<OST: Like a fool - 2AM>
"I still think you're crazy."
"I'm sad now, can you not?" Seokjin sobbed on the phone. "Cut the crap, do you have an extra apartment for me or no?"
"You speak as if I'm that rich-" Jungkook rolled his eyes as he focused on driving while on the road. "I'll come pick you up so just stay where you are. I'll help get you a hotel room or something to help you survive the next few days. In the meantime, you should start looking at houses, hyung."
"Jungkook-ah, after all, you're the one who got me into this..." Seokjin tried his luck. "Now that I'm homeless and heartbroken, can't you just-"
"No, not my house-" Jungkook objected before Seokjin could even suggest it. "There are only two rooms, I told you. And they're both occupied."
"I can sleep on the-"
"The couch is occupied too," Jungkook said without any hesitation. "I recently bought some weights so the whole living room is pretty damn cluttered. Sorry, hyung."
"You're mean."
"I'm the one who paid most of your rent but I'm mean...?" Jungkook scoffed as he turned the corner. "Who was the one who chose to get into an argument with their housemate and kick themselves out of a house halfway through their rental period?"
Seokjin let out a deep sigh. "Me."
"But anyway, don't worry about it, hyung-" Jungkook assured Seokjin as he stopped at a traffic light. "I'm just round the corner so-"
Jungkook stopped short as he glanced outside of his car. He wasn't sure if his eyes were playing tricks on him because he didn't have a good sleep last night or-
He rubbed his eyes and looked again.
Indeed, it was her. There was no doubt about it. And sitting across her, a guy who looked close to her age. He was good-looking too.
"So...? So what?" Seokjin chirped on the other end of the line. "Hello, JK? You still there? You didn't complete your sentence - just round the corner so... what?"
"Oh, um, hyung-" The traffic light turned green at that point and Jungkook hurriedly switched lanes to pull over by the road side. "I'm busy right now. I'll call you back in a bit, okay? Stay there!"
"Ya! Jungkook-ah? You can't just leave me here! I'll cry, I swear! Don't you dare hang up on me now! What if I can't reach you after this? Jungkook-ah?"
"Sorry, hyung-" Jungkook put on his mask and sunglasses, pulling over a hoodie as he exited from his car. "It's urgent. I'll talk to you later. Bye!"
"YA! Jeon Jungkook, don't you dare-"
Beep!
Jungkook locked his car and entered the restaurant by the main door, scoring himself a seat by the window, right behind Jieun. As he glanced at her face to confirm that it was her, she barely even glanced in his direction so she couldn't recognise him, thankfully. But all because she was in a serious conversation with the man seated across her. Who could that guy possibly be? A friend? Her cousin? Her... boyfriend?
Jungkook sat down and listened attentively to theit conversation.
"I'm really sorry, bujang-nim."
Jungkook furrowed his brows in confusion. Bujang-nim?
"Don't worry about it, Jieun-ssi. Like I said earlier, everything that happens is a learning experience. I'm glad that I got to play a part in helping you figure out in what you really like."
Jungkook was getting even more and more confused as he carried on listening. At this point, he was pretty assured that that guy wasn't her boyfriend, which was much to his relief - but the whole situation just confused him right now. What bujang-nim? What learning experience? What were they even talking about? Why didn't Jieun tell him where she was going?
"I guess you're right..." Jieun said quietly before taking a quick sip out of her glass. "If I hadn't done all this, I would never have gone back into makeup."
Things were starting to make sense now that makeup was mentioned. But 'all this'? What did 'all this' refer to?
"See? Sometimes blessings can come in disguise as well - you went to expose their fake relationship and though you didn't manage to get what you wanted, you finally realised that, 'Hey, reporting isn't for me! Time to switch back to cosmetics now!'"
Jieun let out a nervous chuckle. "Yeah, you're right."
Jungkook's whole world came crashing down in that very moment.
-•-•-
"What did you just say?"
Jieun couldn't believe her eyes. She got to her feet abruptly, her chair making a loud screeching noise as it scratched the floor. Jieun's heart was racing at a million miles per hour. This was her biggest nightmare. Jungkook? Of all people? What was he doing here at this house? Of all places? How much did he hear?
She wanted to be the first one to tell him, but now everything was ruined.
"Jungkook-ah," she managed to mutter.
Namjoon glanced up at the two, a look of alarm spreading across his face the moment he recognised Jungkook's face beneath his camouflage. Around them, people were beginning to stare but no one had recognised him yet, thankfully.
"I asked you a question-" Jungkook was getting more and more worked up, even without Jieun's answer. Perhaps, somewhere deep inside him, he already knew what the answer was going to be. "Answer me - what you just say?"
"Jungkook-ah, hear me out-" Jieun tried to grab onto Jungkook's hand. "Sit down first, you shouldn't draw too much attention-"
"Stop changing the damn topic!" Jungkook ripped his hand out of Jieun's grip, as he glared at her with angry hot tears in his two eyes. "All along, you were just a reporter coming to disclose my relationship to the public, is that it?!"
Jieun was too shocked to say anything. How she wanted to tell him that no, this was all a lie and that she wasn't really a reporter. This was all a set up. She really loved him. But she simply couldn't. Tears formed in bee eyes and she opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out.
Because everything he said was true.
The look of disappointment on Jungkook's face was unmistakable as he nodded slowly, a single tear sliding down his cheek under his face mask. Jungkook... who never cried. Jungkook, who never understood why people cried.
'If I ever cry one day, I must be really, really sad.'
Jungkook's words resonated in Jieun's heart as he stared directly at her, shedding tears. He was hurt, he was disappointed, and it was all her fault. She could almost recognise the hurt and disappointment in his eyes... like she had seen it somewhere before. And that she finally managed to put a name to it - it was that same look her had in his eyes whenever he spoke about Taehyung. That same look of anger, that same spite, that same hatred... But above them all, that same look of disappointment.
She made him cry.
"I get it now," Jungkook said as he nodded slowly, backing away slowly, then slowly shaking his head in disbelief. "I get it now... I finally get it..."
Jungkook turned and ran.
And Jieun immediately broke down.
"What are you waiting for?" Namjoon patted Jieun on the shoulder. "Go!"
Jieun looked up at her own boss helplessly. "Go where?"
"Hurry up!" Namjoon motioned towards the door. "Go after him!"
The guilt and shame was too much for Jieun to chase after him. But with a small shove from Namjoon, Jieun picked up her bag, bowed a few times and dashed out of the café, right behind Jungkook, and in desperate hopes that she could fix what she had broken.
-•-•-
"Jungkook-ah."
"Let go."
"Jungkook-ah, listen to me-"
"Don't follow me."
"Jeon Jungkook, please-"
"I said let go!" Jungkook turned around, flinging Jieun's grip off him. "Don't touch me."
Jungkook turned back around and kept walking briskly towards his car without stopping.
"Jungkook-ah, I'm sorry-"
"No need to be sorry, you did what you had to do."
"No, don't say that, please, I'm begging you-"
Jungkook just kept walking, refusing to stop or even slow down for Jieun to catch up with him.
"Jungkook-ah, I know I'm shameless but-"
"So you know you're shameless," Jungkook said as he turned around abruptly, causing Jieun to crash right into him. His eyes were all red and his face... it was filled with pure hurt. "Wow, so you actually know you're shameless. Should I clap for you? Wah, Lee Jieun-ssi! You did a good job of recognising shameless behaviour! Is that so?
"I didn't say that-" Jieun pouted. "I just want you to give me a chance to explain, that's all."
"Give you a chance to explain?" Jungkook snorted as he looked away, pissed, before turning to glare at Jieun once more. "What more is left to be explained, hm? I already know that all I heard is the truth - you yourself couldn't even deny it back there - what else is left to be explained! Huh?!"
Jieun winced as Jungkook yelled right into her face. He had been rude to her before, but he had never yelled at her in this manner before. She had never seen him this fierce in her life - not even whenever he spoke to Taehyung. The way he handled Taehyung was mild compared to the way he was talking to - no, yelling at - her right now.
"I... I..." Jieun stammered, struggling to keep herself together. "I met my bujang-nim today to quit."
"Your bujang-nim. That man earlier is your bujang-nim, huh?" Jungkook scoffed. "Funny how I thought I knew everything about you after getting to know you for just a few months. I was so stupid, wasn't I? I wonder, how much more do I not know about you?"
"This is it, I promise-" Jieun grabbed onto Jungkook's hand once more, pleading with him to listen to her. "This is all I hid from you, Jungkook-ah, I swear. But I was scared to tell you, because I knew you'd react this way-"
"Oh, I remember now-" Jungkook pulled his hand away from Jieun, letting out a cynical laugh all of a sudden. "I remember. Last night, didn't you ask me how I feel about reporters?"
Jieun pursed her lips and lowered her head.
"Wah, Lee Jieun, you're seriously incredible-" Jungkook ruffled his hair agitatedly. "When I was telling you all about how I understood them... how must you have felt? I must have looked so stupid in your eyes, didn't I? Was that why you asked me that question? Were you having fun? You were laughing at me inside, weren't you?"
Jieun shook her head vigorously. "I swear, I wasn't. I just asked you because I wanted to know how you felt, because I really wanted to come clean with you... but I was so afraid, I was so scared that you'd push me away like this-"
"Then you shouldn't even have started in the first place!" Jungkook yelled, as tears sprang to his eyes once more. "You shouldn't have appeared in my life."
"I... I had no choice."
"You had no choice?" Jungkook shook his head in disbelief. "You had no choice?! You had a choice, Lee Jieun. If you came to my side just to expose me and Jennie, you shouldn't have toyed with my feelings. You shouldn't have spoken to me. You shouldn't have interfered with my business with Kim Taehyung. But what did you do?! You meddled with my life, you made me learn to trust you, you made me... feel something."
Tears of remorse slid down Jieun's cheeks. "I know, I'm sorry. When I first joined your side, that was my intention. I wanted to get my revenge on you, publish an article that could propel me forward in my career."
The betrayal was evident in Jungkook's voice. "So... I was right after all."
"You were right, but only partially-" Jieun swallowed hard, trying to hold back her tears. "The moment I found out that... I had feelings for you, I wanted to quit immediately."
"How do I know you're not lying now?" Jungkook looked Jieun in the eyes. "How do I know everything you've said to me so far has not been just lies after lies? You know what I feel right now, Lee Jieun? I feel like a fool - no, a fool doesn't even come close - I feel like I've been living a delusion all this while, a happy delusion I made up for myself, thinking that you liked me too, thinking I could finally learn to trust people again. Are you happy now?!"
"No-" Jieun shook her head, denying his accusations immediately and begging for him to listen. "No, Jungkook-ah. No... I came to your side to find out more about you and expose your true self to the world, but I began finding what type of person you really were - putting a protective shell around yourself because you have been hurt. I stopped wanting to do anything to hurt you... I'm sorry for my initial bad and selfish intentions, but I didn't think that things would have turned out this way... If I had, I would never have let things become the way they are today..."
"You're only sorry because you got found out," Jungkook said coldly. "If I never found out on my own, you were never going to tell me."
"That's not true!"
"You don't have a right to tell me what's true and what isn't from now, Lee Jieun." Jungkook was seething with rage as he pointed to his heart. "Do you even know know how my heart feels like right now? For many years, I lost trust in everyone around me. All of a sudden, you came crashing into my life, tearing down my walls and forcing me to come out of this little shell of mine, learning to trust again. I regret learning to trust again, I regret learning to trust you, somehow. Because now that I know what kind of person you are, of all kinds of people in the world right now, you're the last person I will ever learn to trust again."
Jieun sobbed. "Jungkook-ah-"
"You won my trust, you won my heart, yet you took it and smashed it into a million pieces," Jungkook carried on, still in disbelief that this was actually happening to him when moments ago, he was still giddy with joy when he saw her through the window pane. "I still am unable to comprehend that all this while... I've just been a game to you, while my foolish self actually bought into your lies and thought- I actually thought-"
"Thought what?"
"That..." Jungkook choked the words out. "You liked me... too."
Jieun let out a wail. "I do, Jungkook-ah. Even if I may have lied about everything else, that one thing is true. I do like you - no, I lov-"
"Don't say that freaking word!" Jungkook screamed as he covered his ears. "That word is not a word a liar like you can throw around so loosely. I don't wanna hear any more from you."
"Jungkook-ah, I really-"
"I don't care if you like me anymore," Jungkook said firmly as he looked Jieun dead in the eyes, briefly wiping at his own tear-stained cheeks with the back of his hand. "Because from this moment on... I, Jeon Jungkook, hate you."
Jieun was stunned.
"I hate you, Lee Jieun-" Jungkook muttered, as he shook his head in disbelief. "I hate you."