Jennie loved any lovely and beautiful outfit, so there wasn't really any work to do just to convince her to wear the sexy and cute peach dress Namjoon had bought. Chaeyoung wasn't good at lying when it came to Jennie, but thankfully, the latter was in no mood to ask where they would be heading to, where the dress came from and why she needed to follow. Jennie did as Chaeyoung asked without any complaint. Her face showed how she was completely uninterested and probably, she was just doing that so she didn't need to deal with a whiny Chaeyoung.

For a split second, the thought of this proposal event wouldn't turn out well like what had been planned crossed her mind but she shook it off quickly and hoped for the best of the best to happen. And despite the tension she had with Taehyung last week, she tried to not let that ruin this because Jennie and Namjoon deserved the best. She had stared into the dress Taehyung bought for her to wear during this event for a long time before she took it and wore it.

Her eyes met with Taehyung the moment Namjoon went down on one knee in front of a teary-eyed Jennie while her ears took the sounds of soft gasps from everybody attending, mostly the family members of Jennie and Namjoon. They gazed into each other for a moment before Chaeyoung looked away and focused on her best friend instead. She was afraid that if she stayed holding his gaze on hers, her face would have frowned heavily which was not supposed to happen on this beautiful day.

Jennie covered her face with a hand, her head nodding very slowly before she put her hand away and Chaeyoung's chuckle escaped along with a single tear when she saw her friend's damped face.

"Yes," Jennie said in an almost whispery voice as she choked on her sob. "Yes. Yes, Namjoon. Yes. I'll marry you."

It was definitely a rare sight to see her friend crying, but when she did, it was indeed a beautiful view and she knew everyone would agree with her. As soon as Namjoon slid the ring into Jennie's finger, the latter pulled her fiancé up by the collar and kissed him deeply before she buried her face into his chest. Everyone applauded and cheered on them, and when Jennie pulled back, she ran into Chaeyoung and hugged her tightly.

"Did you plan all this?" Jennie asked, wiping away the tear in her eye.

Chaeyoung smiled warmly at her friend. "It was Namjoon, of course. And Taehyung had been a great assistant. My only role was to keep it a secret so as not to ruin the surprise."

Namjoon came a second later and pulled Jennie by the waist. "Thanks. It wouldn't have been successful if you weren't here to help."

She scoffed playfully. "Of course you need to thank me. I did a great job in not revealing the big secret," Chaeyoung joked before Taehyung suddenly joined them and stood next to Namjoon, and Chaeyoung didn't need to check to know that his eyes were fixed on her alone.

"Let's go," Namjoon said to Jennie. "I need you to meet up with someone." As much as Chaeyoung didn't want Namjoon and Jennie to leave her with Taehyung, perhaps, it was a good idea after all. She didn't want the tension between them to surface, making things awkward in front of her best friend and her fiancé.

"Who?" Jennie asked as she was leaning towards Namjoon, her hand held his waist.

"Just follow me." Namjoon pulled her hand and Chaeyoung watched as they moved into the crowd and a smile pulled on her face when Namjoon and Jennie stopped in front of the florist who had helped them decorate the place with beautiful flowers to which the closed space now looked like a garden. Jennie seemed hesitant at first, probably embarrassed and Chaeyoung smiled in relief when her friend finally looked like she was smiling and laughing as she talked to the florist while Namjoon busied himself admiring Jennie's face from the side.

In the back of her mind, she wondered if Jungkook ever looked at her the way Namjoon looked at Jennie.

Chaeyoung was about to walk away but Taehyung cleared his throat next to her, reminding her that he was still there. She had completely forgotten that he came by a few minutes ago after getting distracted with the beautiful sight of the newly engaged couple. She stayed still for a moment, not looking at him.

"You look really beautiful, Chaeng," he complimented and Chaeyoung could feel him shifting closer.

She nodded her head slightly and took a deep breath before replying briefly, "Thanks."

Silence descended upon them and Chaeyoung waited for someone to approach them because wherever she went to, Taehyung would follow and leaving so early would be downright rude. She wished that any of Namjoon's family members who were close to Taehyung would come and take him away from there.

"It's all because of him, isn't it?" he asked in a low voice with a small laughter that was so obviously not genuine followed next.

Chaeyoung inhaled softly and glanced at him for a second. "No. Don't try to blame this on him."

"Well, if he didn't come to your life, it would have been easier for us to rekindle."

She rolled her eyes dramatically. "That's as if saying as though he was the main reason why I decided to call it over when obviously, the one who caused our relationship to fall apart was you, Taehyung."

His sigh was the heaviest she'd heard. "I admitted my wrong and I asked for forgiveness, what else do I have to do to have you back?"

"I agreed to be in your life again, Tae. Just not as your lover but as a friend. That should have sufficed."

"We were friends before we were lovers. Now that you're back as my friend, why is it so hard for us to happen again?"

"Don't be ridiculous. If that's really how things work, then I would be dating all of my friends."

"You know that's not what I meant," he sighed. "Chaeng, just please..." he trailed off before continuing, "You've forgiven me. Why can't we be like before? Why can't we start over?" He sounded as though he was all too tired of this.

Chaeyoung was too. All the repeating she had to do to tell him exhausted her in and out. She ran out of ideas on how to make him understand that her decision was final when she wanted nothing more than a simple friendship from him. With him, the romance had long gone. It had dissolved into ash, and lost in the sea. She couldn't for the life of her, love him like she did last time. Sometimes she thought it was impossible to completely fall out of love, but she did it with him.

This time, she looked at him in the eyes and firmly said, "Forgiving will not always mean that I will have to get back into the relationship with you. It doesn't always end up that way, if you hadn't known yet." Chaeyoung decided to walk away then, but just like before, Taehyung grasped her wrist. Except that this time, he held it softly that with only a soft pull, she could have her wrist off of his hold. She turned around and there was a wounded look in his eyes that made her heart clench uneasily.

"Please..." he murmured and took one step closer. "Please, I beg you."

She chewed on her bottom lip and felt her insides being pricked by poisoned thorns.

"Don't do it for me," he said with an almost broken voice. "Do it for my mom."

Her eyes stung and she knew if she waited there longer, she'd have people staring at her sobbing on the floor. She swallowed and pulled her hand away from his grasp slowly, she shook her head slightly and with trembling lips, she quietly said, "I'm really sorry, I can't."

Her head lowered for the entire time she walked towards the restroom, almost bumping into people as she did so. The back of her hand repeatedly rubbed her eyes and she tried not to let the sound of her sniffing went loud for people she passed by to hear. She was sure that there was no one inside the restroom when she came in, and she stayed rooted in front of the mirror, her hands pressed against the sink as she kept her head low.

Ignoring the part of her mind that was reminding her to stop crying or else she'd have to retouch her makeup since she was in one of her lazy mood these days, she let the tears out and wished she could talk about this to someone who would listen. Her mind supplied her Jennie, but she didn't think Jennie should have any worries to ruin her mood in one of her happiest days in life. Jungkook swirled in her mind then, and she inhaled the air desperately as her hand reached for her phone she placed on the marbled surface.

As soon as she held her phone, a voice came from behind her and she was startled, almost dropping her phone to the floor. When she looked up at her reflection in the mirror, Taehyung's mother was standing behind her with a softened look on her face.

Chaeyoung slowly turned around to face the older woman and all of a sudden, an overwhelming feeling of sadness surged through her as she imagined what the future would be without this lady in front of her. She began to cry and at a certain point, she felt like she was out of oxygen.

"Oh, Chaeyoung..." The elder woman went to wrap her arms around Chaeyoung, pulling her head to rest onto her shoulder and Chaeyoung immediately hugged the woman tightly. Her tears were like an endless stream, soaking the woman's dress when she felt the latter patting her head lovingly, just like a mother would to her child.

"I'm sorry," she murmured into the woman's shoulder. "I can't do it. I'm really sorry."

"It would be great to have you added in our family," the woman said softly and Chaeyoung felt her chest tightened at that. The elder woman broke the hug but stayed holding her, cupping her face to make Chaeyoung look at her. "But I do understand if you can't."

Chaeyoung held her breath, afraid that if she was to exhale, she'd make a loud noise of her sobbing but she eventually failed. "I'm sorry," she said again but the woman hushed her, wiping her tears.

"Thank you," his mother said softly. "Thank you for telling me the truth. Because I don't think I can accept it if I have to spend the last of my life breathing in a lie just for my happiness. That is not true happiness. I am thankful enough for you to be a part of my life all this while. You deserve to find your own happiness. If it's not with him, I'm sure it's because he's just not the best for you, but someone else out there is. So stop apologizing because you are not wrong to choose to stand on your ground."

She nodded weakly, because she really didn't know what else to say.

"Just... I have a favor to ask." The older woman smiled at her warmly before she said, "Please forgive Taehyung and don't ever forget about me."

Chaeyoung hugged the older woman tightly and nodded her head and she prayed so hard that the future would be kind to this kind lady and give her longer time than she had.

*

Jungkook was just out to buy a few bottles of beer and some snacks since Hoseok and Yoongi were going to spend the night at his apartment. It was when he was about to walk towards the elevator when his eyes caught the sight of the woman who never left his mind from the very first time he met her. He knew his breath caught in his throat for the longest time and he couldn't care about it when his eyes laid on Chaeyoung. Chaeyoung in a very beautiful dress alone was a breathtaking sight. Everything looked perfect except for the evident sorrow in her face as she made her way towards the elevator as well.

Not wasting any time, Jungkook quickened his steps so he could enter the same elevator. He wondered what had made her sad this time and for the slightest moment, he wished she would ask him if he could spend the night at her house to listen to whatever bothering her mind. If that would make a smile appear again on that beautiful face, he wouldn't mind.

He came just in time before the door to the elevator slid to a close. Jungkook displayed a small smile when she lifted her head and their eyes met. "Hey," he greeted her and went to stand right beside her.

Chaeyoung stared at him for a few moments and Jungkook had to say that whenever she did that with that soften look in her eyes, he could feel every part of him melting in a millisecond. When her face pulled a soft smile that didn't reach her eyes, Jungkook felt his heart tugged. Not because he was hurt, but rather concern at how she was doing and what had actually happened to her that she looked so sad.

The only thing that came to his mind at that moment was none other than the recent thing that happened to her and Taehyung. He gulped, thinking of how it could be possible that she had made up her mind and that the final decision was that she was going to accept Taehyung's proposal. Or, seeing how beautiful the dress she was currently wearing, perhaps she had already accepted it.

He tried not to assume more things, because that was the reason why his relationship with her broke apart last time. It was all because of his assumptions. Jungkook took a deep breath and glanced at her for a while as he considered a few stuff in his mind.

Nudging her arm softly with his, he gave her a smile when she looked up at him. "You look like you could use some alcohol," he said.

Chaeyoung furrowed her brows for the slightest moment, before she looked down at the bottles of beer he purchased. For a second, he thought he ruined his chance at trying to lift her mood but when she chuckled softly as she shook her head, Jungkook felt his own lips forming a smile.

"I'm serious," he said. "Sometimes, alcohol is just the best way to let things out especially when stress is taking over you."

The smile on her face slowly faded and Jungkook was a little confused why she gazed at him ever so softly again before she softly asked, "Is that why you did it?"

He studied her face but couldn't figure out what made her ask him that. "Did what?"

She didn't answer him what she was supposed to answer. Instead, she asked him another question, which somehow answered him. "Were you... really that stressed out that you chose to get drunk when you thought that I was going to get married?"

He recalled that moment, when even a simple conversation with her was filled with tension. He recalled how things had turned out better as each day passed and Jungkook faintly smiled as he nodded, a little embarrassed at how dramatic he was when he thought about it back. When he looked to see her reaction, her face held a smile that never failed to mesmerize him.

"So, do you want a bottle?" he asked, with a lift of his brow.

"Am I going to be drinking alone?" she asked with a slight blush that he could see and Jungkook knew that he couldn't contain his own smile when that question was asked to him. He cleared his throat and wetted his lips briefly.

"Want to come over?"

"I'm afraid that I wouldn't be able to go back to my apartment," she softly said. "I'd get tipsy after a few drinks."

What he actually wanted to say to her was that she could stay the night at his place but somehow he asked a different question. "So do you want me to come over to your place?" he asked to confirm it.

"Is it okay?" she asked at the same time the elevator stopped at his floor.

Jungkook blinked, a little surprised to know that she had been meaning for him to come to her place instead. "Why wouldn't it be okay?" he asked in return, ignoring the elevator door closing.