Chaeyoung saw him. He was standing, waiting for her patiently even when she went out late on purpose. Jungkook was still waiting. And it made everything so confusing. Why was he doing that? Why would he do that?

Without wasting any more time, she tried her best not to whirl around to look at him when she went straight to Namjoon’s car. She prayed that he wouldn’t call her name, she prayed so that he wouldn’t follow her and tell her to turn around because if he did, she was afraid that she wouldn’t even hesitate to obey and that didn’t look right. Once she was inside the car, she breathed out heavily, as though she had been holding it for a day.

Chaeyoung busily tried to see if she could see Jungkook from the side mirror as Namjoon started to slip out of the parking space. She couldn’t see him, and slowly, she took out her small mirror from inside of her wristlet, pretended to look at her makeup when she was actually trying to see if Jungkook was still waiting.

Jungkook was facing Namjoon’s moving car before he looked down, and even when it was already moving far away from him, Chaeyoung could feel his disappointment. She kept the mirror back into the wristlet, and leaned her head against the window before she fully realized that there was someone else sitting next to her. Her eyes widened when she realized who it was.

“What are you doing here?” she asked, annoyed as she was reminded what he had done to her.

Taehyung looked at her with calmness on his face. “I need to go to the clinic.” He wiped off his runny nose briefly with his sleeve and leaned back, closing his eyes.

With a heavy sigh, Chaeyoung crossed her arms over her chest after resting the wristlet on her lap as she resisted the tempting feeling of kicking the seat in front of her where Jennie was seated, feeling betrayed that her friend was letting Taehyung joined them. At least, Jennie should have told her that Taehyung would be joining even though it would be on the very last minute.

“If I knew you’re here…” she muttered and let it trail off as she rolled her eyes, looking out the window. She was actually considering accepting Jungkook’s offer instead, but it was too late.

“If you knew, what were you going to do?” Taehyung asked. “Get a cab? Skip your work? You’re going that far?”

Get in Jungkook’s car, maybe.

Chaeyoung remained silent for a few while as she chewed on her bottom lip, her mind was occupied with Jungkook and the guilt she felt for leaving him there. One part of her told her that she shouldn’t feel so guilty for what she did, she did tell him not to wait for her anyway and that was up to him for being so stubborn. Then, there was that part of her that pitied him, the little gesture he made when he watched the car moved farther made her heart twist uncomfortably.

She felt a soft buzz from her wristlet, her hand slowly reached to fish the device out. Chaeyoung’s eyes locked onto the wordings on the screen as soon as she swiped to bring it back to life.

Kookie: I said I’d wait.

A soft sigh escaped her slightly parted lips. She took a while to stare at the message and contemplated over the option of replying him an apology. Should she send it or should she leave the message without a respond?

Taehyung suddenly sneezed next to her and Namjoon cursed loudly, saying things like the back of his head was contaminated before both men laughed.

“You shouldn’t have let him tag along,” Chaeyoung said, eliminating any amount of sympathy she had for either man.

Namjoon scoffed, turning around for one second just to talk to her. “This is my car so I can let anyone I approve to tag along. If you don’t like that idea, I can drop you off here.”

“Namjoon, please,” Jennie interjected, sounding annoyed.

Taehyung stayed silent for a moment before he sneezed again, and like earlier, he tried to wipe the snot using his sleeve and Chaeyoung immediately stopped him, holding onto his arm and pushing it down. She let her face paint a disgusted expression as she quickly retrieved tissue from her wristlet. “At least ask for a tissue, gosh.”

She placed a pack onto his palm harshly. “Here, take them all.”

When her eyes averted and locked onto his, he stared at her with fondness that no longer made her feel loved as discomfort took over instead. Taehyung gave her a soft smile before he looked down at the tissue on his palm and thanked her.

A couple of minutes later, they had arrived at her workplace. She halted momentarily the moment she opened the door when Taehyung spoke.

“It was nice to have you care for me again,” Taehyung said and Chaeyoung was tensed the slightest bit before she went out and closed the door, walked away without looking back to even say her thanks.

*

Jungkook had been right when he predicted that she would be late to go out of her office. Probably she was diligently working on the design Jungkook’s boss had wanted for his own office. Bang Sihyuk wanted a change in the design of his office, requesting a last minute change after everything was ready and that had put pressure on her.

He remembered it all clearly when he heard her arguing with his boss in his office, a few days before she had a fight with him. Jungkook recalled when she was holding her tears back home, ranted out to him about his boss and he had told her he understood her frustration.

Did he tell her that just to make her feel better?

Perhaps, he didn’t understand it completely after all because if he did, he wouldn’t bother her when she was trying her best to come up with a new design. He had seen it before when the ideas started flowing in her brain, she wouldn’t stop dropping them all onto papers, drawing and coloring until she was fully satisfied.

But then he did what he shouldn’t do, and was even too ego to admit his own fault, trying to make it all hers when she blew up.

Jungkook let out a loud sigh as he slumped down his seat in his car, waiting for Chaeyoung to come out. He didn’t inform her that he was going to wait. He went there straight from his office, trying to make sure that none of her friends would be there first. It was almost dark when she finally walked out, her steps were slow and Jungkook could see fatigue was all over her face.

Hoseok had told him that her car was ready and that he was about to give her a call but Jungkook stopped him. He wanted to bring her there, and maybe find some time to talk to her about things. But when she looked this tired, he thought that perhaps he would inform her about it later and that he would just bring her home.

Chaeyoung took her phone out and Jungkook immediately stepped out of his car. The sound of his car door being opened caught her attention and their eyes met. She stood there frozen and so was he. It felt like forever before he could find the courage to invite her in.

She looked hesitant for a few moments, eyes staring at somewhere else as though she was contemplating over it. Jungkook felt his heart had the worry lifted off of it when she started to walk over to him as he stood before the car, his hand holding the car door opened for her. This was somehow awkward when he regarded the situation they were in right now, but then his body wouldn’t even think twice about it unlike his brain.

Opposite to what he wanted to do, he’d been silent as the car moved on the road. None spoke a word and it was just like the day when Hoseok had asked her to follow him home from the workshop. Sometimes Jungkook stole a glance, very briefly, and caught a glimpse of her side profile. Chaeyoung’s face never turned to look at anywhere else but her front.

Sometimes she’d check on her phone when a message came, but he noticed that she wasn’t replying to any of it. He wanted to ask if she was okay, but maybe it wasn’t the right time. She didn’t look like she wanted to have any conversation with him.

Jungkook parked the car as slow as he could to buy the time. When the engine stopped, his lips opened and closed a few times when she unbuckled her seatbelt and it was when she was a second away from opening the car door that he finally was able to find his voice to speak.

“Do you have a minute?”

Chaeyoung paused in that position for a couple of se