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kookingtae · 4 years ago

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Always the Bridesmaid (m)

→ pairing: writer taehyung x reader (ft. seokjin)

→ genre: enemies to lovers, smut, angst, fluff, holiday/christmas

→ word count: 34.1k (im so sorry i dont do one shots lmao)

→ scenario: When you first meet Kim Taehyung, you’re determined to find every reason you can to hate him—or maybe he’s just looking for ways to get on your last nerve. But when a turn of events has the two of you working the wedding of the man you’re hopelessly in love with, you’re too late to realize the real reason to hate Kim Taehyung is because of the latest column he’s secretly writing: “Always the Bridesmaid, Never the Bride”, and it’s all about you.

→ warnings: unrequited love (reader has feelings for her boss), tae is a cynic who hates marriage and christmas but isn’t afraid to call oc out on her bullshit, angry sex kinda?, oral (fem receiving), unprotected sex, creampie, mentions of cheating (in the past), tae kinda uses the reader a lil bit, happy ending tho so !!

→ a/n: this is part of a winter wedding season, collab two of christmas in july hosted by @kookdiaries, @kithtaehyung, and @xiaokoo and based off of the movie 27 Dresses. i was beyond excited when i saw this movie on the collab list! as a hopeless romantic, 27 dresses was a childhood favorite of mine and one i could watch over and over again. bc i love the movie so much, i had a hard time separating it from my own work and deciding if i should switch things up or not mess with this classic masterpiece of a plot lol. so i ended up doing a little bit of both! if youve seen the movie (and remember it as well as i do lmao) some beginning scenes may be the same in order to establish the plot and whatnot, but as the story continues i definitely tweak some things and make it my own :") regardless, i hope you enjoy this christmas themed romcom!

→ another a/n bc i talk too much: HOLY SHIT ITS FINALLY HERE!!! writing this has been the biggest challenge for myself as a writer, though i definitely dont regret it bc i met some amazing people and found out i can write 34k in two months?? omg??? tho im worried it feels rushed and i havent had time to edit it, so pls excuse literally everything in this fic sdfjkd a HUGE thank you to @mercurygguk for letting me scream endlessly to you, im so happy we became friends and i wouldnt have been able to push through this without you!! <3

The sip of champagne was cool as it hit your tongue, its sweet nectar fizzing on your tastebuds and illuminating your senses with a gentle hum to match the warm effervescent glow of the lights that bounced off the crystal chandeliers and reflected across the room in a shifting, sparkling dance of refracted color and silver.

Much like the shimmering lights, the people below them danced as well, their bodies mingling and moving in a makeshift synchronization to the well-known tune that blared from the DJ’s speakers. The Macarena was a party favorite for group dances at gatherings such as these, and what better time to get everyone together in shared merriment than during a loved one’s wedding?

You hurriedly downed the final gulp from your tall stemmed glass before being ushered out onto the dance floor by your friends. Your presence as a bridesmaid was one of utmost importance, as you were often the one to make an appearance and set the mood for the lively, upbeat occasion. Your own feelings aside, it was your good friend’s special day, and as someone who played such a huge role in planning and putting this event together you would do anything to make sure everything went according to plan and everyone was having fun.

It also happened to be your other good friend’s wedding day as well, and while you moved your hands about your head and swiveled your hips to the catchy beat, you subtly checked the jeweled chain watch that dangled from your wrist as a reminder to not get too swept up in one reception lest you forget the other.

You had to be out the door in three minutes.

When the song was over you reluctantly took your leave from the floor with spared smiles and shakes of your head to the crowd before quickly rounding the corner and dashing towards the exit once you were sure no one was looking. The brisk winter air that rushed over you when you burst through the double doors and out into the bustling city nightlife was exhilarating.

“Come on! Get in the car, let’s go!” You hurried along your hired taxi driver for the night who was casually resting against the outside of his door like you had all the time in the world to spare. His eyes widened upon seeing your frantic state before he dived behind the steering wheel and sped off onto the busy street once you practically threw yourself into his backseat.

“Shit, shit, shit!” You cursed to yourself as you yanked down the zipper of your bridesmaid dress only to clamber your way into another. Both gowns were equally ridiculous and incredibly difficult to get in and out of, but you weren’t one to complain. It wasn’t your special day after all; it was theirs. Who were you to deprive them of their happiness simply because you didn’t like the set attire?

That was the reason you agreed to being in two different weddings on the same day—the reason you went above and beyond to help not only them but every couple whose wedding you attended. You wanted to help make people’s dreams come true. You wanted to take what was meant to be the happiest moment of their lives and make the magic come to life.

Which was why when you weren’t working your day job as an interior decorator, you were spending practically every waking minute of your free time planning your friends’ weddings. Being an interior decorator meant you built relationships with your clients and grew close to a lot of people, so there was never a shortage of happy couples getting engaged who could always use your help. You loved weddings; they’d been a passion of yours since you were a child, and you had a knack for making everything fall into place. If you enjoyed it and were good at it, why shouldn’t you participate in all the festivities that you could?

You quickly tore off the halo of greenery nestled atop your head and replaced it with a diamond hair comb. Thank god you were able to choose your own hairstyle for both of these weddings, or you’d be screwed having to recreate a different updo within the seven minutes it took to get from one reception hall to the other every time you got in the car.

You had the backdoor open before the taxi even screeched to a halt at the curb of your destination.

“Wait—wrong shoes! Wrong shoes!” Your taxi driver, who you’d offered a flat fee for the night and was now accustomed to your antics of switching back and forth between places all night, called out to your retreating form before chucking a pair of nude heels from the window and onto the sidewalk in front of you. You quickly scrambled to retrieve them and tossed the shoes that were currently on your feet back at him in the vehicle with a fleeting thank you.

Once inside the building your pace slowed to a casual stroll, and you were suddenly aware of the way your racing pulse clobbered erratically in your chest after moving so quickly. The ambiance of this wedding was much more relaxed than the last, more chatting and catching up happening between guests and less time spent on the dance floor.

You gracefully sidled up to a group of friends—the bridal party—and inserted yourself into the conversation with a practiced ease as if you’d been there all along, none of them questioning your whereabouts or catching wind of your quick departure and return.

While absentmindedly listening to the discussion being held and scanning over the sea of guests that intermingled throughout the tulle-covered tables, your gaze fell onto a face that caused you to skid to a halt.

Familiar brown eyes peeked out beneath dark, fluffy locks that sat in tousled curls atop his head and dusted the tops of his lashes. He wore a white fitted button down with the sleeves rolled to his forearms, same as he always did, and meandered around the room by himself without really saying much of anything to anyone, same as he always did.

And though there was no doubt in your mind that you recognized this man, you couldn’t for the life of you remember his name.

Maybe that’s because you didn’t know it.

Out of all the weddings you’d been to, you had to say that he’d been in attendance to over half of them—which was saying a lot, because you frequented a wedding almost every week. You were bound to take notice of him eventually due to the basic laws of probability, but at every reception he was doing practically the same thing: observing the crowd, eating the food, not really mingling with anyone past a few pleasantries. At first you assumed he was just a common friend of the other person in the couple you weren’t close to, but you soon realized that this was too much of a coincidence to actually be a coincidence.

Not only did you not know his name, but nobody else seemed to, either.

Your brow arched in involuntary skepticism while you watched him weave throughout the round tables scattered amongst the center of the room, your attention unbeknownst to him as he gazed upon the abundant crowd before coming to a stop in front of the buffet of food spread out by caterers you helped coordinate. The table was mostly free of guests, as the night was growing old and many people had already finished eating their meals, though that didn’t stop this man from grabbing a dinner plate and piling it with food.

Eyes never leaving him, you turned to the bride by your side. “Hey,” you got her attention before nodding in his direction. “Who’s that guy over there?”

Your friend followed your line of sight to the young man at the buffet table before her pondering eyes were shrouded beneath quizzical brows. “I’m not sure,” she thought aloud with a slight frown. “I don’t think he’s one of Hoseok’s friends either.”

Confirmation that he was neither a guest of the bride nor the groom told you pretty much everything you needed to know: he was a freeloader, one of those parasitic leeches who only wanted free food and entertainment for the night and took advantage of others’ generosity and kindness. There was no other explanation; why else would he be at almost every other wedding in the city without an invitation?

The explanation was simple. He crashed weddings in his free time—which he must’ve had way too much of, if this was how he spent it.

You detested people like him who were always looking for handouts and trying to get one over on someone. Not only that, but to exploit what was supposed to be someone’s happiest day of their life and make unfair use of it for his own benefit was sickening. These were your friends he was stealing from and taking advantage of! You didn’t even want to think about how many innocent couples he’s done this to. People were despicable.

Meanwhile and little to your knowledge, this man had noticed you too. He’d noticed you much sooner than you’d noticed him, in fact. He’d witnessed your coming and going at regular intervals throughout the night and thought it was interesting, alarming, that someone with such an important role in the ceremony would escape for almost thirty minutes at a time during the reception. The familiarity of your face and the distant sound of your voice tickled at the edges of his memory in the promise of remembrance, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. Where had he seen you before?

It was dwindling into the late hours of the night; pushing eleven, the event was almost over, and if he didn’t solve this minuscule mystery then it would bug him all night like an itch that needed to be scratched. Which was why when you finally got a moment alone from your friends, champagne flute dangling from your fingertips and eyes peering at your watch, he approached you.

“Hello,” he greeted in a suave tone with a charming grin on his lips, his hand sticking out to you after a moment’s pause. “Tae.”

You eyed his hand with a skeptical air of offense, disgust creeping up your throat at the notion of associating with this moocher. Why was he talking to you? Simply making the rounds so nobody would get suspicious? Little did he know you were already on to him.

“Y/N.” You eventually shook his hand after much reluctance to even acknowledge the man in front of you.

“This is going to sound weird, but do I know you from somewhere?” His head tilted with the cock of an eyebrow and a sheepish chuckle. “You look so familiar to me.”

“Yeah, so do you.” You couldn’t stop the sarcasm and resentment from flying past your lips as you looked away with a thinly veiled eye roll and another sip of champagne. You weren’t going to pretend to be cordial with him; he didn’t deserve your respect.

You watched as he paused in thought out of the corner of your eye before a lightbulb seemed to go off in his head. His hands clapped together in a little aha! moment. “I know where I recognize you from! You were in that wedding at the grove last week!”

You couldn’t help but balk at his choice of words: that wedding. Not only did he have the audacity to crash these events on a weekly basis, but he didn’t even have the decency to remember the married couples’ names?!

“Uh huh, funny,” you sneered, not even trying to hide your disdain anymore. “So were you.”

Tae’s brow arched at that, a smirk lifting at the corner of his mouth. “You noticed me?”

You rolled your eyes. The audacity of this man! How could he possibly attribute being recognized by a total stranger to something as shallow as his good looks rather than the fact that he showed up to every wedding in the city? Someone was bound to catch on eventually!

“Don’t think I don’t know what you’re doing. I see right through you.” You shook your head with a mix of frustration and disgust while walking away. Thankfully it was about time for the reception to end and the venue to start deconstructing the decorations, so you didn’t have to stick around for another second listening to this thief.

Though it was to your dismay that Tae followed you as you made your way to the door, amusement twitching at his features. “You do, do you?” Is all he said in defense, as if this was nothing more than a game to him.

“Yes, and you know what?” You spun around to confront him which caused his steps to screech to a halt at your heels. “People like you are disgusting, mooching off the happiness of others. You should be ashamed of yourself.” You turned back around and stalked off before you could hear another word he said.

That didn’t get you very far; he was soon catching up to you and matching your quickening pace with a quirked brow. Confusion now mingled with the steady amusement on his expression. “Well, I don’t know if I’d call it mooching-”

“And who do you think you are, calling me out on how many weddings I’ve been in?” You continued to fume before you could stop yourself. “At least I was invited!”

“Hey now, just because I don’t know the couple personally doesn’t mean-“

You cut him off with a bitter laugh while grabbing your things by the front door. “You’ve got some nerve, buddy.”

“Buddy?” His grin of amusement grew at your words.

You stormed out of the building and into the night, the cold air now clinging to your skin like a thick, damp blanket as rain steadily poured down onto the sidewalk just beyond the awning overhead. Desperate to get away from him, you didn’t even pause before stepping out into the storm.

Your hair and gown were both soaked in a matter of seconds, though your headstrong stubbornness kept you from accepting the umbrella Tae had retrieved just beyond the front entrance and was now offering to share with you. Where the hell was your taxi driver?

“Come on, you’re being ridiculous!” Tae jeered when you refused his offer yet again, instead choosing to shiver in the freezing November rain.

“Don’t you have another wedding to crash?” You barked as you stepped to the edge of the curb, looking for your ride. Had he really abandoned you without a way home? You paid him in advance for his services until 11:15!

Glancing at the watch on your wrist, you saw that the time was quarter past. God damn these city transportation services. He couldn’t even wait ten minutes before he left you in the dust?

A huff of frustration left your lips as you lifted your hand to hail a taxi, but to no avail. Each yellow car within a mile radius zoomed straight past you without so much as a tap of the brakes.

Tae managed to watch you struggle with a barely contained laugh for about two minutes before he stepped up, stuck his arm out, and was answered with a taxi in no more than mere seconds.

“This is bullshit,” you muttered under your breath, refusing to give in as you clutched your purse to your chest and continued in your efforts to flag down a ride.

“Jesus, will you just get in the cab?” Tae had the backdoor open with one foot up on the curb, his full attention on you as he gestured to the dry, warm interior of the vehicle.

“What? I’m not going anywhere with you!” You shrieked, revolted that he would even assume such a thing. If you refused his offer of a shared umbrella in the middle of a torrential downpour, what in god’s name would make him think you’d accept a shared taxi?

A smirk tugged at his features at that, his eyes twinkling with mirth. “Who said anything about going somewhere together?”

You blinked as heat rose to your cheeks and your mouth dried with parted lips, realizing you walked yourself right into that one. “Well, I don’t know you!” You stammered in a harsh and defensive tone. “And apparently neither does anyone else here. That’s the problem!”

He gave you a half lidded stare as if to say, really. “Just get in the cab; we’ll give the guy separate addresses. You’re gonna catch a cold if you keep standing in this rain.”

You were suddenly aware of how drenched you truly were, hair falling in wet strands around your face and body chilled to the bone—not to mention the fact that your teeth were starting to chatter a subtle but uncontrollable amount.

“I can take care of myself,” you snapped defensively.

“I don’t doubt it.” His eyes rolled dismissively at your rebuttal, though you just barely caught the way his expressionless gaze flickered briefly over your dress soaked and clinging to the outline of your body. He was back to looking at your face before you had a chance to react. “But who knows how long you’ll be waiting for another ride at this hour?”

It was true; a Saturday night in the big city? Almost no ubers or lifts were available in this area, all either stuck in traffic or being used by drunk college kids, and it seemed your old taxi driver made other cabs swear off of stopping for you. Who knew how long you would be waiting in these freezing temperatures? You hadn’t brought a coat either for fear of messing up your strangely shaped bridesmaid dresses, having figured you probably wouldn’t spend much time outside anyways.

Boy were you wrong.

“Fine.” The word tasted like bile in your throat as you forced it out through clenched teeth, setting aside your pride and begrudgingly getting into the backseat. You ignored Tae’s triumphant smile as he slid in behind you and shut the door.

Once you explained the two separate destinations and made sure the driver was on the right track, you settled into the uncomfortable leather seats. Bags of extra decor and accessories just in case the bridal party forgot or needed anything took up most of the space on the floorboard, along with your extra set of clothes for the second wedding and extravagant bouquets of flowers you received as party favors. You shoved a bushel of holly away from your face in order to retrieve your planner from your purse.

You didn’t understand how you got yourself into this situation; how did you end up in the backseat of a taxi cab with the one man you wanted absolutely nothing to do with? Anger at the night’s turn of events had you ripping off the cap of your pen with your teeth and furiously scribbling on the paper in your lap so hard that indentions of your handwriting bled onto to the next page.

Tae arched a brow. “What’s that?”

You ignored his pointed tone and the way he eyed your small spiral notebook with judgment as you crossed out today’s weddings. “None of your business.”

A chuckle escaped his lips at that. “Please tell me you’re not doing what I think you’re doing.”

You frowned over at him, your patience nonexistent at this point. “What?”

He craned his neck to get a better look, to which you shielded your writing protectively from his view.

“Is that a planner?”

“I’m sorry, is there a problem?” You snapped back.

His hands raised in surrender while he leaned back against his seat and shook his head. “No, no. I just didn’t realize we were still in the twentieth century is all.”

You threw him an incredulous look. “Do you have something against planners?”

“No, they’re fine by me,” he continued in a casual tone, though it was obvious he was holding back a laugh. “I just would’ve expected someone like you to use the calendar in your phone like the rest of civilization.”

“Someone like me?” Your brow arched defensively.

“Yeah, y’know, someone young. You can’t be past what, mid-twenties?”

You huffed out a sigh of exasperation. “If you must know, I like having something physical. It helps me stay organized when I can see it all laid out in front of me.”

His lips twitched at your words. “Well I don’t know about the organization part, but I can definitely help with something physical.”

The unexpectedness of his overt sexual innuendo had you stiffening for a moment, though once you blinked past the initial shock you let out a sound of disgust.

“I don’t know what part of this interaction made you think you could flirt with me, but you most certainly cannot.”

You felt Tae’s eyes on you then, and as much as you fought the urge to look over at him you couldn’t stop the way your gaze involuntarily found his. What were once warm brown eyes were now cool and striking in the moonlight shining in through the windows, shadows of muted red from the traffic lights casting over his features and giving his skin a sultry glow to match the gentle thrum of rain cascading down the glass in soft, somber streams.

The intensity of his stare in the dark was almost too overwhelming. You had to physically force yourself to break eye contact and look away.

“You rushed past me earlier, by the way.” His voice was thick like velvet as it filled the heavy silence, though as he continued it adopted a lilt of amusement. “I saw you changing clothes. You were in two weddings in one night, weren’t you?”

Your head snapped in his direction with raised brows before you could stop yourself, the scoff that automatically fell from your lips covering the flustered flush blooming over your cheeks in reaction to not only the fact that he saw you changing, but also that someone caught you in the two-timing bridesmaid act.

“So what if I was?” You barked defensively.

He seemed as if he expected that type of reply from you. “I mean that has to be exhausting, right? One wedding is bad enough.”

Your face twisted at the audacity of his words. “Says the man who shows up to almost every wedding there is!”

“I mean yeah, but not for the fun of it,” he shrugged as if he had no other choice but to crash these couples’ special days.

“So what’s it for?” You were seething before you could stop yourself, having lost patience with this stranger long ago. “The free food? The live entertainment? Something to pass the time with during your lonely, pathetic life?”

Tae’s jaw dropped, though that didn’t stop the slight upturn of his lips as if he consistently found some sort of humor in your words. “Okay, I’m sensing a lot of animosity here and I’m not sure why.” He gestured between the two of you.

“This is pointless.” You shook your head with a sigh and returned to looking forward. You didn’t know why you were wasting your time arguing with a man who would willingly take advantage of people—your friends included—on their wedding day.

“What? All I’m saying is it’s a whole lot of ritual just for something that has about a 50/50 shot of working out,” he hummed.

You cut your eyes at him. “Wow, a man who doesn’t believe in marriage. How original.”

“Hey I’m just trying to point out the hypocrisy of the spectacle, that’s all.”

“Well I for one happen to love weddings,” you quickly hissed, brushing a stray damp curl from your face. Thankfully the driver had enough consideration to turn on the heat when you entered the cab so that the cold winter air and freezing rain clinging to your body slowly began to evaporate.

Tae blinked at that. “You love them?” He looked at you like you were insane.

“Yes!” Your voice went shrill in defense.

There was a pause as Tae blew out a breath of disbelief. “What part? The fake, forced merriment or the horrible music?”

“Oh that’s rich, coming from you,” you nodded your head with a sneer. “What was it you said you did for a living again?”

An actual chuckle of surprise left his lips at your words this time, the jovial sound startling you during such a heated debate. “Wait, you don’t know?” The mirth sparkling in his eyes grew tenfold as he leaned forward to get a better look at your face.

You let out a scoff in disgust; just who did this guy think he was, Brad Pitt? “Why the fuck would I know?” You snapped.

He looked like he was on the verge of cracking up as he bit his bottom lip to keep his laughter at bay, though a few giggles still managed to escape past his teeth. “I’m a writer,” he settled on saying after composing himself.

“Right,” you dragged the word out sarcastically, not sure if you believed him after that not-at-all convincing answer. Even though you were sure something was up by the way he was acting, you didn’t even have the energy to argue with him anymore. After all, his career choice of being a writer explained the free time on his hands, not to mention his habit of scrounging the buffet tables being on brand with the whole starving artist cliche. You looked away with a roll of your eyes.

Thankfully it wasn’t much longer before the taxi pulled up to the front of your apartment complex. You couldn’t get out of the crowded confinements of that overpacked backseat fast enough.

“Well, I’d say it’s been a pleasure, but I hope I never see you again.” You flashed him a fake tight-lipped smile, your arms stacked high with your belongings as you stumbled out into the rain.

Tae leaned over in his seat to look at you out the open door while you were trying to balance yourself on the curb. “Are you gonna be in more weddings this weekend?”

“Stop talking to me.”

“How many have you been in? Just like, a ballpark estimate?”

You slammed the door in his face with your foot before marching up the steps to your building.

A while after you left—he had to have been alone in the taxi for at least ten minutes now—something caught Tae’s attention out of the corner of his eye. Upon closer inspection, he realized that it was your planner. They were much too far away now for him to ask the driver to turn around to return it to you. He tried to avoid reading it; that was your personal business of course, and he wasn’t some creep. But seeing as he couldn’t think of another way to return it to you, his resolve wasn’t as strong as it could’ve been when the word WEDDING in big capital letters and underlined multiple times caught his eye.

Curiosity nibbled at the edges of his mind until it eventually swarmed into an all-consuming urge and outweighed the resistance within him. He quickly grabbed the planner before he could talk himself out of it.

WEDDING @ 2

MOUNTAIN PARK

WEDDING 11AM !!!!!

BOTANICAL GARDENS

LEE WEDDING

DREAM FOREST @ 4

LOTTE HOTEL @ 6

The calendar was littered with ceremonies and receptions galore, and the more Tae flipped the pages the more frequent they became. How did one person attend so many weddings? Even he had his schedule down to one wedding per week. He couldn’t imagine someone having this much time—or friends—to coordinate wedding details with unless it was their job.

Although with the way you had things like home design, site survey, and other specific terms next to addresses scribbled in for most of the weekdays, Tae figured it was highly probable that you had a separate job during the week. Which meant you weren’t exaggerating just for the sake of the argument: you really did love weddings.

An idea sparked in his mind then; one that had him teeming with anticipation the way he always did when he thought of a good subject for his next article.

For the first time in his life, he couldn’t wait to speak to his boss on Monday.

You stepped into your work building with the Sunday newspaper in hand, the beginning pages already long forgotten as you skipped ahead to your all time favorite section: Matrimony Mementos.

Every week there was an article showcasing an extravagant wedding taking place in the city, and you loved nothing more than to indulge your hopeless romanticism with endless poetic words written by none other than your favorite columnist, Kim Taehyung.

There was something so raw, so authentic and real and vulnerable about the way that Taehyung wrote. He made you fall in love with love and marriage all over again when you read his work, wanting nothing more than to splurge in your enjoyment of weddings after hearing how special and enchanting the ones he wrote about often were. If you ever got to meet him, you’d surely cry in his arms while discussing just how much his beautiful words truly moved you.

Your reading was cut short when the receptionist flagged you down. “Oh, Y/N, you have a message here from someone named… Tae.” Her eyes paused in scanning the computer screen to instead meet yours. “He wants you to call him.”

You wracked your brain for some semblance of a memory. Why did that name sound so familiar?

And suddenly it dawned on you: the wedding crasher from this past Saturday. How the hell did he even get your work number?

“Sunmi, please ignore all future calls from Tae,” you flashed her a sweet smile before continuing on your way to your office.

The first thing you noticed when you stepped through the door was a giant bouquet of flowers sitting on your desk.

Confusion instantly settled upon your features—especially after checking the card and seeing that there was no name from the sender. You rounded your desk to sit down in your seat, flipping the small white card to scan the back for any clues.

Nothing.

“Ooh, did you hook up with someone over the weekend?” Your best friend Yerin had a mischievous grin in her tone of voice as she waltzed into your office and settled into the chair across from you.

You gave her a look to say, as if. “Of course not. I have no idea who they’re from.”

That caught her attention. “Really?” Her brows lifted in curiosity as she leaned over your desk and snatched the card from your hands; the only words on the entire paper read For Y/N.

“Have you seen my planner?” You offhandedly asked, clumsily shuffling papers around on your desk while you looked for the book.

Yerin shook her head distractedly. “Nope, can’t say I have. Are the flowers real?”

“Yeah,” you hummed in reply before abandoning your search and instead turning your attention back to the more pressing matter at hand.

You examined the delicate petals between your fingers, briefly realizing with a frown that they were the same exact type of flowers—holly and roses—that you’d taken home from the wedding on Saturday. Great, as if you didn’t have enough already.

Suddenly a thought sparked in your mind that caused your heart to race. “Wait… you don’t think…?” you trailed off before glancing at Yerin with wide eyes.

“Y/N! Could you please come in here for a second?”

As if on cue, the voice that was currently clouding your mind danced through your open door. You instantly straightened, the petals fluttering forgotten from your fingertips while you shot up from your seat as if trained to do so—and in a way, you kind of were. The man who called you was your boss.

“You should just wear a sign on your forehead that says I’m In Love With You. I think it’d be more subtle,” Yerin quipped sarcastically. Her legs casually dangled over the arm of her chair with the rest of her body draped sideways across the pleather cushion as she tossed the blank card back onto your desk and pulled out one of the design magazines your company left for clients in the lobby.

“Shut up!” You hissed at her on your way out the door, unable to hear her snarky reply as you practically sprinted across the hall like a lovesick puppy dog before stopping in front of his office.

Your insides inflated with warmth when he spun around and greeted you with a smile that you were sure could cure cancer.

“Good morning, my lovely assistant,” your boss, Kim Seokjin, hummed with a lighthearted lilt to his tone. “Have I told you that you’re looking especially breathtaking today?”

He did this every time; you knew what this meant. And though you felt like an infatuated fool, you couldn’t help the way your heart fluttered at his sugarcoated compliment anyway. “What do you need this time?” You tried to hide the gentle flush of your cheeks behind a teasing chuckle.

“A large coffee with extra espresso please; I’m running on four hours of sleep and I have about six deadlines to hit in the next thirty minutes.” His groan paired with a rub of his temples caused a smile to twitch at your lips; you found his complaint endearing if it meant he felt comfortable enough to do so in your presence.

“Of course,” you giggled, trying not to sound too eager at the thought of helping him. “Though, um, I didn’t get a chance to run it by you yet but I took over all information for your Choi and Kwon clients. I can handle their consultation calls if you want.” The sweet smile that you offered him came naturally.

An exhale of relief fell from his lips as he stared at you in appreciation. “You are a lifesaver. What would I do without you?”

“Oh, it’s really nothing,” you lowered your eyes with a sheepish smile before gazing back over at him beneath your lashes, admiring the perfect symmetry of his elegant features. Seokjin may have a few years on you, but there was no way age would ever show on him. You were certain this man would be handsome forever.

He continued to grin at you before his face suddenly lit up in remembrance. “Oh, by the way, did you get that thing I left on your desk?”

Your breath stuttered as your heart clambered wildly in your chest. “M-my desk?”

“Yeah, was that okay? I know we’ve never had that type of relationship before so I just wanted to make sure I wasn’t overstepping–”

“N-no! Are you kidding? It’s great!” You couldn’t stop the beam of elation that spread across your lips.

Holy shit. Was this actually happening? Had your boss, the man who you had been hopelessly pining over for years, left flowers on your desk? You felt like you were dreaming.

It was the expectant look on his face that suddenly had you blinking out of your reverie. “R-right, coffee.” You nodded your head once before quickly leaving the room.

“I feel sorry for you.” Your friend appeared at your side faster than you could blink as you walked down the hall towards the elevator. “How long do you think you can keep up this benevolent assistant role before he sees you’re just trying to get in his pants?”

“Can you–!” You abruptly cut yourself off before glancing around the area for nearby coworkers or listening ears. “–stop?” Your last word was a hissed whisper. “Someone’s going to hear you!”

“Well it’s not exactly a secret,” Yerin snorted, the volume of her voice not at all any quieter. “You’re about as subtle as a brick through a window.”

“I’m not just trying to get in his pants,” you corrected, ignoring her. “I like Seokjin! He’s nice. He’s responsible. He’s hard working. He’s–”

“My dad,” she interrupted you with a brash tone. “Or he might as well be, what with the resume you’re giving him. And let me tell you, my dad is boring!”

“Just because you’re into guys with no credit score who still sleep on their mother’s couch doesn’t mean everybody is,” you retorted with a grin, the repartee between you two always in good fun. Yerin was one of your very best friends and the person who knew you better than anyone.

“I’ll have you know that I don’t discriminate. Girls with no credit score are welcome as well,” a tut fell from her lips as she grinned over at you.

You shared her expression with a roll of your eyes. “Either way, I think I know who the flowers came from,” you admitted with a slight flush of your cheeks.

Her eyes widened to the size of saucers. “From Seokjin?!”

You bit your bottom lip between your teeth to keep the sprouting smile from taking over your features as you nodded.

“Okay, this is not a fantasy anymore Y/N. This is real life.” Her tone grew more serious as she pulled you to a stop and looked you in the eye. “I don’t understand why you won’t just tell him how you feel. You’re a grown woman acting like a teenager!”

“Seokjin is not some middle school crush, Yerin! He’s my boss.” You shook your head before continuing down the hallway of cubicles.

“Please, people date in the office all the time,” she quickly brushed you off.

“My direct boss; I’m literally his assistant. There is a power dynamic at play here that is completely unethical!”

“Sounds kinky.”

You closed your eyes with a sigh. “It’s wrong, Yerin. Seokjin respects me; I don’t want to ruin that!”

“So making heart eyes at him all day for the rest of your life is better?”

You sighed; you knew she was right. Even if he didn’t eventually catch on one day that you had feelings for him, the thought of never getting to be with him the way you truly wanted to drove a stake through your heart. “I will make a move... one day.” You shook your head to clear your mind before refocusing on your surroundings. “And I know I always say that, but it’s because I mean it!”

“When, Y/N?! You’ve been working at this company for three years and Seokjin had you wrapped around his finger by the very first hello. There are sloths that move faster than you!”

“I just need some more time, okay? There hasn’t been the right moment.” You sighed again, checking your watch to see how much time you had to make it to Seokjin’s favorite coffee shop. “Now if you’re done harassing me, I need to be across the street and back in the next five minutes.”

Yerin made the sound and hand gesture of a cracking whip to which you rolled your eyes in reply, and that was the last you heard before the two of you parted ways at the elevator door.

Tae slapped your planner down on his boss’ desk at The Korea Times. “Always a bridesmaid.”

She stared down at the booklet on her desk before glancing back up at him under low lids that said she was somehow already done with today even though it was barely 9:30 in the morning. “What is that?”

“The next story for the front page of the section,” he told her with the same amount of confidence and conviction that he felt.

“Taehyung,” she leaned back with a sigh, years worth of stress seeming to settle on her worn features. “How many times have I heard this from you?”

“Oh come on, don’t be like that.” He fixed her with a charming grin. “When have I ever led you astray?”

“Well, let’s see.” She rested her elbows on her desk, pretending to think. “There was that exposé on price-fixing at wedding bakeries.”

“They’re ripping people off! Flour costs pennies per ounce; that’s an 800% markup. It’s outrageous!”

“Yes it is. Also, no one cares.” The sarcasm was dripping from her tone as she went back to looking over the newspaper in her hand.

“Alright, well what about the piece I wanted to do on the exploitation of workers in handmade lace factories?” He began to idly pace the room, listing yet another one of his story ideas that had at least a semblance of meaning to it rather than the shallow, empty fluff they normally wanted him to feed their readers. “That’s a great piece.”

“Taehyung, this section practically pays for the entire paper.” She took off her reading glasses to stare at him with a sigh. “Our advertisers want fun, upbeat, colorful human interest stories next to their products. Especially with Christmas right around the corner; almost everything has to be happy and holiday themed this time of year.”

“So that’s what we’re about now?” He gave her a heavy lidded look as if to say, really. “Selling out for the sake of a profit?”

“Get out.”

“Okay, listen. Just hear me out.” He straightened up and put his hands in front of him as if envisioning the title in the paper. “Always a Bridesmaid, Never a Bride. This girl,” he pointed to your planner, “has been in three different weddings.”

“So?”

“This month.”

She slowly glanced back up at him, intrigue flickering on her otherwise expressionless face.

“Two of them were in the same night,” he explained further, knowing he had caught her interest now. “That’s where I met her: the Jung wedding I was covering on Saturday. I looked at her planner and the thing is littered with weddings.”

A perfectly sculpted brow arched high on her forehead. Though everyone knew it wasn’t right to snoop through other’s personal belongings, morality went out the window where his boss was concerned. Even if he had told her the truth about how he came across the planner, the only things she cared about were good stories and selling papers.

Which was exactly why she opened your planner without a second thought and started flipping through the pages while Tae continued.

“It won’t just be about her though; it’ll be an insightful piece about how the wedding industry has transformed something that should be an important rite of passage into nothing more than a corporate revenue stream.”

She pursed her lips as she glanced up at him with a knowing look.

“In y’know, a fun, upbeat, festive kind of way,” he quickly added.

She glanced back down at the planner, still not fully convinced.

He leaned in and let out a sigh. “Look, I’m dying back there in the Momentos section. If I have to write another sentence about baby’s breath, I’m gonna throw myself off a cliff.” He pointed to the open page in her hand. “This is a real story. This is what I want to do.”

“I need you covering weddings.” She shook her head. “That’s what you’re good at.”

“If you don’t start giving me feature stories, I’m gonna have to quit.”

That had her pausing. “Alright. One chance,” she finally relented. “If I don’t like it, you go back to Mementos for the rest of your life with a big smile on that ridiculously handsome face of yours.” She gave his cheek a light pat for good measure before walking out of the room.

A deep, pulsing bass ricocheted from the walls and coursed its vibrations through your bones the moment you stepped foot into the bar.

It was the first Friday of December, and you were at the annual holiday work party that your company always held. Normally the event was usually took place at a banquet hall or swanky lounge around town, but this year it was held at a local bar that seemed to look more and more like a club as the night went on. Bright hues of orange, red, and blue cascaded down from the overhanging spotlights and danced around the room in time with the upbeat music sounding through the speakers. Many faces were familiar to you when you scanned the area, as most in attendance here were coworkers, though because the bar was still open to the public there were a few strangers intermingled in the crowd.

Your heart sped up when you saw Seokjin across the room, his body hidden within a group of people but his face like a shining beacon playing its siren song and drawing you closer in a sea full of darkness. A natural smile involuntarily sprung to your lips as you watched him, so radiate and effervescent among the crowd, and just as you began to take a step towards him—

Your racing heart plummeted when the group of people around him parted, and there was someone on his arm—someone who looked a lot like one of your coworkers, Park Mijoo.

Mijoo worked in a different department of the company than you so your offices were no where near each other, and therefore the two of you were casual friends but not close by any means. You were friendly with one another in social settings but you didn’t often get the chance to talk, and that was the only excuse you could think of as to how you didn’t realize she and your boss were… whatever this was that you were witnessing right now.

You tried to tell yourself it was nothing when Seokjin caught your eye and waved you over, though the lump in your throat said otherwise as you approached the pair and noticed their intimate body language.

“Hey!” You managed a forced smile onto your face to mask your pain.

“Y/N, hi!” An enthusiastic squeal fell from Mijoo’s lips as she embraced you in a friendly hug.

You turned to Seokjin next, and when his arms wrapped around you a burst of comforting warmth filled you from the inside out. “Glad you could make it,” he murmured near to your ear, and you swore there was nothing you wanted more than to feel his breath against your skin for the rest of your life.

You were far too reluctant to pull away, though Mijoo didn’t seem to notice. “I love that dress,” she spoke when you parted.

“Oh, thank you!”

“I agree. You look stunning tonight Y/N,” your boss’s eyes crinkled with a warm smile.

Your heart fluttered as you glanced down at the fitted dress you put on with Seokjin in mind, knowing just how much you longed to hear those words from his mouth. Though when you looked back up just in time to see his arm wrap around Mijoo’s waist, his words felt hollow in comparison.

Jealousy clawed within you, the ugly emotion going head to head with the dejection already taking over all rational thought. You hadn’t even realized he was seeing anyone, much less a girl who worked at the same company. How did this happen? When did this happen? A thousand questions began swarming within you like a brewing storm, though all you could do in that moment was stare lamely while the couple gazed at each other like they hung the stars and moon, smiles adorning their features.

Seokjin looked so happy. You didn’t think you’d ever seen him this happy—certainly not at work, and certainly never around you, you painfully realized. There had never been a day in your life where Seokjin looked at you the way he looked at Mijoo on his arm right now, no matter how often his expression brightened when you stepped into his office or brought him his favorite lunch order without asking. Every compliment he’d ever given you suddenly felt empty, meaningless.

“Oh, thank you again for agreeing to take care of my laundry Y/N.”

You were shook from your emotions at the sound of his voice. “Laundry?”

“Yeah, you know, the dry cleaning slip?” He then turned back to Mijoo and explained. “I was running late Monday morning and didn’t have time to pick it up so I left it on Y/N’s desk.”

“On my desk…” you mumbled to yourself before a humorless chuckle of disbelief deflated you. How could you be so stupid as to think he would leave you flowers? He was your boss, for god’s sake. He wouldn’t date his assistant.

Even if he would, he didn’t see you that way.

After that your surroundings became cloudy, muffled to your senses. Those flowers were the one flicker of hope still living inside you, the one glimpse of what could be if you grew enough courage to swallow your reservations and admit your feelings. Even after seeing him here with Mijoo tonight, you still couldn’t help but believe that there might be something, something there between you two. It was just untapped, unexplored. It just needed to be discovered.

But of course, you were foolishly naïve yet again. Seokjin saw you as his assistant, someone to get him coffee in the morning and pick up his dry cleaning and nothing more. You’d feel taken advantage of if it weren’t for the fact that it was literally in your job description. You were the one out of line, not him. You were the one in the wrong.

But that didn’t make looking at the two of them together any easier.

And in that moment you did the only thing you were physically capable of doing, which was walking away. You doubted the couple even noticed; they were too entranced with each other to miss your presence.

You didn’t think it was even possible to feel worse than you already did, but low and behold, the universe continued to kick you while you were down and dance on your grave.

“Well, fancy seeing you here.”

Unfortunately you recognized the voice; it scratched and gnawed its way into your subconscious like an annoying pest that you couldn’t get rid of no matter how much you would’ve loved to forget it.

And when you spun around on your heel to face the intruder, your horrible night spun into utter disaster to see none other than the mooching marriage-hater from last Saturday night.

“Jesus fucking christ, just shoot me now.” You didn’t even spare Tae a second glance as you walked past him towards the exit without another word.

“Come on now, that any way to greet your knight in shining armor?”

It shouldn’t have been a surprise when he followed after you, what with his apparent habit of finding every possible way to grate your last nerve, but you let out a sigh of frustration nonetheless at his pesky persistence.

“Look, I’m really not in the mood tonight–”

You turned around to see your planner being held out to you in his hand.

“Oh my god, where did you find this?!” Your eyes were the size of saucers as you took the notebook from him like it was made of gold.

“You left it in the cab last weekend,” he shrugged like it wasn’t a big deal, but the smug self-satisfaction was hard to miss in his tone. “Too busy carrying up all your other useless shit from that night, I suppose. Though if you weren’t so eager to get away from me for whatever reason, you probably wouldn’t have–”

“Wait a second, useless shit?!” You cried, angered by so many things that just left his mouth you didn’t even know which one to focus on or where to start, but you had to defend your friends if nothing else. “Those flowers were bridal party favors hand-picked and arranged by the brides! Do you have any idea how much time and effort went into them?”

“Why, so they can eventually wither and die on your living room floor?” The way he cocked an eyebrow with the twitch of a grin said he knew he was right. “Those arrangements were way too massive to be considered practical, and you know it. Also, they both gave flowers as their bridal party favors?” A scoff of disapproval left his lips.

The fact that he still had the audacity to judge others—after not only crashing weddings on the regular but criticizing marriage as a whole—left you too flabbergasted to admit that you were the one who had suggested doing flower arrangements to both brides.

“You are infuriating!” You couldn’t help but cry out.

Why were you even shocked at this point? This man had already proved he had nothing but nerve the last time you met; you wouldn’t have suspected tonight to be any different. Still, the rate at which he opened his mouth to say more dumb shit left you appalled at the amount of assholes in this world.

“And why the hell did it take you so long to give back my planner?!” Your rage was already fueled by the previous argument, and you had no plans of stopping. “You’ve had it this whole time?!”

“Well it was either tonight or Wednesday’s dentist appointment, so I figured I’d take my chances here.”

“You read it?!”

“How else was I supposed to get it back to you?!”

“Um, I don’t know, you could’ve sent it to my apartment like a normal person! It’s not like you don’t know where I live!”

“I didn’t memorize your address! What is your definition of normal?!” He looked at you like you had three heads. “Besides, I called your work and you didn’t answer.”

“How did you even get my work number?!” You cried out before pinching the bridge of your nose with a sigh. “You know what, no, I don’t even wanna know. I’m really not in the mood for this right now.”

“Y’know, you got a real lousy way of saying thank you.” His arms crossed over his chest, though the same mirth that was sparkling in his eyes during your first meeting was back again. “But don’t worry, I’ll let you get a drink with me and we’ll call it even.”

A sound of disgust ripped through the back of your throat. “Why on earth would I ever want to get drinks with you?!”

“To say thank you, of course,” he blinked like the answer was obvious. “Come on, it won’t be so bad. I promise not to talk about you double booking two weddings Mrs. Doubtfire-style anymore.”

You involuntarily tensed at his mention of your stunt last weekend. “In your dreams,” you shook your head.

A suave smile curled its way onto his lips. “How’d you know?”

You rolled your eyes with a scoff, ready to turn around and leave him in the dust with only a growing headache to remember him by. But what you saw had you stopping dead in your tracks, the anger within you melting into nothing but a puddle of sorrow.

Seokjin and Mijoo were kissing.

And it felt like your world was shattering.

All of the anger, all of the frustration that had been swirling within you from your conversation was instantly devoured in the wake of devastation that now consumed you from the inside out. Your heart dropped into your gut and dragged the internal organ straight through the floor among the pieces where the rest of you laid broken, bruised and bleeding without any means of restoration.

It hurt. It hurt to even think about the man you were in love with kissing someone else, much less doing it right in front of your very eyes—with someone you considered a friend, no less.

The heartbreak, the absolute despair demolishing every ounce of your pride and practicality steeled into a cold, resolute resolve until you wanted nothing more than to not feel anymore.

“Fuck it,” you murmured under your breath before spinning back around to face Tae and making a beeline for the bar. “Fine.”

You needed a drink anyway.

Your shot glass slammed down on the bar counter at the same time as Tae’s who kept insisting that his landed there first. Telling him otherwise was like arguing with a brick wall.

“So how did you like those flowers on Monday?” The man next to you lifted an eyebrow in curiosity.

“How did you–“ your words stopped short as you balked at him, eyes wide and jaw forgotten on the floor. “Wait. You’re the one who sent me flowers?”

“Yeah.” Tae blinked. “Was that not obvious by the holly? I mean, who gifts a bouquet of holly otherwise? It’s a bush.”

Suddenly it all made sense: the cryptic notecard, the exact same type of flowers that you went home with the night of the weddings.

The flowers weren’t from the man of your dreams; they were from your worst nightmare.

“How did you get my work address?!”

“Uh, your planner? Your business card is inside.”

You wanted to scream.

“Excuse me! Another round, please?” You hastily called out to the bartender without hesitation.

Three shots of tequila in and you were starting to feel loose. You knew it was probably going to catch up to you later all at once, leaving you drunk on your ass within the next hour or so, but right now you were nice and tipsy.

It wasn’t enough to ease the ache in your heart, but it helped.

“So what is it you do, exactly?” Tae’s attention was on you from the seat next to yours at the bar, his drink dangling from his fingertips as he swirled the ice around in the near-empty glass before downing the rest of it. “By the looks of things I would’ve guessed wedding planner.”

“Ha, only in my free time,” you chuckled sarcastically with a tip of your glass before taking another sip, now having moved on from shots to a chilled margarita. The sting of the strong contents was welcome as it burned your throat; the bartender thankfully had a heavy pour. “Don’t you already know what I do? You know where I work.”

“Hey, the title on your business card just says designer. I didn’t want to assume.” He held his hands up in surrender.

You raised a single brow at him, not convinced. “So you’re nosy enough to go through my planner but not to look up my company online?”

“Jesus, I’m not a stalker.” A comical, exaggerated scoff left his lips.

You simply tutted, a grin of amusement fighting it’s way onto your features as you rolled your eyes and took another sip. “I work for an interior design company.”

“Oh,” Tae’s brows raised as he nodded, his gaze falling over you in assessment after your answer. “That explains the micromanaging, then.”

Your eyes narrowed as you side-eyed him. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Come on, you even said it yourself: interior designer by day, wedding designer by night,” he shrugged like it was obvious before signaling to the bartender for another drink. “Micromanaging is basically in your blood at this point.”

You rolled your eyes, watching with disdain as a little smirk played at the corners of his mouth while he knowingly avoided your gaze. “You think you’re so smart, don’t you?” You scoffed as the bartender delivered him another whiskey and coke. “You don’t even know me! That’s not why I help plan weddings.”

“Then why do you?” He suddenly turned and directed all of his attention on you.

The unexpected directness of his question and eye contact had you stiffening in surprise, almost flustered as you looked down and slowly started to swirl the thin straw in your drink. “A wedding is supposed to be the most special moment of a person’s life,” you shrugged, suddenly feeling demure in your feelings. You blamed the alcohol. “I like helping their visions and dreams come true and making them happy.”

He stared at you for a while; you could feel his gaze hot on your face. “What about your own happiness?” He asked after a moment.

You snorted, continuing to stir your drink as you glanced up at the rows of glass bottles lining the wall behind the bar. “What do you mean?”

“Well you’re always planning for other people but not yourself, no?”

A scoff involuntarily fell from your lips as you blinked at him once, twice. “You don’t know anything about me,” you lamely defended yourself again.

“I know you like to make other people happy,” he gestured to you in reference back to the words you’d just drunkenly spilled to him. “I know you’re always a bridesmaid because you’re too busy planning everyone else’s life to take care of your own. Do you ever just focus on yourself?”

His words hit too close to home, your defense mechanisms kicking into overdrive as you put up a barrier to protect your vulnerabilities that he somehow managed to call out in less time than anyone you’d ever known. There were people you considered friends who didn’t even take the time to dig this deeply into your psyche. Why did he?

It made you feel naked, weak, scared—and you didn’t like it one bit.

“And just how the fuck would you know that? You’re a stranger,” you quickly snapped. “I don’t have to prove anything to anyone—especially not to you.”

“Of course not,” he shrugged, “but then you’re just avoiding the inevitable.”

Your brow arched, though you didn’t know why you were even humoring him at this point. “Which is?”

Tae took a long sip of his drink, ice cubes knocking against each other as they danced within the dark liquid before his eyes met yours over the rim. You fidgeted in your stool, not knowing what it was about his stare that made your insides flush with heat.

“You’re wasting so much time taking care of other people that eventually it’s gonna be too late to take charge of your own life,” he said once he sat his glass back down.

Anger swelled within your chest. “Fuck you. I am taking charge of my own life; I’m choosing to do this! I know it’s hard to imagine for someone as selfish as you, but making people happy is what makes me happy.”

“Bullshit,” he bluntly blurted out.

You spluttered at the sudden comeback. “What?!”

“Bullshit! I think that’s an excuse so you don’t have to deal with the real problem. You just don’t want to say no to people!”

“Excuse me?!” You were seething at this point. “And who the fuck are you?!”

He tutted, spinning forward to face the bar in his chair. “Someone who’s seen what’s on your calendar,” he pretended to mutter the dig.

“Yeah, which you shouldn’t have read in the first place!” You let out a scoff before impulsively grabbing your thick planner sitting on the bar-top and slapping him on the arm with it.

“Ow!” A chuckle of disbelief spluttered from his lips, his eyes lighting up in mirth. “Did you just hit me with that century-old fossil?”

“Yeah, it doubles as a weapon when my words aren’t enough.” You hit him again.

“Ow! Hey, stop!” Laughter fell from Tae’s lips as he twisted his body in his seat to shield himself from your repeated blows. “Stop!”

“Make me!” A giggle of your own slipped past your lips, his amusement infectious thanks to your low alcohol tolerance that made everything seem funnier than it was. You continued to lightly hit him with the notebook in your hands until you were both practically in hysterics.

When the window of opportunity between your assaults presented itself, he reached out and grabbed your wrists to stop you. And though your arms were now rendered motionless in his surprisingly strong yet gentle grip, that didn’t stop the way the two of you continued to sway and teeter with laughter in your seats like a couple of kids who didn’t know how to handle their liquor. Every time you tried to yank your wrists away to smack him again his grip just kept stopping you short, and soon you were leaning forward and doubling over with laughter while mentally clutching your aching stomach since your hands were momentarily bound.

Though it was when you tossed your head back afterwards to let out another open-mouthed laugh that you suddenly lost your balance on the small leather stool you were sitting on. You felt the wooden legs wobble on the floor beneath you, your body swaying and almost falling backwards off the chair if it weren’t for the strong grip Tae still had on you. He caught you at the last second and quickly tugged you up, the action causing you to almost fall again but this time forward and into his lap.

The solid strength in his arms acted as a sturdy wall that halted you from tumbling all the way on top of him, though he didn’t stop you soon enough in your opinion, because soon you were looking up and realizing that your faces were mere inches from each other.

Your wide eyes were mirrored back to you in his similar expression, the laughter and amusement now replaced with a heavier tension that seemed to crackle with electricity between you. And if you thought his eyes were intense before, it was nothing compared to the overwhelming sensation of seeing them up close.

You gulped in hopes of moistening your drying mouth, though there seemed to be a lump in your throat the size of a golf ball and still growing in size. No matter how much you willed yourself to move, you couldn’t; it was as if you were an insect trapped in the web of a spider. All range of motion was completely lost as you were rendered helpless under his gaze.

It was when you noticed him glance down at your lips that your breath hitched and lodged in your throat to join the lump still there like a bolder that refused to move; as if you needed anything else obstructing your airways other than the heat that was emanating between you at a temperature so stifling it was hard to breathe. And despite everything in you screaming at yourself, you couldn’t help but glance down at his lips as well now that you were painfully aware he was doing the same.

You felt your heartbeat pounding in your ears when you stared for a moment too long. It was just the alcohol talking—of course it was; the term beer goggles was a thing, after all—but the strength of the sudden and overwhelming urge to kiss him startled you even in your intoxicated state. Never had a pair of lips looked so enticingly smooth and pink before; the contrast against his golden skin seemed to make him glow beneath the warm lighting of the dimly lit bar. And just when you were about to lean in and give in to your desires, your body trembling with every nerve ending on fire to just taste him already—

“Y/N! I didn’t realize you were still here.”

You blinked out of your reverie and stopped yourself from going further (and doing something you know you’d regret), if only because the voice approaching the two of you was one you were very, very familiar with.

Your pulse quickened for a completely different reason than before as you ripped your eyes away from Tae to focus on Seokjin as if you’d just been caught doing something you shouldn’t have, though you didn’t know why you felt that way. It’s not like Seokjin was interested in you with Mijoo on his arm.

You stammered like a fish out of water while your mind frantically tried to play catch-up after what felt like being trapped in quicksand for hours under Tae’s gaze. “U-uh, hey!” You forced a cheerful smile with a voice two octaves higher than your natural pitch. A nervous chuckle fell from your lips as you tried to put as much space between you and Tae as possible while avoiding the younger man’s eye.

“I was beginning to think you’d left for the night,” Seokjin smiled none-the-wiser of your flustered state.

“Yeah I’ve just been, um, here at the bar the whole time...” you trailed off as you glanced around and accidentally met Tae’s dark eyes seemingly blown out (though it could just be the dim lighting) yet furrowed with a somewhat curious and questioning expression while he watched you.

You swallowed, your heart rate shooting to astronomical heights. You needed to get out of here, and fast. “Which– I should probably really get going,” you tried to manage another painful chuckle as you slid down from your stool, thankfully remembering to grab your planner this time.

“Aw, no!” Seokjin lightheartedly protested with a pout, though it was Tae who stood from his seat to place a gentle hand on your back. The sensation had you feeling lightheaded and wobbling.

“Do you want me to get you a cab?” He murmured in a voice so low that it wrapped around your spine like a thick velvet blanket and made you want to get out of here that much faster.

You weren’t sure if he offered because of your drunken state or if he remembered what happened last weekend when you tried to hail your own taxi, but either way you weren’t about to stay a second longer in his presence. Especially not alone—who knew what your inebriated state might make you do. You made a mental note not to get drunk around him again.

“No, no, I can do it myself.” You quickly waved him off before stepping away from his searing touch, wanting to completely forget about him and this feeling as you said goodbye to your boss and left before either one of you could do anything else.

At least you had your planner this time. Now there wasn’t an excuse for you to ever see him again.

“We’re getting married!”

“What?!”

It was another Monday morning of work, and what you thought would be the same, usual Monday morning as always turned out to be most certainly not.

“Yes!” Mijoo mistook your shocked outburst as one of excitement, her hand lifting from its place on Seokjin’s chest to instead wiggle her fingers at you. The giant rock on her ring finger caught on the sunlight flooding in from the windows and caused it to glint with a blinding sparkle.

As if you needed any extra spectacle to rub salt in the wound.

You could barely speak at the rate in which your throat was closing up; it felt like you had a shellfish allergy and had just dumped a bucket of shrimp down your esophagus.

“That’s amazing!” Yerin was the one to jump to your rescue. Thankfully your best friend had been standing by your side when the news was dropped like an atomic bomb straight to your gut and was able to swoop in before your prolonged silence became noticeably suspicious. “Congratulations, both of you.”

“Thank you,” Seokjin grinned, the spitting image of happiness with his arm wrapped around Mijoo’s—his fiancé’s—waist. His eyes slid from Yerin’s to yours as if awaiting your reaction.

Your pulse sped up under his scrutiny. “I… I-“ A strained stutter was all that would leave your lips. “I-I don’t know what to say.”

“She’s so ecstatic that she’s speechless,” Yerin looked from you to the happy couple with a charming laugh that smoothed over any awkwardness your behavior could cause.

“C-congratulations,” you somehow managed after a deliberate gulp in a poor attempt to quench your parched mouth. “Excuse me.”

As soon as you said your obligatory felicitation you booked it out of there, making a beeline for the restrooms before you could make an even bigger fool out of yourself.

Tears involuntarily sprung to your eyes. God, this was so stupid. You were a grown woman crying over a man you’d never had—a man you knew you would never have to begin with. You were better than this! You were a strong, intelligent woman with a good head on your shoulders. But the more you thought about the fact that not only were Seokjin and Mijoo together, they also planned on being together forever, the more you broke down.

You used to be so excited to go into work. Back when you first started working as Seokjin’s assistant, you would look forward to starting your morning each day knowing that he would be there, and that would somehow make all the other bullshit you had to deal with throughout the job worth it.

But now you hardly wanted to even get out of bed, much less see the newly engaged couple.

You had to pull yourself together. This was your boss, not some romantic fling you actually thought you stood a chance with. You’d known from the start that you couldn’t be together—had actively avoided it actually for the sake of ethics. What did you expect, for him to just never get married? He was one of the most handsome men you’d ever seen. It was only a matter of time before he became seriously involved with someone.

You just wished that someone could’ve been you.

After composing yourself and eventually exiting the restroom, planning to head back to your office and keep your head down for the rest of the day to avoid running into anyone—specifically two people in particular.

“Y/N!”

Your effort was immediately futile as the familiar sound of your name being called in a warm tone had your heart skipping a beat out of habit, though you mentally scolded yourself once you remembered the reality of the situation. He was getting married now. You had to stop pining over him.

Though that was a feat that seemed impossible as you stepped into his office and looked upon his shining face.

It took you a moment to notice Mijoo was standing by his side—a sight that had your stomach sinking.

“I know we aren’t really close,” Mijoo was the first to speak, taking a step forward with a kind smile, “but we’ve always been friends around the office and I’ve always liked you.”

“And I know you’ve always been into planning weddings…” Seokjin trailed off before glancing at his fiancé.

She beamed back before refocusing on you. “So we both thought: how would you like to be a bridesmaid?”

You were speechless for the second time that day. “F-for you?”

“Of course, silly! Who else?” They both shared a chuckle.

You had no idea what to do. On one hand, you wanted to hate her; she was marrying the love of your life, after all. But on another much more logical and reasonable hand, you never realized she considered the two of you friends enough for you to even be in her wedding. You were awful; she was perfectly nice and sweet, and you let jealousy cloud your judgment. You couldn’t feel more guilty.

It was because of this that you begrudgingly relented.

“Sure,” you found yourself saying before you could stop yourself. How could you say no?

“Okay good, because…” she shared a look of excitement and anticipation with Seokjin that made you uneasy, “we’re getting married in three weeks!”

You were left stunned once again, unable to keep your eyes from popping out of your head in shock even if you wanted to. “Wait, what?”

“Well, we both really wanted a Christmas wedding…” Seokjin trailed off as he gazed down at Mijoo.

“And the venue we want had a last minute cancellation so they can squeeze us in!” They continued to finish each other’s sentences like some sort of twisted Frozen parody.

You blinked, dumbstruck and unable to make sense of the whirlwind of stormy emotions within you. “W-why the rush?”

Mijoo looked back over at Seokjin, the love between them obvious in their eyes as they gazed at each other before she continued. “We both know we want to be together, so we figured, why wait?”

You attempted a futile swallow past the growing lump in your throat that settled like a weight in your stomach.

You were going to be sick.

But instead of puking the contents of your lunch all over the office floor, you simply nodded your head with some semblance of a smile. What else could you do?

“Now the theme is winter wonderland; we want all the tables to be covered with white satin to match the white tulle draped from the ceiling.”

You were accompanying Mijoo to one of her favorite stores inside the mall to look at linens for the upcoming wedding. And if you were being honest, as fucked as this situation was, you did absolutely love wedding planning, and in your opinion this was the best time of year to do it.

Countless decorations lined the interior of the mall: garland wrapped around the columns with satin red bows, a giant Christmas tree stretching the height of three stories towering over your heads, its twinkling lights illuminating the shoppers with an effervescent glow of holiday cheer. You practically had to lock arms to keep from losing one another in the throngs of children lined up for a chance to sit on Santa’s lap and get their picture taken. And since Seokjin wasn’t joining the outing today, you were almost able to forget who it was that Mijoo was marrying as the two of you gushed in excitement about themes and wedding gowns like you’d been best friends for years.

Almost.

“Now I know you said you wanted red accents, but what was your secondary color again? Gold?” You asked her as you sifted through an assortment of ribbons.

“Mrs. Kim Mijoo.”

All of a sudden a voice sounded from the entrance, one that was deep and curled around your spine with the edges of a smile, strangely familiar and nagging at the back of your mind like an itch you couldn’t scratch.

A cold fear struck you right where you stood, the sound of Mijoo squealing in excitement and rushing towards the voice being the only thing that shook you from your rigid state as your eyes followed her movements towards the store’s entrance.

Standing there in all of his annoying glory with his arms wrapped around Mijoo as she greeted him with an enthusiastic hug, was none other than the fucking wedding crasher.

“Well it’s not Kim Mijoo yet, but soon enough!” She giggled once she parted from the embrace.

You blinked, your mind struggling to catch up with the scene unfolding before your eyes right now.

“Um, what the fuck are you doing here?”

Your blunt outburst caused both parties to look over at you, Tae’s eyes falling on yours for the first time since your drunken almost-kiss at the bar.

“Y/N, this is Kim Taehyung. He’s the writer of the weddings column in the Sunday paper!” Mijoo smiled, oblivious to the inner turmoil whipping through you. “He called me and offered to cover our wedding for his latest article. Isn’t that amazing?”

And suddenly it was like you were having tunnel vision, your world turning upside down as your mind scrambled to pick up the pieces of everything you ever thought you knew about the man standing in front of you.

Kim Taehyung… weddings column… he couldn’t be…

Your expression must’ve morphed into that of sheer surprise and realization, because a knowing grin soon tugged at his annoyingly enticing lips.

“What the fuck… that’s you?!”

The writer of Matrimony Mementos, your favorite section of the paper that you read every Monday morning at work, was none other than Tae, the one person you couldn’t stand more than anything in this world.

This was impossible. The author of Matrimony Mementos was Kim Taehyung, a refined and esteemed writer and lover of weddings, not this… this… marriage hater! This man who only took advantage of people’s kindness and mooched off of their special day!

“You lied to me!” You couldn’t help but screech.

“Ah ah, I said I was a writer. Not a lie,” he was quick to point out.

Rage filled you from the inside out, leaving you a spluttering mess as you tried to put your tumultuous thoughts into words. “You said your name was Tae!”

“It is—short for Taehyung.” His voice was annoyingly calm, but not without that signature smug edge to it as he clasped his hands in front of him. He was eating this up! “Tae is my nickname.”

No, it couldn’t be. This man was nothing but a freeloader! This didn’t make sense!

“What about the wedding we met at?” You fired back, desperate to catch him in a lie. “The bride said she didn’t know you.”

And as if his sole purpose was to irk you, he had a logical answer for every single thing you threw at him. “I was hired by her sister to write a surprise piece on her wedding.”

You wanted to scream. You wanted to cry. You wanted to curse this man and hit him with your planner and never see his stupid, smug face again.

“…I take it you two know each other,” Mijoo chimed in with an awkward chuckle, and you only just then remembered her presence next to Tae—Taehyung. Ugh.

“We’ve met once or twice,” a smirk quirked on his lips as he never took his eyes off you.

“We don’t know each other,” you barked at Mijoo, throwing one last glare his way before stalking off down the aisles of the store.

This couldn’t be happening. You refused to believe your favorite writer, the person you looked up to for years who always made you swoon over his poetic prose and romantic outlook on matrimony as a whole, turned out to be him of all people. You felt like one of those kids who waited hours in line to meet Santa Clause, only for his white beard to fall off and end up being just some drunk who worked at the liquor store. Why was this happening to you? Why did the universe want to see you suffer?

“I take it you’re not used to being wrong.” That same stupid deep voice danced up your spine and made your fists clench and your shoulders bunch up with tension.

You turned to glance behind you with grit teeth to see that Taehyung was leaning towards you with a hint of amusement playing on his features. The faint, intoxicating scent of his cologne filled your senses and made you quickly snap your head forward again and walk away faster.

“I wasn’t wrong,” you stubbornly denied without looking at him. “You lied to me.”

“I didn’t lie!” A jovial chuckle of disbelief left his lips.

“Yeah, well you left out the truth! You let me believe you’re something you’re not!” You spun around to hiss in his face, your quick actions causing him to come to a halt much closer than you were expecting. His face was mere inches from yours, but you were too angry to notice or care. “That’s still lying!”

He shrugged, and it’s as if he knew his nonchalant attitude would only work you up even further. “Not my fault that you jumped to conclusions about who I was. Maybe if you didn’t judge a book by its cover, we wouldn’t be having this problem.”

“You…!” You grit your teeth and gripped the air with your fingers as if strangling his neck. You’ve never met someone more infuriating!

His tongue slipped out to wet his lips as if he knew the action would draw your attention, and you only glanced down at his lips for .5 seconds before you were whipping around and storming off back down the aisle after your blood seemed to rise to a sudden boil.

Screw him. So what if he is—was your favorite writer? You wanted nothing to do with him.

Not then, not now, not ever.

Unfortunately, now that Kim Taehyung was working the same wedding that you promised Seokjin and Mijoo you would not only be the bridesmaid but you would also help plan, that meant you had to see him everywhere whether you wanted to or not.

And when you said everywhere, you meant everywhere—every appointment, every catering restaurant and bridal showcase and dress shopping trip. Since he was covering their wedding he had to know the ins and outs of the entire process, and because you agreed to help plan the event that meant there was absolutely no avoiding him.

Now that didn’t mean that you couldn’t try, but try as you might, the effort was still futile as you were certain the world was out to get you when you saw Taehyung on your one day off.

It was Sunday, a day that would usually be spent helping the happy couple now instead being filled with the city’s Christmas cheer battering your senses on account of Mijoo having an impromptu outing with her mother. The older woman had just arrived in town for the wedding that would be happening in a couple weeks and demanded a mother-daughter day to be shown the venue, dress, and all other expenses that’d been planned in her absence.

Not that you were complaining—you were in desperate need of a break from seeing Seokjin and Mijoo together, if not for your sanity then for your heart’s sake. You didn’t know how much longer you could keep up the fake smile plastered on your face whenever the two of them acted grossly in love, but you deserved an academy award for your acting. Even just the mental image of the way Seokjin’s eyes lit up whenever he gazed at her was enough to make you want to cry.

That being said, you also loved Christmas—almost as much as you loved weddings. The two events had much in common when it came to merriment and making loved ones feel special. It was that mushy, cheesy, feel-good kind of happiness that you loved to submerge yourself in, if not for yourself than for the sake of others. Giving presents and delivering holiday cheer was your favorite way to spend this time of year.

Which was how you found yourself downtown in the middle of your city’s square. The area was sectioned off to make room for the Christmas festival that lasted pretty much the entire season. There were stalls selling hot cocoa and other delicious treats, a Santa booth where kids could meet and take pictures, and an extravagantly decorated ice skating rink, just to name a few of the fun activities the city provided for its residents.

As you walked through the square you blew into your steaming hot cup of coffee that warmed your hands through the fur of your mittens, your face chilled from the winter air though you didn’t mind while you admired the sights around you with a small smile. Children’s laughter filled the atmosphere as they raced down a nearby hill on wooden sleds, the whole affair looking as if it came straight out of a hallmark movie. You loved it.

“Well well well, look who it is.”

Your wonderful mood suddenly came crashing down as you spun around to come face to face with the parasite that seemed to be stuck to your side like a leech no matter how hard you tried to rid yourself of him.

“Just the person I wanted to see, actually.” That dumb charming smile played on his lips as Taehyung approached you with his hands clasped behind his back.

You hated how good he looked, even bundled up like frosty the damn snowman. His wool scarf was tucked into a black lapel coat that almost reached his knees, cheeks and nose and lips tinged pink from the frigid temperature though it somehow only made his appearance that much more distracting.

“Jesus christ, do you ever go away?” You fought the groan swelling within your throat as your eyes rolled heavenward.

“You and I both know I have to be around for the wedding.” He cocked his brow at you as if he was surprised to hear you thought otherwise. “I’m doing my job.”

You still couldn’t believe that he was the Matrimony Mementos writer Kim Taehyung. God, every time you thought about it–

You shook your head to brush the thought away before it angered you all over again. “Yes, but what are you doing here, right now?” There wasn’t anything planned for the wedding today, and he knew it. “Are you following me?”

“Don’t flatter yourself,” a sound akin to a scoff left his mouth as he shook his head and stepped closer to you. “I was just making my way across town for some lunch when I stumbled upon you in this hell hole of a festival.” His face scrunched in distaste as he looked around at the holiday decorations and festivities. “Trust me, I’m not here by choice.”

A humorless laugh of surprise left your lips. “Not only are you a wedding hater, but you hate Christmas too? Who are you, the grinch? Do you also steal candy from babies?”

“Only the candy worth stealing.” His expression was deadpan though there was a teasing twinkle in his eye.

You shook your head and began walking away from him. “I don’t need your cynicism putting a damper on my day off.”

“Let me guess, you love Christmas the same way you love weddings.” He was following you of course.

“And so what if I do?” You didn’t turn around or stop walking when you responded.

“Nothing, it’s just very on brand for you.”

You cut your eyes at him. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Oh you know, the whole ‘sunshine and rainbows, everything has to be perfect and love makes the world go around’ type of thing you have going on.”

You scoffed. “You make me sound naïve.”

He shrugged. “If the shoe fits.”

“It’s not naïve to want people to be happy!” You whipped around to face him.

“Not everything is about happiness!” He fired back just as passionately. “It’s not the only emotion that matters. Without pain and sadness and anger, joy would be meaningless!”

“Of course other emotions exist; why do you think I strive so hard for happiness? There’s too much pain in the world as it is to not embrace happiness every chance that we get!”

“It’s just not realistic! There’s a difference between embracing happiness when it comes to you and living with your head in the clouds.”

“I do not have my head in the clouds!” You could hardly believe that you even had to defend yourself. “What’s wrong with wanting to create those moments of happiness for others to embrace? God, I’ve never met anyone so self-minded!”

You stormed off again, not willing to listen to another ridiculous word from his mouth. God, all he ever did was piss you off. Now you were stomping through the festival, probably scaring the townspeople like some sort of scrooge.

“Y/N, wait–”

Just as he was tugging on your arm and pulling you back to face him, a snowball the size of a small child launched into your back and knocked you forward with such force that you would’ve fallen onto your face had it not been for Tae’s chest breaking your fall. He stumbled under the weight of your collision, knees buckling until you were both tumbling to the ground with his back against the snow-covered grass and you on top of him.

Your groans of pain sounded in unison, the wind thoroughly knocked from both of you as you struggled to catch your breath. Once you did, however, you were quickly realizing the alarming position in which the two of you had landed.

“Oh my god,” you blurted before scrambling to your feet as quickly as you could manage, desperately trying to stop your senses from being enveloped by Taehyung’s scent or how every fiber of your being was alit with flames when you felt his body against yours. Flashbacks of your almost-kiss at the bar replayed in your mind now that your face had been mere inches from his again.

You brushed yourself off at a frantic pace as if that would somehow cleanse you.

“What the hell?” Taehyung grumbled with a wince, his ears bright red and his face flushed though you chalked up the sudden color to him just being cold after having landed in the snow. He sat up with his legs stretched out in front of him and rubbed the back of his head.

You suddenly realized how hard he had fallen. “Shit, are you okay?”

As you bent down to check him over, the sound of victorious laughter filled your ears. You both turned to see a group of kids no older than 12 years old giggling and cheering amongst themselves as they watched the two of you.

You then glanced down to see a giant lump of fallen snow on the ground right where you had gotten hit. “Snowball fight,” you spoke aloud as the kids bent down and continued to make more of them in the snow.

“What?” Taehyung craned his neck to look at the white powder now covering the back of your coat, and when he did, another snowball (much smaller in size than your monstrous assailant) went flying through the air and nailed him right in the leg.

“They have good aim.” Your brows raised, impressed.

You half expected him to scare the children away with a few choice words and a hearty roar. After all, it wouldn’t be far-fetched for someone who hated marriage and Christmas to also hate kids. But to your surprise, a grin sprang to his lips with a playful glint in his eye as he jumped up and began making a snowball of his own.

“Oh, it’s on!” He yelled to them, their squeals of frightened delight filling the small park while they all ran in different directions to take off behind the trees. “Snowball fight!” He bellowed as he took off after them.

You watched in stunned silence at the scene unfolding in front of you until something solid suddenly impacted your arm. A sound of surprise escaped you, eyes darting in the direction the snowball came from before you spotted a little girl peeking out from behind a tree trunk. Her eyes danced with mirth while she waited for your reaction.

You glanced from her to the snow at your feet, and then across the park to where Tae was enthusiastically chasing a group of boys with a giant block of ice in his hands. You couldn’t explain the smile that started to grow on your lips or the warmth in your chest. So instead of trying to make sense of it, you did the only thing you could do in that moment, which was reach down and mold a compact ball of snow in your mittens before hurling it at the little girl.

Her features lit up in an elated scream as she dashed away from her hiding spot and deeper into the park. You quickly gathered another handful of snow before chasing after her with a chuckle. This was what you loved about your city; no matter how big or busy or chaotic the hustle and bustle was, the community always found ways to come together as if you were a district of 100 people rather than 100,000.

You took your chance and threw the snowball at the little girl once you saw an open shot, but the landing fell short as you weaved your way throughout the scattered trees and bushes. She giggled and scurried deeper into the foliage, and as you followed her you heard the sounds of the rest of the kids getting louder, as well as a very familiar voice you didn’t think you could get out of your head even if you wanted to.

“There you are!” Tae’s deep voice held more happiness than you’d ever heard, his lips upturned in a constant open-mouthed smile as he pointed at the boys with an aha! expression before chucking his block of ice. It barely missed them as they scampered behind a tree, instead slamming into the trunk and exploding into powdery chunks on its way to the ground.

“Oh shit,” Taehyung murmured with wide eyes, and you would’ve found it comical that he was taking this childish game so seriously had it not been for his sudden tug on your wrist. “Follow me!” He cried as a snowball whizzed past your head.

You turned over your shoulder to look at the group of boys who now had you as their target, their features sneering with mischief as they knelt on the ground and began making an arsenal of snow. Your expression matched Taehyung’s as you quickly booked it after him; these kids were ruthless!

You were still running when another tug on your wrist had you unceremoniously yanked down behind a blockade of shrubbery. The sound of startled surprise that escaped you was soon smothered by Tae’s hand against your mouth, and when your eyes met his he put the index finger of his free hand to his lips telling you to stay quiet.

Your expression was that of a deer caught in headlights, you were sure of it. The feeling of Tae’s palm still against your mouth stirred something deep, something foreign within the pit of your stomach that you weren’t sure you could make sense of even if you tried. Why weren’t you pushing him away yet? Do something, Y/N! But the longer you crouched behind this bush with him the more aware you became of how close in proximity the two of you actually were, and how his chest was rising and falling erratically from all the physical exertion of running around the park, and if you focused on it you could just barely make out the sensation of his heavy breaths falling against your skin-

You yanked yourself away from his touch, making to stand up and put as much distance between you two as physically possible if only for your pounding heart’s sake, before he quickly yanked you back down again and pressed his hand against to top of your head to lower you from view over the top of the bush.

“They’ll see you!” He quickly hissed out, and though he was definitely taking this game way too seriously, you couldn’t help but feel your heart grow twice in size at the excitement and enjoyment dancing within his sparkling eyes. You had the perfect view of them, his hand staying atop your head to keep you from moving so you had nowhere to look but at him, and you took the opportunity to allow yourself to examine his features in a way you wouldn’t normally otherwise in any other situation.

Your gaze swept from the silk of his lashes peaking out beneath the dark mop of curls skimming his eyes and dusting the tops of his cheekbones to the strong, smooth curvature of his nose that you never noticed had a small freckle on the tip and the flawlessly satin plush of his unfairly pink lips that you’d certainly gotten an eyeful of more than you’d care to admit over the course of your time spent together.

Heated fear spiked within you when you glanced back up to his eyes and noticed they were on you; you’d been caught staring. Though what originally stemmed into embarrassment now transformed into something else entirely that licked devilishly at the base of your core. His dark eyes were like pools of black tar, sucking you into their depths without any means of escaping as they found yours and held you captive in a stare that only escalated the intensity you felt swarming your insides.

You hated how attractive he was, as much as you’d been fighting the thought ever since you’d met. But you couldn’t ignore it any longer; there was something so enticing, so alluring about him that had your body drawn to him like a moth to a flame despite everything in you screaming in disagreement. You didn’t want him! You were in love with Seokjin! Though as you continued to sit there, your bodies so close they were almost pressed together and the sound of his breath panting softly by your ear, the more your resolve to fight the internal battle within yourself grew weaker and weaker until you were almost nothing but a powdered memory of a once-tightly constructed snowball scattered helplessly across the icy winter floor.

He was going to ruin you.

“Gotcha!” A juvenile scream from one of the boys sounded nearby, and before you knew what was happening a burst of snow shattered against both you and Tae’s heads.

Your mouth hung open in unadulterated shock, a gasp of disbelief falling from your lips in the form of a single chuckle as Taehyung laughed heartily next to you and shook his head to let the snowflakes fall from his curls.

“Oh, you’re gonna pay for that!” He grinned, and the kids ran off with another scream while he jumped up and chased after them.

You, however, stayed stunned where you sat while your brain desperately tried to catch up to what just happened.

What the hell was that?

Taehyung knocked on his boss’s door before letting himself in after her approval.

“There you are,” the older woman took her glasses off and smiled as if she was the one who’d summoned him even though he was seeking her out on his own accord. “Just the man I was looking for. How’s your article coming along?”

Upon her request, he’d sent her a rough draft of what he has so far of his unfinished work. She had surprisingly loved it, though Taehyung was having mixed feelings.

“That’s actually what I wanted to talk to you about.” He closed the door before walking further into her office, his usual charming grin nowhere to be seen today. “I don’t think I can continue with this piece.”

His boss’s expression didn’t even flinch as she turned back to her computer. “Funny, Taehyung.”

“No, I’m serious.”

It was his tone of voice that had her pausing and looking at him with parted lips as if she couldn’t believe they were even having this conversation. “You’re writing it.”

“I don’t want to anymore.” He started to pace around the room, his feelings towards the decision growing more passionate at her disapproval. “She’s… there’s more to her than just this perpetual bridesmaid. I– I can’t keep writing this piece.” He stopped his movements and looked at her with a shake of his head. “I can’t do that to her.”

“Aw,” his boss cooed in a condescending tone before rising to her her feet and stepping out from behind her desk. “If I didn’t know you better I’d say you’ve developed a little crush.”

The tips of his ears turned red at her statement.

“However, I do know you better than that.” She stopped in front of him before pressing the printed copy of his rough draft that she’d made edits to on his chest. “We’re not scrapping the story, Taehyung.”

“Okay, well– what if I made a few changes to it? Switched the direction of things.” He gripped the papers in his hands as he followed her out of her office and through the throng of cubicles. “Instead of painting her in the light of someone who will never be a bride, I could focus on her dedication to providing for others despite asking for nothing in return.”

“Sounds boring,” his boss instantly dismissed the idea. “The piece is great as it is; you’ve done good! Please, don’t go screwing things up and just be happy with what you’ve got.” She shot him one last look before disappearing down another corridor, leaving Taehyung coming to a stop with a sigh of defeat.

“Ooh babe, come try the strawberry one. It’s delicious!”

The four of you were at a bakery trying out different desserts to be served at the reception. You were currently glancing away in pain and slight aversion while Mijoo hand fed a bite of cake to Seokjin on her fork, the couple so obnoxiously in love that it would be off-putting to anyone, much less to you. Sorrow began to consume you from the top of your head to the tips of your toes like the slow effects of a poison as you watched them giggle and grin like they were the only two people in the entire world.

“That’s disgusting.”

You snapped your head over to see Tae coming to a stop beside you, his full attention on the couple as well.

You blinked up at him with big eyes, wondering if it wasn’t just your clouded judgement that painted the pair in a negative light. “What?”

“The cake.” He then glanced over to return your gaze. “The strawberry flavor is atrocious.” Upon seeing your expression, he raised a quizzical brow. “What did you think I meant?”

You quickly faced forward again, your cheeks inflamed to match the hole you were now burning into the couple with your eyes. “N-nothing,” you avoided his questioning look.

“You know,” after a few moments he spoke again, and when your gaze found his he had a mischievously sly smirk on his lips, “if you weren’t so bitter towards me, I’d say there’s something between us.”

You almost spluttered, your body temperature instantly rising before you brushed his words off with a roll of your eyes. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Come on. You can’t tell me you don’t feel it.” He leaned in closer.

A nervous chuckle escaped you. “Feel what?”

“This...” he took a slow, cautious step even closer as if giving you time to move away if you wanted to, “spark,” he finished.

You didn’t move.

You didn’t even think you took a breath, for that matter. All oxygen was rendered useless and caught in your throat as you couldn’t help but fixate on his close proximity, on the way his scent enveloped your senses and his boyish features took up your field of vision and the way he was so close, so close that your skin was tingling with the anticipation of touching him and yet you couldn’t feel a thing.

You wanted to scoff, wanted to laugh in his face and tell him he was crazy for even assuming there was anything other than pure unadulterated hatred between the two of you. But the fact of the matter was, you couldn’t. You became consumed, intoxicated every time he was near. What the hell was with that?

“Oh, Y/N, come here!”

It was embarrassing how quickly you perked up at the sound of your boss’s voice. You snapped out of the weird trance Taehyung’s presence had put you in, though you couldn’t quite shake the after effects of the fog he left your mind in.

When you tore your eyes away, you saw that Seokjin held his fork towards you, a new piece of strawberry cake on it. “You have to try this one!”

“S-sure!” Your voice wavered in nervous jitters when you realized he intended to feed you from his own fork, desperately hoping he didn’t notice the sudden flush of your cheeks.

You took a step closer and kept your eyes steadily on his, blinking up at him from beneath your lashes before parting your lips. He gingerly placed his fork into your mouth and instantly your tastebuds were assaulted with what had to be the sweetest artificially-flavored crap you’d ever had in your life.

Taehyung wasn’t lying; this strawberry flavor was disgusting.

But when you looked up at Seokjin’s expression, so full of excitement and hope and expectation of your hearty agreement, you just couldn’t disappoint him. It was as if your tongue had a mind of its own.

“It’s delicious,” you lied in a love-sick daze, if only to see his eyes sparkle the way he was looking at you now. You knew the dreamy smile on your face must’ve been embarrassing, but you couldn’t find it in yourself to care. “I love it.”

“Yes! I knew you would,” he flashed you his winning grin. “You always have the best opinions.”

You couldn’t stop the flush of your cheeks or involuntary giggle that tumbled from your lips even if you wanted to. “Oh, stop.” You swatted his chest in a playful manner, not realizing how flirty the action was.

Seokjin, of course, never noticed. “Hey babe,” the speed in which he turned away from you to Mijoo, who had been conversing with the head baker, gave you whiplash. “We just found our wedding cake.”

“Oh my god,” Mijoo gushed, wrapped up in the excitement of finally coming to a decision on what would be a major part of the most important day of their lives together. And in the heat of the moment, they didn’t hesitate to embrace in a strong, tender kiss.

You didn’t know why you still let yourself get your hopes up when they just continuously crashed through the floor. God, every moment you saw the two of them together you just felt more foolish than the last. This was your own personal hell, you were sure of it.

Your feelings must’ve been written all over your face, because when you looked away in dejection your eyes caught Tae’s who was staring at you with knit brows and a slight frown.

You stiffened under his unexpected scrutiny. Why was he looking at you like that? If you didn’t know any better, you’d say there were hints of confusion, realization, and… hurt morphed onto his expression.

But that was ridiculous; you knew you had to be paranoid and overthinking things. There’s no way he could catch on to your feelings for Seokjin after just one simple interaction, right?

You tried to shake your mind free from the reminder of just how easily Tae was able to peg your character on the nose. You barely even knew each other when he was calling you out on all of your personal flaws at the bar that night of your work party. Though you knew that had to be chalked up to plain luck. It was a good guess, that’s all.

There was nothing to be worried about.

So why did you feel so conflicted?

The first sip of Chardonnay felt cool on your tongue as it seeped past your lips, the taste of wine refreshing after a long and tiring week of juggling wedding plans on top of your already heavy workload filled with clients.

It was a little over a week before the wedding, which meant that things were in crunch time. You were out with Mijoo and Seokjin almost every single day after work, and the days that you weren’t you were running around making calls and finalizing details that the couple themselves hadn’t been able to do. You even had to go to the bridal shop Mijoo bought her dress from and try it on in her place to make sure it fit after alterations. “It will be fine, we’re the same size!” Mijoo had quickly reassured you while she was off at a salon consultation instead.

To say you were exhausted was an understatement, and that didn’t even include the taxing emotional toll all of this had on you thanks to your unrequited feelings. You definitely needed a break, and you definitely earned this glass of Chardonnay on a Friday night alone in your apartment.

In fact, that was the exact position you were in, reclining on your couch with your feet on the coffee table while you read the city’s holiday events in the newspaper (you would normally be reading Matrimony Mementos, but ever since finding out Tae was the actual writer behind the beautifully spun lies, you hadn’t been able to look at an article since), when you heard a knock on your door.

Your initial reaction was not to get up, but instead to glance at the door with confusion and a cocked brow. You weren’t expecting company tonight—especially not out in the snowstorm that was currently happening. Could it be Yerin? God, please don’t let it be Mijoo coming to drop off yet another errand for you to run for her. She already made you deliver the bridesmaid dresses to the tailors because “they were longer than she was expecting”. You didn’t think you’d ever be saying this, but this woman was officially wedding-ing you out. And for you to feel that way, that was saying something.

Eventually you left the comfort of your cushions and scurried to the door, a quick peek out of the peephole making a groan emit from your lips despite the subtle increase in your heart rate, which you ignored.

It was Taehyung.

“Can I help you?” You called out without opening the door, annoyance evident in your tone.

He rocked back and forth on his heels, his hands in his pockets and if you didn’t know any better, you’d say he almost appeared nervous.

“Uh, it’s me. Tae.” When his words were met with silence, he scratched the back of his neck. “Can you please open the door?”

“Why should I?” You countered stubbornly.

“Because I need to talk to you.” There was a sigh that left his lips. “It’s about the wedding, I– I need to interview all the friends and family.”

“An interview that could’ve happened over the phone,” you pointed out. “How’d you even get my address?”

“Seokjin gave it to me.”

God, curse Seokjin and his oblivious, blind trust.

Really, you knew you were going to end up letting him inside as much of a bad idea as it probably was. But that didn’t stop you from wanting to give him a hard time. You were still angry at him for lying to you.

“Come on, please will you just open the door?” He ran a hand through his shaggy curls, which you just now noticed appeared to be wet. It was hard to tell through the peephole, though. “I just fought my way through a blizzard to get here.”

You rolled your eyes before finally relenting, a small part of you feeling bad for the trouble he must’ve gone through in this weather. When you unlocked the door and swung it open, you met his lopsided grin with a deadpan expression of your own.

“It looks like the blizzard did a number on you. Need someone to bandage your wounds?” You scoffed before stepping away to let him inside.

“Please, you should see the other guy.” He chuckled as he walked past you into your apartment.

When he turned back to face you, it was hard to ignore the way heat rose within you under his scorching gaze that ran over the length of your body.

“Cute pajamas,” was all he said.

You glanced down at the fuzzy sweatpants and oversized tshirt you were currently wearing, your lack of bra suddenly making you self-consciously flustered in his presence.

“What do you want?” You snapped, folding your arms over your chest.

You watched as he shook his head like a wet dog. “Well for starters, not to be so wet. I don’t think you can help out with that though,” he winked.

You let out a groan at yet another one of his sexual innuendos before noticing the growing puddle that was forming at his feet from his dripping clothes. “Oh my god, not on the hardwood!” You scolded before pushing him back onto the plush welcome mat by your door.

He shook his head to himself before removing his coat, the snowfall so heavy that it melted through the outerwear and soaked his white button down.

It was as if your eyes had a mind of their own; you couldn’t stop them from dragging over his frame and the way the see-through material of his shirt clung to his chest. You were just able to make out his golden tanned skin on the swell of his pectoral muscles and the toned expanse of his stomach that strained against the clothing as if dying to be freed from its confinements.

You fought to keep your mouth from falling open.

“L-let me get you a towel before you mess up my floors.” You hope he didn’t notice the slight waver in your voice.

He gave you a perplexed expression. “It’s just water.”

“Ever heard of water stains, genius?!” You snapped in a suspiciously defensive manner before practically fleeing to the other room in an attempt to get your shit together while you retrieved a clean towel. You also grabbed him the largest t-shirt you owned for him to change into. The last thing you needed was to be distracted the entire time he was here.

“H-here,” you all but shoved the items in his hands when you walked back over to him, careful to avoid looking at his torso and hoping he couldn’t see the way the heat within you had now crept to your cheeks. “Go get changed in the bathroom. I’ll put your wet clothes in the dryer.”

“Yes ma’am,” he said the words sarcastically with a charming grin, though they didn’t exactly help your internal issue.

As soon as he left the room you downed a gulp of wine. Not that you wanted to be intoxicated for his visit, but you were definitely going to need at least a glass to deal with all these feelings you couldn’t make sense of that were scrambling your insides like a jigsaw puzzle. What was happening to you? You hated this man. Why did he have this effect on you? Had the constant demands of the recent wedding planning finally gone to your head and made you delirious?

By the time Tae emerged from your bathroom, you’d already finished your first glass.

“Oh, are you drinking?”

When you turned to face him at the sound of his voice, you couldn’t help but fall speechless at the appearance of the plain white tee you had given him on his body. The shirt was actually Jimin’s, a friend from college who’d moved across the country to pursue his career. The last time he visited he’d accidentally left his clothes, and you had them washed and waiting for his return.

That was a year ago though, and you quickly noticed that Taehyung had a slightly larger build than your friend’s. The sleeves of the shirt subtly stretched around his biceps in a way that made your mouth run dry.

“What?” You blinked in delayed reaction to his question.

He gestured to your now-empty glass on the coffee table. “You’re drinking wine?”

“I was.” You thought forlornly of your alone time with a good book before he interrupted your evening.

“Why stop now?”

You eyed him skeptically. “Is that a trick question?”

He shrugged. “I’ll have a glass with you,” he offered as he took a seat on your couch. There was his usual upturn of a charming smirk on his lips. “I am a guest, after all.”

You snorted. “Hardly.” Still, with a roll of your eyes you grabbed your empty glass and took it into the kitchen for a refill, grabbing one for him as well. “I’ll ask again. What do you want?”

“I just want to ask you some questions. Like I said, I need to interview all of the friends and family.”

You shook your head to yourself, knowing it was never that simple with him, before taking the two glasses and the bottle of Chardonnay back into the living room and sitting down across from him on the couch.

“So why don’t you tell me a little bit about your relationship with Mijoo and Seokjin?” He reclined against the cushions, recorder in hand as he pressed the start button and took his first sip.

Well, this was a mistake.

“Um, well as you know, he’s my boss. I’m his personal assistant. I started working for him about three years ago…” …and I’ve been in love with him ever since, you automatically thought, though you would never dare voice that aloud. “And Mijoo is my coworker,” you continued if only to shake the thought from your head. “We’re friends from the office. We’ve been working together for about a year.”

An ugly, bitter emotion swelled in your chest at the thought of your work environment before Mijoo came into the picture; had Seokjin been interested in her right from the start? How had they even started dating? You wanted to know, but at the same time you didn’t. You knew the answer would only hurt.

“So would you say you’re closer to Seokjin than you are to Mijoo?”

“Yes,” you answered immediately without a second thought, the realization of your haste only hitting you afterwards and causing a heat to rise to your cheeks. “I work with him directly everyday; it’s impossible to not form a connection with someone in those circumstances.”

“Mm, right right.” There was an underlying knowing tone as if he could see right through you that pricked nervous panic at the base of your palms, but you tried to ignore it as he continued the interview.

“Why don’t you tell me a little bit about Seokjin and Mijoo?”

You blinked, not knowing where to start. “Um, well Mijoo is nice. Sweet, smart, everything you could want in a woman I suppose.” You hope he didn’t notice the slight jealousy threatening to take over your tone.

“And um, Seokjin?” Your thoughts trailed off, dreamy admiration starting to take over your senses before you eventually continued. “Seokjin is the most determined, hard working person I’ve ever met.” A small, fond smile tugged at the corners of your lips. “When he puts his mind to something, he never gives up. He has so much diligence and resilience and courage, and he’s so nice and sweet and just– just an all around good person. You can tell he really cares about his job. He really cares about the people. Clients love him; everyone loves him. There’s not a person who’s ever met him who doesn’t love him.” You were rambling at this point, you knew you were, but you couldn’t help yourself. You only hoped it wasn’t obvious that you’d begun talking about your own feelings towards him rather than in a general sense.

“Uh huh.” Taehyung took another sip. “And is that why you do?”

You awoke from your daze at his question. “Do what?”

“Is that why you love him?”

Panic suddenly collapsed onto you like an anchor out at sea. “Psh- wh- what? I don’t… I don’t love him.”

“Well you said so yourself, everyone loves him.” He arched a brow at you. “Does that mean you don’t like your boss?”

“No, no, of course I do.” You tried to reorganize your thoughts when you realized the context in which he meant the word love. Damn it Y/N, stop overthinking things! “I do… I do love him,” you fidgeted uncomfortably, “as a boss.”

“I never suggested anything else.” There was a dubious glint in his eye. “What, did you think I was asking if you had romantic feelings for your boss?”

You let out a single nervous laugh. “N-no, of course not! I just… it’s been a long day,” you settled on saying.

“Right…” you hoped you were mishearing the skepticism in his voice. “And what about you?”

You blinked. “What about me?”

“Are you doing this for them, or because of your personal role as wedding planner for every single person in the city?”

You scoffed at his words. “I don’t help out every single person in the city.”

“Oh yeah? How many total weddings have you been in?”

“I… I don’t know. A lot!” You were growing defensive from his judgement again. “My job introduces me to a lot of people, and I’m friends with not only my clients but Seokjin’s as well because they go directly through me. I go to people’s houses; I’m in people’s lives. I make a lot of friends that way, and they all know that I’m responsible and trustworthy.”

“Mhm, and that you can’t say no?”

“What?!”

“They all know that you can’t say no,” he repeated as if you couldn’t hear him the first time.

“I can say no!” You gasped. “I’ve said no to you countless times haven’t I?”

“I don’t mean like that; I don’t think you’ve said a single thing to me that weren’t fighting words.” There was mischief in his eyes as he shook his head. “I just mean when it comes to doing things for people. You put others before yourself to a fault!”

“I do not.” You answered firmly, though continued to squirm under his knowing stare. “I do not! How many times do we have to go over this?”

“As many times as it takes until you admit it.” His eyes twinkled over the rim of his glass at you. He really thought this was funny!

“Admit what?” You huffed in exasperation. “I told you I love weddings and that I love making people happy. It’s not my fault that you’re too cynical to understand caring about anyone else other than yourself.”

A twinge of something, an emotion you couldn’t quite pinpoint, crossed over his expression before it was gone in the next second. “I do care about some other people,” he defended calmly, “just not any ol’ person who walks up to me and asks for a favor. That’s how you get taken advantage of.”

You balked. “I’m not getting taken advantage of! Everything I do, I choose to do willingly.”

“So you really don’t think people take advantage of your kindness even a little bit? The way you like to please people?” He leaned in with a squint of his eyes.

“I don’t need your condescension,” you scoffed. You knew, somehow, this innocent interview would turn into an argument. “I care about the people I help. Do you not have people you would do anything for?”

A subdued, almost pensive expression took over Taehyung’s features. “Not anyone who’s eligible to get married, no.”

You raised a skeptical brow at his elusive response. “Okay, what’s that supposed to mean?”

He simply shrugged. “You know, family members. Nieces and nephews and whatnot.”

Your other brow lifted as well into a surprised expression. “Nieces and nephews, plural? How many do you have?”

“Well I have three sisters, and they each have one or more kids.”

“Damn.” You sucked in your breath. “So either they’re all older than you, or your mom hounds the fuck out of your dating life.”

He chuckled. “Oh my god, you don’t know the half of it. She calls me at least once a week to ask if I’m engaged yet. But I am the youngest of the four of us. They’re all a few years older, married and starting their life.”

There was almost a forlorn, melancholy tone in his voice; one that you definitely could relate to.

“And… you’re not.” You settled on saying in a gentler manner than you’re used to using with him.

Whatever emotion was there a second ago was gone in an instant. “Eh,” he shrugged, “married life isn’t really for me.”

“Oh that’s right,” you leaned back before taking another sip of your wine, a wry grin on your lips. “How could I forget? The wedding writer who hates weddings.”

“You just won’t let that go, will you?”

“Why should I?” You practically spit. “You lied to me!”

“I did not lie to you!” He chuckled in disbelief.

“Not only did you lie to me,” you leaned in with a glare, pointing your finger at him, “you lie to every single one of your readers every day.”

His mouth was open with a wide grinned scoff. “How so?!”

“Oh please, stop trying to play innocent! You know for a fact you spin a web of lies about your opinion on glorious matrimony so that it will get you more readers!” You frowned, not wanting to think about how you were also one of the ones who fell prey to his empty poetic words.

“A web of lies? What am I, a spider?!” Now he was just mocking you.

“No, just a cold-hearted jerk, apparently.”

“Why’s that, hm? Because I don’t have the same naïve, hopeless romantic views about marriage as you?”

“Just because you don’t have the same views doesn’t mean you have to shit all over everyone else’s.”

“How am I shitting on them? I’m a writer for Matrimony Mementos! If anything, I embrace other people’s views!”

You let out a humorless chuckle. “Ha! That’s funny. You’re the most self-minded person I’ve ever met! If you embraced other people’s views then we wouldn’t even be having this argument right now.”

“No, we wouldn’t be having this argument right now if you got the stick out of your ass long enough to realize that not everyone has the same opinion as you.”

Your mouth fell open at his words. “God, why the hell are you so jaded?! Did someone leave you at the altar or something?”

Tae suddenly stiffened at your words. “Bingo.”

You froze, rebuttal stuck in your throat while your mind tried to catch up to what your ears had just heard.

“What?”

“You hit the nail on the head.” Tae leaned back against the couch before taking another sip of wine, his glass almost empty. “Well, you would’ve, if you’d guessed running away with my best friend too.”

“Oh my god.” You blinked; it all made sense now. The cynicism, the cold-heartedness, the hatred of marriage and all things wedding—Taehyung had been stood up at the altar. Not only that, but to be betrayed by his best friend as well? He must’ve had trust issues through the roof after that. You couldn’t help but feel your heart break a little in your chest for him.

“I’m sorry I– I had no idea. It was a lucky guess…” you trailed off, voice breaking into a murmur at your last words.

“Eh, don’t worry about it. I was young.” He waved his hand through the air as if to brush it off. “Who gets married right out of high school anyways?”

“She was your high school sweetheart?”

“Well, I don’t know if I’d use that term for her now,” his chuckle was humorlessly wry, “but at the time I thought she was.”

You frowned. You didn’t know how to even begin understanding what kind of pain that must feel like. “That is kinda young to get married,” is all you could think to say.

“You’re telling me.”

You took another sip from your glass. “What did your family say about all of it?”

“Oh, they were devastated when it happened.” His lips quirked upward as he sat in pensive thought for a moment. “Though I’m not sure if that’s because they felt bad for me or because it meant that I wasn’t getting married.”

“Oh come on,” you smiled softly. “I doubt your family would put their own desire to marry you off over your own feelings.”

He blinked. “That is exactly what they would do, have you been listening?” And it was at his teasing chuckle that you couldn’t help but laugh as well.

“What about your family?” Taehyung asked on his last sip of wine. He placed the empty glass back down on the coffee table. “Are they as excited to get you married off as mine are?”

Pain swirled through you at the mention of them.

“Well… they were. My mom, specifically.” A melancholy smile tugged at your features. “She passed away when I was younger.”

“I’m– I’m so sorry–”

“No, don’t be,” you shook your head. “’s not your fault. It happened when I was 14.”

“Yeah, but still,” Tae adorned a pained frown. “To witness death at such a young age—that had to take a toll on you.”

You nodded, first to yourself and then in response. “Yeah, I guess it did. I have younger siblings, so I kinda took on the motherly role with them. I guess that’s why I always feel the need to take care of everyone,” you hummed in contemplative introspection.

You didn’t know why you were telling him all of this. Besides your friends from your past, Yerin was really the only one who knew of your absent mother. Not even Seokjin knew. So what was it about Taehyung that made you spill your guts to him?

You would normally blame the alcohol, but you knew that wasn’t the case. You had only had two glasses; that was enough to ease some tension, sure, but definitely not enough to get you tipsy, much less drunk.

You didn’t want to think about any other possible reasons.

“Well at least that explains the whole doing things for others.” When you looked over at Tae upon hearing his words, he had his brow raised as if trying to lighten the conversation.

You were thankful for the distraction.

“Yeah, I guess so,” you shrugged. “But to answer your question, my mom used to be super into weddings and would read all the bridal magazines even though she was already married to my dad.” You chuckle a bit at the fond memory. “But I’d like to think if I got jilted at the altar, my mom would be there for me rather than thinking about her own fantasy.”

“I’m sure she would’ve,” Tae offered a soft, reassuring smile, and before you could register what was happening he had his hand on yours in a tender, comforting gesture.

A jolt of electricity traveled from his touch all the way up your arm and across the expanse of your chest. Your eyes flickered down to the image of his palm gently caressing yours before you gazed back up at him, heart pounding against your ribcage. Why did your body have such a visceral response to him?

“But, uh…” Tae looked away and cleared his throat, and you didn’t think you were imagining the way his ears turned a bright shade of red. “I don’t want you to get the wrong impression about my family. They were there for me too. I mean, they kinda had to be; I was just a kid. And of course they all knew my best friend as well, so it was this whole thing.”

You shook your head with a tsk. “Some best friend.”

“Yeah, no kidding,” Tae tutted. “We don’t talk anymore, for obvious reasons.”

“Are you…” you paused before glancing at him beneath your lashes. “Are you over her?”

“Who, my ex? Of course.” He didn’t even hesitate, and the nonchalance of his response made you relax slightly. Why were you relieved? “It just left a scar on me, you know?” He continued. “For the longest time I felt like I wasn’t good enough. I couldn’t stop wondering why she would leave me after years of being together.”

“It didn’t have anything to do with you,” you immediately assured him without thinking. “She was young and, by the sounds of it, immature. She probably didn’t know what she wanted.” You watched as he poured himself a second glass before adding, “you were only 18 anyway. It was probably for the best.”

“Yeah, I know that now.” He sighed. “I didn’t even realize that she and my best friend had feelings for each other, and then all of a sudden they’re running away together.”

“You’d be surprised at how well people can hide their feelings,” you murmured, lowering your gaze with a frown.

“That’s why I could tell the signs for you and Seokjin,” he was saying, and suddenly your eyes resembled a deer caught in headlights as they snapped up to him. “Because it’s the same way my ex would act around my best friend.”

“Wh-what?” You couldn’t keep your voice from wavering even if you tried. “What a-are you–”

“You and Seokjin. It’s obvious you two used to date, right?”

“We-” you sputtered at the notion, “we didn’t date!”

“Wait, what?” He blinked at you until the expression on your face had his morphing into realization. “So you’re telling me he doesn’t know?”

“Kn-know what?” You feebly questioned, suddenly feeling very ill, but it was too late.

“Oh my god, no wonder you’re so miserable!” He jumped to his feet as if he’d just had an epiphany. “You’re stuck planning the wedding of the man you’re in love with, and he doesn’t even know!”

You were too stunned to even get angry at his choice of words. “I-I’m not in love with him!” You tried to deny.

But alas, Taehyung was not stupid.

“Oh come on, are you actually trying to deny it right now? Who do you think you’re fooling? You were practically making heart eyes at him over dessert!” The volume of his voice was raised slightly, much more impassioned by this than you would’ve ever expected. “That strawberry cake was fucking disgusting and you know it.”

“Okay, yes! The cake was disgusting!” You shot to your feet as well, feeling personally attacked. “But that doesn’t mean I’m in love with him, he’s– he’s my boss!”

“All the more reason why you can’t say anything! You’re nice Y/N; you’re sweet Y/N. You could never do anything to ruin anyone’s perfect moment of happiness, even at the expense of your own!”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about, buddy–” You fumed, stalking towards him with your finger pointed.

“Oh, it’s back to buddy now, is it?” Taehyung seemed just as angry as you, though about what, you couldn’t be sure. “Oh this is really bad, she’s calling me buddy.”

“Shut up!” You came to a stop a few inches from him. “Why the fuck do you care who I have feelings for anyway, huh?”

Taehyung threw his head back and humorless laughter filled the air. “God, and you called me self-minded! Maybe if you got your head out of Seokjin’s ass for two seconds, you‘d know the answer to that question!”

Your mouth fell open in a scoff of disbelief. Did he really just call you self-minded? “Are you serious? Jesus christ, you are infuriating!”

“Why? Because I’m the only one who will call you out on your bullshit?!” He took a challenging step closer to you as well until you could just make out the light feeling of his breath dancing along your face.

“No, because you’re a fucking asshole!”

Both of your chests were rising and falling from the passion of your heated argument. You searched his face waiting for him to yell another insult back at you, but when he didn’t, your gaze fell to his parted lips that hung agape beneath the weight of his heavy breathing.

When he realized where your line of sight was directed, his brows knit slightly in silent question before his eyes glanced down at your lips as well.

When he spoke again, his voice took on a huskier tone. “At least I’m not scared.”

You continued to search his face, unable to explain the butterflies stirring within you. “Scared of what?”

“Doing this.”

And then suddenly his lips were on yours.

It was like an out of body experience. You had no idea your body could respond on such a visceral, kismet level as it was right now. Never had you experienced this feeling before, not even once in the past.

You didn’t know why it was happening with Taehyung of all people. But now that it was happening, you didn’t want it to stop.

You didn’t hesitate to return the kiss; you don’t think your body would’ve let you even if you tried. You were like putty beneath him, melting under his touch into a puddle of goo and surrendering all control to the logical, rational part of your brain. Pure animalistic desire, need was taking over now. You weren’t as level-headed as you thought—not when it came to Kim Taehyung.

The embrace was fueled by all the hatred, all the passion and tension and pent-up desire the two of you had been holding for one another since the second you met. It was frenzied, rushed and rough and wild right from the start as your tongues didn’t hesitate to ravage the caverns of each other’s mouths, battling for a dominance that neither one of you were willing to surrender. There was no way you were going to submit to this man—but you also weren’t going to stop. You felt lightheaded off of just his taste.

“Look me in the eyes and tell me you think that.”

His voice was deep, thick when he rasped the challenge into your mouth, and it had you seeing stars. “Tell me you think I’m an asshole and you want nothing to do with me.”

“I… I think you’re an–” You could barely make the words out between your heated kiss, your hands tangling in his hair before pulling on the dark curls to bring him closer to you. “Just shut the fuck up.”

He moaned against your mouth and the sound shot directly to your core. Already your body was alight with fire, burning and buzzing with the effervescent sparks of an inferno flickering in the air and scattering in the wind. The flames grew even bigger when his hands roamed your body, leaving each place he touched scorching until he pushed against your hips. You were stumbling backwards, not willing to part from his lips for even an instant as you tugged him with you. It was only when you lost your footing and stumbled over something on the ground that you glanced down for barely a millisecond before you were back to devouring each other.

“I told you those damn flowers were just going to take up space,” he smirked against your lips as your lower back slammed against the island counter separating the living room from the kitchen. You bit down on his lower lip in protest, to which he growled and resumed your heavy lip-lock.

“Those ones were from you,” you snapped back hotly before sitting on the countertop with ease when his hands lifted you. There wasn’t a single second wasted as his body filled the space between your knees thanks to your fists grabbing the white tshirt on his collarbone and yanking him towards you.

His lips collided with yours with a matching fervor. “Aw, you kept them?” He grinned in a patronizing manner, to which you pulled his hair again in response.

“Shut up,” you groaned, though the sound was muffled against the satin pillows of bruised lips. Any other comebacks or insults died in your throat the second you felt his burning hands under your shirt.

You didn’t hesitate to lift your arms so he could tear the shirt from your head, your lips back on each other’s before the fabric even made it all the way over your eyes. There wasn’t a second wasted before you were pushing up on his shirt as well, and there was only a moment’s break in the kiss while the clothing slipped between your mouths before he was back on you while still pulling it from his arms.

Thanks to the fact that you were wearing pajamas, you didn’t have a bra on, and the refreshing sensation of his bare chest pressed against your nipples had you shivering in desire. You couldn’t help but whimper with a shuddering sigh when he reached up to tweak one between his nimble fingertips.

“Mm, so sexy,” he let out a breathy moan into your mouth before pulling away to capture your other nipple between his lips, repeatedly flicking his tongue against it. “You’re so fucking beautiful, Y/N.”

“Ah, Tae,” you whined, back arching against his face to which he groaned in reply and smothered himself even further between your cleavage. Arousal drenched your core at the action, your hand flying to the back of his head to hold him there against you.

While his mouth licked, sucked and nipped every inch of your breasts, his hands began working on tugging the waistband of your sweatpants down your thighs. You lifted yourself up as best as you could so he could pull them all the way off, and it was only when you bare ass touched the cold concrete of the countertop that you realized he had also pulled down your underwear with them. Not that you were complaining—especially when his tongue left your tits and was suddenly between your legs before you could even blink.

“Oh shit!” You trembled at the unexpected sensation, the wet muscle against your aching clit causing sexual relief and pleasure to pulsate through you like sonic waves. Your head involuntarily flew back with an unabashed moan that reverberated against your thin apartment walls, but you didn’t care—not when he was already eating you out with the fervor of a starving man and he’d only just started.

Instantly you were curling your fingers in his hair and gripping the ringlets in your fists in an attempt to keep yourself grounded, though that didn’t stop your legs from quivering in bliss as they wrapped around his shoulders. His hands gripped and squeezed the flesh of your thighs before pressing them closer around his head. You’d worry about suffocating him if it wasn’t he who caged himself within you.

When your eyes opened again and you looked down at him, you saw that his lids were tightly shut as if he had been waiting forever to taste you and finally got to savor every last drop of your delectable juices. The sight turned you on tenfold, which in turn only made him growl as more liquid flowed against his tastebuds.

“God, just like that,” you moaned as you began subtly bucking your hips in time with the movement of his tongue.

He groaned in response. “Fuck, yeah, ride my face baby.” His voice was throaty with intense desire as each heavily spoken word punched you right in the core with delicious arousal.

When you pressed your palm against the back of his head to hold him there, he wrapped both of his arms around your waist in response, engulfing your body in his embrace and causing you to fall forward into his hold. Your hands flew to his shoulders, now completely off of the countertop and nowhere near going back if his walking footsteps were any indication.

He kept his palms securely under your ass to hold you up with your knees still bent over his shoulders so that his face was smothered against your pussy with no means of escaping.

Your stomach rolled, landing like an atomic bomb in your core. Jesus, you didn’t realize just how strong—or willing to please—Taehyung was. As selfish as he normally seemed to be, you would’ve thought he’d be the same way in bed, but so far you couldn’t be farther from the truth.

“Tae, what–” your words caught in your throat with the hitch of your breath as his tongue sent waves of pleasure coursing through you. “W-what about you–?”

“Shhh,” he gently silenced your concern, and the breath of air that was exhaled against your soaked pussy made you quiver. “You’re always taking care of everyone else. Let me take care of you.”

He seemed to be heading back to your room, though the two of you didn’t quite make it there. Your back ended up slamming against the wall outside of your bedroom, and you didn’t have the patience or self control to wait to get there.

His tongue continued to work against your clit, lewd noises filling the air as he slurped and sucked every last drop of your juices, the last few drops that escaped him instead dripping down his chin. Your back was flush against the wall with nowhere to go but on his mouth, and when his wet muscle slipped down to curl outside your tight entrance you felt the tip of his nose nudge and play with your bundle of nerves, the combination of sensations only adding to the pleasure coursing through you.

“Tae,” you whimper in need, and at the sound of your voice he let your body slide down his until your legs were wound around his waist and his lips were back on yours again in a searing, desperate kiss.

You tasted yourself on him, the reminder aiding the eroticism of the entire situation. And as much as you craved the delicious friction when you felt the material of his pants digging into the sensitive lips of your pussy, you wanted to feel his skin against your even more.

“Off,” you commanded in a muffled tone, words devoured by his mouth on yours as you attempted to grab at the waistband of his pants between your legs.

“Still so bossy,” he hummed, and this time the annoyingly charming smirk that always curled at his lips filled you with intense desire rather than irritation.

“Well apparently you like it,” you shrugged with a sly grin that was diminished by the sigh of pleasure as he continued to rut against you while his lips traveled from yours to your neck, latching onto the skin there and sucking blooms of red and purple to paint a sunset across the smooth canvas.

“Mm, damn right I do.” His bottom lip dragged a clean stripe up the column of your throat until he murmured the words with a seductive tone into your ear, his teeth catching on your lobe and nibbling it gently.

A shuddered sigh escaped you as goosebumps raised on your skin from the warm sensation of his breath, your thoughts of removing his pants momentarily stalled though that didn’t stop you from eventually trying to haphazardly fumble with his button during your frantic throes of lust. Damn it, you should’ve given him a pair of Jimin’s sweatpants earlier when you loaned the tshirt. God knows they would’ve been easier to pull off of him in the heat of the moment than these slacks.

After many futile attempts between hungry kisses and desperate hips, you were finally tearing open the zipper and kicking the waist of his pants down his thighs with your heels. His chuckle was dark when it reverberated within the caverns of your mouth, and you devoured the seductive sound with your tongue.

His hands never moved from their position gripping the supple flesh of your ass, nor did his lips part from yours as he lifted you off the wall and began to take slow, distracted steps towards the entrance of your bedroom. Both of your eyes were closed, completely entranced and invested in ravaging one another, and because of that Tae hadn’t even bothered to waste time removing his pants from around his ankles, which ultimately ended with him losing his footing and the two of you tumbling to the ground in a heap of naked limbs.

Uncontrollable laughter echoed around the room from the both of you, your back having hit the ground first and Tae just barely managing to not crush you under his weight in the fall. He rolled onto his back next to you against the hardwood floor, your stomachs practically hurting from laughing so hard though thankfully that was the only thing either of you felt from the mishap. In fact, laughter was still flowing from both of your lips at such a substantial rate that when you sat up and rolled on top of his lap to continue your wild makeout session, you couldn’t help the giggles that escaped through the seams of kisses and spilled into each other’s mouths.

His hands were strong, sturdy when they gripped your hips before running up the curvature of your waist to the swell of your breasts and back down again, settling on the cheeks of your ass and giving them a slap when you began rocking against his hips. The imprint of his palm bloomed into a red mark on your skin while the sting reverberated deliciously right to the center of your core. You could feel your wetness leaking between your legs—especially when you rubbed against what was definitely the rock solid length of his erection in the confinements of his boxer briefs.

“Fuck, I want you,” you couldn’t help but whine in need, all signs of amusement from your fall earlier completely gone as another level of desperation took over you like a craving you couldn’t sate.

He hummed in response against your lips, and you felt the deep sound rumble in his chest. “Mm, is someone finally admitting that to themselves?”

“Don’t make me take it back,” you practically hissed, though the threat was diminished by the fact that your voice was laced with a wanton, breathless sigh.

“Shut the fuck up.” There was a sudden smack to your ass as Taehyung growled the words into your mouth, his grit teeth coming down on your bottom lip. “Stop denying this. How long have you wanted me?”

You moaned embarrassingly loud at the sensation, far from capable of using your words at the moment even if you wanted to.

“How long?” His tone became more firm as he gripped your hair on the back of your head with one hand, tugging you up to look him in the eye. His other hand snaked between the two of you to rub circles into your clit with the pad of his thumb while he watched your expression, waiting for an answer.

You, meanwhile, were a mess on top of him, body trembling and lips agape with endless sounds of pleasure while he assaulted your body with pleasure. The way his eyes drank in the sight like it was his only source of life only turned you on even more than you thought was possible.

“Fuck—ah, I don’t know,” you gasped out, body arched and head thrown back with brows knit in pleasure though you kept your eyes locked with his. The feeling of his relentless ministrations against your bundle of nerves had your vision blurring and seeing stars, unable to think straight. “I– a long time. At the wedding. Fuck, I– I don’t know–” an unabashed mewl tore through your throat.

“The wedding? You mean the night we first met?” There was something dark about the way he tilted his head, innocent in a condescending way that wasn’t innocent at all. “You’ve been wanting my cock for that long, and all this time you’ve been trying to fight it?”

He never let up on the vibrations of his thumb, not even once while he was talking or waiting for you to answer. Until suddenly his motions stopped, and you almost whined at the abrupt loss of friction until he delivered a slap to your pussy that had you letting out a breathy yelp.

“What makes you think you deserve it then?” He arched a brow into the hairline of his curls, the smirk on his lips looking ridiculously hot.

The stubborn resolve steeled within you, frustrated that he was teasing you all of a sudden after such a passionate exchange. “Are you not going to give it to me regardless?” It was your turn to raise your brow this time. “What happened to being brave, hm?”

He shook his head before his hand caught the lower half of your jaw, fingers curling into your cheeks and beneath your chin enough to hold your attention on him without hurting you. “I want to hear you say it.”

You stared down into his eyes for a few more seconds without breaking, wanting to stand your ground but unable to resist the magnetic pull he had over you.

“Please,” you finally gave in, your stubborn resolve breaking as a part of you died a little from having to beg though you knew it would be worth it. Your tone was desperate as you looked down at him with pleading eyes. “I need you, Taehyung.”

He gazed up at you, something subtle in his features shifting from teasing to a more serious, reverent expression, and a few heavy seconds hung with silence in the air before he suddenly leaned up and captured your lips in his.

There was something different about this kiss. The pressure was more gentle, his actions more tender as he tilted his head to deepen the kiss before bringing his hand up to the side of your face and cupping your cheek in his palm. Something surged within your chest: a warmth that bloomed from the tips of yours fingers down to your toes. You were enthralled, completely swept away with the captivating embrace that it barely even registered when he lifted you in his arms and rose to his feet before walking—patiently this time and without issue—into your room and in front of the foot of your bed frame. It wasn’t until your back touched the plush blankets covering your bed that you even realized you had moved at all, because all the while his lips never left yours.

He was overtop of you as you eased your way up the mattress, your bodies moving in sync and perfect harmony like a dance you were meant to share all along. Even the removal of his boxer briefs was seamless, his hand fitting perfectly on top of yours and your fingers intertwining while you pushed the fabric down over his hips and past his thighs before you suddenly felt his member, long and thick in your palm with a tip that was leaking precum and pulsing in need.

You didn’t even get a chance to look at it properly before you wrapped your legs around his hips and hooked your ankles behind his lower back, your core aching and hole clenching as the need for him transcended onto a higher level than what you thought was ever possible. You wanted to look at him, touch him, spend your time exploring every inch of his body, but it was as if something deeper connected the two of you with an intangible pull that left you helpless, unable to do anything but surrender to the power it had of bringing the two of you together. Your arms engulfed one another as close as you could physically be against each other’s chests, his hand hooking your thigh even higher up on his waist before lining up with your entrance and pushing into you, naturally and without need of warning.

Your walls stretched around his girth like you were made for him, your wetness spilling down your thighs and aiding in the sensation of a slight sting melting into pure bliss. You swallowed each other’s moans, brows knitted above closed eyes and noses nestled together while whimpers and sighs of pleasure reverberated within the caverns of your mouths. You tasted it with your tongues, the two muscles dancing together in time with your hips that burst in a cacophony of incandescent ecstasy when they met with each matching thrust.

This was an out of body experience. This was like no sex you’d ever had before. This was something else entirely; but you didn’t possess the ability to figure out what that was with your mind so far above cloud nine and among the universe’s stars.

Not even words could be spoken at the moment, because you were sure neither of you could form anything coherent even if you wanted to. However, your connection went far beyond that; your bodies communicated in a way that words weren’t even needed. Pure, primal need and raw emotion were all that drove the two of you, and you had plenty of that to go around.

You were too caught up in the intensity of the moment to even remember to speak, the only sounds bouncing off the apartment walls being his bare hips slapping against the inside of your thighs and the involuntary cries of pleasure muffled by your kiss. Tae’s deeper grunts and groans entwined with your breathless, sensual ones, and together the mellifluous sounds created a chorus of euphonious harmony that was music to the ear.

Not to your neighbor’s ears, you were sure, but it wasn’t as if either of you were aware of anyone’s existence other than each other’s at the moment.

Each action felt so much more intimate, held so much more meaning than the last. The way one of his hands brushed your hair out of your face so that he could gaze into your eyes with his sparkling ones as if yours held the entire world in them, the way he caged your body within his as if to keep you close, safe, protected—it all felt so much deeper than sex. You’d hooked up with guys before in the past of course, though it had never been quite like this. You didn’t have the will to question it right now though. Right now Taehyung and the way his dick drilled into your pussy were the only things on your mind.

“Say it again,” were his first words spoken, hot with heavy breaths in your mouth. “Say that you need me.”

“Ah,” you continued to wail wantonly while his hips snapped into yours like his life depended on it, and it was a wonder you managed to find any words at all. “I-I need you, Tae!” You threw your head back with a cry, and he chased it to press his forehead to the crook of your neck. “I need you, fuck, I need you so fucking badly!”

Your voice hitched into a moan when you felt his teeth bite the skin of your neck while his hips sped up, seeming impassioned and fueled by your outburst to go that much harder. Your fingers scrambled to grab ahold of his hair, his shoulder, the skin of his back: anything you could latch onto for support while he drove your body higher and higher up the mattress until your head was practically hitting the headboard with each thrust.

“Jesus Tae, I’m– you’re gonna make me cum–!” You were a mess of uncontrollable shambles as incoherent garble spilled from your lips.

“Shit, thank god,” Taehyung cursed, his lips bruised a darker red when he lifted his head to stare down at you beneath a curtain of dark curls that hung in his eyes, the sight arousing you tenfold. “I don’t know how much longer I can last.”

It was unexpected, the way your heart fluttered in endearment from his honesty. The fact that he was as much of a wreck as you when he was the one touching your body all night left you feeling strangely flattered—not to mention the thought of making him cum had you practically quivering with desire.

“Wanna make you cum,” your voice took on a seductive edge of need before you were cradling his cheek in your palm to pull his lips down to yours, tugging the bottom one between your teeth to bring his face even closer to you.

An audible groan of pent up frustration for relief escaped him. “Yeah? Wanna feel my cum inside you?”

Your walls involuntarily clenched at his dirty words. “Yeah,” you whined in reply.

“Ah fuck, you feel so good,” he winced with a toss of his head and brows knit in pleasure.

Immediately your mouth attached to the exposed column on his throat, his skin tasting salty from sweat and buttery smooth beneath your tongue as you began to suck blooming marks of red and purple to match the ones you donned from him.

“God Y/N, I’m gonna–” before he could finish he quickly leaned down to press his forehead against yours, the intense abyss of his nearly black eyes swallowing you whole in a breathtaking stare before his lips finally found yours again, and right when fireworks erupted from your kiss was when you felt his release.

The sensation of his hot seed shooting inside of you and painting your walls in white was ultimately what catapulted you over the edge, your body entering an alternate dimension of euphoria as pure ecstasy showered over you in waves and waves of earth shattering pleasure.

Your mind was numb, unable to register anything but sexual bliss as you glowed in its aftereffects like a bird preening in the sun after a nice bath. Taehyung rolled onto his back next to you, your bodies a jumbled mass of sweaty, tired limbs and unaware of where yours ended and his began. Only the sound of heavy pants while you both caught your breath filled the reeling yet comfortable silence.

Fuck that was really good—easily the best sex you’d ever had. Not only was Taehyung surprisingly willing to please, but never before had you felt such an intangible connection, such a strong sexual chemistry with the person you were with. It startled even you. You may hate the man, but the level of carnal attraction you felt towards him rivaled that of what you felt for even Seokjin, if you had to say.

The thought frightened you; loving Seokjin was all you’d known for the past three years since moving to the city and starting your new life here. To think that you could feel something stronger for another person…

No, you didn’t know what you were thinking. It was just the lust talking; after all, it’d been a while since you’d gotten laid. Your hormones were all over the place.

It was the only explanation for why when Taehyung curled into you, his arm slinging over your bare waist and pulling you close to his chest with tired, heavy lids that had already fallen shut, you didn’t dare stop him.

You simply closed your eyes and fell into one of the best slumbers of your life.

The next morning you awoke to Taehyung still in your bed, but after a few exchanged pleasantries you sent him on his way home and haven’t heard from him since. And honestly, it was probably for the best. You didn’t like the idea of addressing whatever the fuck it was that had happened between the two of you, much preferring to instead act like it was nothing rather than facing the reality of things—whatever that may be. In all honesty, you had no clue what that crazy spark between you and Taehyung was, and considering you originally couldn’t stand the guy, you thought it made the most sense to just continue ignoring your feelings in hopes of them going away.

Which was an easy feat to accomplish with Seokjin sitting five feet in front of you.

“I just love the food here. Don’t you?” Your boss’s face was lit with that warm, infectious smile that you loved so much, your features finding it hard not to mirror the expression. “It’s so hard to narrow it down to just two items.”

You were currently at a upscale restaurant along the waterfront taste testing dishes for the catering menu. Since Mijoo had a hair appointment she absolutely couldn’t miss, it was just the two of you, much to your guilty satisfaction. Though who you were feeling guilty for, you weren’t quite sure anymore.

Normally in this situation, you’d be ecstatic for the alone time with Seokjin outside of work, only to later remember the existence of his fiancé who thought the world of you and feel like a terrible human being. But today, you found your thoughts going to one person you weren’t expecting them to.

Tae.

The sex meant nothing to you—right? You were sure it meant nothing to him. So why did you find yourself still thinking about him after it had already been three days? Why did you find yourself strangely… missing him?

You cleared the thoughts away with a shake of your head and refocused on Seokjin’s stunning features. This was the man you had feelings for. This was the man you wanted to be with, not some cynical, anti-christmas wedding hater—not someone who was brash and outspoken and crude and brooding and just… just… no. You didn’t. You couldn’t.

“We’ll need two completely different dishes to offer some variety,” you spoke, if only to get your mind off of a certain someone. The grin that took over your expression when you looked at Seokjin came naturally. “Maybe a vegetarian option? Or perhaps seafood?”

“Mijoo’s sister doesn’t eat meat; we may want to go with that,” he nodded, the two of you leaning together to read from the same menu.

Your heads were so close they were practically touching, and you focused on the sensation to see if you felt anything, any intangible pull or spark that drew you to him like a moth to a flame and rendered you helpless, unable to control yourself in the presence of such raw, unadulterated passion.

Nope.

“Oh, how about item number 36?” Seokjin turned his face in your direction as he reached over your hand to point to your side of the menu.

And when there was the faint tickle of his breath against your cheek, relief came flooding back like water breaking through a dam—because you felt it, felt that subtle flutter in your chest that told you your world hadn’t been flipped upside down. You still had feelings for Seokjin; sure, your reaction wasn’t a visceral one, but you still felt something because you were aware that it was him. It was the man that you’d been in love with for three years; that had to count for something, right?

“Or number 48,” you suggested, in a much better mood now that your doubts had been debunked as you pointed over to his side of the menu, subtly leaning closer as well.

“Shad fish are a bit boney though, aren’t they?” His nose scrunched up in amusement while he turned to you, your faces mere inches apart. “Wouldn’t want anyone to choke or get their esophagus torn to shreds at our reception.”

You laughed at his words, head tilting back as the light sound fell from your lips and danced throughout the room around you. You were so busy laughing, in fact, that you hardly noticed a figure walking towards you before stopping short, watching the scene unfold in front of him, and turning away with a hardened expression.

“Taehyung!” Your boss called out, not having seen the man either until the last second when his back was already to you.

Your expression fell at the sound of his name, heart stuttering involuntarily as your eyes fell onto the figure Seokjin was singling out. And sure enough, when the frozen figure with stiff, bunched shoulders turned around to reveal a fake smile that oozed professionalism, it was in fact Kim Taehyung.

“What are you doing here?” Was all you could think to ask when he approached the table to exchange pleasantries with the soon-to-be groom, shock written all over your features. Though it was to your surprise, and unexpected disappointment, that Taehyung completely ignored you.

He didn’t even bat an eye in your direction; in fact, it seemed as if he was avoiding your gaze altogether. And though you thought you’d wanted this, you couldn’t help the confusion that filled you anyways, somewhat hurt though you didn’t know why. You considered what you did together to mean absolutely nothing.

So why did he make you feel this way?

“Glad you were able to make it,” Seokjin grinned, pulling out an open chair for him.

“Ah, no, thank you but I can’t stay,” Tae shook his head apologetically, but you couldn’t help but look for the meaning behind his words. “Just wanted to go over the finalized menu. You’re having…?”

Your boss glanced at you as if double checking your decision, though you were too lost in your thoughts and staring at Tae to be of any use at the present moment. “Chicken Saltimbocca and Eggplant Rollatini,” he eventually answered with a nod.

Taehyung wrote the dishes down in his notes before flipping the little booklet shut and stuffing it in his back pocket while he flashed him a meek, box shaped smile. “Thanks. Enjoy your lunch.”

It was only after he was walking away that you finally scrambled to your senses. “Wait, Seokjin I’ll– I’ll be right back, I just have to ask him a question,” you stumbled to your feet, “about the wedding,” you added before dashing off through the restaurant.

You called out his name multiple times, but it wasn’t until he was outside and already starting down the sidewalk that you finally got his attention.

“What?” He snapped, shoulders slightly falling in defeat as he turned around to face you with a huff.

You slowed down your quickened pace as you approached him, out of breath from trying to catch up. “What’s wrong?” Concern filtered through your frown and furrowed brows. “Are you okay?”

He just shook his head before turning to walk away again, not even bothering to give a reply.

Hurt seeped its way further into the crevices of your chest. “Tae, wait!” You dove forward and caught his wrist in your hand before he could make it far, the sparks of electricity that jolted through your veins at the touch not lost on you. Your tone was gentle and pleading when you spoke again. “Talk to me.”

“Why should I?!” He suddenly lashed out, and when he whipped around to face you again the pain was evident on his features. “Would it even make a difference?”

“What are you talking about?” Alarm now joined the confusion on your expression. “Why wouldn’t it?”

He just shook his head to himself again as if he was in complete disbelief of you. “God I’m so– I’m not stupid; I saw the signs. It’s the same thing my ex did with my best friend and I was too oblivious to see the signs then, but I’m not now. I should’ve known. I’m not gonna let that happen again.”

Panic began to fill you. “Taehyung, what are you–”

“God, are you that fucking stupid or just in denial?” His words cut like glass, but all you could do was stand there and watch as he stepped forward before stopping directly in front of you. “I have feelings for you, Y/N! Real, serious fucking feelings for you, and all you can do is sit there with your head up Seokjin’s ass.”

His confession hit you like a bucket of ice water on a day like today: bitter, cold, relentless to match the emotion in his eyes. You shivered under the weight of it all, catatonic with shock.

“You know about my past,” his voice was low, emotionless when he spoke again, but somehow that only made things worse. “You know what happened with my ex. And to have the first person I’ve liked since then be in almost the same exact situation–!” He cut himself off, the words getting caught in his throat and you felt yourself break inside. “I’m so dumb to think you were different,” he finished barely above a whisper.

“Tae,” you took a slow step forward, not wanting to scare him off, “I didn’t know you felt that way about me.”

“After the other night? After we made love?!” The pain in his eyes was pleading and it broke your heart. Made love? You had no idea he held your time together in such high regards. “How could you not know?!”

You didn’t know what to say. You felt like a complete idiot.

He mistook your silence for resignation and simply shook his head. “I thought things would change after what happened between us, but clearly I can see I was wrong. I hope you’re happy with your boss and his wife,” he scoffed with a look of disgust before walking off and leaving you frozen on the sidewalk.

You didn’t see him again after that.

It was strange, finding yourself now actively searching for and hoping to see him, a stark contrast to the beginning of last week when you were still avoiding him at all costs.

Oh how the tables had turned; now it was he who was avoiding you, a fact that still boggled your mind. You had no idea that he had feelings for you, but now that you did it all made sense. The constant look of amusement when you’d argue with him, the way he blew up when he found out about your unrequited feelings for Seokjin, the sex—all signs pointed to him falling for you, yet you’d been the oblivious one this time.

That wasn’t the only thing that made sense; suddenly, all of your tumultuous feelings started to fall into place as well. You’d been so blind, so bullheaded in your feelings for Seokjin that you dismissed every single possible answer staring you straight in the face: you liked Taehyung.

You liked him a lot.

But he was right, you were so in denial (and also so, so stupid) that you never even gave him a chance, never even entertained the idea that what you felt for him could be romantic in any way. You’d brushed off the chemistry, brushed off the spark, brushed off the passion and intensity and pure magnetism between the two of you, all for an unrequited relationship you’d gotten comfortable in. Loving Seokjin was all you knew; loving Seokjin felt safe.

But love wasn’t supposed to be either of those things, and Seokjin didn’t make you feel half the things Taehyung did.

God, you were so dumb; you needed to find Tae and apologize, confess your feelings, anything that would make him realize how real your feelings were as well. Right now he thought you were still trailing after Seokjin like a sad little puppy dog, but all you could think about was him.

As a heat of the moment decision, you decided to go to Tae’s work (you’d gotten the address from Mijoo, who was more than happy to give it to you) and profess your feelings to him. A gesture this grand and dramatic happened in all the movies; it had to work, right? You knew you were a hopeless romantic, and Tae definitely was not, but he liked you and that had to count for something.

You raced through the town square and through the busy main streets before practically barreling through the glass double doors of The Korea Times. Upon entering, however, your momentum staggered; this place was bigger and way busier than you were anticipating.

After looking around to no avail, you eventually approached the front desk. “Excuse me,” you smiled politely, though you couldn’t keep your foot from tapping in anticipation. “In which office does Kim Taehyung work?”

After tapping away at the computer for a couple few passing seconds that seemed to drag on for centuries, the receptionist finally found him. “22nd floor.”

You spared her a fleeting thank you before dashing off towards the elevator and making your ascent. Nerves continued to build within your jittery, frenzied insides; you had no idea how he was going to react. What if he didn’t believe you and stormed off again, or slammed the door in your face without even hearing you out? The thought of his rejection made you sick to your stomach now that you’d finally figured out and acknowledged your feelings for him.

Thankfully you didn’t have to torture yourself with what if’s much longer, because soon the elevator doors were opening and bringing you to room lined with cubicles.

Your heart rate skyrocketed to new heights at the thought of seeing him at any second, though when you glanced around you couldn’t make out his face among the crowd of many hardworking writers at their desks. The emotions swirling within you began to grow more hasty in your search, and before you knew it your body was acting on the rush of adrenaline and desperate need to just see him.

“Taehyung?” You called out in a steady, strong voice, the sound gaining the attention of everyone in the room. You swallowed down the embarrassment when they all looked your way. “Kim Taehyung.”

Your eyes scanned the crowd of faces staring back at you, until finally a familiar figure caught your eye in the corner of the room entering the lobby of cubicles from a long hallway that led out of view with an older woman with greying hair by his side.

It was him.

“Tae,” you spoke in a less frantic tone, and his head snapped up at the sound of your voice before he was halting in his steps and staring over at you with wide eyes full of alarm.

You couldn’t imagine how desperate you must’ve looked showing up at his workplace unannounced, but you didn’t care. If that’s what it took to prove to him how you felt, then you would look as desperate as needed.

It felt like an eternity and one second all at the same time as you gazed into each other’s eyes, though when his lips eventually parted as if he was getting ready to say something, you beat him to it.

“I know you hate me right now.” You took a step forward, not wanting him to kick you out before you got a chance to say your piece. “I know I’m probably the last person you want to see. But before you say anything, just hear me out. I… I needed to see you.”

The bewilderment and apprehension in his expression softened slightly at your words, though he still looked alarmed and somewhat guarded. You didn’t blame him; this was probably a shock.

“I… I’m sorry, Taehyung. For everything. I’m sorry for being so stubborn, so argumentative and giving you such a hard time,” you chuckled at the understatement of your words, and he did too. Good sign. “I’m sorry I was too blind to see what was right in front of me until it was too late.” You took a deep breath, steadying your nerves. “I like you, Taehyung. I mean I have genuine, serious feelings for you, and they’re more real than anything I thought I ever felt for anyone else.” Seokjin, you wanted to say, though name-dropping your well known boss in a room full of journalists probably wasn’t the smartest idea. “I miss you,” you sighed in defeat, “and I can’t stop thinking about you. Please, you have to believe me.”

“Is this the girl from the article?” The elder woman spoke up next to Taehyung, her eyes going from him to you then back to him. “Always the Bridesmaid, Never the Bride?”

And suddenly it felt like your vision was tunneling.

Your face blanched at her words. “What?”

Tae’s eyes widened when she spoke, his expression growing from alarm into full blown fear as he looked back at you. “N-no, Y/N, that’s not– It’s not what you think, I–”

“You didn’t know?” The woman arched a brow at you, though she didn’t seem at all sympathetic. Rather, she seemed impressed. “Wow, Taehyung. I underestimated you.”

Confusion and dread swirled within you like a brewing storm about to downpour, your mind struggling to process the meaning of what you were hearing. “Know what?” You asked in a stunned, stupefied voice.

Tae opened his mouth, but before he could answer–

“Taehyung here is writing an article about you for the front page of the section.” She said it like it was a compliment and not a kick in the gut. “Remember your planner? He saw all the wedding dates in it, and well…” she trailed off with a smile before turning to Taehyung. “I assumed she leant it to you, but you stole it? I gotta say, that makes the story even better.”

“I’m not writing it.” Tae’s words were firm as he glared at the woman you assumed was his boss before turning to you. “Y/N, you have to know, I– I was never going to run it–”

“So it’s true?” You couldn’t help the bitter laugh of disbelief that fell from your lips, knowing that your voice was shaky with the promise of tears but you didn’t care. “Everything—the flowers, the flirting, the–” you couldn’t say the rest, breath choking off in your throat. “It was all for that?”

“No, Y/N, that’s not–” he took a step forward but you retreated.

“You used me to get ahead in your career.” You shook your head in disbelief, disgust and hurt and heartbreak all twisting onto your features. “I trusted you.”

“Please,” his voice was on the verge of desperation. “It’s not like that–”

“God, you were right, I’m so fucking stupid,” you shook your head as your eyes lowered to the floor, a tear escaping past the brim and falling past your cheek to the ground. He tried moving towards you again, but as soon as you saw him within your field of vision that was blurred with tears, you spun around and hightailed it out of there.

“Y/N, wait!” You heard him behind you but you didn’t stop, instead hurrying to the elevator and repeatedly pressing the down arrow with rapid fire until the doors opened. You dashed inside and hit the close doors button right before he could reach you.

The last thing you saw as the metal doors slid shut was the pure anguish on his face.

And then the silence was deafening.

You sagged to the floor with your back against the wall, the wave of tears you’d been holding back now overflowing and spilling out of you in ugly, unrelenting sobs. If you felt like a fool before, that didn’t even touch how you felt now. Taehyung was right yet again; you were impossibly naïve.

How could you have led yourself to believe this guy actually cared about you? No wonder he was so dead set on finding out how many weddings you had been in and reading into the reason why you were this way. You thought he was the first person who actually cared, the first person who wanted to focus on you, but it turned out to be all about himself for his own personal gain in the end anyways. You knew he was selfish; you knew you didn’t like him from the very beginning for a reason. You just didn’t know what that reason was yet.

You should’ve followed your gut.

But another part of you, a part you absolutely detested right now, knew that that wasn’t the case. Your gut was what led you to this building to confess your feelings for him. Your gut was what produced all those unwanted thoughts and feelings about Tae that you were so in denial about. Following your gut was what got you into this mess.

No, what you should’ve done was use your brain.

You were always such a logical, rational person, but when Taehyung came along he threw all of that right out the window. You weren’t the type of person to usually make such impulsive decisions based on heat of the moment passion, and yet he brought that out in you. Earlier today, you would’ve said that was a good thing—now you were thinking it most certainly was not.

The elevator seemed to reach the bottom floor much too quickly, and soon you were getting up and wiping the tears and smeared makeup from beneath your eyes before attempting to walk out like nothing had happened.

Wishful thinking.

“Y/N!” You heard Tae’s voice a few moments after you left the building, already a ways down the sidewalk by now.

Your feet sped up against the pavement, just wanting to be as far away from him as possible. You couldn’t handle this right now. You just wanted to go home.

When you felt his hand on your wrist after jogging to catch up with you, you ripped your arm from his hold. “Don’t touch me!” The words tore through your throat as you whipped around to face him, tears having returned to your eyes. “God, I can’t even look at you right now!” You turned away to continue walking.

“Y/N, please–”

“What do you want?!” You came to an abrupt stop again, furious eyes holding an amplitude of pain when you looked at him. “Haven’t you already done enough?”

“Please, just let me explain–”

“What could you possibly say right now that would make this okay? What excuse do you have?!”

“I just–” he paused, a heavy sigh of resignation leaving him before all he could say was, “I’m sorry.”

You tutted out a scoff as if his apology meant nothing to you. He didn’t have anything to explain, because he didn’t have any excuse. And even if he did, there was nothing he could say to make you get over this.

You didn’t know if you ever could.

“I have to go,” you shook your head and avoided his eyes as you felt a new wave of tears come. You didn’t want him to see you cry, and you definitely didn’t want your resolve to be weakened by looking at his annoyingly attractive face.

“Y/N, wait–”

But you were already turning around and taking off down the street.

The air smelled of Christmas time.

Or at least it should, what with the 16 miniature evergreen trees positioned next to each row of chairs lining the interior of the warm log cabin. Red ribboned bows donned the back of every seat, the satin material catching on the glow of the warm dangling lights that emulated falling snow and causing it to shine with an iridescent gleam.

You, however, couldn’t appreciate a single inch of your surroundings thanks to the way you were running around in forty different directions like a chicken with your head cut off. It was mere hours before the ceremony where Seokjin and Mijoo would be pronounced husband and wife, and you had so much to do you didn’t even know where to start.

Despite practically being a pro at planning weddings, you had never done so in such a short amount of time, leaving even a seasoned bridesmaid like yourself frazzled under the pressure. Being the most responsible person in the room meant that people depended on you for everything, and you felt obligated to deliver. After all, it was the most important day of their lives, right? You just wanted to make them happy.

But what about your own happiness?

Your mind, as it often did, flashed to the words once said by Kim Taehyung. It had been several days since your hasty exit outside his work, and you hadn’t seen or heard from him since. It was much like before your run in, except this time it was back to you avoiding him again; your relationship had come full circle. But unlike the many times before when you spent your time dodging his presence, you were deeply conflicted and unsure of what to do this time.

Sure, the man was an asshole. You’d known that from the beginning, and he’d only further reiterated your point by proving that you now had a legitimate reason to hate him. But things were messy, complicated now. Much like the time he’d spent avoiding you earlier this week, you found yourself missing him yet again, unable to get him out of your head.

If sucked, because as much as you wanted to hate him, you couldn’t.

Thankfully you’d had plenty to busy your mind with these past few days, so you were definitely putting your all into this wedding if only to keep from thinking about him, much to the Mijoo’s relief.

“You are such a lifesaver, Y/N,” she gushed while you fixed the hem of her veil that had torn slightly from accidentally getting caught on the heel of her stilettos. The bride tried to speak through unmoving lips while the hired cosmetician applied makeup to her face. “I don’t know what I would’ve done without you.”

“Happy to help,” you quickly grinned while stitching up the last of the lace. Thankfully your hair and makeup was already finished before you arrived; you figured you’d have too much to do to spend time on yourself while you were here, and you were right.

“Shit, I left my scissors in my bag downstairs.” You sat the uncut thread attached to the veil on the table next to you as you rose to your feet. “I’ll be right back!”

The bridal suite was on the second floor of the cabin above where the ceremony was taking place, which meant that you had to risk mingling with guests who had already arrived at the venue early. To avoid being seen you took the back way, slipping behind wooden columns and stacked logs that made up walls in an attempt to retrieve your forgotten supplies.

“Oh, sorry–”

You felt yourself run into something that definitely wasn’t a structure within the cabin, though it wasn’t the moving limbs that gave that away. Rather, it was the very, very familiar voice that had your heart rate spiking to levels you didn’t even know were possible—which was saying a lot, given the fact that you’d been running around so much today.

When you looked up, you saw that the brief apology had gotten caught in the throat by none other than Kim Taehyung.

So many emotions came rushing to you all at once; you wanted to groan. You wanted to cry. But most importantly, you couldn’t help but acknowledge the way you immediately wanted to lean forward and kiss him. It was as if your entire being craved him after having him completely in the most intimate way possible and then having everything ripped away. It was a natural, visceral reaction that couldn’t be helped.

You tried, like so many times before this, to ignore it.

“Y/N.” He seemed just as surprised to see you as you were to see him, his mouth frozen agape and his eyes wide.

“Tae,” your voice mirrored the shock in his own; you hated how a storm of butterflies instantly took over your stomach. “What are you doing here?”

“I-I was coming to see you, actually,” he cleared his throat as a sheepish expression took over his features. “I wasn’t sure if you’d want to see me, so I figured I’d sneak in through the back so I could at least get you alone to say my piece before you kicked me out.”

It was like a breath of fresh air, seeing his face again. Your eyes fell from his long, tousled dark curls that hung over his eyes to the small freckle on his nose and bottom lip and the crisp waistcoat he wore over a white collared shirt rolled up to his elbows tucked into fitted slacks.

Honestly, he looked hot as hell. You swallowed down the carnal desire that instinctively swirled within you to instead fold your arms.

“Well, we’re alone, aren’t we?” You glanced around the small back room, not a soul in sight.

He nibbled on his lower lip; he almost seemed nervous. “I wanted to explain myself.” His eyes seemed to search your face for signs that you would stop him or run away again. When you didn’t, he continued with a shaky breath. “I wasn’t expecting to fall for you. I– of course I was attracted to you when we first met. I was so excited when you left your planner because it gave me an excuse to see you again.” He gulped uncomfortably for his words to follow. “But when I saw all the wedding plans, my mind just went to work mode. I was working the night we first met, as you know, so I was already in that mindset. I wanted to use your story as an example for the hypocrisy of the wedding industry as a whole.”

“So I was just a means to an end,” you concluded with a bitter smile and a nod of your head, ready to walk off again.

“No–! No, you are not.” His words were firm, certain as he grabbed your hand in his to keep you here with him.

You glanced down at where you burst with electricity from the touch, in too much of a daze to move.

“I got to know you. The real you, not just the beautiful face in a bunch of bridesmaid dresses.” His thumb caressed your skin, causing your stomach to roll. “I grew to care about you, Y/N. Everything I said, everything I did—it was out of real, genuine feelings for you. I wasn’t thinking about my job, not once. You made everything disappear.”

Your heart fluttered no matter how badly you wanted it not to; you didn’t want to be affected by his sweet, smooth words. How could you trust him again after this?

“I told my boss a couple weeks ago that I wasn’t going to write it anymore.” His voice was full of conviction when he spoke. “She wouldn’t let me scrap it, wouldn’t let me change a thing, but I– I wasn’t going to do that to you. I wasn’t going to run the story.”

You shook your head as tears you didn’t even know you had left to cry over this pooled in your eyes. You wanted to trust him so badly. “How can I believe a word you say?” You asked, your voice breaking. “The entire foundation of our relationship is built on a lie.”

“No, it’s not.” He took a small step forward as if afraid of scaring you off, but you reluctantly stayed put. “You intrigued me from the moment we met, Y/N. Before the planner, before anything; I wanted to get to know you.”

“You saw me changing gowns.” You shook your head again, looking for excuses. “You knew I was in two weddings in one night. Even if it was subconscious, you were still thinking about work.”

He blinked, your words making him reassess his mindset and the origin of his feelings for you that night. “No.” Now it was his turn to shake his head. “You’re wrong. You intrigued me because I think you’re the most beautiful person I’ve ever known, inside and out.”

You were stunned at the unexpectedly touching compliment, your heart once again betraying you to soar amongst the clouds and stars in the sky. An overwhelming amount of emotion swelled within you, surging in your chest and climbing its way up to form a lump the size of a golf ball in your throat.

“You still used me, Tae. Just because you decided to not go through with the story doesn’t change the fact that you were going to do it in the first place. Were you not going to say anything?” The frown on your lips was evident in your heartbroken voice. “Were you just going to let me believe that you had no ulterior motive when we…” fell for each other, you wanted to say, but the words caught in your throat. The sentiment, the deeper meaning in them surprised even you and was too much, especially given the circumstances.

The sagging of his shoulders in response to your question told you all you needed to know.

You shook your head in disbelief. “And you had the audacity to get mad at me! Make me feel like I was the bad guy!”

“Because you fucked me up, Y/N!” The level of his voice raised to match yours. “My feelings for you are so real, and to see you still head over heels for him after you and I made love—it fucked with my head!” There was a moment’s pause while his chest rose and fell; the strain in his tone and pain in his eyes was genuine. “It brought back all these old insecurities from my past, and I just–“ he sighed. “Like I said, when I’m with you, everything else disappears. I wasn’t thinking about the story. I really wasn’t.”

There it was again: made love. You had absolutely no idea he felt so strongly about you when the two of you had sex—were almost ashamed to admit you had thought it didn’t mean anything at the time.

“I don’t– I’m not–” you sighed in defeat. “I thought I was in love with him. But when he and I got lunch together, I realized that…” you mentally prepared yourself to admit this out loud for the first time, “that it doesn’t even compare to what you make me feel.”

Taehyung’s eyes widened slightly before softening into a small smile and twinkling warmly at your confession. “Really?” His voice was hopeful yet apprehensive. “You’re not just saying that?”

“Definitely not,” you shook your head with a chuckle. “If anything, it would be easier to just go back to hating you. I wish I could.”

Taehyung shared in your chuckle before his expression fell into something much more genuine as he looked at you with gleaming eyes, his smile growing at the confession. “Does that mean you don’t? Hate me, I mean.”

Despite the conflicting emotions swirling inside of you, you couldn’t help but melt at the hopeful excitement that lit up his features. “Unfortunately not; I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”

The charming smirk that you’d begrudgingly grown to love quirked at his lips. “It’s called not being in denial for once in your life.”

“Shut up.” You rolled your eyes at his words though you couldn’t fight the growing smile on your lips.

Taehyung mirrored your grin, his tongue peeking out to smooth along his lower lip before he took another cautious step forward. “I promise I’ll spend every waking hour gaining your trust back; if you’ll allow me the honor.” His hands were raised as if he was about to cradle your face in his palms, though they hovered suspended in the air, waiting for your permission.

You didn’t possess the willpower to continue rejecting him even if you wanted to.

“I promise I will too.” There was a demure smile on your lips as you took a step forward as well so that your face fit perfectly into his hands, the feeling of his skin on yours after what felt like a lifetime causing the planets to align. “I’ve realized a lot of things lately, and Tae– I really don’t want anyone but you.”

The beam that lit up his expression was so natural, so infectious that you felt your heart burst in your chest at the sight. “Good,” he murmured as he leaned in. “Because you’re the only bridesmaid for me.”

You could’ve kicked him had you not been so swept away by his lips on yours.

“Y/N! Has anyone seen Y/N?!” Mijoo hissed outside of the closed wooden doors separating the bridal party from the ceremony room where the seated guests and groomsmen were already waiting for the grand entrance with Seokjin standing at the altar. “We’re supposed to walk in at any minute!”

Seokjin, unaware of the frantic search party happening on the other side of the closed doors beyond the aisle, glanced around the room with furrowed brows before looking at the officiant standing with him at the altar. “What’s taking so long?” He whispered to keep the guests from overhearing.

“Oh, fuck yes Tae, right there!” You cried out in ecstasy, your back pressed against the wall of a cramped storage closet with one leg hiked up over his hip and the other buckling at the knee, barely keeping you standing upright while Taehyung fucked into you like an animal in heat.

The multiple layers of material in the skirt of your bridesmaid dress designed to keep you warm in the cold winter month was bunched up around your waist between the two of you, but neither of you seemed to care as he gripped the inside of your hitched thigh to keep your legs spread and panties pulled to the side so his cock could pump in and out of your pussy at a frightening pace.

“Mm, missed you so much.” Tae was a mess of moans into your mouth, his kisses just as frenzied as his hips which slapped into yours at such a fervent pace you knew there would be bruises tomorrow.

You knew there was something you needed to be doing right now, but here in this moment with the tip of his cock driving you up and down the wooden logs and shelving and repeatedly hitting your g-spot with each heavy thrust, you couldn’t bring yourself to remember what it was.

You definitely weren’t making it to the ceremony on time.

And putting yourself first for once never felt so good.

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