Aside from the tearing soreness in his neck, the blurry blobs moving in his view sharpened, turning into people. A couple jogged on the other side of the green sheet of grass, a dog chased after a red frisbee before the sight of a squirrel stopped it in its tracks, and a lone child looking up into the sunny face of a girl in the midst of it all. It was odd, because it was as if her aura shifted the dull colors in his sight, correcting their hues.

               Jungkook watched in curiosity at the girl talking with the young child, a sort of excitement glistening in their naïve eyes. Both the girl and child had similar smiles on their lips, gleaming bright like the flashing lights of a car. It remotely struck a chord in him, but he couldn’t tell why or what it was. All he knew was that for some reason, seeing the two of them interacting so cheerfully made him feel at peace. And for Jungkook, it almost felt refreshing because he hadn’t been feeling lately. The lack of feeling should have made him nervous, anxious, or scared at the least, but that lack made it impossible for him to worry about himself. It was as if a vacuum had out the life in him and placed an empty void where his soul should have been. Or whatever made him feel, with a conscious mind.

               Their conversation was cut short when the child’s mother called for them. Jungkook’s eyes traveled over to the distraught mother as she beckoned for her child to return to the safety of her arms. He couldn’t make out the look on her face from the bench he was sitting at, but the look in her eyes seemed disturbed. As if the girl who had been talking to her baby reeked of threat and harm.

               The child obediently tottled back to his mother, glancing back to throw a wave with his small plump hand at the new friend he had just made. Jungkook’s focus on the child and mother quickly dissipated as he returned his attention onto the girl. She simply stood there, watching the child wriggle in his mother’s demanding arms as she asked him who he was talking to. The clear smile that had been on her lips seconds ago was replaced with a grim sigh as she stuffed her hands into the pockets of her grey sweater. What had caught Jungkook’s attention though were the small bruises that decorated the back of her hands. They hadn’t been there a moment before, but he decided to let it go as a trick of his eye, despite knowing that he saw them for sure.

               His pursuing gaze finally welded a hole into the girl as she tilted her head towards Jungkook before a petite blue jay fluttered onto the end of the bench. His eyes lingered on her for a second more before he decided it was time to go. Rising from the bench, he pulled the hood of his pullover up, hiding himself as he left for the dimly lit coffee shop across the bustling park.

-

               After slipping into the first open stool he saw, Jungkook immediately noticed that the girl back in the park also had the heart for a brewing cup of coffee. He didn’t find it suspicious, or anything of the sort, instead he found it intriguing. He found her intriguing. With the child, she had made it seem like everything in the world was perfect. Like problems where a speck of her time she never even spent time on. Yet, now, sitting on the other side of the counter at the end, even darkness couldn’t compare to the solemnness and wistfulness frozen in her blank orbs.

               “A caramel macchiato please,” Jungkook quickly ordered as the barista walked in from the kitchen, barely offering him a glance as he set to work. From where he was sitting though, he could pick out the quiet conversation that barista was having with the girl from the rest of the bustling customers and workers. Her eyes remained downcast as he turned to face her, placing a crème colored cup in front of her. He muttered something else to her before he turned around, hurriedly placing Jungkook’s order in front of him before slipping back into the kitchen, yet again without giving as much as a glance in acknowledgement towards Jungkook.

               It didn’t faze Jungkook though, the treatment he was receiving from the worker whether intentional or not. All that he could focus on was the girl who seemed to become more opaque by the second. Her tangled locks that had blown so softly in the breeze slipped from their hiding spot behind her hood, dangling on the sides of her face as if curtaining her from everyone else. The fresh cup of coffee remained untouched in front of her, the steam rising as if mixing into the clouds hidden in her lifeless eyes.

               He didn’t understand why he had such a strong interest in her. Maybe it had been twinkle in her eyes when she spoke to the child or the flare of life he had seen in her eyes. But there was always the possibility that Jungkook had finally gone over his head too. A smile played on his lips as he began to think of the multiple ways to approach her. There had been many instances where he had great settings to strike up a conversation with another girl, but this was one of those rare moments where he had no excuse to really talk to her. Daringly taking another look, Jungkook lifted his head only to find that the girl had already left, her cup of coffee still untouched.

               A surge of panic coursed through him as he realized that he was actually nervous about losing this moment. This chance. Never had he really felt so much exhilaration in wanting to get to know someone, much less a girl from the park. He couldn’t explain anything, but there were so many things that he would never be able to explain. Such as the excitement that had led him to falling off of the stool in his rush to chase after the girl. His tumble to the ground nearly brought his fresh brewed cup of coffee after him too if it wasn’t for the hand that had held it back.

               A man clad in black looked down at Jungkook with an overly amused expression, pondering the boy’s thoughts and intentions. After he smoothly pushed the cup back to stability, he stretched his open hand out to Jungkook. However, Jungkook had already pushed himself off the ground before he could accept the man’s seemingly welcoming hand.

“Thank you sir,” Jungkook hastily offered him a polite bow before turning his back, rushing towards the entrance as the people and booths beside him swirled into shades and hues of deep-set purples and teals. Flashes of pink adorning the edges and spiraling into pomegranate reds finished the picture, while the man in the suit left behind simply pulled his hands back together, one atop another in the portrait of colors.

               A silent yawn escaped his lips, joining in the dance the light breeze had begun. The sky was a murky shade, colors barely distinguishable in the gray spreading across, the whites of clouds dotting here and there like stars at night. The picture he had found himself in had the gloominess felt in fog and mist despite the shouts of laughter and conversation filling the air.

               Jungkook had suspected that the girl couldn’t have made it far. He had barely looked away from her for a minute before she disappeared. As he jogged further down the street, he quickly spotted her tattered gray sweater rising from the ground. Letting his legs guide him through the small crowds of people, and through the shifting cracks their bodies created, he could see the man in black pulling her up. Gently, even as far as he was he could see, like she was a doll, capable of breaking any moment.

               When Jungkook finally reached her, the man had turned away, walking in the other direction with an eerily calm feel. None of bothered Jungkook as much as he thought it should have in his disoriented consideration. He had found the girl and it was all that had mattered. What had taken him by surprise upon stepping up to her was how much she had changed again. Without a shadow hanging around her anymore, her face was bright, the corners of her lips curled into a charming smile. Her eyes shimmered as they shyly met his and a pleasant silence was exchanged between the two until Jungkook felt a heavy beat in his chest.

               With the friendly reminder, his smile widened, reflecting hers, “I…I’m Jungkook.”

               As crazy as it sounded, everything around the two of them began to blend together when Jungkook thought her smile couldn’t get any more beautiful. “I-”

               A sudden blinding light replaced her fleeting image, cutting off the sound of her voice as a louder voice echoed into the confinement of his mind. The beautiful painting in his mind was gone in a flash and the light even faster. Darkness overwhelmed him, but it wasn’t as if he knew its powers. Not in the endless abyss that he was now floating in.