THE NEXT DAY — AFTERNOON . . .
Jae's POV
Tomorrow's the big day.
I have already planned out what I'm going to do and I'm going to make my decision today.
I spoke to Taehyung this morning before Mark left for work. I also mentioned that I will make my decision today. It was quite an intense conversation but I know there's no convincing this man.
To put it this way, I'd be lying if I said I'm not afraid right now. I don't want to have to do this but there isn't any other way. I can't jeopardise Taehyung's life. That would be selfish of me to put him in danger, knowing what Mark's behaviour is like.
At this moment, I am playing with the twins in their bedroom. While playing, I notice Ava is very quiet. Too quiet. I furrow my eyebrows with a perplexed countenance and place Ava on my lap, engulfing her into a hug. "What's wrong, my princess? Why are you so quiet?"
She pouts unhappily and shakes her head. "Nothing, mummy."
"Hey..." I utter, cupping her cheeks and giving her forehead a kiss. "You know you can tell mummy anything. Mummy always listens to you and Mae, you know that. I love you both so much and you mean the absolute world to me. You two come first in my life, no matter what. If something is worrying you, tell me."
I spot tears brimming in Ava's eyes then she glances at Mae, who is also staring at her with a scared expression.
"Girls? What's wrong? Has something happened?" I question in an apprehensive tone.
"We can't say." Ava replies.
"Tell mummy, Ava. We have to say it." Mae advises.
"Tell mummy what, Mae?" I glance at her with a perplexed countenance.
The twins gaze at me before answering the question.
NIGHT TIME . . .
Getting into bed, Mark brings me close to him with his arms draped around my waist.
I place my hands on his shoulders and stare at him, sending him a small yet fake smile.
He smiles and whispers in my ear. "It's the night before our big day. We're finally getting married tomorrow, baby."
I nod. "Yeah, I know."
Mark begins to kiss my jawline. "I truly am sorry for the way I treated you. I've noticed the way my behaviour's been upsetting you. It's been tough for me. I didn't realise that the work pressure had me venting it out on you." Then he gives my lips a kiss. "The woman I love." He adds.
"I told you this morning, I forgive you." I smile. "I just didn't like that you took your work anger out on me instead of dealing with it properly. Remember what my father told you, the best way to deal with your anger is to gather those thoughts collectively and then exhale."
Cuddling me, Mark smiles and nods. "I'll try that." His eyes bore into mine and he tucks a strand of my hair behind my ear. Next thing I know, he makes me lie on my back. He brings himself on top of me with our lips so dangerously close and rests his forehead on mine. "I love you." He whispers against my lips.
So it begins. I contemplate to myself. "I know." I really know.
Brushing his lips with mine, he then proceeds to kiss me but it only lasts for a minute. He removes my nightshirt and throws it on the floor, then does the same with his. As his hands roam down my hips, he kisses me again but hungrily with a mix of passion.
Jae, enjoy this. You have to enjoy this. I respond to the kiss and wraps my arms around his neck. As the kiss gets deeper, I gasp softly against his lips when his hands remove my night trousers, leaving me in my undergarments. He also removes his trousers and is left in his boxers.
"I hate that I can't go any further until after we're married, but I know it'll be worth it." He smirks and proceeds to kiss my upper chest.
I try to display my calmness in this moment.
He knows not to go any further. Just don't do anything, until after the wedding. It will work.
3rd Person's POV
The rain downpours, violently hitting the ground.
Taehyung runs as fast as his legs can go, uncaring that he's already drenched because of the heavy rain. The epiphany of possibly losing the love of his life is already distressing him enough.
He knows that Jae could already have made her decision by now. Did she choose to be with Taehyung or marry Mark? He's eager to find out.
Whilst he's running at the speed of light to Jae's, Mark finished his needy moment with Jae and back hugs her.
Mark's lips are pressed against Jae's exposed neck and the pair are half-naked under the sheets. Have I made the right decision? She wonders.
He kisses her neck and caresses her arm.
She closes her eyes and grips the bedsheets, tolerating Mark's touch and kisses on her skin but he knows his limits. Jae has to do this, she has no choice.
Taehyung almost reaches Jae's house, his head occupied with many thoughts. At this moment in time, he's very much mentally praying that Jae changes her mind last minute and decides to be with him, instead. As it's the night before her wedding, he's holding on to that confidence and hope.
Jae is his first love and she always was. Gaining his first love is something he really wants to accomplish right now. He's lost her before and he doesn't want to lose her again.
Taehyung knows exactly what he wants — Jae, their daughters and an eternal happy life.
Once he reaches, he knocks on the door, hoping for Jae to open it. Just his luck, she does. However, the expression on her face isn't quite what he expected. She seems sad to see him. She steps out and closes the door behind her. Taking a step towards him, she gazes at him with hurt eyes. "Taehyung, you know shouldn't be here. Mark's home."
"I don't care. I came here to see you and our daughters. I can't live without the three of you." He responds in between heavy breaths.
"Did you run here?" She asks with concern laced in her tone.
He sends Jae a small smile and nods. "Yeah." He pants.
"Why didn't you take your car?" She furrows her eyebrows slightly, mentally smiling at his dorky self.
Taehyung sends her an 'oh' expression. "I didn't think of that. Oh well. At least, I got some exercise out of it." He chuckles. "Now, your decision?"
Jae's dreads the answer she's about to utter. Tears begin to form in her eyes. "I...I've made my decision and it hasn't changed. I have to be with Mark."
Taehyung's heart aches. "You don't mean that."
She replies. "I do-" but gets interrupted by Taehyung
"No, you don't." He cups her cheeks and rests his forehead on hers. "I continuously tell you that I love you and you always say it back. I know you love me, and not him—"
"I don't love you, anymore." Jae says, as her heart aches that she actually uttered that.
Taehyung's ears could not believe her words. Those five words are playing in his head like a broken record. "What?" He breathes out.
"I'm sorry, but I don't love you anymore. I don't know what I was thinking. We shouldn't even be together, especially behind my fiancé's back. I'm getting married tomorrow. This shouldn't be happening." She says, in a panicking state.
"Hey...Jae, this isn't you. This is Mark worming his way into your head again." Taehyung tries to convince her.
"No, it isn't. This is my decision. This is me saying this. From my own mouth. This, us, shouldn't have happened." She attempts to persuade him.
Her words seem to be convincing him because his heart seems to be aching at her every word. He looks down while breathing heavily. "I...I don't understand. I thought you wanted to be with me."
"Taehyung, the relationship we shared wasn't meant to happen. You're lucky Mark doesn't know about it. I don't want him to hurt you, anymore." Jae tries convincing him.
"I'm not scared of him. He can't take you from me." He responds with his tone still in disbelief.
She exhales, taking out an invitation card from the pocket of her dressing gown and hands it to him. "The girls and I would love it if you came."
Taehyung shakes his head. "Sorry, I can't accept this."
She tries to persuade him but fails. "Come on—"
"How am I supposed to attend when you're marrying Mark? It will hurt me even more. So apologies, I will not be going." He says calmly.
"Okay, well...I promise, you can still visit the twins after the wedding. You're still their father and it's not fair to stop you from visiting them just because me and Mark will be married. It would be wrong of me to do so." Jae turns around with her back facing him not wanting to display the sorrow on her face.
He sighs and tears stream down his face. He speaks tearfully. "I...I promised myself that I would never let you and our daughters go. I'm pleased that you're still allowing me to visit them because I'm their father, but...you're my first love, you always have been and always will be."
She really hates herself in this moment, but she has no choice. It's either thinking about her twins' safety as she knows Mark will never let them go from his clutches but Taehyung will also get hurt, which means she has to let him go. Or she runs away with her daughters to the man she loves and leaving that monster behind but jeopardising their lives as her daughters could get hurt at any time along with Taehyung.
It would be all her fault. She can't inform the authorities because Mark is on good terms with them and he can bribe them off with money.
He rests his forehead on the back of her head. "I just have one last thing to say before I go." Jae doesn't move an inch as she's curious about what he wants to say.
With a short intake of breath, Taehyung lifts his index finger and proceeds to write, "I ❤️ u", on her back.
Jae's heart aches and she holds back her tears.
Taehyung's POV
I reach home in a distressed mood. Immediately taking out my suitcases, I begin packing my bags in a hurry.
"Taehyung?" I peep at the owner of the voice and see Namjoon. He walks to me and questions. "What are you doing?"
"I'm leaving." I simply answer, still packing.
"Where to? Did Jae agree?" Namjoon questions once more.
I sigh before responding. "No, she didn't. She chose Mark. The same jerk that ruined my life and, once again, won and got what he desired."
He gently clutches my arm. "Taehyung, you can't do this. Leaving is never the answer to anything—"
"What?" A familiar voice utters in disbelief. Glancing at the owner of the familiar voice, I spot Jimin standing there in surprise. My heart sinks. Great. I never wanted him to find out. He also walks towards me with a concerned expression. "Where do you think you're going?" He questions sternly.
"Jimin, please don't stop me. I have to go." I respond and take out another suitcase.
He grabs the suitcase and throws it on the floor. "You're not going anywhere."
"Why not?" I ask with a raised eyebrow.
"Because I said so. You're suddenly going to throw away what you and Jae have? Don't forget you have twin daughters. You'll leave them too?" Jimin attempts to stop me.
Exhaling, I glance at Jimin and Namjoon. "Jae made her decision. She doesn't want to be with me anymore, she wants to be with Mark. She told me herself that she doesn't love me anymore. Although, she is allowing me to still visit the twins, I will maintain a respectable distance because she will be married by then."
"To the man who used to torture you." Jimin adds.
"You don't think I'm mad about that? You don't think I want to hurt Mark for all the sufferings and pain he put me through? I'd rather let Jae and the kids be distant from me than let that monster hurt them because of me." I respond, trying to hold back my tears. "This is not doing my mental health any good. Heck, I've always loved Jae, I still love her and I will never stop loving her. I'm the father of those twins whether Mark likes it or not. I love those girls, they're my life and my world. This is my decision and I'm putting myself first. I'm leaving for the sake of my sanity and mental health. It won't be permanent, don't worry. I just need to wrap my head around things and take care of myself."
Jimin's expression morphs from concern to understanding, so he places his palm on my shoulder. "Okay, as long as you think it will benefit your mental health, then I am behind you every step of the way. I want you to recover. I want you to be happy. I just don't want you to leave me for a long time."
"It'll only be temporary; I can guarantee you that." I reassure him.
Jimin nods after hearing me out.
"Won't you be going to the wedding tomorrow? We're all going including your assistant, Jaehyun." Namjoon questions.
I shake my head. "I know I won't be able to handle watching Jae marry Mark. It'll break me. I'd rather not be there to watch it all." It's better to spare me the heartbreak.
"That's fine, but don't leave now." Jimin says and sets my other suitcase on the floor. "You need to sleep it off."
I'll leave early in the morning when everyone's sleeping and make my own journey to the airport.
I nod and both of them take me downstairs to enjoy the second night of their boys' night. I'll spend time with them before I leave.
The fact that Jae said that she doesn't love me, really hurt my heart. This isn't her, I know it isn't.
I know she loves me back.
But if she wants to spend the rest of her life with Mark, I won't stop her. I can't force her to be with me, she probably has a reason.
However, I love her too much to let her go from my life. Just because I'm leaving, doesn't mean I'm letting go of Jae and my love for her. I'm willing to wait for her.
Even if it means for the rest of my life.
FLASHBACK : FIVE YEARS AGO
Taehyung began to have a bad dream.
He whimpered, muttered and breathed heavily. The dream was about his loved ones dying due to Taehyung going against Mark and Bomi. The last one to die was Jae. As soon as Jae was attacked, Taehyung snapped back into reality, yells out and jolted up awake. He gasped and panted.
Jae woke up at the sound of his yell and immediately sat up, checking up on Taehyung.
"Taehyung? What's wrong?" Jae questioned with concern written on her face.
He glanced at Jae with such fear in his eyes. "N-Nothing. Bad dream." The truth was, he couldn't tell her. He was fighting the urge to reveal the truth.
"Are you sure?" She questioned again and gently rubbed his arm in comfort.
He nodded. If only he could tell her. He couldn't risk her life nor put her in danger.
Jae cupped his cheeks and gazed at him in worry. "You're pale." Then she placed her palm on his forehead. "And you're burning up."
"There's nothing to worry about." Taehyung attempted to brush the topic.
"It can't be nothing if this dream of yours has stressed you out that bad to the point where you have a fever." She responds. "Has something happened?"
"No." Taehyung simply replied, not wanting to worry her.
"You sure?" Jae asked, which he nodded in response.
She exhaled and gazed at him. "You know...me being your wife isn't a label. I'm always here for you, no matter what. If you're in trouble, you know for a fact, that I wouldn't think twice. I'd help you out. You can tell me anything."
He gazed into her eyes with fear. "You won't ever leave me?"
"What makes you say that? I wouldn't leave you, at all." She answered with an apprehensive countenance.
"It's nothing at all. I'm just worried. I mean, you won't ever stop taking care of me, right?" Taehyung explained and gazed at her with hopeful eyes.
"Of course I won't stop. You're my husband and I care about you immensely." Then she gave his cheek a kiss.
"Promise?" He uttered.
"I promise." Jae responded.
__________________________
Hi, I have something I want to tell you all. This is directed to the people who keep pressurising me and threatening to "give up" on my story because of my lack of updates lately:
The reason why I haven't done regular updates is because I've been focusing on myself, mentally and physically. Again, the threatening messages have continued. I'm not even allowed to focus on myself nor am I allowed to take breaks because y'all seem to think that I'm a machine. I'm a human like all of you. I have a life outside of this app as do all of you. I really cannot comprehend the difficulty in understanding that. What part of "I'm on a break to focus on my mental health, I have a family to look after and I'm a university student" do you not understand? I'm sick of this now. Y'all say "take your time" yet they're the same people who keep pressurising me into updating.
So you know what, stuff my mental health and my physical health. I'm going to update without even taking breaks now, seeing as y'all don't care. And if the chapters look forced, just know that — directed at those people who pressurised me into updating more than once — this is on your head. You say mental health is a priority and comes first, where is all that talk now for me? Stop being a hypocrite and contradicting yourselves. Patience is not hard to have, y'all just make it hard for yourselves. You make it seem like I have all the time in the world when I really don't.
I'm not sorry for expressing this to you guys because I'm angry, mad and upset, and I have every right to be.
Once I finish this story and after I've edited My Roommate, I'm going on a hiatus and I won't tell you guys how long that will be. When it comes to putting myself first, I will do it.
Now I'm off to focus on the next chapter, seeing as taking a break for my mental health, studying for university and looking after my family are such a crime. 🙄