please read end note!!
Seoul, South Korea
February 27, 2020
About fifteen minutes after the house is emptied of all the guys, Elle finally emerges from the hallway. Her hair is freshly washed, dried, and tied away in a pretty hair clip. She sports a face of perfect makeup, completed with two flattering, sharp wings of eyeliner. She wears a multitude of gold accessories around her neck and in her ears to simply add to her already elegant and elevated look. It's the first time I've ever seen her completely dressed and ready to go out and her beauty is incredibly captivating.
Her jaw is sharp and her mouth is set into a determined and serious line as she brushes a few fallen hairs behind her ear. She hums as she rummages through the coat closet next to the kitchen, grabbing one of Taehyung's long coats and slipping it on over her cream colored sweater vest.
"Sorry I took so long," she says. "I had trouble finding my hoop earring Tae got me for Christmas." She flutters her fingers to show me the heavy looking gold hoops hanging from one of her many ear piercings. "They were hiding under his pillow." She laughs as she swings her purse over her shoulder.
"No, you're way faster at getting ready than I am," I say. "How'd you manage to look so nice in such a short time?"
She shrugs. "Taehyung's wardrobe? I'm wearing one of his turtlenecks under my sweater and these are his pants too. They're a couple years old, back before he had a butt and started working out."
I laugh at that. "I feel underdressed," I say, looking down at my thick sweated and blue jeans. Compared to all of her statement jewelry pieces, my lack of accessories make me feel inferior to her fashion and her stunning beauty.
Elle furrows her brows and looks at me in shock. "What? No, absolutely not. You're gorgeous."
I simply nod. "Thanks, Elle. Should we go?"
She sighs. "Here." She undoes her pretty chain necklaces and gestures for me to come over to her.
"No, I can't take your jewelry," I tell her, holding up my hand in protest.
"Ophelia, you're not taking anything from me," she promises. "I'm giving you a gift. Besides, we're like sisters now, right? I can just steal it back if I want to wear it." She smiles sweetly at me and reaches around to clip the necklace onto me.
"There. It looks perfect on you! Gold suits you so much better than me, I'm too pale for it."
She smiles brightly and makes her way to the front door, tugging me behind her by the hand. My fingers reach up to touch the simple pendant necklace while I wait for her to type in the lock password on the door. It's a simple presses plate with beaded drips of gold in a little frame around the edges. It's perfectly simple in appearance, but her gesture warms my heart.
I hurry after her so I don't get lost behind her.
—
Two hours later, Elle finally unlocks the door to Taehyung's massive Gangnam apartment with her fancy keycard. She swings open the door to reveal the dark and dusty apartment. Dust rises from the floor and dances in the sunlight streaming through the windows as we walk through, looking around at the high ceilings and
Elle flips on the lights, her hands on her hips as she stares at the furniture strewn throughout the house.
"Huh..." Elle mutters. "He told me he didn't buy any furniture last month when he was looking online." She puts a hand on her hip, lifting up a furniture cover to expose the expensive blue velvet couch. She simply shakes her head and waves for me to follow. "Come on, I'll give you a little tour of our place."
I'm happy for them, that they have a place to call 'theirs' even though they can't technically live together yet. She leads me through the huge apartment, weaving through the haphazardly placed furniture and grumbling with each new piece she finds.
Elle flips on the light to the master suite, in it's own very private and closed off corner of the four bedroom apartment.
"This is our room," she says softly, taking in the gathering of furniture in the middle of the room. "Well, it will be when the company will let us move in together."
The room is massive, with marble-like stone floors and walls climbing high to the black slat ceiling. There's a luxurious fireplace on one wall and shelves carved into the wall on the other side of the room. A huge blackout curtain hangs on the far wall, covering up a huge set of windows and what I can only assume is an amazing view.
Elle confirms this when she walks over and pulls the curtain back. The room is flooded with sunlight and I learn I was correct; the view of the Han River and Seoul's distant skyline is outstanding.
"There's a wraparound balcony out there," Elle says, referencing the windows. "And the bathroom is open-door. I guess rich people don't need privacy or something? I'm not really sure what that's about. Bu the bathroom and the closets are huge, Ophelia!"
Upon entering the room, I immediately notice the huge shower that contains five shower heads: two on either side, one detachable, and two rainfall heads falling from above. Next to the shower is a huge bathtub that could easily fit the two of them if they wanted. The tub is placed in front of a tinted window that shows the beautiful view. The two closets are massive and could almost count as entire bedrooms on their own with their intricate drawer and display systems.
"I've never lived in anything like this before," Elle says softly. Her fingers gingerly run over the countertops. "My house in Chicago is so small. It's only two bedrooms. It feels so wrong to live in a place like this while my parents live alone in that old house."
She looks at her reflection in the huge mirror, fingers brushing over imagined creases in her makeup. "So much has changed in such a short amount of time...I mean, in under a year I've gone from working every morning before school to save up for university to living like this." She shakes her head. "I feel like I'm dreaming."
"I know what you mean," I agree.
"You live with your grandma, right?" Elle asks, still picking herself apart in the mirror. "Taehyung was saying something like that. You live with her and you take care of her."
"Yeah, I do," I say. "My dad passed away years ago and I've been with her ever since. But now she's sick and her mind isn't well, so I take care of her. I finish my Master's degree this spring, so I'll hopefully be able to set us for the rest of her life after that."
"You don't have to worry about that anymore," she reminds me.
I raise my brows a bit at that. "You're right..."
"It's hard to wrap my mind around the fact that Taehyung wants to spend his money to take care of me and my family. He keeps telling me that he wants to take care of them. He wants to buy me things and pay for things. He bought all this furniture, even that expensive couch I thought was so pretty, he paid for all my boxes to be delivered today, these hoops are completely solid gold because he wanted them to be worthy of me he said. He does things like that all the time, takes care of them before I can even think much about them. He bought my dad a new car a couple months ago because I mentioned having to co-sign because my credit score is higher than my dad's. He just bought him a new car without even thinking of it."
My heart softens when she says that because I can see those same qualities in Seokjin. When he offers to move my grandmother here so we can be with each other and I can still care for her, when he promises that everything will work out no matter how difficult it looks from the outside, when he holds me and supports me when I'm crying, even when he cries to me about his own struggles; everything he does and says reflects his care and love for me.
"I feel like I'm using him for his money," Elle mumbles. "That's what the public and the fans would say, anyway. Especially after what that bitch did to Jinnie. After that, I can't convince myself that it's okay to let him take care of us. I can't let it go."
"What Taehyung's doing for your family is completely different from what she did," I tell her firmly.
"I know," she says. "Rationally, I know that. But it's always in the back of my mind. Everything we do has consequences, even what we do now. Who knows what people will say about me or him when it eventually comes out that he's in a relationship."
"I think this is really important to talk to him about," I say. "Especially if it's always on your mind like this. It's something that you guys need to address together."
"That's just it. I can't even talk to him about it," she whimpers as she sniffles to keep tears in . "I can't even talk about it because I was stupid in high school and didn't take Korean as my foreign language. My parents even told me I should because I wanted to go to Yonsei and I said no! That's so dumb! I've been trying and studying to get into Yonsei since I was fourteen, why didn't I take Korean?!"
I pat her back, finding a napkin in my purse and hand it to her to wipe up her tears. "Let's just breathe for a second, okay? Hope will be here soon and we have to start moving all the furniture and things. Let's focus on all the good things for now."
"Like what?" She sniffs.
"Like the fact that you're living in a multi million dollar apartment? Or the fact that your soulmate is one of the sweetest, most talented, most successful, most handsome musicians in the world? The fact that you're moving in with him?"
"Next year," she corrects.
"Yes, next year," I say as I squeeze her shoulder. "You're starting at a world famous and extremely prestigious university next week. There are so many things to be grateful for."
"I'm glad your here, Ophelia," she says softly, leaning her head on my shoulder. I awkwardly try to wrap my arm around her shoulder despite her being so much taller than me.
"I really miss home," she continues, "I miss my friends and my family...and everyone in the house is so close to each other. I'm so much younger that I don't feel like I can fit in with any of them. So I'm just really happy you're here now."
I hug her again, a little more tightly this time. "What are sisters for?"
—
"WHO IN THE HELL LETS A TWENTY THOUSAND DOLLAR COUCH SIT IN A DUSTY APARTMENT FOR A MONTH?"
Elle's frustrated shouting is the first thing Hope hears when I open the door for her.
"Having a fun time?" Hope laughs, her eyebrow raised.
"TAEHYUNG FURNISHED THE APARTMENT!"
"He bought everything she said looked nice," I say.
"INCLUDING TEN SIX THOUSAND DOLLAR DINING CHAIRS!" Elle hesitantly touches one of the chairs, afraid to push the furniture around the room.
Hope sighs, kicking her heels off at the door and tying her her beautiful hair. "One of us should probably call Tae and warn him about coming home tonight."
I snort when I hear Elle cursing in one of the other bedrooms. "That may not be such a bad idea."
"Okay, whatever!" The younger girls huffs. Her eyeliner was wiped away after it smeared a bit from her crying and she's already swapped her elegant outfit for a sweatsuit she found in one of her boxes. "We have to get things moving. He bought a whole new bed frame, so he can move that and my mattress when he gets here. I labeled all the boxes per room, so just start putting stuff in rooms and we can start moving furniture. God, I hate moving."
I'm only able to move a few boxes before the front door opens again and the culprit himself walks in.
"Where is she?" Taehyung asks me, his brows furrowed and mouth opened in confusion.
At the sound of his voice, Elle comes screeching from the master bedroom. She's running and Tae holds his arms open for her to run and hug him, but she slaps his arm instead.
"Ow, hey! Why?!" He shouts holding his shoulder.
"WHO THE HELL SPENDS HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS ON FURNITURE FOR IT TO GET DUSTY IN AN EMPTY APARTMENT?"
"Elle, honey, I don't even know what you're saying," he sighs in Korean. She turns away, throwing her hands up into the air as she continues to yell.
"THIS IS WHY I SAID NOT TO BUY ANY FURNITURE YET. WE'RE NOT EVEN GONNA BE LIVING HERE FULL TIME FOR ANOTHER YEAR—!"
Taehyung looks down at his watch for a moment, letting her get some more of her rant out before he bravely reaches out and holds her face in his hands.
"Hi, pretty," he says in the sweetest most loving voice a man could possibly speak in. It silences her right away. He just stares at her with such genuine love in his eyes it almost makes me cry watching.
She's instantly in his arms with her face smooshed against his and squealing happy noises into his ear. Taehyung just laughs, brushing his hand over her smooth hair.
"Help me move the bed," she hums, planting a firm kiss on his cheek.
"Okay." He giggles and they head into what will soon be their bedroom to move more furniture.
"They look really good together," I say, dropping a box on the expensive couch.
"I know, right?" Hope agrees with a sigh. "They're both so hot. I can't wait until we're all on the red carpet and everyone just has to take in and photograph how hot they are. It's intimidating."
"It only seems right that someone stunning and stylish would be Taehyung's soulmate," I say.
"The universe seems to know what it's doing." Hope smiles when her phone dings and she types up a message to respond. "JK and Jin are on their way. Jin's coming to take you home."
I smile at the thought of my soulmate. "What are you guys doing tonight?" I ask to distract myself.
Hope gestures to the hallway where we can hear Elle and Taehyung laughing loudly. "Babysitting. Since the staff knows he's here with her, someone has to be present watching them just in case people come by to make sure the rules are being followed."
"Do people check up on them often?" I ask.
Hope shrugs. "Not really. But a couple weeks ago, one of the managers stopped by on a Saturday and they were still sleeping. Hoseok ran into Tae's room and they had to hide Elle in the closet so they could say she was in her apartment across town. You know, the apartment that doesn't exist?"
My eyes widen. "A little lax with the rules, huh?"
"I mean, we all are," she sighs. "They're two consenting adults, and they're soulmates. Who are we to put rules on them? They're not even allowed to kiss on the mouth until she turns nineteen in August. It's stupid stuff."
"I see where you're coming from," I huff as I pick up another box.
Our soulmates arrive before we can say much more about Taehyung and Elle. The front door swings wide and Jungkook practically materializes on the floor next to Hope. He gives her a quick kiss and sweeps the end of her ponytail off her shoulder.
I feel Seokjin's presence behind me and I turn to see him reaching out to take the box from me.
"A little heavy?" He asks softly.
"Yeah, a little," I sigh.
"Are you ready to go?" He sets the box down on one of the kitchen countertops and reaches over to brush some hair out of my eyes.
I nod with a smile. "I'm gonna say bye to Elle first."
In the master bedroom, I can hear Elle huff out a heavy breath. I peek my head around the corner just as the two of them flop the mattress onto the beautiful platform. She looks at the furniture placement with her hands on her hips and Taehyung comes behind her, his hand resting on her waist.
"Hey," I call in, softly knocking. "Seokjin and I are leaving," I say first in Korean to Taehyung before I switch back to English. "We're leaving, but Hope and Kook are here to help you some more."
Elle's lips pout a bit but she runs over to hug me anyway. "Okay. I'll see you later?"
"See you later," I promise.
I pick up my bag from where I left it on the kitchen counter and take Seokjin's hand.
"Let's go," I say and he leads me out with a wave goodbye to our friends.
—
you guys, college life is exhausting. i put off homework to get this chapter out because I NEEDED TO GET IT OUT!! you guys deserve it <3
cay
2940 words
ADDITIONAL NOTE: hey lol im writing this note to you all later :P i posted it as an announcement on my page but it's important that i put it everywhere.
in the prologue of this book, there is a line that ophelia says in the beginning about how she's "not into asian guys." after some time stewing on it, ive changed that line to something else.
the line was never EVER meant to hurt anyone, please understand. im so sorry to my readers who were hurt and felt discriminated against or that they were unattractive because the line was never meant to mean that. it was never even meant to be something ophelia really meant to say, it was more a thoughtless thing she said to try and get rose to put her phone away.
i put the line in the prologue originally to show a two things:
1. the USA was (and still is) EXTREMELY small minded and xenophobic. ophelia probably would have been made fun of in 2013 america because her soulmate was foreign, wore makeup, didn't speak english, etc...all the things people still hate kpop and immigrants for today 8 years later.
2. i tried to use it to convey the soulmate universe. in a universe where there are people who are destined to be together, can you REALLY have a type? the universe lays out your love for you, you don't get to choose things like looks.
everyone has a type. everyone has preferences for what they want their life partner to be like and there's nothing wrong with that in itself. the problem with "having a type" and the problem with this line is that they both can be used as tools to discriminate against ENTIRE groups of people. THAT is wrong and that is why I decided to change the line.
to those who were hurt and that i offended with this line, i am so sorry. it was never my intention and im so sorry it took me so long to remove it. i was torn between my savior "let's change the world" complex and simply writing a book where EVERYONE can feel included. fiction doesn't always have to reflect the real world.
i hope you can all forgive me. thank you so much for supporting me and for calling me out in my comments and messages. i love you all and appreciate you 💕