CHAPTER FIFTY

Ms. Hong really hated her.

 

She really hated Soojung for whatever reason. She didn’t even know what she did to her.

 

She wasn’t even on duty that day. She was pretty sure she had asked for that day off before and yet her boss comes into her room, ordering her to water the plants that were in front of the hotel (and also to scold poor Youngji for showing up late to work). She didn’t even get to insist or at least remind her that she has the day off as Ms. Hong immediately leaves shortly after. So even if she wasn’t even supposed to work, Soojung had no choice but to go out and water the plants just like how she was asked to, though she did decide not to wear her uniform. She’d probably just hide around the hotel after her errand so her boss can’t order her to do anything else.

 

To let her anger fade at least just a little, Soojung decided to listen to music. Before she could even put her earphones on, she turns her head to the entrance after hearing some voices and sees both Sehun and Jongin riding, or at least trying to ride, some penny boards. She has never heard them mention that they were into skating, so she just shrugs and gets back to her work.

 

While she does her own thing, Jongin and Sehun do theirs – and it doesn’t even include penny boarding. Honestly, the penny boards were just their props so that she wouldn’t suspect that they were about to 'kidnap' her. They were just pretending to skate when they were actually looking around the entrance to see if her manager, or any of her co-workers were around. As Sehun skates a little further to make sure that no one is witnessing what they were about to do, Jongin glances quickly to where Soojung was, crouching down as she watered the plants and humming to the song she was listening to.

 

“Damn it, why is she wearing those kind of shorts again? And that loose tank top? Does she not know that a lot of men are erted and goes crazy with just a little skin exposure? But then again, she’d probably just kill anyone who looks at her and I wouldn’t be surprised. She has a petite body but I bet- Wait, Kim Jongin… are you checking her out? Stop that, you ing creep-”

 

“Yo, dude. Are you alright?” Sehun suddenly pops back to his sight with a mischievous smirk. “You look… quite thirsty?”

 

“What the fuc-” Remembering that they have to be discreet, Jongin immediately stops himself from shouting and just whispers quietly instead. “What the is that supposed to mean?”

 

“Oh we both know what it means, Jonginnie.” He was about to laugh, but Jongin hisses so he just bites his lips to prevent himself to crack up. “Anyways, I was about to tell you that the coast is clear. The car and the others are at the edge of the hotel. All it takes is for you to do the thing.”

 

Thankfully, Jongin seemed to forget what he said earlier as his expression changes to a nervous one as he glanced back to his fiancé. “She’s going to kill me after this, won’t she?”

 

“Then, my dear friend, may you rest in peace.”

 

Soojung’s thoughts were pretty much occupied by the music that she was listening to. She was even starting to enjoy watering the plants and already prefers doing that compared to the other chores that she has done in the hotel.Just after standing up to water the plants that were on the other side, Jongin suddenly appears out of nowhere, grabbing her by the waist to carry her over his shoulders.

 

Just how he expected her to do, Soojung screamed her lungs out at poor Jongin’s ears, especially after she dropped her mp4. Jongin would go back and get it for her, but that would mean that he has to drop her, and that also means that she would be able to beat his up once her feet reaches the ground for suddenly carrying her like that. Jongin could only hope that Sehun, who was behind them, was considerate enough to pick it up.

 

Since she was literally shouting and at the same time, Jongin was very glad to finally find Jinri, Chanyeol and Tao at the convertible car that they rented. He runs as fast as he could to reach them and finally throws her (something that he didn’t intended to do) at that back seat.

 

“Hello, love!” Soojung hears someone say once she realizes where she was and slowly she looks up to see Jinri before her, sitting in between Tao, who was in front of the wheels, and Chanyeol on the other side, who had a camera in his hands. She was almost sure that it was Tao’s.  Jongin jumps right next to her as he shouted loudly to Sehun to hurry up.

 

“Okay, what the do you all think you’re doing?!” She screams and at the same time Sehun finally sits next to Jongin, holding both of the penny boards that they were using just a while ago and the mp4 that she dropped. As soon as the group was complete, Tao drives off from the hotel. “Excuse me? Is no one going to answer me?”

 

“We’re going to the beach!” Chanyeol exclaims happily as he tried to take a picture of her, but she was quick to block the lens of the camera, not wanting to be taken a picture of.

 

“I have work to do, you idiots!” She exclaims, but none of of her friends seem to give a . “What are even going to do there?”

 

“We’re going swimming, of course.” Jinri answers, turning from the front seat to look at her. “I bought two swimsuits, one for me and one for you.”

 

Unsure how she could reply in the nicest way possible, Soojung had to sigh before saying, “Jinri, you don’t even ing know how to swim! What the do you mean we’re going swimming?”

 

“Can you just, shut up and stop freaking out? You’re lucky we even rescued you from that place!” This time it was her fiancé who was sitting right next to hear speaks up. “God, my arms are hurting from carrying you.”

 

“Says the boy who didn’t want to go unless she comes…” Sehun mumbles as he looked at the scenery on his side. Thankfully, Soojung wasn’t sitting next to him, but Jongin was. He didn’t want to make a scene, but just to warn Sehun, he purposely coughs a little louder than he usual does.

 

“Why did you even carry me?! You could have just told me!” The girl frowns.

 

"Let's be real, Soojung. If I told you to come with us, would you do it?"

 

"I... am not quite sure?" 

 

Jongin doesn't say anything else, but the expression on his face indicated that he was telling her that he has a point. Soojung was ready to punch him in annoyance, and even had her wrist curled up already, but had a change of mind when Jongin started massaging his shoulders. That sight had made her realize that it must have really tired him out to carry her like that, and for whatever reason it made her guilty to the point that she hoped that she could massage him herself. Looking away as she bit her lips, she proceeds on mumbling, “You should have carried me bridal style. That way it’d be more romantic.”

 

“Eh?” asks the clueless Jongin, who wasn’t able to hear what she was saying because of the loud music that was coming from the radio. “Did you say something?”

 

“I said, I hate you all! I don’t even want to swim.” She announces, leaning back to her seat looking all pissed. “Even if you guys force me to, I won’t do it.”

 

 

Maybe she shouldn’t have said that.

 

Maybe she should have kept quiet back in the car ride with her friends.

 

Because as soon as Soojung the beach, she had a change of heart as it reminded her of California. The deep blue ocean, the golden sand and the sound of the waves crashing against the shore brought her good memories of the city that she lived in for eyes. But she didn’t let her friends know that until she finally gets to change into the classic black two piece bikini that Jinri brought for her.

 

The boys were busy buying ice creams and drinks for themselves, unaware by the fact that Soojung just ran past them. Jinri followed her with a bottle of sunscreen in her hand, screaming and scolding her best friend for not applying it, but the latter was too excited to the point that she quickly removes the cover up that Jinri also gave her as soon as her feet touches the water. Before jumping to the water, she tosses it to her and flashes a quick smile.

 

“Jung Soojung, get your back here!” Jinri screams, but it was no use. That was when the boys finally turn around to their direction.

 

Confused on why she was screaming so much, they all walk towards where Jinri was and sees that Soojung has started swimming as if she was some kind of mermaid. She was obviously having too much fun, while Jinri was still mad about the fact that she just started swimming when she hasn’t even apply sunscreen.

 

“I thought she didn’t want to swim?” Tao asks to no one in particular after sipping his pineapple juice.

 

“I knew she’s going to do this.” Jongin sighs as he glanced to the two ice cream cones that he had in his both hands. One was for him, and one was supposed to be Soojung’s, but now he couldn’t give to her as she had started swimming. “Why did I even buy this?”

 

“You could pass as her mom.” Jinri hears Sehun chuckle, and she just glares at him as her response.

 

In the end, they just let her do her own thing, with Chanyeol persuading his girlfriend to sit with them inside the beach hut that they rented. She was still worried about her, but quickly forgets about it when Chanyeol buys her ice cream. She seemed like the only one who was happy to have an ice cream though as Jongin was obviously getting pissed by the fact that the ice cream that was meant for Soojung was slowly melting in his hand.

 

Looking around the beach, he spots a group of kids playing with a ball and as if it was his lucky day, it rolls right next to where he was just when he was about to approach them. A young boy who looked like he was ten or younger quickly runs for it, but before he could grab it, he realizes that someone has put a foot on it so that he couldn’t get it.

 

“Hey, kid. Want some ice cream?” Jongin asks the little kid in a nice tone, though he wasn’t really feeling ‘nice’ at the moment.

 

“My mom said that I shouldn’t talk to strangers.” The kid answers with a poker face on, and for some reason it pisses him off. Before saying another word, Jongin had to remind himself to choose his words wisely as he was talking to a child.

 

“Basically, you’re already speaking to one- You know what, just take it.”

 

“I don’t want to!”

 

“I won’t give your damn-” He quickly pauses and clears his throat. “You didn’t hear me say that. What I meant is if you don’t accept this ice cream, you won’t get your ball back.” Scared, the kid was about to cry but reaches for the ice cream anyways. This makes Jongin happy that he had to pat the boy’s head. “Good boy.”

 

 

When Soojung finally got tired of swimming, she notices that the boys weren’t with Jinri under the hut and were actually playing football with some kids. As soon as she sees her getting out of the water, Jinri walks over to bring her a towel and her cover up and they walk together back to the hut hand in hand.

 

However, instead of having a great conversation with her best friend, Jinri notices how she had her eyes to where the boys were and kept on complaining over the littlest things Jongin does.

 

“Why is he wearing his shirt like that?” She hears Soojung say, as she looked at him. Jongin was wearing those trendy Hawaiian shirts, but instead of having it buttoned, he had it ed. “I mean, if he’s going to flaunt his nonexistent abs then he might as well remove his shirt, right- Oh my god. Don’t tell him I said that. He’s going to be mad at me if he finds out that I said that he has no abs.”

 

Jinri just rolls her eyes. Both Chanyeol and Tao had their shirts the same way as Jongin, and yet she chose to criticize her fiancée as if he was the only guy that she sees.

 

"What is he doing now?" Jinri hears Soojung question that she had to look at where she was looking at as well. It seems like one of the younger kids had gotten upset for not able to score against the heirs and had started crying. The boys approaches the boy in attempts to make him stop, but Jongin had the brillant idea of carrying the young boy to his shoulders to pretend as if he was taller and the one who was actually playing. This is actually makes him stop crying, and the sight of Jongin cheering up the kid makes Soojung's lips curve into a smile.

 

"Anyways, have you heard about Seungwan and Seungyoon going to-"

 

“Why is Jongin playing with kids now? He’s not even friendly-”

 

“Jung Soojung, can you stop talking about your fiancée?!” Jinri suddenly burst out, startling her. No matter how she tries to change the topic, Soojung just couldn't stop talking about him. “You keep on talking about him as if you’re in love with him or something!”

 

Instead of defending herself, Soojung grabs her glass of orange juice, except the only that she was sipping was the water that came from its melted ice as she had already finished her juice minutes ago. Because of her silence, Jinri’s eyes widen. Why was she not saying anything at all?

 

“Are you low-key telling me that you are…” Before whispering to her, Jinri moves a little closer and glances back to the boys just to make sure they were not looking. “Are you indeed in love with him now?”

 

With no expression on her face, she simply replies, “I didn’t say that.”

 

“Exactly! You didn’t say it! You didn’t say anything at all! And you know what silence means! It means yes!”

 

“Gosh, you’re so delusional.” She shook her said, chuckling before looking back at the boys’ direction. Seeing that Jongin was now heading back to the hut, Soojung panics internally while Jinri still kept on asking her about her feelings. “Uhm, I’ll just buy another drink real quick.”

 

“Don’t run away from me! You know that I won’t stop asking you until you finally say it!” Jinri shouts as she watches her walk away and by the time she finishes her sentence, Jongin arrives at the hut.

 

“Where is she going?” He asks, oblivious by the fact that they were just talking about him.

 

“Apparently she’s going to buy a drink. But I doubt it.” Before he could even ask what she meant, Jinri suddenly turns to him and says, “By the way, Jung Soojung said that you have no abs.”

 

Shocked and acting hurt, Jongin puts up his hand on his chest as he dramatically gasped. He glances at his stomach and mumbles something about him eating ice cream a while ago. Jinri didn’t understand what he said and just when she was about to ask him what he meant, he suddenly went to do some abdominal crunches in the middle of hut.

 

 

“Yo, what are you doing here?”

 

Hearing her fiancée’s voice behind her, Soojung immediately stood up from crouching down. As she expected, she was unable to reply to his question. She didn’t want to just tell him that she didn’t want to see her best friend right now as she keeps asking her questions about him. But Jongin doesn’t seem to mind her long time to response as his attention was on something else. He realized that she has written her name in the sand in front of her, and it made him want to do the same. When he finishes writing his, he puts up a smiley face in between their names.

 

“Your handwriting is really ugly.” She comments, looking at what he has done.

 

“Technically, it’s my ‘foot’writing since I used my foot to write it and not my hand.” He tells her with a poker face, but on the inside, he was laughing out loud. His fiancé just looks at him, shaking her head because of his lame joke. “Come on, admit it. That was very funny.”

 

“That was horrendous, Jongin.”

 

“Whatever. I thought it was funny.” He shrugs. “Anyways, Jinri said that you told her that I have got no abs?”

 

With her eyes wide open, Soojung turns to him. Just like what she did before with Jinri, she doesn’t really say anything and just smiled awkwardly. “It’s okay, man. We can’t all have the good things in life.” She attempts to cheer him up as she playfully punched his stomach, in which he responded by raising an eyebrow.

 

“I’d be offended but then, I realized…” He tilts head and then flashes a cheeky smile, “Weren’t you basically checking me out?”

 

Outraged, Soojung immediately turns red by what he says before she could mutter a word. Jongin couldn’t help but to laugh seeing how nervous she suddenly looked. He found it cute, but she was obviously not happy about it. She turns her back to him, folding her arms. “T-that’s absolutely absurd! Why would I do something as stupid as that?”

 

“It’s okay. I know I’m hot.” Still not facing him, she purposely makes a sound that made her sound like she was vomiting, making him laugh harder.  He then puts an around her, in which she responses by glaring at him. “You don’t have to admit it, wifey. We all do it sometimes.” He tells her, lowkey admitting that he did the same thing to her earlier.

 

“Sometimes, I really just hate you.” She tells him after punching him away from her. He’d laugh along, but the choice of her words caught his attention more.

 

“Just… sometimes?” He asked her, looking a little surprised.

 

“I meant, all the time!”

 

“Really? Because that wasn’t what you said.”

 

“I’m going back to the hut.”

 

“Wait, let’s stay a little longer.” He says, accidentally grabbing her wrist but quickly let’s go anyways. “I need to tell you something.”

 

“Tell me something?” She repeats his words. Suddenly, she forgets that he was just teasing her a while ago as she got excited by what he was about to say even though she had no idea what it was. “You can tell me everything.”

 

“The actual reason why we kind of ‘kidnapped’ you is because we’re leaving soon-” He hasn’t even finished his sentence, but she was already freaking out.

 

“What do you mean you’re leaving soon?” She asks in shock. “You’re going to leave me? I mean, not that I like you being around though. You can go wherever you want. I don't care.”

 

“Not just me, actually. We’re all going to leave Jeju the day after tomorrow.” He explains as he scratched the back of his head. Telling her all that wasn’t really easy for him because he didn’t really want to leave her all behind either. “The boys and I are going to Tokyo, and Jinri has a photoshoot back in Seoul.”

 

“…Oh.”

 

“But you know, you can come with us! The boys would love to have you along to Tokyo!” He immediately says after seeing her look down to her feet, seemingly upset by what he said. “And… if you’re still down with the ‘pre-honeymoon’ thingy that I told you about, I’m willing to tell the boys that I’m not coming with them so we could go wherever you want…”

 

After what he said, she couldn’t help but to chuckle. “I’m the one who suggested working here so I promised Jackson, Mark, Taehyung and Youngji that I will stay here with them. And besides, it’s not like you boys get to see each other every day. You’ve been having those yearly summer holidays with them and it would be a pity for you not to come just because of me.”

 

Pouting a little, he realized that what she said is right. He doesn’t see his friends that often anymore, and now that he’s going to start his university life soon, he probably won’t get to hangout with them much. “I still don’t get why you have to work though…”

 

“Well, it’d be awkward if I just stayed in the hotel while they work, so I thought maybe I could work as well.”

 

“You’re too kind.” He sighs as he run his fingers through his hair. “But it’s okay if you don’t want to come. We still have the honeymoon for ourselves.”He winks at her, and she just punches him again playfully.

 

 

After spending the whole day at the beach, the heirs finally goes back to the hotel, with Soojung immediately rushing off the car knowing that her boss is waiting for her. Just like how she predicted, Ms. Hong was at the lobby as soon as she entered. Her hands on hips, she didn’t look very happy after her little runaway. Soojung was already getting scolded at when her friends finally entered.

 

“Do you want to get fired, huh?” Her boss asks her repeatedly as she just looked at her feet.

 

“You won’t fire me.” The younger girl mumbles.

 

“And why is that?”

 

“Because I quit.” She finally looks up, smirking a little. “I ing quit, miss.”

 

Jongin, Jinri, Chanyeol, Sehun and Tao just stood there behind her, surprised as they were not expecting her to do that knowing that she still wanted to continue working there, though her fiancé looked like he was enjoying what he was watching.

 

“I was raised up to be respectful and all that , but sometimes I get really tired, especially whenever I have to deal with rude people like you.” She sighs tiredly, while Ms. Hong looked at her with her eyes wide open. “Just because you’re main boss here doesn’t mean you should think that you’re above everyone else. Yes, my friends are not permanent workers here. Yes, they’re young. But that doesn’t me you should be ill-mannered to them. And that doesn’t apply to just them, but to everyone who works in this hotel as well.”

 

Mark, who was in charge of the receptionist table at that time, nods his head in agreement.

 

“How dare you tell me what I must do!”

 

“I am Xi Yoona’s younger cousin, the youngest of the Jung clan!” She finally confesses. She didn’t really want to say that at first because so cringy, but it makes the older lady finally shut up. She also remembers that she isn’t the youngest anymore since his brother had just had a son recently, but she just went with it. “I must do something for the sake of my family’s business! If an employee is not doing his or her job properly, the customers won’t have a pleasant time!”

 

In defeat, Ms. Hong looks at her for the last time, mumbling something before finally leaving her alone. As she walked over where Mark was to apologize that she’s suddenly quitting and also to tell him that she’ll be check in again at the hotel but this time as a guest, she suddenly felt someone throw his hands around her neck to hug and realizes that it was her fiancée.

 

“Did you that for me? Because I told you to come with us?” He asks her with an amused smile after she annoyingly broke off the hug. “As expected, my fiancé’s the coolest. Nobody can do that to their own boss but you.”

 

“I told you, I’m not going to come with you guys. I just did that because I didn’t want to get fired on my very first job and I knew that she was about to fire me for suddenly leaving like that.” She bites her lips. She would like to continue working, but she bets that Ms. Hong wouldn’t want her around working anymore.

 

“There’s a room near your friends' rooms. Would you like that?” Mark informs her.

 

“Maybe I’ll just stay with Jinri until she leaves.” She answers before turning to her. “I can stay with you, right?”

 

“Of course, honey!” Jinri smiles evilly. “I’d love to have you in the same room as me! We could talk about a lot of things before we go to sleep!”

 

Remembering that her best friend was still into her for not answering her question clearly, Soojung quickly turns to Mark to change her mind. “Actually, please look for another room for me. And if possible, find me a room far from Choi Jinri.”

 

 

For a private hospital, the one that the Jungs chose was a little bit unsecured, if you ask Jin. It took him a long time to do it, but Jin has finally done it. He has successfully entered the hospital in the middle of the night while the lobby was busy with patients without anyone interfering whatsoever.

 

This time, he came prepared. He had finally known in which room was Mr. Jung admitted to, all thanks to this one nurse that he had bribed on telling him. He even managed to ‘borrow’ a hospital uniform from him to make him less suspicious as he roam around. With a mask on, he proceeds to the hospital’s right wing and just like he expected, there were security once he approaches the room. But all thanks to the uniform he has on, the guards didn’t think twice on letting him enter.

 

Smirking after successfully entering the room, he closes the door and removes the mask off his mouth. Since nobody was speaking up, he realizes that Mrs. Jung wasn’t there, and the only sound that he was hearing was the beeping of a machine.

 

He turns around, and the smirk that he had fades quickly upon seeing his once powerful and respected father-in-law looking so fragile and thin. He had already thought that he was sick, considering that he is admitted to a hospital, but he never thought that he’d be this sick to the point that he looked deadly. He wished he could have thought of another word, but there was no other word to describe him.

 

Mr. Jung realizes that he had company. He slowly open his eyes, and upon seeing his beloved son-in-law, smiles weakly and reaches for him. “M-My son. I-Is Sooyeon here?”

 

In spite of his initial plans of telling the truth about Soojung, Jin found himself unable to move from where he was standing. His knees were shaking and, despite his thoughts denying it, he could feel his eyes watering. Suddenly, he regrets being there, especially when the machine starts to beep a lot faster than it did before. A doctor and a group of nurses enters together with Mrs. Jung enters, who was shocked to see him, but was too worried about her husband to speak a word with him.

 

 

It wasn’t the first time that the group of friends went out on a cruise, but it was the first time that they ate while on the water. The small luxury yacht they were at was owned by Chanyeol’s family and was always used by the Parks whenever they go to Jeju, that is if the weather was nice. Ironically enough, it was Chanyeol who got dizzy so the captain had to stop at a spot that they were originally not going to stop in to.

 

As a private chef started to cook their lunch, Jinri stayed on her boyfriend’s side to make sure he gets better (something Soojung was happy about since she knows that her best friend won’t stop bugging her about Jongin if that didn’t happen) while Sehun forces Tao to take ‘aesthetic’ pictures of him onboard for his instagtam. Jongin was also in the pictures, but left as soon as he saw Soojung standing alone at the other side of the boat, starring at the beautiful scenery of the ocean.

 

Not wanting to startle her, Jongin made sure to cough before walking right next to her at the railings.

 

“What are you doing here all alone?” He asks her.

 

“Admiring nature.” She tells him with a small smile. “Just looking at the ocean makes me happy. I don’t even know why.”

 

“Pretty sure it’s because I’m here. That’s why.” He expected her to curse by his cheesy joke, or at least her punching him, but instead of that, he felt her wrap her hands around his arms and lets her head rest on his shoulder.

 

“I think I’m going to miss you all.”

 

“Eh? What do you mean?”

 

“You’re going to leave tomorrow, remember?”

 

“I told you to come with us but you don’t want to!” He scolds her and was about to hit her forehead but she gives him a puppy look eyes and he just had to stop midway. “The trip’s going to last for just a few days, Soojung. Just come with us!”

 

“I don’t want to. I’m going to be the only girl.”

 

“As if you’re not close with the boys! They won’t mind you!”

 

“Let’s just say, it’s you second bachelor party. It’s your last trip before getting married. Imagine how cool that is.” She states. “Though I heard that the party Sehun threw for you was boring. Just imagine this one as your first one.”

 

Sighing, Jongin gives up on asking her. “Fine. I’ll just talk to either Mark or Jackson so they could take care of you until you go back to Seoul.”

 

“Honestly, I don’t really like being happy. It just means that I will get sad soon.” He hears her mumble. “I feel like tomorrow I’ll start to get sad.”

 

“Because I’m leaving?”

 

“Yeah, because of that.” After hearing what she said, Jongin looks back at her and realizes that she was staring at him. Usually, when they accidentally look at each other’s eyes, they’d look away immediately, but this time he just couldn’t look away, nor could she. “I think I’m going to miss you, Jongin.”

 

“I bet you guys can’t dive into the water!” They hear Sehun voice’s getting closer, making them break off the look that they’re giving to one another. “It looks so deep.”

 

“I don’t know about Soojung, but I totally could.” Jongin boasts, glancing down at the water.

 

“Excuse me? I’m like, the best diver in this boat.” Soojung states as she flipped her hair. “I don’t fear anything, not even heights.”

 

“How about we all three jump at the same time?”

 

“Deal.”

 

Preparing to jump, the three stood at the edge of the boat with Jongin in between Soojung and Sehun. Soojung was the one who looked the most hyped, though it was just a simple challenge Sehun did to them. Counting to three, she was the first one to jump of the water, and before Sehun could do the same, Jongin blocks him. Realizing she was the only one who dived in, the girl frowns as she looked back in the boat.

 

“We’re going to leave you here!” He teased while Sehun laughed beside him.

 

“ing cowards!” She puts up her middle finger before swimming away. Still laughing, Jongin tosses his shirt inside the boat and finally follows his fiancé under the water.

 

 

While Jackson, Mark, Taehyung and Youngji helped Jinri, Chanyeol, Tao and Sehun with their luggage, Jongin and Soojung stood in the middle of the entrance, talking as if they were in their own world. This makes them taking out their friends’ lugagges difficult as they were taking up the whole space, but no matter how many times they told them to move, the two stayed in their places, looking at each other with googly eyes.

 

“Take care of yourself, okay?”

 

“I should be telling that to you, Jongin.”

 

“Don’t forget to eat three times a day!”

 

“And don’t forget to call me as soon as you land in Seoul, and in Tokyo. Also, call me whenever you’re bored.”

 

“I might call you every 5 seconds then because I’m always bored whenever you’re not around.”

 

“Oh, God…” Taehyung cringed after what he heard. They’ve actually finished helping the heirs with their stuffs and since they we’re standing right next to the entrance, they were hearing the engaged couple’s conversation really well. “They’re acting as if they’re not going to see each other in years.” He mumbles to his friends, who had to shut him up so that Soojung couldn’t hear him.

 

“Hurry up and enter the damn car, Jongin!” They hear Jinri shout impatiently. She had bid goodbye to her bestfriend minutes ago, and she was pretty sure he had done the same thing before her, but how come they were saying goodbye at each other again? “My photoshoot starts at 9AM tomorrow morning, and if I don’t get to wake up on time, I’ll sue you!”

 

“Coming!” Jongin shouts back, though he didn’t move his eyes from his fiancé. “I guess this is it, huh?”

 

“Don’t forget about the things that I told you.” She smiles at him and quickly hugs him. Jongin hugs her back, even lifting her a little. “Go ahead. Jinri has to wake up early tomorrow so-”

 

“Am I not going to have a goodbye kiss?”
 

“No.”

 

Pouting, he tried his best to look cute in front of her, and much to her annoyance, she just can’t seem to resist him anymore. She quickly plants a kiss on his cheeks, surprising the three boys from Ehra High who were low-key watching them. Youngji was also surprised, but instead of gasping dramatically just like them, she hits her friends to remind them to be quiet.

 

“You already know that I don’t like pecks on the cheek, but I’ll let you pass this time.” He tells her, smiling widely as he walked away. Before entering the car with his friends, Jongin glances back to her before saying, “The next time we see each other on the day before our wedding, I will tell you something important.”

 

“Wait, what-” She asks, but he immediately closes the door before she could even finish her question. A little pissed off, she crosses her arms as she watched her friends’ car drive away. As soon as she turned around, she sees her other friends giving her a weird look.

 

“You like Kim Jongin, don’t you?!” Jackson accuses. “Eeeww!”

 

“What do you mean ew?” was the only thing she says. They weren’t really sure if she’s denying or if she’s admitting it, making them really confused.

 

 

At exactly 10AM the next day, Junmyeon, Luhan, Kris, Sehun, Tao, Jongin and Chanyeol finally arrives at Narita International Airport, one of Tokyo’s two airports, and it takes them more or less fifteen minutes to get to their hotel. Even though the flight took less than two hours, Jongin got tired to the point that the first thing he does was lay on the bed when he usually uses his phone first.

 

Lazily, he reaches for his new phone at his back pocket while his roommate for the vacation, his Junmyeon hyung tells him not to lie in the bed and prepare himself as they were going out soon again. Instead of listening to his hyung, he thought of Soojung and how she reminded him to call her as soon as they land in Tokyo. However, before he could even dial her number, Chanyeol, who had a rather concerned expression on his face, enters the room as he talked to someone on the phone.

 

“Yeah, yeah… I’m in his room now. You want to talk to him?” Chanyeol looks at his friend, and shortly hands his own phone to him. “It’s Jinri.”

 

Confused, he looks at Chanyeol with his eyebrow raised but sits back up to accept the phone anyways.  “Wow, did you just choose to talk to me over your own boyfriend?” He laughs, glancing at him as he sat right next to Junmyeon at the couch. “What’s up, Jinri?”

 

“I have no time for jokes, Jongin.” The girls say in a serious tone. On the background he could hear a blower going off and some people talking. She was probably still on her photoshoot. “Open the television and put it on the news.”

 

“Huh? The news? Why would-”

 

“Just ing do it, damn it!” Jinri shouts impatiently.

 

“Okay, okay. Geez.” Knowing that she wasn’t the type to curse that easily, she must have wanted to show him something important so he quickly stood up to walk over where his friends were. They were watching a replay match of Serena Williams and Roberta Vinci on some channel and he had to force them to change it to the news. “It’s Jinri who wants me to watch the news alright? Don’t glare at me like that, Junmyeon hyung.”

 

Meanwhile back in Jeju, a sleep deprived Soojung taps on the table impatiently with her phone right next to her cup. She woke early just in case he calls her up, but two hours of laying in her bed waiting for his call had caused her stomach to grumble from hunger. She had to get up eventually to have breakfast downstairs.

 

Thankfully, the restaurant wasn’t that crowed anymore, which was understandable because it was almost too late to have breakfast. Since there weren’t much people around, she would be able to curse him for not calling sooner without anyone being bothered. As she thought of the words that she wanted to tell him, her phone suddenly rings. She expected it to be Jongin, but instead she sees Jaejoong’s name on the screen. A little upset, she stares at her phone as it rang before finally grabbing it. However, just when she was about to answer the call, she suddenly hears her father’s name being mentioned at the television, causing her to look behind her where it was.

 

Breaking News: South Korea's Jung Soohyun, founder and CEO of the sucessful Jung Group, has reportedly died this morning because of cancer. He was diagnosed of lung cancer but was not announced to the public. It was revealed that on May of this year was when he had gotten much worse, causing him to leave the company for a while, letting his eldest and only son, Jung Jaejoong, to take over the family company. He was 50 years old. It is still not yet confirmed when and where the CEO will be buried. Stay tune for more details.

 

In shock, Jongin freezes in his place as he watched the television. He felt Goosebumps seeing how the reporter talked about the secret the Jungs has hid from everyone, and how they were showing portraits of the CEO along with his family. He thought that Jinri just wanted them to see her in a news appearance or whatsoever, but he wasn’t expecting this. Both Junmyeon and Chanyeol were as surprised as him, their eyes bulging out.

 

“J-Jinri, what is this?” Jongin stutters. “What the are they reporting? Is this some kind of publicity stunt the Jungs are doing-”

 

“I wish it was, but… the family’s lawyer already confirmed it.” She tells him, the sadness evident in her voice as she talked. He faintly hears her makeup artist not to tear up and she apologizes immediately. “It has been going around Seoul this morning, and I thought it was just a baseless rumour, but they recently confirmed it-”

 

“Soojung…” He mumbles, running his fingers at the strands of his hair. “She’s ing alone in Jeju right now, not knowing a single thing! God, she must be so frustrated and upset-”

 

“I know, I know. I want to finish my photoshoot so I could fly back there but-” Jinri was about to continue her sentence when she heard something a loud boom over the phone. The next thing she hears is Chanyeol mumbling something about how Jongin dropped his phone and Junmyeon shouting his name.

 

Knowing exactly what his younger friend was about to do, Junmyeon puts his hand on his shoulder. “Jongin, calm down. I promise you, we’re all going to go back to Seoul as soon as possible so please sit down and-”

 

“Hyung, I am very sorry but the only thing in my mind right now is the fact that Soojung’s alone, crying in frustration. It would understandable for us not knowing about this, but she had no absolute idea that her father was sick.” He says, though he didn’t want to sound like he was angry, he sounded very displeased. “I’m sorry, but I have to fly back to Korea now. I don’t care how, but I’ll find a way in the airport. I’ll see you guys back in Seoul.”

 

And just like that, Jongin walks away from him, with only his wallet, phone and passport in his hands, and unintenionally crushes to his remain friends on his way out of the room who were about to go inside their room.

 

author's note: 

...surpise?

plsdontfreakoutbcofthis.