Chaerin got up from her chair as her eyes locked onto her brother's. His eyes widened at the sight of his sister, to which he looked back at Jongin with rage. Not only was he touching a girl who didn't want to be touched, but that girl was his sister.
Jaemin grabbed Jongin by his collar as Jongin's eyes widened. Without any kind of warning, Jaemin's fist pounded Jongin's face as hard as he could. Jongin let out a long stream of curses as he fell on the floor. Blood quickly began to flow from his nose as he looked up at Jaemin in disbelief.
"What the hell man?!" Jongin yelled as Jaemin turned away from the guy on the floor and rushed up to his sister. She was standing still in shock as tears were still flowing from her eyes.
"Chae," he whispered to her as he took her into his arms gently. Her now bruised arms wrapped around his torso as more tears flowed from her eyes.
"O-Oppa... what are you doing here?" she spoke into his shirt as Jaemin softly laughed, but it was a slightly pained laugh.
"I think you need to head back to your room before you ask me any questions. It's getting late and your friends might be worried about you." he spoke into her hair before he slightly let her go. He spotted her stuff around the table and picked it all up for her. "I'll walk you up to your room, Chae."
She just nodded in response as she grabbed his hand and held onto it for dear life. The two headed off to her room while ignoring the curses from the bleeding Jongin behind them.
Once they got to her room, Chaerin stopped short. She was terrified that Jungkook would be behind the door in a completely drunk state... Or worse... with a girl.
She shook her head at those thoughts as she handed Jaemin her key to open the door for her. He nodded as he took it and placed the key card in the slot.
Seconds later, he slowly opened the door to the room to reveal that only Nari and Jungkook were in the room at the moment. To Chaerin's relief, Jungkook was perfectly sober, and more importantly, he didn't bring some random girl back to the hotel.
"Who..." Nari started to ask a question, but when she saw Chaerin's tear stained face, her eyes widened, "Chaerin, are you alright?"
Jungkook's eyes slightly narrowed at the guy she was with before opening his mouth, "Who are you?"
Jaemin took a deep breath and let got of Chaerin's hand to not make it look as bad as it seemed, "I'm just here to drop off my sister. I would appreciate it if you kept her away from Jongin. He left bruises on her arms."
Jungkook's eyes immediately moved to Chaerin's arms as his eyes widened. He quickly moved over to Chaerin and began to wipe her cheeks of her tears, "Oh my God... Chae..."
She fell apart in his arms as she wrapped her arms around her neck. More tears began flowing from her eyes, "Please hold me... I need you right now."
Jungkook nodded into her as Jaemin waved at Jungkook and began to walk off. Jungkook was about to call out to him, but Jaemin beat him to it.
"Take good care of my sister, Jeon. I'll be back to check on her in the morning."
With that, he disappeared down the hall and Jungkook closed the door. He carefully picked Chaerin up in his arms bridal style and placed her on the bed that the two of them had been sharing. When he started to pull away from her, she desperately grabbed onto his shirt.
"I'm so sorry Kookie," she whispered, "I love you... please don't be mad at me for the stupid things I said earlier."
Jungkook's eyes filled with worry as he nodded in understanding, "I'm not mad anymore. Please calm down Babe..."
His use of that nickname made her heart jump as he placed a soft his on her salty lips that were covered in her tears. He placed a few soft kisses on her cheeks to kiss the tears away as she sighed into him.
"I love you," she repeated as Jungkook sent her a soft smile.
"I love you, too," he whispered against her forehead before placing a soft kiss there.
Jungkook laid down next to Chaerin and helped her calm down by giving her little kisses every now and then. Nari had fled the room at some point to go search for Taehyung and Jimin, so the two were alone, sitting in silence.
"Babe... are you alright?" Jungkook asked after Chaerin's tears stopped. She nodded into his chest as he sighed into her hair. "We do need to talk about it, though. Are you fine with talking right now?"
Chaerin took a deep breath and nodded once again, "I'm sorry, Kookie... I'm so sorry..."
"I know you are," he cooed, "I just want to make sure that you never have any doubts about how I feel about you."
Chaerin cuddled into him even further, waiting for him so continue speaking.
"I started to like you around when I met your friends. I felt really nervous about feeling that way, so I tried to ignore it. It's kind of funny since I should have been all over you, especially with my time limit," Jungkook chuckled lightly into her ear, "But I wasn't sure if you liked me back. I didn't want you to start to feel like you had to marry me just because I liked you."
Chaerin glanced up at him, "You were afraid that I would marry you just because you loved me?"
Jungkook nodded sheepishly as he looked away and his face turned read. Chaerin let a smile leak onto her face as she placed a hand on his cheek, "I might have... but now I'm marrying you because I fell in love with you."
Jungkook moved to look at her again as she leaned up and placed a soft kiss on his lips. He leaned into the kiss as a shiver ran down her spine. He started to deepen the kiss slightly when he tilted his head to get a better angle. She allowed him to hold her completely to him as they softly made out for a few seconds before pulling away.
"I would have stopped flirting with other girls if I had known that you felt the same way about me," he whispered as his lips ghosted over hers, "I really don't want you to have a doubt in your mind about that."
Chaerin nodded slightly before she climbed all the way on top of Jungkook and placed a soft kiss on his lips. His eyes slightly widened, and she just let out a little giggle.
"I don't have any doubts right now," she shook her head, "And I should have never had doubts."
She could tell that Jungkook's reaction was torn as he studied the fact that she was on top of him. He was slowly becoming more bothered, but to both his relief and dismay, the door to their room started to open.
Chaerin almost flew off of Jungkook with a few giggles as Jungkook slowly joined her. Jimin began walking in with a tired Seijin behind him. Chaerin sat up and raised her eyebrows as Seijin smiled at her gaze.
"Seokjin calmed down a little bit for me," she sighed and walked to the edge of the bed that Jungkook and Chaerin were currently on. "And I also told him it was your birthday tomorrow." She let out a small laugh, "so I convinced him to let me stay in here for our last night."
Chaerin smiled and stood up from the bed, "Omg, I'm so glad! Does this mean that you and Seokjin are good now? Like, done fighting?"
Seijin looked down and then over to Jimin who had silently dropped into his bed, "I'm not sure. He seemed a lot less stress than he has been for the past 24 hours, so maybe we'll make up completely after he gets his beauty sleep."
Chaerin laughed and nodded as she looked at the door. Her smile slowly began to fall as she started to think about how Nari and Taehyung were both missing. Despite the fact that she was a little upset at Nari, she was still worried about her.
"Have you seen Nari recently?" Chaerin voiced her concerns as Seijin glanced at the door and shook her head.
"I haven't seen Nari at all since she and Taehyung fought about Irene in here."
::
Taehyung wasn't sure why he was still lingering around in the lobby. Was he afraid to face Nari? He knew that he was in the wrong... was he just afraid to admit it?
He had been sitting next to the elevator for a long time as people sent him weird looks and occasionally would try and speak to him in slow English. He would just tell them that he didn't really know English but he was fine. The people would sometimes turn to their friend and actually start talking about him in English. He acted like he didn't hear them, but he knew exactly what they were saying.
He looked down at his phone and opened Nari's contact as he stared at it with a twisting feeling in his gut. He was starting to wish that he got drunk again so that he didn't have to worry about feelings.
He debated going to the bar that was only a block or two away from the hotel, but the noise of the elevator made him stop in his tracks. He placed his hands to his sides as people started stepping out of the elevator. He was just going to wait until all of them were through, but he froze at the site of a specific pair of boots that he had bought Nari two days ago.
"Taehyung?"
She had been heading out to look for him after Chaerin and Jungkook were dealing with their issues in the hotel room. She didn't expect to actually find him, let alone this soon. She honestly wasn't prepared to see him yet.
He looked run down; like he hadn't gotten any sleep and that he was having an internal battle with himself. He probably was the more she thought about it.
"Babe," Taehyung choked out at Nari's heart jumped. She didn't expect for him to use his pet name for her. "Where are you going?"
She took a deep breath and walked up to him as all the people that had been in the elevator disappeared around the corner, "I was about to go look for you. You were supposed to come back hours ago."
"I know," he looked down at his hands, "Jungkook and I actually went out on a walk. When we got back, I stayed down here. He thinks I'm in Hoseok and Yoongi Hyung's room right now."
"Why didn't you come back to the room?" She sat down straight across from him. She hated how awkward it felt between the two of them. She wasn't used to feeling that way around him.
He was silent for a good solid minute as Nari just waited patiently. He seemed unsure and nervous, even more so than she was.
"Because I hate myself for yelling at you," he spoke in a quiet voice as Nari almost didn't hear him, "I didn't know what to say if I was to see you."
"Well," Nari sighed, "you see me now. Do you know what to say?"
Taehyung looked up at Nari as their eyes met. His nerves were shot and he felt so tired. He was afraid that his terrible state would cause him to say something stupid.
But he found himself not regretting what came out of his mouth.
"Nari," he took a deep breath and Nari subconsciously began to lean toward him in anticipation.
"I love you."
Nari's eyes widened as her face instantly heated up. Her heart began beating at a dangerously fast pace as his eyes started to shy away from hers. She needed to say something so that he didn't take anything the wrong way.
Instead of saying something like she wanted to, her body began to move to crawl over him. His eyes widened as he looked up at her. Her face was even redder than his was, but his heart was beating at about the same pace.
"I love you, too," she whispered before capturing his lips with hers. She moved to sit in his lap as his arms snaked around her waist. He thought his heart was about to burst.
They didn't kiss for too long due to the fear of someone seeing them, so Taehyung slowly pulled away and pulled her into a quick hug. "We should probably head up to the room, don't you think?"
Nari slightly pulled away and sighed, "you should buy me some ice cream to say "I'm sorry," first."
Taehyung's eyes lit up as a smile placed on his face, "Where are we going to find ice cream this late?"
"There's bound to be some somewhere," Nari bit her lip in excitement as Taehyung slightly rolled his eyes, but comprised anyway.
"Alright. Ice cream it is."
::
About thirty minutes after Seijin and Jimin showed up, Taehyung and Nari quietly opened the door. It was nearly 2am as they closed the door behind them and tried to suppress the laughs that they were having outside the room.
"I see you two are back."
Nari jumped at the sound of Jungkook's voice as Chaerin's laugh could be heard throughout the room.
"U-uh," Taehyung nodded, "yeah. We went out."
"I guess you two are good, then?" Seijin's voice scared Nari as she turned to look at the bed Seijin normally slept in.
"Seijin?" Nari asked as she turned over in the bed and sent them a tired smile.
"Oppa let me stay in here since it's Chaerin's birthday tomorrow," she explained before a yawn left her mouth.
Nari started to yawn as well as the two shared a laugh, "I see. But yeah. We talked it out. It's hard to stay made at someone you love."
"Wait," Jimin's voice sounded excited as he sat up in his bed, "you said love! Taehyung! Did you finally say it?!"
"Shut it," his face started to turn red as Jungkook let out a soft chuckle. He and Chaerin were settled in under the blankets, but he slightly sat up to get a good look at his friend.
"It's about time~" Jungkook softly sang as Chaerin sat up with him and smiled.
"Okay okay," Nari laughed nervously, "we all need to go to sleep if we want to wake up at nine to celebrate Chaerin's birthday.
Everyone complied with Nari's words as everyone slipped into their respective beds.
Jungkook looked to Chaerin as they laid back down and he placed a kiss on her forehead.
"Happy birthday, Babe."
::
"Saeng il chuk ha ham ni da~ saeng il chuk ha ham ni da~ sarang ha neun Chae shiiii~... saeng il chuk ha ham ni da!"
Chaerin slowly began to open her eyes as the sound of Jungkook's voice rang in her ears. Her heart fluttered at how smooth it sounded, and a smile started to form on her face.
Her eyes landed on a smiling Jungkook who was holding a small cupcake in front of her. She giggled at the sight of the small, lit candle sticking out of the middle of it.
"Kookie," she slightly yawned as Jungkook let out a small giggle, "your singing voice is amazing... you should be a singer!"
Jungkook laughed and sat down on the edge of the bed. He held the candle in front of her and placed a hand on top of hers. "You should blow this out before it melts wax onto the icing."
Chaerin obeyed as she blew out the candle, not forgetting to make her birthday wish.
Please let everything leading up to and including our wedding go well. I don't want anything to get in my way of spending my life with him.
"What'd you wish for? Jungkook smiled and placed a kiss on her forehead. She just rolled her eyes and shook her head
"You know I can't tell you," she stuck her tongue out at him as she got up to go brush her teeth. The second she got done, she looked around and noticed that the others were still asleep.
"Kookie," she raised an eyebrow, "what time is it?"
"Roughly 9. I wanted to be the first one to sing to you since you've been wanting to hear my voice." He responded as Chaerin felt her heart flutter.
"You woke up early just to sing for me?" She smiled and moved over to him, "you're the sweetest..."
"I just know you really wanted that," he smiled and wrapped his arms around her waist from where he was sitting, "but don't worry. I have more planned for your birthday."
Chaerin was just about to smile and say something to him, but something in her brain clicked. It was almost as if she had totally forgotten what happened last night.
How the hell could I forget that Jaemin walked me up here after saving me from Jongin? Her mind started to slightly panic as Jungkook sent her a worried expression.
"What's wrong, Chae?" He voiced as she looked down at him.
"Jaemin," was all that she managed to get out as Jungkook's eyes slightly widened. Maybe he forgot just like she did.
"I think he said he would stop by in the morning," he reassured as her eyes fixated on something in the distance.
"I'm more of confused on why he's here," Chaerin's eyes narrowed, "of all places for us to finally reunite, it's out of the country?"
Chaerin stopped talking as she heard some shuffling from the other room. Either Seijin or Nari were waking up, but she wasn't sure who.
Her thoughts were answered as Seijin appeared in the doorway of the connecting rooms. Her hair was a slight mess and she sent a tired smile to Chaerin.
"Happy birthday, Chaerin," she spoke as Chaerin nodded with a smile. She was about to turn back to Jungkook, but a thought suddenly occurred to her.
"Seijin!" She found herself yelling as she covered her mouth and her face heated slightly. Jungkook laughed slightly and ran his fingers through her hair as she let a shiver run throughout her body.
"Yeah?" Seijin slightly laughed as she leaned against the doorway.
"Do you know someone named Jaemin?"
Seijin's eyebrows raised as she nodded, "I do. He's the only good one out of all the guys that Irene forces me to 'serve.' Why?"
"No way," Chaerin slightly whispered as she looked over at Jungkook. He seemed just as surprised. "All this time he was right there, huh? How did he even get to that position?"
"I'm not sure," Seijin shrugged, "he worked his way from the bottom like I did. I guess you know him then?"
"Yes I do," Chaerin slightly laughed as she looked back over to Seijin, "He's my older brother."
Her eyes widened as not even a second later, there was a knock on the door. Chaerin's heart jumped as Jungkook let go of her and gestured for her to move toward the door.
She slowly walked passed Seijin and stood at the door. She was incredibly nervous even though she had just seen him last night.
She took a deep breath and grabbed the doorknob, turning it to reveal the person behind the door. She felt her breath hitch in her throat as her brother once again stood in front of her. She could feel new tears forming in her eyes as he sent her a soft smile.
"Happy birthday, Chi," she sighed as his old nickname for her flew from his lips. Her tears fell at the sound of the nickname as she took a deep breath and smiled.
The nickname actually originated from her mouth. Her parents were trying to get her to learn how to say her name, but she would say "Chi(ee)rin" instead of "Chaerin."
"Jaemin," she swallowed as he pulled her into a hug, "it's been so long..."
"I know," he laughed, but it was slightly pained, "I'm sorry I never contacted you."
"Let's not worry about that right now," she shook her head into his chest, "I do want an explanation on how you ended up with the job that you have."
Jaemin slightly pulled away with a nervous smile on his face. Chaerin started to pull him in the room by the arm as he allowed her to. He was starting to feel nervous at the amount of eyes on him, but once his eyes landed on Seijin's, his widened.
"Wait," he raised his eyebrows, "Kim Seijin?"
"Hey," she slightly laughed and waved, "I didn't know that Chaerin was your sister. I wish I had known..."
After a few minutes of introductions, Jaemin began to explain his situation a little more into detail.
His short version of the story started several months after he was kicked out and had quit his job despite his promotion and hitchhiked himself to one of the towns outside of Seoul. The fact that his family had kicked him out messed with his head, and he had no idea why he quit the job that he had just gotten a promotion for. He didn't know where exactly it was that he ended up, but he landed himself a job that would pay for his food, but not really anything else. He was practically forced away from alcohol and drugs since he just couldn't afford them.
After a year, he ended up back in Seoul with his old job, working as a low staff member at Irene's dad's company. One day, Irene's father was so behind on work that he moved it all down to the lower staff members to deal with. Jaemin ended up working himself hard to get up to higher manger-like positions like he had done before, but it wasn't until he pitched an idea that made the company so much money, that he landed a position right under Irene's father.
After Jaemin had explained everything, the attention went back to Chaerin. She was still trying to process everything that she had just been told, but she was good at hiding it.
"What do you want to do?" Jungkook asked Chaerin as he grabbed her hand. She smiled over at him and took a deep breath.
"Well we've been going and doing so much all week. I just kinda want to relax."
"I see," Jungkook tilted his head, "Well I was wanting to take you to Central Park today if you're fine with that."
Chaerin smiled and took a deep breath, "That sounds nice. I can't believe I haven't gone there yet. Our hotel isn't even that far from there."
Seijin smiled and watched Chaerin and Jungkook looking at each other, "Well you two should definitely go alone. None of us should intrude."
Chaerin looked away from Jungkook and over to Jaemin, but he just agreed, "I can't let Irene realize that we're related, so I have to attend a morning meeting with her to not raise suspicion. Don't worry, I'll still talk to you while at the party tonight."
Chaerin just nodded, "As long as the witch doesn't have too much to hold against me, I'll deal with being apart from you for a few hours. Once we get home, I want to hang out a little more. I have a good bit to tell you about."
Jaemin just smiled and walked over to her, ruffling her hair, "Alright, Chi. I'll see you then."
He was gone a minute later as Jungkook and Chaerin started to get ready. The party was in six hours, and Jungkook wanted to keep the two of them at least somewhat busy until then.
"You two have fun!" Nari smiled and waved as Taehyung waved behind her. Chaerin just smiled back at her friend, despite the scolding that she was going to have to give her, she was still happy to see that her friend was happy. After all, Taehyung seemed to be having a few plans up his sleeve for their future.
::
The two of them ended up walking around Central Park right before they had to attend the party. They started out at Central Park, and Jungkook asked her if she would like to end the day at Central Park. They had spent the day going all over New York, and one store in particular that they stopped by was Tiffany's. Chaerin had asked if she could take a look inside, and Jungkook didn't even bother to follow her in.
She couldn't deny that she saw a few rings in the store that she really liked, but she wasn't going to get an engagement ring. If he was going to give her one, he would have done it already. Even if he could afford one of these rings with ease, she couldn't bring herself to even think about asking him for one. Why would she ask him to get her an engagement ring?
"Hey, Babe..." Jungkook softly called to Chaerin as she turned around and raised her eyebrows at him. They had been walking down a trail hand in hand for a few minutes in silence, so his sudden words surprised her. He seemed nervous as he took a few deep breaths and let a smile appear on his face, "I haven't given you your present yet, you know."
Chaerin nodded and stopped walking to look at him, "I told you that you didn't really have to get me anything, you know."
"And what guy is going to actually listen to their girl when they say that?" Jungkook asked as Chaerin let out a soft laugh, "If I had actually done what you asked, you would have been disappointed."
Chaerin just laughed and slightly nodded to tell him that he was right. Her feelings would have been a little hurt if he had listened to her.
After a few seconds of the two silently looking at each other, Chaerin finally spoke up with a laugh, "Well, is that your way of saying that you're giving it to me now?"
Jungkook laughed as well and he nodded. Without warning, he grabbed one of her hands and pulled her closer to him. She squeaked as her chest pressed against his suddenly, and Jungkook smiled and gave her a short kiss. Her face heated up at the sudden action since they were in public, but when she felt Jungkook slipping something on her finger, her eyes widened.
She slowly pulled away from the kiss as she lifted up her left hand and spotted an insanely expensive looking ring on her ring finger. Her eyes began to water as a sigh escaped her lips. A smile made its home on her face as her eyes moved to lock onto Jungkook's.
"Jungkook..." she whispered as he softly grabbed her hand. She couldn't help but notice that his was shaking from nervousness. He moved her hair behind her ear before placing his forehead against her's.
"I know that we're getting married soon," he spoke, "and there wasn't a requirement for an engagement ring, but you seemed to want one. The other day, I saw you looking at Seijin's wedding band and engagement ring, and I figured you wanted one."
A tear fell from her eye as Jungkook wiped it away, "I was afraid that you would find another ring that you would like better, so I didn't want you to go into Tiffany's."
Chaerin laughed and looked down at the engagement ring. She definitely remembers seeing it in Tiffany's. As Jungkook's luck would have it, the ring he chose was one of her favorites that she had looked at.
"Well you don't have anything to worry about," Chaerin smiled and looked up at him, "I know that you got this at Tiffany's because I remember seeing this one."
Jungkook's face slightly heated up as he looked away, "You don't remember the price that was on it, do you?"
Chaerin looked up in thought before shaking her head, "I don't, honestly."
Jungkook slightly sighed and pulled her into a hug, "Okay, good. It's best that you don't know."
::
It was nearly time for the party to start when Chaerin finally walked out of the bathroom. She was having issues with her make up since she was running low on mascara, and Jungkook was constantly telling her that it didn't matter if she had mascara on or not.
They all made their way to the party together as Jungkook held Chaerin's hand tight. He was pretty sure that the party would be fine, at least as long as Chaerin stayed by him. Most of the people would be speaking English tonight, and judging from their week together, Chaerin's English was rusty.
"Chaerin," Seijin spoke as they walked into the main ballroom. Tables were set up along the sides while some windows filled with expensive looking foods were along each wall. "You should stick to Jungkook or me. I'm going to have to stick around Jaemin tonight if you want to hang around me for a little while."
"I don't want Irene to become suspicious of Jaemin and I," Chaerin frowned, "It would be bad for the both of us if she found out. She could threaten his job."
Seijin frowned, but nodded in understanding, "I get that. I don't know who has more power, though, Jaemin or Irene. Her father really likes him a lot. He's good for business, and Irene is only good for publicity stunts."
Chaerin just laughed and spotted her brother in the crowd. She smiled proudly as he bowed and shook someone's hand. He spotted her over the stranger's shoulder and he sent her a smile before going back to the conversation in front of him.
"Well well," a voice said behind Chaerin as she tensed up, "I'm surprised that you're not hanging on to Jaemin. You two seem to be pretty close."
Jungkook knew exactly what Jongin was trying to do, though he couldn't help but feel confused at how Jongin knew about Chaerin and Jaemin. Had he seen the two of them together last night?
"What do you want, Jongin?" Chaerin sighed as she turned around to face him. After all that he tried to pull last night, she did not want to deal with him. She also didn't want Jungkook to find out, because that would just cause too much drama. She wanted her birthday to stay as great as it was and not let Jongin or Irene ruin her day.
"I just want your fiance to be aware of who you really are," he shrugged, "he deserves better."
"Jongin, don't you have something better to do?" Jungkook glared, "You should go follow Irene around. She would appreciate you more than we will."
Jongin just took a deep breath and winked at the two of them before walking off. He didn't fail to turn around and look at the two of them, speaking a phrase in English that only Jungkook heard and understood.
"You should ask her about what happened last night. I would be worried if I were you."
::