CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
.
.
.
Bang Si-hyuk was working late in his office. It was already dark.
He had heard about me and Jake’s break up. The boys were not certain what they were going to do then.
Jake entered with a broken heart. It was the evening I pushed him away.
“Jake?” said Mr. Bang, “What brings you here? Did you and Y/N quarrel or something?”
“It was terrible, PD-nim.” said Jake, softly, “It was so terrible!”
He burst into tears gently, as he put his head down, muffling his sobs. Mr. Bang sat right next to him and patted his head.
“It’s okay, Jake…” he said, “I’m sure it wasn’t that bad–”
“We broke up, PD-nim! We broke up!”
Mr. Bang froze. He didn’t expect that we actually DID break up. And Jake took it to heart so quickly. I guess I did not know that his heart could break easily.
“But Jake,” said Mr. Bang, “I’m very sure Y/N will forgive you someday. Usually after little fights, or quarrels, you would reflect on what happened and then get together again, and apologize. I bet that’s what Y/N is doing right now. And you should too.”
But Jake whimpered.
“Come here.” said Mr. Bang, with his arms spread out and open.
Jake cried in Mr. Bang’s arms. The situation was so terrible, he just couldn’t bring himself to say anything. They had to break up. But Jake didn’t do anything wrong. Y/N didn’t know that Jay was the one to cause so much trouble.
“Jake,” said Mr. Bang, “Y/N forgives you…I know she does. However…I know it’s hard to get her to believe you. I recently found that she is not the best person to speak with. But…she is your best friend…you have to at least talk to her. Address this issue.”
“But what if she doesn’t even want to talk to me?”
“Then…let her calm herself. Rest now…you may need it.”
Back in ENHYPEN’s dorm, they were doing yet another live. Only, this live was sadder than the rest. And it was all because of the incident that occurred when I broke up with Jake.
“Look at the comments!” said Sunoo.
The comments were all in caps, yelling at Jake to get back together with her and apologize. There was even obscene language too. But it wasn’t Jake’s fault. He would ever do such a thing.
“But it’s not my fault…” he mumbled.
“Jongseong-ah!” said Heeseung, “I know you and Jake don’t always see eye to eye, but it doesn’t give you the right to prompt him into doing terrible actions to the girls. It’s understandable we were jealous, but then your jealousy was taking things too far. WAY too far. So far…you had to take extreme measures to get what you think we want.”
“And you’re mad because…”
“Because Jake and Y/N were really close,” said Sunghoon, “To be honest…they did seem pretty successful with the other boys back in I-LAND. Maybe right now is bad. But tomorrow should seem better.”
But it wasn’t. When they were filming for their very first EN-o’Clock episode, young female students gave them dirty looks. It was as if they weren’t satisfied with the live show they just watched. But I was there. And I was pretty satisfied enough.
But poor Jake took it to heart and teared up in secret whenever the cameras were off.
Meanwhile, BTS were already about to go to sleep. When Namjoon’s phone rang.
“Hello?” he said, “Maeve! Hi! Oh…you’re leaving? Where to? Ireland? Oh! Home. Right here, right? Oh, okay. Well…hope you come back soon!”
As he hung up, Jin asked:
“Are they going back to Ireland?”
“No,” said Namjoon, “They’re…stepping out for a few days. Seems to me that Y/N kind of threw it out with Jake that one night.”
“I still can’t believe she dumped an entire bucket of water at him. He looked pretty drenched.” said Taehyung.
“I can’t believe that he would do such things to her and the girls.” said Yoongi.
“I don’t think she would ever,” said Jungkook, “Erika said that Jake was too soft to break a girl’s heart. And I overheard Jay’s name.”
“So…” said Namjoon.
“It’s concluded that Jay must have been plotting against the girls and tried to cover it up and let it all go on Jake.”
“So…Y/N broke up with him…for nothing then.” said Jimin.
“Exactly,” said Hoseok, “I think…Y/N should talk to him…and get the facts straight. It can’t go on any longer. Someone has to address this issue.”
I wanted to address the issue. But I couldn’t. Even if Jake wasn’t the one to do all of those mean things, it was no excuse for him to go along with Jay’s plan. That was a thing I can’t forgive him for. I didn’t want to. But I was not sorry about it. And I didn’t expect myself to be.
The next morning, we were all packed up to visit our familes for a few days. Our fans were waiting to greet us. But TXT and BTS were also there to bid us a temperate farewell.
Hugs and kisses were displayed. Huening Kai’s grip was so strong he didn’t want to let go. Eventually, he did. As we head outside, I let the fans know that we were going to be on a hiatus for the next few days. But we would be back when we were ready.
“But…if you’re lucky, we will be up for a photo or an autograph!” I concluded.
“However, don’t get too obsessive!” said Holly.
Our tour bus was ready for our drive back home. We then bidded everyone farewell and drove off. For some reason, I felt sad. I wanted to do well as an idol…but I did not feel the way I should be feeling. It was like a depression…only…it wasn’t a severe pain.
The moment I got home, I thought I wouldn’t see my mother’s face again! She was talking with Mrs. Shim, Jake’s mother. But she was in tears.
She’s heard about our breakup, I suppose, I thought.
Mum pulled me to her arms, as if it were the last time I would see her. She missed that much. It was a bid hard to tell if she was crying or laughing to herself (since she cries very lightly when she’s happy).
“I missed you, darling,” she said, “But there is one question that Mrs. Shim was asking. Why did you break up with Jake?”
I was at a loss for words.
“You too?” I asked.
“Well…” said Mrs. Shim, “My son blubbered as he called me on the phone. I was wondering if you two had a fight or a disagreement. But no…he said you two broke up. I wondered why until you said he did mean things to you. But he said he would never do anything to you.”
“Even if it’s true…” I said, crossing my arms, “I still can’t forgive him. Even if someone prompt him to do things they shouldn’t, how am I supposed to believe that? He was practically jealous of me!”
“And he was,” said Mum, “But…you two were at first blind to see that you were in love. After that, Jake called me and said he couldn’t stop thinking of you and how things would go when you grew up to be an idol. And he would sometimes mention that in a few more years after pursuing a dream like that…”
“What?”
“He would marry you!”
Yeeach!
“It was so sweet of him when he said that.” said Mrs. Shim, obviously thinking of that sweet and tender memory.
That night, I thought about what I had done to make it come like this. But…I still couldn’t forgive him. I still did not want to. Jake had done enough damage to me and the girls. I couldn’t let him get away with it…could I?