It had been almost an hour and Jungkook hadn't been able to properly finish the work assigned to him. He saw her today in his office. Everything was going according to plan after many times wasted trying to brainstorm new ideas for Bang Sihyuk's office and the smile on her face was so wide as she strode away, a sigh of relief made out of her lips, her arms hugging the files she had and Jungkook didn't need to get close to know that her eyes were gleaming with joy.

He should be happy for her, but he wasn't.

He couldn't get happy for her because the sight of Chaeyoung with Taehyung never left his mind. He even had a dream of him watching Chaeyoung in a white dress with Taehyung standing beside her. He awoke with sweats as though it was a terrifying nightmare.

Jungkook had hoped for her to grab a simple meal in the cafeteria like she used to before going off somewhere, but when he went there, she was nowhere in sight. He felt his heart clenched as he mulled over the thought of her heart had been occupied by someone else who wasn't him.

Perhaps, Taehyung did change for the better after all. If he didn't, there would be no way she would let him in for the second time. Jungkook lowered his eyes as he seated himself on his chair, all the plans he had formed in his head now seemed useless.

*

"What's this for?" Jennie asked, eyeing her suspiciously.

"Did you win a lottery or something?" Namjoon asked, taking a piece of meat into his mouth.

Chaeyoung smiled warmly, taking a spoonful of rice into her mouth. "Remember the fussy client I was talking about?"

Namjoon didn't spare her a glance, concentration was fully on the food in front of him. Jennie on the other hand stopped chewing for a moment, giving her full attention on Chaeyoung as she nodded lightly. "Yeah, what's with him?"

Her hands clasped on the small space of the table before her. "Finally, like finally, he is satisfied and I can start working on his personal office. Probably the biggest burden's off of my shoulder."

"And so you're treating us?" Namjoon asked for confirmation and she nodded as a response. "Then you should have invited Taehyung to celebrate the loss of your stress."

Chaeyoung's chopsticks stayed in her mouth before she pulled it out completely, the smile she had on her face dropped and was replaced with a soft frown. When she lifted her eyes to look at Jennie, the latter was sighing next to Namjoon as if she was tired and annoyed. Her eyes drifted to Namjoon who was already looking back at her with an unimpressed expression evident on his face.

"What?" Namjoon questioned, feigning innocence. "You made up with him. You even had a dinner with him recently."

Jennie raised an eyebrow questioningly at her and Chaeyoung stared at her friend for a while, letting a sigh escaped her freely and loudly as she threw a glance at something else. "It's not like what you think."

"What's not like what we think?" Namjoon pushed. "Come on, I'm not going to embarrass you for finally eating back your words about him. I've always known that you two will always end up –"

"It's nothing like that. Nothing special about it," she cut him off. "Dream all you want."

Namjoon scoffed and let a smirk painted his face. "Why do you even agree to go to the dinner with him if it's nothing special?"

"I wanted to make things clear for him."

"You're just in denial."

"Stop it, Namjoon," Jennie warned, placing a hand on her boyfriend's arm.

"Fine, fine," he threw his hands in the air. He pushed the chair he was sitting on backwards, it screeched on the floor and he stood up.

"Where are you going?" Jennie asked.

"I need to pee," he said before he left.

Chaeyoung's eyes fixated on the food she didn't have the appetite to finish. She knew what her friend was thinking, it was probably just the same like what Namjoon had in mind. But it was far from that. She was telling them the truth. She wanted nothing but for Taehyung to understand out of the dinner they had the other night.

"His mom came," Jennie said gently. When Chaeyoung looked up, Jennie looked hesitant to look into her eyes. "We went to fetch her yesterday. She asked about you."

She froze in her seat. Taehyung's mom came and she didn't know what she was supposed to feel about it. "What did you guys tell her?"

"I told her you're fine and she asked why you haven't contacted her for so long. She missed you."

She took a sip of her drink and leaned back. Her brows knitted in confusion. She felt her heart twist at the unpleasant feeling she was having when she heard that. Even after the breakup long ago, Taehyung's mom hadn't lost her fondness for her and she almost felt guilty for it. Even after her son got dumped by Chaeyoung, she still looked for her. The older female had been nothing but nice to Chaeyoung for as long as they had known each other, treating her like her own child. She felt bad for not contacting Taehyung's mom just because her relationship had ended with Taehyung.

"Maybe you should give her a call, you know," Jennie told her.

Chaeyoung nodded her head softly yet still wrapped up with uncertainty. "Why's she here, though?" she asked, curious.

"I don't know," Jennie shrugged. "Namjoon told me that Tae had been quite busy recently. So maybe Taehyung hadn't gone back in a while so she wanted to give him a visit 'cause she missed him. You know how close-knitted they are as a family."

Chaeyoung wondered how she was going to start talking to Taehyung's mom. Would it be awkward? Would the older female show disappointment when they meet? It had been a while, though, so she doubted it.

*

Jungkook was fumbling with his keys as he walked behind Yoongi. The latter was busy trying to decide if he should purchase juice or some beer to fill in his fridge. They would be gathering at Yoongi's place for that night, some sad movies for both of the older males while Jungkook would be spending the time he had for some game. He hadn't been playing for a while now that his works had been stacking. He needed some time to get his mind off the worries that had been swirling around his head.

Moments later, Hoseok called him with a whisper from behind and spoke in a low voice. "I heard some guy and an older woman talking about Chaeyoung, I don't know if it's your Chaeyoung or someone else."

Jungkook heaved a sigh and shrugged. "So?"

"Nothing," Hoseok said after studying his face. "I just thought you would be curious. Who knows that guy is the one you've been talking about. Who was it again?"

"Kim Taehyung."

Hoseok's brows furrowed, head tilting slightly. "I think I heard the older woman mentioned that name. Taehyung."

He didn't think he was interested to know whatever it was those two people were talking about but obviously that would be a lie. Anything regarding Chaeyoung would spark his interest. Without the need to ask, Hoseok told him where the two people were, pointing on his left. Jungkook hid himself behind a shelf and tried to peek as careful as he could.

It was really Kim Taehyung with an older woman next to him as he pushed the cart before him slowly. The older woman was putting stuff inside the cart.

"Do you think I should make a surprise visit to her house or we have her for dinner and surprise her there?" the older woman asked Taehyung.

Taehyung chuckled gently and said, "I don't think that's necessary, mom. Pretty sure Jennie or Namjoon have told her that you're here."

"Too bad. I should have told them that they should keep it a secret."

Jungkook tried to look at the two once more and almost hit the shelf with his arm when he rushed to hide his face the moment Taehyung turned his head. He let his back pressed gently against the shelf, careful not to cause anything to fall. The two began talking again and every exchange of sentences that happened next had successfully made Jungkook's breath stopped and his heart felt as if it was about to be ripped out of his chest.

"So when's the proposal?" the woman asked.

Jungkook heard Taehyung's light chuckle before he answered with one word. "Soon."

*

That Sunday morning, it rained quite heavily. It distracted Chaeyoung's concentration while she was coloring a drawing of a bedroom. She had to get her mind off her work for a short moment and had decided to draw and design a bedroom of a child. Perhaps it would be a suitable design to use on her sister's child when she had one. It was supposed to be bright and cheerful but this dull, gloomy and slumber mood exuded by the rain outside made the bedroom on the paper looked unfit for a child.

She stared out the window of her bedroom. Putting the color pencil on the desk, she let her chin rest on top of her palm as she listened to the sound of the rain. Noisy at first, but it calmed her next. She closed her eyes and tried to get some inspiration with it as she forced everything out her mind, letting it blank so only rain-inspired ideas would fill in the crevices of her mind.

Instead of some great ideas that might be useful, her mind supplied her with someone.

Heavy rain, soaked up clothes, ruined makeup, handbag over her head, running on heels, shared umbrella, speeding car, New Year's Eve.

Jeon Jungkook.

This heavy rain right now reminded her of Jungkook the first time they met. Chaeyoung opened her eyes and let out a sigh. Her eyes darted to where her phone was on the desk. She didn't expect him to send her a short confusing message like before nor did she expect him to give her a sudden call and sing to her songs reflecting his emotions. But right after he caught her with Taehyung the other day, it was like he didn't exist in the world.

No message, no call, no stumbling upon each other by coincidence or not, no interaction at all.

Her insides laughed at her indecisive self.

She didn't know which one she wanted. To have him put his attention on her or for him to start ignoring her completely. Maybe what she actually need was for the latter because she felt like she wanted the attention he'd given her. It was absolutely unbelievable how she felt afraid that he had given up on her. Even if he had, she had no rights to turn his decision the other way because she herself didn't make any effort to make them work albeit the want for him never fade.

At the exact same time she grabbed her phone to scroll through the messages they'd sent to each other, she received a phone call from Taehyung.

"What are you doing?"

Her eyes closed in annoyance but she had to take this positively. Maybe Taehyung would forget his initial intention, maybe this was just him trying to be an annoying friend. "Nothing much, just drawing."

"You're not busy today?"

"Not really."

"Can you come over for lunch? My mom wants to see you so bad." A slight feeling of discomfort fell onto her. Taehyung was laughing at someone and Chaeyoung could hear that familiar voice of his mother talking in the background. "Yes, I'm sure she heard that!" he said, his voice a bit distant. "Did you hear that? She's begging you to come."

Swallowing the lump in her throat, Chaeyoung's grip on her phone loosened as her face softened. It wouldn't hurt to give a visit. "Okay. I'll be there."

*

He knew he shouldn't be doing this. It was wrong in the first place and never had he imagined himself to be doing this. But now here he was sitting in the backseat of his friend's car, eyeing on the building he'd seen Chaeyoung walked into that housed Taehyung.

He had followed Taehyung as careful as he could the other day when he heard of the latter's conversation with his mother about proposing to Chaeyoung. Hoseok had argued that this was unnecessary and if he really wanted to know for sure of what Chaeyoung would feel about this whole thing, he should have confronted her and asked her anything he wanted to know, if she had really chosen Taehyung over him. Yoongi on the other hand seemed to enjoy the idea of stalking when initially he showed no interest at all over this situation Jungkook had been facing.

He didn't check the time to know how many minutes or hours they had spent waiting outside the building. Yoongi had finally fallen asleep after wasting his time playing with his phone and Hoseok had been jamming to some songs before he went out to buy something to drink from a vending machine nearby. It was only a couple minutes away when his friend went out of the car that Chaeyoung, along with Taehyung and his mother had went out of the building together.

Jungkook literally jumped in the seat, leaning forward and his eyes that were about to give in to sleep shot open, unblinking as he kept his gaze on the three people.

Chaeyoung was smiling to not only the older woman but also to Taehyung. He saw her nodding lightly, pushing her hair to behind her ear before both hands held the strap of her handbag in front of her. The older woman talked to her for a minute or so before Chaeyoung turned to Taehyung, looking flushed before she let her gaze fall onto her feet or the floor. When she looked up again, her eyes met with Taehyung once more before she faced his mother. They hugged and Jungkook studied the way the older woman looked at Chaeyoung the moment she pulled back from the hug.

As ridiculous as it would sound, a small voice in his head told him that perhaps a wedding would be on the way. It would only be a matter of time.

*

Awkward at first but she slowly warmed up. Chaeyoung didn't think she'd be able to be treated or could treat Taehyung's mom like the early days but she was wrong. Not once did the older female made her feel like the breakup between Taehyung and her was anybody's fault. In fact, she never mentioned it at all.

When she realized all these, Chaeyoung sent Taehyung an appreciative small smile while his mother was busying herself in the kitchen to get the desserts out. The anger she had felt for him had eased down bit by bit, and she felt relaxed for the first time after what felt like an eternity.

The talk had been about her work, mostly. For the most part of the lunch, Taehyung kept his words limited, offering laughter and smiles instead which she appreciated very much. His mother had always shown a lot of interest in decorations and when someone with the same interest shared their mind and thought to her, Chaeyoung felt nothing but happiness coursing through her veins. She could talk for hours and wouldn't even realize if the day had changed to night. If it hadn't been for Taehyung who told them that he would be heading off to meet his friend, Chaeyoung wouldn't be able to stop.

"I wish you would come more often. I'll be here longer this time!" his mother told her when they were finally about to bid goodbye. "I'd love to see more of your recent works. I heard from Taehyung that you've improved so much that you got some good offers."

Chaeyoung nodded, shyly pushing the hair that had fallen on the side of her face to behind her ear. She smiled with her flushed face, always felt embarrassed when her works were praised by his mother.

"I still keep the design you made for your and Taehyung's future house. I have it framed in the guest room that you always stayed in when you used to come over," his mother said with a warm smile and Chaeyoung felt cheeks were blooming with heat as she glanced over at Taehyung. The memory was bittersweet to remember considering the fact that the design would never be put to life because she would never had a house with Taehyung, not anymore.

Unable to hide the way her face flushed, she looked down for a moment before looking up again at Taehyung, hoping that he would get the hint that it was going to the path of discomfort as soon as their past was brought up. Chaeyoung was unsure if he did catch the hint as he was only offering her a weak, hesitant smile.

Fortunately, Taehyung was running late and thanks to him the awkward conversation stopped. "Well I guess she needs to go, and I'll be going too so you get a rest, mom," he said with a gentle tone that he had always reserved for his mother.

Chaeyoung and the older woman shared a hug before the latter pulled back, gazing at her face warmly like she was hoping for something and Chaeyoung didn't know what that something would be if she did have a hope.

But deep in her heart, her instinct was telling her that anything that Taehyung'smother was hoping, it would be something huge, something big that she wouldn't even be sure if she would be able to handle it.