Chaeyoung froze when she realized Jungkook was about to follow her into the baby section.

"What are you doing?" When he looked at her with confused brows, she turned away. "Go somewhere else," she said awkwardly.

"Why? Aren't we going to buy gifts?"

"We?" Her brows were drawn together. "I'm buying gifts for my cousin. You... you don't have to."

Jungkook scoffed and ignored her request as he placed a hand on the small of her back. "Who do you think I am?" he asked without looking at her as he gently pushed her so she continued walking. "Am I not your fiancé? We're buying the gifts together."

Chaeyoung pushed his arm away with her elbow, putting a space between them. He really didn't need to. Wasn't he supposed to just show up at the event together with her?

"This is really unnecessary," she muttered and noticed him pausing in his steps from the corner of her eye.

"Can you stop saying that already?" he grunted beside her.

"Why? It really is unnecessary, don't you think? You're not even a gift person," she said as she mindlessly checked out the baby clothes.

"Who said I'm not a gift person?" Jungkook asked, dissatisfied as if he really had been slandered.

Chaeyoung rolled her eyes at him after mocking the way he asked her that question. She heard that big sigh coming out of him as she turned on her heel when she saw some adorable baby shoes. Her steps faltered when Jungkook caught up to her, walking closely just right on her side.

"Why are you still here, Mr. Gift-Is-Unnecessary?"

"Look, I am sorry, okay? I didn't mean to say your gift was unnecessary. I—"

"Oh, whatever. Save your explanation, Mr. Jeon. Don't be a nuisance here and go away." She waved her hand to shoo him away and blinked in surprise when he caught her hand.

Jungkook seemed as though he had a lot more to say, probably an explanation as thick as a dictionary as he looked into her eyes. Then, instead of shooting her with more explanation like what she expected him to do, he softly sighed and said, "Thank you for the belated birthday gift."

She didn't know for how many seconds she stood there frozen, their eyes locked onto each other with her hand in his. Both only moved when another customer cleared her throat, asking for some space since they were blocking her path. Chaeyoung quickly retracted her hand in embarrassment, stepping away in haste before she decided to get back to the baby clothes area quickly, not bothering if Jungkook was following her or not.

She ignored the stupid way her heart had missed a beat earlier. She convinced herself that it happened because she was just surprised, that it matched a jumpscare scene in horror movies and not for other reasons. There was no other reason. There should not be.

When she felt the presence of Jungkook near her, she thought of running away to somewhere else so they would be far apart but she saw the time and if she spent more time avoiding him than finding gifts for her cousin, they'd be late. Chaeyoung forced herself not to react when he'd simply stood beside her, his arm brushing against hers very slightly.

After going back and forth between baby clothes and baby shoes, Chaeyoung eventually decided on both. Jungkook was a step ahead of her, already waiting for her at the cash register and Chaeyoung frowned when he took out his card. She immediately snatched it out from his hand when he was handing it to the cashier, surprising both the cashier and him.

Chaeyoung put his card into his breast pocket, patting it with a fake smile. "I can pay for these myself."

She took her hand off after realizing that Jungkook's eyes were locked on where her hand lingered on his left chest. "I know you can," he said after a while, "but let me pay for you."

"No!" she lifted her hand when he tried to take her card.

He grabbed her elbow when she tried to push her hand forward to the cashier. "Take mine." He gestured to his card that he managed to place it on the counter while preventing her from handing her card. The cashier looked hesitant as he contemplated whether to take the card or not. "Use my card," Jungkook insisted.

"Hey! No! Use mine!" Chaeyoung tried to wriggle herself free from his hold and attempted to throw her card onto the counter or just flick his card away, but Jungkook blocked her with his whole body, and at some point, he'd turn her around and his arms were encasing her, her back meeting his chest.

"These are my gifts, I won't let you pay!" she argued and tried to elbow him but failed. "Go find your own gift!"

"You won't take the donuts I bought for you, so," he paused briefly to hold both her wrists, "let me pay for your gifts!"

Chaeyoung stopped fighting, her brows furrowed momentarily before she turned her head to look at him. "I ate all the donuts."

Jungkook blinked down at her and she gulped at how close his face was from behind her.

"Really?" he asked softly. His frown had slowly dissipated at each second after her revelation.

When she felt his hold on her loosened, Chaeyoung effortlessly freed herself from him, taking his card from the cashier's hand and calmly breathed. "Use my card, please," she said, handing her card.

She spun around and saw Jungkook fixing his crumpled shirt. She avoided his eyes when she handed him back his card, and he wordlessly took it. They went back to his car in silence, and Jungkook drove in silence, too.

During the whole ride to her cousin's place, Chaeyoung couldn't rid the thought of him innocently believing that she had given the donuts away and had truly felt upset about it too.

*

Jungkook chose to walk behind Chaeyoung when he realized that she really refused to have him walking on her side. She would walk slower or faster so they weren't walking together and it took all his might not to grab her, drag her back to the car. But for what? Just to ask her why she seemed pissed? Wasn't it already obvious that she was after he practically caged her in his embrace earlier?

He didn't even intend to hug her like that. He just wanted to block her and prevent her from paying. He tried to shake some sense into himself after they broke contact, because her scent lingered and his hands felt empty right after.

Jungkook forced himself not to think of what happened earlier as he let Chaeyoung go on her own after she introduced him to a few of her family members. He found the food section and saw donuts in the middle of the many desserts on the table.

"I ate all the donuts."

He tucked his tongue against his cheek, feeling his lips about to stretch. But then he got reminded of how agitated he felt at himself for even suggesting to give the donuts away, thinking that she really did it. He subconsciously scoffed, a small smile briefly appeared on his face. Park Chaeyoung, you jokester.

He grabbed a plate and took two donuts before he looked around, trying to search for her when he heard the sound of her laughing. Immediately, he located her by a chocolate fountain, talking and laughing with someone who was hidden by the fountain. Then, when Jungkook decided to wait until she finished talking with that person, the latter leaned toward her to whisper into her ear and Jungkook's jaw locked when he realized it was a man.

He dropped his earlier plan to approach her when she was completely free, already making his way toward the two people who seemed to be too friendly with each other and it was bothering him.

Greeting the two definitely wasn't his plan either. As soon as he arrived next to her without her realizing yet, Jungkook carefully slid his hand to her back while fixing his eyes on the man who had been making his fiancée laugh. Chaeyoung briefly froze before she slowly relaxed. Though, her laughter slowly died and Jungkook's irritation grew that she stopped laughing.

He definitely witnessed the way the man's smile slowly faded, his eyes dropping toward Jungkook's hand holding Chaeyoung's waist. Two beats later, the man recovered and displayed a huge smile.

"So, this is the man," the man chuckled and extended his hand toward Jungkook.

"Yes," Chaeyoung softly said, her cheeks pink. "This is him."

Jungkook looked at the man's hand and wanted to ignore it with the excuse that his hands were full; one to hold the favorite dessert of his fiancée and another to hold her. But Chaeyoung took the plate from him and Jungkook held himself from sighing.

He returned the man's handshake. "Jungkook."

"Jaehyun. Good to finally see you." Jaehyun gave him a bright smile but Jungkook knew it wasn't a sincere one.

Jaehyun turned back to Chaeyoung, and the smile instantly was more genuine. "I wish you had waited until I got back home for your engagement," Jaehyun said, his hand reaching toward hers, tapping the ring on her finger.

If Jungkook had a knife, Jaehyun's fingers would now be on the grass.

"Oh..." Chaeyoung laughed softly. "It's not like I knew he was going to propose. And it's not like we had a party or any big event for it."

"No way... no party?" Jaehyun tilted his head before chuckling at Jungkook. "If I were you, I would throw one."

Jungkook's jaw clenched. "I prefer to have that special moment shared only between me and her. Though, I did have the plan to make a grand one," he said although he never had one, "but I'm saving it for the wedding." He pulled her waist closer, attaching her to his side, "After all, with or without a party, she said 'yes' to me." He looked down at her, raising his brow. "Right?"

Chaeyoung's lips parted and Jungkook forced himself to look into her eyes only and ignore that tongue sticking out to lick her lips. Her eyes were fluttering and he couldn't help but notice how pretty her lashes were. "Y-yeah," she breathed.

A proud smirk plastered itself on his face. It didn't matter if Chaeyoung meant it, or she was just playing along. He was satisfied with her answer, basically giving him a win against this man who obviously thought he got a chance.

Jaehyun excused himself a while later with an awkward cough, saying he needed to see other people. When he was completely out of sight, Chaeyoung stepped aside, pressing his arm down and Jungkook reluctantly let her go.

He expected to be served with a side-eye, or an annoyed sigh, or with her trying to argue with him for even the tiniest thing. But Jungkook's brows dipped in confusion when she began to laugh.

"What are you laughing at?" His own smile threatened to reappear at the sound of her laughter.

She shook her head. "You're really taking this whole thing to another level," she said. "Pretending the made-up to be real. What's funnier is that," she lowered her voice and slightly leaned toward him, "people seem to buy it."

Frown hung on his face as he considered what she said. Sure, he wasn't interested in a romantic relationship with her. Obviously, the same was to be said with Chaeyoung herself. It even took lots of attempts to even get her to agree to help him out. What they had was nothing more than a business relationship.

To imply that their engagement was simply a made-up, though, would be totally false.

"No one is playing pretend," he said, slowly stepping to stand in front of her and Chaeyoung's laughter subsided. Jungkook looked down at her hand, reminded of just moments ago when Jaehyun had touched the ring he had put on her.

"We may not have an event to celebrate our engagement, but it's as real as our existence, Chaeyoung. And this ring," he held her hand, thumb rubbing against the ring as if he was trying to get rid of Jaehyun's traces, leaving only traces of him, "is our proof."

*

Chaeyoung was staring out the window when Jungkook's voice broke the silence in the car.

"Who is he?"

It took her a moment to figure out who was the 'he' that he was referring to. Her mind had been filled with Jungkook's gestures toward her for the whole day during the party. She didn't want to think too further into his actions, and refused to classify them as what, but her cousin's comment about Jungkook when Chaeyoung bid her goodbye kept circling her mind.

"Your fiancé is very doting."

She was very convinced that he was playing a role to cover their arguments that always came all of a sudden. He did so great being one, especially during any events that they had to attend together. Chaeyoung couldn't be more sure of it, but what he said about their engagement bothered her to no end. It bothered her even more that his statement got her flustered, her heart missing a beat.

"What, is he an ex boyfriend?"

Chaeyoung was pulled out of her reverie with his question. "No, he's not."

Jungkook only hummed, and it sounded like he wasn't satisfied with her answer. "Jaehyun's been a childhood friend of mine since we were around eight? Nine? Somewhere around that age. We hung out a lot before he moved to the States when we were like 15 or 16."

"Oh, childhood crush," he commented and Chaeyoung snorted.

"No, but he was my first kiss," she chuckled.

Her memory from when years ago came back, a smile began to spread on her face as she reminisced the day Jaehyun had to leave. "When Jaehyun had to leave for the States, that's when I got my first kiss," she laughed. "We actually were just supposed to hug each other, but both of us were crying and we just went for the hug and— and we accidentally kissed! It was so funny now that I think about it."

When she glanced at Jungkook who was driving with one hand on the wheel while the other hand rubbing his clenched jaw, Chaeyoung's words came out before she could stop them.

"Thankfully we hate each other's guts, Mr. Jeon. Or I would think you're being jealous," she chuckled.

Jungkook stopped rubbing his jaw, but his jaw was still tight. He scoffed. "I would never."