Chaeyoung was unsure if what she was doing was the right thing. But then, Jungkook was no stranger to her and he knew about her story. Despite the multiple times Jungkook had shown her and told her how his feelings hadn’t changed, sometimes she felt uncertain if she should show him her whole feelings as well.

“I’m gonna get changed,” she said as soon as they both entered her apartment. “You don’t mind waiting?” she asked, turning around to face him.

“You look so beautiful,” Jungkook said, his eyes gazing into hers fondly. Chaeyoung wished that Jungkook knew how every time he looked at her the way he was doing right at that particular moment, it always made her feel weak in the knees, especially when he complimented her looks.

Chaeyoung said nothing in return as she gazed back at him, not even doing anything as he shifted his feet towards her, getting closer until they were only inches apart. It was the clinking sound of the bottles that made her snap back into reality before she could get herself deeper into a fantasy of him pulling her into his arms. Only God knows how much she wanted to be wrapped into the ever so familiar embrace of him.

Clearing as she avoided his eyes, Chaeyoung smiled and tried to act as normal as she could. “I look like right now. What do you mean by beautiful?”

There was a soft chuckle coming from him. “You’re a beautiful then.”

Her eyes widened in surprise, looking up to him to see those crinkles forming at the corners of his eyes as his smile broadened on his beautiful face. Chaeyoung laughed and subconsciously punched him in his chest. “How dare,” she said in a mixture of whiny and laughing voice. “I’m serious. I look like with my mascara ruined.”

He reached a hand to cup her cheek softly. Without realizing, she leaned toward his palm, feeling comfort as his thumb caressed her skin. “Will you tell me why you look like ?”

She breathed, closed her eyes. “But I need to get changed.”

“Okay.”

“I’ll probably take a long time.”

He lightly brushed the few strands of her hair that got stuck to her cheek with a soft smile decorating his handsome face. “You know I always don’t mind waiting for you to get changed. So go ahead and take your time. I’ll be right here. You don’t mind if I take out the glasses, do you?”

Returning his smile, Chaeyoung nodded and replied, “Make yourself at home.” She swallowed the lump that built in as she quietly said, “Just like before.”

*

Make yourself at home. Just like before.

Jungkook smiled as Chaeyoung left him to get changed. He proceeded towards the kitchen, retrieving whatever he needed. He knew exactly how long Chaeyoung would take to finish getting changed and get her makeup removed completely and all, so it was quite a surprise to see her out of her bedroom earlier than he expected.

“That’s quick,” he commented and noticed that she halted her steps while rounding the coffee table.

With a soft shy chuckle, Chaeyoung slowly went to the couch and took a seat. He expected for some conversation to start but then, she surprised him by taking the glass into her hand and forced the beer down . It was then that he knew the thing that had bothered her earlier hadn’t completely gone, and that she was really considering the alcohol to take her mind off of it.

“Ba – Uh, Chaeyoung. You alright?” He swallowed, almost making a mistake at calling her ‘baby’.

Chaeyoung smiled at him, but it was so obvious how that smile did not equal to a smile born out of happiness. “I want to. I want to be alright.”

At that moment, he was really struggling to hold himself from taking her into his arms. But instead of doing that, he thought it might be better if she let the words out and not bottle up things. She had been talking to him quite frequently, but Jungkook was sure there were more that were hidden inside of her.

Jungkook took the bottle of alcohol into his hand as he leaned forward a bit to pour the liquid into her glass. “I know alcohol will make you feel like tomorrow morning, but I –”

Chaeyoung didn’t waste any time as she, in a matter of seconds, had already tipped her head back, gulping down the alcohol with her eyes squeezed shut. Jungkook didn’t know if it was even a good idea to be giving her chance to drink when he saw her like that.

“Chaeyoung, drink slowly.”

She slammed the glass onto the table and when he looked at her face, with her eyes closed, she started breathing heavily, her teeth biting down on her lower lip. Obviously, she was trying not to cry.

“What should I do, Jungkook?”

Jungkook kept his mouth shut while his eyes fixated on her as she continuously replenished her glass and drank each glass with her eyes tightly shut. She groaned at every shot, breathing hard as soon as the alcohol safely slid down . But he stopped her when she began to cough, taking the bottle and glass away from her. “Stop, that’s enough,” he said when she tried to reach for the glass that he had just taken from her hand.

“I’m not drunk yet,” she said, pouting with a glare thrown at him.

“No,” he said firmly and quickly got up to take all the bottles and glasses off the table. Jungkook went to place all of them onto the kitchen table before he came back to see her curling on the couch, chuckling but the only vibe that came out of her was of sadness.

“Do you think I should change my mind?” Chaeyoung asked him, which made him freeze for a second. “Should I have… Should I have accepted it?”

If Chaeyoung wanted an honest answer from him, Jungkook would say ‘no’ to both questions she had just asked him. Because he didn’t think he’d be able to live knowing that he lost the woman who meant the world to him.

“Do what you think is right,” he responded simply, trying his best not to show her drunk self of how heartbroken he felt being thrown that kind of question.

All of a sudden, Chaeyoung got up and crawled into his lap, straddling him as she wrapped her arms around his neck, pressing her forehead onto his and Jungkook closed his eyes, wanting the moment to last forever because he missed moments like that, the kind of moments that he wanted to experience with her and only her.

“How do I know what the right thing to do is?” she asked, and he could feel that their lips were dangerously close.

Slowly, Jungkook held her waist tenderly with both of his hands as he opened his eyes but stayed downcast. “What did your mind tell you to do?”

“It told me nothing but blamed me for not doing anything to make her happy,” she said