Soulmate

Twenty Four: Jin

August 23, 2019
Seoul, South Korea

"Are you INSANE?!"

Yoongi doesn't usually yell at people, doesn't usually get angry even in the worst situations.

Except for today.

"You're not pressing charges?!" he screams at me.

"What's it matter to you?!" I shout back. "It's not your money!"

"Kim Seokjin," he groans. "It's not about money! It's about justice! It's about the fact that she's stolen four months of your life that you'll never get back! It's about revenge for you and your real soulmate!"

"I already got my revenge," I tell him. "Believe it or not, it's not the money she cares about."

"And you expect me to believe that? How would you even know that?"

"How would anybody else? I spent every minute of every day with her for three straight months. Even through all the lies, I got to know her. You get to know people."

Yoongi's just silent.

"Did you see her or something?" he asks finally.

Now I'm silent.

"KIM SEOKJIN!" He marches toward me, gripping my shirt in his hands and yelling right into my face. "You're lucky Areum's here because if she wasn't, I would pound your handsome face in!"

"I got my revenge! I don't need to press charges!" I shove him off of me and turn to leave. "You don't get it, Yoongi!"

"You're damn right I don't get it! What does going to see her accomplish? What does it do to help the current investigation?"

"It doesn't," I say. "It doesn't do anything for anyone but me."

"God, I can't stand you right now! Do you even hear yourself? You're tuning me out again! This is just like before I left for Fiji! You never listen!"

"I am listening! You're the one who's not listening! I don't need to sue her! Money wouldn't get my point across!"

"Oh, but sleeping with her does?"

"What do you want from me?" I finally say. "Do you want to say I told you so? Well, lucky for you then, you were right! Go on, say it!"

"I don't want to say I told you so! The last thing I ever wanted was to be right about something like this! You think I wanted to see my best friend heart broken? Hurt? Used? Stolen from? I never hoped any of this would happen! All I wanted was for you to think about it and avoid a situation like this, to spare yourself the humiliation! And instead of listening, you blew up on me and cancelled our bros fishing trip! How is that cool? All I've done through this whole thing is try to help you and all you've done is lash out at me!"

"Believe it or not, I actually came here to apologize!" I snap.

"Well I don't want your apology! Not if you're just gonna keep acting stupid!"

"Oh my God, would you both just SHUT UP!" Areum finally shouts.

She stands up from the living room couch. She wears a pair of pajamas, hair a mess, skin pale and sickly looking. She stomps her slippered feet over to the two of us, grabs onto our ears, and drags us to sit on the sofa, ignoring the chorus of "ow's" coming from us. She shoves us down onto the couch and glares down at us with her hands on her hips.

"You two are acting like children!" The authority in her voice causes us both to shrink back into the cushions. "You should hear yourselves! You're trying to apologize to each other but instead you're too busy justifying your ridiculous behaviors and decisions. Well guess what?"