Jungkook smiles at the old landlady who's looking at him with the nastiest glare ever. "Smile a little, Mrs. Yang."

"I'm this close to throwing your things out," Mrs. Yang says, huffing as she pushes her glasses up her nose.

"Aw," Jungkook says. "Well, I've paid and that's more important, am I right? Shouldn't you be smiling right now?"

The lady rolls her eyes and walks away with her cat, still whining under her breath and Jungkook pokes his head out of his door just to shout, "Have a nice day, Mrs. Yang!"

Just then, his neighbor Hoseok comes out of his house and approaches Jungkook. "What's up, man? You've finally settled everything, huh?"

"Yep."

"And once again, you've managed to save your ass at the very last minute."

"Yeah," Jungkook laughs.

"I told you Yoongi is nice."

Jungkook shakes his head. "I didn't borrow from him."

Hoseok lifts a brow. "You won a jackpot?"

Jungkook's mind brings him back to the thoughts of Chaeyoung and the whole deal of being her fake boyfriend. He smiles wide. "You can say so."

Hoseok doesn't say much after that, bids Jungkook goodbye as he proceeds to make his way to work. When Jungkook gets back inside, he grabs his phone to continue where he left off. He's in the middle of exchanging information with his fake girlfriend. So far, he knows that Chaeyoung is left-handed, likes blue but sometimes she will be really into pink -specifically, baby pink, she can draw and she does it in her free time, she loves to eat and her favorite food include sour things, she's a dreamer and she cries easily.

He types; So do you want to know anything about me?

He waits and continues to stare at their exchanged texts over and over and he smiles, feeling a little light. It's probably because he's settled his debt with the landlady. It's also because finally, in so many months or years, he can't really remember, he's actually having a simple but real conversation that's going to sound mundane to others but very entertaining to him.

Her reply comes in and Jungkook's smile disappears instantly.

- Are you jobless?

Jungkook sighs but he almost laughs, because for some reason, he thinks that she doesn't mean to sound quite mean and is probably just curious. He comes up with this image of her based on what he's already seen. Jungkook replies; 'what a way to ruin the mood'

Chaeyoung replies fast.

- Sorry! I didn't mean to :(

He smiles a little and replies with; I had a job but I got fired.

Their chat goes on until she tells him that she needs to go. Jungkook bites his lip as he thinks for a moment before he sends her; Wanna go out tomorrow night?

He expects a reply later on that day. That fast reply that he receives sure widens his smile further. Maybe he's no longer lonely.

*

Chaeyoung can't help but laugh as she takes the ice cream Jungkook is handing her. "Ice cream date, at night?"

"Don't tell me you've never done this before?" he raises a brow at her questioningly. When she continues to smile at him, Jungkook softly shakes his head at her. "Look at how boring your life was before you met me."

As they walk down the street, Chaeyoung tries not to think back to what he told her about his job. What was his job? Why did he get fired? Is it too sensitive to ask him about it? How did his life turn out the way it is now?

"Ask away," he says suddenly, pulling her from sinking deeper into her own thoughts.

"Um..." she hums, thinking of how to word her question and she swears she heard Jungkook mutters 'cute' after chuckling softly and she pretends that she doesn't notice all that, or else she's going to blush even harder than she already is. "Why did you get fired?"

Jungkook stops licking his ice cream, stares far into the distance. "My boss claimed that I was being a very irresponsible employee."

"Why so?"

"I skipped a lot of days of work."

"Oh," she glances at him and tries her best not to smile. "You sure were irresponsible."

Jungkook scoffs. "Yeah, I was an irresponsible worker. Because I was just being a responsible son to my parents, brother to my older brother. My dad and my older brother passed away in a car crash, my mom was in shock that she got admitted to the hospital."

She widens her eyes and her mouth drops. "For real?"

Jungkook laughs. "No, I just like to make a joke about my dad being in a fatal car crash and died with my brother. It's kind of hilarious."

Her ice cream almost falls off her hand. Chaeyoung clamps her mouth shut when she registers the sarcasm.

Jungkook's smile is already gone when he says, "Of course it's real. It can sound dramatic to some people, but it's real."

"I..." she swallows hard. "I'm sorry," she breathes and Jungkook nods. "How's- how's your mom?"

"Passed away the same year. She never got better."

"I'm sorry." Shit, she mentally curses herself.

She really has a way to make things worse. Chaeyoung feels bad, her hand itches to let go of the ice cream and rub his back. She realizes that she can easily rub his back using her left hand that's free of anything, but Jungkook is walking on her right side and it's going to be so awkward to be changing the position just to make him feel better again. Chaeyoung sighs dejectedly, settles for licking the ice cream in silence.

"Hey," Jungkook says, nudging her arm. "What's wrong?"

"I shouldn't have-"

"Oh, come on," he chuckles. "We're just getting to know each other. That's..." he pauses briefly. "Okay, I'm not gonna say it's alright. But... it's fine I guess."

Chaeyoung decides that she cannot lead any conversation that night, in fear of repeating the same mistake, bluntly saying insensitive things to people and ruining the mood. Jungkook, though, elaborates a little of what happened in his life, basically answering the questions she has left unsaid.

"After I got fired, I settled to become a freelance photographer. It's hard these days. I used to have people call for my service, but things started to get a little messy when I met clients who refused to pay me," he smiles a little and it doesn't take a genius to notice that it's a sad smile. "Hey, your ice cream is melting."

Chaeyoung's gaze flits towards her ice cream and she licks and slurps, and she grunts as she takes out some tissue from her tiny bag with his help. "What happened?"

"I got a little aggressive?" he smiles sheepishly. "Thought of myself like an action movie star at that time. Went to throw in punches here and there. If you were watching me at that time, pretty sure you'd be head over heels for me. I'm sure I was so cool. I honestly thought the only times I'd be showing off my taekwondo tricks would be at the tournaments I joined when I was still in high school. Do you like action movies?"

Her gaze falls on him, offering him a small smile. "Not really my cup of tea. I'm more into romance."

"Really?" his eyes twinkle. "Me too."

Deep down, she can't help but imagine the rough times that Jungkook has to go through. Losing his family and losing his job, trying to make ends meet by being a freelancer and was mistreated.

"I particularly like the ones that don't seem to give a happy ending. Like a lot of obstacles and crying and miserable episodes between two people. It makes everything worth the fight," he continues to say.

"That's a bit hard to believe," she raises her brow questioningly.

"What's hard to believe?" he questions.

"That you're into that kind of thing," she chuckles.

"I expected that. Almost everyone wouldn't believe me when I say I'm romantic. Not to mention, hopelessly romantic."

She simply smiles at him. "Who won?" she asks. "I mean, the one where you fought with your clients."

Jungkook smirks. "You think? The big guys won for sure," he laughs and her smile fades. "I was lucky they dropped the charges."

At the end of the night, Jungkook walks her to her car and being so gentleman to open the car door for her despite her refusal.

"I'll keep that in mind," he says with a sweet smile.

"Keep what in mind?"

"That you don't like a man to open the car door for you."

"That's right," she says, chuckling. "So next time, let me do it myself."

Jungkook smirks. "So, there's a next time?"

Chaeyoung's smile fades, her cheeks pink. "You literally said the condition is you want to go on dates with me," she says, "Date with an 's'. It's plural."

"Thought you'd never catch on that," he winks and Chaeyoung's heart flips. Maybe it's her imagination. "Can I kiss you?"

"What?" She thinks she just had another heart flip.

"I'll take that as a no," he pushes his hands into his pockets. "Good night, Chaeyoung."