Enthralled || Liskook

Chapter 55

A veil of wistfulness clouded Taehyung's eyes as he spoke. "Sometimes I wonder,” he mused, "If we hadn't come along, would he still be content here?" 

Lisa's brow furrowed. "You don't want him to go back?" She couldn't help but recall the people from Busan Club who gathered last year with the same mission to bring Jungkook back to Korea. 

Taehyung shook his head, the rhythmic tap of his fingers against the table a familiar tell. 

"It's Kim Namjoon who wants him back," he said finally, his voice tinged with a hint of frustration. "And Kim Namjoon wants him to take over the team from Busan." 

Take over the Busan Club? The question hung heavy in the air, thick with unspoken implications. Lisa's gaze flicked back to Taehyung, searching for a deeper explanation. 

Across the room, Jungkook leaned intently over the snooker table, brow furrowed in concentration. 

Despite the white-haired old man peppering him with questions, Jungkook spoke seriously, patiently explaining each shot. 

"He didn't agree?” Lisa finally asked, her voice barely a whisper. 

She knew the answer. If he had, he would have told her. 

"Yes," Taehyung sighed, "No promise." 

Taehyung paused for a while, a thoughtful crease forming between his brows. The weight of the past seemed to settle on him, a hesitation evident in the way he shifted his gaze around the room. 

Communicating personal stories, especially with a woman, felt like unfamiliar territory on a weekday. 

"Among the few of us in the past, only he 

and Kim Namjoon were Mr. Kang's apprentice. My apprentice and everyone else has their own teacher. My teacher left the second year after I entered the Busan Club. That year, I was in the first year of junior high school and had average qualifications. Other teachers were unwilling to take me over. But I didn't want to leave, I wanted to continue..” 

Lisa guessed: "He asked Elder Kang to help?" 

Taehyung smiled, shook his head, and said, "He told the people in Busan Club that he was the champion anyway, and he can teach me. Those words that he said were really crazy, because this offended several people at Busan Club. My teacher and Mr. Kang said that he was arrogant, dare to say anything and do anything." 

Without Jungkook's arrogant insistence, Taehyung might have embarked on a completely different career path—a divergent life journey, teetering on the balance of "what ifs." Perhaps it would have been a brighter trajectory, or perhaps dimmer, but one thing was certain: it wouldn't have entangled him in the world of billiards. 

"This man oozes frustration. His words drip with a disdain for pleasantries. His life philosophy screams resilience, his strength measured only in moments of raw power. He shuns the intricacies of social circles, standing solitary amidst the scattered crowd.” 

A moment later, Jungkook arrived and motioned for her to join him outside. 

Lisa casually propped the cue stick against the shelf, effortlessly navigating through the throng, and trailed after him up the steps. 

The scaffolding still loomed outside the ballroom gates, stubbornly resisting demolition for over a year. She clasped Jungkook's hand, her gaze wandering upwards. "What's the renovation for? It's been ages." 

He chuckled, a mysterious grin playing on his lips. 

Jungkook accepted a pack of cigarettes from the club owner. His mood was buoyant, his posture relaxed as he leaned against the door frame, surveying the nocturnal cityscape. With a practiced flick, he extracted a cigarette from the pack, ignited it with a lighter, and drew a long drag.