Jin's Mistake • KSJ

Thirty Three

"Just drop me off, you can trust Jin." You grabbed the handle of your door as Ji Hoon slowed the car to a stop at the curb.

"I don't trust you." You glanced at him and he smiled but there was sadness in it, you knew his stance on what you were doing.

"I already slept with him behind Seungho's back, there's nothing worse I can do." You started to slide from the car but he grabbed your wrist gently.

"Messing up once isn't the same as choosing to begin an affair, he'd still forgive you for what you've already done. If we leave right now and go home and you tell him the whole truth you can fix this with your husband. Instead you're trying to fix this with Seokjin?"

"I just want to know about some of the things he told me, and I didn't get to ask him last time." You freed yourself from his grasp, his fingers releasing you as he stiffened and looked ahead again.

"Ninety minutes and then we have to leave or you'll be late for dinner with your family."

"Can you send me a 15 minute warning text?" He nodded and you shut the car door behind you.

Ji Hoon had brought you to a tiny grocery store in a small village outside of Seoul. The drive had taken over an hour, but you weren't sure how much of it had been him avoiding a tail. You'd zoned out traveling the meandering paths outside of the city, trees and eventually farm land rushing past your window.

You opened the shop door and were met with the humidity of the small space, stuffed full of shelving and products on every surface. It wasn't the vibrant colorful displays of the supermarkets back home. The light was dull and the air heavy with too little space to circulate properly. At the counter was an older lady with mostly graying hair at her temples and the first signs of wrinkling at her eyes, you wondered if it was from a life of laughter or hard work.

"Seokjinnie?" She asked, those eyes narrowing on you, and you only nodded, not sure what to say. Jin clearly wasn't waiting for you in this room, everything was within your line of sight from where you stood.

When she motioned, impatience in the gesture you followed her out a door to the side of a cooler with packets of fish and squid in it's shelves. It lead through what looked like a storage room, boxes stacked six high reaching toward the low ceiling. Even though it reached over your head, the low lighting and the restricted path she was leading you down made you feel as if you needed to duck.

After a moment she pushed through a door and light, color, and air flooded the space. It was a patio, fenced in with a wooden shelter positioned over the concrete sitting area, a green yard beyond. Sitting at a low table was Jin, he smiled and waved you over. When you turned to thank the woman she'd already returned through the storage room door.

"How did she know I was here to see you?"

"Not many people dressed like you come to shop here. One of my friend's aunt owns the place, sit." He motioned toward the other side of the table, and that was probably best, a whole table between your bodies.

"I don't have a lot of time, we should get down to everything, I have questions." You lowered to a colorfully patterned pillow, it's smooth surface a waterproof material.

"You want to know about the night of the auction?" You watched his face as he spoke, he was calm and beautiful, you wanted to brush fingertips along his jaw.

"You said we were going to run away together." Your mind went back to that night how so quickly Minjae had ruined it.

"I'd bought flights to Canada, I thought if we just ran we'd figure things out after that. I'd been so stupid to put anything ahead of you. I had to fix it and keep you out of danger. I thought you'd be alright with your husband when I'd left you on your wedding day but he didn't protect you." Jin leaned forward across the table his long fingers enveloping yours warmly.