The Foolproof Plan

Chapter 1: THE ANNOUNCEMENT

"She has no choice, you know. She will come back to me no matter what. She loves me--she must still love me. How could she not? We're meant to be. We're supposed to be together and nothing--and no one--will stand in the way of destiny."

I looked around the table at my friends as we sat in a restaurant for our usual Sunday brunch.

My younger cousin Kim Taehyung gave me a tight-lipped smile and nodded. Min Yoongi and Jung Hoseok simply glanced at each other. It was quite a lukewarm reaction and not at all what I expected. The youngest member of our group, Jeon Jungkook, looked at me with a wide, toothy smile.

"I agree," he said cheerily. "You two belong together."

"Thank you, JK," I replied warmly before my eyes turned to Kim Namjoon, my best friend.

He didn't even fake a smile. Instead, his brows furrowed together as if he had been thinking heavily on the matter. I knew that he would have his say before he agreed to anything. I also knew that he did not agree with what I'd said.

"Yes, Joon?" I asked, anticipating his questions. "Is there something wrong?" This guy was too smart for his own good.

"No, I understand your sentiment, bro," he began. "You just said that you believe you and she belong together forever. Yet last month at the graduation party, you said it was over between you two and that you had no choice but to move on, that it had all been a mistake." He looked me in the eye. "You did say that, didn't you?"

I felt everyone's eyes turn to me, and I fidgeted slightly.

"You said that quite emphatically, if I recall," he continued. "Something along the lines of how relationships were all bullshit and something about not needing the aggravation in your life and how you should be enjoying yourself rather than crying and moping and--"

"Yes, well, I might have said something like that," I interrupted, "but it was in the heat of the moment. I was very upset, and I probably just spoke out of my ass instead of thinking things through." I smiled to myself wondering if they would appreciate my impromptu alliteration.

"And," Namjoon emphasized, "you left with a girl--what was her name? Sarah--and you made a beeline out of the club and to your...her...some bedroom, everyone supposed because we all know that's how you move on merrily from your mistakes."

Of course he'd be the one to catch my attempt at clever word play and throw it back at me. He was a writer, after all. He also cared about Bella, maybe too much.

I cleared my throat. "I didn't take her home with me."

"Ah! You did it in your car," Yoongi drawled. "Wouldn't be the first time."

"No!" I exclaimed. "I didn't do it in my car! Nothing happened with that girl."

Hoseok took a quick sip of his drink. "Well, what is your definition of nothing happened, Seokjin? Are we talking 'convent nothing' or 'Oval Office nothing'?" I heard some of them chuckle.

I exhaled impatiently. "I mean nothing as in no event or action transpired. Look, we did walk out of the VIP room. I danced with her for a few minutes, then we headed out. But on the way to my car, I realized that I did not want to have sex with her. I felt nothing at all. Zero interest. I drove her home with a vague promise of calling her later, and that was it."

"That's not what everyone's saying," Namjoon continued. "It's only been a month, and girls are talking about scheduling appointments with you."

"Which you know is completely ridiculous," I snapped.