Their study session had ended. Although the air between them was awkward in the beginning, it eased down a lot later, and the four of them blended well.
Chaewon had already left for home, and Taehee had some matters to attend to. Jaehyun and Jinhee were the only ones who were left behind at the restaurant for dinner.
After the argument she had with Jinkyung yesterday, she was sure that Jinkyung had something plotted, and eating with Jaehyun sounded like a better option than dealing with Jinkyung's drama.
Finishing her plate of kimchi fried rice, she drank down a glass of water and was ready to go. Jaehyun, on the other hand, had finished his dinner a long time ago and was busy on his phone.
Seeing that Jinhee was about to get up, Jaehyun spoke out, "I'll drop you home."
As Jinhee was about to reply with a 'no', Jaehyun added, "It is not safe for you to go alone this late, and there is no harm in accepting my offer."
°°°
There were times Jinhee had forgotten that Jaehyun was actually a popular celebrity, and seeing how the fans swarmed around them, she remembered about it. Fortunately, he had his bodyguards to ward them off.
As she sat beside him in the backseat of his car, he voiced out, "None of this will be posted online."
Jinhee simply nodded to it.
This made her remember about how in her last life, Jaehyun made no efforts to stop the rumours with other females from spreading even when he had the power to. It was just that he did not want to.
This made her heart clench deeply. He made her seem like his plaything, a girlfriend he didn't care about, online. Although Jinhee tried to stay nonchalant about it in her last life, it broke her bit by bit.
Even though, gradually, she was starting to lose those feelings she once had for Jaehyun— and soon enough, they would amount to nothing— a part of her still ached.
A part of her wanted to ask Jaehyun that didn't he see how she was hurting the entire time. If he noticed, why did he turn a blind eye to it? If he had no feelings towards her, why didn't he reject her in the first place?
Nonetheless, although some part within her was in pain, a greater part of her had grown stronger. That greater part of her learned to use her past life as a bad memory and take advantage of everything from that bad memory.
She believed that, although it was slower, she'll grow out of her past's shadows wnd start completely anew. For that, she needed to finish her revenge. Little by little, the confidence that had been once lost was being gained by her.
For her to completely free, what she mostly needed to do was stop running away from Taehee and Jaehyun. Instead of being afraid of her feelings emerging out, she needed to learn to control them in front of them. She couldn't let them be her weakness.
"I'll be having a music video shoot in Japan for four days. Do you want to come along?" Jaehyun questioned.
"Sure, I am free anyways," Jinhee replied.
For four days, she wouldn't need to face her so-called family, and once she goes to Japan, she'll get the chance to visit the grave of her mother— the one she never met. Not only that, she'd able to help remove that problem Jaehyun will be facing.
'If I manage to remove this problem, then none of us will be owing each other anymore.'