She had been thinking a lot over Jungkook and his worry. It had slowly grew in her that she had started worrying so much, so much that it was getting harder for her to get a sleep. Talking to Jungkook on the phone didn't help to completely rid the shared worry that had been swirling inside her head. There was no debating when Chaeyoung texted him first to ask him what he was doing and despite the smile she had on her face when he called her instead of replying to her text, she was still bothered by his dream.

They talked for quite some time on the phone, topics were mostly about recent songs they enjoyed and each of them sang to each other; she sang to him a small portion of the song if he hadn't heard of it and vice versa. It was like back to square one, when they were strangers to each other who were about to learn about one another. It was a wonderful feeling nevertheless, and every single time he called out her name through the phone with a soft and warm voice, sometimes it was almost melodic and soothing, it made her smile nonstop to the point that she had to bite her lip to stop herself.

When the call finally ended, she released a long sigh and the longing for him just doubled in an instant. She put her phone away, and her eyes stared straight ahead at her closet. For a split second, she wondered what it was that was making her uneasy but then it clicked almost immediately when she was reminded of the dress Taehyung had bought for her to wear during Namjoon's proposal in a few days.

Namjoon's proposal reminded her of weddings, and weddings reminded her of what Jungkook's dream was.

She wanted some clarity before the worst could happen. The longer she sat on her bed, the more uneasy she felt. Chaeyoung slid off the bed and stepped out of her bedroom once she grabbed her purse. She took her car key with her and headed to Taehyung's house.

*

Jungkook heard his doorbell was ringing endlessly while he was just out of his shower. Just as he wrapped his towel around his lower body, his phone rang in his bedroom. He rushed out and literally threw himself on the bed to reach his phone on the bedside table. It was Chaeyoung and at the same time he slid his thumb to answer her call, he looked at his door, slowly standing up straight.

"Chaeyoung?" he said quickly to the phone.

"Please open the door," she breathed and Jungkook didn't need to be told twice as he practically ran while holding his towel to not let it fall.

His hand slammed onto the doorknob and he pulled the door open, his breath stuck to his throat and his hand that was holding the phone fell to his side upon seeing Chaeyoung's face damped with fresh tears and her eyes were red.

"What's wrong?" he asked softly, his free hand reaching out to touch her shoulder. "Come inside."

She was holding on her breath and choked on her sobs in the doorway. Lowering her head, he felt her body slightly shook as she cried there. She said something incoherently and Jungkook furrowed his brows, trying to listen closely to know what she was talking about but he failed. He lowered his head as he stroked her hair.

"It's true, Jungkook," she said as he looped an arm around her shoulder to drag her inside.

Confused, Jungkook put his phone on the small table next to the door quickly and turned his attention on her immediately. "What's true?" he asked just before he pushed her gently to take a seat on the couch. Jungkook sat next to her with his arm was still on her shoulder. When Chaeyoung wouldn't say anything, despite the curiosity rising up within him, Jungkook just squeezed her shoulder and pulled her closer to him.

He held his breath when she leaned her head on his shoulder and her arms began to find his waist. They sat there doing nothing but pulling each other close as she sobbed quietly. It was minutes later when she finally calmed down that she pulled herself away from him, and he reluctantly let it happen as he took his arm off her shoulder as well.

Chaeyoung buried her face in her palms and her hair fell like curtains closing in. Jungkook gently pushed her hair to behind her ear and stroked her head softly. Just as he was about to ask her again what exactly happened, she lifted her head and faced forward, letting her hands fall to her lap before she began, "Taehyung wants me to marry him."

At that moment, Jungkook felt as though the ground was shifting beneath him, perhaps, ready to swallow him whole.

*

Chaeyoung knocked on the door impatiently when the three times she pressed on the doorbell didn't alarm Taehyung from inside. When she lifted her hand again to punch against the door, the barrier swung open slowly, revealing Taehyung's mother wearing a confused expression before it morphed into a warm smile.

"Chaeyoung," she said it softly with the warm smile broadening on her face. "Here to see Taehyung?"

Taehyung's mother looked like she was about to go out with the purse she was holding close to her chest and the light makeup she had on her face.

"Um," Chaeyoung swallowed and tried to pull a smile but she couldn't so she nodded and lowered her eyes. "Yes. There's something I want to talk about."

"He's just done showering and will be out in a minute. I was getting ready to go out, need to buy some groceries for him." His mother sighed and shook her head with a motherly smile as their eyes met. "I don't know how he can go for months without eating proper meals cooked at home."

Chaeyoung shifted uncomfortably on the floor when his mother put a hand on her arm and squeezing it tenderly. "But I won't worry much since he got you to –"

"Chaeyoung!" Taehyung's voice greeted from far inside the house, cutting his mother's words before his figure appeared. He walked to them and slung an arm on her mother's shoulder.

Taehyung's mother's smile didn't falter but widened instead as Chaeyoung noticed she was looking back and forth between Chaeyoung and her son. "Oh, well I should leave you two here while I go and shop."

"I said let me do the grocery shopping, mom," Taehyung told his mom, pulling her close to him.

She smiled warmly and shook her head, giving his son a look next. "It's not even far from here. I can manage it on my own. What do you want to eat today, Tae?"

Taehyung seemed to consider it for a moment before he nodded softly at his mother. "You know I eat just about anything you cook, mom. Just not the beans, I don't want any beans," he said, scrunching his face at the word 'beans', his head gave the word's repetition a tiny shake.

"I know that," his mother rolled her eyes playfully. "Alright, I'll get going."

"Careful, mom," Taehyung said with warmness in his voice.

She let out a small laughter as a response for his son's concern and managed to pat and pull Chaeyoung's shoulder to get her inside the house before she went away, closing the door behind her.

"What brings you by?" Taehyung asked with that unending smile on his face, turning on his heels to walk into the kitchen while she stayed rooted at where she was.

Taking the deepest breath, Chaeyoung exhaled loudly next and immediately asked, "I thought we're friends?"

He turned around briefly to look at her before heading towards the fridge to retrieve a bottle of juice. With a chuckle, he asked, "Why are you asking me that? Of course we're friends."

She was clearly not satisfied with his answer because behind it all, there was definitely something else. "Taehyung, to make things clear with you, when I said I want to be friends, I just want to be friends and that's where the limit is. There is no way this would develop into something more. No way."

Taehyung finally turned his whole body slowly, the smile on his face had faded and he gave nothing to respond.

"I'm asking you one last time, are we friends?" she asked with a desperate tone in her voice as she spoke.

"Yes," he replied.

"Then be honest with me when I ask you," she said sternly. This would be embarrassing if it turned out false but the endless dream Jungkook had and the unsettling feeling she'd been having had convinced her. "Is it true that you're planning on proposing to me, Tae?"

He stayed silent for the longest time and she felt her impatience was taking over. She walked over to him and said, "Taehyung, answer me."

He inhaled deeply, looking away as his jaw clenched. "Where did you get that info?"

"It doesn't matter where. Answer my question."

The corner of his lips pulled into a smirk before he looked her straight in the eyes. "It's supposed to be a surprise," he said softly, followed with a light brief chuckle.

"It's...true?"

"Yes. That's exactly my plan."

Her fist clenched on her side and she felt her teeth biting on her lower lip hard. "Why?"

He displayed a warm smile then, and put down the glass as he slowly made his way towards her to get even closer. "Chaeyoung, how many times do I have to tell you that I really do love you? Why else would I want to propose to you?"

Unable to hold back her anger that suddenly existed, she yelled, "We agreed to be just friends!"

"Chaeyoung –" he tried to calm her down, reaching his hand towards her but she backed away.

"Don't give me all the crap about love, Taehyung! I've told you many times that I don't want to get back to you. If you really did love me you wouldn't even think about looking at somebody else and we wouldn't break up! So saying things like love, that's bullshit."

"Has it ever occurred to you that we could fall in love again? Just like before?" he asked, still sounding calm and warm.

"Even if we could, I wouldn't allow it to happen," she replied coldly, looking straight into his eyes to make sure that he would get her point.

Taehyung didn't look away, and their eyes locked onto each other's for the longest moments ever, cold stare and chilled air made the tension to thicken.

"You have no choice, Chaeyoung," he said all of a sudden, and all the warmness from earlier had also gone.

"What do you mean I have no choice?" she snapped, angered and confused at the same time. "You can't control my life. You don't get to decide what I should and should not do. Who I want to be with, that's my choice."

Taehyung had been clenching his jaw when she spat out her anger and the sudden rise in his voice did make her flinch. "You think I don't know that?! I fucking know!"

"Well, if you do know, then why the hell would you do this to me?" she shot back.

He stared at her for a long time. "Because I have no choice," he replied with his deepest voice, lowering his eyes. His chest rose up and down heavily. "If it's going to make my mom happy, I'm going to do it. And you will too."

Chaeyoung's jaw dropped and her eyes went wide, unblinking as she fixated them on him. His response muted her and it remained that way for almost a minute before she felt the heat of anger spreading through her once again. "Isn't that selfish?" she asked, and her tone was obviously showing her disappointment towards him. "Why do I have to agree to that just to make your mom happy? Do I not deserve my own happiness?"

He looked at her again, and there was something in his eyes that gave out sadness. "My mom loves you. And I know and I'm sure that you love her as much as she does you. And –"

"Taehyung, things are not the same anymore! I do love her but I can't do that. I'm not in love with you to the point that I can agree to marry you just for the sake of her happiness. I can't do that. You can't expect me to fulfill her wish while I ignore mine!"

"About us, that's another story, Chaeng." He tried to approach her again but once again, she stepped backwards. "Nothing is impossible. We can learn to love again. Don't say things like you can't find your happiness with me, because every single situation will bring you happiness that you never expect to get."

Chaeyoung shook her head vigorously, and attempted to run to the main door because this was so suffocating but Taehyung grabbed her hand and spun her around, and they almost met chest to chest. His other hand went up her arm and held her tight and she tried her best to push him but his hold on her was so strong.

"Let go of me!" she yelled.

"I won't let you go until you promise me to say yes when I propose to you in front of her." His eyes were dark as he stared down at her.

Gritting her teeth, she locked her eyes on him and said, "No."

"You have to," he said lowly, his face inching closer to hers.

"I said no!" she yelled louder to his face. "If you really want her to be happy, you shouldn't do this."

"She wants you. You, Chaeyoung. You! She wants you to marry me, she's always wanted you to be a part of the family and I know for sure that if I told her that we've broken up, she'll be devastated."

Chaeyoung's breath stuck in her throat as her mouth slowly opened, the fight she was putting on against him stopped almost immediately as the realization hit her. "You...haven't told her?"

All this time, his mother hadn't been aware that her son was no longer together with her, and that she was living in a lie so big built by her own son.

"I can't tell her about what happened to us," he admitted, and his hold on her loosened albeit his hands were still holding her. "Not in a thousand years."

Chaeyoung pushed him away roughly and Taehyung let himself staggered slightly to the back. "You'd rather make her believe and live in all the lies than tell her the truth?" she asked and at each word, her voice rose in her tone. "If you really love her, you can't lie to her!"

"If it's gonna make her happy, yes! Yes! Yes, I'd lie and I'd accept the sin!"

"But that's not fair to her, that's not fair to me and Taehyung, it's not even fair to you!" She held her head and sighed heavily. "I know the truth will hurt her, but it won't be for long. She needs to accept the fact that I can't marry you because I'm no longer in love with you."

Taehyung's fist slammed onto a small table next to a couch. "No! I can't let that happen. She can't know the truth. I want to make her happy. I want to fulfill her wish. I –"

"You think by lying to her, you're being a good son?" Her voice was wobbly but held a strength that didn't make it that obvious to him. "I know you love your mom, Tae. But you can't do this."

"Because I love her, I'm doing this, Chaeyoung! And you have to do it too. You have to!"

"No," she shook her head while her eyes fixed at his now teary eyes. "I can't. As much as I am fond of her and I love her, I can't do this. I don't want to. It's unfair."

She turned on her feet and approached the door when she heard Taehyung said something that made her heart stopped momentarily, "She doesn't have much time left."

She heard it well, her heart did prick upon hearing it but she couldn't stop herself from pushing the knob to open the door and her throat tightened when she was met with Taehyung's mother, standing still in front of her and when the lady looked up at her, her eyes were glossy with tears. "Chaeyoung..." she murmured and Chaeyoung slowly shook her head, her own tears were so threatening to drop.

"I'm sorry," Chaeyoung choked on her sob before she slid past the lady and walked away fast.

*

Jungkook waited for Chaeyoung to speak again but she didn't. Her last words formed a sentence so painful to hear, to think about and to accept it.

"Taehyung wants me to marry him."

Jungkook felt his insides trembled with fear and anger as well as confusion. Chaeyoung was sitting next to him, silent for minutes and even though she had stopped choking on her sobs, there were little tears that'd never failed to slide down her smooth skin, to dampen her cheeks. He didn't know what to do. He was still stunned at the fact that his dream was not just a dream, but it was a hint of what was about to come. It was a signal for him to ready himself for the painful future of him without her in the picture.

He tried to breathe as calm as he could, although he could hear the way his breath shook when it floated in the tensed air. "Did you..." he gulped, unsure if he was ready to hear what her response would be. "Did you say yes?"

Chaeyoung's head snapped to look at him and she furrowed her brows. "No. Of course not."

A subtle sigh of relief escaped him but he was still confused why she was crying. "Do you...love him?" he asked with curiosity.

She shook her head almost immediately and sniffed before she answered, "No."

"Then why did you cry?" He shifted closer to her even when they were already so close. He placed a hand onto hers that was placed on her knee and caressed it lightly to urge her for an answer.

Chaeyoung stared at the space before her while her hand that he was holding slowly turned so her palms were facing upward, and their palms met each other before her fingers squeezed his hand back. Jungkook laced their fingers then and rubbed his thumb against her skin. She started to sniff again and a single tear rolled down her cheek.

After inhaling a few times, Chaeyoung finally told him about everything that happened at Taehyung's house and Jungkook swore that he, too, felt the pressure even if it wasn't exactly the same like how she was feeling. Because he was not in her place. But if he was to be in that kind of situation, he'd be sure to feel so pressured and if Chaeyoung actually would be in a dilemma, he'd understand it.

"What are you going to do?" Jungkook asked softly. Even if it was going to be hard for him to accept if Chaeyoung would change her mind and accept Taehyung's proposal, he figured that perhaps, he could do nothing about it.

"I don't know," she muttered softly and lowered her head, propping her forehead on her palm. "But I don't want to be tied like that, Jungkook. I understand his reasons but I can't. This is my life. I don't want others to control me. I don't want people to decide what I should do. I know I'm unable to decide sometimes but that doesn't give the rights for someone else to decide it for me. It would be a different case if I was still in love with him. Things are different now. I can't force myself to do what I don't want to do."

Jungkook nodded and when she leaned her head against his shoulder, he stroked her hair lovingly. "You do whatever you need to do," he said and lightly pressed a soft kiss on the top of her head.

"I'm sure there are other ways to make her happy even if the situation says I can never be a part of her family," she said it softly. "But I don't know how and what."

"I'm sure you'll figure out soon, okay?" he said and felt her tear rolling down the skin of his shoulder to his chest. "I'm not saying that you shouldn't think about it at all, but right now, you need to take your mind off of it for a short while because you won't be able to think clearly if you're under stress. You get me?"

Chaeyoung tilted her head slightly on his shoulder and when Jungkook turned to look at her, she was facing him and their faces were so close. A little move and he could already kiss her. If he could, he'd kiss the pain away. He stared at her lips for a few seconds before he snapped out of his reverie, realizing that kissing her right now wouldn't make things alright because that wasn't exactly what she needed. Swallowing hard, Jungkook let a small smile formed on his lips before he said, "I'm gonna go put on a shirt."

She blinked slowly at him, like her eyes were tired before she nodded softly and leaned away from him and he quickly walked over to his room. Jungkook pulled a white tee over his head when he saw the guitar he had bought with her because he'd expressed his desire to learn it. He'd use it to practice a few times with her but mostly it was kept in his closet until they went for a split. He'd been using it quite consistently ever since they broke up and the only song he'd been playing was Bigbang's If You. Every single time the song played, he would have Chaeyoung running in his mind and every single time he sang that song, he'd get his whole body hit with realization that he'd lost her.

He smiled softly as he reminisced his darkest days before he grabbed it, walked out of his bedroom and sat next to her.

"I'm not as good as you, but I can play some now," he grinned genuinely at her and surprisingly, a smile built on her face. He knew that she sometimes pushed away her stress by playing guitar and he hoped that somehow, this would make the stress and pressure thin even if it would be only a small amount of it.

He really had no idea what song would cheer her up and he hoped that by playing 'If You' and singing it, it wouldn't make her misunderstood his intention. Sure, he meant the lyrics in the song but at the same time, his true intention was to calm her down.

When he looked up at her as he sang and strummed the guitar, the softened look on her face got him strumming a different string after the second chorus and he stopped abruptly, trying to laugh it off and tried to start where he left off but he was already nervous and he couldn't even remember the beginning melody of the song. Chaeyoung took the guitar from him and easily, she continued playing without even looking at where her fingers were dancing about the strings.

On days where the thin rain falls like today

I remember your shadow

Our memories that I secretly put in my drawer

I take them out and reminisce again by myself

Why didn't I know about the weight of sadness that comes with breaking up?

Before she could sing the chorus, Jungkook leaned in, closing the gap and pressed his lips against hers softly. He surprised himself and for a split second, he mentally chastised himself for going against his own warning towards himself. But then, he really couldn't help it.

It was a small and sweet kiss that he hoped would at least take her mind off of any problem she was having, and to assure her that he was still hopelessly in love with her although given the timing at that moment wasn't exactly appropriate for him to be doing that. When he leaned away to look at her face, he found himself having the kind of small smile that he couldn't contain when Chaeyoung actually smiled softly at him, and her smile told him how she appreciated his effort.