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▶ Chapter XXIII

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Let us meet again,

Next day, next month, next year.

Let us meet again,

When this is all over.

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It was D-Day.






With adrenaline pumping in his veins and the regret to waste such a perfect Saturday exercising, Taehyung slided into the entrance of the court where only the rich or influential or both would play.










He had spotted Park Seojoon pulling up into the parking lot of the court earlier with two of his chicks who seemed unrecognisable beneath all of that layers of makeup that just seemed to have sedimented. He was undoubtedly, clad in his new tennis gear that he was sure that he would never touch again but what goes in having one for unexpected ocassion like this.









"Hey dreamy-dog, where's your head at?" Suddenly he felt a strong smack to the back of his head.








"Geez, there are people watching us, Younha! Don't you care for our reputation?" He rubbed the back of his head.







The woman in question discreetly pivoted her head around and when she discovered that there was absolutely no one that was interested in them, she then turned to him with a pair of bored eyes, "I'm the second child and you're the third child. And as long and far as I can remember, father has only revealed his first child to the world whereas some people only know our name. Can you believe it, he's going to be the next heir? I don't."








"Don't mention that sickening thing in front of me," He grumbled, "and," He looked around the woman and drew his eyes as far as he could, "Where's your kit?"









"Oh, don't you worry," Younha waved her hand off, "Younggeum persisted that she would carry the whole thing by herself. What a great use of her strength, I've had been thinking of not carrying that darn kit by myself."










"Younggeum?!" Taehyung screamed earning judgmental glances from those around him so he lowered his voice, "She's here?! Why would you bring her?!"









"I was compelled to," She corrected, "And also I've been meaning to tell you this thing of severe importance—"








"Your Highness!"








Just then, hundreds of heads turned her way in an instant while the woman dragged the kit on the ground like a corpse with great confidence without cowering away from the number of gazes stilled on her. Her radiant smile almost blinded Taehyung and a sudden dull ache started to emerge in his chest as if he was guilty of something. Well, he apparently was but his pride was the major hindrance between him and her.









"I have...brought...the keet...to you as I...promised!" She let the kit drop dead to the ground as the owner sighed in relief, "Thought you'd never come."










"How could I not, Your Highness, you've handed me with such a great responsibility." Younggeum was grinning ear to ear and when her eyes diverted to the lean physique standing next to Younha, her smile dropped dead just like the kit.










Taehyung cleared his throat and out of a sudden, his gaze drifted to the entrance and he noticed the trio entering in laughing and giggling so he bent a little and whispered in his sister's ear, "Target's that guy entering through the gate. Think you can defeat him?"










Younggeum turned to look who it was and her lips formed an 'o' shape while she silently screamed.











Younha gulped, "I-I uh, don't know. It's been years since I've left tennis. The last match was in high school."










"Atleast score a point?" Taehyung begged.








"Now you're talking."










"Oh, hello Mister Park, what a coincidence to have met you here out of all the places?" Taehyung bowed down and smiled just like the two plastic dolls accompanying Park Seojoon. The said man halted and signalled the girls to shut their mouth before finally looking over to the man who greeted him.










"Kim Taehyung, I presume?" He put in his pockets with his head held up high.










"How honoured I feel to have you remember my name." Taehyung smiled through gritted teeth, "Care for a friendly match?"









Seojoon seemed amused.










"Why not?" His eyes crinkled at the ends, "It'd be a great delight to watch you struggle to hold the racquet properly."










"You've got a great sense of humour." Taehyung clapped and horribly faked a laugh to which Seojoon's girls wrinkled their noses.










"Thanks, I get that a lot." Seojoon, still remarkably not understanding his sarcasm, patted Taehyung on the back and headed for the reserved court only for them, "Follow closely Kim, I'll teach ya' a trick or two 'bout tennis."









Taehyung blew harshly through his gritted teeth as his nostrils flared, "Coming right up!"









"Who is that, Your Highness?" Younggeum not-so-quietly whispered to Younha.










"I have absolutely no idea who that infuriating piece of non-recycled garbage was, and I wish to not know him further too." She responded while she reluctantly held her kit up and made a beeline to the court. Younggeum shrugged, not knowing what to do here since playing wasn't an option, she followed her to the court as an observer.









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With a bag weighing back his shoulders, Jungkook marched forward on the dull, grey pavement. He was on his way home after a hectic day at school with numerous teachers asking about his abrupt absence the other day.










But he couldn't respond to any of them.










What could he have possibly said?









That he was almost run over by a car and was hospitalized for a brief amount of time and that he was beaten up at school? Met up with the son of the most hated but needed man of the whole South Korea and was about to strike a deal with him?











He thought it was really a crazy thing for a high-schooler to believe and teachers in their ages nearing retirement were a completely different topic. Who would believe a pesky, little, hormonal teenager anyway?








Kim Taehyung would. His heart said.









Utter bullshit. His brain retorted back.










Kicking the stones on the side walk, he arrived at a cross road where he needed to go over to the other side to finally head home. As he waited for the walking signal to turn green, his gaze fell on a duo consisting of a daughter who was a toddler and her mother on the other side of the zebra crossing.












The little girl's hair was tied up into two pigtails and her mother was holding a pink backpack and was fondly removing hair strands from her daughter's forehead. The girl smiled and reached her hands out to which her mother grabbed one of them and placed a kiss on her palm resulting in both of them giggling.














"Was school hard today, Kook-ah?"

Jungkook threw the bag in the farthest corner of he room and slumped down on the bed with a sigh. His mother let the books she was carrying, fall back on the table as she hurried towards his son and got on the bed. She adjusted his head onto her lap despite his incessant whining but after a while he quietened down himself when his mother began to stroke his hair gently.

Jungkook's head slipped deeper into her mother's soft body as her warmth began to seep into his soul and mend any damages that were caused in school today. Undoubtedly, he wouldn't confess that he was being beaten up. They were only playing with him, as high-schoolers do.

"Today was basketball and you know how I absolutely hate moving?"

His mother didn't say anything but just hummed.

"Today was Biology too and they said they would let us do a project on any one of the species that we would like in the senior year, and that too separately!"

But again, she just hummed.

"I think there is something wrong with my history textbook, words kept fading away unnoticed on some pages. It was really strange."

On this, her hand stilled and Jungkook had to crane his head to see his mother who was staring blankly ahead, her face devoid of any emotions.

She was so sorry that her son had to use a book that was reused so many times and she even knew that he wouldn't say a thing to her because of their deepening debt.

"The words faded on everyone's book so there's no need to be so serious about it." Jungkook purposely dodged the word 'sad' and to his satisfaction, his mother began ruffling his hair once more.

He didn't say anything afterwards although there were a lot of things unsaid because he wanted to sense the light feeling of contentment and drowsiness that naturally brought a smile onto his face. Whenever he was nearing the borders of sleep on his mother's lap, the world seemed so happy and the absence of proper light in his room was never felt. Everything appeared to be so light and far from reality that the pain his body had seemed to take some time off too.








So on that day, he had wished that he had salvaged this more.







The signal had turned green and he took a step towards them and simultaneously, they did too. In the middle of the zebra crossing, when they passed each other, Jungkook glanced back to see the mother and her child on the other side of the road and who were now heading towards the bus stop while he was still in the middle of the road, alone, with the signal threatening to turn red any moment now.












And for some reason,







Jungkook felt really blue.









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Younha saw only red.









Crimson splotches was masking her eyesight as she swung her racquet hard one more time only to miss the ball entirely by four inches. And unfortunately, she had a dumb-head as her brother so even after not winning even a single match, he hasn't learnt to even properly swing his racquet.






Embarrassment pooled inside her as she glanced at the spectators. Younggeum was clueless as to who's winning but cheered nevertheless whenever the ball went off-course and that darn Park Seojoon who didn't even had to try hard to defeat them along with his obnoxious secretaries who just don't seem to quieten down from their laughter.










"This is getting a little tiring, do you want to quit Taehyung? It is not fun to just serve, you know. I want to play." Seojoon remarked and the boiling cauldron within Younha was boiling even more aggressively like a witch's pot. His secretaries snickered once more and Younha just wished to scrape their second skin off of them with their own acrylic nails.











Taehyung, blinded by the need of a job, shouted back, "I'm not ready to give up yet Sir, how about another round?"









Younha gave her brother a side glade but he only shrugged. On the other side of the court, Seojoon shook his head as if in disappointment but then he stopped in the middle of the court with his head held up high as if he was deeply thinking about something important.










"I have an idea."










"Share it, Sir." Younha hated how ready and submissive Taehyung sounded.







"About the re-development thing. I'll hand it over to Haeron Constructions if you even score a point against me." Seojoon smirked as both of his secretaries went remotely silent.










So that was the deal father was talking about.










"I heard it isn't doing much well either after losing the Gyeonggi Province to us. So score a point and take that deal." Seojoon remarked in mockery as both of his secretaries dragged him away to the corner of the court.










Younha turned towards her brother to see him snickering, "Think you can handle one point?"









"I'm positive that wasting all those years in that club won't fail me."









"It would be really fun to watch siblings play for a deal." Seojoon chortled, "now let's get the game started, shall we?"











All of them nodded their heads with his secretaries still a bit unsure about the whole situation but Seojoon was feeling confident that won't let that deal slip out of his hands. He took the ball in his hand and his eyes narrowed down out of a sudden before he let the ball fall off his hand and he hit it a second after it bounced back from the mat.








Younha rushed to the other side and swung her racquet and surprisingly, it it the ball and was rapidly advancing towards the other side. Seojoon, not expecting the sudden retaliation, missed the ball because of shock but luckily, the secretary behind him hit the ball over to the other side but both of them missed it.











Groans resounded in the court as Seojoon laughed in victory, "That was a bit exhilarating. You know what, I'll make it even easier for you guys to score. Secretary Jung, off the court please."









"But Sir—"









"Don't stymie the process, Secretary Jung." Seojoon raised a palm and the woman hesitantly got off the court to accompany Younggeum and the other secretary.









"So, are you ready?" He spoke with a challenging glint to his tone to which Younha narrowed down her eyes.







"Are you ready?" She asked and the man in subject laughed, "I was born ready."

Both the sides went into position as Seojoon twirled the tennis ball in hand before serving it to Younha. Driven by the desire to win, she forgot the fact that she didn't bother to warm up her wrist before the match and that was creating no hindrance in the game until now but her muscles, who gave up on tennis years ago could only support her as such.










As a result, while she was about to swing the racquet, the muscles in her biceps and her wrist strained themselves. The racquet flew out of her hand as her wrist simultaneously twisted into an abnormal angle and Younha doubled down in pain. A shrill cry sounded in the court as Taehyung forgot the game completely and rushed towards his sister. Seojoon too, dashed towards the injured player.








"Oh my, are you fine!?" Younggeum rushed towards her first and gently laid her head onto her lap as she gently held her injured arm to examine it.










"Do I...look like I'm fine?" Younha snickered but winced in pain soon afterwards.









Taehyung crouched down to her and took the hand away from Younggeum and she shortly glanced at him in dismay before averting her eyes elsewhere and stood up.









"This is a work injury that I was not informed of beforehand. You must compensate me handsomely." Younha croaked out.











"You sound like you're dying. You just broke your wrist, there is nothing to make such a big deal out of it." Taehyung scolded but his voice was threatening to waver. His expressions kept faltering by the moment so Younha, with her good hand, waved her hand up and down and chuckled, "I'm fine I guess, probably irritated some of my tendons and ligaments."








"Idiot."








"I'm your older sister," Younha huffed out as she pulled some dangling tufts of Taehyung's hair to which his emotions contorted sharply, "Since I can't play." Younha's head lolled over to the side, "I want Younggeum to play in my place."









"WHAT?!"










All of the heads turned towards Taehyung.









"I-I mean, she can't play." He gave a vague excuse and to that, Seojoon felt silent as if he was contemplating over something. Younha got up by latching onto her brother and quietly surrendered on the bench. Her hand was swelling by the moment. Soon she called out to Younggeum and the said woman approached with concern.









"Are you really fine, Your Highness? I saw that you had felt quite the jerk—" Before she could finish, Younha placed the racquet on her palms and feigned innocence to the latter's obvious fear in even holding the racquet.








"You'll do just fine. Atleast better than that seaweed, of course." She smiled and before Younggeum could protest, she laid down and turned over to the other side so no one could object her decisions.








"I have an idea!" Seojoon suddenly shouted, catching everyone's attention. His secretaries groaned and one of them in fell down in defeat. Seemed like they were expecting another one of his stupid ideas whenever he said that sentence.







"What is it?" Taehyung shouted from the other side of the court.








"I'll play with one leg since one of your players can't even seem to hold her racquet!" He yelled as his eyes drifted towards the cowering figure outside the court and near the benches and she seemed to retaliate more after recieving attention.








Taehyung's gaze shifted on her as he jogged over to her. Hesitation crawled up on his steps as he halted at a distance from her. In their first meeting after a few days after when Taehyung had shouted at her, the male felt oddly guilty and regretful. He knew he shouldn't have yelled at her even if she was just a guest for a moment. And to top it off, she was a woman and he must have lost his senses that day or an evil spirit might have taken over his body to have him yell at her but they both knew that wasn't the case. Whatever the excuse he might be having, there was absolutely none that could justify his actions.









"Hey, I just wanted to tell you that, you'll do great. Don't worry about the deal or anything. It's fine even if we don't win this." He rubbed his nape as he struggled to get those words out. Younggeum only nodded without drifting her eyes away from the floor. Maybe if she didn't look at him now, it would be easier to hate him.









Taehyung only stayed there for a moment before returning back to the court and soon Younggeum followed and ambled towards where Younha originally stood. She had observed her stance and how she played before and thought that it would be easy to take her place but when she was actually in the warzone, she couldn't help but feel her knees wobble a little.











The racquet seemed too heavy and the opponent on the other side felt even heavier. It was like as if she was floating in a cloud with negligible stability. Just a breeze and she would be sent tumbling to the other side. Nervousness coursed through her veins as she mimicked Younha and tried to keep the racquet up. If not for Taehyung, she had to win this for Younha as the woman had put so much faith in her.








Her eyes zeroed on the snickering male on the other side and her mind was clouded with rage when she felt that he was laughing to mock her since her team was on the weaker side. Her nostrils flared and her teeth gritted. Her fists tightened on the grip as her feet put more strength on the floor to stabilise themselves.







She wouldn't, or couldn't lose this.






She had to show that Seojoon guy that her husband and Younha were not a failure.


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A/N: Okay just to be clear. Younggeum thinks that Tae is her husband but he is not and he even says that to her on multiple occasions but our girl right here is a big dumb fool so yeah, she doesn't just take the signal.

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