before you love me | jjk

chapter forty-three

━━━༻ ˚✩‧₊ december 2020₊‧✩˚༺━━━

The first incident occurred not long after their Grammy nomination.

It was the middle of the awards season in South Korea and BTS, Narae and a host of many other idols and celebrities were currently attending the 2020 MAMAs.

BTS had been sweeping the awards, collecting daesangs for almost every single category they had been nominated for. The only daesang they had lost so far was Worldwide Icon of the Year, which amusingly enough, Narae won instead. Narae had also collected a few other daesangs over the course of the night, winning Best Dance Performance and Best Vocal Performance in the Solo categories.

It was during one of the commercial breaks and intermissions that the incident took place. As Jungkook made his way out of the bathroom, he was intercepted by a tall and stunning woman. He recognized her almost instantly. It was hard not to though, especially considering she was on the front page of gossip sites every other month.

Rich heiress, model and socialite. Funded by her billionaire father's money, she spends her time shopping and partying, and is frequently caught up in dating scandals and rumours of her horrible character. Though he'd never met her personally, he'd heard enough about her to know to stay far away. Unfortunately for Jungkook, she had other plans.

"Jeon Jungkook." She drawled out, her voice smooth as silk as she regarded him, "Fancy running into you here."

"Anaëlle Bayonne" He responded evenly, "It shouldn't be too much of a shock, this is an awards show and I am an artist."

"True." She splayed a hand on her chest and smiled. "I'm honoured to find out the Jeon Jungook knows my name."

"It's hard not to, it does trend every week. I'm sure you're more famous than me at this point."

At his words, her face seemed to drop, but she quickly regained her flirty demeanour as she let out a short airy laugh. "Sure. And it's actually only every month or so, but it's nice to know you're paying attention."

Jungkook only shrugged, a neutral smile on his face.

"You're quieter than I expected." Anaëlle's observed the man before her. And hotter, though she didn't speak that particular thought out loud.

Jungkook shrugged again, "Maybe I just don't have much to say."

Anaëlle's tilted her head to the side as she looked him up and down, smirking as she connected dots in her head, "Or maybe there's a reason you shouldn't be talking to me? Afraid a special  someone's going to get upset if they see us conversing?" 

Panic struck Jungkook's figure as he tensed up. What the hell was she insinuating with that?

He'd kept it to himself, but after the talk with Bang PD he'd been feeling more and more on edge. He'd done some investigating on his own to find out what people really thought about the collab, and whilst the comments were overwhelmingly positive, there was a large proportion of people who had some not-so-nice things to say about Narae.

If this was how they reacted to a simple collaboration album, he didn't want to know how they'd react to news of him dating her. He feared a situation where Narae had no choice to hear what people were saying about her. He'd do anything to protect her from their harsh words.

It was that same fear that drove him to do and say what he did next. Technically, it also wasn't a lie.

Jungkook forced his body to relax as he matched her stare head-on and smiled confidently, "No, I don't have a girlfriend if that's what you're suggesting. Too busy for that. You know how it is."