Hey guys, I know it took me long and it might have seemed as if I wasn't planning on updating again, but as I had said, this is my first fic and do plan on finishing it. This year was short and long at the same time, and a few things happened that kept me busy.

A big thanx to my amazing beta: Livelydinosaurrawr who's been responsible of the perfect flow and expressions (I at it xd)                                                                    ps: we had some fluff in the last chap...this one won't be so fluffy. However, we will see another side of one of our mains. Without further ado enjoy!

Flashback

“I still can’t believe he will be three soon,” Mi Yeon said, fingers running through black locks, smiling down at the child on her lap.  

“He’s got a good half a year to go,” Eunsoo retorted, continuing to set the coffee table with biscuits and tea.

“I know, but he looks so big! Aren’t you, sweetheart?” she cooed trying to grab the child’s attention who was now trying to get out of her lap as he had noticed the pastries.

Eunsoo didn’t even react, she was used to her best friend smothering her child all the time. Though, at times it could get frustrating because Mi Yeon was whipped when it came to Jae-Eun and she didn’t know what ‘no’ was. Every time her best friend would visit she’d bring a present with her. Every time they’d be out and Jaehwa would cry for something, Mi Yeon would buy it and if Eunsoo refused, she’d go as far as using her puppy dogs on her best friend to allow her to get Jaehwa what he wanted.

Mi Yeon acted like Jae-Eun’s second mother, something Eunsoo had once made the mistake of pointing out when the younger woman was present and the other had laughed rather somberly.  “He was going to be my son after-all,” she’d responded with a shrug and she probably hadn’t meant it, but Eunsoo could see the longing in her tone.

Eunsoo could somehow understand. During her pregnancy, she’d been too blinded by fear and hadn’t thought of Mi Yeon. Of the repercussions, Mi Yeon would have to face if the truth came out, and although she had apologized to her best friend; she hadn’t thought of what would happen with her two best friends. Mi Yeon had been the one who was married, the one who was going to raise Jae-Eun, but a too emotional Eunsoo had caved changed both of their lives overnight; literally snatched Mi Yeon’s family life under her feet and hadn’t even stayed by her side when hit the fan. She had only been concerned with Jaehwa and their son.

Looking back, she realized what a bad friend she been and although Mi Yeon assured her that she wasn’t mad anymore and that it wasn’t her fault, some part of her believed that the younger still held some kind of remorse towards her.

She’d ruined Mi Yeon’s marriage, something that her best friend assured her everytime that she did not. Kanghoon and Mi Yeon’s marriage from the beginning had been based on a lie. If anyone was at fault then it was Mi Yeon; she was the one who had used Eunsoo’s situation to trap Kanghoon. She was the one who had converted her best friend’s fiance. She assumed karma had caught up to her, but Eunsoo was still convinced that it had been her fault. She hadn’t been responsible, hadn’t demanded what she wanted from Jaehwa when she needed to and had instead taken advantage of her best friend’s naivety. Mi Yeon might have thought that she had been the mastermind, but it had been Eunsoo who had really pulled the strings. None of this would have happened if Eunsoo had been honest with Jaehwa the minute she’d found out of the pregnancy.    

Of course, things might have turned left, but she wanted to believe that, however, her relationship with her now husband of almost three years might have developed, it needn’t had been at the cost of Mi Yeon and Kanghoon’s relationship.

Maybe the reason why she let Mi Yeon smother Jae-Eun so much was that she couldn’t bring herself to put a stop to it, not after she had practically played a hand in her best friend’s happiness going down the drain. The least she could do was let Mi Yeon have these few moments every now and then since it did not seem like she was going to be having them any time soon.

As if she’d read her mind, the younger woman leaned over and grabbed a cookie and handed it to Jae-Eun’s grabby hands. Her content smile didn’t change as she watched the child munch on the biscuit contentedly while he stared at the tray with his full attention.

“I feel like he likes the cookies more than me,” Eunsoo could hear the pout in the other’s voice without having to look at her.

“He started eating them last week and he has been obsessed ever since, you know how he gets with new things,” Eunsoo felt the urge to explain. Although she knew that the other was just joking, sometimes she felt the need to assure her best friend that Jaehwa loved her. It was weird because technically Jae-Eun was her son and she didn’t have to justify anything, but seeing Mi Yeon look at Jae-Eu with so much love and longing made Eunsoo feel guilty.

“That I do. He got it from you. You always got obsessed over something new you discovered and gradually simmer down after a while,” she answered cheekily, eyes glinting with mischief. “It’s cute!” She cooed and turned her attention back to the child. Eunsoo decided to go back into the kitchen to grab the tea.

When she came back, Jae-Eun was sitting in his crib, surrounded by his thousand plushies, and his bottle of water in his mouth. Mi Yeon came back and settled into the chair she was previously settled in.

“I’m going to be leaving for a while,” she announced, accepting the coffee cup Eunsoo offered her and set it on the coffee table.

“Where to?” she asked absentmindedly.

“I think one or two weeks in China and then I’ll be in New Zealand for a few weeks. I’m still not sure,” she shrugged casually.

“When?” Eunsoo settled into the opposite couch and blew on her tea.

Mi Yeon tilted her head at the clock and then back to her friend. “In two-three days.”

Something wasn’t right. “Is it because of Kanghoon? Did you guys fight again?”

“It’s for business,” she responded, picking up one of the cookies and took a small bite, grimaced and placed it back onto her saucer.

“Why now? ” Eunsoo was trying not to get alarmed. It wasn’t the first time Mi Yeon had traveled out of the country, but it was the first time she was leaving for this long and on such short notice. Usually, Eunsoo would know at least two weeks beforehand if Mi Yeon was going somewhere.

The younger woman looked off to the side, where Jae-Eun was waving his zebra plushie up in the air.

“I’m pregnant.”

Eunsoo almost choked on her tea. The other woman, looked back at her, a sad smile on her face as she watched her wipe off droplets from her chin and off the table, where she’d spilled her tea as she’d rushed to set the teacup back down.

“You’re expecting?” Eunsoo’s eyes subconsciously traveled to the younger’s flat belly, but she couldn’t really see anything since the other was wearing wide-legged pants and a sweater.

Mi Yeon nodded. “Who’s the father?” she asked.

“Kanghoon,” she said flatly.

“But you two haven’t been speaking to each other…when did this happen?” she was confused and didn’t want to jump to conclusions.

Mi Yeon ran her fingers through her hair and sighed. “I think two months ago. It’s the last time we actually fought. I asked him for a divorce and he refused. He claimed that he never stepped out of our marriage and that he loved me and...for a moment I believed him,” she had her fingers from fiddling on her lap. She had once again been too hopeful.

“He kissed me and I kissed him back and then one thing led to another and now I’m expecting,” she pointed at her belly, a frown on her face. The next day, Kanghoon had gone back to ignoring her. He wasn’t mean to her, but he acted like she didn’t exist.

“How—how do you feel?” Eunsoo finally asked through the goosebumps on her skin. Now, she somehow knew how Mi Yeon had felt back then-.

“You can cry, Yeon-ah. I won’t judge,” she assured, moving closer to the young woman. She was wiping the tears off her face frantically.  

Mi Yeon just shook her head profusely. “It’s alright. Everything is alright, honey.”

“No, it's not. I just...I was ready to cut ties from him. Divorce and move on, but now...now I’m carrying his child and he will never give me a divorce and….and...I’m tired.” Granted Kanghoon has never laid hands on her, but the arguments and pettiness were starting to be too much to handle.

+

“Jimin?”

“Jungkook?” Jimin sarcastically mimics the younger, attention drawn to the phone in his hands, fingers busy typing away.

“Jimin, I’m serious. I...I have something to--I want to,” the younger male exhales dejectedly. At this, Jimin puts away his phone and looks at his friend with concern.

“What is it?” he asks.

Jungkook lets out a loud exhale and runs a hand through his hair. “Taehyung,” he says.

He doesn’t mean to say it the way he does, but he also can’t help it the way he sounds. “Why do you sound sad, shouldn’t you be all over the moon now that you two are you know,” Jimin makes a vague hand gesture in the air.

Jungkook is still sulking when he speaks. “He...I...it’s just…there are some ed up things about him and … I didn’t realize that he has so much baggage.” He wants the model to get help, but he also doesn't want him to leave him which makes the younger male feel really ty. ty because deep down he knows he's glad that he's not the only one who is dependent on someone; that from the very beginning it was not he that needed all the help. He's had some time to think. To really think about this whole situation with Taehyung and he's come to some conclusions. First being that he was tricked; Taehyung might be crazier than he gives off. Second, the model's parents are both aware of this and tricked Jungkook and his mother into believing that Taehyung was his only choice. Third, he really really needs this marriage thing to work out, that is why he has to put up with the model's craziness.

.

“What kind of ed up are we talking about?” Jimin frowns. He knew Taehyung turned up every now and then, but he wasn't aware of what type of the model had been up to.

Jungkook debates how much he can share with Jimin. It's not like he doesn't trust his probably only friend, but he somehow doesn't want to talk bad about Taehyung, although he desperately needs to let some things off his chest.

He takes a deep breath and sighs, stalling, mulling over his words, regretting opening his mouth. It’s frustrating how his heart rate picks up as if he said something wrong as if by telling his best friend something about Taehyung would be throwing the said male under the bus. It’s so freakin’ frustrating how although he knows Jimin is trustworthy, he can’t bring himself to fully trust him and stop being paranoid — thanks to his backstabbing family.

“You are worrying me here, Kook,” Jimin says, more alert this time.

“It’s nothing to worry about,” he says, but Jimin doesn’t let up, he still stares at him, eyes imploring.

“Okay, maybe I should be worrying, but I’m not because everything he did is in his past and I’m his present now—” he motions to himself with a hand, “so Minjae and all of his exes are not part of his life, but I met this girl in the lift while coming down here—” Jimin is staring amusedly at him, head tilted to the side. Jungkook can’t seem to stop talking, anything not to have to tell Jimin about Taehyung and the China incident although he’s itching to, unfortunately, his brain is betraying him and instead of coming up with something else, he’s sharing things he had pushed at the back of his mind.

“And they obviously changed the commercials in the lift because the last time I was here, a CF of Bogum-hyung and video clips of other artists were being played, but I guess since Tae is not on hiatus anymore and has been working again—” he’s rambling at this point, fingers fiddling with a loose thread on the red beanie clasped in his other hand. “It’s only natural that he would be included since he’s you know, kinda the face of HOMELY?” he shrugs at nothing in particular and then rambles on.

Jimin wonders when he’ll notice the rambling, but he doesn’t stop him assuming the younger has been bottling up a lot of things for a while now. “Anyway, so a clip of Tae showed up on the display, right? The girl with me in the lift totally squealed and grinned not so subtly while muttering under her breath, total ignoring my existence, but then a clip of Minjae showed up and her facial expression totally changed, she opened —probably to curse, but then another clip with both Minjae and Tae showed up, showing a behind the scenes interview and I swear she almost hit the display. Like, she rose her hand and moved towards the screen only to suddenly jerk her head to the top corner at the ceiling, where the camera is and stopped, body language changed to false calmness, but as she turned around for God knows what, our eyes met and I….Jimin I’ve never felt claustrophobic in my life until that moment,” Jimin is snickering now. He knows what clips the younger is speaking of and he can only imagine the whole incident.

“Basically her eyes start twitching as she says ‘you are that boy he was at the Seoul fashion week with, Jeon Jungkook.” The way she had sneered while saying his name had made him feel some type of way. She clearly had some issues but had directed them at him and Jungkook was not going have it, so he’d schooled his expression to nonchalance and raised an eyebrow at her.

“You two have been hanging out a lot, the tabloids are even saying that you live together. Are you hooking up with him?” she had asked. Jungkook had contemplated answering her but decided against it, she wasn’t worth it. Instead, his eyes shifted to the doors to notice that there were still 3 more floors left.

“Answer me you little brat! Are you another Minjae?” It was at that moment when the younger realized that the girl probably harbored more than a little crush on the model and that maybe they might have had a past.

When he didn’t answer the girl scoffed, giving Jungkook a once over. “Whatever, it’s not like whatever you two have is serious. He’ll drop your just like he’s done with the others.” It’s the way she said it that almost made the younger frown, almost because he didn’t want her to think she had hit a nerve.

But of course, his self-control whenever Taehyung was concerned was zero to zilch. “You mean just like he dropped you,” he deadpanned. “Or maybe he didn’t give you the time of day and that is why you are obsessed and hating on anyone he is with, bitter and delusional.” Later when asked, Jungkook will say that he had tried. He should have stopped there, but he had too much pent-up frustration.

He scoffed at the girl’s surprised reaction and raised his nose into the air, similar to how some of the high executives at the company usually do whenever they talk to him alone when no one is watching. “Bet you thought you could up to him and speed up your career. His mother does own the agency after all,” Jungkook raised eyebrow amused when the girl bit on her lower lip nervously as if caught red-handed. “Or even better, marry him, since dramas have got you walking around thinking you’re the next Cinderella,” he smiled when the girl’s face fell. “I’ll let you in on a secret; people like him end up marrying people on the same level, so I advise you to put that extra energy into your career and forget about thot-ville.”

For a moment it looked like the girl was about to hit him, but then she remembered the camera and moved away from him, turned back around and ignored him completely all the way down to the basement.

Jimin is full out laughing at this point when Jungkook is done retelling the story. “So, what you are saying is that you almost got into a fight with one of my label mates because of Taehyung, in a lift of all places?” is what he asks.

“You make it sound dramatic when it wasn’t,” Jungkook pouts unconsciously.

Jimin shakes his head. “As funny as it sounds, the girl actually sounds like a nutcase. Make sure to point her out to me when you see her again,” the younger nods once.

“Also, I don’t know how to tell you this, but this type of behavior might happen again. Taehyung...he’s really popular at the label and there are rumors that he’s...ehm...well...hmm...lets say he has messed around with a few people here, both males and females and some might approach you, so you should be prepared to fight back just in case,” the dancer tells him.

Messed around.

What does Jimin mean by that? Jungkook wants to ask but he doesn’t really want to find o