•••

1:20 am.

"Cherry," I touch his arm to get his attention, and he turns around right away. "What's wrong, sweetie?" he does not focus on the client that he served, and I speak close to his ear to not be heard by anyone else. "Don't you want to take a break to smoke?"

He puts his eyes back on me but frowns. "Why?"

"I...Mister Jeon is in his car right now," I tell him, not lying, and a smile grows on his face right away. "Aw. I see. Yes then. Let me go grab my cigarettes and lighter," he agrees with no second thought, and I wait for him with impatience.

In some short seconds, he goes out of the changing room, with what he needs, and he heads up to me. "Let's go," he gives a gentle stroke to my cheek and leads me outside. We both move towards the bodyguards, but one of them stops us. "Wait, where are you going?" he pays a lot of attention to me as if I was the problem. "We're taking a break to smoke," Cherry answers, but he does not seem to trust him.

"Wait here," he touches his earpiece and glances down to the ground to speak. I am pretty sure that he is informing Sookyung about it. "Why are you doing this? You never do it when—" he gets interrupted by the bodyguard who lifted his hand up and spoke to the person he can hear in his ear. "Alright," he looks back at us. "You can go out, but not Babygirl," he calls me by my nickname. "And why is that? I want to be with her—"

"I was given some orders. I won't let her go out," he does not allow him to even argue or complain. "Dammit," he sighs and turns towards me. "I'll tell Mister Jeon about him, okay?" he speaks in my ear to reassure me, and since I cannot go against Sookyung orders, I nod.

I hope he will understand. I wish I could have seen him in private before leaving tomorrow, especially after that kiss which made me feel so weird but good.

•••

3:30 am.

< I talked with Cherry, so don't worry about earlier. I hope the last hours weren't too tough ]

I smile at Mister Jeon's text, waiting on my bed while Sookyung is taking a shower.

[ I'm relieved. It wasn't too tough, but I just wanted to talk to you before leaving >

< We can do it now if you want, what did you want to tell me? ]

[ I don't know, I wanted to talk about what happened earlier... >

< Me too, to be honest. I need to know how you feel about it, but I wanted to apologize. I thought you were sending some hints a few times when we were talking a few minutes before that, and I couldn't hold back ]

[ Don't apologize, please. I did want to kiss you, so I loved it, but I feel like a horrible person for cheating, I don't know how to feel >

< I loved it a lot too, and no, you're not a horrible person, you haven't done anything wrong ]

No time to read the rest of his text, at the sound of Sookyung coming back in, I exit the conversation in a rush and lock my phone. I put it down on my nightstand and stand up since I need to take a shower too.

I open my shirt to take it off, but Sookyung does not get on the bed. "Who were you with earlier when I had to tell you to take care of Kangdae?" he asks, and my heart suddenly races. "I..." my hands cease unbuttoning my clothing, and I glance at the floor. "I served Mister Jeon a drink like I have to for everyone..." I do not dare tell a lie or peek up at him. I know he saw me, otherwise, he would not ask this question. So, if he ever hears me tell a lie, he will turn into someone bad again, and I do not want this to happen. "Like you have to for everyone," he scoffs and comes closer to me, not wearing anything but a pair of sweatpants. "And you took more than one hour to serve him a drink?" he lowers his voice, and I feel my breathing hasten, become unsteady. "He wanted to talk..."

"Hm," he remains still, standing before me with his towering height, his hands in his pockets. "Can you remind me of what I told you about him?"

I nibble on my inner cheek, not moving from an inch, frightened by his calmness. This one he always shows before blowing up. "I know you said not to approach him, but I just took care of him as if he was a random client," I do not tell the truth, the silence in the room causing me to nearly hear the sound of my hard and fast heartbeat. I feel on the verge of crying. I just want to close my eyes and not be conscious anymore until he stops this.

"Give me your phone," he orders, and I dart my eyes up to his chest, but never higher. "Why?" I ask, knowing that if I do it, this will be the end because I did not have time to delete the last texts that were sent. "Do not make me repeat myself."

I clench my jaw but turn around to go to my nightstand, I grab my phone, move back towards him to hand him my belonging, and he takes it without even being harsh.

I cannot breathe anymore, my entire body is shaking. I am terrified at the thought of him finding the texts and reacting to them.

I hold my hands in front of my body, waiting but dying right before him. I know what is about to happen.

"Last text from Cherry, five minutes ago," he reads the name I used to replace Mister Jeon's one, and I already see the tears blur my vision. Then, a chortle runs out of his nose, and I understand what this means. "You loved the kiss with him," he speaks while reading. "Cherry talked with Cherry, uh?" he makes me realize how stupid I am, and I cry but look down at the floor.

Without even being violent, he touches my chin to raise my head up, but I slowly lose my breath through the panic he is engendering. "Why are you crying? Hm?" he holds my face and obliges me to look into his eyes, no matter the tears erasing his features. "I asked you a question, baby."

"I'm sorry..." I regret, barely standing on my feet. "You're sorry? But you wouldn't have been sorry if I didn't find out, so it's too late to feel like that about it now," he remains calm, too calm to not frighten me even more. I do not find any word to say, the second passing, the time seeming long, the silence sounding acutely loud.

He drops my phone on the floor, and abruptly, he grabs me by the throat with a tough grip. "You thought you were smart enough to do this to me, hm?" he rasps in my face, but I can only feel myself tremble and sob as all the fears are running through me at warp speed. "This is Jungkook. Am I right?"

Nothing leaves my mouth. I am unable to say a word. I am frozen.

"I asked you a fucking question!" he brutally pins me against a wall and causes my head to hit it. "You don't care about me anymore, Sookyung..." I cry, but he slaps me in the face. "Answer my fucking question, you fucking slut."

"This is him..." I tell the truth, my heart pounding me in the chest, my cheek stinging, my chest tightening. "This is Jungkook..."

"And this bastard kissed you?" his grip tightens on my throat, and I nod. "I'm sorry, I—" another hard slap in the face cuts me off. "You're sorry, but you liked it."

I shake my head, the tears never stopping their way down my face, I hold my hands up to his torso to try to protect my body, feeling how much strength he is using against me. Without ever calming down, he throws me to the ground, and my entire body struggles through all the pain this engenders. "You think you can cheat on me without facing the consequences?" he kneels down before me and grabs my hair to pull me back up, the weakness, which I feel, keeping me down. "You are a slut, so I'm gonna treat you like one now," he lets go of me and goes back up to grab hold of my phone that he threw away. "You're never gonna talk to him again. You're never gonna see or talk to anyone again. You'll stay here, in this fucking house, and won't ever see the outside unless I permit you to, understood?"

I give a nod of my head, but I flinch at the sight of him crouching down to my level. "Understood?" he repeats and crushes my jaw with his big hand to force me to look up at him. "Yes, Sookyung," I answer, in a quivering voice full of agony and terror. "And you can forget tomorrow's trip. Useless fucking bitch," he sends one more slap in the same cheek and straightens up to walk away. "See, you gave me the exact reason why I was right when I decided to let all those men use you. You're worth nothing," he stands right in front of me, but the only thing that I can see of him is his feet.

"Why do you do this...?" I can barely let out of my mouth, my face and jaw feeling sore. "Why I do this?" he squats down again. "Why are you upset about this when Kangdae has done much worse to me...?"

He smirks at me, not expressing any type of remorse or empathy towards me. "Because I know that this asshole has feelings for you and cares about you, and I cannot fucking stand it to see another man try to get what's mine. Kangdae, and all the other guys at the nightclub only lust over you, you're nothing but a pussy they wanna fuck. That is the reason why I forbade you from approaching him, but you didn't listen, only because this fake asshole made you believe you meant something to him."

I look down at his hands but cannot stop crying. "After all the things I've done for you. Taking you away from that drug and alcohol addict, giving you my house, my time, my money, my attention, my love, keeping you and that damn burden under my roof, but you still dare to look me in the eyes and tell me I don't care about you? Then you use that pretext to feel less guilty and disgusting about cheating on me? You think I'm gonna take that shit and feel bad for you?"

I shake my head, knowing I am the one who did wrong. "Then use your fucking brain and shut the fuck up."

I glance down and wipe my tears away. This is all my fault.

— Next day —

Monday, August 9th, 2021.

8 am.

The silence in the house sounding awfully loud, I wash the dishes to make sure that breakfast will be ready once he is awake. However, my heart speeds up at the sound of a door opening. I know this is not Jun, he is still sleeping at this hour, and I can tell who it is by the heaviness of the steps against the floor. I bite on my inner cheek and hold back from crying, I focus on my task, but the closer he is getting from me, the harder the beating against my chest is becoming.

As soon as I feel his hand firmly hold my shoulder, I flinch, and my entire body tenses up, nearly causing me to drop the dish I have in my hand.

"Calm down," he speaks in my ear, the tears filling my eyes as the only thing I can feel inside is the pain he engendered, both mentally and physically. I do not say a single word or give him a single look, but he slips some fingers under my top to knead my painful shoulder, and his other hand grips the edge of the counter for his body to push me against it.

"I'm not going to hurt you, baby," he presses his lips on my ear, and a tear escapes my eye. "You know I didn't mean to do this, but I lost control when I realized what happened behind my back," he speaks in a softer voice than he did last night, but I cannot find a way to remain calm. My body is shaking, I am scared of his touch on me, of him, and what he could do again.

"I want you to talk to me," he slides his hand up to my throat, and with his towering height, leans in to force me to make eye contact with him. "Hm?" he holds my jawline still, and I put the dish down. "Do you even realize how hurt I am? I always loved you and still love you with all my heart, y/n, and you know how difficult it is for me to express my feelings, so why did you do that? Am I not good enough?"

"You are..." I answer in a quivering voice, and he turns me around, he traps me against the counter and stares deep into my eyes, getting me to drop my look to the ground. "Then why don't you love me anymore?"

"I thought you didn't love me anymore..." I heave my hands up to my face to cover it and cry, but he does not get mad, he inches closer and wraps his tough arms around me.

I break down right away, praying for him to not be angry, but to forgive me for what I have done. He keeps me close to his body, my face remaining against his chest, he runs one hand up to my hair and tangles his fingers in it. He combs it and rubs my back.

"I love you, baby. I mean it," he says, and I do not know what to believe anymore. "I'm sorry for what I did, I'm sorry if I made you feel like you meant less to me than you did in the past, but I still love you as much as I did when I asked you to be mine, and I never meant to hurt you last night. I just felt so hurt when I saw those texts and thought about you kissing him, feeling some love for him, that I lost my mind and did something wrong. I'm just scared to lose you and see you leave...I cannot live without you, baby."

I wipe my tears away and put my arms around his body, my tears soaking his white shirt. "I'm sorry," he kisses my forehead, and he tightens his embrace. "That won't happen again. I promise."