Indebted...

Part-1

Jungkook's pov

Six months earlier..

Stopping at my desk, Jimin regarded me warily. "Uh-oh, your eyelid's twitching. What's wrong? Did someone mistake you for the model again?"

I narrowed my eyes at my friend and coworker. "No. And I don't look anything like any model." We'd had this conversation already. But Jimin liked to poke at me in that way that only one of your closest friends would. "Can we not talk about this chim, please?"

"Of course."

"Great. If you've come to speak to Taehyung, he's not yet back from his lunch meeting, but he shouldn't be much longer."

"I came to check on you. A little birdie told me they saw Dahyun enter the building earlier. The last time the idiot came here, you almost had to call security to remove him."

And who was Dahyung? My boss's sly, smarmy, self-entitled brother.

I sighed. "I'm fine, just annoyed. He wanted to wait for Mr. Kim in his office. I said no. He tried flirting with me to get his way. I said no. He claimed he had a migraine and just needed a quiet place to sit. I said no. Then he got all mean and demanded I let him in. Again, I said no. We went
around and around like that for a while until, finally, he stalked off-but not before threatening to have me fired."

Jimin shook his head. "He's such a weasel. Why do you think he wanted access to Taehyung's office?"

"He said he wanted to wait for him in there." It wouldn't have surprised me if he'd intended to nose around and sniff out some sensitive material that he could sell to Taehyung's competitors. Dahyun seemed to harbor a deep resentment for his brother. I suspected it was petty jealousy since-in total contrast to Taehyung-the only thing Dahyun appeared to be successful at was being an absolute tool.

Jimin tilted his head. "Although he's a boil on our butts, he generally doesn't send that eyelid of yours twitching. It usually takes more than that to set it off. Come on, tell me what's bothering you. You'll feel better for it. And I'm nosy-help a guy out."

"It's nothing, really. I just discovered something about myself that I don't like."

"Ooh, I do that daily. So, what'd you discover?"

I clasped my hands together and rested them on my desk. "I can be very petty. See, I'm going to bump into my high school sweetheart today- a guy I was briefly engaged to. He's rich and successful now. Although I don't want him back, I want him to look at me, see how much better my life is without him in it, and regret letting me go."

"Boy, pretty much everyone wants their exes to feel that way. It doesn't make you petty. It makes you human. And back up ... you were engaged to this guy? How is it we've known each other for four years and I've never heard about this?" He propped his elbows on the desk. "Okay, walk me through how it all went down."

"Short version-"

"I want the long version."

"Well, you're getting the short one. Ryu Haneul and I grew up together. He was one of my closest friends. We dated during the last few years of high school, and he proposed to me after graduation-it was a gesture to show that him going away to college wasn't going to change
anything between us. But he ended our relationship five months later. He said we'd rushed into getting engaged and that we were too young to make such a commitment."

Jimin's face went all soft and sympathetic. "That limp-dicked asshole crushed your teenage heart."

"We grew up in a real shady neighborhood. A part of me worried he'd leave me behind when his life officially took off ... and he did. He asked to remain friends, but I never saw or heard from him again after that."