*~*Chapter 17*~*

Jung Kook and I sat in silence in his car as the wind rustled the leaves on the trees. I could barely make out their dark silhouettes dancing against the midnight blue sky. My eyes traveled to the moonlight splashed across my lap.

“I can’t believe it,” I murmured at last. “I really can’t believe I didn’t piece everything together before.”

Jung Kook chuckled. “It’s because you’re so thickheaded,” he teased. “Anyone else could’ve figured it out."

I shot him a glance. His smile only widened, causing my heart to flutter. Damnit, Heart, now is not the time to swoon.

I eyed the gauze bandages wrapped around my injured arm and hand. “Do you think he wants to get back together?” I asked.

A sigh escaped Jung Kook’s lips. But before he could answer, my phone rang.

I jumped at the sound and glanced at the screen. “Yubi…” I whispered the ID out loud. How ironic.

“Yubi has your number?” Jung Kook asked, looking at me in surprise.

I looked at him. “Yeah, she went to my parents’ restaurant to find me a while back, and when I wasn’t there, she gave them her number to pass to me. When I called her, we met up.”

“You met up?!” His voice raised an octave upon hearing the news. The phone continued to ring.

“Yeah… She actually dropped me back off here and almost went into the house.”

“WHAT?!!” Jung Kook shouted, eyes wide. “She came here? To this house?! You brought her here?!”

“Yeah…was I not supposed to?” I asked meekly. I suddenly felt like I had done something terribly wrong.

Jung Kook let out a deep breath as he sat back in his seat, eyes steady on the phone ringing in my hand. “No, it’s nothing like that. It’s just… Did RM see her?”

I thought back to that night when RM and I had our first real connection. It was the first time he had mentioned to me how he missed his fiancée. At that time, I just hadn’t realized it was Yubi.

“He did.”

“And how did he react?” Jung Kook asked, looking at me, eyes wide again.

“He just went into the piano room and played some songs. That was the first night that he told me he missed her...you know, his fiancée...”

Jung Kook fell silent, as if he was thinking. “Yubi didn’t mention anything about RM when you two met, did she?” he asked after a while.

I shook my head. “She just brought him up nonchalantly. Kinda like an afterthought.”

“That ,” he mumbled under his breath. I was pretty sure he hadn’t meant to say it aloud for me to hear. “What else did she want?” 

I cleared my throat. “Well…at that time I thought she wanted me to help you two get together, so…”

“What?!” he exclaimed with an incredulous laugh. “She made you believe that she and I had something going on together?”

“Well…that was what she implied…” My voice drifted off. I was starting to feel stupid for being misled so easily. The phone continued to ring in my hand.

“Answer it. Your phone,” Jung Kook suddenly directed. I could see he was getting visibly annoyed with the ringtone playing over and over again.

I hesitated.

“I want to see what she wants,” he explained.

I gulped and swiped the green telephone icon. “Hello?” I asked as I brought my phone to my ear.

“Hi, Kyungi, it’s me, Yubi.” She paused slightly before asking, “Are you free right now?”

I glanced at Jung Kook.

‘What does she want?’ he mouthed.

‘To meet,’ I mouthed back.

‘Do it,’ he directed.

‘What about dinner?’ 

‘Next time.’

“Are you busy?” Yubi asked when I didn’t answer.

“No, I’m free right now,” I quickly responded. “Where do you want to meet?”

“Umm…I can come to you. Is there a café nearby?”

“Let me search.”

As I lowered my phone, Jung Kook whispered, “What did she say?”

“She wants to go to a café nearby,” I whispered back.

“There’s an Angel-In-Us about a block away. I can take you there.”

“Okay.” I lifted my phone back to my ear, speaking at a normal volume again, “Yubi, there’s an Angel-In-Us about a block away. I can meet you there.”

“Okay, great!” she exclaimed. I could hear how relieved she was that I had agreed to meet. “I can be there in about 20 minutes.”

“Okay, see you then.” 

“See you soon.”

“Bye.” I hung up and looked over at Jung Kook. 

“I wonder what she wants now,” he muttered, seemingly more to himself than to me.

“Well, the last time I met her, I told her I would help you two get together,” I said with a small shrug.

Jung Kook burst into laughter. 

My face flushed. 

He quickly quieted down when he noticed my silent demeanor and offered a quiet, “Sorry.”

“It’s okay,” I replied. “I should’ve known better.”

“No, she purposely misled you; I shouldn’t have laughed,” Jung Kook apologized. “So how are we going to do this?” he asked himself. He suddenly looked at me, determination blazing in his eyes. “You can’t let her know that you know the truth now, okay? Just play dumb and see what she wants. Play along, but don’t let her trick you into bringing her back here.”

“Okay…” I said, but I was pretty sure I sounded unsure.

Jung Kook gave me a reassuring smile. “I just don’t want them to meet when RM is clearly not ready for it.”

“Yeah, I understand,” I said. And I completely agreed. The shaggy, unkempt RM who reeked of body odor would definitely terrify Yubi from ever wanting to meet him again, and then he would lose all chances of trying to reconcile with her. She’ll just have to wait until he’s presentable again.

I took a deep breath and surveyed the café. It was half filled, mostly with girls hanging out and a handful of couples. Yubi would definitely be recognized here. I wonder why she didn’t choose a more isolated location.

Just then a shadow fell across my table. I looked up. It was Yubi dressed down in sweats in an attempt to hide her identity, her hair pulled up into a messy bun, and large dark sunglasses on her face. I could tell she had no makeup on even with the sunglasses because her skin and lips looked paler than usual. Even with her trying to hide her face, she still managed to look beautiful. If I had done the same thing, I would’ve looked like a mole person who had just crawled out of the sewers.

I sprang to my feet, but Yubi quickly gestured for me to sit back down.

“I went ahead and ordered for us,” I started as I sat back down. “I didn’t know what you want, so I just got you an iced Americano.”

“Thanks,” she said, shooting me a small smile. “Wh—what happened to your arm?” she stammered, suddenly noticing my bandaged hand and arm.

“I fell and cut myself on a broken lamp,” I said with a small shrug. “It’s okay. It doesn’t hurt,” I answered before she could even ask. “So why did you want to see me?” 

Right to the point again. Thanks, Dad.

She cupped her hands around her Americano and leaned forward. “I just felt like chatting with you.”

“Oh? About what?”

She paused before replying, “Jung Kook.”

I could hear the false note in her voice now that I knew the truth.

“I was just wondering what your plans were for getting us back together.”

“Well…” I leaned in to be closer face-to-face with her. 

I was sure she didn’t want other people to overhear our conversation. And I was highly positive she wouldn’t want to be recognized either. But as I leaned in close to her face, I couldn’t help but notice how flawless her complexion was. Just like Jung Kook’s. Some people are just born with the right genes. It just made me even more self-conscious about my large pores, especially on my nose and cheeks. I was sure she could clearly see how bad my skin was.

“I would like to know how you two met before I can offer any suggestions,” I replied.

She took a small sip of her Americano. “Well, we met when we were both university students. We both majored in Theatre, so we took a lot of classes together.”

As she continued talking, I checked off a mental list, comparing her story with Jung Kook’s for similarities and differences. I listened as she conveniently left off any mention of RM. Instead, I noticed that when she spoke about their dating history, she replaced RM’s name with Jung Kook’s. 

“And so we broke up so we could both focus on our careers.”

I nodded. That was a big fat lie, and she had skipped the whole part about being engaged. Instead, the way she told it, she and ‘Jung Kook’ had dated for 4 years and broke up right after graduation to pursue their acting careers.

“What about RM?” I asked.

I knew I threw her off guard because she looked at me, dropping open ever so slightly. But being the great actress that she was, she managed to maintain her composure. I’m pretty sure if I hadn’t already learned the true story, I wouldn’t have picked up on the subtle body language.

“RM?” she asked, managing to sound highly confused. But I could hear a hint of hope in her voice at the mention of his name.

“Yeah, last time you mentioned him, so I was just curious what your relationship was like with him.”

She set her jaw. I could tell she was mulling things over. Probably trying to think of a lie to tell me. “Well…” she started, letting the words roll off her lips slowly. “He was Jung Kook’s best friend. They hung out a lot, but I wasn’t very close with him.”

“Oh, okay, I was just curious because last time you wanted to go over to his house.”

She looked at me for a long time without saying a thing. For a split second, I thought I saw her bottom lip quiver. But with her oversized sunglasses and acting background, she kept a tight grip over her emotions.

“Well, I hadn’t seen him in a long time, so I was just curious how he was doing,” she finally said at last. “How is he, by the way?”

BINGO. The true question that she wanted to ask.

“He’s doing good.”

“Last time, you said he had a heart ailment. How is that going?”

So she wants to know if he’s over her yet, huh?

“He’s getting better,” I lied. 

There was no reason for me to lie about it, but just sitting there in that moment across from the woman who had ripped his heart out and stomped on it like it was nothing, I suddenly wanted nothing more than to hurt her right then and there. To see RM tattered and torn, heartbroken and forlorn, a year after she had broken off their engagement just two mere days before their wedding…knowing that this same woman was doing well and skyrocketing to stardom, I wanted to say something that would hurt her, to tear her down, even if just a little. Now I could understand why Jung Kook was always so curt with her.

“He’s getting married, actually,” I continued to lie.

“What?” Her jaw dropped ever so slightly again. “Jung Kook never mentioned anything like that.”

“Why should he? You said you weren’t close with RM anyways.” Now I knew I was just being spiteful.

“When is he getting married?”

“In two months.”

Yubi gulped. I knew she was trying to swallow the lump growing in . Even with her sunglasses on, I could feel the tears welling in those big brown eyes of hers.

Yeah, you better cry.

“I should get going now,” she said and stood up abruptly. “Thanks for meeting with me.”

Before I could even say a thing, she turned around and fled. I could just imagine her getting into her car, sobs suddenly escaping as tears pour down those porcelain cheeks of hers as she shifted her car into reverse and drove off into the cold, unforgiving night.

Okay, so maybe she didn’t actually leave that dramatically, but I can only imagine. Gosh, I seriously need to stop watching so many dramas.