CHAPTER 19; ON THE FLIP SIDE.

                                    

                                          

“Korean heartthrob and star Counsel/ Real Estate mogul, Jeon-Park Jungkook abandons husband in Seoul to spend quality time with American model and socialite mistress Anastasia in Kyoto.”  
The news headline of Seoul International newspaper in Jimin’s hands read. 
Right below the heading was a cozy picture of an all smiles Jungkook looking lovingly into the eyes of the said model.
Jimin’s legs gave, and he sunk to the floor in defeat. He knew the look in Jungkook’s eyes. He had seen it so many times when they were still crazy in love. 
He couldn’t imagine how much he had missed seeing Jungkook that happy. And it broke his heart again that he was not the reason behind that toothy smile anymore. 
But he still had faith. If it didn’t come out of Jungkook’s mouth, then Jungkook did not say it. Besides, his Jungkook would never purpose to hurt him in this cruel fashion. 
Even if Jungkookhad fallen out of love with Jimin, he knew Jimin still loved him so much. He would never. Right?
To calm his disbelieving demons down, he took out his phone and opened the YouTube channel of the said newspaper to watch the footage of the interview. 
He knew he was going to hate the sight of a woman hanging on his husband’s hand, but he needed to assure himself that this was just gossip.
His eyes quickly scanned through the details of interview Jungkook had given, skipping most of the tales of the promise his new branch was giving to Korea’s and Japan’s economic bilateral relations, to the part where Jungkook described the state of their relationship and tried to justify the presence of the bimbo dangling on his left arm.
“Estranged husband…separated for sometime now… not in love…getting divorced…, we have been over for long… both of us are moving on…working on finding  new love again, Anastasia is just old friend…” Jungkook’s voice was echoing in his head.
He surprisingly went through the whole interview with a clear head, taking in every smile Jungkook gave the paparazzo who was interviewing, demonstrating just how happy he was now that he was out of his “estranged” husband’s clutches. 
He needed to remember this moment exactly as is, these words letter per letter. He didn’t know why, but he held on to the unique sting of how deep each word sliced into him  as it ran out of Jungkook’s mouth.
After almost a year of not hearing from Jungkook, one would assume his heart would know by now how not to hope. But it had, this stupid heart of his, and somehow that hope had been his life line. 
Now, even that was gone. In its place was a deafening feeling of finality. A sickening numbness, he couldn’t shake off. He had seen this day coming so many times in his nightmares. He had cried over the possibility so many times. Broken hearts? Been there, done that. 
But nothing had prepared him for the feeling of emptiness that washed over him after he watched Jungkook call him his past. He felt his whole being resign to this new fate. And it felt like a grip of death. 
The feeling of helplessness that he hated so much was slowly crawling up his bones again, pulling him back to the one place he never wanted to revisit. 
All of a sudden, he was a pathetic teenager kneeling awkwardly by his mother’s deathbed again, crying his lungs out, begging her to choose him, to choose his father. 
It was the same feeling of ugly defeat he felt when even after he had begged  his sick mother to have the surgery to remove her brain tumor, she had chosen to abandon the 50% hope at life they had been given, and leave him and his father in the most cruel way because she was tired she had said.