.:he bumped into you and you hated him when you fell:.

Ever since you had found the old-fashioned camera amongst your beloved father’s stuff in the basement, you wanted to be just like him even though your mother wasn’t so fond of the idea of you becoming a professional photographer. Unlike you, she believed in numbers and facts and could have never been convinced that people who were chasing their artistic dreams could indeed live happily ever after with such an unsure income that a job like this one could have provided. After all, she had seen it with her own eyes how stressed out a person could have become when no one appreciated their work. Sometimes passion and talent just wasn’t enough. But your father’s tragic story hadn’t stopped you from following his path and making a deal with your mom. You had promised her that you would send your application to the same finance university she had attended when she had been your age and in exchange for the change in your preference list she would let you take extra classes in high school, so that you could improve your skills in photography. It had been a win-win for both of you, therefore after weeks of debates, the temporary peace had finally settled in. 

It was your last winter break before the feared senior year in high school when you first saw him although that time he was nothing but a stranger who managed to rub you on the wrong side at the end of an unexpectedly unlucky day. First, your little sister had eaten the last piece of chocolate cake without asking for permission then your friends had called off your movie date in the last moment. Later, you had bumped into the subway’s door, bruising your upper arm and had gotten peanut flavoured ice coffee on your way to the shop and had almost died from choking. So when Jungkook rushed to the counter seemingly blind for his surroundings in the photography shop where you were talking with the shop assistant about the pictures they had promised to be ready by the day before, it was inevitable for you to roll your eyes, annoyed. How dared he treat you like a ghost and talk to the bewitched shop assistant girl in his enchanting voice as if it was his privilege to get his photos first.

‘Excuse me but I still didn’t get my film back nor the materialized versions of my photos even though you told me it will be fine if I come by on Tuesday. As far as I know, today is Wednesday, so I would be pleased if you were just as zealous to find my envelope as you are now that this guy asked for his,’ you spoke up markedly frustrated when the girl shot a smile at the boy and stepped into the small room behind the counter. A part of you knew that it was only your annoyance speaking and on any other day you would have been more understanding but what was enough was enough. You had endured so much bad luck this morning that you deserved to be treated as any other human being.

‘Oh, sorry. I thought you’re friends. That’s why I…’ the boy tried to apologize but you shushed him with a wave of your hand. Honestly, after all those things that had happened that day you couldn’t find enough energy in your body to be interested in his reason for preceding you in the line.

‘Whatever,’ you said and let him hanging as your eyes noticed the girl coming out of the storage room with two brown envelopes in her hand.

When she put them on the counter, you quickly fished your wallet out of your backpack, paid and grabbed the envelope that was closer to you then bent your back and said goodbye. You were so excited that you had finally gotten your pictures that you had taken during your family holiday in Thailand that you almost took the wrong bus on your way back home.

Once you kicked off your boots and got rid of your coat, you sat on the couch in your living room and let out a tired sigh, content to feel the warmth of your house. You opened the envelope with practiced ease and shook all of the pictures onto the coffee table, looking for the one with the setting Sun on it that you had taken on the rooftop of your apartment in the freezing weather. Yet, what you saw instead was dozens of black and white photos of men and women who had passed by on the streets.

‘No, no, no. It can’t be happening,’ you murmured under your nose as you checked the name on the other side of the envelope just to realize that it wasn’t yours but Jeon Jungkook’s whose art couldn’t have been more different than yours to begin with. Looking at his pictures it was obvious that he preferred simple colours while you were head over heels for the indescribable shades of the Sun. He liked taking photos of humans and animals that could have easily ruined the original concept of a photographer with their unexpected movements while your muses were nature and objects that always stayed still. Yet, the longer you kept your eyes on the details, the more you fell in love with them. You had to admit that their charm did resemble their creator’s. They bewitched you in the very same way Jungkook had hypnotized the shop assistant girl with his mere presence.

‘What’s wrong, darling?’ your mother asked when you shoved all the pictures into the brown envelope and rushed back to the entrance, so that you could put on your boots and your coat.

‘I… I need to go back to the photography shop,’ was all you said before you shut the door.

.:meeting twice shouldn’t have felt like fate:.

You were heading to your Math preparatory class when you recognized him on the hallway and you couldn’t help yourself but hid behind a locker, nails digging into the blue coloured metal. You weren’t sure what you were afraid of since you’d rushed back to the photography shop right after you had realized your mistake and the next time you had visited the place to get your own pictures, the shop assistant had said that Jungkook had been fine with the unlucky incident, what was more, even dropped a few compliments on your skills. Therefore another encounter shouldn’t have been a problem. But for your heart it seemingly was.

Deep in your thoughts, mind filled with both his beautiful photos and the possible outcomes of you being caught red-handed, you almost lost him when a small group of high school boys gathered around his figure then headed straight to the stairs at the end of the hallway with Jungkook in the middle. You looked at the clock on the wall and let out a frustrated sigh as you realized that you had only two minutes left until your class began although once the last boy had disappeared, you followed them nevertheless.

You were curious what was this boy doing in your school without the ivy green uniform and why did some of your classmates greet him so happily as if they had been best friends.

You were walking down the stairs as quietly as you could, sweaty palms fitting close to your backpack’s straps when you noticed a girl doing the very same thing as you did: spying on the boys as if they were celebrities. Just then you realized how ridiculous you were when you had chosen to skip the preparatory class to follow some guy to the school’s basement where all three of its gyms were placed. What were you thinking, really? You weren’t some creep for God’s sake.

You were ready to write an extremely long apology letter for Mr. Kim to please him, so that he wouldn’t inform your mom about your absence, when a weak voice addressed you in the dim lit of the hallway that connected the changing rooms with the well-equipped gyms.

‘Please, don’t tell anyone that you saw me. Please,’ she asked you, begging, and your feet turned into stone when someone grabbed you by your wrist. You looked at the petite girl from above your shoulder, then brushed her fingers off your skin gently. You didn’t want to offend her but you had always had problems with physical contact when it had caught you off guard.

‘Don’t worry. I didn’t plan to,’ you were quick to reassure her although your words fell on deaf ears as she went on with her ramble.

‘It’s just… I really like watching them doing taekwondo, you know. These guys come here on every Tuesday and Thursday from all around the city to practice. And their coach is a former athlete, an olympic champion, Son Tae Jin. They are the best, trust me,’ she got all excited and soon her zealousness became a part of you too.

You wanted to know every single detail and the girl who was only a year younger than you was happy to share her knowledge with you as you both found your places in a hidden corner, watching the boys in awe as they started their practice in their white martial art suits. Most of them had orange belts except for your classmate Jimin and Jungkook who were wearing blue. You didn’t know much about sports but as you watched them fighting, you knew that those two were far the bests in their team.

Yeojeong and you left the gym five minutes before the practice would have come to an end and bid your goodbye at the bus stop after long minutes of carefree talking about teachers and classes that you didn’t particularly like in your school. You also talked about your fears, hence you told her how afraid you were that you wouldn’t get into the same school as your mother had attended and that she would forbid you to use your father’s old camera or any kind of camera to be precise once you failed the CSATs.

At home you had to face your mom’s worried questions about your well-being since Mr. Kim had called her after class but you didn’t regret your decision to follow Jungkook at all. Because even though you two hadn’t spoken - not that you had wanted to or would have dared to in the first place - you got a lovely, new friend who was just as excited when she had talked about Jimin as you were when you talked about photography.

.:reaching him on purpose was much harder than you thought:.

Since your Tuesday afternoons were usually free of extracurricular activities, you soon grew the habit of joining your new friend in front of the library, then go and watch the boys' taekwondo practice together. Even though the structure of it was always the same - a few laps of running in the gym, stretching, basic movements alone, basic movements in pairs then paired up fighting based on improvement -, somehow you could never get bored of it as if the fact alone that it was the same boy with the beautiful photos could have easily pushed you into a pink bubble that was filled with your childish fantasies about Jungkook being a completely different person under the unapproachable exterior. After all, someone who could picture the world ever so beautifully should have possessed an equally wonderful soul. At least that’s what you told yourself whenever Yeojeong gave you the stare. She had this stupid delusion that you were already head over heels for the boy even though you two had barely exchanged two coherent sentences back in the photography shop. Aish, you had been such a jerk when he had tried to explain himself and the reason behind his nonchalant behaviour.

Since crying over spilt milk did no good to anyone, you decided to muster up your courage and took the first step towards the raven-haired boy who had been haunting you on sleepless nights. So next time when you accidentally bumped into Park Jimin on your way to your locker, you chose to call it fate and cleared your throat before he could have disappeared from your sight, merging into the mass of busy high school students. Even though you two were attending the same English preparatory class every Monday, hence he wasn’t a total stranger, you were shaking when his name fell off your lips.

‘Park Jimin!’ you spoke up a few seconds after he took a barely noticeable bow towards you, then his heels and headed to the stairs that ended in the basement. Since it was just another Thursday afternoon, you knew exactly where he was going and whom he would meet once the lunch break comes to an end. Considering that you couldn’t miss Mr. Kim’s Math class, you also knew that you didn’t have much time. It was a clumsy now or never.

Hearing his own name, the boy’s steps came to a halt almost immediately, therefore it was easy to catch up with him as his gaze loitered over your pseudo-confident figure with slight amusement in his eyes. You marched through a small group of chatting girls with your chin held up high and your lips pressed to each other so hard, they became just as pale as your cheeks as if your blood had known better and had ran away when your legs had been unable to do so. You couldn’t believe your own actions. It was so out of character, really.

‘I really don’t want to bother you but…’ you started with a nasty lump in your throat. Your courage, as fast as it had come, disappeared within a blink of an eye. You needed to swallow, forcefully, so that you could find your voice. ‘I was thinking that maybe you. That maybe you could… Are Jungkook and you close friends?’

When the question finally left your mouth, you waited for the boy to process your words in silence. Though, you could have smashed a pencil, that’s how tense your fingers were as your nails dug into the soft flesh of your palm. You wondered how much of a freak you must have looked like.

‘You mean, Jeon Jungkook from taekwondo class?’ Jimin asked back instead of giving you a simple answer and looking into his doubtful eyes, you realized that it was silly of you to not go straight to Jungkook. Under different circumstances you would have hated too if someone had asked about you behind your back. 

You scratched your nape, markedly nervous. At this point, you could hardly pretend that you had been talking about another Jungkook or that you had mistaken Jimin with someone else with the same name in the first place. There was no turning back.

‘Yes, him,’ you nodded with a shy smile in the corner of your mouth. ‘I really would like to talk to him. I just… You boys are always together after practice and I have classes before it starts and…’ and you were of course afraid that he might have been mad at you because of your rude behaviour and would have refused to let you explain yourself the very same way you had rejected his apology. You weren’t ready to face the consequences of accidentally stealing his photos either. From your point of view, it was easier to talk to one of his friends first even if it seemed creepy.

‘I see,’ Jimin snorted, scrunching his nose. All of a sudden, he looked more annoyed than anything else even though you couldn’t quite pinpoint the reason behind the slight change in his eyes. They shone with something akin to disgust as if you had scandalized him with your chaste smile that slowly faded from your mouth. ‘Well, if you are one of his fans, then I have to disappoint you. He doesn’t like nosy girls.’

With that Jimin turned his back on you, not caring about the honest disbelief that had knitted your brows together in a comical way.

‘What? No, I’m not. It’s not what you think. It’s just…’ you rushed after him, elbowing your way through the crowded hallway. As soon as your slim fingers caged the boy’s wrist, you forced him to listen and he did. He stayed and paid attention regardless of the fact that he was stronger than you, thus he could have easily set his hand free of your grab if he had wanted to.

You told him everything starting with your unfortunate encounter with Jungkook and that you had wanted to talk to him about his photos ever since you had laid your eyes on them in the comfort of your living room. You also told him about your tradition of sneaking into the gym every Tuesday after your classes although you were considerate enough not to let him know about your partner in crime. You didn’t want to reveal Yeojeong’s secret without her knowing about your conversation. You had always been loyal to your friends.

Once Jimin realized that you meant no harm to his friend, he told you that you should have talked with Jungkook in person and invited you for the season opening party of the semester’s taekwondo championship that started next week. He then excused himself and ran down the stairs to get to the changing room before his mates, talking about something smelly and gross that you couldn’t understand. And you didn’t have time to think about it further. You still had to finish the last task of your homework that you could have solved at home. You couldn’t express with words how much you hated algebra.

 

On Friday afternoon when your last class ended, you rushed home instead of walking to your favourite coffee shop with your friends, sharing a slice of strawberry cake over your unshed tears and bitter complains alongside a mug of hot chocolate in the windy weather. As your gaze loitered over your uneasy figure, you shot an encouraging smile at your reflection then fixed your lilac dress that looked pretty with your chestnut hair, falling over your shoulders in wavy locks. You did everything that you could to look beautiful even without makeup since the only product you had was a pink lipstick that hardly helped when your skin decided to be shiny under the blinding ray of artificial light. You always felt exceptionally sweaty amongst people even in the most unforgiving cold, therefore attending the season’s opening party just to meet Jungkook was one hell of an idea. Yet, you couldn’t deny the fact that a part of you was waiting for the moment to cross the damned threshold more than anything. As if you had fallen in love with the idea of him more and more with each day you two had spent far from each other. His absence allured you like a magnet.

You arrived an hour after the party had begun because you had seen it in an American movie that only the the lame kids appeared on time and that the cool ones were always a tad bit late, so that everyone could see them when they finally made their way into the room.  Though, no one was actually watching when you opened the door.

‘Hi, Jimin,’ you walked towards the boy with a genuine smile as soon as you recognized him on the couch. He was casually sipping his drink, observing the dancing crowd in the middle of the living room as if he had been home. And maybe he was. It’s not that you knew who was the host of this noisy chaos that everyone seemed to enjoy expect for him and maybe you although you weren’t entirely sure about the latter. The night was still young, you could have never known what was about to happen. You might actually got your opportunity to make up for your mistake with Jungkook. Gosh. You hoped you would get a chance.

When Jimin kindly patted the couch by his side, you made yourself comfortable, then turned towards him with your whole body, arm lying on the backrest.

‘I’m glad you could make it. You look pretty,’ he complimented on your outfit with an equally soft smile and gosh before you could have hid your anxiety, both of your cheeks betrayed you, dressed in a rosy colour like silly flower petals. Although he wasn’t the first boy who called you pretty, he was for sure the most handsome one out of all.

‘Thank you. Did you see Jungkook?’ you asked eagerly before the awkward silence could have settled in and your question earned an amused chuckle as Jimin’s gaze slid back to the mass. Your eyes followed his with curiosity but all you could see was a bunch of dancing bodies wrapped in beautiful clothes and sweat underneath.

‘Not yet,’ he mumbled. ‘Do you wanna dance?’

Chewing on your lower lip, you were a tiny bit afraid what would happen if you rejected the boy’s offer because you didn’t know much about his key personality traits. Was he the kind who understood when a girl felt uncomfortable around them or rather the one who threw a tantrum and became aggressive whenever things didn’t go as planned? Frankly, you were conflicted but he didn’t rush you and for that you were utterly grateful. 

‘Maybe later but thanks,’ you whispered and he took your answer with a light nod before you stood up and excused yourself to the bathroom.

You washed your face and sweaty nape with cold water before you gave yourself a pep talk in the mirror and went back to the living room to enjoy the party. You looked for Jungkook in every person who bumped into your body, you looked for him in every room you could enter. Yet, the only way you were able to get to know him a bit better was through childish rumors whispered over empty glasses.

Apparently, he was in his senior year just like you. He had an older brother. He lived with his mother after his parents had divorced. He was also unapproachable. He had never been in a relationship. At least not officially. He liked reading manhwas and watching animes. So he was just like any other boy from the neighbourhood. 

.:when destiny refused to help your encounter, you took matters into your hands:.

Even though you couldn’t have met Jungkook at the party nor your awkward dancing had helped you to get closer to Jimin, you had indeed managed to find a pinch of positivity near the kitchen counter when some guy had bumped into you and his friend had given you a tissue as a peace offer once your dress had been destroyed. Looking at your soaked figure, you had seemed so disappointed that Taehyung, the boy who had turned out to be the real host of the chaotic get-together, had refused to leave your side until he had managed to make you smile and your walls had broken down due to his sincerity. With a white paper cup in your hands, you had told him everything about the photography shop accident and your silly habit of watching the taekwondo practice on Tuesday afternoons which he had found rather adorable.

Two weeks later, at the end of the cherry blossom season in mid-April, you were doing your homework in your favourite coffee shop when Kim Taehyung sat down across your table with two mugs of ice americano in his hands. Beside becoming the most supportive friend you had ever had, he had also signed up to be your personal Math tutor for the time being for which you were extremely grateful. By now you knew that on most days he was extremely busy with uni stuff and his part-time job, therefore having him within an arm’s length for more than two hours in total was a rare and precious phenomenon. You shot a thankful smile at him because of his choice of drink then pushed your exercise book towards his side, looking at the equation with knitted brows, waiting for him to correct your mistakes.

‘So what’s the plan? How will you make him fall in love with you?’ he asked casually with his back leaned against the chair right after you solved the last task for today. You looked at him from above your lukewarm coffee, lips clenching around the plastic straw, not at all surprised. You didn’t even have to ask whom he was talking about. After all, Jeon Jungkook and Fortuna herself whose existence you truly doubted were constant characters of your daily conversations.

‘I don’t have any, Tae. And I don’t want to make him fall in love with me as I’ve already told you at least a hundred times,’ you stated with the same, collected voice you had always done although the light shade of crimson on your cheeks told the story otherwise. Your slight crush on the said boy was obvious for everyone who talked to you for more than two words. You literally beamed with happiness whenever someone mentioned his name or you two passed each other by in the hallways without him noticing. ‘I think I’ll just give up on this stupid urge to talk to him and forget that this whole fiasco has ever happened,’ you said as an additional information, taking a bigger sip from the ice americano.

‘What? But you two are meant to be,’ he protested without giving it much thought and deep down you were glad that he said so even though a part of you started to feel sceptical. What was fate anyway? Just a bunch of bull.

‘Are we?’ you asked back with the same fervour as you even let out a loud snort. You had important exams ahead of you, exams that you should have studied harder for. You didn’t have time to cry over something that had never happened in the first place. You had missed your chance in the photography shop. End of the story.

‘I think so,’ Taehyung murmured under his nose with an ugly frown when he realized how pissed you must have felt and he put his own mug on the table, so that he could take your hands in his, soothing your nerves with small on the sensitive skin between your thumb and index finger. ‘Oh come on! Give destiny one last chance to do its job,’ he asked and you almost choked on the quiet chuckle that had left your throat. He was unbelievable.

‘You already have a plan, don’t you?’ the question rolled off your lips as you shifted your gaze from his palm to his eyes full of playful and mischievous stars. You had absolutely no idea how could he have so much faith in you but you accepted it as it was. Giving it one more shot couldn’t have possibly hurt anyone. And who knew. Maybe Jungkook was indeed your destiny and that was how life tried to teach you patience and determination. Just as it’d taught your mother that sometimes love simply wasn’t enough of a reason to keep going.

‘Well, now that you finally asked. I might really have something,’ Taehyung said with a wide smile before he told you that his parents would go on a romantic vacation next weekend and that there was also a huge chance that the taekwondo team would win the qualifying round of the championships which meant only one thing: a hella good reason to throw another party. Truth to tell, you both hated and loved the idea at the same time though you couldn’t deny the fact. It was for sure another chance, the opportunity that you were waiting for. 

.:meeting him felt like a kick in the - it stung:.

Taehyung had been right, the taekwondo team had indeed gotten into the semi-finals hence, in the heat of the moment, no one - not even Jungkook - had said no for his invitation. There was a knot in your throat while you were waiting for the raven-haired boy by the old-fashioned fireplace to finally be alone, chattering girls gathering around him like annoying bees around a bouquet of flowers. Watching them touching his upper arm here and there and smiling so wide that even their teeth became visible, well, it sincerely drove you crazy.

But you waited patiently meanwhile you introduced your lovely partner in crime to Jimin who seemed genuinely impressed by Yeojeong’s charming performance on the dance floor. You threw the empty soju bottles into the trash bin and talked with Taehyung’s friend who had ruined your lilac dress a few weeks prior. Hoseok was a nice guy, an absolute lightweight just like you, but still nice. He even promised to make up for his mistake by helping you find a good excuse the next time someone tries to drag you to the living room for a dance. It was absolutely unnecessary on his part since you weren’t actually mad although he insisted nevertheless.

You were walking around with a cup of still water in your hands when you noticed Jungkook leaving the house all by himself and you didn’t hesitate for a second. You elbowed yourself through the crowd and opened the front door just to close it a sheer moment later. Since your heart was beating like crazy and your gaze failed to find the boy in the front yard, you rocked yourself into the illusion that he had already been blocks away when a silent cough reached your ears. You snapped your head towards the source of the noise on instinct and let out a relieved sigh as you recognized the boy from your dreams. He stood with his shoulder against the wall, barely an inch from your petite figure. You couldn’t suppress your smile.

‘Hi. Congratulations,’ you said quietly, not daring to pat his shoulder to gain his attention that was focused on the lone drink in his hand. He looked somewhat resigned, a tad bit unhappy although you couldn’t decipher his reasons. He had won with a clear 12-point gap. Even watching him was incredible. Shouldn’t have he celebrated? Shouldn’t have he been at least a bit more joyful? Anyway, you shook your head then kept going, gathering all your courage to speak up. ‘I’m not sure, you remember but…’

‘I don’t do signing, so please could you just leave already?’ he cut you off bitterly before he took a gulp from his drink that smelled more like pure soju than somaek that it was supposed to be. You furrowed your brows and took a small step closer even though your brain begged you to leave. But as your mother had constantly failed to convince you to abandon your late father’s profession, your mind stood no chance either when it came to something your heart insisted on with tooth and nail. You had been waiting for this encounter for long months. There was no way you would leave without telling him how much you liked his photos.

‘I don’t want your autograph,’ you said firmly, taking another step forwards.

‘Then what do you want?’ he asked back with malice and hatred in his words. His fiery gaze burnt you as his gaze loitered over your body with a spiteful snort. Was this his way to tell you to get lost? Had you managed to offend him with your congratulations? ‘To exchange stupid words about all those things that are similar in our tastes? To prove me that you’re special?’ he asked and every one of his questions felt like a slap. He hated you and it wasn’t because of you accidentally stealing his pictures or telling him to not bother with a useless explanation you hadn’t been interested in in the first place. No. He hated you because you were nice to him and he had enough of girls acting all endearing in front of him just to charm him with a simple smile.

‘I… no,’ you tried to explain yourself in vain. Words seemed to betray you all of a sudden. ‘I just… I just wanted to talk, to tell you that I…’

It was the crack of the door that burnt the practiced monologue onto the tip of your tongue although your eyes were b with tears due to the boy who pushed himself away from the wall, bumping into your shoulder harshly on purpose. He looked you in the eyes before he slid his gaze to the intruder.

‘I gotta go. As you can see, my friends are waiting for me,’ he murmured with a content smile, markedly happy to see you fall into pieces in front of his eyes.

 

You spent almost half an hour in the dark before Taehyung found you and pulled you into his embrace without forcing you to tell him what had happened. He played with your hair silently and wiped the tears off your cheeks when you couldn’t have hold them back anymore.

You sat on the stairs in front of the entrance for a while without saying a word when someone shut the door forcefully. You both looked at the upset girl with eyes wide open but she acted as if you hadn’t been there. She threw her cup onto the ground.

‘This guy is unbelievable!’ she screamed and soon another girl appeared in the field of your vision. She helped her tipsy friend to find her balance as they walked towards the street. Her whining was louder than your miserable thoughts. ‘I swear, he rejects everyone who tries to speak to him as if he was waiting for his soulmate like in those lame animes he likes so much. Gosh, so annoying!’

Taehyung squeezed your hand when the realization hit you both but you just couldn’t care anymore. Thus you took a deep breath, stood up and fixed your skirt, throat yearning for a sip of something stronger than the still water in your stupid paper cup. You hated how miserable this night made you feel. Though, you hated more that you still wanted to give him a chance to prove you that you were right when you had thought that his soul was beautiful underneath the unapproachable facade. 

.:you wished that your paths had never crossed each other:.

Three soju shots were enough for you to get wasted, knowing no personal space or dignity as you walked into the enormous guest room where a few members of the taekwondo team were already sleeping. It wasn’t an unusual thing as you had found out when seeing your unsure steps, your friend had offered you the same thing that he had offered to everyone. Taehyung, being an exceptionally kind soul and a former athlete of your school’s group, was famous for his generosity.

With the upset girl’s whiny voice in your head and a black pen in-between your slim fingers, you sat on your heels barely an inch from the sleeping Jungkook and wrote your name on his wrist as you had seen it in one of the most cliche animes, praying and begging every deity you could name to keep him in the cage of his dreams for a bit longer. You sincerely didn’t know what you would have done if he had woken up while you were drawing the last characters with your tongue darting out of your mouth. Once you finished, you marked your own wrist too, the boy’s name decorating your milky skin like a burn mark that you didn’t want to fade.

You threw the evidence into the trash bin, drank a glass of cool water in the kitchen, then fell asleep on the couch with a random girl on your right and Jimin laying on the messy carpet in the middle of the living room. In your dreams, you were smiling into a camera, content and ridiculously, truly happy.

 

You woke up with a nasty headache and memories foggy in your mind. Though, those blurry pictures soon came back to knock on your door when you sat behind the kitchen island and waiting for the breakfast that some older guy was willingly making for the team, you noticed the black lines on your wrist. Gosh, you were so pathetic, really. What had you been thinking, holding onto someone who was obviously sick of the thought of being in your company for more than ten seconds. A few symbols and a childish fairy-tale would have hardly changed the fact that he didn’t want to look at you at all, let alone talk to you about your passion for photography. 

‘Is everything alright?’ you heard Yeojeong’s faint question from behind your back when you excused yourself to the bathroom, so that you could wash the black tint off your skin.

‘Yeah, sure,’ you replied, scratching your nape. ‘I just really need to pee.’

Two minutes later, you were waiting in front of the bathroom’s door to finally open up, your fingers fondling the dark characters absentmindedly. Truth to be told, you liked Jungkook’s name on your skin way too much to want to get rid of it so soon, but you didn’t intend to make things worse just because you were unable to accept the fact that he was nothing like the boy in your head. The real Jungkook was grumpy and rude. So different from the artist you had been longing for on sleepless nights and lonely afternoons.

After a little eternity, when the door eventually cracked open, you could feel a firm chest crashing into your arm and soon your gaze met the most beautiful pair of chocolate brown eyes. Yet, you forced yourself to look away. You didn’t want to hear his complains about you being in his way. You weren’t ready to face those bitter words so early in the morning.

 

‘You drown yourself in the toilet or something? Open the door!’ you could hear Taehyung’s worried questions through the bathroom’s door although his voice sounded ever so quiet as if it had come from under heavy layers of water. As if you had been indeed drowning. Except that you were obviously not.

‘Just give me a second,’ you asked him with a lump in your throat as you looked at your wet wrist, skin as red as a bracelet made of vivid rubies. You couldn’t believe your luck and that the freaking pen that you had used was actually waterproof. What were the chances, really? And what was more important. Had Jungkook realized by now that it was you whose name was written on his skin? After all, Taehyung and his stupid, worrisome screaming had made sure that everyone in the house knew your name. Should you have looked for Jungkook first, giving him a somewhat okay explanation before you would have begged for his forgiveness? Or should you have just walked away before he could have found you and humiliate you in front of everyone? You couldn’t decide. Not with Taehyung’s constant knocking on the door.

 

In the end, you chose to go home without eating breakfast because this way at least you could have delayed the catastrophe that was about to happen. You feared the consequences of your stupidity. Yet, as you were waiting for the bus two corners from Taehyung’s home, your worst nightmare came to haunt you when Jungkook sat beside you on the bench, clearing his throat with expectation written all over his face. He was fidgeting with the characters on his wrist as if he had been afraid and you let out an anxious giggle when you realized that he was indeed scared to address you properly. You two must have looked ridiculous, staring at each other from the comfortable distance of the bench’s two ends.

When the boy, gathering his courage, asked you whether you believed in soulmates or destiny you almost choked on your own tongue even though the lie rolled off your lips without a hitch when you said yes, you did. After then, as if your answer had broken down the firm ice around Jungkook’s heart, talking about everything you had wanted came just as easily. Time flew by fast as you two shared your thoughts on every possible topic that crossed your minds during the carefree conversation. 

‘Are you a moron?’ the same, high pitched voice from yesterday broke your pink bubble of coziness when the raven-haired boy slid a bit closer to your figure, his shoulder brushing into yours lightly. He was about to tell you how beautiful the countryside was when the girl whose name was still a mystery for you, grabbed his right hand and turned its inner side upwards. You held back your breath, hiding your own wrist in vain. ‘She’s playing with you, gosh. It was her who drew those stupid characters on your wrist while you were sleeping,’ she said and you could feel Jungkook’s gaze burning a hole into your forehead regardless of that fact that your eyes were shut close in fear.

The silence that embraced you all felt freezy and funnily, it burnt.

‘Did you really?’ was all the boy asked before he stood up and pulled his hand out of the girl’s grab. You didn’t know what to say. Not, until it was too late to speak up.

Even though you were begging him to stay, to wait, to give you a chance to explain, he didn’t listen. He took the first bus towards the downtown and left you, your knees hitting the ground in despair. You felt so stupid with your warm tears running down your cheeks as if they could have changed anything. Well, they obviously couldn’t.

.:nice to meet you again:.

Honestly, you would have never assumed that Jungkook would be this mad at you after the drawing incident but you hadn’t thought that he would really believe that you two were meant to be, so it wasn’t that much of a surprise that you were wrong.

‘Hey, stop playing with that poor leaf of spinach. It makes you seem much more miserable,’ Taehyung said with his chopsticks capturing the mentioned vegetable right before you let out a defeated sigh. It had been almost a month now that the raven-haired boy had left you in the bus stop although it still hurt whenever he looked through you in the hallways. You couldn’t bear the familiar mixture of hatred and disappointment in his eyes.

‘I do feel miserable,’ you mumbled under your nose and put your cutlery on the table as your trembling hands pushed the plastic tray a tad bit further. Maybe having lunch at the Japanese restaurant in which Taehyung had worked as a waiter wasn’t your wisest idea since the boy could be extremely nosy whenever you tried to keep your thoughts for yourself on purpose, but you’d had enough of being alone and listening to his lecturing was still way better than running away from your problems. You just wished that he could have been a bit more gentle.

‘Well it’s true that acting as if you were his soulmate was a bit extreme but it caused no harm. You seemed to get along pretty well, actually. That’s why Tiffany got jealous,’ he munched on his sandwich with his eyes stuck on your pathetic face, earning an eye roll on your part. You weren’t entirely sure that you wanted to know what ‘seemed to get along well’ exactly meant or why did he talk so matter-of-factly as if he had seen the whole scene with his own eyes. You hoped he hadn’t. That would have been humiliating.

‘Yeah, whatever. I’m not hungry anymore,’ you said after long minutes of silence and two more failed attempts of eating at least a mouthful of rice. Gosh, Taehyung was right. You should have pulled yourself together already. You couldn’t possibly starve because of a boy. The thought alone was ridiculous. Yet, you stood up nevertheless and bobbed your head as a clumsy goodbye. ‘See you tomorrow.’

You wrapped your fingers around the edge of the tray with more force than it would have been necessary and your heels just to bump into an all too familiar shoulder that markedly didn’t intend to get out of your way anytime soon. You looked at the intruder, confused, waiting for a slap, let it be real or imaginary. But what you got in the end was more like a soothing creme to your scars than another wound on your flesh. 

‘Excuse me, is this seat occupied or…’ Jungkook asked, leaving the question unfinished on purpose. If the tray hadn’t been in your hands, you would have rubbed your eyes, so you could make sure that you weren’t dreaming.

‘Actually, I was about to leave, so feel free to make yourself comfortable,’ you informed him with a soft smile right after you had swallowed down the nasty knot in your throat, teeth nibbling on your lower lip out of uneasiness. Regardless of your claim, you didn’t dare to move.

And the boy seemed satisfied that you weren’t so willing to leave.

‘Do you have a minute? I really want to talk,’ he said and he tilted his head towards the abandoned chair right behind you, asking you to sit back on it without the actual words. And so you did just as quietly.

The way your boots crashed into the table and the high pitched whine that involuntarily left your mouth made the boy crack a smile as he took the seat on the other side of the table. He didn’t say it out loud but he found your clumsiness adorable.

‘I assume it’s a yes,’ he said, scratching his nape as soon as his tray fitted close to the table and as if it had been a sign, Taehyung stood up hastily, rambling incoherent sentences about the end of his break and his boss looking for him out of the blue. You didn’t believe a single word that had left his mouth although you were grateful that he gave you space and the chance to apologize in private. He was indeed the best friend who you could have ever wished for.

Before you could have told your company how sorry you were, he stole the words from the tip of your tongue and apologized for his unacceptable behaviour. He also told you that Jimin’s new girlfriend, Yeojeong, had explained him everything on Thursday after his taekwondo practice and that he hadn’t recognized you on the party for which he had also felt sorry. He should have given you a chance to talk.

When he was done, it was your turn to speak. You told him everything starting with the photos that you had admired ever since you had accidentally stolen them and of course the way you had pictured your encounter on the season opening, then later on the celebration party. With every sentence, your chest felt less and less heavy and by the end of your monologue, you were able to laugh at all the misunderstandings that had paved your path to this moment. The moment from where you could have tried to start something new. For example a new chapter of an unfinished book that was waiting for your story to be written all over its pages. Your personal fairy-tale that might have been lacking the power of unsaid prophecies, fate and soulmates bound to find each other through the deadliest storms, it wasn’t any less magical.

 

the end.