THE MANAGER NIM

43. AMBER CRESCENT

You fixed your gaze on that amber crescent, gleaming in the inky sky when you climbed into his car an hour back, and still, it accompanies you, as you continue to drag it with an invisible rope, which your eyes hurled through the closed window of Jungkook's Mercedes.

When you were a kid, your heart used to swell with pride, thinking that you were the god chosen one, since the divine moon is following you everywhere, and when you realised the truth after growing up, your whole life seemed like a lie.

Now, it's just you, him, and the slowly dwindling moon, travelling in the absolute tranquilness. The harmonious rhythm of the soft breeze penetrating through the partly opened window continues to gladden your ears.

Neither you asked him where you guys are headed to, nor did he reveal the party you are going to attend tonight, but for a fact, you know that your identity is going to be concealed behind the fancy mask throughout the night and it relieves a huge chunk of your stress.

Though the silence prevailing around you is not laced with awkwardness, a different kind of energy predominates the air. When you turned to fasten your seat belt, you caught distressed Jungkook stealing a glance at you before inducing the car to life and since then your peripheral vision continues to keep this muscle bunny under close scrutiny on suspicion, who is still taking quick glimpses at you 'secretly'.

You don't know what exactly is plastering those suppressed expressions all over his features, every time he looks in your direction. But you realized way before that a considerable part of those expressions stems up from bad blood between him and your red dress.

Why the heck he hates such a gorgeous dress?

Though you have the habit of dressing up like a homeless grandma whenever you feel indolent, today is definitely not one such day. You apparently took an hour, a solid hour to choose this outfit, and a bonus hour to convince yourself that it will suit you.

But his expression vaguely emphasizes that he is not so glad to be seen with you, in this dress. Internally cursing his insipid taste, you proceed to turn on the music but promptly the engine ceases to halt in front of a huge castle-like building that is glowing like, it has been engulfed by an enormous bunch of fireflies.

"Y/n" Jungkook calls in a low bass voice.

Mouth slightly hanging open in astonishment, you turn towards him in a stupefied state.

"Listen, I know you're clueless as heck right now and I do know you're dead from the neck up. This is a very important party, where all my family members will be present. So, keep a tab on your dumb self and try to be as elegant as possible, don't do anything that might put you under the limelight, just blend with the crowd and stay camouflaged. Fortunately, this is a masquerade party, so we can conceal our identity behind these lustrous masks, but you ought to be careful with your every move to stay out of suspicion and troubles, got it?" he advises like a five-year old's mom, who is going to put up her child for adoption.

Your tongue protests to utter anything as your brain is struggling to process all the information he just dumped in, your head alone feebly nods in reflex.

A soft sigh of temporary relief escapes his nostrils as he opens the dashboard to pull out your masks. The previous mask he offered you in the parlour room broke into two as he handled it quite harshly, now there are two volto full face masks, which resemble the ones BTS uses in fake love onstage performances. He offers you one and proceeds to tie the ropes of his Venetian volto mask behind his head.

You bind the straps and fix the mask over your face in a swish, but Jungkook is still struggling with his one. His tuxedo's not-so-perfect fitting is immobilizing his elbows from moving behind to fasten the straps. Subliminally, your hands stretch forward, closing the gap between both of you, and grabs the straps of his mask. Without your conscious control, your hands involuntarily proceed to bind those ropes behind his head, not realizing the dicey consequences induced by it.