Pacific Pride

@247jaegu

A young man was carrying the weight of his heart in his hands. Fingers seemed to curl gently around the throbbing organ to keep it from falling apart and shattering on the squeaky clean ballroom floor. Unsteady feet brought him further and deeper into the room, as knees seemed to jitter and eyes searching but remaining unfocused on a path Jaejoong was attempting to make. The man’s blond hair was slightly ruffled by the night’s air, and the images it had brought were still deeply imprinted into his retina. Jaejoong’s view became blurry, his gaze glassy as he gasped at the sudden intense pain he felt in his heart.

He had only known her for a few weeks, and yet a few weeks was all it took for the man to fall. The blond had stumbled time and time again, had felt the heat rise from the pits of his stomach to his high cheekbones. Had felt his heart leap at the mere sight of her and experienced a tingling sensation in his finger tips every time she had been near. Jaejoong had been - no, still was - completely smitten. And one kiss had completely destroyed him. It hadn’t been theirs.

Jaejoong’s gaze followed a bright smile, watched as a smiling Bora crossed his line of vision before she disappeared. Memories flooded his mind of a perfect relationship that wasn’t mean to last, before once again the images of that night from a dark-haired beauty with a man that wasn’t him told him that a future relationship would be just as unlucky as his past one. It had become difficult to breathe. The blond made his way to where he had always felt safe, closer to the walls and into a dark corner of the suddenly too impressive ballroom. As he let his hazel eyes once again take in the scenes before him he realised with a start as he watched mouths move and eyes twinkle that for once, he truly loathed to be deaf. 

How he had wished to yell. Yell at the man who had stolen Mina’s affections, to shout at her for stealing his kiss, only to give it to another mere minutes later. How he wanted to scream at those who had wronged him, those who couldn’t and wouldn’t love him and how he wished for some miracle cure just to hear the voices of those that mattered to him. Jaejoong’s sadness made a turn as his eyes followed his friend Jiyong, and his date Gayoon, who were dancing intimately - having completely forgotten his existence for a moment. Jaejoong would give everything just to hear their voices, and Seunghyun’s. The blond melancholic thoughts brought him back to romance, and he realised with a start that he would give his life to be able to feel and experience what Jiyong and Gayoon were experiencing right at that moment - to be able to feel loved, desired by someone else.

there was too many people, all at the same time, and not many of them he took a particular liking to. or even knew for that matter. but he supposed he stood out like this, all pastel pink and white loafers and the splash of red right at his chest. everyone else was, quite frankly, extremely boring with clothes choices. he was expecting someone to at least come in dressed as cupid, though he supposed that was too much to hope for in this city -- hell, this country.

as his father would say: he’d gotten a taste of liberalism, of the lack of many social values and the abundance of unspoken social laws that it was almost hard to go back to this country that seemed foreign, yet was also entirely home. jaegu pinned it as some kind of fucked-up culture shock that he needed to get over, and quickly. he couldn’t keep doing business if he didn’t even know how to show respect the way people here expected him to.

jaegu found himself at the bar soon enough; fuck belle, who told him off for drinking. he could drink however much he wanted. but there was this asshole who suddenly decided to stop moving -- everyone was moving! why wasn’t he?! and jaegu meant to tell him off, he really did, except he noticed the look in the male’s eyes and knew it too well. 

she grimaced, but did what he asked (mostly because she had no choice since he literally forced her face closer towards him). “what is that?” she questioned, pulling away from him. “you smell actually decent for once.” she joked, paying no attention to his arm draped around her shoulders; belle already knew that if it wasn’t such a big event that her hair would be a big mess by now. 

@247jaegu

“doesn’t this remind you of the fancy party our parents threw and that we had to go when we were like five and seven?”

 in all honesty, a lot of belle’s childhood memories somehow involved jaegu in them. oh, who is this random little boy in this photo of her and her parents? that’s just jaegu because her parents adored him so much. ah, belle’s ninth birthday dinner… oh there’s jaegu! it’s gotten to the point people truly believed they were either 1. related by blood somehow or 2. in an arranged marriage and have known one another since childhood.

playing with the tulle of her gown of the night, she grinned at the male as the two walked made their way into the mansion for the ball that was the talk of the social circle and seemed fairly safe for their first, real appearance back in korea. wearing a mask should definitely make things a little easier and less awkward. especially if people were still bringing up that rumour of her getting an abortion in the states or that she had a three year old child living in new york being raised by a nanny full time. 

“so, will you be utterly ditching me afterwards and getting a little after party hook up?” she questioned, raising an eyebrow to the male. “because if your answer is yes, let me know now so i won’t be utterly disappointed in you.”

“no.”

it was a total lie, and a retort that came to him easily. belle asking him a question? no, definitely not, was the automatic answer. jaegu didn’t even bother listening to whatever it was she said, and instead agitatedly sipped on his drink. ah, alcohol: it didn’t talk as much, and he didn’t get tired of it.

(jaegu would never admit that he didn’t get tired of belle either, no matter how many antics she pulled and all the annoying little habits she had. nope, never going to admit it.)

@247jaegu

the night is young, the place where the ball is held looks neat, and hyeri is overwhelmed by the elegant aesthetic. everyone looks either wonderful or expensive or (most likely) both. as amazing as everything is, she can’t help but think of this as one big cliche marathon that would make her self-conscious.

the girl arrived without a date; so far she only knows that her friend belle is there, which pretty much puts more pressure on her, not knowing any other attendees. after small adventures and incidents of clumsiness, compliments and complaints, she finally feels that maybe this isn’t so bad and she can feel comfortable breathing.

jaegu hadn’t expected anyone to seem extremely familiar, but -- some force of nature (fate? destiny? a growing ache in his neck? pure boredom with present company?) prompted him to look around, and in doing so caught sight of someone who did seem achingly like --

no, it couldn’t be. the eye contact was definitely a weird occurrence, though, and something that begged to be investigated. bidding a quick goodbye and a ‘call me?’ to the woman he had been conversing with (and not exactly bothering to leave his number with her), he made his way through the crowd, grabbing a flute of champagne on his way to the petite woman in the red dress to accompany the one that he already had in his hand.

“it was just god telling me i wasn’t ready and that it was a good idea to keep my personal driver song jaegu around a bit longer,” she hummed, jiggling the keys in her hand. of course, an obnoxious fendi fur ball keychain was hanging off her car keys. “plus, won’t it be fun to ride in my new car? so much better than just a plain old taxi service.” 

belle scoffed at his extremely rude, but extremely true comment. hell, she needed help getting two suitcases up to her room. “i would probably be able to hold like… one of the bags. like the lightest one, and you could have carried everything else.” she sighed, weaving through the crowd towards the airport parking lot. “so… look!” she said, pointing to her new  car in excitement. the white audi q5 was probably not the best option for the small country korea, but ever since learning that big cars were the safest,there was no way she was going to drive a tiny sports car again. 

he would tell her how much she sounded like a child, but he’d sound redundant, and annoying, and too much like his mother. so he kept his mouth shut and rolled his eyes and followed her to wherever it was she parked; hopefully, he didn’t have to cover her ass if she damaged any of the cars she parked next to.

“your mother’s great idea that your father agreed would be a wonderful idea,” belle batted her eyelashes, smiling at the older male who had his typical annoyed expression on his face. clearly a few years away from her didn’t change a thing. really it was her idea, she couldn’t let go of an opportunity to bother him right after he landed in korea. “i mean i hope i got smaller, it would be sad if i got bigger instead.”

pulling out her keys with a grin, belle nodded. “of course i can! i’ve been driving for a good 3 years now.” there was no need for him to remind her that she failed her first test. “no comments from you when you’re in the passenger seat.” she eyed the two suitcases he had with her, looking up at him with a surprised expression. “that’s all you have? i would have expected more from such a princess from you.”

the thing was: that was absolutely believable. neither his mother nor his father ever had time to do all these personal face-to-face stuff with him. on the other hand, belle did that thing where she was batting her eyelashes obnoxiously at him, which made him doubt what she said. he’d never admit that the familiar face was actually pretty refreshing; everyone else seemed like a stranger.