He owned Me [Completed]

Book 2: 8

Diva nearly gasped finding Jimin on her doorstep looking as vulnerable as an open wound. A tumultuous sea of emotions swirled in his eyes as he stood frozen, his body tense with anticipation. His lips parted to speak, but only ragged breaths tumbled out, failing to give voice to the torrent of feelings raging within. With hesitant steps, he moved towards her, his eyes locked onto her as if trying to convey something that couldn't be put into words. He took a deep breath and opened his mouth, but the words stuck in his throat, refusing to come out. He tried again, but the lump in his throat only grew bigger.

Memories of his past actions flooded his mind, and he couldn't help but feel ashamed of himself. The last time he saw her, he had treated her with contempt, pushing her away like an unwanted stray. The mere thought of it made him shudder. The words he had used to hurt her play over and over in his mind, each one cutting deeper than the last.

"Diva" As he finally called out her name, his voice was filled with yearning, a deep longing that seemed to pull at her very soul.

Jimin stood before her, his usually confident demeanor shattered into a million pieces. The words he had rehearsed a hundred times in his head seemed to have vanished and he struggled to articulate his thoughts "I know I shouldn't be here," he murmured, his words barely above a whisper. He took a sharp breath and steadied his voice before speaking "But I couldn't," he paused to turn away blinking to clear the tears that had gathered in his eyes.

"I had to see you" he confessed "I had to know if you were okay"

His heart was pounding in his chest, and he waited with bated breath for her response. The silence stretched on, elongated and heavy, and he feared that he had overstepped his boundaries. The anxiety was crippling, and he could feel his nerves being wrecked by each passing moment.

"I..ah," Diva cleared her throat, "I am glad you came" Her words took him aback - she was glad he came. He couldn't fathom how she could say those words after everything he had done to her. He knew that Taehyung had spilled the beans to her, revealing the truth about his betrayal. Taehyung had been relentless in his reminders since his arrival, relaying the details of how she had thrown herself into the sea after discovering the truth.

Jimin was expecting her expecting her to lash out at him, a slap him for deceiving her, or at least show some hostility. Instead, Diva gave him a warm welcome. Jimin went to his knees before her unable to hold back his emotions any longer. Her smile was like a dagger to his heart, a reminder of the guilt he carried with him. Her kind voice and lack of hostility only added to the immense weight he felt, the weight of his deception and the pain he had caused.

Without uttering a single word, he bowed his head in a gesture of surrender. It was a simple act, but it spoke volumes of the turmoil that was raging within him. She didn't need any explanation as to why he had come to her, his body language said it all.

"I don't blame you but my fate..." she assured him faintly. She reached out and took his hand. It was a delicate indication, but it meant everything to him. It gave him the courage to meet her eyes

"...for making you the catalyst of my destruction" Each syllable felt like a knife was being twisted deeper into his already wounded heart.

"My feelings were never a pretend" He was almost pleading with her to believe him.

"I never spoke lies when I said I love you" his voice cracked at the end, "I will always do" he added with raw honesty.

Jimin stood up slowly, his hands shaking as he reached out to cup her face, going beyond the limits imposed by others. His fingers gently brushed over the bruises above her cheekbones, their deep purple color contrasting starkly against her fair skin. As he looked into her eyes, memories flooded back to their teenage years when their love was pure and innocent. For a fleeting moment, they both felt the stirrings of that same love, as if time had reversed and they were young again. But the reality of his situation soon crashed down upon him, shattering any hope of a future together. Their love affair had never been a possibility in the past, and it certainly wasn't one in the present or future.

"For a moment, they were young, their love naive and unsung,
A tale of souls that long to be, names not written in destiny.
He cups her face and sighs, hearts breaking with silent cries,
Though their love may never be, in his eyes, she still can see,
Love that may never be"

As she recited the words, Jimin felt his heart swell with bittersweet emotions. Her words were melodious, a jarring opposite to the essence of the poem which was heartbreaking. Yet she sang with the ghost of a smile dancing on her lips.

"Now I understand why you never responded to me with a poem" She added as a humor parting away before Jimin reached too close to her. The cruel humor was a punsh to his face. His hands dropped to the side, his head hung low with the realization that the dreams his younger self saw were not only out of reach but burned down to ashes now.

He recalled the words perpetuated to dissuade Taehyung from confessing, "What do you think Taehyung? She loves me because she thinks I wrote the letter or she loves those letters because she thinks it was written by me. Go ahead and ask her, I would love to know as well," Those same words carefully safeguarded his fear. Just like his younger half-brother, it was a question he never wished to know the answer to, and yet it was a conundrum that had been gnawing at him for years.

In a desperate attempt to remain the boy she thought he was, Jimin would often steal pages from Taehyung's diary and give them to her. The gleam in her eyes when she would read his words out loud swirling around the library was unmatchable. He felt anger and jealousy towards the boy for taking space in her heart. But beneath the surface of those emotions lay a deeper sense of hopelessness and despair, knowing he never came close to replacing him.

"So it's the boy who wrote the poems" Jimin posed, peering at her with eyes that held despair.

"It doesn't make the love we experienced any less real, it doesn't make what we felt for each other false, I loved you Jimin and that part will never change"

The use of past tense was hard to ignore. He couldn't understand why it was still hurting. For three years, he had been preparing for the day when they would properly end their affair, allowing each other to move on. He wondered why time hadn't healed the wounds that her absence left behind. The day he was forced out, Jimin had convinced himself that it was no use holding onto something that was never meant to be. With every passing Jimin had indulged himself with one woman after another, believing the love he felt for her would eventually fade away. But it seemed like his heart was stubbornly holding onto her, refusing to let go.

"But you loved the boy who wrote them as well," He stated as a matter of fact, "that doesn't change either," he added.

Diva's entire body, including her core, shuddered to the point she had to clutch her hand in a tight grasp to ease herself. Her stomach churned, triggering ambivalent emotions that couldn't be dealt with.

The boy's poems were once her lifeline, and her affection for him had grown stronger with each word he wrote as if each verse was a petal unfurling on a blooming flower. No one had noticed the deep wounds she carried, the physiological trauma of witnessing her mother's death at the hands of her own father. No one was there to tell her it would be okay, to hold her and tell her she was safe. But the letter did. It promised her love and comfort, reassuring her that she was cherished. It used to be her warm blanket on a freezing night, the shade of a tree from the scorching sun.

The boy and his letters were once her sanctuaries. But now, her once-safe haven had turned into a living nightmare.

Oh, how she wished to detach the boy from the image of the man he had become. She wished to erase the day the truth was revealed. However, none of it was possible.

"It doesn't" she agreed not because she believed in it. But because she knew she would be delivering the same pain to man before her that he inflicted upon her.

*Smash*

Both of them were taken aback by the sudden noise that pierced through the serene silence. Diva was already preparing to step out of bed, but Jimin halted her with a reassuring hand, indicating that he would investigate the source of the commotion. Jimin narrowed his eyes, trying to pinpoint where the sound came from. As he turned towards the door, his gaze landed on the shattered vase that lay in ruins on the floor, scattered into a million tiny shards, a blatant indication of someone's hasty departure. Someone had been eavesdropping on their conversation but who?

****
Any thoughts?

vote -> 150