It’s been roughly three days since Arija and Jingoo last had their date and Jingoo was becoming restless. Yes, they spoke on the phone nearly everyday but that simply was not enough for him. He wanted to physically be in the same room as her, hug her, look her in the eyes as he spoke to her. Being that he was abroad made it all the more difficult. Tonight was his last night in Tokyo and it would be an understatement to say that he couldn’t wait till he was back in Seoul. Honestly he wouldn’t mind being anywhere as long as she’s there. “Maybe I could ask her to come with me next time?” he muttered to himself. 

    “What did you say?” The high and overly sweet sound of his co-worker Ashley’s voice brought him back to his reality. “Oppa?” she called for him again making him inwardly cringe.

    “Ashley,” He straightened himself out in his seat. Straightening his back he allowed Ms. Lee, his personal makeup artist, to finish working on his face, “We’re not that close so I would appreciate it if you would stop calling me that.” Mrs. Lee glanced over at Ashley, catching her embarrassed huff. 

“I-I just thought we’ve been working together for so long, it would be fine.”

Jingoo thought for a moment, the way he said what he said was a bit cold. “I apologize if my words came out a bit harsh. I’m just not comfortable with you calling me that.”

“That’s alright,” Ashley brightened up again with his half agreement that they were close. 

Suddenly Jingoo’s phone pinged. He had his sound because they had not started filming yet and he didn’t want to miss any text from Arija. Seeing her cute greeting of the day caused a dimpled smile to spread across Jingoo’s face. An action that didn’t go unnoticed by neither his makeup artist nor Ashley. 

Being as direct as ever Ashley tried to feign anything other than jealousy. Pretending to be endorsed in the script for their commercial Ashley asked “Are you watching a funny video or something?”

“Nope, my girlfriend texted me.” Jingoo answered nonchalantly, taking a quick selfie to send back. 

“Girlfriend?” Ashley turned a bit too quickly in her seat, gaining the attention of some of the people in the room, giving them a shy smile as she turned back to Jin Goo. “Right, I forgot you have one of those.” Noticing that not everybody had turned away she smiled at Jin Goo. Acting as if he had said something to her.

Jingoo chuckled at her comment, “why did you say it like that?.”

Ashley laughed, a bit too loudly and a bit too forcefully “Oppa! I didn’t mean it in a bad way. You’re so funny.”

JinGoo and Mrs. Lee both gave each other a quick look.

“Ugh.” Arija groaned. She was sitting in the back of her car as Taehyung drove her to her next scheduled meeting. 

“What’s wrong?” Taehyung said informally*.

“Tsk,” Arija her teeth glaring into the mirror at Taehyung. “You’re on the clock Mr. Kim.”

“Excuse me,” Taehyung cleared his throat “What’s wrong?” he repeated this time in a much more formal way*. 

* In korean they have different levels of formalities which are to be used with different levels of relationships with people. Since Arija is Taehyung’s boss and they are in a working setting he should’ve talked in Jondaemal (formal tone) yet, he spoke in Banmal (informal tone).

“It’s not a business matter.” Arija pouted. 

“Let’s make an exception this one time,” Taehyung suggested “there’s no one here but us.”

Arija looked up from her phone, contemplating it. “Okay, it’s just that I really miss this dude but, I don’t want to seem desperate by calling him all the time, but I really want to talk to him.” 

    “A dude?” Taehyung’s eyes quickly searched for hers in the mirror “you’re dating someone?”

    “I mean, we’ve only gone on one… and a half dates.” Arija shrugged and Taehyung was almost relieved till she added “But I’m pretty sure we might be.” Taehyung was silent, letting this news settle. “So.” Arija waited for his advice.

    “Noona,” Taehyung suddenly became serious. “Are you sure about this one?” Although she couldn’t see his facial expression, Arija could tell he was genuinely concerned. In the past she hadn’t really met the most genuine guys and Taehyung was often the witness to the despair they would leave her in.

    “I really think he is.” She smiled down at the cute picture he had sent her hours earlier. 

    “Then, just be yourself. If you want to call him, call him. If he feels the same way then it shouldn’t really be a problem.” Honestly this was the most generic advice but Taehyung knew well how much of a dork and overthinker she becomes when it comes to relationships, lucky jerks. 

    Arija smiled, “You know what I will call him.” She pressed the call button and it rang through without anyone picking up, she tried it again with no luck. “Ugh,” she tossed the phone next to her “he didn’t pick up. Do you think maybe this is a sign?”

    “Well-” Taehyung began but then the phone began ringing. 

“Sh,” she grabbed her phone with quickness but before answering she took a deep breath. “Hello?”

“Hey,” Jingoo’s deep voice greeted her on the other line. He had a slight lag in his voice, as if he had just woken up.

    “Oh my, did I just wake you? I’m so sorry.”

    “No,” Jingoo said, “give me a sec.” with that Arija got the notification that Jingoo wanted to facetime. 

    “How do I look?” she quickly whispered to Taehyung who put a weak thumb up in response. She sneered at him before returning her attention on the call, agreeing to the facetime. “Hey, whoa.” She got caught off guard. Jingoo was laying head against his headboard, chiseled chest all displayed for Arija.  

    “What?” Jingoo checked himself out through the camera. “I got something on my face?” 

    “Yeah, handsome.” Arija snorted but quickly regretted what she said when Jingoo went silent. Taehyung, who was focused on driving, even gave her a look. Mentally face palming herself she was going to feign loss of connection and end the call but, was quickly redeemed when Jingoo began to laugh on the other side. 

    “That was cute,” he stared at her with a small smile before blurting out “Ugh, I miss you.”

    “I miss you too. When are you coming back?” 

    “I’m catching a flight in a couple of hours and should be back later tonight.”

    “We’re here Miss.” Taehyung announced, putting the car in park.

    “Ok, thank you.” She made a quick reply, returning her focus to her call.

    Although Jingoo wanted to know who the voice came from he decided that now probably wasn’t the time to mention it. “Can I come see you later?”

    “Yeah, I would like that.” 

    Taehyung had already made it out of the car and was opening the door for Arija. “We’ve really gotta go if you don’t want to be late.”

“I understand, just a couple of more seconds.”

“If you need to go go, don’t worry, you’ll definitely be seeing me tonight.” 

Arija pouted “Ok, see you later.”

“Can’t wait to see you.” Jingoo gave her a small smile and wave before she ended the call. 

Arija got out of the car, taking a moment to properly glare at Taehyung for cutting short her long awaited call. Seeing that he was unaffected by her look of death she harrumphed before walking into the building. 

“Miss Johnson, we’re very glad to have you.” Arija replied to the receptionist with a smile “I’ll lead you to the waiting room?”

“Why the waiting room? Is there no meeting today?” Arija looked at her, confused.

“There is Miss. It’s just that you’re a little bit early and they are not yet prepared.”

Arija didn’t reply to the receptionist but instead made a slow turn around, glaring at her secretary. “Why?” she simply asked, voice laced with a slowly burning anger, she could be talking to Jingoo right now. 

Taehyung nonchalantly shrugged “Mistake.”

Arija held back from strangling her friend in front of the innocent bystanders. Letting out a sigh she smiled at the lady signalling her to show them to where they would be waiting.

Later that night Arija had Taehyung drop her off at the convenience store. She had planned to buy some Soju for her and Jingoo to share that night. She was walking to her house when she spotted a figure in the distance. It was a man in a suit with a cap standing outside her gate. He was holding a briefcase in one hand and a box in another. Excited at the idea that it may be Jingoo, she began to run towards him. 

    The man had his back to her but upon hearing footsteps turned around. Seeing her running towards him he opened his arms wide, ready to embrace her. Happily she hopped into his arms. They stayed like that for just a second, looking up at him she pulled down the black mask he was wearing to reveal him cheesing. “I missed you.” she said.

    “And I you.” he leaned down and placed a soft kiss on her lips. 

    Finally letting each other go from their embrace she looked down at the box he was holding. “What’s that?” she asked. 

    “Ah, this?” He looked down at it for a second, as if contemplating his next move. Suddenly, he bent down on his knee. Eyes glistening he laid his briefcase down and opened the box to reveal a beautiful diamond ring. “Will you marry me?”

Y’all I’ve been sitting on this chapter for 3 months now! It’s been 90% complete for 2 and I just finished up the extra 10% today. I’ve already started the next chapter so please show this one love 💖🥰

            Also I would like to start updating my stories more frequently so I am planning to update this story every Sunday by 12:00 AM. 

Also shameless plug y’all please go check out and support my instagram, go like my recent. I will be opening up self-portrait commissions so follow to stay up to date with that! @dnttchhr on instagram