And To Love In Return... (BOOK 2)

Fate of The Future

I looked at myself in the mirror, feeling a lump in my throat and a pit in my stomach. I couldn't keep my eyes off the bruises all around my neck.

"Hwa, can you come here for a second?" I called out.

"Everything okay?" He asked sweetly, standing in the bathroom doorway.

"Do you have any makeup for this?" I pointed at my neck. He nodded and went underneath the sink to grab his cosmetics bag. He organized multiple products in a row, then went to work.

"Just tell me if I'm hurting you, okay?" His voice was quiet as he focused on hiding the purple marks. "I'm happy you asked me and Joongie to come, he's excited. I'm shocked they had another table open, this place looks nice. How'd you even find it?"

"You know me, if it has flowers, I'm sold."

It was an Italian restaurant called SERRA by Birreria and it was actually on a rooftop. It changes scenery with the seasons.

Seonghwa gently moved my head up to get full coverage on my wounds. The light dabbing with the foundation felt uncomfortable, making me wince slightly.

"You look really nice, by the way." Seonghwa smiled. "You look a lot healthier."

"Really?" When I got back to New York, I continued doing exactly what I was doing in Korea. I've been going to the gym with Jungkook, I've been eating everything Seonghwa's made me, Hongjoong and I have been keeping up with our movie marathon, my body is free of stds, and I haven't touched cocaine in over a month. I've been doing well.

"Absolutely." Next thing he used was setting powder. He tried to be as gentle as possible. I have a feeling my body is just naturally reacting out of fear. I felt terrible for telling Hongjoong not to touch me when he was just trying to help. I trust him and Seonghwa, I know they'd never hurt me. "I just gotta ask, where did you get all these clothes?" He smiled. "You've always looked so expensive."

No one really asks about my fashion choices so the question made me laugh. "My parents, and I got a lot of clothes from the shoots I did with VNY."

"Where did this crazy look come from?"

"Is it too much? I honestly thought this was pretty standard."

"Standard? Hyunjin, this outfit looks like it costs ₩5 million."

"I think everything is Gucci? Not sure, you'll have to check the tags. I know the shirt is around ₩950 thousand. My parents usually gave me the dressy stuff. The rest, I don't know."

Seonghwa's jaw dropped once I said the price. To me, it was just a basic white button up.

"Do you know how much my shirt is?"

"How much?" I smiled.

"₩65 thousand. Calvin Klein." He put his hands on his hips once he was done covering up my neck.

"And it looks really nice."

"Joongie bought it for me."

"You guys are so cute." I swooned.

"I know." He sighed dramatically, wiping a fake tear away with his ring finger to purposely show off.

"How did he even do it? Were you expecting it?"

"I didn't see it coming at all." Seonghwa's eyes lit up once I asked him about their unforgettable night. "We went to the Botanical Gardens in the Bronx."

I gasped because I just realized I'm the one who gave him the idea and didn't even know it. When they first moved here, Hongjoong asked me nice places he could surprise Seonghwa with on a date and I told him the Botanical Gardens in the Bronx is somewhere I always wanted to go because it looks absolutely gorgeous.