Jeon Jungkook. A cocky 16 year old who always expected to have his own way. That's what he is. I didn't know how I found myself putting up with a guy like that for over 16 years. But then again, they say that birds of a feather flock together.  

It was damp outside and I pulled my rain coat around me tighter against the thin drops of rain that started falling in slant lines with a gust of chilly wind. 

"Just one more minute Cess,”  

"Yah, Jungkook!," I yelled pointing a finger  at the horizon where the shades of oranges and blues were the most concentrated and where I was sure the sun was playing hide and seek with us behind a veil of darkening clouds. "How the hell are you going to see it, you moron?"  

I almost lost my footing and fell over the dock trying to aim a knock on his head. The sea beneath us had become murky without the sun and it churned over as the wind attacked it relentlessly.  

"Woah," He said catching my hand, steadying me. "Calm down—" 

"Calm down?" I said seething with such anger that I felt a desperate need to slap across his face. In fact, I felt a desperate need to do anything that would remove that smirk on his face. “I have my duty today and I haven't had a minute of sleep trying to watch the stupid sunrise with you. You could go to your warm bed and sleep the whole day but I have to be at the front desk till evening. Wearing this." 

With that I flashed a forced smile and I heard him stifle a laugh I turned around to leave.

Sure, it was not his problem the weather was unpredictable these days but I couldn't help my anger from bubbling up which was partly fuelled by my sleeplessness and exhaustion after staying on the arrival dock of the resort since 4 a.m. that night waiting for the sun to emerge. I will never admit it to Jungkook, but I too was excited to see the sunrise from the minute he suggested the idea. Even though I had been working as a trainee, in deference to my dad’s wishes in the island resort owned by him for more than half a year, I had never done anything more interesting than waking up at 6.a.m six days a week and going to bed latest by 10:00 by which time I would be a zombie walking towards my bed. Except the nights Jungkook showed up with his crazy ideas.

Honestly, I didn't like the idea of getting involved in my dad's business at such a young age, seeing how I was destined to take over after him which meant restless nights for the rest of my life. But I was 15 before I knew it while I was busy zooming in and out of hotels and resorts and cruise ships for more than a decade while being home-schooled with my childhood friends who shared a story parallel to mine. Talking about childhood friends, I don't have many people in my life that I can call friends seeing how I was always on the move accompanying a single dad in his business trips. It was just the three of us: me, Jungkook and his cousin who seems to have forgotten I ever existed over the course of a night. He avoids me like I was this banana peel lying on a slippery floor. I saw him twice this year and there was always a girl beside him. But that’s a different story.

Our footfalls on the wet dock was drowned out by the lashing waves below us, as I stomped off squinting against the rain, followed by Jungkook who had a difficult time walking up to me because I kept blocking his way.

"I'll ask the manager to give you a leave today"  

"And who's going to compensate the loss in my payslip?" 

"Payslip! Cess, you don’t get paid," 

There. He always made sure to remind me that once in a while because he had started receiving part of the money he sponges off his dad disguised in the form of a pay slip in the second month he started working for the cruise liner of which the ownership is shared by Jungkook’s and Taehyung’s dad. But Jungkook almost never gets on board. He skeevs out at the idea of a moving ship.  His cousin is the complete opposite though. But that’s a different story again. 

Before I could come up with a retort that would shut him up for good I saw one of my colleagues darting across the sandy beach towards us in such speed which I thought was impossible for someone who wore high heels that sank into the sand completely every time she took a step. Even from a distance I recognized Natalie immediately because of the light blonde hair and it fell all over her face because of the wind. The vast expanse of the sandy floor had become quite firm because of the wetness and I stepped onto it feeling relieved at the fact that I did not have to make my way to work today like the majority of the days when the grains of fine sand would give away beneath my feet and I had to endure a laborious walk of 1/4 of a kilometre till I reached the firm ground. I hadn’t taken more than a few steps when Natalie walked up to us. She was not in her uniform so I guessed it was her day off.

“Hey Jungkook,” She spared him a glance and then at once launched into a conversation with me which was serious enough to involve a few papers which she pulled out from her Jeans pocket and handed over to me.

“I had filled everything; just get the sign from both of them,”

I quickly went over the first sheet but had to peruse the second one because I had caught a too familiar name written in block capitals. Then I went back again to the first sheet which triggered my memory taking me back to a night at least 365 days before.

 

I was sitting at the foot of my bed with two boys at each side of me and a girl across from me—all of us sitting cross-legged. The girl etched closer to Taehyung earning a look from me and she returned it with a similar look, narrowing her eyes at me. She had joined us precisely the minute we started our Saturday night fun just like she had been doing for the past month. She stuck like a gum in our trio from the day dad brought her along with her father to our place who was a business partner of his.  Jungkook and I made sure she felt unwanted and unwelcomed while Taehyung was trying to dissolve the tension in the room. If she wasn’t rambling about her backpack collection or her nail polish collection which got on Jungkook’s nerve, she would be picking at the fabric of Taehyung’s clothes and that started to tick me off after a while and I would watch her art, gritting my teeth as she got closer and closer to him while her hands would manoeuvre on his sweater following the “little bug” she had just seen. She was always seeing a “little bug” on Taehyung’s clothes but she never ever caught one.

 

“Cess?” 

Natalie’s voice brought me back from my stupor. I shook my head murmuring “nothing,” but she looked at me incredulously. “Know him?”

“No—“

Natalie cut me off and began in a whisper. “Stargazer Cruise Line…his dad owns that.”

Jungkook fidgeted beside me. I could tell he was itching to contradict that statement. But he kept quiet because he didn’t want to give away our identities; Jungkook’s and my parents made sure that only a handful of staff knew who we were for obvious reasons and Natalie was not of them. She went on sharing a lot of misinformation about Mr.Kim and his son and finally said “it will be really weird if you knew him.”

 As soon as Natalie was out of earshot Jungkook muttered, “Yeah, very” and we both had already forgotten about our little quarrel. I would’ve laughed at that at any other time but my mind was already reeling. I would be seeing Taehyung today with his rumoured girlfriend and I didn’t know what to make of that fact. Maybe this will be a chance to ask Somi about how many bugs she had been able to catch since I was gone. 

 

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Alright! First Chapter ^^ Please comment and let me know what you guys think of it <3 <3 <3