"Jungkook."
He spins around, his gaze lands on Soo Young. She is wearing a figure-hugging, gold-sequined dress. Her friends were right; she looks absolutely stunning.
"Hi, Soo Young," he says flatly. He eyes the door, wondering if Atelier is okay. She has been gone for a while. He curses himself for not going after her, but she will be alright, won't she?
"Want to dance?" Soo Young asks, twirling one strand of dark brown hair around her fingers. "The next song's starting soon."
"No. I'm waiting for someone."
Her expression darkens. "My father is sitting up there, Jungkook. He's watching. Now, let's dance," she hisses.
Jungkook shoots a glance at the raised platform where Primarch Lee is sitting with the dean. Before he can react, Soo Young has dragged him off to the dance floor, out in the open, in full view of the Primarch. He has no choice.
"Just one song," he says. Atelier will be back soon. He wants to have the last dance with her.
"Quit glancing around, Jungkook. Look at me."
He unwillingly does so.
"You do know of the arrangements, don't you? Yet here you are, on a date with some other girl when you're /mine./"
He stops dancing and stands still glaring at her. "I'm not yours, Soo Young."
"By the Primarch's decree, you /are/," she reminds him. "I'm already being very generous, not telling Father about your little date with the Morheim roach, and all that mushy stuff between the two of you. He won't be so forgiving when he finds out."
"Maybe I don't care if he does."
"Are you crazy, Jungkook? He'll have you purged."
She's right, and Atelier wouldn't have it any better, but Jungkook is sick of it. He is sick of living for others. "I'd sooner get purged than be forced into marriage with someone I don't love."
Soo Young's face crumples with sadness. It makes him want to apologize, but he doesn't. He looks away. She sniffles. "Do you hate me that much?"
"I don't hate you, but that doesn't mean I love you. I'm sorry, Soo Young. I can't give you my all and it just won't be fair to you. To either of us."
"Rubbish! It's because of that girl, isn't it?"
"No."
"Ah, of course it isn't. You don't like her. This whole thing is just for show. You've never cared about what happened to her, and now you suddenly want to be a hero to come to the aid of a damsel in distress?"
Jungkook feels stung. He wishes Soo Young would stop pushing him. In all honesty, he is still uncomfortable about his own motives and is too afraid to examine them. Is he being selfish to involve Atelier? No... He only wanted to make it up to her for all the torment she has gone through. He has been telling himself that, like if he does it enough times he'll believe it.
And he does like her. Maybe.
He sees the Primarch watching and promptly grabs Soo Young's hand. "Your father is watching. Keep it down."
She cocks her head coyly and smiles. "I know you care. You're just too shy to admit it."
Jungkook sighs, frustrated. "You just don't understand, do you?"
"No, it is /you/ who don't understand, Jungkook," Soo Young says, tilting her head up and caressing his face with her fingertips. "I always get what I want. Always."
And she kisses him.
Just as the door opens.
He pushes her away and steps back, but he is too slow. She saw it. Atelier saw everything.
---
Everything inside Atelier collapses just then; her lungs, her rib cage, her /heart./ She can't breathe. She feels dizzy.
It is all a lie.
Sadness comes first, then anger. Anger at herself, as always, when she realises how foolish she has been to believe that the date means anything at all. Of course it doesn't. Of course Jungkook doesn't like her that way. He just felt sorry for her and tried to be kind, and she had gone and taken it the wrong way.
But this – how cruel he must be to shove it in her face so soon, before the night is even over.
Her heart shatters like the rest of her world. She turns the other way and starts to leave. He calls out to her, pleading her to wait, but she doesn't listen and she doesn't stop, not until she hears the other voice.
"Soo Young, isn't that your dress?"
Atelier freezes. /Her/ dress? Soo Young's dress...?
"Wow, yes. /Yes/ it is! Oh my, I couldn't even recognise it. Had to throw it away because it was so… plain." Soo Young's voice is loud and clear and rings throughout the ballroom. The music has long died down. Everyone could hear her, and maybe, that was her intention all along. For them to hear just what a loser Atelier is to resort to hand-me-downs.
The Elites /never/ take hand-me-downs. Those are for the lesser people of Ishalgen.
"Couldn't afford your own dress, roach? Maybe you should have stayed where rags are considered acceptable attire."
Atelier glares at her. She would have jumped on her and hit her if there weren't any soldiers around to protect her. She sees it now; the dress, a mere prop for the big show. Soo Young /wanted/ Atelier to come to the ball. She /needed/ her to be here to see for herself what a tool she was for trusting an Elite and falling into the trap. Soo Young will never let her live this down.
"Stop it, Soo Young."
But Jungkook? Is he in on the joke too?
The whispering begins, but laughter doesn't follow. It's as though the others don't quite know how to respond. As though they /don't/ want to respond.
Atelier's blood boils. They have never spared her before. Why now? She doesn't need their sympathy.
"I won't. You forced me to do this, Jungkook. If only you're not so keen on becoming a hero –"
She blocks it all out. The room has started to spin around her. Energy returns to her feet and they carry her towards the door. Anger compounds within her and she clutches herself tightly, afraid that if she doesn't keep it together, she would explode and unleash destruction and chaos upon the world that has never been accepting of her.
/They deserve it./
She keeps walking.
"Atelier, please. Listen to me."
He touches her shoulder – /just one touch/ – and she pushes him away – /and the bomb will go off./
"Leave me alone!"
And the ground splits open.