Jungkook returned to his room. Correction. Their room. He locked the door and trudged towards the bed. He was exhausted, and he had a splitting headache now. Probably from all the arguing.
He set the tea down on the bedside table. He added the medicine and stirred it with a chopstick. Then he climbed into bed next to his fiancé. He turned his back towards her and fell asleep nearly instantly.
—
Jina swallowed experimentally. Her throat still hurt. So did her muscles. She wasn’t shaking anymore, though. She opened her eyes. The gentle, late afternoon sunlight was peeking through the window high above her head. It was kind sunshine this time. She blinked and rolled towards the side table. And came face to face with Jungkook.
Who was sound asleep.
Her eyes slid along the soft lines of his beautiful face. Made even more endearing by sleep. She felt a wave of tenderness hit her. Could she just go back to a week ago when she’d been in love with him? When she hadn’t known he had a brutal side?
That wasn’t fair. He wasn’t brutal exactly. Menacing. Angry. More like, irritated. She didn’t fear him. Not even when he’d held her wrists above her head. His grasp on her hadn’t been rough. Not really.
He’d been treating her like a recalcitrant child. Had she been behaving like one? She had tested his patience to the breaking point, apparently. Still, he had disappointed her.
Over the last few weeks, she had built him up to be some kind of romantic hero. She’d believed that he had a disposition to match his pretty face. But she’d been wrong. So wrong.
He was short-tempered. And quick to respond in a negative manner to almost everything she said or did. He was impossible to please. She groaned into her pillow. How on earth would she survive being married to him?
She had never expected him to like her. But she’d thought he’d be nicer to her than he had been. More respectful. Or maybe he’d simply ignore her. But he hadn’t done that either.
Though, if she were completely honest with herself, he had been trying to protect her last night when he’d brought her to his room. He’d let her sleep in his own bed instead of leaving her in the hallway to fend for herself. She sighed. What a disaster this whole thing was.
Her heart was hurting. She was nearly twenty years old. She’d spent years watching her friends getting married. Time was running out for her. She had almost relinquished her dreams of marrying someone kind. She had never expected him to be gorgeous.
She’d never thought that a beautiful man would look her way. And he hadn’t. Not really. Not for the reasons she would have liked.
He had noticed her only because she had irritated him. He believed she’d nearly gotten him killed. Would he ever realize that she had saved his life? Then he had stood by and let her fend for herself as she’d faced that menacing guard last night. Jungkook had only come to her rescue when she’d fainted.
Some hero…
