"What if I went home with you... as your fiancé?"
After his twin brother's wedding, Jin feels pressured to bring someone home for Christmas. To get his parents off his back, he enters an arrangement with his friend to be pretend fiancés, but the lin...
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Chairman Jeon sighed loudly, his shoulders slumping as he stared at the dried wreath on the table. His wrinkled face held a sad look which, surprisingly, didn't bother Jungkook.
"I'm sorry I haven't been taking care of things, Honey," he said, fingers gently grazing over the dried leaves. "It has been difficult adjusting to life without you. I just don't know how to do it on my own. I don't know if I can do it on my own."
Jungkook remembered the wreath. It was the last one his mother had hung on their front door before she died. She had made it herself like she made the previous ones over the past years. After her death, no one hung a wreath on the door, no one decorated the house.
But the previous evening, in his state of hurt and dismay, he had managed to find some Christmas decorations in the storage room and hung them up in the living room. The wreath had been too dry to hang up so he had left it on the table.
It was barely six in the morning and after tossing and turning the entire night, mad at Jin and himself, he finally got up with a heavy heart and tired eyes. He hadn't been prepared to see his father knelt beside the time, tears on his face.
Jungkook stood by the corner, not making his presence known. This was the most emotion his father had shown since her death. When she had died, Jungkook had been miserable, his father had been by his side to console him. But the elderly man carried himself like he was fine, like he could move on.
Jungkook had only realized he hadn't moved on recently when he had put two and two together and seen he was actually afraid of being a parent alone. He didn't know how to. So, like Jin, he'd hidden from it. Avoided Jungkook as much as he could and the one who'd hurt more, in the end, was Jungkook.
If only the man had worn his feelings on his sleeve, Jungkook would have been there for him. He would have let him know that he understood what he was going through and that they were going to go through it together.
But he was happy. Jungkook was happy to be there and to witness this. He knew things would be better between him and his father from now. It had to be. He would make sure of it.
He left unnoticed and made his way to the large Kitchen where the cooks were busy with the day's meal. It smelled so good there. He couldn't help but smile. Butler Li was out in the yard, making his rounds. "I want to make a quick stop at my place," he told the man.
Butler Li had basically raised him. He was always around even when Jungkook's parents travelled. It was nice to see him again after four months since his last visit. "Are you alright? You look exhausted," Butler Li observed.
"I am exhausted," Jungkook admitted. Exhausted from thinking of Jin. Exhausted from being mad at him. Exhausted from missing him. Exhausted from loving him. They were all so exhausting. "But I'll be fine."
The man nodded. "All right."
"Look after dad while I'm gone?" he asked, despite knowing how much Butler Li loved and respected his father. The man had been working for the family since Jungkook was barely a few months old.
