"Wished you could stay longer."

Chaeyoung's soft smile appeared on her face as she took the bag of gifts Jaehyun handed her. "Maybe next time," she winked playfully and Jaehyun laughed softly. "Thanks. These are a lot."

"You sure you can't stay longer?" Jaehyun asked, his eyes soft as he gazed at her.

Chaeyoung could probably apply for leave for one or two more days. After working so hard on this business trip, she was convinced that her boss would let her go on a vacation. But Chaeyoung surprisingly missed home. It didn't help that her mind hadn't been able to be freed of the thought of a certain someone, reminding her everything about home that made her long to be back at Seoul as quickly as she could.

"Wish I could," she chuckled. "But there's so much to do."

Jaehyun nodded his head but sighed heavily and pulled her into a tight hug. Chaeyoung was briefly surprised but hugged her friend back, though when the hug lasted more than she thought it would, her finger that was wrapped with her engagement ring weirdly felt tighter, and Chaeyoung immediately pulled back from Jaehyun.

She bid her friend goodbye before boarding the plane, her stomach tingling with excitement as she thought of home.

*

"Is Mr. Jeon in?" Chaeyoung asked the receptionist with a tired smile.

Despite the long flight and her initial plan to dive into her own bed and sleep for ten hours once she arrived in Seoul, she had napped in her couch instead and jumped into a cab an hour after she woke up.

"How many times do you have to come here to see him without making an appointment?"

Chaeyoung's smile fell and so did the receptionist's. As Ms. Han approached Chaeyoung, she hated how it made her feel timid as the latter inspected her from head to toe. Perhaps it was a mistake to arrive there with her appearance slightly messed up. Maybe she should have gotten her face touched up before jumping into the cab in a rush to see Jungkook. Because now that his assistant was looking at her up and down, insecurity slowly wrapped around herself that she couldn't help but feel like running away that instant.

"What business do you have with him?" Ms. Han asked.

Chaeyoung tried to breathe calmly and tilted her chin up. "It's not something to be disclosed to just anyone."

"Ms. Han—" The receptionist tried to interrupt but the owner of the name scoffed.

"Well, then. For the second time I'm reminding you, if you ever need to see him for any business at all, make an appointment."

She walked away after flipping her long hair, her heels clicking away and Chaeyoung's teeth lightly dug into her bottom lip, her mind began to think of the relationship her fiancé had with that woman.

"Ms. Park," the receptionist called her and she blinked. "You do not actually have to make an appointment to see Mr. Jeon." The receptionist displayed an apologetic smile. "But Mr. Jeon is not in. He left just about 30 minutes ago."

Chaeyoung checked the time and noticed that there were another two hours before he should be off from work. "Where is he off to? Does he have a meeting outside?"

The receptionist shook her head. "I believe I heard him telling Yugyeom that he's going home."

Her brows dropped. "Home? Is he okay?"

"I'm not quite sure, Ms. Park. But he doesn't seem to be okay these past few days."

Chaeyoung wasted no time, rushing to say her 'thank you' to the kind receptionist before she quickly grabbed a cab and headed to his apartment. As soon as she arrived, Chaeyoung rang the bell once but her patience ran out just three seconds after pressing the bell. She checked back the text he sent her of the passcode to his apartment and quickly punched the buttons to access his house.

As soon as she stepped into his house, she was met with Jungkook who was standing by the kitchen counter, his face transformed from anxious to relaxed when their eyes met. His hand was pressed to the edge of the counter, his other hand holding a glass of water midair.

"Hey..." She walked toward him in slow steps. "Sorry I barged in. I was... Are you okay?"

Jungkook merely stared at her, opened his mouth a moment later, seeming as though he wanted to say something but eventually sipped on his drink instead.

"I thought you're still in New York," he said after his glass was empty.

She didn't remember telling him that she'd be in New York for a business trip, though she eventually assumed that he must have known it from Taehyung since Jennie would have said something about it.

Chaeyoung placed her handbag on the couch and went back to him. "I just got back."

He didn't say anything, the hand that was holding a glass earlier now pushed into his pocket. She could sense that he wasn't in his best mood and she wondered why.

"Are you—"

"You didn't tell me you were leaving for a vacation," he muttered, eyes locked on the floor.

Chaeyoung drummed her fingers lightly on the counter, her fingers merely inches away from his. "It wasn't a vacation. I went there for a business trip."

Jungkook played with his bottom lip in between his teeth. "Business trip, huh?"

Chaeyoung hummed her reply along with a gentle nod.

"Seemed like you had a lot of fun on that business trip." Jungkook finally looked up and his gaze was firm. "Even your ex-boyfriend was there joining in the fun."

Her brows knitted. The last time she met her ex-boyfriend was when they broke up and they hadn't seen each other ever since. "Ex-boy—" Then, her memories from when she attended her cousin's baby shower party with Jungkook surfaced in her mind.

She remembered everything clearly like it just happened minutes ago. How Jungkook had asked her if Jaehyun was her ex-boyfriend, how he had seemed to be irritated the whole time she was talking about Jaehyun being her first kiss.

A smile almost spread on her lips at Jungkook's reaction. She bit her bottom lip gently to stop herself from smiling but it was a failed attempt when a soft chuckle escaped.

"Jaehyun's not my ex," she stated.

"I didn't know you're working with him," he said, a challenging brow raised, completely ignoring her clarifying the relationship she had with Jaehyun.

"I'm not." She shook her head. "He lives there. I told him I was heading to New York for work and he just took me out to eat with some of my colleagues."

"And you didn't even tell me you had to go for a business trip?" Jungkook's frown grew heavier. "You could tell him, but not me?"

Chaeyoung's face fell upon seeing the hurt displayed on his face, despite the calm composure he was trying so hard to maintain. The trip was a last minute request from her senior at work, and she had packed everything in a rush that even some minor mishaps happened. She had accidentally left some important documents and she had to book another flight after missing one. But it was truly not an excuse that she couldn't tell her fiancé once she arrived. Or even a day after she arrived. If she was in his shoes, she would have been upset too.

"I'm sorry," she softly said and tried to hold the hand that he hid inside his pocket and when Jungkook didn't pull his hand away, she calmly explained the situation to him.

"I should've told you. I'm really sorry I didn't."

"I thought we agreed," he sighed. "Didn't we agree that I should at least know where you'd be?"

Her finger pinched the sleeve of his jacket, nodding her head. "We did. I'm sorry."

"You even went to some bar with some man. And I had no idea about it," he continued to say.

"I wasn't alone with Jaehyun. I was with my colleagues," she sighed and furrowed her brows in confusion. "Wait, how did you know I went to a bar?"

"How would I answer if people asked me where my fiancée is? What would people say if they saw you on a date with some motherfucker and I was nowhere to be seen?"

Chaeyoung's brows furrowed further before she slowly pieced the fragments of her memories together. One stranger whose account was private had recently followed her after she had made her account private. She had wanted to see what Jungkook would do if she turned her account private since he wasn't following her. Her suspicion was there, but she had been too busy to investigate who could be the owner of that account with the strange handle so she had just approved it and had completely forgotten about it later that day. Now that she thought of the handle, everything clicked.

"Are you 'abcdefghi__lm'—"

"Yes," he cut her off, his tone heavy. "Hell yes I am."

She watched how his frown deepened, how his chest rose and fell heavily, obvious frustration hanging on his face.

"I'm so sorry." A soft smile threatened to break her face. "I didn't think it was that important because it was just a business trip. And I thought our agreement only applied when I wanted to go to someplace like... that place."

"It doesn't matter," he scoffed. "I still think I deserve to know."

"Well, if I was planning on going to some nightclub overseas, it's not like you could be there with me," she laughed but slowly her laughter faded when she realized that his face stayed serious. She stared into his eyes for a few moments and swallowed. "Could you?"

Jungkook remained wordless for seconds before he asked her a question that made everything within her turn chaotic.

"Why couldn't I?"

She bit her lips. "I mean, you could be busy, your schedules would probably be packed—"

"I can reschedule everything."

"It would be outside of the country!" She crossed her arms across her chest. "You would need to fly—"

"And?"

"And...? And... And what if it was a last minute plan from my end and you were about to have a meeting or you could already be in a meeting—"

"I can cut the meeting short, or I can cancel it."

His responses were so quick that she didn't have an idea whether or not he'd thought of it before he spoke. Perhaps he wouldn't exactly do the exact things he'd mentioned if ever one day, they were in a similar situation as how she'd described it. But even so, his responses got her heart fluttered and the smile on her face was no longer controllable that she eventually giggled, amused with how serious he was with this conversation.

"Fine," she sighed, defeated. "The next time I'm going on a trip, be it a vacation or a business trip, I'll drag you with me," she said and without a second thought, Chaeyoung leaned into him before pressing her lips onto his cheek, soft and fleeting. "Are we good now?"

Jungkook stiffened and his eyes darkened. There was something about the way he was looking at her that made the floor feel like it was shaking, her knees weak, and her stomach knotted. If she stared into his eyes longer, she was convinced that the floor would melt into a puddle of goo. Chaeyoung swallowed the sudden lump in her throat as many thoughts circled her mind, conflicted between the voices of her heart and her brain as slowly, her two hands gently placed on his chest before they crawled upward to hang onto his shoulders. She couldn't look him in the eyes as she did so, feeling heat all over her face.

When she spoke, it was as if her voice was reluctant to be heard.

"If it makes you feel better," she began softly, eyes downcast as her fingers awkwardly played with the collar of his jacket. "While I was there, I couldn't wait to go home every time I started the day."

After his long silence, Jungkook finally replied with a single word, his voice slightly hoarse. "Why?"

Chaeyoung breathed in as she chewed on her bottom lip, her cheeks hotter as her eyes landed on his lips briefly before looking into his eyes.

"Because I wanted to see you."

Jungkook's jaw went tight and she moved her right hand to hold his face before she began caressing his jaw to soothe it. Her airway was blocked the closer her face was to him as she began moving forward, her eyes fixated on his lips. She shut her eyes when the tip of her nose touched his, inhaling for the last time before she surrendered herself into the temptation.