Originally posted by dropthatjjeoreo

Yawning widely, I step into the bus our school had rented for the day and take a seat, Lee moving to sit next to me.

‘’Who is going to sit with me?’’ Joon stops in front of us, blocking the other students from proceeding.

‘’You can sit by yourself, big boy.’’

Knowing exactly that he’s bothering everyone else, he pouts at Lee and uses aegyo to get his way. ‘’Please, sit with me.’’

I grimace and wrinkle my nose in disgust. How is she able to handle that? “Just go before he causes any more trouble and tell him to stop using that voice, it’s scary.’’

She looks at me apologetically. Lee had wanted to stick with me the entire day, but once again Joon was being troublesome.
Reassuring her that she was actually doing me a big favor by keeping her boyfriend in check, she goes to sit in front of me with Joon.

I lean my head against the cool surface of the window and yawn once more. Joon turns around and looks at me through the gap between the seats. ‘’What has got you so tired?’’

‘’Work,’’ I mutter under my breath.

The past week I’ve been putting in as much work at the café as possible. I wanted to make the most of it before my brother’s plan of cutting his work becomes reality.
Also, I haven’t been getting a lot of sleeping hours, as some nights I was occupied by late night phone calls with Jungkook.
His schedule has been jam-packed and the only time he is able to contact me is usually when I should be sleeping.

The last two nights though he had sent me a short message that he couldn’t call and that I shouldn’t wait up for him.
Till even now I haven’t heard a thing from him, and to be honest I felt a little disappointed that he hadn’t contacted me or wished me a ‘Happy Birthday’. But I didn’t want to be so selfish, so I push the thought away.

‘’Ya, why did force me to wear this? What if it gets dirty?’’ Lee had actually come around my house early in the morning just to force me into wearing prettier clothing than I would have chosen for an amusement park.

My choice would have been a pair of jeans and a simple shirt. Done. But here I am wearing a loose fitted blue blouse and a skirt. I’m wearing a skirt to an amusement park, how much more inconvenient can it get.

At least she let me choose my own shoes, I opted for my regular white sneakers.

‘’It’s your birthday and we are going to take lots of pictures, I wanted you to look pretty.’’ Oh, yeah, and she also made me bring the heavy camera that I was using for class.

I sigh, exhaustion weighing down on me. ‘’I feel like the third wheel.’’

Joon turns around again and gives me a look. ’‘You are the third wheel.’’

Lee gasps and hits him. ‘’Be nice!’’ The lovers’ quarrel begins and I ignore it as always by plugging in my earphones and choose a song to listen to. Slowly I drift off with smooth voices in my head.

~ ~ ~

‘’No way,’’ I take a few steps back as soon as I see the big, looming, scary, haunted house that we were approaching. ’'I’m not going into this killer house.’’

‘’Aw, come on. I’ll be there for you.’’ Joon wiggles his eyebrows and offers me his arm.

I shake my head vigorously and make a big cross sign with my arms. ’'I don’t think I’ll feel safer with you by my side. You’ll probably push me to the monster or ‘accidentally’ leave me behind.” A sheepish smile comes to his face as he shrugs his shoulders, I know him too well.
“You two go ahead, go get yourself traumatized.” I wave for them to go. ‘’I’ll wait here.’’

Hand in hand they walk into the haunted house and disappear from my sight.

With my camera in hand, I start strolling around taking a few shots of the colorful scenery.
We had already gone to half of the rides, but since this place is so big I don’t think we’ll be able to visit them all in a day. As today is an actual school day, we didn’t have long waiting times in lines. It wasn’t crowded either which was very nice compared to the hectic seasons during holiday or even weekends.

Time passes. I slowly make my way back to the haunted house when I hear a wailing voice crying. I look around to find a little girl standing in front of a fountain all by herself weeping sadly.
I jog towards her and slow down before I reach her as not to scare her any more than she probably already was.
Crouching down to her level, I put on a friendly smile. ‘’Hey, why are you crying?’’

The little girl looks at me with her swollen eyes and tears stained cheeks. ‘’M-mommy, Mommy, I lost my Mommy.’’

Her sobbing intensifies, I crouch down to her level, one knee touching the ground. ‘’Don’t cry, Sweetie. We’ll find your Mommy. Together.’’

‘’Really?’’ She calms down a little bit at my words and looks at me with hope. Taking a tissue out of my bag, I gently dab away her tears and smooth back her hair.

“Yeah, really.” I embrace her in my arms as a comfort and soothingly rub her back until she stops crying completely.
Pushing to my feet, I take her small hand in mine and brush away the gravel stuck on my knee and cringe when I see that it had actually cut skin. I’ll have to take care of that later.

On our way to the information center, she suddenly stops and tugs on my hand. ‘’Eonni (older sister),“ I look at her and see her pointing at something with one hand. ‘’Look, a big bear.’’

My eyes follow her arm and indeed not far from us, a big bear mascot was standing there all by itself.
I bend down to her. ’'You want to go say ‘hello’?’’

‘’Yes!’’ She shouts out excitedly, forgetting about her worries.

As we get closer, the bear already starts waving at us, she drops my hand and runs full speed at the bear, hugging it tightly. The person inside ruffles her hair and at once it all seems too familiar to me.

Jungkook.

Of course. It’s just like in the MV, where he was inside a bear mascot, cutely doing his job. Thinking of him, makes me miss him even more and wish he was here.

‘’Eonni, Eonni!’’ The little girl brings me back from my thoughts and points at the bear, which had begun dancing.

Just like her, I giggle and clap along. ‘’Ah, that’s cute.’’

The bear’s hand reaches for the little girl’s one and motions for her to dance along. Happily, she obliges and jumps with the bear.
I grab the camera that was hanging around my neck and take a few shots of them together.

‘’Gayeonie!’’ Someone yells from afar and we all stop to see who it is.

‘’Mommy!’’ The little girl, Gayeon, calls back and instantly runs into the arms of her mother.

Watching them, I smile. Gayeon points at me saying something to her mother and her mother bows at me, I bow back and wave at Gayeon.

Something taps me from behind and I jump startled, I had totally forgotten about the mascot. ‘’Oh, hello.” Now with Gayeon gone, I suddenly feel shy around whoever is inside the mascot.

The bear waves at me and bows its head cutely, I grin feeling like a child again. Tilting my head, I analyze its head curiously. “Can you see inside this?’’ With big motions, it nods. ’'Are you a girl or a boy?’’

The bear lifts both of its' arms and flexes its ‘muscles’.

I laugh amused and lift my camera to take a shot when I remember the way that old man had treated Jungkook in the music video. ‘’Can I take a picture?’’

He shows me both his thumps giving me the OK and flexes his muscles again.

When I lower the camera after taking a photo, he points at it and I my head in question. ‘’You want to see?’’

Impatient, he shakes his head and puts out his hand, palm upward. I remove the band from around my neck and place the camera into his awaiting hand. His big feet step next to mine and he places one arm around me, and suddenly I feel like this has happened before, the weight of his arm familiar.
Facing the lens in our direction, the feeling intensifies and my stomach starts to tingle. Not knowing when he will click the shutter, I get ready and make two ‘V’ signs.

Snap.

Leaning closer, I move my head to take a look when I bump into the bear’s head. ’'Sorry.’’ I apologize while covering my mouth, snickering at him holding his head as if it was going to fall off.

His hands move over to the bear’s eyes and make two fists, symbolizing that he was crying. I throw my head back unable to stop laughing. His index finger taps the area I had bumped into, then the bear’s mouth and back to the ‘wound’.

I blink flustered at his request. ‘’For real?’’ The bear’s giant head moves up and down.

Timid, I push up onto my toes and brace myself by placing a hand on his shoulder but last minute decide against it and give him a finger kiss instead. In response, he claps his hands in triumph and starts dancing his victory dance causing me to laugh again not minding it at all.

Once he stops dancing, he takes a step towards me and offers me a hand. I look at it confused, he already has my camera, what else would he be asking for?
When I still don’t understand, he moves even closer and takes my hand into his, making my heart skip a beat. I blink nervously and follow him as he gently pulls me along.

I was actually really comfortable around him, probably because I was almost certain that it was Jungkook but all of a sudden I was getting doubts. What if it isn’t Jungkook?

Before I can drown in my thoughts, he stops and softly pushes me down onto a bench. Reaching into his mascot’s big pocket, he takes out an envelope.

Confused but at the same time curious of what it might be, I open it and take out the sturdy card.
’'Happy birthday.’’ I read out loud and gasp, only realizing after a few seconds that it is directed at me.

My mouth opens, I look at him in astonishment. ‘’How did you know?’’

His hand takes the card and flips it around in mine.

‘’You’re surprised, right?” I look back up at him to see him swaying back and forth, making my lips lift in a smile. ‘’Don’t be, I have a gift for you. Close your eyes for 3 seconds and think of the person you want to see right now. When you’re ready, take my head off.’’

My heart stops and accelerates all at once at the words. It couldn’t be, could it?
I look up at him with an expression showing suspicion, but he was busy doing arm waves totally unconcerned by me.

Maybe this is Joon playing a joke on me. What if it isn’t Jungkook in there and I make a total fool out of myself? ‘’You’re not playing a prank on me, right?“

But just as before, he doesn’t utter a word and shrugs his shoulders cutely.

’'Ah, what do I do?’’ I whine and cradle my own head with both hands. He stops dancing and points at the card then at me telling me to follow the instructions.

Groaning in frustration at the possibility of walking right into a setup, I sigh deeply but shut my eyes anyway and count to three. One, two, three.

Please let it be Jungkook.

Instead of opening my eyes I keep them that way, wishing really hard that it is Jungkook in there.
I breathe out nervously and my eyes open to find him waiting for me patiently. He takes my hand and helps me to my feet, then points his index finger towards the bear’s head.

Instead of putting my hands on the head, I put them on his shoulders and shake with all my might. ‘’Why do you always make me so nervous?’’

The person inside can’t help but chuckle at my sudden show of irritation and in response, they just point at the bear’s head again. By now I’m pretty sure it’s him, his laugh is unmistakable. I hope my head wasn’t playing me.

‘’Aigoo.’’ Sighing, I lift my hand higher to place them on the bear’s cheeks and lift upward.
Rolling on to my toes, I don’t lift it off completely and peek at his chin and lips first. I wasn’t a hundred percent sure because I’ve never really only stared at his lips.

When he notices what I’m doing, he grins, showing his teeth and I immediately know that it’s him.

I let the head drop back and throw my arms around his waist and hug him tightly, all nervousness and uncertainty evaporating. His arms wrap around me, one caressing my head gently.

We stay like that for a while, swaying softly. ‘’You’re not going to take it off?’’

His voice, hearing it in person, makes my stomach all fluttery. ’'Nope, I like you like this more.”

Messing up my hair, the way he likes to do all the time, he then pulls away and takes the head off, placing it onto the bench.
I don’t know how long he’s been inside this mascot but his hair was flattened to his forehead from all the sweat.

I do a double-take, there was something different about his hair. ‘’Did you dye your hair?’’

‘’Yeah, it’s actually even lighter but because of the sweat, it’s not that noticeable, I think.“

Jungkook was patting his hair down, looking a little bit self-conscious. He does that a lot, fix his hair and fumble with it. The words he had said that one night appear in my head. I hope he doesn’t think that I care about this. Whether he looked perfect or disheveled, that’s not important.

‘’I like it,… a lot.’’ I comment in a light encouraging tone

His movements stop and his gaze wavers doubting my words. ‘’Really? It doesn’t really look that good when it’s unstyled.’’

’'No,’’ disagreeing, I pout because it seems like he really has these worries. ‘’Styled or not styled, to me you’re just as good-looking. I mean it.’’

He drops his head, hiding a smile sheepishly, and I see that the sweat was still dripping down his temple and neck. I raise my hand and touch my knuckles to his cheek and I frown when it’s warmer than it should be.

‘’How long have you been in there?’’ I reach into my bag and take out a tissue and the map I’d gotten when we first entered the park.

‘’Half an hour, I had trouble finding you.’’ My heart flutters as well as tightens. He went through all the trouble for me.

Once I have finished cleaning away his sweat, his unnerving eyes on me the whole time, I use the map to fan his face and he closes his eyes, enjoying the fresh breeze.
’'Hold on, I’ll buy you something to drink.” Before he can say anything, I’ve already turned around and begun rushing for the shop I had seen earlier.

When I glance out the glass doors, I can see Jungkook fanning himself. Wuah, he really is here.

(gif credit)

~ ~ ~

After a good ten minutes, still in line to buy the water, it’s finally my turn and I quickly pay for it and run back to where I’d left him to find the place empty. No Jungkook in sight.

Thoroughly confused, I spin around trying to spot him but to my avail, he was nowhere to be seen. He probably went to return the mascot.

Pursing my lips, I see a big bulletin board containing a bigger version of the map that I had left with Jungkook.
I make my way over to it and search for a place that would make sense for him to go to. All I can find is the information center, but I doubt he went there. Now, what do I do?

“Booh!’’ I shriek and jerk in surprise, my heartbeat roaring in my ears.

I spin and hit Jungkook’s arm when I see him laughing at me. ’'Ah, ya!”

Not inside the thick mascot’s clothing anymore, he was now in a white button up and some well fitted dark denims with suspenders attached. He had put on a red beanie over his hair and it complemented his new hair color well. My camera, which I had totally forgotten about now hung around his neck.

There was a certain charm to his outfit, not only handsome he also looked cheeky. Or maybe that’s just him.

“Did you wear this to your schedule as well?” I tease, my eyes directed towards the beanie. Smiling sheepishly, he goes to fix his beanie. “Everything looks fine, don’t worry.”

It wasn’t easy to see these news aspects of him, this more self-conscious side. In my eyes, he doesn’t need to feel like that and nothing about his appearance will make me think less of him.
I wonder if this is the negative side about his profession, always being conscious of how people perceived you.

I’m sure that people judge him for the simplest of things and thinking of how young he started off, it makes me feel terrible.
I don’t want him to have to worry about how I perceived him. If I’m correct and he has to feel anxious over these things every day then I would feel horrible if he thought I'd be the same.

Lips pressed together, sad for him, I look up at him to see him scanning my face. “What’s wrong?”

Should I tell him? Maybe I was thinking too much into this and nothing was wrong. Was I worrying for no reason?

A finger is placed under my chin, lifting my head as he steps closer and holds my face, his big hands almost covering my entire cheek. I was nervous already but his closeness intensifies that.
Seeing him with a serious face for the first time, eyebrows creased in concern, his eyes in contact with mine make me cave in.

“It’s just, I need you to know that it doesn’t matter to me how you look like, what hair color you’ve dyed your hair to or how little makeup you wear, or how messy your hair is. It doesn’t bother me. What is most important to me is what’s on the inside.” I was getting emotional.
“You’re really precious to me and I don’t want you to think that I judge you by these things because I don’t.” I was rambling at this point and was looking down at my camera around his neck in embarrassment. “I just don’t want you to have to worry about anything when you’re around me.”

For the longest moment, he doesn’t say a word. As curiosity starts getting to me, I finally look back up at him.

His expression unreadable, he was still holding my head in place, so he could easily read my face. “This is what you are worried about?”

Still embarrassed, I nod my head in response.

His eyes meet mine and I get mesmerized by them once more, my eyes flicker back and forth not knowing which eye to focus on.
From the corners of my eyes, I see his lips twitching. “Are you laughing at me?”

“No.” But contrary to his words, his eyes start to turn into a half moon shape.

My jaw drops, and I look at him in astonishment. “You are laughing at me!”

Slightly wounded, I push against his shoulder, my goal for him to release me. But instead of letting go Jungkook brings me even closer in an embrace.
Unwilling at first, I keep my arms trapped between us, but when he doesn’t give up, I  wrap my arms around his waist.

Now that the thick fabric wasn’t in between us, the warmth of his body was easily seeping through his clothing and slowly engulfing me. Snuggling deeper into his shoulder, he also tightens his arms around me. “You’re cute, you know that?”

I grimace, as much as I can with my face against his shoulder. “I don’t think so, I’m not trying to be.”

“That’s the thing, though. That’s what makes you so cute.” I don’t understand, sometimes I wish I could see myself through the eyes of someone else.

“I don’t see it,” I mutter into his shoulder stubbornly. His body starts to shake from laughter, and my body starts to tingle from all the warmth.

“Oh, are those two Joon and Lee?” Reluctantly, I pull away and a shiver works its way through my body from the loss of his heat.

Hand in hand, they were walking towards the end of a line of the water coaster. “Yeah, what friends they are. Didn’t even call me.”

He looks down at me and I turn my head. “Want to join them?”

“Race you to them?” It wasn’t that far, I could win him.

He arches one eyebrow and eyes my skirt doubtfully. “I don’t think you’ll beat me to them.”

Raising my own brow, I look at him challenging. “Want to bet?”

Jungkook rises to his full height and pulls his broad shoulders back impressively. “What do I get?”

“A bottle of water?” It was still inside my handbag. When he shakes his head cutely, I smile. “Alright what do you want?”

“A wish.”

I look at him in disbelief. “A wish.” He nods, smirking. “Any wish? What if you wish for me to do something embarrassing?”

“I promise no embarrassing wishes, OK?” Begrudgingly, I agree and we get ready on his count.

“Get ready, one, two,” before he can count to three, I lift up and pull his beanie down his face and begin sprinting towards Lee.

Before I can reach them, strong arms band around my waist and hoist me up from the ground, making me squeal. The momentum causing my back to slam into him.
One arm on my back, he places another under my knees and lifts me up effortlessly.

I blush at once at the close contact and the butterflies flutter once again. Jungkook’s lips were openly smiling playfully and delighted at my cheating as he leisurely continues his way towards Lee and Joon, who were already looking at us.

One of my arms is draped behind his neck, his muscles flex and move underneath my touch as he carries me to our destination and then carefully places me on my feet.

“I win.” He whispers close to my ear before he lets go completely, the ticklish feeling making me squirm.

I smile to myself, feeling peaceful at heart for the first time in a long time. It’s been a while since I could truthfully smile and laugh on my birthday, I feel blessed.



~~~
so.... is anyone still alive after the concept photos... it's been days but I still cry a lot and tomorrow we will have Jin's and probably group photos... then on Sunday maybe... the MV teaser?..... orz I'm not ready   -K