Chaeyoung sat uncomfortably in the car, trying her best not to panic as Jungkook's foot was not lifting even a bit from the gas pedal.

"Are you trying to get us both killed?" she asked, no longer able to hide her fear.

Jungkook's grip on the wheel tightened, but he slowed down bit by bit until they were only at 90 km/h. When they finally reached her place, Chaeyoung didn't immediately get out. She sat there and watched him staring blankly to the front. Jungkook only realized she was staring at him after a few moments.

"What's the matter?" he asked.

"This won't do," she muttered, unbuckling her seatbelt. "Are you going somewhere else after this?"

Jungkook shook his head.

"Come with me, then. I'll fix a drink for you."

His forehead creased further. "What?"

"I can't let you go home like this."

"Like what?"

"Like this. I don't know the reason but you're obviously beyond pissed." She gestured toward him. "You drove over the speed limit and I bet you'd do just the same if I let you go home in this state."

Jungkook merely stared at her and she cleared her throat.

"If you get killed before our wedding, I won't get my share," she joked and almost smiled herself when she saw a hint of smile playing on his lips.

Jungkook did as told, wordlessly followed her into her house. He seated himself on the couch as she went to the kitchen to make a cup of mint tea for him, hoping that it would relieve him of his stress. As she walked back to the living room, she sighed softly as her eyes settled on Jungkook leaning his head against the wall, his eyes fixated on the black screen of the TV.

"Here," she passed the cup to him before rounding the table and took a seat next to him.

Jungkook rubbed his thumb against the mouth of the cup, bringing it up to his nose. "Mint?"

"Mmhm," she nodded. "It helps with the stress, every time. At least for me."

He looked at her long before he took a sip. Jungkook tapped his finger a few times on the cup, placing it on the table in front of him after.

"How are you feeling?" she asked, biting her lower lip.

A small chuckle left him. "Is that how it worked for you? A little sip and you're all good?"

Chaeyoung pressed her lips, forming a line. "Of course not. I wasn't even trying to see if the tea helped after one sip." She shifted on the couch so she was completely facing him, her elbow propped on the backrest as she let her head rest on her palm. "Do you want to talk about it? If you don't want to, that's fine. I don't mean to pry. I just thought that—"

"My grandfather wished to pass most of his wealth to his eldest grandson. The rest could have what's left," Jungkook cut her off and her lips were instantly sewn. "Sungjae's my eldest cousin. So by right, he'd be the one getting the most. The only condition my grandfather set was for his grandson to get married at the latest by 26 years old."

Her brows were furrowed as memories of him putting his best effort to get her to agree to marry him because he refused to have his name dropped from the will. "If Sungjae's your eldest cousin and he's the one who was the first on the list..."

"Why did I work so hard to not get my name erased?" He finished it for her and she nodded when he side-glanced her. "Well, first of all, I think I deserve it. I worked my ass off to get to where I am now in the company. Sure, I wasn't the founder, like how Sungjae is with his current business now. But my position now wasn't passed to me the moment I joined the company. I started from the bottom just like any other employee and now here I am."

Chaeyoung watched as her finger lightly scratched the sofa, processing the pieces of his life he'd just shown to her. "But what about Sungjae?"

Chaeyoung waited as Jungkook took another sip and continued to listen, not wanting to interrupt despite the many curious questions she had running in her mind.

"A few days before he got married, his name was dropped off the will, and I moved up the list." Jungkook took a few moments to say the next words. "My grandfather found out that he was not the biological son of my uncle."

Her mouth slightly opened in surprise, a gasp sound almost leaving but she swallowed it down.

"Sungjae found out that he was dropped off the will shortly after he got married and was infuriated. Well, long story short, his dislike toward me grew after finding that out."

Jungkook leaned back and tilted his head upward, staring into the ceiling as the back of his head met the wall. "I'm sorry for what he said. It doesn't matter if he only merely stated the truth. There are other ways to say it, but he chose to say it rudely."

Her lips curved into a small smile. Shaking her head, she assured him again that it was all fine. Jungkook shut his eyes and sighed heavily, the creases on his forehead deepening. Despite already talking it out, the topic seemed difficult to put to rest. Seconds passed, his eyebrows knitted even more as though millions of thoughts were running through his head.

Slowly, Chaeyoung reached her hand toward his face, her index finger gently pressed in between his brows before she slowly dragged it upward. Jungkook's chest stopped moving and his eyes slowly opened. Their eyes locked momentarily before she averted her eyes away, focusing on his forehead instead.

"Stop frowning," she said softly. "Or you'll start getting permanent wrinkles early on," she chuckled briefly.

Jungkook said nothing and when she looked back into his eyes, her thumb began to make contact with his forehead too. She began to gently massage his head, her thumb rolled about his forehead. Jungkook's eyelids began to fall shut and his breathing became calmer the longer she massaged him. Before she realized it, she was already shifting closer toward him on the couch. Just when she thought he'd fallen asleep, a soft gasp left her when he began to lean his face into her hand.

His nose met her palm and he inhaled deeply. His left hand rose and gently held onto her arm before it crawled up to her hand that was massaging his head. Jungkook held her hand tight, his thumb rubbing against the back of her hand and Chaeyoung realized that it was making her own breathing become irregular. It was as if he was breathing her scent in, especially when his nose leisurely traveled from her palm down to her wrist.

When she tried to caress his face, though, his eyes opened in an instant and his movement stopped. Jungkook looked at her and his eyes slightly widened like he'd just realized something. He quickly pushed her hand off his face and stood up. "I'm sorry."

"Wait," she tried to pull him back into the couch but he'd instantly walked away. "Jungkook."

Chaeyoung hastily stood to her feet and caught up to him, pulling his sleeve and making him turn toward her. "Hey, are you okay?"

Jungkook wouldn't look at her, only nodding his head, jaw locked. Chaeyoung frowned as she tried to search his eyes but he was obviously avoiding her. When she lifted her hand to touch the side of his face, Jungkook was quick to catch her wrist before she could do so.

"Enough," he said. "I'm fine."

"Jungkook—"

"Thanks for the tea."

Before she could say even one more word, Jungkook immediately left her house and the door closed with a bang, leaving her confused and disappointed for the second time that night.

*

"What's with the sour face?" Jimin asked as soon as Jungkook entered Jimin's house, followed by Taehyung.

"He took so long to leave his girlfriend's damn house," Jungkook gestured toward Taehyung.

"Please, your face has been sour for days. Must be a problem with your fiancée."

Jungkook narrowed his eyes on his friend and tried to counter but Jimin interrupted. "Right, you've been hanging out with us even when we didn't want to," Jimin said.

"Exactly," Taehyung supported Jimin.

"Get the hell out then," Jungkook grunted.

"It's my house. You get the hell out," Jimin laughed.

"I was talking to him," he pointed to Taehyung.

Taehyung placed an arm around Jimin. "It's his house. I live here rent free."

Jungkook decided to ignore his two close friends and plopped on the couch, waiting for Jimin to get them snacks before they started playing some games as promised. He unlocked his phone and swiped mindlessly, his other hand subconsciously went to his head, his fingers pressing against his skull gently. Then, a memory flashed through his mind when a certain hand massaged his head very gently.

He took his hand off his head and sighed heavily, recalling how calm and at peace he felt at Chaeyoung's gentle massage and how intoxicated he felt when he began running his nose down her hand, breathing her in. If he hadn't stopped...

He shook his head and thought of the days he hadn't seen her. He forced himself to indulge only in his work, and spent most of his time in his office. He'd gone to work before anyone else did, went back home after everyone was gone just so that he'd be too tired to think of anything. If he wasn't tired enough, he'd drag his friends out, or invite himself into their place.

While Taehyung and Jimin were arguing over some snacks, Jungkook's brows furrowed upon seeing Chaeyoung's profile on Instagram.

She had made her profile private and Jungkook hadn't followed her yet.

His frown deepened, as he tried going back and forth between her profile and the search page. He went to Taehyung's and Jimin's following list but couldn't find Chaeyoung there.

"Taehyung," he reached out a hand, "lend me your phone."

"What?"

Jungkook groaned and waved his hand. "Lend me your damn phone. Quick."

Taehyung tossed the phone at him and went back to Jimin. "Don't check my messages with my girlfriend. I'll kill you if you do."

"No one wants to see the nudes you've been sending each other," he commented nonchalantly and Taehyung paused in his steps. He looked up to see Taehyung slightly flustered and Jungkook scrunched his face. "You guys have been sending nudes?"

"Just— Don't check the message," Taehyung reminded him again, pointing his index finger toward Jungkook.

Jungkook shooed Taehyung as he immediately opened the latter's Instagram, navigated toward Taehyung's following list and searched for Chaeyoung, groaning when he couldn't find her. He didn't know what he expected, especially since he'd already checked that Taehyung wasn't even following Chaeyoung.

"Jimin," he passed back Taehyung his phone, "Your phone."

"What?"

"Let me use your phone for one sec." He saw Jimin's phone on the kitchen counter and instantly grabbed it without getting permission beforehand. Jimin didn't bother and let him have his way as he went back to arguing with Taehyung that he should be the one eating the Honey Chips because he bought it.

His eyes narrowed when he realized that Jimin had another account that he wasn't following. Jungkook was conflicted whether or not he'd be fine with his friends following his fiancée while her account was on private mode. Though it was entirely his fault that he didn't follow her when she still had her account public. Multiple things ran through his mind as he thought of the reasons as to why she went private. Was she okay?

He sighed when he went to search for her through Jimin's Instagram, only to view a private account.

"What are you looking for?"

"Nothing," he sighed, clearing the search history before handing back the phone to Jimin.

Jungkook's thumb hovered over the 'follow' button on Chaeyoung's profile for minutes, contemplating if he should follow her. He had even considered sneakily changing her account to public again the next time he met her. He would make up excuses to borrow her phone if she ever threw him a thousand questions.

"Are you going to play or not?" Jimin asked, already on his way to the gaming room.

"Coming." He stood up and lightly grunted as he tapped on the 'follow' button, his heart raced momentarily as he shoved his phone into his pocket.

For the hours that he spent playing games with his friends, he kept checking his phone whenever he could, trying to see if Chaeyoung had already accepted his follow request. The longer he waited, the more anxious he became that he even considered calling her right away to just accept his follow request.

When he arrived home and was finally ready for bed, he decided to scroll through his phone just to pass the time before falling asleep. Jungkook sprung on the bed, a smile spread on his lips when he noticed that he had been approved by Chaeyoung.

He noticed that she'd uploaded five new posts, quickly tapping on the first post of the five. It was just a series of pictures of her and her dog whom he'd never met before, but he assumed that the dog whose name was Hank was probably under her sister's care.

The second post was just a single picture of her posing in front of her long mirror, with luggage on her side and an airplane emoticon as a caption. Jungkook's brows furrowed, but he scrolled upward to check on the third post that included multiple pictures ranging from her in the airport, her passport on her lap, inside the plane, her food, some buildings and the sky. The caption said 'nyc let's go'.

"What are you doing in New York?" he muttered, his thumb busy swiping left and right, his eyes zoomed in on the date when she posted.

It was a couple days after he had left her house on the day they had the monthly dinner at his parents' place.

Jungkook rushed to scroll to the fourth post. He paused and wetted his lips upon seeing the first picture that was of her lying on the bed only in her robe, a smirk playing on his lips when he noticed that the back of her hand was resting on her face, her lips meeting the ring on her finger. He swiped to the next picture and almost scrolled to the next post when he saw that it was just a picture of several takeouts, but she had tagged someone for that picture and Jungkook tapped to see.

Two people were tagged and his smirk dropped when he noticed that one of them was someone whose handle was '_jeongjaehyun'. Jungkook tapped on the account to check if it really was the man whom Jungkook had considered as a nemesis of his. His frown deepened when it really was Jaehyun, and the latest picture that Jaehyun posted was of Chaeyoung, making the hold Jungkook had on his phone tightened. Chaeyoung sitting across from Jaehyun as he took a picture of them both while she was making a kissy face toward the camera almost made him toss his phone away.

Jungkook read the caption and scoffed.

'so good to see you again'

When he accidentally tapped on the comments under the picture Jaehyun posted of him and Chaeyoung, Jungkook scoffed even more after reading comments teasing Jaehyun about the identity of the girl he was with, clear implications that they assumed she was Jaehyun's girlfriend.

"Fucker," he muttered under his breath.

He went back to Chaeyoung's profile and sighed heavily as he tapped on the latest post and swiped through the pictures.

Food. Flowers. Alcohols. Dimly lit space. Jaehyun.

The last picture had five people in it with each of them wearing flower necklaces. On the left most was someone whose handle was 'hyeri_0609', second left was a 'sooyaaa__', in the middle was Chaeyoung holding a glass of wine, beside his fiancée was Jaehyun who was unnecessarily so close toward her, and next to him was a foreign guy who wasn't tagged.

Jungkook scoffed out loud in his room, glancing away for a moment from his phone before his face turned even more serious than he was before. Jungkook pushed his tongue against his cheek as he stared at the picture.

"Why the fuck is he everywhere, Chaeyoung?" he asked despite her absence in his current space.

He had the urge to call Yugyeom to cancel or postpone all his upcoming schedules because he was about to book a plane ticket to New York when the caption caught his eyes.

'guess who got lei'd?'

What the fuck.

With gritted teeth, Jungkook tossed his phone to the other side of the bed. What the fuck was that supposed to mean? Was she drunk when she posted that? His night turned into a sleepless one, hours spent into tossing and turning, overthinking over the meaning behind a simple caption.