once upon an us ↞ jenmin

TWO, the past caught up.

"Jendeukkkk," Chaeyoung called her friend from her room, frantically trying to braid her hair.

"Yes chae?" Jennie came in, only to see her friend almost crying from stress "Unnie I don't know what to do! My boyfriend is coming in ten minutes and I'm still looking like I came from the jungle!"

Jennie smiled amusedly at her friend. Chaeyoung had called her earlier today to help her pick a dress for her reunion date with her boyfriend. It had been a year since she left korea to come to france for a work project and today they were finally meeting again. Jennie would also be meeting this man, and she was definitely excited to see who managed to get chaeyoung so whipped 24/7.

"Chaeyoung, calm down. You look gorgeous. Ten minutes is enough for me to do your hair and maybe even add a few flowers. Just chill, okay?" Jennie reassured her as she skilfully smoothened out her hair, untangling all the knots. While Chaeyoung calmed herself down, Jennie deftly braided her hair into a loose braid, leaving a few strands of hair out to delicately frame Chaeyoung's face. Then she placed a flower pin as a final touch, and smiled seeing that she was done by seven, the time her boyfriend would arrive.

The younger smiled in relief "Thanks unnie, you're the best." She moved in for a hug but Jennie immediately pushed her away, tutting "nuh-uh Ms Park, do not ruin the dress i took so much time to iron"

Chaeyoung giggled "Sorry unnie-" her sentence was cut off with the ringing of the doorbell. She squealed, immediately checking her appearance again in apprehension, making Jennie roll her eyes at her antics.

Taking a few calming breaths, she finally walked to the door, Jennie on her heels to see who's the man her friend talked about all the time.

Chaeyoung opened the door, smiling widely when she saw her man donned in a leather jacket, holding a bunch of roses in his hands. She held back tears and rushed to bear hug him, catching him by surprise.

"I miss you so much kookie," her voice came out muffled and he chuckled, wrapping his arms around her and burrowing his nose in her hair.

By now, having taken the role of the single pringle annoying bestfriend, Jennie would've made a smartass comment about not ruining her hair or not ruining her makeup by hugging him.

But she couldn't.

All words were lodged in her throat as she stared at Jungkook in horror.

If Jungkook was here, that could only mean...

She knew she had to get away but she couldn't move. She was frozen in the spot, her eyes glued to the couple in shock.

It was only when they broke apart that she managed to get her mind moving again.

Chaeyoung looked at her, smiling and not noticing anything was wrong "Kookie, this is Jennie, my best friend who helped me a lot in opening up a branch of my business here."

The same shocked expressed jennie was wearing seconds earlier took over jungkook's face. Jennie fiddled nervously with her fingers and Chaeyoung finally caught on to the tension in the room.

Not knowing what to say, she blurted the first thing that came to her mind, "Were you guys a thing or something?"

Jungkook seemed to have snapped back into reality and scoffed "Do I look like I wanted to be with her and end up being heartbroken like my hyung? No thank you."

Jennie flinched from his harsh words, but had nothing to say for herself. Another tense silence resumed and Chaeyoung spoke up nervously "T-then what's going on?"

"It's all in the past, chae, just go enjoy your date," Jennie murmured awkwardly but she retaliated immediately, crossing her arms.

"No way! How am I supposed to enjoy the date when this would constantly be on my mind? We are settling this now."

Saying so firmly, pulled her boyfriend in and quietly closed the door. She dragged them both to the couch and sat in front of them, frowning, "Now please do enlighten me."

Nobody said anything at first, and Jennie just looked down, wanting to cry. Seeing that, Jungkook rolled his eyes, deciding to speak up "Well this girl you call a friend, broke my hyung's heart. She came to Chile seven years ago for modelling, and even though she had all the support from her boyfriend in Korea, she decided he wasn't enough and broke up with him so that she could shine in her career. Nice to see how that ended up," he ended it with that harsh statement.

Jennie didn't say anything. It was all true anyway.

The only thing missing was that she got pregnant and had a child.

It took a while for Chaeyoung to digest the information, before she spoke softly "Jen, is this true?"

"Y-yes," she mumbled, still not looking up.

"But... your child?" Jennie's head shot up in fear. the topic was broached.

Jungkook's face mirrored hers, but quickly relaxed and he let out a mean chuckle seeing her frozen expression "And the cat is out of the bag. All the rumours were true after all. Guess you really are a sl-"

"Stop" chaeyoung butted in, expression hard "Don't you DARE call my best friend a slut."

Jennie gulped, this wasn't looking good "No, Chae, its okay. He's right-"

"He's right to assume that just because what? You are a single mother? Did it not occur to him you could have been taken advantage of? Of course, I have no idea what happened but I cannot tolerate such ignorance," she spat angrily.

For the first time in years, Jennie felt the warmth of someone who stood up her. She was speechless. In all honesty, she expected Chaeyoung to hate her now.

I don't deserve such a good friend, she thought but still felt happy when chaeyoung stuck up for her. She looked to Jungkook.

His expression had fallen by then. "I'm sorry, ... I hadn't considered that," but his tone wasn't really apologetic. The anger directed towards Jennie for making his best friend cry every night for months was still too much for him to calm down.

"You should be sorry, especially when such accusatory words are coming out of YOUR mouth."

With such rare sharp words from his girlfriend, Jungkook flinched visibly. He knew how he was in the past and hated it. He hated it being brought up, but yet she thats what she did. He knew he deserved it during this situation, but it still hurt.

He looked up, eyes glistening. This wasn't what he wanted to happen when he meets his girlfriend "But babe, I changed my ways-"

"-and you think she wouldn't have?" Chaeyoung snapped, but her tone softened when she say the sheen of unshed tears in his eyes.

She sighed deeply, looking back and forth from Jennie to Jungkook, whose head was down to hide his crestfallen expression. All he wanted was to have a good date with his girlfriend. He had been looking forward to this since the moment he set foot in Santiago Chile, a week ago. but now he just felt crushed.

Jennie, seeing the tension between the couple, decided her presence had caused enough and got out her phone to discreetly send a messages to Chaeyoung, who understood what she was doing and took out her own phone.

She sent a quick text about how she should go pick up her child and that she was really sorry for ruining their date. She got up quietly when chaeyoung nodded, took her things and headed to the door.

Only then did chaeyoung approach her boyfriend, and cup his face to face her. she sighed, bottom lip quivering as she was also on the verge of tears. She wiped a lone tear that escaped from his eyes and whispered, pressing her forehead against him, "I-I'm sorry, Kookie."

Jennie heard him mumble back "I'm sorry too." and she smiled bitterly. If she hadn't left jimin, nothing would have ended up like this.

She would have had something like that. a sweet bond like how Chaeyoung and Jungkook had. A partner to rely on. But thanks to her selfishness, she didnt.

She knew she didn't even deserve any such love after hurting Jimin like that.

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