Chapters 25 & 26 are now free on Stckme. Link in bio. The chapter has a bit of mature content behind then.

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Jungkook followed Y/n into the spare bedroom where she was already settled under the duvet, totally drained from their lovemaking. He gestured to the other side of the queen-sized mattress, saying, "Roll onto your side."

As she did, he slid under the blanket beside her and wrapped his body around her back. They lay there in the uncomfortable silence of the afterglow, which he eventually broke with his question.

"What?"

"Have you ever been in love?"

"No." The answer was too quick, so she tried to shrug it off. "I thought I might have been a few times, but true love is supposed to hurt when it's gone, right?

"That's always been my belief. You never really heal when you honestly love someone and they die or move on without you."

Or they betray you.

She pushed the distasteful thought from her mind. Over the past few weeks, he'd proven time and again he was no longer the immature boy he'd been in 12th grade. He'd grown so much, and not only physically. She had fallen for him harder this time than when she was a teenager. Then it had been puppy love, a want to be his which she had doubted would ever happen. Now, going off to Seoul, she would be leaving behind a part of her heart, as well as what might have been had she been honest with him from the start. What they had shared now had helped heal the hurt she'd endured for the past twenty years.

She was sure if their budding relationship had a chance to grow into something more, time would erase the "incident" from her mind completely. "What about you? Have you ever been in love?"

"Once."

She was surprised by his admission and flipped over, curling into his chest. "Tell me."

He snorted, "You really wanna hear about how my heart was obliterated?"​​"If you won't tell me that's fine.  But I'm interested in who was stupid enough to walk away from you."  Likes she would be doing soon.

He ran a hand over the smooth skin of her hip and sighed. "You're probably going to think that it's stupid, but I was in high school," He laughed when she stopped in the middle of the movement she was doing, not knowing what she was thinking.

"Yup. You heard me—high school.". There was a girl whom I liked during my entire senior year. She wasn't like most girls in our class: popular, stuck-up, and dating only guys who were also popular. Mostly jocks, like I was. It placed me in the position, as playing quarterback for the varsity and junior varsity, where girls would hang all over me and even ask me out on dates—not that I minded, of course. I mean, growing teenager, how could I not, really? This one girl was really shy but very smart. Smart women just drive me crazy—that's why I found you so attractive on the first night we met. I mean, you're beautiful, too, but it was that brain of yours, that incisive wit. That's why I couldn't get enough."

He shifted until she was tucked into the crook of his shoulder and then slowly stroked her bare back. "Anyway, something about this girl drew me in like a moth to a flame, so I pretended I didn't understand chemistry and asked her to tutor me. She tutored a few of us for many months, but I never built the guts to ask her out in front of other people around, and she would always be the very first to leave the library after our sessions. Well, towards the end of the school year, I just had to take my chance; otherwise, I'd hold this in my mind throughout my college year."

Oh no, no, no, no. There's a way he's talking about you! This has to be a dream! Please don't let it be real!

Her prayer wasn't answered as he continued. "So, Y/N was at her locker..." She flinched when he said her name. "...and I walked right up and asked her to the —an annual dance." Regret filled his voice. Still remember her response—' No, thanks.' Plain and simple, as if I would have asked her did she needed a pen or something like that. Then she practically ran away. I was crushed, completely heartbroken, and never went to the dance. I saw her but hardly a few times for the rest of the school year—she stopped tutoring. I learned a couple of weeks after school was out that she moved somewhere, and I never saw her again."

She couldn't believe her ears. Her mind went racing every which way. Y/N was in shock, her heart pounding away furiously. This can't be happening. All that time, she thought he asked her out to humiliate her in front of the rest of the class. "That was real? I thought it was a cruel joke."

She hadn't realized she'd said the words out loud, just a little more than a whisper until Jungkook stiffened against her. Y/N was almost too scared to move. Too scared to face him or say anything more. Oh, God. If he figured out who she was...

But it was too late to take back the last fifteen seconds.

"What do you mean you—you thought it was a cruel joke? How did you know about..." Fear shot through every cell in her body as she could almost hear his mind putting the pieces together.

"Shit!" Jungkook tore the covers off and shot out of the bed faster than a jackrabbit. Y/N was wide-eyed as she watched him stand with his back to her, pulling on his thrown sweatpants. Stalking across the room, he raked his hands through his hair, standing it up more than it had already been. When he turned around, the anger floating in his gaze was sharp as needle pricks on her skin.

Blowing up, he set his hands on his hips and glared at her. "Y-you're not Kim Y/N, right? You're Shin Y/n, right? That's why I couldn't shake off that we had met before, right? But you knew who I was, didn't you? Didn't you?" He became thicker and louder, with his voice rising with every word he said.

"You've lied to me since day one! Haven't you?"

She couldn't speak as her eyes welled up with tears, a lump formed in her throat, and her heart began pounding at the shock and horror. She had known from the start that sooner or later he would discover who she really was, but nothing could have prepared her for this—not that she blamed him one bit. Especially not after she knew how big the misunderstanding had been in high school. She could not fathom why the chicks had put up a claim that it was a prank but it did not matter now.

"What in heaven's name is this humiliation?, Y/n?" He moved closer and gestured with his hand before them. "So you thought that I had played a prank in high school by taking you to the dance? So, what in heaven's name is this?" he repeated. "A revenge fuck for something I did not do? answer me!"

She pushed herself into a sitting position and reached for him, wincing when he moved farther away yet again. 'I-I'm sorry, Jungkook. I didn't know. I-I didn't mean for it to go this far. You're right. I. I recognized you that first-night and. and everything I felt that day in high school came rushing back.'. I-I heard a couple of girls talking in—in the ladies' room a few days before about how you were going to try and make a fool of me by inviting me to the dance and then standing me up! I-I didn't think you really meant it when you asked me out, I swear!"

The tears tumbled from her eyes as though she had sobbed some sort of emotional dam into existence, and  couldn't wipe them away fast enough.

He was talking while he located his shirt and yanked it on before stuffing his feet into his sneakers, not even reaching for his socks. "I don't fucking believe this! " He ran his hands down his face, flushed red with anger. The veins in his temples throbbed hard, to the point where Y/N could see them.

"So, all that time we were together, you what? You were getting your jollies, thinking you were getting even for something that wasn't true? And, on top of everything, I just admitted to the fact that I was in love with you back then and you broke my heart. Going through that the first time was hard enough, but now I have to deal with it again. That's got to be the icing on your cake, right? " Jungkook didn't wait for a response as he snatched his keys, phone, and wallet from the nightstand.

His tone grew deathly low. "You know what? Nevermind. You did it. You got your revenge, Shin Y/n. I hope you're happy."

"Jungkook, I'm sorry! I didn't mean—" With that, her apology was cut short as he spun on his heels and stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind him.

She felt agony bloom in her chest, so painful it might have been a heart attack if she hadn't known it was splitting in two at the oncoming grief. Moments later, the front door closed with a bang. "I love you Jungkook " Y/N sobbed harder when Jungkook's bike engine roared back to life and the tires screeched, peeling him out onto the street.

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You can find the rest of the book on Scrollstack, a legitimate website where you can use your credit card or UPI. Rest assured, I am the author and can withdraw all the money.