🌸

"That's weird," Hoseok said as he tried to fully open his eyes and read something on his phone. "It's been three hours now and The Fate hasn't posted anything yet."

"You have a point there, oppa," Rosé said giggling. "Maybe The Fate doesn't have any access to the wifi."

The gang had been eating and drinking for the past hours and Hoseok being a lightweight could barely even sit straight. Rosé—who was also a bit tipsy wouldn't stop giggling.

"Hey hey hey!" Hoseok took one cherry on the platter of fruits. "Cherries!"

Rosé bolted upright and grabbed the fruit from the guy's hand. She snapped the long stem off and showed it to everyone.

"Did you guys know that if you can tie this stem into a knot with your tongue it means you're a good kisser?"

"Oh oh let me try!"

Hoseok grabbed the stem and put it in his mouth.

Rosé took another cherry. Same with Jimin, Jisoo and Jin.

"Ta-da!" Hoseok showed everyone the now tied in a knot stem. "Easy peasy."

"That doesn't necessarily prove anything," Lisa commented.

"You're just saying that 'coz you can't do it," He taunted making the girl roll her eyes and grabbed a cherry. In just a few seconds, she made not just one but two knots on the stem. "What were you saying?"

"Show off," Jungkook scoffed.

"How about you try it, Jeon?"

"I don't need a measly stem to prove I'm a good kisser," he said while grinning. "Shall I prove to you exactly how good I am?"

Lisa just pushed his face—just a few inches away, from her. Rosé on the other hand completely forgot about the stem and was now trippin' on Jimin.

"Ya ya ya! Stop putting lettuce on my head, Ro!" The guy scolded.

"Awww you're too loud Dwarfie!" She whined whilst still putting lettuce on his head. "Ya, Lisa. Is mochi tasty with lettuce on?"

Lisa, who was very amused and now leaning on Jungkook's body chuckled at her best friend. "I don't know Rosie. Why don't you try?"

"Okay!"

Without second thought, Rosé bit Jimin's cheek making the latter scream in pain.

"What the fvck?!"

Laughter erupted from the group as they watched the poor guy massage his now swollen cheek.

Lisa, of course, caught it on camera. Jungkook just smirked as he drank his own brand of liquor as the girl beside her currently owns his other arm.

But two people remained silent. Jisoo—who sat next to Hoseok, was out of it. Distracted, she kept on stabbing the poor grilled pork. Jin—who sat on the other side, wasn't his usual sassy self. Yeah, he was drinking but it looks like he's not himself as of the moment.

Lisa knew what was up. She was there when Jisoo's father broke the news.

💭

"Hey dad!" Jisoo greeted the muscular man sitting on the couch.

He smiled at his daughter but something about that smile made Lisa think something was up. But it wasn't only her who felt that way.

"Dad? Is there something wrong?"

"There's nothing wrong, pumpkin," he saidz the guy was the embodiment of a so-called 'gentle giant'. Then he turned to Lisa. "Oh, you brought company."

"Min Lalisa, sir," she said smiling.

"Hades' daughter," he stated. "I heard so much about you."

"Good things, I hope," she chuckled as they shook hands.

"Well, Jin won't actually stop talking about you," the older guy said. "He's very fond of you. And I can see why. My my. You got your looks from Persephone."

"They do say I got mom's eyes—"

"There she is!" A lady's voice suddenly boombed in the living room. Behind her was a familiar looking man.

"Junmyeon oppa?" Lisa blurted out.

"Lis? What are you doing here?"

"You two know each other?" The lady—who was none other than the goddess of love herself, asked. "Anyways, don't answer that. Dear, can you give us some privacy? We're about to discuss important family matters."

Appalled but at the same time shocked, Lisa excused herself. But Jisoo caught her wrist.

"Anything you guys have to say, you can say it in front of her," she said—her voice stern. But Lisa can feel her hand shaking.

The goddess rolled her eyes. "Fine. So I'm going to cut to the chase. Kim Junmyeon here is the son of Nyx. And we've agreed to have you two engaged."

"What?!"

"Your engagement would be very beneficial for you father's business here since we're thinking of a merger," Aphrodite said like it wasn't such big of a deal. "Since you don't have any boyfriend, I thought, why not? It would really be huge thing for your father—"

"But I do have a boyfriend!" Jisoo blurted out shocking Lisa. Well, she knew about her and Jin but as far as she knows, their parents had no idea. "You can't just force me to marry this guy!"

"Honey, Jin doesn't count." Now it was Jisoo's turn to be shocked. "What? You thought we didn't know? You little slut clinging like a leech on my precious son?"

Jisoo's mouth dropped and she turned towards her father who averted her gaze.

"D-Dad?"

"This is the only way, pumpkin," he said and turned around. "You have dinner with your friends, right? You should get going. We just wanted you to meet Junmyeon."

Jisoo felt helpless. Lisa who felt her distress, supported her as they turned around.

"Your engagement party will be set as soon as possible, Jisoo," Aphrodite said. "I'll see to it that the party would suit your taste, darling—"

"No." Jisoo said turning around and facing her step mother. "You already planned who I'm going to marry so shouldn't I be in charge of my own engagement?"

This caught the goddess off guard. "But dear. You know nothing about parties—"

"But Lisa knows," she cut her off. "She's my best friend and I know for sure she knows what I want more than you do."

"But—"

"I agree with her, ma'am," Junmyeon interjected. "I know Lisa and I'm sure she'd throw us an awesome engagement party."

"Fine." The goddess replied trying her best to not show any irritation.

With that, Jisoo and Lisa stormed off.

💭

"Hey Jin, can you pass me some more of your Kimchi rice?" Jungkook asked. But the guy was spacing out so he did not hear anything. "Ya, Seokjin."

Lisa reached out to Jin and tapped his shoulder. "Hey Jin. Kimchi rice please."

"Huh? Oh right. Here," he said snapping out of his trance. The guy gave the whole platter. "I'm feeling a bit sleepy. I'm taking dibs on the left guest room."

Without hearing what the other would say, he stood up and left. Jisoo sighed.

"So what's your plan?" Lisa asked Jisoo.

"I... I don't know," she replied. "Honestly Lis. I have no idea how I can get out of this."

"Can't your dad do anything about it?"

"As you've witnessed, Aphrodite has my dad practically wrapped around her finger so..."

"Yeah, I kinda felt that." Lisa chuckled a bit. "Your father practically threw you under the bus there."

She sighed. "I just... every time dad and her gets back together, he loses himself. I mean, he's like a different person. When in all honesty, she only comes back to him when she starts to feel poor again. She'd always ask dad to make her these exquisite jewelries but I seldom see her use them."

"Aren't all gods and goddesses supposed to be rich?"

"Well, yeah. But you've seen my father, Lis. He's not that good looking. If it's true love, she wouldn't have left him before. So what do you expect me to think?"

"You do have a point there..." Lisa checked her nails. "You think she's secretly seeing Ares again?"

"Probably. She always cheats on him and he's too blind to see that she's just using him." Jisoo sighed before standing up. "I'm kinda sleepy. I'll... I'll go ahead."

"Huh? You're already leaaaaaving?!" Rosé slurred as she grabbed Jisoo's wrist. "Don't leave meeee! You're just gonna go and have crazy sex with Jin—"

"That's it. I'm done." Jimin stood up, carried Rosé on his shoulder like a sack of rice. "It's time for you to sleep before you do more damage to innocent people."

"Free ride! Weeeee!" Rosé was moving her arms like she's really on a ride or something.

"I wanna ride too!" Hoseok ran after them waving his arms upward as well.

"You both coming?" Jisoo asked.

"Nah," Lisa said with a glass of champagne still on her hand. "We still have some bottle to finish here."

"Suit yourself." And with that, the masked girl walked away.

Jungkook—who somehow managed to listen to our conversation a while ago, coughed. "Why do I feel like you're planning something again, doll?"

Lisa clicked her tongue before grinning. "You know me, Jeon. I can't stand seeing my friends sad."

"I have a proposal." This made her eyebrow raise. "Relax doll. This ain't marriage. But you could say it involves destroying one. You say you're in-charge of Jisoo's engagement party, am I right?"

This made her grin widely and lean closer to him.

"I love it when you talk dirty to me."

🌸

🔔 : The Fate just posted an update!

READ

YES    |    NO

SPOTTED: Dashing debonair Kim Junmyeon escorting metal-face in his bloody red Audi R8. Who knew she's good at catching fishes?

Looks like there's more to see underneath that mask of yours, Kim Jisoo. Or maybe it's what's under your clothes.

xoxo, The Fate 💋

"How dare she say that about Jisoo!" Rosé shrieked as soon as she read the post. "I swear I'm gonna slit The Fate's throat as soon as I find out who she is!"

"Pay no attention to that attention seeking btch, Ro," Lisa said as she tapped on her iPad. "She's practically begging for page views that's why she's starting to get violent with the name-calling again—black and gold looks nice right?"

"Yeah that would totes look elegant," she answered. Then switched back to hysterical mode. "But still! She has no right to name-call anyone especially insinuate that Junmyeon would only date her because of sex—"

"Calm down, Ro," Hoseok—who just arrived, said. "I can hear your voice meters away from here. Relax."

"Relax? How can I relax of that fvcking btch of a blogger said bad untruthful things to my friend?!"

"You said it so yourself, Ro. Untruthful." Lisa laid the gadget on the grass where they were currently sitting. "So don't let it affect you so Jisoo wouldn't get affected as well."

"I ought to sue that fvcking blogger defamation—is that Jin?! Holy fvck he's so handsome!"

The two turned towards the direction Rosé was pointing at. Hoseok's mouth flew open and a big smirk formed on Lisa's mouth.

Kim Seokjin was now blonde. And right now, he owned that color.

Girls from the campus were screaming and fawning over how handsome the son of Aphrodite is. Some even took pictures. Too bad his attention wasn't on them.

"Lis," he said before sitting beside her. "Thanks for recommending that hairdresser."

"Always my pleasure, Seokjin." She then showed him her iPad's screen. "Black and Gold as you've requested."

"Nice," he commented making Hoseok and Rosé stare at the two in confusion. "Just make sure the glitters are sparkly enough. Jisoo loves sparkly things."

"Jin? Are you okay?" Rosé blurted out.

"Hmm? Why wouldn't I be?" He answered.

"But Jisoo..."

"What about my sister?"

"Sister?!" It was Hoseok's turn to blurt out. Then his hand went straight to Rosé's shoulder. "I think he's having a mid-life crisis."

"First of all, I'm really fine. Second, fvck you, Jung Hoseok. I'm not that old to be having a mid-life crisis."

"Quarter-life crisis?"

Jin gave him the finger.

Still confused, Rosé turned to Lisa for answers. But the girl was too busy planning Jisoo's party.

"Did I miss something or what?"

But before Lisa can turn to answer, the bell rang.

"Relax, Ro," Lisa said as she grabbed her purse and stood up. "Don't worry about Jin. He's 100% fine."

"Yup. 100%."

"By the way, I need your help with something." She then took something from her bag and gave it to her. "Can you please get this book for me? I know you have a free period so... can you? The address of the old bookstore is there so you can just use your gps for directions."

"Sure!" Rosé loved books. Especially old ones. "I might get one for myself too."

"Great!"

Lisa hugged her before turning around. But just a few steps in, she looked back.

"Oh and Ro?"

"Hmm?"

"Put your phone on silent. Love ya!"

Weird.

🌸

What does it take to ruin a marriage?
Easy. Put a third wheel.

xoxo The Fate 💋