Love After Love...

Chapter 54: "Okay, I'll tell you."

~2 months later~

Jieun's POV:
Over the last two months, Jungkook, Jimin and Taehyung became inseperable. Wheein and Jungkook spoke not just about happy things, but also Jungkook's issues in the office. He was overall a lot better, mentally. Hyejin was reluctant but finally said she loves Taehyung too. They were going solid. Jimin had made significant progress with his book and him and I were going strong. Taehyung and I surprisingly became a lot closer after the day he got hammered and crashed at my place. The six of us had become a super close group of friends.

I had made subsequent progress over Yoongi. As per Hoseok, he had now begun exercise and co-curriculars, and indulged in hobbies he hadn't caught up with for a while, which distracted him from alcohol to an extent. It was a steady climb but I was getting there.

His sister would sometimes drop him off instead of Hoseok. She was a brilliant, beautiful and confident lady.

We had still not reached the topic of his wife but I just had to be patient.

He arrived, as usual, on time. We exchanged our usual pleasantries and his sister waited outside, chatting away with Beomgyu.

After 15-or-so minutes, Yoongi himself spoke up, "I'm surprised you haven't asked me about my wrists. You're too smart to have not noticed it." "Okay... Should we talk about you and your wife today?" I asked. He snickered. He still wore his ring. He started twisting it around his fingers, out of nervousness, I think. "Okay, I'll tell you," he said. I nodded.

He took a deep breath and started, "I was dating a woman when I was young. Met her in college, we were immature, but mature enough to know we were serious about eachother, and 19, I think. Hit it off immediately. She was lovely, and my first love. After, like, a year of dating, we were both 20, I wanted to introduce her to my parents. So that's what I did, and I was so confident they'll like her. But they didn't. They very strongly disapproved. And said that I'll have to break it off with her. I refused. He said he'll take away the company from me. That threat was pretty empty because he wanted an heir and he knew I'd be the best for the job. I was in love, and my confidence sky-rocketed. So I said, 'Okay, go ahead. Let's see what you'll do after that!' Well, turns out his threat was empty, so he didn't take away the company. But he fixed my marraige. To a friend's daughter. I knew her. She used to be there for major company events with her father sometimes. We spoke, but rarely, and nothing of substance. Her name was Han Minjeung. She was my wife..."

He took a deep breath. After a short pause, he continued, "I told my then girlfriend about the situation. We both agreed we couldn't let the circumstance affect us. We thought eventually everyone would accept that we loved eachother. We agreed to meet in secret. So... I got married. And on the first night, I told Minjeung everything. I told her that I could never be able to love her because I was in love with someone else. I felt like I owed her that. You know what she said? 'Okay. Well, I happen to like you. So if you don't reciprocate, I dont care, I'll continue on one-sided. Go on, meet her all you want, I won't snitch on you. I will continue this marriage for the sake of my father, because he's not just your father's friend, he works in his company as his subordinate. No matter what happens, if we end this, your father will make it look like it was my fault for the sake of the firm. I don't want my dad to be humiliated.' I was so shocked. And just like that, she was all I thought about. Suddenly, meeting my girlfriend, who I supposedly loved with passion, was something I couldn't do without having my mind filled with thoughts of Minjeung. The smallest of gestures would make me feel good, warm, fuzzy and loved. So after excuciating 6 months, I ended things with my then girlfriend... She's happily married now, so I guess things turned out well... I was well and truly smitten by Minjeung. We eventually became a happy couple. She had such a big heart, my Minjeung. She forgave me so soon. She became someone I was closest to. She accepted me and told me I was enough for her. She made my life brighter in every possible way. She became so important so fast. I'd never felt anything like it. It hurt me so bad that I wronged her in the earlier months of our marraige. If I would've appreciated her sooner, I'd have more time to spend with her... Hoseok was just my brother-in-law back then. We didn't know much about eachother. But he would often tell me that he admired me and Minjeung..." A tear escaped his eye. I offered him a glass of water which he quickly gulped down.

He continued, "After two years of marriage, we decided we wanted a child. Everyone said it was so soon, we were barely 24, but we were ready to be parents. So we started trying. We tried for, like, three months. No luck. We saw a doctor and she said some technical things so we started taking supplements, hormonal injections, what not. After another month, we had almost given up. We said we'd look into adoption or surrogacy. Minjeung was so upset... But as if on cue, a miracle happened and she was pregnant. I was over the moon. I don't think I've ever been that happy. I called everyone I knew and distributed free cupcakes to everyone in the office. I started taking care of her... But about five months into the pregnancy, she started having crazy mood swings and things at the firm got very critical. I worked a lot... One day, we both had a fight. I don't remember what it was about, I don't remember what led to it, I just hope it was something important. Worth fighting about with my wife and my unborn child. But I'm sure it wasn't worth that."

He was crying.

"I stormed off and drove to my sister's place. I wish I'd just stayed and fixed things. We started talking and I understood why she was so upset. Hoseok was there too. That was probably the first time I saw him as a friend and not just a relative. I was driving back and after I reached, I heard Minjeung screaming. I panicked and ran to her. There was blood on her legs. She was in pain. I was panicking. I just put her in my car and drove to the hospital. There were no red signals for me that day. I just drove like a maniac. I was constantly talking to her and my focus was not on the road. I was driving at a very fast pace. I probably ran a red light and..." he stopped.

His breath was heavy.

I gave him more water and told him to just take deep breaths. After he had calmed down, he continued, "I ran into someone. I didn't know what to do. I was crying, panicking like crazy. There was hardly anyone on the street. I was debating whether I should drive off leaving the man there and save my wife, or put him in my car too since the hospital wasn't far away. My wife was in so much pain. She was crying, yelling, telling me to just leave him on the road. But I couldn't do it. I knew I couldn't live with the fact that I just left a dying man on the ground. I thought about my child, and what I'd feel every time I'd hold him or her. And I just couldn't bring myself to leave that man for dead... So I put him in my car and drove to the hospital. We reached in five minutes. I waited and waited for the doctors to tell me something. They came in 20 minutes later, which felt like ages, and said... they both died. My wife and my baby, they couldn't make it... My wife went through too much bleeding. The baby was so premature. It was a girl... I was screaming. I felt so much pain it was like someone set me on fire after breaking all my bones. I couldn't think about anything at all. All I could feel was pain."

He was sobbing. A tear left my eye too.

He cried for a while and calmed down a little before continuing, "I asked the receptionist how the other man was. I hoped the man I risked my wife and baby's life for survived at least... He didn't make it either. I just sank into where I was standing, my legs just felt like jelly. I had no soul left in me anymore. I had deprived a man of living his life, I had killed a man. I had killed my wife and my precious unborn baby. That man was so young. He had a huge life ahead of him..."

Then he said something that shook me to the core, "His name was Kim Namjoon."