NAMJOON POV : Before the Burning
I dropped her off at her house and she told me to at least give her about 30 minutes before she would be over. I told her to take her time and that I would get the fire ready. I went into the house through the garage being sure not to be too loud, and as I made my way through our kitchen I heard Jin speaking making me stop in my tracks.
"I am really glad Namjoon asked Noona to hang out today." he said.
"I am too." Tae replied. "Namjoon works too much and he really needs to get out more. I think you welcoming us to your group of friends is going to be good for him, you were very kind to do that."
"Well I had ulterior motives." He chuckled. I heard the soft smack of lips parting and then Tae continued.
"Can I ask you something?"
"Sure."
"There seems to be something going on with her. She's happy one moment and then the next its like she forgot she was supposed to be sad. I don't want to assume but..."
"No...you're not assuming anything. She is...healing."
"Healing? Healing from what?"
I heard Jin let out a sigh and I moved slowly so they wouldn't notice my presence so I could hear them clearer.
"Have you ever had your heart broken?" He asked Taehyung.
He scoffed. "Of course."
"No...no..." Jin's tone was more serious...deeper. "I mean...your heart broken so badly that you don't even have all the pieces left to even try to mend it."
"ummm...No I cant say that I have."
"Well she has." he said.
When I heard that I felt my heart clench and my heart strings tighten.
"How?" Tae asked in his soft concerned voice.
"You have to swear that if I tell you, you wont tell anyone, and you wont treat her any differently as if she's some fragile thing."
"I promises, I am not that kind of person."
I heard Jin sigh again before taking a deep breath. "Noona was previously engaged." he started making my heart drop into my stomach. I didn't like that at all, and I was starting to realize why.
"What?" Tae gasped a little shocked at the information.
"Yep. Not only that but she was a different person entirely. Right now she's very reserved and quiet. She doesn't socialize often, which is why I was so ecstatic that your brother reached out to her."
"She does seem a little quite but that isn't a bad thing."
"Normally no, but what that...god, that fucking cunt did to her completely broke her. Her heart wasn't the only thing that broke, her entire soul and person shattered into someone I couldn't recognize."
"What did he do?"
"Lee Jayhyung was charming, and playful and said all the right things. He and Noona started dating about a year before she was out of law school. He was literally the perfect boyfriend. They rarely fought, and when they did he never hit her, never called her horrible names, never said things to bring her down as a person, they just talked out their problems. I honestly had never seen her happier."
"I already don't like where this is going." Taehyung commented making Jin scoff.
"Well I liked him...for the most part. I always had a bad feeling about him but I never really had a reason to not like him so I ignored the feeling. He had this friend who he had known when he was younger and they only texted back and forth. She was really nice and Noona even talked to her a few times and nothing really seemed off about it. They were just friends and he told us she didn't even live on this side of the country."
"Oh I don't like this bitch already..." Tae said.
For fucks sake could he not interrupt?
"Well you'd be right. It was about two years after they started dating that Jay came over one day and popped the question. Of course Noona said yes. She was in love with him and they had immediately started making plans. They had a future laid out together and I was happy for her. But then things that should have been a red flag started happening but she trusted him."
"Like what?"
"Well he didn't want to live with her. He said that he wanted to wait until after the wedding. So because he was still in school and she was making money with working with RED and selling her art work, she was paying for their entire wedding, which she didn't care about, it was never about the money. Well she always gave him money for deposits for everything. There was a deposit for the venue, then the caterer, the down payment for her wedding dress. It was a lot of money. There was one day that she was on her way to pick up her ring from being polished and cleaned. He insisted on it, even though she didn't think it needed it but because he asked her to she did it anyway. When she got to the jeweler they told her that it had already been picked up."
"How is that possible?"
"Because HE was on record for someone authorized to pick it up. So she assumed he had it.
"Wait...authorized? So the ring was under her name, not his?"
"Mhmm...the guy didn't have good enough credit to get a card to pay for it on his own. So she put it all under her name, and gave him permission to use the card and to pick up and drop off their rings."
"So he picked up the ring."
"Yep."
"So what then?"
"Well...she went to his house and he wasn't there. She went to his study group and he wasn't there. Finally she turned on the GPS locator on her phone because she was worried. She thought something happened to him."
"Did it?"
"No. The bastard was at a hotel. So of course she want there and when she asked the front desk if there was a Lee Jay, of course there was. They called the room and told him that his fiancée was down stairs looking for him. He told them to give her a key and send her up, and when she opened the door..."
My stomach started to tighten as I was not prepared for what I heard.
"What?" Tae asked him. "OH my god it's bad isn't it?"
"She walked in on him...going down on another girl. Literally on display as if they were sure to position themselves so she would see."
"That makes me sick to my stomach." Tae responded and I couldn't help but agree.
"That's not even the worst part."
Oh god...
"What could be worse?"
"She was shocked, so she stood there a moment trying to process what was going on. The girl saw her, smirked, and flashed her the ring that Jay had proposed to her with with on HER finger."
"Are you serious?" Tae asked, this time his voice even softer with hurt.
"Yep....aaaaand that still isn't the worst part. Noona is still paying for that ring. It was a $7,000 ring and she still has about $3,000 left to pay. On top of that, all the money she was giving him, he was using for he and this girls wedding. He played her, in the absolute worst way. He made her feel like he loved her. He didn't even have to say it...the things he would do for her...which now looking back...I don't think I would have supsected anything either. He completely had her fooled in more than one way. Even lied about his parents being deceased."
At that point I couldn't listen anymore.
How could anyone do that to another human being?
I didn't know this girl well but from how Jin spoke about her, and what I had experience she had such a kind hard. She was gentle, and kind, and...what the actual fuck?
I felt rage bubble up inside of me, I felt as if I could break something and cry all at the same time and usually I was not an emotional guy. I wasn't sure if they had continued their conversation or not as I marched into the back yard slamming the door behind me.
How could anyone be so cruel?
How could a man look at someone as beautiful as Noona and tell her he loved her if it was all a lie. How could anyone take advantage of such a sweet and warm hearted person? I started the fire and in my anger I burned my hand. I yelled out looking down at the small burn, and I was so focused on the burn and my anger I didn't notice that someone walked up behind me.
"Namjoon?" I heard a soft beautiful voice call out.
I turned around and saw her in a pair of shorts, a light sweatshirt, and a pony tail. She looked concerned and I noticed she was holding a canvas in her hand, the picture facing her. Her warm eyes searched my face before they dropped to my hand that I was gripping and her eyes went a little wide.
"Oh my god you're hurt." She said putting down the canvas. She came over to me gently taking my hand and grabbing a water bottle she had with her and pouring cold water on the burn. "Sorry, but you need to put something cold on it. You also should bandage this so it doesn't get infected..." She looked up and it all hit me at once.
I couldn't take my eyes off of her. Her eyes were full of hidden fear that I had not seen before now, and finally all her comments about loneliness, and her unanswered mysteries started to makes sense. She was broken...heartbroken...and just like Jin said she didn't even have all the pieces to put herself back together. I couldn't help myself and like word vomit it just came out.
"Do you still love him?" I asked her, needing to know where she was in her head.
"What?" she gasped out letting go of my hand and stepping back.
"Do you still love that fucking bastard who broke you?" I asked again stepping closer to her.
She didn't move away from me, but her eyes filled with tears and when she closed her eyes slowly the tears fell down her cheeks. She opened them up again and I saw determination in her eyes as she gritted her teeth and answered with more strength than I have ever heard her display.
"No." she answered.
And that's all that mattered. I opened up my arms and wrapped her into a tight embrace that caught her off guard with a gasp, but she didn't pull from me. "I'm so sorry." I whispered to her.
She was frozen for only a moment, but then her arms moved to wrap around me holding me as tightly as I was holding her. That's when her façade broke, and she began to sob into my chest. Her knees buckled from under her, and I had to catch her so she wouldn't fall.
"I hate him." he cried out.
"But do you love him?" I asked again.
She shook her head without hesitation. "No." She repeated. "No I don't."
I pulled her into me and picked her up placing her on my lap as I sat down. Her harms were tightly wrapped around my neck and I felt like this was the first time, in a long time, that she had a good cry. Not once did I loosen my grip on her, wanting her to feel as safe as possible.
It was in that moment, when this beautiful woman, inside and out, broke, that I decided it was my responsibility to restore her faith in men.
To prove to her, that not all of us are worthless and manipulative.
I wanted her to see the good that men can be.
I wanted her to see the good man, that I could be.