|| In The Arms Of Fate ||

Kim seo-rin's POV

I thought I knew love. The kind of love that lifts you up, that makes you feel seen. I never imagined it would come wrapped in betrayal.

The day I met him, Jeon Jungkook, he seemed like any other stranger in the dark corners of my life. Polite, distant, with a smile that barely reached his eyes. I thought that was all he would ever be to me-a fleeting figure, someone I'd forget. But fate... fate had other plans.

Now, as I look around this grand but follow mansion, I can't help but wonder if this is my punishment for daring to dream. For believing that he was different. He married me, yes-but this marriage, it's not a fairytale. It's a cage, with him as my captor and me the helpless bird inside.

I don't know why he did it, why he changed so suddenly, so viciously. He doesn't speak of love, only of power, control, and... revenge. Against whom? I don't know. I only know I'm a pawn in his twisted game, and every day, I feel myself slipping further from the girl I once was.

Jeon Jungkook. The name that once sounded sweet now feels like poison on my lips. He's filled with an anger I can't begin to understand, one that drives him to hurt me without a second thought. And here I am, married to a man who wears hate like a crown, and who hides secrets I fear to uncover.

---

I met him at a place where people come to remember the ones they've lost. The air was quiet, almost reverent, as if even the wind dared not disturb the solemn memories left hanging in the air. In Korea, we call it the Memorial Garden. I was there to honor my brother, Kim Mingyu, who was taken from us too soon.

As I walked through the rows of names engraved in stone, I noticed someone sitting beneath a tree. He looked... broken. Pale and visibly exhausted, he sat there, his posture weighed down as if he bore the weight of years of sorrow on his shoulders. When I got closer, I noticed a single tear slipping down his face, which he quickly wiped away with the back of his hand, but it was too late-I had already seen it.

He caught me looking and narrowed his eyes, his gaze hardening with a cold anger that sent a shiver down my spine. There was something haunting in those eyes, something that told me he was hiding a world of pain. I fumbled for a tissue and offered it to him, but he scoffed, his tone harsh and cold as he muttered, "Mind your own business."

For a second, I was taken aback by his rudeness, but somehow, I could feel that it wasn't directed at me. It was as if he was trying to push away a memory, or a feeling he couldn't bear to face. "It's okay to cry," I replied softly, meeting his anger with a gentleness I didn't fully understand. I don't know why, but something about him reminded me of someone struggling against their own fate. Something about him felt like a storm longing for calm.

He stared at me, almost as if he'd seen a ghost, then looked away, clenching his jaw. I watched as he turned his back and walked off without another word, leaving me with the unsettling feeling that he was chasing a memory he could never catch.We kept meeting like that, by chance, each time he was cold and distant. And yet, slowly, almost against my own will, I found myself falling for him-falling for the mystery that surrounded him, for the rare glimpses of vulnerability that seemed to slip through the cracks of his hardened exterior. There was a rawness to him, a silent storm that only someone as damaged as he seemed to be could carry. And as foolish as it was, I found myself wanting to be the one to calm that storm, to understand the darkness he kept hidden.

It wasn't anything obvious that made me fall for him-no grand gestures, no sweet words. In fact, he was the opposite of everything I'd ever dreamed of. Cold, unapproachable, and with a sharp edge to his words that could cut through anyone's defenses. But there was something about the way he moved, the way he stood alone, that felt hauntingly familiar. I wanted to see what lay beneath that stone-cold surface, to discover what he was so determined to hide from the world... and maybe even from himself.