GHOUL | JJK

ACT 2

ACT 2 // SEOUL
CRUSH – 가끔
JJK.

THE SMALL café huddled despondent amongst the towering city buildings. washed out under the overcast sky, it hunched in itself, fighting against the willing and fearless drizzle of icy downpour.

countless citizens rushed by it–outside on the infested sidewalks and rigid roads.

the door swung open, and the interior was heralded by gusts of chilling winds. no one took notice as JEON JUNGKOOK and KIM TAEHYUNG took their seats and settled down, while the surrounding customers resumed their conversations as the door returned back to its rightfully closed position, and the insufferable breeze was forgotten.

quite honestly, the café was like a cemetery for dust; it covered the counters, it covered the tables. and of course, it peeled at the edges to expose the obsidian sticky plywood beneath.

the servers would have done well in a funeral home for all the smiling they did. the youths, however, learned to grow a space of admiration for this crummy building in their hearts, and they filed their pasts.

yet even though their stomachs rumbled, they were as enthusiastic as slaughter-house pigs.

jungkook and taehyung were very unalike, but compatible in a way that wasn't obvious to the naked eye.

a news cast ruptured on the monitor behind them; neither of them took notice nor seemed to care about the cannibalistic incident from the night before.

engrossed in a book, jungkook falsely listened to his friend's nonsensical rant about this or that and the other.

the book he read was old and heavy, the leather soft and delicate as he ran his fingers over the faded blue bindings. words appeared and disappeared while his eyes fitted across the pages, swiftly picking out anything of importance from the jumble of sentences that littered the world he had immersed himself in.

until one comment from his friend caught him off guard.

"i just hope that when you finally ask out your crush that she'll look past your lack of experience."
he chuckled, feet rested on the surface of the grainy tabletop.

jungkook rolled his eyes.

he was about to repeat the witty and somewhat inappropriate comeback he had stirred up in his head, when

THE WAITRESS

had realised that the two teenagers had been sat down for way too long without ordering something.

her presence, however, corrupted their conversation and muted it to a halt.

the girl stood with a hip jutted to one side, her right arm draped across her slender body, clasping the other elbow. her head lolled down to one shoulder, casting her bobbed hair onto the faded METALLICA t-shirt that was two sizes too big. it hung so low that her shorts only just peeked below the dirty hem, a fringe of denim cut-offs.

her static eyes dashed from one boy to the opposite; waiting for them to tell her their order.

ultimately, she had waited too long, and decided to clear her throat.

"h-hi, could i get a mocha? thanks."
stuttered the bold, youth once he lowered his dirty shoes from the table.

"sure, what about you?"
she turned her gaze to the open-mouthed geek of sorts, with sweaty palms still gripping the tatted book.

"just...a water's fine."
he responded when he had gathered enough confidence.

the waitress scribbled some notes onto her notepad and made the mistake of looking back at the two boys before taehyung decided to continue the conversation.

"what's your name? if you don't mind me asking."

"i'm jiae."
she said, in a breath.

"that's a beautiful name."
taehyung winked, while his friend just shook his head and continued scanning the pages of his book.

"thanks...i guess."
she smirked and nodded to walk away.

"you're so desperate it sickens me."
jungkook told the younger, half-jokingly, half-not.

"well, just be glad you haven't seen me at my worst."
he returned.

"that wasn't it?!"
jungkook fake-gasped.

taehyung clicked his tongue and leaned over to punch him while the other chuckled and fought back nonchalantly.

at one point, the door swung open once more, engulfing each customer with a taste of the outside atmosphere they entered the café to shelter themselves from.

A GIRL.

she had a way about how she carried herself into the room; careless but dramatic.

and as soon as jungkook caught sight of her, he couldn't seem to peel his eyes away.

the girl had a nose much like a cartoon character–or one drawn by a lazy artist, at least. the bridge was so low-profile as to be barely there at all; so that on a face of skin all the same honeyed hue, her nose was a bump just above her dusky pink lips.

there was no two ways about it,
she was cute.

but as taehyung watched his pitiful friend's gawking face, he snapped him out of his trance and shook his head.

"there's no chance, bro."

"what?"
jungkook jumped in his seat, still recovering.

"she's too hot for you."

before jungkook could say his line, again, taehyung's phone indicated that he received a text. one look at it, and he informed jungkook that he had to be somewhere, leaving him solitary on the table they had shared.

he returned to his cursive world, all the same. it fell open with an avalanche of pages, their snowy whiteness be-speckled with a flurry of black ink in poetic lines that tumbled swiftly down each one. jungkook's fingers intuitively danced on top of the title on the dense cover–THE BLACK GOAT'S EGG.

there came a moment in which jungkook had had enough of the imaginative scripture, and decided to look around the café to pass the time.

amongst the sea of tables, he spotted the girl from before also enveloped in a page. he tried to see if he could catch a glimpse of the cover; it was the same book he was reading.

the girl felt the look he was giving her, and shared a smile with him as their eyes locked.

一

the sun was already dipping behind the horizon, but the daylight still lingered in the air as though accidentally left behind.