FACING THE SAME FACE | JINKOOK

CH10

After a week full of uncomfortable breakfasts and dinners that seemed endless, marked by silences laden with furtive and heavy glances that came and went, Jin had finally reached a conclusion. He was determined to confront JungHyun, or rather, the person he believed to be JungHyun, once and for all. He had spent far too long bearing the weight of doubt and tension in the house. Every night, as he tried to sleep, he felt the weight of someone else's regret in every corner. But he could no longer continue with that uncertainty. He could no longer keep pretending that everything was fine.

He returned from work, the usual exhaustion drawn on his face, but with a renewed determination in his heart. Today would be the day. It didn't matter what he would have to face. Jin was determined to ask the question he had feared for so long: if JungHyun really wanted to continue living together, if he wanted to try to make their relationship more than the remnants of what had once been a friendship. Or if, on the contrary, he should accept that their time together had come to an end.

When he opened the door, what he found was not at all what he had expected. In the middle of the living room, on a table covered with a white silk cloth, stood a huge birthday cake. Balloons of every imaginable colour floated around, and the garlands sparkled with festive glimmers. The atmosphere was completely alien to the tension he had been carrying all week. The place was flooded with an artificial joy that left him bewildered.

JungKook looked at him from the sofa, idly playing with a knife, its tip pointed in the air, as though waiting for Jin to react to this bewildering scene.

"JungHyun... this..." Jin's words came out in a stutter, as his footsteps echoed on the cold wooden floor. He stopped abruptly before the door closed behind him. "What is this?" he asked, a mix of confusion and growing discomfort in his voice.

"Can't you see? It's a birthday party." JungKook's voice sounded too calm, as if the situation were completely normal, almost... forced.

"But it's not my birthday." Jin frowned, beginning to feel even more puzzled as he approached the cake.

"I know. I'm the one whose birthday it is." JungKook paused, his lips curling into a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. "I wanted to celebrate it just with you. Sorry, you know I'm a bit cheesy." Jin fell silent, staring at the cake and the decorations. He didn't understand any of what was happening. Then, something inside him crumbled. He raised his gaze to meet JungKook's eyes, but all he saw was a façade of calm, as if everything were so simple and natural.

"Oh..." Jin's face shifted from surprise to regret, a lump forming in his throat. "How could I have ignored this date? I'm so sorry, I should have brought you a gift." JungKook raised a hand and gently shook his head, his gaze softening just a little.

"I know you're very busy... and that you're thinking about all those things," he acknowledged, pouting as he set the knife down on the table. "What I want is for us to be alright, for us to be together, even if I'm so... weird."

"What things?" Jin asked, feeling how his doubts were piling up in his mind.

"You know..." JungKook looked at him with that intensity Jin was beginning to recognise. "Trying to decide if you want to stay with me or not... figuring out how far you'll go with this," he added, still looking at him with that gaze Jin couldn't fully decipher.

Jin swallowed hard, feeling the conversation take an unexpected turn. But he couldn't let fear control him. He wanted to understand, once and for all.

"I understand you don't have any reason to trust me, but I really care about you. I don't know what kept me from feeling this way about you before, but now I do. Maybe I wasn't ready; I had all those things going on in my life, I was afraid for both of us. But you're right when you say you're not like those people who hurt me. My mind needs to move past that place, and if you want, then I'd like to stay with you... as your boyfriend." JungKook watched him silently, processing every word. The sincerity in Jin's eyes seemed to touch something deep inside him. A brief flicker of doubt filled him, but he quickly dismissed it.