ᖇOOᗰᗰᗩTᗴՏ ᗯITᕼ ᕼIᗰ 《C.TZ × J.JK》

Chapter 53: Mother In Law

The house, in simple words, was huge. Huge it was, surrounded by other houses of the same build, but this one had an isolated feeling to it, like it wasn't there at all. The front yard, though poorly kept, was long and wide in perimeter and pushed the three-story building further back behind the half-dead trees. The trees, instead of being planted along the fences like most houses on the street, were standing tall right in front of the first-floor windows as if the people living inside were forbidden to even glance at the outside world.

Tzuyu shuddered. The place she was standing in front of seemed like a huge zit smack dab in the middle of a pretty face. The other houses on the street, beautiful and neat, lived up to the street's name while this one . . . um, no, just no! Roof shingles had fallen off at some places and still hadn't been picked up, several windows were broken and cracked, the yard was full of dead, yellowed grass and a heap of junk and rusted garden tools lay right in front of the garage door. In other words, this house was a mess.

She checked her phone again, making sure she was at the right location. Summer street: she had read the signpost several times. House number 148: she even had the book store clerk help her. So yes, this was his house. She was. Standing outside. Her. Boyfriend's house.

Sucking in a huge gulp of the cold, morning air, she sauntered up to the front door. Raising a fist to knock, she stopped. Wait, oh . . . there was a doorbell. After looking at the house's condition, she doubted if it even had a doorbell. But now she doubted if it even worked.

Ding - dong!

It did. There . . . She had pressed it. Her heart's pace quickened as she waited to be received by the door. Suddenly, it all seemed like a bad idea. What if Jungkook's father is home? That question played in her head over and over again. Though, according to what she knew, he was rarely home in the early hours of the day. She hoped for the best, silently arguing with herself to turn around and leave. Her mind wanted her to run for her life, but her heart forced her to remain at the spot. For Jungkook. She had spent a whole day fretting over this visit and now, she wasn't going to just let those precious hours go to waste.

But still, at this moment she could've been doing something more . . . more productive than going to her boyfriend's house when she was clearly not supposed to, or something more important than risking her bones like this. But seriously though, that old guy could rape her right there if he wanted to. His son wouldn't be there to protect his girlfriend from him when he didn't even know about it! How furious would Jungkook be then?

Tzuyu had been double-minded over her decision, having two choices. She could either go to the college to meet with her friends and plan Mina's birthday party next month, March 24th along with apologizing for the trouble she had caused for her and Jimin or come here. She tried to contact Mrs. Jeon by getting her phone number from the office, but the call was always declined, maybe because it was from an unknown person. But the way Mr. Jeon was described to her, she had the tiniest bit of suspicion that it was because of him. Jungkook told her that his mom kept getting calls from random strangers, mostly his old chicks or angry bartenders demanding their money, since she was using his old phone. The old devil had smashed the new one Jungkook had gotten her for her birthday last year. There was still a grey mark on the bedroom wall, he told her.

Why was she taking so long? Tzuyu had been standing out there for almost ten minutes now, freezing into a popsicle. The jacket she had worn was thin since the sun seemed promising this morning. Afraid of ringing the bell again, she knocked on the door this time.

The door swung open. The putrid smell of alcohol immediately began dancing up her nose, making her gag. Covering her face, she peered inside, her stomach clenching in fear. Too late to run now, she could see two eyes looking back at her with caution.