form follows heart /jungri

ii. how to not get the girl

a/n: did i just reuse a taylor swift lyric for this chapter's title? yes, i did. stan a queen<333

anyways, i've been really busy this week, which is why I didn't get to upload this chap two days ago, but i've finally had time to rest, so here it is. it's not rlly edited, so it's a bit choppy and rough, but i just wanted to get it out and actually follow my schedule:) nonetheless, i hope yall enjoy!

Once upon a time, Jungkook was Yerim's icon.

The entire industry's icon, if she was being honest.

A titan in the architecture world, Jungkook secured buildings after buildings, each with their unique and personal designs, a task that many architects struggled with but he accomplished with ease and perfection. Sure, his parents helped him, but anybody with two working eyes could see that he also worked super hard. He had a sly mouth when it came to negotiating, and when it came to making sure that his design got the best contract, he could weed out lies and loopholes from miles away.

Besides his talent, though, he also had a social conscience. In all his interviews, he constantly emphasized the benefits of designing buildings for the environment, the homeless population, and lower-income families who didn't have the resources to flee during a disaster. Every architect also had a personal style to their design, and Jungkook stepped outside the box by combining the lightness of Baroque style and grandness of Art Deco style. By a young age of twenty-two, he was on the way to becoming one of the best architects of this generation.

While Jungkook was building his empire, Yerim was seeking to start her empire. Fresh out of graduate school with a degree in architecture, she dreamed to be as great as Jungkook, to have a few buildings under her name decorating the skyline, to maybe even meet him one day. With that determination, she worked. Days turned into weeks turned into months. Sometimes, she would go days without seeing the sunlight, cooped up in her apartment and surviving off of fried rice.

Although Yerim rarely had the time to hang with friends, her hard work paid off. Before long, she had companies begging her to design their new headquarters, offices, or more, instead of the other way around. One of her designs even went on to become part of New York City's breathtaking skyline, accomplishments that she held very close to her heart. Eventually, she was accepted into Jeon's Skyline.

It wasn't enough, though. She wanted to climb the ranks, go higher and higher. And, falling deeper and deeper into the hole, she secluded herself from the outside world, drowning herself in her work and ambitions.

Then, on a sunny Monday morning, while Yerim was eating a blueberry muffin and checking her email, a new message dinged and showed up in her inbox. When she saw the subject and the user, she shrieked, scaring the employees working around her. Jeon Jungkook, the god of architecture himself, had asked her to meet with him, vaguely saying that he was willing to collaborate with her if she bought a portfolio that he liked.

Oh, how excited and naive Yerim was!

But at that moment, all her dreams had come true. The walk to his office was a magical experience, a stroll through a forest filled with dancing fairies and laughing goblins. Looking back, she should've seen and heard the warnings his closet employees had given to her, but she had been wearing rose-tinted glasses. She couldn't pay attention to anybody except for the portfolio in her briefcase and the email in her inbox. One more hour until the collaboration that she had dreamt about since she was a baby in her mother's womb became reality. She had worked hard, and came a long way from her immature teenage days, so she was confident in her abilities.

That was, until Jungkook did one thorough read of her portfolio, shook his head, and said, completely shattering her heart to pieces, "This is the worst design I've ever seen."