CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

 

If you studied high school in Imperium Academy, there’s a 99% chance that you’ll get accepted to your desired university, whether if it's located abroad or wherever in the country. That’s why Jongin has no absolute idea on why Soojung’s stressing the out of her when she could just mention her brother’s name and surely they would accept her.

 

Instead of a plate, books occupied Soojung’s space on their usual table. Apart from her notes, she also had a sandwich on her other hand, eating it while she studied. Her fiancé was not so quietly judging her across the table.

 

“Can you stop studying and stress yourself out? This is a cafeteria, not a ing library.”

 

“I can’t study and eat at the same time inside the library, but I can here.” She answers, her eyes still glued to her notebook. “And you can’t just tell me not to stress out. It’s easy to say, hard to do.”

 

“You will enter Yonsei University even if you get a zero score anyways. I don’t understand why you’re doing this to yourself.”

 

“I’m not going to Yonsei though?” Soojung finally looks up, a little confused because she was pretty sure she hasn’t mentioned which university she has decided to go to.

 

“So you’re going to Harvard in the end?” He asked nervously since he low-key didn’t want her to go.

 

She chuckles and goes back to half-studying, half-eating. “How I wish. But no, I’m planning to go to Korea University.”

 

“Oh, wow. You really had to pick the rival university, huh?” 

 

“Shut up and let me study.”

 

“Did you not hear anything that I said? I told you that you can enter even if you fail. You can just mention that you’re a part of the Jung clan.”

 

“Yeah, I can. But I’m not like you. I actually want to prove not only to my family, but the people around me, that I can get into a good university for having a brain.”

 

Jongin looks at their friends after hearing them chuckle giggle. They had been quietly listening to their conversation when they chuckled. He glares at them silently and then went back to look at Soojung, “But you don’t like to study though…”

 

When the bell rang, Jongin decided to help her with her books even though she didn’t say anything. She didn’t stop him and just smiled at Jinri when they exchanged looks. He helped her carry them until they reached her locker. “Hey, you’re good at Korean Literature, right?”

 

“I excel in all subjects, actually.” Her fiancée responds confidently. “Why? You want me to tutor you?”

 

“I was about to ask you that. I really need help in it, plus in History, and Maths-”

 

“So basically, everything.” He finishes her sentence, teasing her a bit.

 

“Not everything, Jongin.” She frowned. “I can say that I’m also good in some subjects. It’s just... I do not understand some things.”

 

“Excuses, excuses. Though I’d gladly help you in anything you want but…” Jongin stops to lean sideways against the locker next to her before continuing, “I may not be free on Saturday so I prefer to do our study date on Sunday.”

 

A small smile creeps on Jongin’s mouth as she watched her got a little surprised and stop putting her books inside her locker to face him. He knows that she never actually mentioned a ‘study date’ and just wanted his help, but the look on her place when he mentioned it was priceless.

 

“Are you asking me out again or…?”

 

“You’re the one who did.”

 

“I did not!” She frowned. “But if you want to think of it that way then alright. I don’t mind.”

 

“Psh, as if I want to date you anyways.” Jongin sticks his tongue out, pretending that he was disgusted. “Anyways, after I help you with your studies, what do you give me in exchange?”

 

“You’re a freaking heir who has a lot of money, do I really have to pay you back?” She asked.

 

“Nothing in this world is free, my dear wifey.”

 

“What do you want then?”

 

“A kiss, maybe…” He mumbles, looking away. He didn’t actually thought that she would hear it since it was just a joke (or is it?) but she did. She didn’t reply though, and just grabbed a book from her locker to smash it on his head. “That hurt!”

 

“I’ll just help you with English, ‘cause we all know how much you on it.” Soojung finally closes her locker. Before leaving, she pats his head, where she had hit him.

 

“But I’m super good with English!” The boy whine.

 

 

If you ask Jongin to define date, he would reply that it’s a romantic appointment between two people. Keyword: two people. So he asks himself, why on earth were the rest of their friends doing in Soojung’s house when they were supposed to have their ‘study date’?

 

Okay sure, maybe it wasn’t even an official date, but he thought that he could spend some time with her while teasing her on how 'stupid' she was. And the fact that Chanyeol, Jinri and Sehun weren’t even studying annoys the out of him.

 

“Sorry mate. I know that you were expecting to be alone with her, but I really need some help as well. Soojung was nice enough to invite me when she mentioned that you’re going to help her.” Sehun whispers quietly for her not to hear.

 

“You’re not-” Jongin’s voice was too loud, causing Soojung to clear so he immediately changes the tone of his voice. “You’re not even studying, you er. Since I’ve got here, you haven’t stopped about how bad Sooyoung is at playing golf.”

 

Sehun just smiles apologetically. “But I did study a little with Soojung before you got here.”

 

“And those two?” Jongin eyes on the two lovebirds that were Jinri and Chayeol, Sehun looks at them as well. It was like they were in their world as they cuddled together while watching something at Jinri’s phone. “What are they supposed to do here?”

 

“Well, I suppose Soojung wanted to have Jinri around so she invited her over, and Chanyeol… You know him. He’ll be anywhere Jinri is.”

 

“Yo, Sehun. Help me with algebra for a sec.” They hear Soojung finally say something after her long silence. She was scratching her head in confusion after resolving a hard problem and she felt like it was wrong.

 

“Are seriously asking Sehun for help when he almost failed math?” Her fiancée judges her from across the table.

 

“Almost. I didn’t actually fail it.” Sehun defends himself.

 

“Honey, Sehun doesn’t understand math that well.” Jinri comments not so quietly, putting down her phone. “Unfortunately, I am not that good at it either so I can’t help you with it.”

 

“It’s not that I don’t understand math well, Jinri. It’s math that doesn’t understand me.”

 

“Whatever. I just need someone to teach me quickly so I could grab some snacks. I'm so hungry.” Soojung shrugs and went back to her notes.

 

Just before Sehun could stand up and sit right next to Soojung so he could teach her, Jongin stood before him and pushes him back to his seat. Soojung realizes that it was Jongin who sat beside her but doesn’t say any particular comment about him because she does want him to teach her.

 

Shortly after the algebra problem that Jongin helped solved, the group had decided to have a snack and grab a quick meal. Sehun wanted to look for Youngji, but she was on her day-off and was unfortunately not there so he had no choice to just stay with his friends and eat.

 

“Hey, how come you two didn’t throw a bachelor and a bachelorette party?” Sehun asked Soojung and Jongin suddenly, taking a grape from the plate that Soojung has just served. She was about to open the refrigerator but stopped because of his question. When they didn't reply, he turns to the other couple. “Are you two going to throw one?”

 

“I guess so?” Chanyeol answers, glancing at his girlfriend as he was unsure of what to answer. Jinri just shrugs.

 

“We should totally throw one- oh, maybe I could throw it for you guys!” Sehun exclaims excitedly, even raising his hand as he volunteered to be the party’s host. “One for Chanyeol, and one for Jongin, but of course we have to do Jongin’s first since he’s getting married first.”

 

This time, Soojung has finally sat at the table where her friends were, bringing more snacks for them to eat. Her fiancé has been shutting his mouth, silently eating the grapes and watching her and her expressions to see what she thinks of Sehun’s idea.

 

“Yeah, and throw it on your house. That would be a lot of fun.” Jinri says sarcastically.

 

“Actually, that’s a great idea! I bet my father wouldn’t mind. In fact, he would love it. He has been feeling very old lately.”

 

“I don’t think his new girlfriend would like it though?”

 

“Oh, Jinri. Have you forgotten how my father is?” The boy laughs, reminding her that he and his father shares the same playboy ways. “So, what do you say Jongin? Are you down for it?”

 

But the bachelor doesn’t reply. Instead, he glances at his fiancée from across the table. “What do I say?”

 

“Why are you asking me that? My opinions don’t matter on whatever you and your guy friends plan.” She answers with a poker face. “I mean, I don’t care much, so whatever.”

 

“Why do you sound bitter though?” Chanyeol jokes, in which she responses by raising her arm to threaten to punch him.

 

“Don’t worry, love. We’re going to do our own bachelorette party.” Jinri assures her bestfriend, she even volunteers to host hers, and they see her eyes light up. “Knowing Oh Sehun, he would probably hire a lot of strippers or something. But we will hire a lot more than him.”

 

“Oh my gosh, I want to see Chris Evans in the party dancing in his undies.” Soojung says excitedly, her eyes so wide and mouth dropping in excitement as she imagines the American actor in her party. “We can invite him, right?”

 

“Okay, let’s not get our hopes too high. Evans is a Hollywood actor, and I’m barely up to his level so I don’t think that could happen-”

 

Jongin cuts Jinri off to interfere and grab Soojung’s attention. “Hold up, here I am worrying that you might get jealous if I ever do a bachelor party and now you’re thinking of inviting an actor to yours?”

 

“Well, it would be pretty sick to have Captain America in your party so I don’t blame her…” Chanyeol mumbles, quietly reaching for the bag of potato chips that Soojung brought before.

 

“Me? Jealous? Why would I be jealous? Of whom?” Soojung asked continuously.

 

“I could sleep with a stripper for all we know!”

 

“Don’t make me laugh, Jongin. We both know you wouldn’t dare do that.”

 

“What if I do?”

 

“Yeah, what if he does?” Sehun smiles cheekily behind Jongin. “I mean, this kid gets a lot of times so-”

 

“Sehun, can you ing shut up?” Jongin glares at him. “That is absolutely not true!”

 

“Sorry, I think I said too much.” He covers his mouth with both of his hands, but then continues on saying, “But don’t worry, I’ll make sure that he won’t do anything naughty. Well, I don’t think he will do it anyways because he’s too dedicated to you-”

 

“Gosh, this conversation escalated quickly.” Jinri sighs, massaging her temples.

 

Soojung wasn’t really paying attention on what Sehun said (or maybe she just pretended not to hear it) and how Jongin is lowkey killing him in his mind as she has just realized something. “I changed my mind, actually. My parents… will ing kill me if they find out that I’m out partying with strippers.”

 

“No, Soojung! If you don’t throw one, Jongin won’t agree on having one as well!” Sehun cried.

 

“Plus I have to study a lot these days. The entrance exams are coming up, remember?”

 

“Okay then, how about we throw the party after your exams?” Chanyeol suggests, making everyone look at him. “Your wedding date is still far, so we got no problems.”

 

“And we can throw your bachelorette party at Jongin’s place.” Jinri states without asking the latter’s opinion or approval.

 

“Wait, hold up-” Before Jongin could even finish his sentence, Sehun already cuts him off.

 

“So what do you say Soojung?” He asks.

 

Soojung looks around her friends. She, herself, was unsure about it but it seems like everybody wanted them to plan the party. “Alright, since you all want to.”

 

Everybody cheers, but Oh Sehun was the most excited, even standing up to hug his best friend. He knows that if Soojung didn’t agree on having the party, Jongin wouldn’t agree as well, which means he won’t be able to host one of the last parties of their high school years.

 

“Nobody’s even asking for my bloody opinion!” Jongin sulks, throwing a grape at Sehun for hugging his girl.

 

 

Because Jaejoong assured her that all is well in their family (well, except for the fact that their sister is having her illegitimate child and is secretly hiding from everyone), Soojung is slowly brushing off the thought that their parents were fighting nights ago.

 

However, one morning just before going to school, she sees her brother having his breakfast in the kitchen and for some reason, she felt something wrong.

 

“Oh, sis! You’re up.” Jaejoong brushes his mouth with the napkin in front of him. He then gestures her to come and sit beside him. “Let’s eat together.”

 

Usually, she would see father there reading a newspaper, or her mother drinking a cup of coffee. Seeing both of her parents together having breakfast with her on a weekday morning is a rare sight, but not seeing one of them or seeing the maids preparing two more plates for them is rarer. And the fact that Jaejoong was there doesn’t really help.

 

“What are you doing here?” She asks him confusedly after sitting down right next to him. Noticing that he was wearing some of his old clothes, she wonders if her brother has spent the night there and how come she didn’t know it.

 

“Am I not welcome here anymore?” The older Jung joked, in which Soojung shook her head.

 

“Of course not. It’s just… weird, you know? Seeing you here when I know how much you want to avoid going here since you hate this mansion.” She says in almost a whisper, and her brother just smiles at her, patting her head. “Where’s mother by the way? I suppose father has gone to work. He has been skipping breakfast to go to work early for these past days.”

 

Instead of answering her sister’s question, Jaejoong politely asks the servants to hurry up and serve Soojung her breakfast. She insisted, saying that she could wait but they serve her pancakes anyways. And that’s when he asks everyone on the kitchen to leave, making her uneasy. If he wanted to talk to her, why did he have to do that?

 

“Okay, I know there's something wrong here. What’s happening?”

 

“Listen, Soojung.” He starts off. “You won’t be seeing our parents for awhile.”

 

“What? What do you mean?”

 

“They left last night to America for a business trip, and I don’t really know when they will come back.”

 

Soojung frowns. She for a fact knows that he was lying as she just saw her mother has just bid her good night last night, and yet she never mentioned anything about leaving for a business trip. “You’re lying.”

 

Jaejoong sighs, “I’m not, sis. Now, I know how you don’t like staying here all alone either-”

 

“Please, tell me what’s wrong.” She cuts him off, her voice cracking a bit. “I can feel it. They didn’t leave because of a business trip.”

 

“Soojung, you’re just over thinking things. I told you there’s nothing-”

 

“You’re lying.”

 

“There’s nothing ing wrong!” Jaejoong unintentionally shouts. He regrets it just as second after seeing how her younger sister is about to cry anytime soon. He apologizes by hugging her, but she keeps on pushing him away. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry…”

 

She knows that once she opens , the tears forming in her eyes might stroll down to her cheeks. So she doesn’t say anything and just backs away slowly. “I have to go to school.”

 

 

Honestly, Jongin hates being late. It’s far-fetched to say that he has never been late to any classes, but it was true. That day, his alarm has ed him up by not ringing at the time when it wanted it to so he woke up later than usual. He was, of course, pissed because of it, until he spots Soojung enter his apartment from the second floor.

 

He was going down the stairs while fixing his tie and when he calls her name because she hasn’t seen him actually. “How many times should I tell you that you should tell me if-” Soojung turns to him, and he realizes that she was crying. “Wait, wha-what’s wrong?”

 

“Everybody’s leaving me. Jessica did, and now my parents did.” She starts off. “You won’t leave me as well, right?”

 

Surprised, Jongin just pulls her into a hug.

 

 

“I fear that one day I will wake up knowing that everybody has left me.” Soojung admits.

 

Now sited at the couch with Jongin beside her, she was now calmer and has stopped crying. She has explained about what happened back at her place, on how her parents apparently had to go on a business trip and on how she doesn’t believe anything her brother has said. She was not feeling well so she had decided not to go to school that day. Her fiancée was just looking at her, his head resting on his palm.

 

“Jessica left, and now my parents did the same. I’m sure as hell it’s not for a damn business trip. Plus I feel like there’s something my family is hiding from me, whatever it is, I don’t think it’s a good thing.” She bites her lower lip. “Everybody’s going to leave and I’ll be alone-”

 

“You’ll never be alone, Soojung. You have your older brother-”

 

“Jaejoong has his own family now.”

 

“Jinri is always-”

 

“Jinri, despite this sounding so weird coming from my mouth, is engaged and will get married soon.”

 

“You have me.” She finally looks up at him. “You will always have me.” He repeats, pulling her closer to him to hug her again. “After all, we’ll get married soon. We’ll have our own family, our own lives.”

 

Soojung felt him hugging her tighter. “And I will never leave you.”

 

 

“Where have you been?”

 

Sighing quietly, Soojung sees Jaejoong standing at the top of the stairs. She doesn’t want to sound rude, but she really doesn’t want to see anyone at that very moment – not him at the very least. She knows that if they talk again, their conversation will not end in a good note when he keeps on insisting that there’s nothing wrong in their family when she believes that there really is.

 

It takes her long to reply to his question mainly because she doesn’t really know what to reply. Jongin had let her stay in his apartment so she could sleep while he went off to school. He told her to wait for him to get back, but she didn’t. Before leaving his place, she cooked a quick meal for him as her sign of thank you, though she’s not very sure of what it tasted. Hopefully it was alright.

 

“Obviously, I went to school. If not, I shouldn’t be wearing my uniform.”

 

“Don’t lie to me, Jung Soojung. Where did you go?”

 

That was the first clue. Jaejoong never calls her by her full name, except when he’s presenting her to someone else or when he’s mad. But she asks herself, shouldn’t she be the one who’s mad when he’s not even telling the truth?

 

Instead of answering her brother, she ignores him and passes by him to go straight to her bedroom that was until he calls her full name once again, but this time, he sounded angrier so she had no choice but to stop.

 

“Listen, I know that you’re upset from what’s happening but just hold on a little while, okay? Our family’s going to be back together soon and we’re going to be happy just like before-”

 

“Jaejoong, please stop.” She pleads, turning around to face him again. “We’re going to be happy just like before? If you have forgotten, our family was never happy, and we will never be. All our family only cares about money, our reputation to the public and all that bull.This house never felt like a home anyways so it doesn’t really surprises me.”

 

She fights the urge to cry so she quickly turns around, before she could feel the tears forming again. But just when she was about to enter her room, his brother tells her, “Just because our parents aren’t around doesn’t mean the wedding will not push through.”

 

“Who said that I won’t marry Jongin anyways?”

 

 

Before leaving a convenience store, Namjoon lights up one of cigarette with his lighter. It was actually not that cold, but he regrets not bringing a hoodie with him outside. He originally just wanted to have some fresh air when his father ordered him to do some errands for him.

 

After his quick smoke, he heads back to his place when he felt that someone was following him. He already had an idea on who it was though, but he couldn’t just confront him in the middle of the street as there were people around them and had to wait until two girls walk past them.

 

“You better have a good excuse for not showing up when I wanted you to,” Namjoon turns around to see a man in his jeans, black hoodie and a mask. “Lee Taeyong.”

 

Under the street lamp, the boy removes his mask from his face and the hoodie that covered his head. He looks up, showing his smirk. Taeyong chuckles on how easy he caught him.

 

“Missed me too much?”

author's note: 

namjoonxtaeyong is the real otp here tbh. lol joke. but omg were you guys surprised?? i wanted to surprise all of you by revealing that they have been communicating behind everybody's back but im not very contented by how i wrote it so...

pls don't kill me for the short chapter. i've finished writing the next chapter and i will update it very soon. maybe on sunday/monday. i think you all might like it. but idk.