Still With You | JK ff

Chapter 10 - Evasion of Happiness!

Jungkook peered into the haze on the mirror before him, as water dripped from his wet hair and trickled down his back. He wiped the mist off the surface with his palm forming a small oasis of clear reflection from which his eyes peered back at him. He inspected his face as he wiped his neck with a towel – the face of the man staring back at him didn't quite seem like his own. Where were the frown lines he always fussed over? Why didn't he have the usual bags under his eyes like he always did whenever he pulled an all-nighter? How did the marks from those pimples that appeared on his chin last month disappear? Did his skin look smoother than ever before, almost translucent? Was he being crazy, or did his eyes look wider and brighter? He ran the towel through his hair, squinting his eyes as he continued to scrutinize the stranger in the mirror suspiciously. As his gaze wandered over his face and met eyes with his reflection, a smile broke out on his face. The stranger in the mirror smiled back, suddenly gaining color on his cheeks. He couldn't even meet his own eyes without blushing. He patted the apples of his cheeks in a futile attempt to suppress the smile, but like a fountain it gave way to giggles instead that bounced around like music between the walls of the bathroom. Shaking his head in amused disappointment at his hopeless situation, he patted some serum on his face and reached for his lip balm. As he rubbed the stick on, another embarrassed chuckle escaped him as he observed how unusually flushed the skin on his mouth seemed. The sensation of Y/N's lips on him, biting his lower lip was still vivid in his memory. He ran his finger on the plump skin as he relived the moment yet again, with a deep-seated shiver that had become a permanent resident in his abdomen. Feeling shy, as if caught red-handed by his own reflection observing him, he turned and walked away still chuckling as he chewed on his lip unconsciously.

Could this be what he had heard only romantics talk of in the past, lines in poems or narration in movies. Even his parents had spoken of it often – 'You wait until you fall in love, then you'll see' his mom had told him, almost like a threat. Love changes a man, they say, could that be what was happening to him, he wondered. Was he a man so blinded in the warm brightness of love that he couldn't even see his own flaws anymore?

"You seem very chirpy," Seokjin patted Jungkook's back as they met at the breakfast table.

"Do I?" Jungkook scratched his head casually but looked down at his shoes to hide the crease of a smile that was already creeping onto the edge of his mouth.

"What happened to Jungkookie, why are his ears red?" Jimin ruffled the hair on the back of Jungkook's head as he picked up a plate for himself.

"Wha- something happened to Jungkook again? What? What!" Hoseok rushed to the table from the other end of the room.

"Guys, nothing happened, I'm fine!" Jungkook pleaded, pinching his nose to suppress his laughter, while Seokjin continued to guffaw loudly at his blushing face. "Let's eat, I'm starving."

The seven settled around the table and began to dig into the various dishes laid out before them, picking up a piece of meat or bacon with their chopsticks every now and then and placing it in each other's plates.

"Jungkook didn't sleep in my room yesterday," Seokjin announced loudly to no one in particular, effectively bringing all their chatter to an immediate halt. Everyone knew that despite Jungkook's own room to himself, he often sneaked into Jin's room at bedtime, to sleep with him. Other times he just fell asleep in Taehyung's room, or with Jimin and Hoseok – or whoever he was with on a particular night, either playing games or sharing a drink.

"Waaah Kookie, will you sleep by yourself, now that you have a girlfriend?" Hoseok gazed at him with child-like awe in his twinkling eyes.

"No dummy, he was out all night," Jimin winked at Seokjin, clearly in on the secret.