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-', (chapter twenty four) ꒱ ↷🦋🥛
THERE ARE CERTAIN THINGS EDEN ASSOCIATED WITH JUNGKOOK. The smell of baby lotion, baby shampoo, Victoria Secret perfume, and fresh laundry. The smell of the ocean salt that brushes under her nose when the wind blows.
She associates the sound of wheels rolling hard against the concrete with Jungkook. Soft giggles in the middle of the night, crashing waves of the ocean and seagulls. The shudder of a camera lens as he snaps a picture of the world.
Eden associates the sunset with Jungkook, beautiful and gleaming with golden crisp rays like his hair. His smile is bright.
All these things make her feel fuzzy as day by day, her feelings for Jungkook become nearly unmanageable. Eden never remembered feeling so strongly for Taehyung. She loved him for a time, no liked- was a better word. She loved Jungkook.
"Let's go out tonight." Jungkook likes his head over Eden from behind his bed. He looked at her upside down his hair falling over to brush softly against her cheeks. His presence is a pleasant distraction from her book, a gleaming face instead of unmoving worlds on a page.
The way he phrased it sounded much like a date, but she knew better. He meant a harmless little outing to the city, where they wander the back alleys and narrow roads between old buildings.
"What if I don't want to?" She asks him with a low hum. She put down her book and her eyes met his.
Their faces are far too close, but they don't care. They like the warmth of each other's breath on their skin.
"Let me rephrase. We are going out tonight. You need fun and excitement." What he really means is, "you need to get over Taehyung so you can focus on me". He was selfish, truly. He wanted Eden all to himself. Even when they were little kids and she would have crushes on other boys, he always asked her if he was still her best friend.
And now he wants to be her boyfriend. Different from being a boy that is her friend.
He sits up and walks around to stand next to her bed. Eden lets him take her hands and pull her up from his soft mattress and onto her feet. Eden wasn't too much shorter than Jungkook. She was a little above average for women, 5'7" and just a mere three inches shy of Jungkook's 5'10".
"The sun's already setting."
"When has that ever stopped us?" Jungkook's eyes glitter with child-like radiance. His desire for fun and adventure is insatiable, burning within him like a raging fire, unable to be put out. He had the ability to light that fire in Eden too.
Which is why they end up in a lot of stupid situations. Because the mix of adrenaline and dopamine drives them for more.
Eden has no will to decline him.
"Okay."
-
There's a lot you can find in the back alleys and roads of Santa Barbara. Small shops and restaurants like hidden gems within the city. The roads were cracked and broken with weeds and grass driving between the gaps that were left behind. There were bikes and scooters up against the walls of the old building where the eggshell-colored paint began to peel.
