The Price of Love

Epilogue

Hey? That's all he had to say to me? I had turned to see some girl wrapped around his body. I saw him throwing back glasses of champagne. Then he had swaggered over to me still reeking of that girl's perfume, and he said hey? What was I supposed to do about that?

I turned my face away before he could see my disappointment. How dare he? We haven't communicated for seven weeks and four days, and he had nothing better to say to me?

"No, um, Bella?" his voice was barely audible in the noisy room.

I looked at him again. His expression was contrite, and I had to remind myself to breathe. Why did he have to look so drop-dead gorgeous? Even in the crazy, fluorescent lighting in the room, he looked like he was doing a photo shoot. How was I supposed to hold on to my angry indignation when all I wanted to do was hug him and kiss him and...

"It is so good to see you," he said, his voice a little more assertive. "Can we...go somewhere and talk...in private?"

My eyes were glued to his perfectly, plump lips, and I felt myself swaying closer to him. "I--I, uh, I'm with--" I turned to look around and realized that Cindy and Jimin had disappeared from my side. I looked at Jin and could see that his mouth was curving up on one side--a perfectly sexy smirk that indicated he knew what my response would be. If I had any willpower, I would refuse to go anywhere with him.

If.

He held out his hand to me, and I hesitated only a millisecond before taking it and letting him guide me across the VIP lounge. My heart began beating faster when I felt him twine his fingers with mine as he led me to a nondescript door at the back of the room that was marked STAFF ONLY. He pushed the door open and pulled me inside.

I looked around. It seemed to be a small office, probably not used often. The desk had only a desktop computer on it, no papers. A small futon was set along the back wall. He indicated for me to take a seat on the futon. When I sat down, I noticed that the computer actually showed the security cameras to the VIP lounge. I could see all corners of the room outside. I saw Cindy, Namjoon, and Hoseok huddled in conversation, pointing to this office.

Jin pulled the rolling chair from the desk around and sat in front of me. "Bella, how are you? How have you been?"

"Me? I...uh, fine," I stuttered. I was so nervous.

"You didn't call me," he continued. I sensed a hint of anger in his voice.

"Jin--"

"I waited for your call, your text, anything," he continued as if I hadn't spoken. "Every day that went by was like a dagger to my heart. I hope you don't mind that I'm being honest. It hurt like hell to just be discarded and ignored after...everything. I'm sorry, but I have to get this out because I can't keep this pain and anger bottled up inside. Maybe if I say it out loud, it will get better. I don't know." He took a breath. "But...I understand that you needed a break from me and from all that stupid drama that follows me around, that you wanted an out. I sensed your uneasiness even before this whole stupid episode happened. Maybe you knew."

I bit my lip to keep it from trembling. His eyes immediately zeroed in on my mouth before he forcefully turned his face away. One kiss. Just one kiss would wipe away all the hurt.

"I'm sorry things went the way they did, but they did. I know it's time to let go, and I won't burden you by dragging things out." He paused. His eyes were staring hard into mine, waiting for a reaction, a word.

I felt my body trembling. My heart! I felt a sharp pain in my chest. I turned my head so that he wouldn't see my eyes filling up with tears.

The chair squeaked, and I saw that he had wheeled himself closer to me. Our knees were almost touching. He rested his arms on his knees and looked up into my face.