BEHIND THE SCENES

chapter 77: you choose your own path

<OST: Winter Flower - Younha ft. RM>

"Ya-" Jieun chased after Jungkook out into the backyard, grabbing him by the wrist. "Jungkook, wait-"

Jungkook stopped abruptly, turning around to face Jieun. "What?"

"I saw everything-" Jieun pursed her lips, glancing up at Jungkook cautiously. "I know it's difficult for you... but you promised me-"

"Screw that freaking promise, I can't do it-" Jungkook swallowed hard as he looked away. "I'm so tired of having to do this, I just wanna give up. Every time I see his stupid face smiling at me, I just recall the old times when we both trained together... It was that same damn smile, Lee Jieun - that same smile he had back then, as he stepped all over me to achieve his dreams."

Jieun hesitantly reached out and placed a hand on Jungkook's shoulder. "Look... I know it's difficult for you, but can't you try? Forgiving someone is hard, but you promised you'd try... Are you really trying your best...?"

"What do you know?" Jungkook glanced at Jieun. "You don't even know what it feels like..."

"I do, everyone does. Everyone has had to learn to forgive someone at one point in their life."

"That's different-"

"I know someone who has had very similar experiences to you," Jieun said calmly, gesturing towards Joohyun who could be seen through the window, chatting happily with Jennie. "But just look at her."

Jungkook shifted his eyes to look at the two girls. "Jennie?"

"No, Joohyun-unnie-" Jieun pursed her lips as she sat on the grass patch overlooking the river. "Joohyun-unnie has experienced the same pain you have before, but she learnt to forgive and not let it stop her from living her life."

Jungkook raised his eyebrows skeptically as he took a seat next to Jieun by the river bank. "She did?"

"Mm, she did-" Jieun nodded slowly, recalling the past. "I met Joohyun-unnie in university - I was in Year 1 and she was in Year 3 when we met. I still remember that we met at some art interest club. We became friends almost immediately, because of how similar our personalities were.

"Back then, she introduced me to two other people - her then boyfriend of 4 years and her childhood best friend of more than 20 years. I always remember seeing her with the both of them whenever I saw her around school - the three of them soon went on into their final year and from start to end, they were inseparable.

"They soon graduated, and I lost contact with Joohyun-unnie. I saw her debut with Red Velvet on television, and messaged her on Instagram to congratulate her, and that's how we started talking again. We met up a while after that to catch up on life, and that's how I found out that she and her best friend of more than 20 years had fallen out."

Jungkook raised his eyebrows in surprise. "How?"

Jieun pursed her lips as she glanced over at Joohyun, who giggled as she spoke to Jennie like they had been best friends for a long time. "Her best friend cheated on her with her boyfriend."

Jungkook's jaw dropped. "No way."

"I can tell you this because she has long gotten over it-" Jieun nodded slowly, shifting her attention back onto Jungkook once more. "I know, because she has shared this on a variety programme before... On the show, she said that she was hurt for quite a while, but eventually let go because she realised that she was over there hurting, while her now ex-boyfriend and ex-best friend were probably out there living their best lives."

"They're trash humans, I see."

"They're not even worthy of being called humans," Jieun agreed. "But Joohyun-unnie was so strong - instead of letting the incident bring her down and wallowing in self-pity, she picked herself up again and used this incident as a driving force that motivated her to make the cut to her debut team."