The meeting with Daehyun has left Jungkook fuming. And he isn’t even sure what was more frustrating; the fact that he didn’t punch the man’s smile off his face, or that he had no excuse for why he would such a thing. ‘I punched you because you keep flirting with the girl I might or might not have deep, recently acknowledge feelings for’ didn’t sound exactly right for Jungkook. Nor was he ready to admit that out loud when he’s still trying to come to terms with his own feelings.

That doesn’t stop him from being on edge. If anything, it fuels his irritability to the point that Lynn sits him down when his pacing around the house starts worrying her for a real. “Is there something wrong?” She asks, trying to catch Jungkook’s eyes, failing when all the latter does is shakes his head, eyes boring holes into the black screen of the TV.

“Doesn’t look like it?” Lynn accuses, holding Jungkook’s knee in place so he stops moving his leg. “Is this about Daehyun?”

This finally catches Jungkook’s attention. He turns his head to face the girl, surprised that she knew why he was being this way, and also afraid that she knew the meaning behind it. “What? No, it’s not. Why would I-“

“Come on.” Lynn suddenly says, cutting Jungkook’s failed attempt at lying and standing up, taking the latter’s hand and dragging him behind her.

“What the , what are you doing? Wait-” Jungkook stumbles behind her, almost falling face first if not for Lynn’s tight on him. His question remains unanswered, as they reach the front door and Lynn lets go of his hand so she can put her shoes on. Jungkook stands there, confused and puzzled as he watches her do so. She finally snaps her gaze to him, giving him a glare. “What are you waiting for? Or do you want to drive barefoot?”

“Where-“

Lynn jumps up, effectively cutting the boy yet again. “If you don’t follow me in two minutes, I am going to come back here and beat your .” And with that she leaves, not even giving Jungkook the chance to say anything. When the door closes behind her, she deflects, unsure of her own plan and ability to get Jungkook out of whatever mood he’s in. Especially when she doesn’t feel ready to dwell on that, feeling a weird mixture of nervousness and hope since the boy implicitly admitted that he is in fact mad because of Daehyun. And that hope made her even more nervous and afraid, because she’s not supposed to feel like that, and Jungkook isn’t supposed to be mad because of her ex and they shouldn’t even be living together right now. And how did they end up like this?

Thankfully Jungkook emerges from the house before Lynn falls into a full-blown panic attack, and it’s easy to fall back in her pretending game, because she’s Lynn and she has always survived life with the mentality of ‘fake it till you make it’. Lynn makes a show of checking her watch, nodding in satisfaction once she sees the time. “Less than two minutes. Can’t believe you cherish your that much when you don’t even have one.”

“Wow, rude much.” Jungkook complains. “Also, can you finally tell me what the are we doing?”

Lynn throws a key at Jungkook, who barely catches it in time. “It’s adventure time baby.”

“What the, where the hell did you find these?” Jungkook asks, looking at his brother’s motorcycle keys in wonder.

Lynn shrugs. “I found them randomly in the living room and thought it would be a good idea to go for a ride.”

Jungkook snickers at that. “Bold of you to assume I know how to ride this.”

Lynn snickers, giggling when Jungkook glares at her. “Oh my god, you don’t? I thought riding a motorcycle comes with the whole boy package.”

“Excuse me-“

“You’re excused.” Lynn grins teasingly, feeding off annoying Jungkook.

“You’re such a pain in the .”

“You don’t even have one.”

Jungkook groans. “I didn’t come here to be disrespected. I’ll just go back since there’s nothing for us to do, since I have proved myself useless.”

“Hey. You’re wrong to think I, Lynn Tuan, don’t have a solution to everything.” Lynn exclaims, snatching the key from the boy’s hand. “Let me show you how it’s done.”

Jungkook watches Lynn in bewilderment as she puts the helmet on before hopping on the motorcycle. “Are you not coming?” She yells back at the boy, who finally remembers how to move, reluctantly sitting behind her. “Are you sure of this? Do you really know how to drive it, no-“

“Oh my god I thought I was the paranoid one in this relationship.” Lynn blurts, only realizing what she has said when she feels Jungkook freezing behind her. She laughs at that, trying to avoid any awkwardness from seeping between them. “Don’t worry kook, and just trust me.” She pauses for a second before asking. “You trust me, right?”

Jungkook circles his arms around the girl’s waist, tight enough to feel secure but not enough for it to be uncomfortable for her. “Yeah.”

Lynn smiles softly, assured that Jungkook can’t see her, smile turning fonder when Jungkook press his head on her shoulder. The ride to wherever Lynn is taking them, is nothing like what the movies make it seem like, scary and exciting at the same time, with the heroine yelling at the top of her lungs and the male lead driving fast to impress her and whatever cliché high school drama involved. Instead, it’s serene, so much that Jungkook almost dozes off, Lynn’s warm presence as they drive through the empty dark roads, around rows of trees and towards the ocean, calming his heart and silencing his troubled thoughts.

Jungkook blinks his eyes open to Lynn slowing down as they go on a narrower road. He can hear the sound of crashing waves louder, and when he breathes in deeply, all he can smell is the sand and the salty ocean, mixed with the girl’s fruity shampoo. The sudden urge to just say it and tell Lynn that he’s in love with her hitting him full force. He manages to swallow the words down, the desire to look the girl in the eyes when he spills those three words winning over his impulse.

The beach that Lynn takes Jungkook to isn’t one he has been to before. Which baffles him since he’s the one who lived most of his life in Busan. Lynn explains that her grandpa used to take them there when they were kids and would visit in the summer. “And once I started living here, I would occasionally come here with Miyoung and-” Lynn laughs nervously. “I would come with my friends.”

Jungkook doesn’t say anything about the slip up, instead he reaches for the girl’s hand, the gesture something that has become a nature to them. “It’s really pretty here.” And Jungkook isn’t just saying that to fill in the silence. The beach is between mountains, away from the city and its harsh lights and noise. Jungkook’s favorite thing is how there is no one around, not even car driving down the rocky path they had to take to get here, and for once Jungkook feels that there are only him and Lynn in this world. Busan hasn’t been as safe as Jungkook has thought it would be, and they had to pretend around each other’s family, and then Daehyun came to the picture when Jungkook thought that they can finally relax. But in this place, with the moon and the stars as their only company. Jungkook felt like he doesn’t have to act anymore.

“Yeah, it is.” Lynn mumbles, breaking Jungkook from his deep thoughts. “I love looking at the stars here. There are always a lot and they are brighter than I have ever seen them. Since there isn’t much light pollution here.”

Jungkook glances up to the sky, gasping at the view. “Holy . That’s breathtaking.”

Lynn giggles, overly excited at the fact that Jungkook likes her special place, and proud that he seems to be in a better mood. They walk closer to the water, and Jungkook watches Lynn with a grimace as she goes to lay on the sand. “Aren’t you joining me?” She pats the place beside her.

“I just took a shower and I don’t want sand stuck in my hair.” Jungkook whines.

Lynn snickers, standing up and going over him so she can pull him to her ious spot. “You are such a baby.” She exclaims as she sits down. “Here, you can rest your head on my lap.”

“I am not a baby.” Jungkook mumbles under his breath, but he does as Lynn says, making her grin in triumph.

“Whatever you say,” She pinches his cheeks. “Baby.”

Jungkook tries to keep the childish act, he really does. But he can’t, not when the girl is giving him that endeared smile, eyes shining, the stars in them brighter and more alive than the ones looking down upon them.

“I love you.”

The silence after that is so deafening that Jungkook believes that the waves stopped crashing from his words. Lynn’s face stays blank, scarily so. And for a moment Jungkook thinks that maybe he didn’t say those words out loud, so he repeats them before he implodes on himself. “I am in love with you.”

“I-I heard you the first time.” Lynn’s voice shakes and she seems to be the verge of tears which makes Jungkook panic, because he doesn’t know how to handle crying people, let alone someone like Lynn who doesn’t even cry much, at all.

Jungkook sits up straight, his hands grasping at nothing as he wonders if it’s okay to hold the girl’s hands or not. And suddenly he doesn’t remember what he expected to see when he wanted to do this while looking at Lynn’s eyes, but it sure wasn’t fear. “I a-am not telling you this for anything but t-to express these feelings that has been gnawing at my thoughts. A-and I really don’t want you to feel burdened by them. And I am so sorry, why did I even tell you. Not like I expected you to reciprocate them or anything. I am just-“

It’s Lynn who reaches for his hand, holding them comfortingly. And Jungkook doesn’t know how it went from him w