JIYONG’S POV

I stood before the full-length mirror and stared at my reflection. Tired eyes, expressionless eyes, confused eyes. Today was the day. And what was I doing here? Standing in this room? Preparing to get married? To get married to the one girl I didn’t even love?

I sighed and turned around. The door was ajar, a hand sticking out as if the owner was hesitating to come in or not. It might be the assistants that were assigned to me.

“Are you the assistant? My suit needs some fixing,” I said, waiting for her to come in.

It seemed like that hand froze. As my patience ran thin, I placed my hands on both of my waists and waited. After a few seconds, she stepped in.

It wasn’t the assistant!

It was Dara…in a simple dress and she was looking down. She was fidgeting with her hand. And then she stepped forward and stopped.

She reached her hand out and showed what was on her palm. “I’m here to fix your suit,” she said, still looking down. She then pulled her hand and looked around. When she spotted my suit on a chair, she went to it and started fixing it.

I just stayed where I was and stared at her. I didn’t know what to say, let alone how to feel. She kind of looked like she was crying. She looked pathetic and pitiful in that state. She looked… hopeless.

“Dara…” I called.

“I didn’t mean to use cheap items on your suit. I never thought these kinds of buttons easily fall off from the suit,” she said, interrupting me, her focus on the suit.

“Dara…” I repeated, now taking a step towards her.

“I sure learned my lesson well,” she said chuckling forcefully. “I will never use these poor-quality buttons ever again in my designs,” and then she sniffed.

“Dara, are you crying?” I asked the obvious question.

“There,” she said, raising the suit in front of her, covering her face and I noticed her hands were shaking. “It’s alright now.”

And then she stood up. She walked towards me and I thought she would just give me the suit. She walked past me and just behind me. He guided my arms inside the sleeves and I let her guide me.

She then went in front of me and there I saw her tear-stricken face. Her eyes were puffy and red and so was her nose.

“You’re going to get married now, Jiyong,” she said, her voice trembling and her bottom lip quivering. She went to dust off my suit even though there weren’t dusts and she even tried fixing it here and there.

“Wipe your tears off, Dara,” I said my voice firm as if angry. I didn’t know what I was angry about. Maybe it was the fact that she was pathetically crying in front of me and I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t even master the courage to raise my hands and wipe her tears myself. I was the cause of them and I couldn’t do it.

She stopped her hands and stared straight at me. “I-I can’t.”

“Why?” I asked, brows furrowing.

“Your suit will get stained and it will be dirty. It will upset Taeyeon,” she said, continuing on her dusting-off of my suit.

I pulled away from her and kicked the nearby chair and then I faced her. She was still trembling.

“Tell me why!” I ordered.

“I can’t. I’m hurt. It hurts,” she said, staring straight. “I want to wipe them off but every time I do, more tears follow. I’m tired. I’m hurting. I’m hopeless.”

“Why?!” I roared. I wanted to hear it from her.

“Because you’re getting married!” she shouted. “Because the only guy I love is going to get married. That’s why I’m fee—“

I cut her off when I stepped towards her and pulled her by the waist. I roughly pressed my lips on hers. At first, I thought it was going to be rough but the kiss was gentle. The kiss was longing. I felt the longing by the way our lips moved against each other. The motion was gentle and loving. It was the same as the ones I remembered from way before. This kiss… I wanted to last forever. Her tears were soaking my cheeks too but I didn’t mind. Because I missed this. I missed us. I missed her.

It felt like eternity since I last kissed these same lips. It felt like eternity…

TAEYEON’S POV

My eyes widened. My heart palpitated. My hands trembled. With all my might, I brought my hands in front of me, about to make my presence known. But before I could even do that, a pair of hands covered my mouth.

The next thing I knew I was being dragged to God-knows-where. I let myself to be dragged. What was the point of struggling? After what I had witnessed… after the scene that I just witnessed… after witnessing a perfect pair in front of my eyes, enough to be called the perfect bride and groom, I lost all my strength.

The hands released me and I was left standing inside a room. I was looking down. I couldn’t even lift my head up to see who dragged me and to confirm where I was brought. My mind was occupied with the scene that I just witnessed… my groom with my sister.

The next moment, my knees weakened and I instantly fell. A pair of arms helped me and they brought me to a nearby chair. I brought my hands to cover my face as if by that action, the images would disappear, that the unwanted images would not be seen. But the more I covered my eyes and my face, the once-vivid images became clearer.

It was true. I never believed it. I never believed what I had been hearing from my friends. I never believed what Dad told me. I never believed what I saw just a few days ago at the rooftop. They all came into pieces. Actually, they did way before, but I refused to believe it.

Dara-unnie was my sister. She would never betray me.

My secretary told me that they fought outside of the company building and the discussion seemed to be heated. I never believed that. I convinced myself that my secretary might have mistaken them to be other persons.

My friends told me at the night of the engagement party that they saw Dara-unnie with Jiyong outside of the hall talking. I never believed that. I convinced myself that it was just coincidental that they met outside and that they were friends, nothing more.

Dad told me that they both knew each other way before. But I never believed that because I convinced myself that they didn’t by the way they treat each other.

Dad also told me of how they started to treat each other better since I was away and it was really fishy. I never believed it too. Instead, I became happier because they were now friends, instead of two strangers who bicker and ridicule each other in front of me.

See, I always saw the positive side of them all. I didn’t want to believe any of what they reported because I knew Dara-unnie would never do what they speculate. Because Dara-unnie was my sister.

It wasn’t until that night when I came home from LA and we had a family dinner. I remembered that I jokingly asked them if they fought while I was away and Jiyong answered calmly that Dara-unnie seem to be warmer to him now and that she took care of him very well. That night, I started getting possessive. I started accompanying Jiyong wherever he went. I started to keep a distance between the two of them. But I seem to always fail.

I wasn’t one who gets swayed by secondhand information from others. But hearing the words from him, I got swayed. I speculated more even though I didn’t want to.

After that day, Jiyong’s every actions were watched. I gave more meaning to his actions. I heard he paid for the airplane fees of Dara-unnie’s staff back from Japan. I heard he was the one who looked for her when we had a fight because of the gowns she presented. To be honest, I wasn’t in the mood that day causing us to fight because of my speculations. I let them in my mind already that my mind got polluted.

That was why even though I heard from Dad that Jiyong was there when Grandpa talked to Dara-unnie, I didn’t listen because I kept the idea off my mind. I was more focused of us making up because she was my sister.

It wasn’t until I woke up to Donghae shouting at the corridor one morning. Although I wasn’t sure what they fought about, I had this tiniest part of me that said it was about Dara-unnie. This suspicion grew bigger when I found out they went together when Grandpa was admitted to the hospital. Why would they be going together then if they weren’t together before the call from Danny came? I convinced myself that they just coincidentally met in the streets but I refused to believe it.

And my suspicions grew bigger than ever when that night of the party, I saw them together at the rooftop. It was past twelve for Pete’s sakes and they were alone together. And what was worse was Dara-unnie had her head on his shoulder while he was staring down at her. His jacket was even wrapped around her.

From that night, I believed my and the others’ speculations. That was why I didn’t want to see Dara-unnie yesterday. I didn’t want to know what I would have done to her if I would have seen her yesterday. I didn’t know what to do too that was why I didn’t have any actions. But she betrayed me and the scene that I just witnessed proved all the speculations to be right. They were kissing. They were kissing for Pete’s sakes!

What should I do? What should I do to that b—?

“Taeyeon, listen to me!” a voice in front of me said.

I lifted my head as my tear-filled eyes met his panicked ones. He was seeing through me. It was Donghae. He had his hands on both of my shoulders as if he was just shaking me. Perhaps he was by the words he just said. He must have been talking while thoughts were occupying my mind. He must have been trying to get my attention since a while ago.

“Traitor,” I said my voice dangerously low.

“I had been telling you, Taeyeon. They knew each other even before you and I came into their lives! She never wanted it,” he explained.

“So, you’re telling me that it just happened?! That she’s just going with the flow!”

“She loves him. He loves her! You can’t deny that!” he continued shouting as if he never heard me.

“Liar!” I said standing and knocking the chair in the process. Donghae stepped back too. “He loves me! Jiyong loves me. That’s why he accepted our engagement!”

“You’re just saying that, Taeyeon. You know that that’s not the case. You know that he just accepted the engagement because his grandmother wanted him to get married of the girl she chose for him.”

“No!” I said, covering my ears and refusing to listen. “You’re just saying nonsense.”

“You and I know it’s the truth, Taeyeon,” he said, holding me by my shoulders again. “Listen!”

And then I removed my hand from my ears and stared at him. “Why are you even saying that? Don’t you love Dara-unnie?” I asked. “You won’t be against Jiyong and me because if you would, Dara wouldn’t be yours.”

He released his grip from me and snorted. “I’m sorry Taeyeon. I’m not as childish as you. I have learned long ago that she never once loved me. I hope you’ll learn that too.”

“No!” I shouted again, about to cover my ears once more when he caught my wrist and stopped me.

“I also learned how to let go. Even though it hurt, I learned that it will be more painful to hold on. You and I are on the same boat and believe me when I tell you that I know exactly how you feel, how it feels that the person you love has or might have someone he or she loves,” he said, his voice serious and firm. “Learn to let go, Taeyeon.”

Let go. I never had those words in my vocabulary. I never knew the meaning of it. I never knew that the words let and go can actually be used together.

As the room was filled in silence, the door opened and the heroine of the discussion came in. Her eyes immediately widened as she saw Donghae and me. And it was obvious that she wanted to retreat but as we both seen her coming in, she just proceeded.

She stared at Donghae and it seemed there was a telepathic communication between them. She then stared at me after a while.

“Taeyeon, let me explain…” Dara-unnie said.

“Explain to me what?” I asked, releasing myself from Donghae’s grasps. “That you have been secretly lusting over Jiyong all this time?”

She accusingly stared at Donghae then. “Didn’t you tell her?”

“I did. She never listened,” Donghae said.

“Oh, so it was all planned?” I asked.

“Taeyeon, it wasn’t like what you think. I never knew I would ever meet Jiyong again. I was shocked. It was unbelievable and I never planned on snatching him from you since then,” Dara-unnie said in just one breath.

I walked towards her. A smile was on my lips. She was blinking, seemingly afraid. When I was in front of her, without hesitation, I slapped her. Her face was thrown to the side and she was holding her cheek.

“Taeyeon!” Donghae shouted.

“You’re a traitor, Dara,” I said, emphasizing the way I called her. Not Dara-unnie. Just Dara. “I would never let Jiyong go. I would never give him back to you. Remember that.”

I didn’t turn back to them when I left the room.

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