Chaeyoung arrived just in time for GoldenGrove's anniversary celebration as the sun was setting at the Everglade Residence. The moment she reached there, she called Jieun to know the way to go upstairs from the parking area on the first floor of the residential property. Then, Jieun told her to go to her house on the top floor first so they could go to the rooftop together.
When she reached the house with the number 1605, she rang the bell twice and waited for Jieun while checking the time on her watch.
"It's almost 8."
"Yes, noona. Give me-"
Chaeyoung looked up to see Jungkook, not Jieun, at the door.
"Oh, Chaeyoung. You're here.", he opened the door wider while welcoming her inside. "Come on in. I just need to change my shirt and then we'll go upstairs together.", he said as he led her to the spacious living room of Jieun's penthouse.
Chaeyoung followed him to the living room before he excused himself to get changed. While waiting for him, she looked around and was intrigued by the photo wall decoration behind the long sofa. The various sizes of photo frames were arranged in a heart shape with Jieun's photos in various places with different people.
She looked at each of the frames and found that there were a few photos of the same people at different places. There were photos of Jieun alone, with her boyfriend, with her family and friends, who made up the heart shape of the photo wall. At the right side of the frames, there were three frames of Jieun with Jungkook before her eyes spotted a frame of younger Jieun with an adorable chubby boy below.
"Cute.."
"Chaeyoung, I'm done. We can go now.", Jungkook came back wearing a black button-down shirt layered over a white tee, leaving three buttons undone for casual style.
Chaeyoung turned around and chuckled at him.
"Is...something funny?", he asked as he held the trolley cart filled with covered food carefully.
She shook her head, "I'm sorry. It's just...you're wearing the same as you work."
Jungkook looked at himself, "Oh...right but this isn't my own shirt, actually. It's Jongsuk hyung's."
"Oh."
"Yeah. The thing is Jieun noona let me use her kitchen to cook and I didn't think through about my clothes until she complained half an hour ago. She said I smelled.", he explained.
"I see..", she chuckled.
"So now I'm smelling good again and I've done prepared the last dish. I'm ready to go, how about you?", he asked her.
Chaeyoung nodded, "I'm ready but where is Jieun unnie? I haven't seen her."
Jungkook frowned, "She's upstairs already, Chaeyoung."
"Oh. So...you are here alone?", she asked. "I thought she's here too. I called her earlier asking how to get to the rooftop."
Jungkook smiled, "Ah, I thought so. She must've done it on purpose."
"She's done it on purpose?"
Jungkook shook his head, "It's nothing. Let's just go upstairs to see her, shall we?"
"O- okay."
♡♡♡
When the two of them reached the rooftop, Hyunjin and Yeji welcomed them with a confetti poppers in front of their faces. They flinched at the surprise attack before Jungkook apologised to Chaeyoung about it.
"Guys, I told you no confetti.", he shook his head at the two before they ran away from there.
Chaeyoung chuckled, looking at them, "They're having fun. It's okay, Jungkook."
He sighed as he turned to her, "I'm still sorry about them."
Her head jerked back when he suddenly touched her head.
"There's...confetti stuck in your hair.", he said as he showed her the confetti piece he picked from her hair.
"Oh..thank you."
"There they are! Oooh...you two are matching.", Jieun approached them and looked at them from top to bottom.
"Matching? No...", Jungkook denied while glancing at Chaeyoung's outfit.
She was wearing a grey long sleeve shirt and black jeans. He was wearing all black with a white tee. They were not exactly matching.
"You two look cosy together, that's what I mean.", Jieun smiled teasingly before pulling Chaeyoung's hand to go with her. "Come on, Chaeyoung. We have a lot of food. Delicious, sweet and sour, everything."
Jungkook watched with shaking his head, he knew that the next few hours with them all teasing him with Chaeyoung would be unbearable.
"Be cool, Jungkook.", he reminded himself before he pushed the trolley cart to the centre of the garden-like rooftop.
"Look at these. We have GoldenGrove's first anniversary lemon cake, kimchi pancake, salmon bulgogi, sweet and spicy shrimp, grilled beef, dumplings, chicken pie, hot pot, everything. Jungkook made all these except the dumplings, I made the dumplings.", Jieun said to Chaeyoung as she looked at the variety of food they had on the long table.
"Oh, yeah. I bring some fruits. They're tropical fruits imported from New Zealand, I think they're perfect for desserts.", Chaeyoung showed the packed box in her hand to them.
Yeji took a closer look while Hyunjin helped to open the box, "Ooh, healthy fruits. Boss likes them."
Jungkook just smiled, "Everyone does."
"Oh, you're the healthy freak. Everyone knows.", Jieun chimed in.
"Let me put them in a bowl. We can make fruit salad from these.", Hyunjin suggested.
"That's a good idea.", Jieun said before telling him to leave. "Thank you for the fruits, Chaeyoung. Anyway, what's this last dish you bring here, Jungkook?", she asked while observing the covered dish on the trolley cart.
All GoldenGrove staff gathered for the dish as Jungkook had said that it would be the newest addition in the cafe menu. Jungkook smiled as he looked at their anticipation for the reveal. Chaeyoung was confused at first before Jieun told her why they were excited about it.
"Presenting...GoldenGrove's newest dish...herbal rosé pasta.", he opened the cover with a wide smile on his face.
All of their eyes widened with excitement as they began to try the new menu together. Jungkook stepped back to let them have a taste first. Chaeyoung also stepped back as she remembered the last time she ate rosé pasta.
"Don't you want to try it?", Jungkook asked in a whisper as he walked to her side.
She looked at him, smiling awkwardly as she tried to let go of the past.
"You know...I made it while thinking about you.", he said while watching his staff enjoying the pasta.
"Me?", Chaeyoung pointed to herself.
Jungkook nodded, "I think you'll like it."
"Oh..."
"Wait here. I'll get some for you.", he said before taking an empty bowl to take some of the rosé pasta for her.
Moments later, he came back with the bowl filled with the creamy pasta he made for her.
"Here."
"Thank you."
"Try it and tell me how it tastes."
Chaeyoung nodded as she looked at the bowl of rosé pasta. She recalled how she was craving for it six years ago when she was pregnant. After the heartbreak she suffered, she told herself that she would never touch anything that would remind her of the hardship in those nine months.
"Chaeyoung?", Jungkook looked at her in concern.
She turned to him with a smile before taking a taste of the herbal pasta. She chewed slowly, savouring the creamy flavour yet comforting scent of the pasta with longing. Unconsciously, she shed a tear as her eyes closed while eating.
"Chaeyoung, are you okay?", he asked, his hand already grabbed the tissue box on the table.
He pulled her away from the others' sight before he wiped the tear away, "Hey...what's wrong, hm?"
She shook her head, smiling a little to assure him that she was fine.
"Did you not like it?", he asked, thinking what ingredient made her cry.
She chuckled, "No, Jungkook. I. Love. It. It's so good. I just can't hold myself from tearing up. One thing you should know about me, my reaction when I eat good food is unpredictable sometimes."
Jungkook smiled, realizing what she meant, "Sometimes you humming happily, sometimes your shoulders dancing...sometimes you cry in happiness, is it?"
Chaeyoung smiled back and nodded, "Yeah. If you don't trust me, you can ask Lisa."
He chuckled.
"Jungkook, Chaeyoung! Come here! It's time for a toast!", Jieun called them while holding the bottle of wine in her right hand.
♡♡♡
The celebration of the first anniversary of GoldenGrove was a success, everyone had fun in a mannered attitude except for Jieun. After the toast an hour ago, she got herself drunk with just three shot glasses before she started to ramble in her speeches. Jungkook knew it was dangerous to let her drink, she had low alcohol tolerance.
It got even more dangerous when she began to spill Jungkook's past that only he and her knew.
"Do you guys want to know...why your boss...is this health-conscious?", Jieun talked in a slur.
Jungkook began to get cautious at the sentence.
"I will only tell you guys...here and now..."
"Jieun noona, don't.", he warned her with a smile.
"Oh, come on. Boss, just one. Just one thing about your past. Please let us know..", Yeji requested.
"No."
Jieun nodded, "One thing...about his past...I know a lot..."
Chaeyoung was getting curious too, just like the others.
"But I...I've promised him...I won't tell anybody..", Jieun laughed before putting her finger on her lips. "He will sulk with me..."
Jungkook nodded, "Good. Don't tell."
"I can tell one thing, though.", Jieun raised her forefinger in the air. "He used to be..."
"Okay, that's enough. You're drunk, Jongsuk hyung will kill me if he knows, noona.", Jungkook walked up to Jieun, stopping her as she was describing something with her hands. "Guys, help me clear the table and clean up.", he said as he carried Jieun over his shoulder. "Gosh, you're heavy, noona."
Jieun hit his back hard, "I'm not! You are!"
"Ow, ow...stop...ouch!", he yelled in pain as she pulled his hair after that.
"You're the heavy one.."
"Whoa, Chaeyoung, can you help me?", he said as Jieun's feet touched the floor.
"Yes.", Chaeyoung answered as she looked at what she can help him with.
He put Jieun's left arm on his shoulder, "Can you hold her right arm? She's heavy."
He lowered his voice at the end. Chaeyoung nodded as she put Jieun's right arm on her shoulder.
"Okay?"
"Yeah, I'm ready."
Then, both of them brought Jieun back to her penthouse on their shoulders. Chaeyoung helped Jieun to change her clothes as they got to her bedroom. Jungkook waited outside with a frown after realizing something that he had overlooked before.
"Did she see-"
"Jungkook, it's done."
He quickly turned around to see Chaeyoung in front of Jieun's bedroom. She slowly closed the door behind her before looking at her watch.
"We should go upstairs to help the others.", she said as she walked to Jungkook.
"Yeah, we should go.", he grabbed her hand and brought her out of there.
After they were done cleaning the rooftop, everyone bid goodbye to each other before going back home.
"Chaeyoung unnie, I forgot to ask. Earlier when we came here, boss came with us together but now we have somewhere else to go before going home so...", Yeji looked at Hyunjin beside her.
"So, can you help us to take him home? You two live together, right?", Hyunjin got smacked on his arm by Yeji.
"What Hyunjin meant is you two live in the same apartment, right? Can you help us?", Yeji asked with a hopeful look.
Chaeyoung looked at Jungkook who just came back from throwing the last garbage, "Okay, sure."
"What's going on here?", Jungkook asked as he stopped beside her.
"Boss! We're sorry we can't send you back but Chaeyoung unnie is here to help us.", Yeji said to him.
"What? Why? Where are you two going to?", Jungkook asked them.
Chaeyoung chuckled while the two younger couple faked a scared expression to their boss.
"Yeji, Hyunjin, it's already late. You two work tomorrow, remember?", he reminded them.
"I know. We just...want to take a night drive alone.", Yeji said with a pout.
"Plus, the way to your house isn't the same as ours so.", Hyunjin added before pouting too.
Jungkook sighed at them.
"It's okay. I can drive you home, Jungkook.", Chaeyoung told him.
"That's right. Right...boss?", Hyunjin smiled at Jungkook.
He nodded, "Okay, then. I see you two tomorrow at work."
"Okay!", both of them shouted.
♡♡♡
While on the way home, Jungkook received a call from Jongsuk asking about his girlfriend.
"Yeah, don't worry, hyung. Okay, bye.", he ended the call after Jongsuk got Jieun's update from him.
"Jieun unnie's boyfriend?", Chaeyoung asked as they stopped at the red light.
Jungkook nodded, "Yeah, he's asking about her because she didn't pick up his call."
"You're close with both of them..", she stated.
"Yeah...but closer to Jieun noona, actually. We've been friends since childhood.", he replied. "She's been my mentor and basically...a sister I look up to.", he added.
Chaeyoung saw the small smile on his lips, "Is she the reason you quit your studies and choose culinary?"
Jungkook shook his head, "No, not her. It's...you."
"Me?"
DINGGG!!!!
"Oh, it's green.", Jungkook let her know while she flinched due to the loud honk by a car behind them.
She was a little struggling to focus on the road while Jungkook started to laugh at her. She drove slowly passing the traffic light while trying to calm herself down.
"I'm sorry. I was just...joking. You look very surprised.", he said to her.
She just smiled while looking at the rear view mirror carefully before signalling to stop at the roadside. Jungkook was not sure why she stopped, so he looked around before asking if she was okay.
"Chaeyoung? What's wrong?", he asked her.
She looked at the black car that took a right turn at the junction.
"Chaeyoung?"
"Yeah, I'm okay.", she smiled to him.
"Uh, I'm sorry about earlier. It's a bad joke.", he said.
Chaeyoung just laughed it off, "It's okay. Let's go home, hm?"
Jungkook nodded, "Let's go."
♡♡♡
🎵
Cause sometimes I look in her eyes,
And that's where I find a glimpse of us
🎵
Oh, sorry. It's a chapter of a glimpse of Jungkook's background. What do you guys think it's about? 🤔