's fundraising event, Sir. He had personally called for the invitation." Before he could open his mouth for the next question, "There is no dress code, nor a requirement for a plus one."
"Fabulous," he clicked his tongue, straightening his tie and standing up, "You can leave early today, Haneul. Before you do, please call the sales department and ask the head to drop by at the earliest."
"Kang Jia called a while ago, Sir," Haneul told him, "She fixed an appointment for tomorrow morning. I'll have to reschedule it for the day after."
"Yes, do that." He gathered his coat from the rack behind him and started walking in the direction of the door, Haneul right behind him. But then, he paused, "Haneul, please call me Hoseok when no one's round."
Something unexplainable happened to Haneul's stomach, and her cheeks went red from a mix of shame and embarrassment. Still, she nodded, adding, "Okay, Hoseok."
She practically saw that man turning alive after she said his name. He smiled at her and walked closer to her. "Are you still living in the hotel room?"
Haneul nodded yes, but added, "I'm going to visit a couple of open houses today to search for apartments. Hopefully, I can find one today."
Hoseok was now standing close to her, the tips of their shoes grazing each other. "I still don't understand why you refused to stay with me."
"Because, it's inappropriate, Hoseok," she pointedly said, her sound hushing, "I can't live with you. You're my boss."
"It's going to be temporary though," he reasoned, the tips of his lips tilting slightly upwards, "And as a responsible employer, I need to take care of my employees."
His voice almost sounded loving. Haneul shook her head, "It'll be too weird. I don't want to… complicate things."
"As you wish," Hoseok wrapped his arms around her and pressed his lips into her hair, catching her off guard. A small squeak escaped her, her face flushing even redder, "I respect your decisions, Haneul, but the offer is still open if you change your mind."
Tapping her cheek affectionately as he drew back, he smiled at her and walked out of the office as if it was the most common occurrence for the pair of them.
Haneul let out a breath she didn't know she was holding. The boss and employee line between Hoseok and her was blurring with each passing minute they spent together.
For whatever dignity she had left in her, she had tried to avoid spending quality time with Hoseok. It was too complicated, and she didn't want to make matters worse in the office. Hoseok was a kind man and a nice boss to his employees, and the last thing she wanted was for him to have a scandal involving her.
But being with Hoseok made Haneul forget about all the confusion happening in her life. He kept her comfortable and warm, and suddenly she realised what he meant to her: a distraction. He was the equivalent of a rebound or even a getaway from her life; and she hated doing that to him, especially now that he was acting so so nicely with her.
Not that she could do anything about it, she thought as she walked back out of his office and packed her handbag. He was her boss, after all, and a girl's gotta eat. Making her intentions (or the lack thereof) clear with him would ultimately mean him firing her, which she did not want.
After rescheduling Kang Jia's appointment with her boss, she switched off the lights and walked towards the elevator, when her phone pinged with a message from May.
***
House hunting had not gone well.
Haneul angrily unwrapped her convenience store brought triangle kimbap. Or at least, attempted to. She was too furious to pay attention and messed up the sequence of the unwrapping numbers, tangling the plastic, which eventually soured her mood even more.
"You give that to me and take this," May said from beside her, handing Haneul her Kimbap instead. "Ramyun will be done in two minutes, till then you eat my Kimbap."
Haneul bit off a corner of the triangle, just to cringe, "What is this flavour again?"
"Tuna mayo, why?" May asked as she went over to switch off the stovetop. The delicious smell of ramyun wafted in her pearly white apartment and Haneul's stomach growled in response.
"The tuna tastes off," she shuddered and set the kimbap away from her on the table.
Just as May set their beautiful bowls of ramyun on the table, each with one fried egg on top, the sound of the keypad on the front door beeped, and the front door opened.
"Yeobo!" Both Haneul and May turned their heads over to Jimin's obnoxiously loud voice, "I'm home-" Jimin cut off his sentence, just to start in a more serious tone, "You better have made two portions of ramyun, babe."
"Ah Jimin, don't you mean three portions?" another, deeper voice called after Jimin.
The colour from Haneul's face drained.
The person she was avoiding, was here. Taehyung was here.
"Oh fuck," Haneul whispered to herself, but May caught it, turning to give her a quizzical look. Haneul just shook her head, slurping the noodles in front of her to stop her mouth from talking.
"Haneul's here," May announced as she went to the doorway to greet Jimin, "Join us, we were just having dinner."
Jimin replied something back to May, which was completely inaudible to Haneul. She turned her head towards their direction and saw Taehyung walking towards the kitchen, rolling up the sleeves of his creme-coloured cardigan.
"You sit, I can make ramyun for us, May," he offered as he pulled out a pot to cook, throwing a tight-lipped smile at Haneul.
She could feel Jimin's eyes boring into her. "Okay, what's going on, you two?" he pointed, looking back and forth between them. "Did you two have a fight?"
It was pretty obvious how they were avoiding each other; even Jimin could guess it.
"Something like that," mumbled Taehyung, his back facing them, as Haneul went, "No, absolutely not."
Almost comically, Taehyung turned to look at her, his eyes wide. Haneul mirrored him, like a deer caught in headlights, before scoffing a not-so-audible, "Of course, you'd say that."
Both Jimin and May's brows went up. Taehyung never said things like that, even jokingly, and especially not to Haneul.
"What?" he dismissed them, turning back to his ramyun that was cooking on the stove, "She started it."
"No, I didn't," Haneul deflected immediately, and both their friends' heads snapped to stare at her. The tension was getting too much in the room, so Haneul decided to change the subject, "Why don't you go wash up, Jimin? I can see you're returning from a shoot."
Jimin sighed and sat down opposite her, all sweaty and caked with makeup, "If I go, I'll fall asleep in the bathtub. Please, I'm so hungry," he whined.
"So both of you are coming to Paris, right?" May asked them, opening and typing off something on her phone.
Taehyung looked at Haneul to see her already looking at him. She raised her eyebrows in question, and he shook his head slightly.
"I don't think I can make it," she said, "I haven't applied for leave yet. I don't think I'll be allowed to take a whole week off if I'm being honest."
"Weren't you going to do that last week?" Jimin questioned her, "I thought you'd already booked for it."
"I can't make it either, guys," Taehyung said from the stovetop.
"Why?"
"I don't think I can afford an international trip right now, J," he sighed, and then shook his head, "Don't give me pitiful looks. Money's running a little low right now. Y'all carry."
"Yeah, me as well," Haneul said, "Need to get a new apartment by this week. I don't think I'll have much left for bills either."
"Oh man," Jimin sighed sadly, "I wished you all could come to see my first international show. It could've been our first abroad trip together!"
A couple of minutes passed, and May's typing on her phone became more aggressive. Then she exclaimed, "Y'all! I found a way."
"What is it?" asked Haneul.
"You know how I'm collaborating with Dior? I can ask them if you both can accompany me!"
"Why would they say yes? We're commoners," Taehyung countered, plating the ramyun.
"Because, you are my makeup artist, and Haneul is my manager."
"No way, it's too risky," Haneul shook her head, "They'd sue us."
"Think about it though! The whole trip paid for us. Jimin would be leaving early regardless, so we three would be together." May tried to pursue them.
"I agree with Haneul," Taehyung said as Jimin nodded, knowing how risky it was, "Besides, if they say yes, where would your actual manager and makeup artist go? You're gonna need them."
"I'm a self-made creator, Tae," May brushed it off, "I can work without a manager and do my own makeup. Just think about it, alright! It'll be so much fun!"
Taehyung put two bowls on the table, passing one to Jimin and pulling one towards himself. He flopped down on the only unoccupied chair, beside Haneul. He didn't even glance once towards her, and she felt a faint hurting sensation in her chest.
Silence engulfed them as all four ate their noodles, May getting up to make them seconds and Jimin microwaving convenience store rice after some time had passed. Haneul had become fidgety in her seat, and Taehyung had to stop her from shaking her leg too hard.
The second round of ramyun was consumed, and so was the rice before Jimin declared it was time to bid goodbye. "I'm gonna go wash up now," he yawned and then stretched his arms up in the air. "Baby, can you help me wash up?"
May, who was sitting across from Taehyung, visibly blushed, and Taehyung lifted a questioning brow, "Was that a sexual innuendo, Jimin?"
Jimin just smiled one of his cheeky smiles and said, "Whatever rocks your boat, bestie!"
Haneul grimaced, "Please do not ever do that in my presence again."
"Stop smiling like that or I'm gonna punch you," Taehyung exclaimed, clearly freaked out as Jimin's lips even stretched further.
"Why don't you give us some private time?" he innocently suggested as he got up from his chair.
"Don't be so rude, Jimin -" May started, but Jimin pulled her behind him, exclaiming a joyful Goodbye friends!
Haneul sighed as she got up and started to clear the table before Taehyung stopped her hand. "He deserves to clear his mess," he shook his head as he lead her to the living room, "Let's just leave before we hear them doing something we shouldn't."
Puzzled, Haneul followed him out of the apartment, not having the courage to question him. Confusion laced her thoughts along with guilt. She shouldn't have ghosted him, agreed, but then again he expected her to act fine with it when he did the same.
Besides, anyone would take time for themselves and think through things after their best friend suddenly asks to get married, even as a joke.
At the foyer, Taehyung got into his shoes while Haneul gathered her purse and coat before getting out of the house. Taehyung silently followed her and clicked the door shut.
They waited for the lift. Taehyung stared at his shoes while Haneul kept staring at him. Waiting for him to say something, or at least see any hint of emotion on his face. Taehyung did nothing.
The lift pinged before the door opened and they walked inside. The elevator descended. Finally, Haneul sighed and said, "You never gonna talk to me or something?"
Taehyung's shoulders shrugged while he kept looking at the floor, "We don't have anything to talk about."
"Okay," Haneul went silent again. She opened her mouth to say something, probably as a second thought, but she closed it again.
The elevator opened at their stop, and both of them stepped out of it, Taehyung leading. As he walked out of the apartment complex, Haneul called from behind, "I think we have something to talk about."
Taehyung just turned his head slightly, and Haneul could see the disinterest clearly. She cleared her throat, "We have to talk about last week."
"I don't want to talk ab-"
"Yes, we do," Haneul snapped, "Stop running away from it. I know you're going through problems, and I can't help you if you're not willing to talk. My patience with this attitude of yours only stretches this long."
"Then just go, leave," he snapped back at her, turning to face her, one hand pointing behind him towards the exit, "I don't want to talk about last week, especially with you. Do us both a favour and go."
Haneul opened her mouth to argue, but then quickly snapped it shut. Arguing with him wouldn't work. So instead, she used her work tactics: steeled her spine, calmed her breathing, put on a neutral expression and started in a mechanical voice, "You asked me to marry you -"
"I'm not a business deal for fuck's sake," Taehyung groaned, but she chose to ignore it, continuing in the same tone, " - that too, on my birthday. I know it's hard for you, but I can help you. Just say the word. I'm here to help you, Taehyung. We need to talk it out."
"I don't need your fucking help!" Taehyung roared, and Haneul visibly flinched, "I know that you have a stable job and that you can afford whatever the fuck you want. Stop rubbing it in my face. I don't fucking want your money!"
"Is this what this is about? Because you're getting me wrong -"
"No it's not about that," Taehyung's voice was venom now, well over her own, almost on the verge of shouting, "It is about the fact that you think it's about you. You're not the centre of everyone's fucking lives, fucking get over yourself."
Words on the tip of Haneul's tongue dissolved, and her mouth parted in shock. Did he have such a low opinion of her?
"That's exactly my fucking problem." Taehyung's voice dipped low, and Haneul could see the nervous bob of his throat and his hands slightly shaking, and suddenly everything made sense to her. "You can't keep your fucking nose out of other's fucking business. You think you're the only person who can get people out of their fucking misery. Well, guess what?" He inhaled, adding dramatics and whispered, "Look at yourself in the mirror, you fucking selfish bitc -"
"You're scared," Haneul said in realisation, her voice barely audible. Taehyung's head snapped towards her, and he said, anger laced in his tight voice, "What?"
"You're scared," Haneul said a little loudly, looking at him dead in the eye, "You're scared out of your soul, and you have too big of an ego to accept help, let alone ask for it."
"Cut the bullshi-"
"I'm not fucking finished." Haneul snapped, her voice rising, and Taehyung's mouth closed with an audible click of his teeth, "You're fighting with me and pulling me down because it serves as a distraction. Because you want to run away," Anger poured through Haneul's veins, and she gave him a once-over, delivering her final blow, "Like a coward."
"I am not a -" Taehyung started, and the ringing of his phone in his pocket cut him off. He yanked it out of his pocket and silenced it.
"It's her, isn't it?" Haneul scoffed, "Of course it's her."
"It has nothing to do with you-"
"Oh, but it does," she replied, "She's the one you go to when the problems become too much to handle when you need to run away from them -"
"Shut the fuck up, Haneul!"
" - and when she gets bored of you, you come running to me, don't you?" Haneul questioned, "But this time, Taehyung?" she took a few steps forward, "This time I refuse to deal with your shit just so you could call me names and shout to my face later on. Fucking go and enjoy your time with her, you selfish little asshole."
Hanul stared at him for a second, satisfaction filling her bones as she noted the hurt on his face. Then she walked away, out of the building and towards the bus stop.
Waiting for her bus, she flipped open her phone to find two unread messages. She clicked on the one from May, which said: Did you guys fight? There were voices...
Haneul shot her a quick reply that said, 'It's nothing, don't worry :)'
The next message was from Hoseok. Call me as soon as you get this message.
Haneul clicked to call, and waited in line for him to pick up, "Evening, Sir."
"Hoseok. It's Hoseok, please."
"Is there something urgent?" Haneul's voice was tight, and Hoseok seemed to catch on to it.
"Are you okay? Where are you right now?"
"I'm fine, Hoseok. Waiting at the bus stop. It's nothing."
She heard him tsk-ing on the line, "Don't lie to me. You sound angry. Did you get into a fight?"
"It's nothing, seriously. Was there any specific reason you wanted me to call?"
"Yes. I'm texting you an address. Please send them a bouquet tomorrow morning without fail. It's important."
"Sure, Sir. Anything else?" Haneul stood up and hopped on the bus, finding a seat at the very end of the vehicle.
"Make sure they're roses, too. Pink ones."
"I'll do that." Haneul waited for the line to go silent, but she could hear his breathing. "Sir?" No reply came through, and she tried again, "Hoseok?"
"Yes?"
"Is that all?"
"Mhm yeah, that'll be sufficient," he said, "Oh wait. Can I come over tonight, Haneul?"
Haneul thought about it for a second. She went back to the fight, and she realised, she didn't have any fucks left to give.
"Haneul? You there?"
"Yeah, she answered, "Yeah. You can come over."
The next couple of hours went by in a blur.
Hoseok arrived around three-quarters of an hour later, giving enough time for Haneul to tidy up her hotel room, take a quick shower and slip into her favourite lingerie piece she owned. It was nice. The feeling of being so carefree. So unconcerned about the consequences.
Their lips joined the minute Hoseok stepped into the room and then it was clothes flying everywhere and moans and cuss words filling the air. Sometime around two am, both of them snuggled closer to each other and exhaustion took over them.
***
The warmth from Haneul's side was gone, and she suddenly felt too cold. Whining, she opened one eye to see Hoseok buttoning up his last night's clothes. Somewhere in the back of her head, she realised he came over directly from the charity event.
"Come back," she mumbled, "I'm cold."
Hoseok adjusted the comforter on top of her so that she wasn't cold, but she whined because it wasn't the same. She wanted him to cuddle her. "I ordered breakfast for you. Eat it when you're up," he slightly kissed her forehead, and then her cheek, "Take the day off."
"You too," Haneul sleepily jerked him closer to her, and now he was hugging her form, "Take the day off, Hoseok."
"I would've loved to stay with you, but I need to go," he squeezed her in his arms almost lovingly, "I gotta pick someone up from the airport."
"Send them a cab," she whined even more and Hoseok chuckled at her adorable demands.
"My father would kill me if I sent my fiancee a cab at the airport."
Haneul's heart started thudding loudly, and she asked again, to confirm that she wasn't hearing things, "Your... who?
"My fiancee. I gotta pick her up from the airport."
↷↷↷↷↷↷↷
author's note:
lmfao. you really thought it was going to be that easy?
keep in mind: we haven't met Seolhui or this mysterious fiancee. hahahaha
i really didn't want them to fight but i had this big ass fight with my old friends from school and it somehow weaved its way in here.
question: who do you think is correct here, Haneul or Taehyung? And why? there's no correct answer, I just want to know the feedback and yk what you readers think of the situation so help me out pls thank q <33
onto the nicer things.
jeon. jungkook. is. having. a. solo. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH ALDHAKDBAKDBAKHFKE
it's that time of the year when we all change our pfps. I AM SO EXCITED SJSJSJSJSJSJSJJS
sorry for the delay in this chapter, it was supposed to be up friday but I had some legal work to take care of so I didn't get time. lmk what you think, hehe
next chap we're going to paris. i can't wait because it's gonna be so so so fun !!!!!
anyways that's all, take care xoxo