Love After Love...

Chapter 43: "I love you."

~6 months later~

Author's POV:
"JIEUN! Where are you, baby?!" Jimin screamed in his morning raspy voice from the bed. Jieun popped her head out of the washroom of her apartment, looked at Jimin, and said, "I'm here, why are you shouting so early in the morning?" giggling. "Why are you so far?" he said. She smiled at his words and walked towards him, laying herself down onto the mattress beside him, kissing his nose. He smiled. "Better?" she asked. "The best," he replied.

The past six months were nothing short of bliss. Jieun and Jimin were unbelievably compatible and absolutely adored each other's company. Jimin's book had been bought by quite a lot of people and he was working on another one. This one was short stories. He was such a talented writer and Jieun never failed to remind him about it. Jieun's clinic was slowly gaining a lot of popularity and her clientele had exponentially increased. She loved her job.

Jimin since the past few weeks had been thinking of a time to tell Jieun that he loves her. It's not like he wanted to make it a moment, but he just wanted to let her know as naturally as possible. Since they would always be having some conversation or the other, he never found the right context to bring up the topic. But he knew he had to tell her soon.

"I'm going for a jog. Join me?" Jieun asked. "I can think of a much better way to exercise, baby," he whispered in her ear, biting her earlobe. She only smiled and pushed him a little, saying,  "It's 7:30 in the morning, Jimin. And we literally 'exercised' yesterday." He laughed. "Why do you look like that then? Tone down the sexy," he said. "Gosh. A little too early for the flirting, don't you think?" she said, rolling her eyes. He smirked. "C'mon, Jieun! Skip today! Lets just have a nice breakfast and cuddle in bed. We have work later, remember?" he said. "Oh right! Oh no, I totally forgot about that. My maid of honour duties! Woohoo!" she said. Jimin giggled at her cute excitement. "But no, I'm not skipping today. And you should exercise too, Jimin! C'mon, I don't want you to be 40 years old with a beer belly and regret not working out with me," she said, chuckling. "Ugh no, I'll be perfectly fine! Look at me, I'm literally the sexiest person I know," he said pointing towards his figure. Jieun rolled her eyes and they both burst into laughter. "Okay, how about this? Let's go for a jog now. And after, we'll have a shower. Together," she said. Jimin lit up. Needless to say, he was out of Jieun's apartment in less than three minutes.

~6 hours later~

Jieun's POV:
Ugh! These maid of honour duties were no joke! What the hell is this shit?! Jungkook and Wheein were at their wedding venue for the final checks as their wedding was in two days. But they weren't helping at all! Okay, I understand they're in love and whatnot but c'mon! I'm struggling here! Hyejin was no use either. She and Taehyung were nowhere to be seen and I was willing to bet my apartment that they were sucking face somewhere. Wow. So much for best friends.

After a while, Jimin arrived. He walked towards me and gave me a small hug. I smiled immediately in his embrace. He looked at me and went, "I knew today was going to be stressful for you. Got you some peach iced tea," he said. "Oh my God! Are you serious?!" I said, taking the bottle full of the ambrosia from him. "You're literally the best!" I said. He looked at me and smiled. But soon, he said, "You said that to the iced tea, didn't you?" I gave him an awkward smile but he only laughed. He kissed my forehead lovingly and said, "Talk to me. Why do I see the vein on your neck about to explode? That only happens when you're mad." I smiled at how well he knew me. But soon, I remembered everything that went wrong today.

I started, "We arrived to the venue and it was not prepared at all. All the people arranging and making the venue presentable were just hanging out and wasting time. I had to deadass yell at them to get them started. Then the cake guy calls and says the delivery will be late. I had to yell at him too. Then the flower guy called to say that the dahlias were ready. When we clearly ordered carnations. What the fuck?! I have a fucking doctorate and this is what I'm doing! I am a fairly established psychologist and I'm doing wedding planning. Who would've thought?!" Jimin let out a very loud laugh which I was sure he was holding back since quite some time. His laugh was so contagious. Seeing him laugh made me smile too.

I took a sip of the iced tea, immediately relaxing as I felt it going down my throat. After he composed himself, he asked, "What were the bride and groom doing when you were having a wholeass mental breakdown?" "Oh don't get me started on those two idiots! All they did was, 'Oh honey, I can't believe we're getting married in two days.' 'Kook, I love you so much.' 'Wheein, I love you'," I said in a squeeky voice to mock them. I continued, "They had six goddamn months to believe they were getting married! Why choose today for showing all that disbelief?! I don't need people around me showcasing love when my brain is exploding from all the stress of making their wedding happen!" I said, finally being able to breathe now that I got all that off my chest.

Jimin held back another laugh. He cooed, "Aww... C'mere." He hugged me and kissed my lips softly. He looked into my eyes and said, "I don't want to add more stress to your day, but I just wanna say... I love you."

My heart skipped a beat.

Wow.

Was I ready for this conversation? We hadn't spoken about this before. Oh dear.

"And that's the first time you've said that," I said. He hummed, still smiling. "And you chose to say it now knowing it'll make my day a lot more stressful," I said. "That's correct," he replied with a smile which I knew was because he wanted to tease me. I was just looking at him. I said, "Well I... am gonna go look for Hyejin because we need to talk about sharing some maid of honour duties." Jimin lightly giggled. "Don't stress out. We're okay. I don't need to hear it back, just needed to tell you and it felt like the right time," he said. He kissed me lovingly on the lips, as if reassuring me that we're fine. I smiled against his lips. As he pulled away, he planted a small kiss on my nose, and said, "I'll be waiting for you in the car. I'll drop you home."

Was I in love with Jimin? I knew I really liked him and everything, but love? Love meant something so much more. I wasn't too sure yet and I didn't want to say this to him unless I was absolutely sure of it.