Chapter Text
The red haired woman put down her makeup brush, a stuttering gasp of air she hadn’t known she was holding escaping through her parted lips. Her eyes drifted shut as thoughts vied and fought for the spot in the forefront of her mind, making her unable to concentrate much on anything. Every time, this was. Every time it got worse as her fears were consumed by reality and then spat back out at her in the worst way imaginable, ripping everything away until she was left with nothing.
Gripping onto the vanity with a little more white-knuckled of a grasp than she perhaps intended, the girl stilled herself and forced her eyes to open, unfocused and only seeing the reflection of her own image staring back. She really did look beautiful… He had done such a good job. Every accessory, every curl, every color combination ebbed and flowed perfectly, complimenting all the naturally beautiful aspects about her. Even the dress fit her perfectly, as if it were custom made and tailored for her and her only. Which, given Jumin’s tendencies, it probably was.
Jumin… She kept trying to avoid thinking about him, but she couldn’t help it. He was all she could think about, and if her fears were true… She just couldn’t. Couldn’t let herself have hope, when she knew what would happen. God, she hated this ballroom. She hated it so much, she never ever wanted to step foot in this damned place ever again. Her body started to shake once more, and her fingers finally had given out on their death grip on the edge of the counter, flushing quickly from white to red as circulation freely flowed through them again. Her whole complexion had been paled in nerves ever since she’d stepped foot into this hall, which threw all the makeup’s undertones off a little. She didn’t care. If she just told herself over and over that she didn’t care, maybe she would stop caring about this all too much. She should have learned by this point: you’d think she would have stopped growing so attached, nevertheless falling in actual love, like she had this time. With him. Each time it happened was devastating, sure, but this one… This one she was simply unable to even fathom facing.
Each time it followed the same routine, like clockwork. Eleven days. That’s how long the cycle was, each and every instance: eleven days. That’s how long V always gave her to arrange the party, and it was always at the party that it happened.
She hated parties, these days.
There was a knock on the doorframe of the dressing room she’d been getting prepared in, and she whipped around perhaps a bit too quickly for someone who was perfectly fine. “Oh,” she said in relief, although it was more of an exhale than anything else, and her cheeks flushed much darker than the blush she’d applied on them. “It’s you,” she said with a small half smile, looking up at the man who stood there, looking breathtaking as always in a navy blue suit that contrasted her powder cyan dress effortlessly.
Jumin smiled- one of those closed-lipped quirk of the lips she’d fallen so smitten for in such a short period of time. Then, his face fell. He could read her like a book, any time, in an instant. It was one of the things that made being with him different from all the others. “My love,” he called her, he always called her that, and for the first time since they’d been together she couldn’t bring herself to smile at it. He crossed the room, sliding off his gloves as he did so and discarding them on the table she’d been using for her makeup application. Jumin wasted no time in fitting one of her hands in his own, their vastly different sized palms gliding perfectly against each other until they locked perfectly like the jigsaw they were. “Is something wrong…? Is there anything bothering you?” He knelt beside her now, on one knee, and she couldn’t help but chew on the inside of her lower lip. She’d read what he was messaging V in the chatroom in the middle of the night, she’d gathered a good idea of what his dramatic plans for today were to be. Which engagement he was planning to announce. Part of her almost chuckled at how cute it was- was he almost practicing, now? But the other part of her steeled herself and shook her head at him, bringing their hands up to her lips and pressing a chaste kiss to the back of his.
“Nothing,” she lied, but she forced a smile to reassure him. He wouldn’t understand anyways, and she didn’t want to spend her last moments with him miserably awaiting their predetermined fate. He didn’t seem fully convinced by her performance, but wordlessly stood and brushed back a tiny strand of her hair that threatened to droop into her face, before pressing a tender kiss to her forehead. She relished in his touch, allowing her eyes to fall shit briefly as he did so, opening them again only once he’d drawn back once more.
“Good,” Jumin said softly, but in a tone that denoted he didn’t really buy it. “I would hate for my angel to be upset today of all days… Especially since you worked so hard for it, my love. If anything does happen to come up and be of issue, please notify me of it, will you…?”
The woman smiled again, a little more genuinely this time, and just squeezed his hand in response. “Hmm,” he grumbled, seeing that was all he was going to get, squeezing hers back before slipping them apart, fitting the gloves on once again. “I have to finish up preparing for something, love,” he explained, standing behind her chair now and looking at her through the mirror. “But I couldn’t help but be selfish and come steal a peek at you. You’re far more beautiful than I even could have imagined when I picked all this out.” He lowered his head to deliver one last peck to her exposed shoulder, not wanting to ruin the hard work she’d done so far on her face and also trying to elicit a blush. His hair tickled her skin and made her cover her mouth to hide a giggle, which earned her reward via one of his rare, toothy grins that were only for her. “I will see you in a bit. Or sooner if I can’t stand the wait…”
She shook her head and shooed him off with a flick of the wrist, not wanting to keep him from his meticulous plan any longer, as she knew how important those were to him. He listened obediently, and was out of the room within seconds, off to find V, perhaps. Feeling her heart sink back down to its rightful place in her stomach, the redhead’s lips dropped back to a quiver, but she shook it off and just funneled her energy into putting the last touches into her look. This had to go perfect, even if it ended up the same as it always did. She had to hope. For him… For them.
As noon drew closer, then ultimately arrived, the hall absolutely flooded with reporters. It reminded her of when she’d been with Zen… Only this time, they were all buzzing around two women, who weren’t even in the RFA. The photo-auction-for-charity event had easily and seamlessly been converted into the Glam-and-Sarah show, and it made the coordinator’s blood boil. All she could do is hope the dirt Seven had gathered on Sarah was bad enough to be a worthy payback for everything she’d done to torment Jumin in the past week alone… and bide her time. She had faith in her lover; when he wanted something, he wanted it. And he wanted out of the engagement with Sarah Choi, forever. “-later. And don’t think about Sarah too much!” The girl snapped back to where she was by Yoosung’s voice practically seeing right through her thoughts. She smiled as Zen stumbled up beside them and saved her from having to reply to something she clearly hadn’t been listening to, dramatically blinking away the flash burn on his eyes from so many pictures being taken of him. The whole encounter was just so Zen: he came up, complained about being too popular for his own good, vaguely threatened Jumin if he didn’t treat her right, then ran off to hide from Celebrity A! news reporters that rushed their group. The coordinator couldn’t help but laugh to herself as she watched him run off to one of the back rooms, only interrupted when Luciel approached and recognized her right away. He filled them all in on the status of Jumin, V, and Mr. Chairman’s whereabouts, before holding his arm out for the fellow redhead to take, whisking her off per Jumin’s request. He must have gotten tired of waiting, after all, and so she smiled, bidding Jaehee and Yoosung goodbye for now as the two fo them walked through the surging crowds of people together.
Once they were alone, weaving and bobbing through hoards of strangers, Luciel’s eyes burned into her. “I’m so glad nothing bad happened to you,” he said, and it was in a way that made her feel like he knew. She knew the apartment was rigged with a bomb, about Unknown and how close he had gotten to taking her before in other times through of this 11 day cycle… And he spoke with such relief that she at least hadn’t been put in that peril this time.
“I-,” she tried to sputter out, but his grip on her only tightened, and his golden eyes had tears in the corners of them.
“You really can’t download just any app from now on, alright?” And he knew. He had to have known. And of course he would tell her this here, where they were moving too much and there were too many conversations around them for anyone but her to have heard.
“Luciel… You… You mean you kn-?” But it was too late for her to ask what he knew. Or if he knew how to stop it. Based on the pain in his voice, and the way it cracked in pity for her, she had the terrible feeling he didn’t, either.
“Luciel!” V’s voice echoed over them, causing both of their heads to spin in that direction. Conversation over.
The mint haired man greeted her, and thanked her for taking care of his dearest lifelong friend. He and Luciel were frosty with one another, ever since he and Yoosung had gone to get back Elizabeth. Seven’s arm had tensed up the moment V spoke, in a fight or flight response, and so she dropped it from the congenial courtesy hold they’d been in as to not intrude. The two seemed to be finally agreeing to communicate with one another when Glam’s shrill voice patched in over the microphone, silencing everyone in a hurry. “What the-?” The coordinator swore, and Seven shook his head, eyebrow knit in confusion. Even he hadn’t known about this.
The more Glam spoke, the more it seemed like the newest RFA member’s nightmare come true. No… There was simply no way this was really happening! There was no way that Jumin had been forced into actually agreeing, and if he had, how bad of a blackmail were they using on him…? Did they know Unknown, too…?
Her thoughts and fears were broken by her love taking the stage, and the crowd erupting into cries for his attention and comment on the whole ordeal. She was pushed and shoved as all the reporters stormed to try to be just in front of the stage, in the prime spot for his acknowledgement. He took the mic back from Glam, which made her beam a little in pride- it was as he should. Any announcement to make was HIS announcement, not hers. The whole ballroom thundered in applause for him as he introduced himself, and promptly apologized for being the reason the attention this afternoon was taken off of V’s photos and the charities they were supporting.
“What I’m about to say is very personal… So, if you find it boring, I’ve heard the cocktail shrimps are very good. Help yourselves.” The woman couldn’t help but laugh at his joke- she always did. He flashed her a quick smile: one so brief, no one else probably even noticed it but her, since she knew what to look for.
He launched into explaining himself for those who did not know him- his distaste for rumors, gossip, and until recently, courtship. Even though she knew it all already from their late nights spent together opening up about each other in the penthouse, she couldn’t help but be entrapped in his words, as they were just so magically hypnotizing coming from his lips. He could say anything at all and she would listen, she would always listen.
“I thought I’d never be able to love… But one person has come along to teach me how important it is to share my emotions.” And he was happy. Jumin was happy, he was smiling right at her. She flushed at his words, but no one else seemed to notice. No one else seemed to even realize he was looking at her in particular. No one else… Existed, in that moment; it was just the two of them, alone in this grand hall. V and Seven discussed how Sarah was grooming herself up off stage to claim her prize, but the words went in one ear of the redheaded woman and out the other. She didn’t care about any of that, she knew the truth. “Thanks to her,” and Jumin was speaking for an audience of one once more, and everyone else was just eavesdropping: “I am able to truly enjoy the work I previously did mechanically… and little by little, I was able to express encouragement and gratitude towards others with sincerity…”
He had. And she knew it. He had made leaps and bounds in expressing himself more openly and being more honest as opposed to letting his paranoias manifest like they had the past week, and she could not be any more proud of him for trying so hard to work to begin to unknot those tangled threads. “I couldn’t help but fall in love with this beautiful person who warmed up my stone-cold heart.”
Reporters began crying out, while the girl he’d been talking about wiped her eyes, feeling tears gathering in the corners of them. Jumin didn’t mind any of them… He never minded anyone asking for his attention but her. “From the moment we met, she kindly listened to me… She understood me when I could barely understand myself. She is… The only woman in my life who has ever taught me how to fill my life with warmth. We have not seen each other for long, but I am already so much in love with her.” And it took everything for her not to cry out that she was very much in love with him, too. But this was not her speech to make. It was his, and he’d been talked over and ignored all his life, and who would she be to interrupt him now when people were finally listening to how he felt?
She could hear the Choi women preening at the compliments to her left, obviously assuming his words were fluff intended for them. Looking over at them had come at her own demise, however, as it also meant catching sight of the clock- If past experiences had predicted anything, she only had a few minutes left. Her heartbeat escalated rapidly, pounding loudly against her eardrum. So loudly, she almost missed Jumin calling out her name as the woman in question, not Sarah Choi.
Everything happened all at once, next. The Choi ladies were up in arms, reporters were pushing and shoving, Luciel was commanding the RFA to form a blockade around her, all while her thoughts swam. Five minutes left, no, was it four? Was it less? Was the black creeping into the edges of her vision stress, or her disappearing once more, only to be greeted with hostility as a stranger in the messenger like it was her first time all over again?
[ THE GAME BRANCHES HERE. ANY UNSAVED DATA WILL BE LOST.]
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[SAVE]
[CONTINUE]