HIS CONCEALED DESIRE | THV (21+)✓✓ | KTH FANFICTION ✅✔️

FIFTY SIX

A MONTH LATER

VESTA'S POV

I stood in front of the mirror, the white dress clinging to my frame as if it was meant for someone else. My fingers trembled as they reached up to adjust the delicate veil resting on my head.

I hardly recognized the woman staring back at me. Her eyes were filled with a sadness that no amount of makeup could hide, her expression hollow despite the bright lipstick painted on her lips.

This wasn't supposed to be my wedding day. Not like this.

A part of me wanted to rip off the dress, toss aside the veil, and run as far as I could from this room, from this life that wasn't really mine. But instead, I stood frozen, feeling like a marionette being pulled along by invisible strings.

I pulled out my phone and reached for the pictures of me and Taehyung with a painful reminder of what I was about to lose.

In one photo, Taehyung was laughing, his eyes crinkling at the corners as he held me close, his arm wrapped protectively around my shoulders.

I swiped to the next picture, my breath catching in my throat. It was taken just after he had proposed. I still remember the way my heart had pounded in my chest when he slipped that ring onto my finger.

The joy that had radiated through me, knowing that this man, this incredible man, had chosen me.

But now, here I was, dressed in white, preparing to marry someone else. Someone who wasn't Taehyung.

My thumb hovered over the screen, itching to call him, to tell him that this wasn't what I wanted. That I was making a mistake. But I couldn't. My father's voice echoed in my head, his words dripping with disappointment and anger.

I was about to make the biggest mistake of my life.

Tears blurred my vision as I stared at another photo-one where Taehyung had kissed my forehead, his eyes closed, his expression one of pure contentment. I could almost feel the warmth of his lips against my skin, the way he used to hold me as if I were the most precious thing in the world.

But that warmth was gone now, replaced by the cold reality of the choices I had made.

Why had I agreed to this? Why hadn't I fought harder? I should have run to him, begged him to take me away from all of this. But instead, I had let fear and guilt control me, let them guide me to this moment, where I was about to throw away everything we had.

I wiped at my tears with the back of my hand, not wanting to smudge the makeup that had been so carefully applied. But it was no use. The tears kept coming, each one heavier than the last.

I wanted to scream, to tear off this dress, to tell everyone that I couldn't do this. But I was too far gone now, too entangled in the web of expectations and responsibilities that had been spun around me.

The life I had imagined with Taehyung, all of it was slipping through my fingers, like sand in an hourglass that had finally run out of time.

I clutched my phone closing my eyes as the pain washed over me. I didn't want to marry Jungkook. He was a good man, but he wasn't Taehyung. He wasn't the man who had stolen my heart, who had fought for me even when the odds were against us.

He wasn't the man I love.

But I had made my bed, and now I had to lie in it.

And it was too late to turn back now.

____________

TAEHYUNG'S POV

I fastened the last button of my shirt before wearing my blazer. The cool fabric of my white shirt does nothing to ease the burning ache in my heart.