I hope you will like this update *hides*

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CHAPTER TWENTY

Jina checks her phone for any message or call from Jaebum. A few days ago, she had sent him a handwritten letter explaining her side. She frowns seeing no missed call or message.

“Are you waiting for someone to contact you?”

Jina looks up to find Mark standing in front of her. She was too preoccupied that she did not notice her fiancé enter her office. He looks as handsome as always but something seems off. He is smiling but Jina feels that something else is going on inside Mark’s head.

“Oh, hi. How are you?” she asks, completely ignoring the other’s question.

“So… what has my fiancée been up to these past few weeks? You seem to be… preoccupied with something…” Mark ignores her question as well.

He takes a seat in front of her, using his elbows as support on her desk as he leans his chin at the back of his hands. He stares right at her, his face a few inches away from her. “Hmm?”

This makes Jina shift on her seat. Mark has never intimidated her like this before.

“I… I was just meeting with friends. You know, my college friends.”

Mark, who actually knows the truth–thanks to his secretary whom he asked to follow Jina discreetly–pretends to buy his fiancée’s excuse.

“Oh, really?” he fakes a smile, “Can I meet them? I mean, if we’re getting married soon, don’t you think I should see them at least once before our big day?”

Jina tries not to panic as she thinks of an excuse. ‘Think, think, think!’

Unable to come up with an excuse, she answers instead, “Ah… I’ll check with them and let you know.”

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Ever since her encounter with her fiancé, Jina starts suspecting that Mark actually knows her whereabouts the past few weeks probably even the past few months. She ponders whether he behaved that way because he was jealous or if it was due to something else.

“Maybe he’s jealous. I think you’ve been spending too much time with that Jaebum guy. I mean, your wedding’s only a few months away and you haven’t even started preparing – at least on your end. Instead, you keep on wasting your time with that guy.”

Jina looks at her friend, Sora. “I am not wasting time and stop calling him ‘that guy’. He has a name, you know…”

Sora stares at her friend in disbelief. “Oh. My. Gosh. Don’t tell me… you like him?! Jina, he’s married, wait, he’s a widower and he has a five year old son! How do you think your family will take that? Like seriously, do you think your father will ever accept Jaebum?”

“We’ll find a way, I guess…” Jina answers without a beat.

Hearing this, Sora’s eyes grow bigger. “So you do like him?!”

“I don’t know…” Jina answers nonchalantly. She then gathers her things and stands. “I want to be alone, if that’s okay. Sorry to drag you all the way here then leave you.”

She exits the café without even glancing back at Sora.

“Wow… This girl is crazy!” Sora scoffs at her friend.

‘I’ve never seen her like this. Has she fallen in love?’

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Sora’s question echoes inside Jina’s head as she aimlessly drives around.

‘Do I like him? Or is everything just because of my feelings of guilt? Am I doing this because I could relate to Bambam’s situation? Being called a killer when you didn’t even do anything… But why? Why do I keep… going here?’

Jina goes back to her senses and realizes that she had just parked outside Jaebum’s house. This confuses her even more.

‘Without thinking, I even went here… Do I honestly like him?’

In less than a year, Jina realized that she has become closer to Jaebum and his son. Bambam even told her one time that if his father were to marry again, he’d want to have her as his new mother.

‘That wouldn’t be so bad, right? In fact, I think it’ll be nice to have them beside me all the time…’

She was never close with anyone. She never actually opened up with others aside from her bestfriend, Sora.

‘But with Jaebum… I don’t know… I feel at ease with him even if I’ve only known him for what, nine, ten months?'

She also recalls a game during Jewapi's Family Day celebration where she had to team up with Jaebum. Another kid’s mom told them that they looked good together; that if Jina didn’t mind that Jaebum’s a widower and has a son, it would really be wonderful if they’d end up together.

'Actually, I don’t care… I don’t mind at all…'

Jina then thinks of Jaebum. She acknowledges that he is handsome and has a admirable body. He has broad shoulders, one of the many things she’d like her future boyfriend to have. She could also tell that Jaebum’s someone she could rely on – someone she can draw strength from and someone who can protect her.

'So he’s basically my ideal man huh…'

“Thinking of me?” a man’s voice jokingly asks.

Jina, who was too immersed in her thoughts, turned her head towards the window only to come face to face with Jaebum. She has never seen him up close like this and she could not help but stare at his face, taking in every detail.

“I see you have two moles above your left eye…” Jina awkwardly and randomly points out.

“Mm-hmm.”

“And you have small eyes and… a cute, nice nose…?” Jina chuckles at how she described Jaebum’s nose but the latter didn’t even smile. Unlike her encounter with Mark the other day, while Jina feels uneasy staring right at Jaebum, she feels an invisible force drawing them closer and making her heart flutter.

“And my lips?”

At the instant that she heard his question, Jina’s eyes shifted to Jaebum’s red lips. She swallows as thoughts of how soft it would be against her lips filled her mind.

“I…”

“Hmm?”

“I don’t know… They’re… red? Hahaha. Seriously, what kind of question is that? You’re so weird!” Jina awkwardly laughs, hoping that they’d soon change the subject.

But there is only silence.

“Jae—“

“Tell me after this…” Jaebum kisses Jina without any warning, making the latter freeze in shock.

Jina tries to push the man away but gives up as she feels an unfamiliar warm feeling spread across her chest. It was so soothing that it made her weak and lost in their own world. All these are new to her as Mark has not even made her feel this way before.

Jaebum, on the other hand, feels complete once again – like he has finally found a new piece that fits perfectly in his life. Never has it crossed his mind that he would trust and fall in love again.

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