Chapter Text
"Soulmates aren't the ones who make you feel the happiest, no. They're instead the ones who make you feel the most." –Victoria Erickson
You never meant for things to end up this way.
Taehyung was talking– the timbre of his voice was all too familiar to you for you not to know– but his words were muffled, unclear, like there was cotton in your ears.
"Y/N," he said sharply, and you moved your previously unfocused gaze onto him, sitting across from you. He was leaning forward, hands clasped as he rested his elbows on his knees. How many times had he sat on that chair without ever looking like he was questioning you?
You didn't respond, but did your best to keep your eyes set on him. You didn't know what would happen if you let any of your emotions show through the front you'd learned to keep up around him.
The man sighed, looking away from you, and then back again within a second. His dark eyes were glistening. "You're my best friend," he said, his voice sounding constrained. "You're my goddamn best friend," he repeated, running an anxious hand through his hair as he continued his pattern of looking away and back at you. "Why wouldn't you tell me?" his voice broke halfway through the sentence. You couldn't keep your eyes on him as you watched him crumble in front of you.
"I think you should go." you spoke, standing from your place on the couch, immediately turning away from him. You brought your hand up to your face, smoothing over your forehead. Even listening to yourself speak, you couldn't believe how emotionless you sounded. Was this really who you'd become?
"Y/N," Taehyung pleaded from behind you. You heard him stand and instinctively took a few steps forward, prepared to escape the room if you had to. He took a shuddering breath and the part of you that would always remember everything about him told you he was going to cry. That same part of you clenched your heart– and yet the rest of you turned to stone as you turned back to face him.
"Taehyung," you said steadily, looking past him to the clock on the wall. Six pm. Sorim would probably making dinner by now. "Leave."
Out of the corner of your unfocused vision, you saw him wipe furiously at his eyes, his crumpled expression evident even when he was blurred.
"Please," he begged, taking a step towards you. He extended his hand and grabbed onto your arm. The warmth of his hand on your cold skin startled you, and you flinched away. Taehyung flinched, too, like he couldn't believe you hadn't let him touch you. You didn't want to explain that it was just temperature.
A few seconds of silence passed. You looked to your side, watching through the window the streetlights flick on below you.
"Okay," said Taehyung, voice shaky. "Okay. I'll go. But I'll wait for you, Y/N– I'll wait until you can tell me. I'll wait forever if I have to."
You didn't register him leaving your apartment. You didn't know how long you stood in that same spot after he was gone. Your heart was cold, your head was cold, everything was cold as you finally turned to look at the door of your home.
You knew that now, things would never be the same. You'd go, leave behind the life that you knew, start over, start over without your best friend despite all the promises you'd made.
You never wanted things to end up this way.
-
You couldn't even hear yourself sobbing, couldn't tell how many hours you'd screamed, cried every tear out of your body so that now you were sprawled on the floor of your room, chest heaving although you had nothing left to cry.
You clawed at your wrist, not feeling the pain despite watching blood well up around the black letters. The only pain you felt was the one twisting your heart, squeezing so tightly that nothing else seemed real, only the realization that the world which you'd always claimed to love had betrayed you.
Kim Taehyung was your soulmate.
And you were not his.
-
"Well, that's that." Jimin sighed, placing his hands on his hips as he surveyed the new living room, chalk full of boxes. He looked over at you as you nodded in agreement, face set as it had been for all too long. If he didn't have pictures of you from before... before it happened, he wasn't sure he'd be able to remember what your real smile looked like.
"Thanks," you said, turning to him, offering the slightest upwards tilt of your lips. Your eyes didn't crinkle, or even move. He pursed his lips momentarily before smiling brightly back at you.
"Of course! Anything for you." Jimin said, making an effort to try and raise your spirits. He knew it wouldn't change anything, but he couldn't find it in himself to give up like the others had. He really believed you'd come back to how you used to be one day.
"Mm," you responded, not sure how to properly reply to that. You walked over to the kitchen, examining the appliances like you hadn't been here before. Really, this was your second time ever coming. You'd wanted to get out of Daegu as soon as possible, and had signed a lease on the first apartment that checked off everything on your list of deciding factors. It was kind of on the expensive side, but in the moment, you hadn't cared, as long as you could move within the month.
Jimin followed you tentatively, sitting on one of the tall chairs in front of the breakfast bar. He watched you inspect everything, opening the oven and sticking your head in to see god knows what. He chuckled at your actions, and your head snapped up, eyebrows lifted in surprise.
"What?" you asked, tilting your head.
"Nothing," Jimin said, waving his hand. You nodded once, then went back to what you'd been doing. After a few moments, Jimin spoke again. "Y/N,"
You hmm'd, acknowledging him.
"Will you be okay?"
You froze, the cold air of the refridgerator blowing softly on your face before you slowly shut the door. You sighed, not turning to face Jimin as you spoke.
"I didn't come here to be okay. I came to forget."
Jimin's reply was immediate. "You're planning to forget your entire life so far? Y/N, if you choose to forget him, you're leaving behind so much, so many memories–"
"I don't want them." you snapped, pivoting to face your friend. "If I never think about him again, it'll be too soon." Jimin's face saddened, his brow furrowing slightly.
"You know that's not fair."
"Life isn't fair, Jimin." you said with a bitter laugh as you held up your wrist. "I get a lovely reminder of that everytime I lift my hand."
Jimin didn't respond. He knew it wasn't right to push you further than this– after all, despite how hard he tried, he'd never understand what it felt like to be you; to be in the situation you were in. Or rather, had been in for the past eight years. He'd never understand how you'd managed so long. Although he couldn't be sure if the way you were now was truly managing.
"Well," Jimin said, standing and making his way to the door. He heard your footsteps behind him as he walked. "Call me if you need anything. I only live a half hour away."
"Right," you said, having shaken off your frustration. You opened the door for him, offering another of those barely-smiles. "See you, Chim."
He ruffled your hair, smiling back. "See you."
-
"Y/N! God, what happened?"
You looked up through your wild curtain of hair to see your mother in the bathroom doorway, her jaw hanging open in surprise. She strode forward, placing her hand protectively over yours that was clutching onto your right wrist. The water dripping off your skin was just beginning to turn clear as your mother stared at the name written and the scratches around it.
She glanced over at you with a sorrowful expression, her brow furrowing as she shut off the faucet and reached into the cabinet to find disenfectant and gauze.
"I'm so sorry," was all she could muster as she sat you down on the toilet lid and cleaned what you'd done to yourself. You didn't have the energy to reply.
As your mother looked at you, she could tell that you were already changed. The eyes that just yesterday were so bright were staring down at your hand lifelessly, like they had given up.
She wrapped the bandage around your wrist, sat in silence, and then brought you into your chest, a tear slipping from her eye.
-
"Well, we're very glad to have you here." You politely smiled at your new boss's words. He reclined in his office chair, raising an eyebrow expectantly. "Your achievements speak volumes about you. In fact, I've never hired anyone with such a passion for this area of... shall we call it humanity?"
"Anima Meaology." you replied smoothly.
"Yes, that," said Mr. Seo, gesturing with his hand casually. "I'm sure you'll fit in well with the other researchers here. Most of them have similar stories to your own." He nodded his head towards the wrist that you often subconsciously held onto. When Mr. Seo had asked if you had any irregular experience with your soulmate, you had been inclined to lie. And then he had shown you his own wrist; covered in a tattoo constructed of vines and thorns, smiling all the while.
"Thank you, sir." you said simply, bowing slightly.
"Don't forget, you start on monday!" he chirped, sitting up. "Enjoy your weekend, Ms. L/N!"
"You as well, sir." you responded, bowing once more before pivoting on your heel and walking out of the office.
-
You ignored what felt like a million text messages and calls from your circle of friends for three days. You stayed in your bed, curled up with the curtains shut and the lights off, unable to rid yourself of the painfully empty feeling in your chest.
Everything felt like it lacked a purpose. The maps on your walls seemed like they were of another planet, the posters of your favorite band looked like you'd never seen them before, eating food that your mother forced into you at least twice a day felt like a chore. You never thought that you, someone with so much ambition, someone who saw art and life and vibrance in everything, could feel so–
Gray.
-
"Anima Meaology," you muttered to yourself as you stepped out of the research center, opening your umbrella. "Study of matters involving the soul and its metaphysical connection to another." Luckily, there was an awning overtop your head so that you were shielded from the rain as you did so. "Objective is to locate the point at which the soul transmits to another, to the brain, or onto the skin..."
You propped the umbrella up above you, pulling out your phone to check the time, before contuining your memorization of the goal statement.
"...via the collective data of the greatest amount of people possible..." 4:30. Was that enough time to walk down to the grocery store and be home before dark? You kind of regretted walking to work on your first day solely because of the rain, but since you were already out here, would it really hurt to walk the extra few blocks?
"...over no particular projected time period." You glanced down at your phone again, not really sure why, but doing it out of habit. A text from Jimin reading 'how was the first day?' popped up as you squinted at the screen– and then you heard the sound of someone on the phone, making out the words 'see you tomorrow' before suddenly—
"Oh shit, I'm so sorry!" Someone gasped from above you as you were thrust forward and tumbled onto the ground, the sensation of a warm liquid feeling all too evident on your chest. Eyes wide in shock, you looked up to see a young man extending his hand, a worried expression on his face.
You took it tentatively, before realizing that it was still in fact raining and your phone was on the ground, face down next to your umbrella. "Oh my god," you whispered to yourself, unintentionally ignoring the guy who had both knocked you down and helped you up.
"Are you okay?" you heard him ask as you leaned down to pick up your phone and the umbrella. You winced as you looked at it; the screen was completely shattered, and as water sept into it, you knew there was no saving it. And you had just bought this phone three months ago– god was the world constantly against you. "Miss?"
You turned, somewhat surprised to see the guy still there, before realizing that his coffee was in fact spilled all over your white coat and that he must be a decent person who felt bad.
"I'm fine." you said simply, bringing the umbrella back up over your head as he moved his away. Had he been shielding you?
Looking at him more clearly, he looked kind of young– wide doe eyes and cheeks that seemed squishy. "Are you sure? I'm really sorry, I wasn't looking at where I was going!"
"I wasn't either, its okay." You replied, offering a nod of finality before trying to weave around him. If you were going to to go the store, you really had to be on your way.
"W-wait!" said the guy, spinning around to catch your attention again. You looked at him over your shoulder, raising an eyebrow quizically. "Um- here," he sputtered, pulling the scarf he wore off of his neck and extending it to you less than gracefully. You furrowed your brow, opening you mouth to question him before he beat you to it. "So you can cover the stain! I'm so sorry, I wish I could help more, but–"
"Thank you," you interrupted, trying not to sound harsh as you accepted the scarf. "Do you live around here?"
"Yeah, just down there," he pointed in the direction you'd been going, and you nodded.
"I'll return this to you if we run into each other again, then." you said indifferently, offering him one more nod before wrapping the scarf around your neck and turning again to continue your walk.
It smelled of fresh pine.
-
"Y/N," said your mother's voice from your doorway. You didn't turn to look at her, instead keeping your face buried in your pillow, your body curled up as it had been for the past few days. "Taehyung is here."
You stiffened. "Please tell him that I'm fine and to leave." You told your mother shakily.
"He asked if you're sick," your mom said, although you knew what she meant was the question of 'do you want me to tell him the truth or not?'.
"I'm sick but he shouldn't worry," you replied, squeezing your eyes shut.
"He wanted to come see you," continued your mom. You knew she didn't properly understand why you couldn't bear to look at Taehyung. You knew she wouldn't understand why your friendship with him was now never going to be the same, whether or not he ever found out about his name on your wrist.
"Please, mom," you mumbled, turning over your shoulder to look at her with pleading eyes. She bit her lip, but ultimately nodded and left the room, shutting the door behind her to leave you once again in darkness.
You could faintly hear her tell Taehyung, who must've been at the door, about how you weren't feeling well but you,d be back to school soon, and you just didn't want him to catch whatever you had. You heard his voice call out, "Feel better, Y/N!" with no semblance of suspicion.
You tugged at the bandages on your wrist to pull them tighter.
-
The view from your apartment on the fourth floor of the building was probably not all that stunning to someone who'd lived in Seoul for a while, but the city never ceased to amaze you. As you leaned against your windowsill, watching the streetlights blink on, people hurriedly walking under them, cars honking and taxis stopping, you wondered if it had been worth it; giving up your dreams all those years ago. If it had been worth giving up the life that you'd had planned since you were a kid because of a tattoo you couldn't remove. Where would you be right now if you'd been stronger? If you hadn't let go of all that you had in store so easily?
Not like it mattered, anyway. You'd made your decisions.
A sharp knocking on your front door brought you out of your thoughts as you turned, trying to imagine who could possibly be here. Not like you'd ordered anything, not to mention that this was a private building and anyone coming to your apartment would've needed to be buzzed in...
You tried to shake off your paranoia, but nontheless grabbed the baseball bat that your dad had insisted you take with you to the city before approaching the door.
There wasn't an eyehole in your door, which in this moment, made you regret choosing this apartment as your new place to live completely. You swore, if this lack of eyehole caused your death or kidnapping, you'd haunt the owners and their children and their children's children for the rest of eternity.
"Who is it?" you spoke tentatively, gripping the bat tightly.
"It's Jimin," said a voice which was definitely Jimin's from outside the door. You sighed in relief, unlocking it and pulling the door open.
Jimin's blank expression shifted almost immediately into one of surprise as he saw the bat you were holding. He tilted his head, a corner of his mouth lifting up as he talked. "Were you planning on knocking me out or something?"
"It was in case someone was coming up here to kill me," you explained simply, stepping aside to let your friend in. "How was I supposed to know it was you if they didn't call me with the buzzer thing?"
"Oh, I just walked in as someone was walking out." Jimin explained, strolling into the apartment casually. "Hey, looks different now."
"Did you expect it to stay as just empty rooms and boxes?" you asked sarcastically, resting the bat against the wall where it'd been before. Jimin rolled his eyes.
"It's only been two weeks. Most people don't unpack all their stuff that quickly."
You shrugged. "I don't have that much to do, so."
"About that," said Jimin, turning with lips pursed as he rested against your breakfast bar. "Why haven't you been answering your phone? I came up here because I was getting worried about you. Your mom even called me to see what was up."
"Oh," you said, glancing past Jimin at your completely wrecked iphone that was still sitting on the counter where you'd left it after the incident in the rain. "It broke."
"When?" Jimin questioned, looking suspicious.
"A couple days after I moved in." you answered, looking at him blankly as he sighed. "I just haven't gone to get a new one."
"It's that broken? You can't get it fixed?" he asked, now relaxing more that you'd explained your abscence from technology. You gestured with you chin to where the phone sat.
"Take a look. I'm pretty sure it'll cost the same amount to get it fixed and to just get the newest model." Jimin walked around the breakfast bar and made his way to your phone, picking it up. He inspected it for a moment before looking at you with a neutral expression.
"Yeah, good luck fixing that." You cracked the slightest smile, and he smiled back naturally. "How's the job then?"
You sat down at the bar as Jimin leaned onto the counter in front of you. "It's fine. Pretty much always feels like half the things we do are going nowhere, though." Jimin cocked his head curiously.
"Why's that?" You shrugged.
"There's so little information to be found for the tattoos, Chim. It's just frustrating trying to explain something that has no roots." He nodded, although he looked somehow somber. "Don't give me the pity look."
"I'm not!" your friend exclaimed as he threw his hands up defensively. "It's just..." You eyed him suspiciously, and he seemed to regret saying anything by how he squirmed under your gaze. "It's just that..."
"Spit it out," you muttered, rolling your eyes.
"Well," started Jimin, avoiding looking at you too directly. "Taehyung and Sorim had a huge fight two days ago, and she kicked him out so he came up here, and he was asking to see you, and–"
"Stop there." you said sharply, your body going cold and yet against your will warming at the sound of Taehyung's name. You hated it– you hated everything about how you naturally loved him, his name and his person and all of it; you hated how you couldn't control your reaction to him.
"Well, Y/N, what if Taehyung's tattoo is the wrong one? What if you two really are meant to be soulmates and he realizes it once you talk about everything that's happened?" Jimin spoke nervously and yet quickly, like he wanted desperately for you to listen. You stared at him, knowing your face would be as stony as you'd trained it to become when you talked about both Taehyung and soulmates.
"Jimin," you said, sitting completely still. "Forget that you ever said that." He bit his lip, opening his mouth to talk before you beat him to it. "Please."
"...Y/N," he said, saying it almost like a plea. "Can't you just talk to him? He misses you, he really does–"
"I don't care if he misses me," you snapped coldly. "He has Sorim and he has you and his coworkers and a thousand other friends. I don't-" you stopped yourself before you said anything you'd regret, taking a deep breath. "How many times do we have to talk about this before you understand?"
"I just want you to be happy," Jimin said, voice small as he looked down at his hands. Your gaze softened at those words. "I remember when you used to be. When you used to smile with your teeth at everything, and sing along to songs in the car super loud even though you suck at singing, and go out to have fun, and talk about your dreams." he looked up at you, chewing on his lip. "Taehyung's not the only one that misses you."
You were quiet, not knowing what to say.
The silence went on for a few more seconds, before Jimin glanced away, up at the clock that read six pm. He sighed, pushing himself off the counter.
"I should probably get going. I'll drop by next week if you still don't have a new phone." You nodded, standing, still unsure of how to react.
You walked Jimin back to the front door, standing with tension as he looked at you. "I really mean it, Y/N," he said softly. "I just want the old you back."
"If I ever find her I'll tell you." you replied quietly, looking past him at the wall. Jimin sighed again, but wrapped his arms around you for a hug, you barely reciprocating before he said his goodbyes and you repeated them. He went out the door, and you shut it behind him, not wanting to watch him walk away.
-
You went to school on Monday with a tight long sleeved shirt on, so that even if you held your hand up the sleeves would not slip past your wrists. There was only about a half an inch of space between your hand and the tattoo, so you knew you'd have to be careful.
"Y/N'" called your best friend as he bounded up to you in front of the school, throwing a jubilant arm around your shoulders. "Feelin' better?"
"Somewhat," you said, offering the best smile you could manage as you looked up at the person you were destined to love. Taehyung grinned down at you just as brightly.
"Hey, did you get shorter while being sick? I swear you're shorter." he teased as he brought the arm up from around your shoulders and rested in atop your head. You shoved it off playfully, trying to ignore the way his touch made your feel. Of course, it'd been a while that Taehyung had given you butterflies in your stomach and a light feeling in your chest, but you'd always brushed it off as a childhood crush. Never, never did you imagine it'd be this.
You knew you'd have to pretend nothing had changed, though. After all, as Taehyung walked you to your first class, his wrist with the name 'Park Sorim' written clearly on it swung openly beside you.
-
"It's just crazy," you breathed as you flipped through what felt like a million pages of records. Kim Namjoon, your research partner and one of the most likeable coworkers you had nodded as he watched you go through the binder.
"They date back sixty years. Since the worldwide initiative started." You nodded at his words. Everyday you came to work you found out something new about the study of soulmates. Even though you had been a double major in college, spending hours and hours learning about psychology and then the same amount about anima meaology, you felt like half the things you'd discovered at the research center were things the public wasn't meant to know of. Like the long term project studying the statistics of 'glitches' as people like you were referred to. Everything in the research room surprised you to some degree, but this really was interesting.
"These are all glitches?" you asked even though you already knew the answer. "Just in this country?"
"Yeah," said Namjoon, and as you glanced over he was pursing his lips, seeming uneasy with the subject at hand. Namjoon was one of the few people in this research department who had yet to find his soulmate, or as many of you had, found them and been forced to let go. You figured he was constantly on edge with all the study of glitches and flaws in the system.
"I never knew there were so many," you said, brow furrowing. As you neared the end of the records, you wondered if you were in there. "How do you get the information?"
Namjoon shrugged. "Its a part of the yearly census. You probably haven't filled it out yet, since you're young, but there's a part where you check if you've met your soulmate, if you're with them, or if you've met them and you're not. And then a box that says something like 'soulmate has a different soulmate'."
"Ah," you said, closing the recordbook. Namjoon raised his eyebrows at you.
"Don't close it just yet– we have an assignment." You cocked your head, not having known about it. "Nothing interesting. We're just supposed to go through and check all the numbers over to make sure they match with the data in the computers before we get in the new information."
"When's that?" you asked as you opened the book back up.
"Well, the census gets mailed out in a month, I think, and the deadline is a month from that, so probably towards the end of October?"
"I see," you said absentmindely. Not like it really mattered to plan out when things were happening for you. You had nothing going on in your life; nobody to come home to that'd make things hectic or busy, nowhere to go that'd cause you to take time off work. Regardless of when the census information came in, you'd be here to file it all. "Roll that chair over, please." you said to Namjoon as you brushed your hair off your shoulder and prepared to read the records.
-
"Will you tell me what's going on with you?"
You turned to Jimin, eyes wide in surprise at his sudden exclaimation. "I'm sorry?" you said, furrowing your brow. He looked at you accusingly, as if it were obvious what he meant.
"Listen, Y/N, Taehyung hasn't noticed, you know how he is, but if you think I'm blind enough not to see that something's been wrong with you for the past two months then you must really think I'm stupid." Jimin said harshly, stopping you in your tracks in the middle of the sidewalk.
You turned to him, face falling from the shock you'd had before to the somber expression you wore when your friends weren't around. "It's just not that important. I don't want to worry you." you said simply. Jimin was truly your closest friend after Taehyung, and although you disagreed with your own words of it not being important, not wanting to worry him was true.
Jimin shook his head disbelievingly. "Do you not trust me?"
"It's not that, Jimin..." you trailed off, glancing away, looking anywhere but at your friend's dark eyes.
"God, don't you get that we've been friends for years and I care about you? Just tell me so you can get it off your chest." Jimin mumbled, and as you looked up you could see that he felt bad for being mean to you and yet you knew he was doing it becuase he could honestly tell there was something weighing you down. Where Taehyung had been the person to be quiet and not ask about anything if you didn't explicitly tell him, Jimin was the one to get you to let it out.
"I–" you began, but it didn't feel right just to say it. You bit your lip, then grabbed the long sleeve of your shirt, and pulled it up slightly, just enough so that Jimin could see the words written on your skin.
Jimin didn't speak, just stared at the black ink on your wrist. You felt the regret of showing him creeping up inside of you slowly, the struggle and pain you'd experienced that first week that you'd been pushing down threatening to grip your heart again.
Suddenly you were in your friend's arms as he held you tightly, his head resting on yours as he tried to pour his apologies and comfort into you physically. You tentatively wrapped your arms around him, knowing he was never going to tell you sorry for your situation– he'd know it wasn't something you wanted to hear. Instead he'd help you keep your secret, help you shed your inevitable tears away from Taehyung's eyes and continue to live your life as if the name on your skin was never there in the first place.
-
You really, really disliked spring. It was springtime all those years ago when the tattoo had first showed up on your wrist; when all this had began. But it was also that it rained a lot in the spring, and you also disliked the rain. You'd discovered that most people actually loved it, somehow. Maybe they liked the way the world was blurred around them, or how if you went inside on a rainy day it felt like life was paused with the way the water crashed onto roofs.
The sound of exactly that made you look behind you towards the windows of the the coffee shop that you were in. They'd been cleared when you walked in, and yet now having been in line for a solid ten minutes (you were actually starting to get annoyed with how long it was taking) the windows were covered in rain. You disliked the rain, but you couldn't deny that the music of the weather was nice.
It was as you were watching the rain that the person behind you, who you had in no way noticed, waved his hand across your face. As you focused the boy in your sight, your eyes widened.
"Hey," the boy from the rain said, a polite smile on his face. You opened your mouth to reply when the voice of the barista from in front of you called for the next person to come up. You held up a finger to the person who had stained your coat and caused your broken phone and given you the scarf you were wearing now.
"Black coffee," you said simply as you brought your wallet out from your bag.
"That'll be 3,900 won," the barista told you with the kind of smile people in customer service always had. As you got the bills necessary to pay out, a hand on your right wrist stopped you, and you immediately flinched away. The boy from the rain was unbothered by your reaction and spoke smoothly.
"Add a chai latte, please. I'll pay." The barista looked amused as she glanced at your surprised face.
"Sure thing," she said to you and the boy, then told him the new total. She relayed the order to her coworkers and pointed to the left as the spot where you'd wait for your drinks. The boy walked in front of you, giving you a weird look when it took you a moment to follow. No stranger had ever up and paid for a coffee for you like that. Alcohol, sure, when you were in college, but a coffee?
"Sorry," said the boy as soon as you stopped next to him. For whatever reason, you weren't nervous as he talked to you, despite not knowing anything about him at all. Like you had noticed before, he looked young, his doe eyes watching you intently. "I still feel bad for spilling my coffee on you a couple weeks ago."
"Oh," you said, then registered that wasn't a good response as the boy chuckled. You watched him curiously for a moment, wondering if that really was it. "Oh!" you repeated. "I have your scarf." You pulled it off from around your neck, folding it quickly over your arm and extending it towards him. His hand pushed it back towards you quickly.
"Its raining today too," he explained. "It'll be colder when you leave, so you should keep that on."
You couldn't deny the mix of confusion and wonder at this stranger's kindness. Being sorry for spilling a drink could only go so far. "...Thank you." you said. He smiled easily, stepping forward, having been paying much better attention to the line than you had as he reached out to grab two drinks from the counter.
"Here," he said, handing you your coffee as he took a sip of his. "I'm Jeon Jungkook, by the way. I feel like we've been through enough with each other to know names. Want to sit down?"
Had this kid not shocked you enough in the past few minutes? You shook your head, amazed by his forwardness but recognizing what Jimin had aaid you a few days ago in the midst a long conversation on the phone. 'Can't you at least try to live your life, Y/N?' he'd said. "Sure," you said, throwing your inhibitions out the rain-covered window. "My name is F/N," you said as Jungkook claimed a table where you could watch the people go by through a window.
You didn't miss the way his brow furrowed ever so slightly, eyes narrowed in what seemed like recognition for a fraction of a second, before he snapped back instantly to the light expression he'd sported this whole time.
"Y/N," repeated Jungkook with a smile. He pulled almost nervously at his clothes before continuing. "I like that name."