Indebted...

Part-30

Jungkook's pov

Looking up from my e-reader the next evening, I sighed at the cat sitting in front of me on the bed. She was staring at me, twitching her tail.

"He'll be here when he's done in his office," I told her.

Taehyung had been very insistent the first night he brought her home that Blue didn't sleep in the room with us. But after hearing her meowing and scratching at the door for what felt like hours, he'd given in. She didn't actually sleep near us, though. She made herself comfy on my closet shelf. Understanding she'd claimed the spot as her own, I'd moved her bed in there.

When Taehyung had earlier headed upstairs to his office after dinner, I brought her to my room. I'd fed, petted, and played with her before she disappeared into the closet for a nap. But, yeah, she was apparently tired of me now. She wanted her hero.

I went back to my e-reader, needing to wind down a little. I felt completely wired. Up until now, I hadn't been nervous about the reception. I mean, it was just a party. But now that it was only two days' away, I felt constantly restless.

I wasn't nervous in a bad way. It was the kind of nervousness you felt during the run-up to something important. There was a sprinkle of anticipation and a thread of excitement all mingled in with it.

It only made it better that Hiah was officially uninvited. Neither eomma nor appa had objected or been upset with Taehyung's decree that she wasn't to attend. Which was a very good thing, because nothing they could have said would have made him change his mind. They'd just stared at their daughter, their eyes sad.

Hiah had stormed out of the house, dragging Jun with her. She hadn't been bothered that her invitation was revoked. No, she'd been pissed that her parents didn't put up a protest. And it was then I realized why she'd claimed to be dating Haneul. It wasn't merely to hurt me. She'd wanted Taehyung to kick up a fuss so that her parents would intervene. She'd expected them to defend her and toss Taehyung out of the house, knowing I'd have left with him. And then, bingo, she'd have finally caused a divide between me and her parents.

It was a good plan. But it failed miserably.

When Eomma called me last night to apologize for Hiah's behavior-to which I, as usual, told her it wasn't necessary-she also asked about the whole blackmail thing. I advised her to ask Hiah, figuring the annoying woman had the right to tell her parents herself, but then eomma's voice cracked, and she got all emotional and ... well, I told her the truth. It didn't go down well, and I suspected appa would be equally upset.

Hearing my phone chime, I nabbed it from the nightstand and glanced at the screen. I smiled on seeing it was a text message from Taehyung.

I swiped my thumb over the screen and opened up the message: No, if I start going out at night, Jungkook will ask questions. He'll think about those pictures again and wonder if I was lying. I warned you we wouldn't see each other as much until I divorced him. You said you could deal with it, so deal with it. I'll come to you when I can. You've got no reason to feel jealous, you know you're the only one I want.

I stilled, and my thoughts scattered ... like my mind just went blank and couldn't compute the words-or as if it didn't want to.

I shook my head and blinked hard. That text was ... it didn't make any ... was it some kind of joke?

No, Taehyung didn't joke.

I re-read the message. My hand clenched tight around the phone. I genuinely couldn't wrap my head around the content. One thing was clear. He hadn't meant to send this message to me. He was responding to a text from someone else. Someone who was "the only one" he wanted.