Vacant place for death[JENSOO]

Epilogue

Jennie's POV

A huge black SUV, honking its horn, slowly turned out of the driveway, disappeared behind the closing wrought-iron gates. Waving goodbye to the Jungkook at the wheel, I reached through the pile of suitcases perched on the porch to the handle of the front door.

Locked.

Suddenly...

The doors of my house were rarely closed. After all, Hidden Hills is the most guarded and safe district of the city. And thanks to Chan and Minho, there is a security system around the perimeter of my property, and in the mansion too, which has no analogues in the whole world.

I was out of the country for two months and, although I was supposed to arrive only next week, I managed to negotiate with Jooheon and escape home a few days earlier.

But I did not expect that I would be standing on the threshold of my own home and pulling an unyielding handle.

Usually the door is locked in two cases — either there is no one at home, or all the household is in the backyard, frolicking by the pool, and Eugene, a tall, brisk, black-haired woman, our irreplaceable assistant in the house for almost ten years, has gone shopping.

But today is Sunday.

And all Eugene agrees to do on Sundays is to go to church in the morning so that she can lie on the couch with a book all day.

Well, where is everyone then?

In response to my thoughts, happy squeals and the ringing barking of dogs come from behind the house. Leaving my bags at the entrance, along an inconspicuous concrete path hidden behind a neatly trimmed hedge, I hurriedly walk around the house, several times almost tripping over toys that were pretty gnawed and scattered on the lawn. I clean the bicycles out of place and notice that, unlike the grass in front of the house, here the green vegetation needs a haircut.

But, as soon as I turn the corner, all this becomes irrelevant. I freeze under the shadow of a tree, feeling the two-month longing finally disappearing from my chest.

I see her and smile — I'm home.

Everything that happened before, all these intense, endless filming, interviews and a series of talk shows, all my statuses of the highest-paid actress of the decade and the most desirable woman of the year, all my multimillion-dollar fees will not matter if I ever can't come back here and just like that, standing in the in the courtyard of the house, observe a similar picture.

She is sitting at a round glass table under a snow-white awning. At her feet, exhausted by the midday heat, our dogs, a golden retriever — Mr. Sparkles and a chocolate labrador — Bangs, are dozing, breathing heavily. Their skins, wet after swimming in the pool, gleam dully from every muscle movement. As always, these two beside my little Princess are loyal protectors and best friends. Climbing onto a chair with her feet, she enthusiastically draws something with a pencil on a piece of paper. So concentrated that she even stuck out the tip of her pink tongue and did not notice that a dark strand of slightly curly hair, having escaped from the pigtail, falls right over her eyes.

My little dark angel...

Sometimes I still freeze and it takes me a minute or two to accept and not be afraid of the hurricane of feelings that I feel thinking about what my life has become, what I had to go through and what I still found.

"Breathe, Jen. Just breathe..."- Jisoo's gentle voice pops up in my head, who does not get tired of repeating these words to me every time I freeze in fright.

Inhaling the warm air, I exhale slowly and, smiling, come out from under the canopy of the tree:

-Hey, baby.