The 𝕸𝖆𝖗𝖗𝖎𝖆𝖌𝖊 Dilemma ║ 🄹🄹🄺

Chapter 48

The rest of the day passed quickly, with Jungkook too hungover to be a functional member of society and you being torn between packing and running around town in search of a bikini that wasn't too extravagant.

Which is why it felt like Sunday had come so much quicker. 

You were on you way to your parents' house - this time without Jungkook. You hadn't asked him to come, deciding that it was for the best to get this done alone. After all, you did not want him to be there when you would have to break the news to your parents about your made up marriage. However, you did inform him of your whereabouts when he asked you, somehow not wanting to lie to his face.

You arrived in front of the house and weren't expecting to find your brother sitting on the porch.

"What are you doing outside?" you asked him, not noticing that he had his headphones on. Only as you stood in front of him did he see you and take them off.

"What are you doing outside?" you repeated. He rarely left the comfort of his room by choice.

He shrugged. "I don't know. Just trying to get a break from everything I guess."

You simply nodded. He stood up, then the two of you went inside together. You were expecting your parents to be fighting or shouting at each other, but the entire house was quiet. So quiet that you almost thought they weren't home were it not for their keys hanging at the entrance.

Your brother gave you a thin-lipped smile that pretty much said "This is what I have to deal with", and then went upstairs. Perhaps you have been underestimating the situation. You found your father in the kitchen busy with washing fruits and veggies.

"Hi dad", you said. 

Startled, he shut the water off.

For a moment he was quiet, his back still facing you. Before you could ask him what happened, he started speaking.

"I am sorry, Y/N. I really did not have any idea what that Woojin boy was up to and I should've never invited him into our house."

"It's alright, you didn't know", you tried to answer. He turned around, his face somehow more wrinkled and aged since last time you saw him.

"But I should've known. And about what we talked on the phone yesterday: I promise to never doubt you again. If you're happy with your boyfriend, then it's not my business what else happens, as long as he treats you well. I'm sorry that you felt like you had to hide that from us."

That was perhaps the most sincere apology you've ever heard from your father.

You didn't have the heart to tell him the truth. Contract and Jungkook aside, you didn't have it in yourself to open your mouth and tell him that you and Jungkook were making everything up and trying to fool everyone.

You knew. You knew that soon, maybe as soon as in two weeks, you would have to. Because by then your contract would be over. Jungkook and you would go back to being strangers and you would never talk about what happened between you two ever again.

For now, you decided to cherish the silence for a little longer, knowing that soon you will inevitably have to disappoint them.

"Where's mom?" you changed the topic.

He pointed towards the terrace, where your mother was cutting dead leaves off a sad looking tomato plant.

"How many appointments?"

"Two, the next one is tomorrow", he answered.

When you closed the door behind yourself, she did not react, despite having definitely heard you. You sat next to her in silence and started gathering the dead leaves from the floor into a small pile.

For a while, none of you said anything. You knew that your mother was stubborn, so you had no idea how to talk to her without starting a discussion, so you just didn't. She acknowledged you by placing the dead leaves closer towards you so you didn't have to reach as far. There was a rash on her left hand that she had stopped trying to cover up for the past few years, but now she was wearing long sleeves in hot weather at home. When she was finished with the tomato plant, she did the same with the basil.

"Do you remember when you were little, about five or six, and we had to decide on which elementary school we should send you to?" she said after the third plant. "There was the one south, where most of your friends had gone because they lived closer to it than you. And then there was the other one that had a giant lake nearby. And your father and I thought it was obvious where we would send you; after all, a lake was a safety hazard and we wanted you to be close to your friends."

You did remember bits and pieces of what she mentioned.

"Do you remember the fit you threw? How you told us you wanted to learn how to swim and that we were horrible for making you go to the south school, because they didn't have swimming lessons let alone a lake? We thought you were just throwing a tantrum and would soon forget about it. But you kept going. Your father and I decided to go along with it and let you do what you want because we thought you would quit soon, after seeing that you wouldn't have time to hang out with your friends. We thought that after one or two weeks, you would beg us to take you to where your friends were.

"But you didn't. We were so sure that you only did it out of stubbornness that it took us too long too realize you were just happy with your decision. You did quit swimming, but it wasn't because you thought it was a bad decision.

"What I'm trying to say is that you've always known what's best for you. You never needed your dad or me to be the ones to tell you what or who you should choose. And I guess I get scared sometimes when I think Jisung won't need me either."

You needed a minute to answer.

"Just because I make decisions for myself doesn't mean they're always the right ones. And it doesn't mean that I don't need you. When I decided to go to that school, I missed my friends. But I also really wanted to learn how to swim, and at that time it was just more important to me. I was glad that you let me choose. I know that you get scared I'll end up alone with no friends again and that's why you tried to set me up with that guy, but I'll be fine on my own if I have to."

 'Though sharing this life with someone I love wouldn't be that bad', you wanted to add.