Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
✧✧✧
It had been nearly an hour of silence, small chitchats and plenty of walking. And as the sky morphed from a nice shade of blue to an explosion of blues and oranges, I too was morphing into a new person. I was truly a night owl, and as the day slowly became night, my excitement levels managed to increase to the highest setting.
It was almost saddening to realize how quiet Jungkook was. Because being an introvert myself, it was always reliving to have an extrovert around to start the convos. Turns out, Jungkook is just as introverted as I was.
"Hey Kari..."
I nearly jumped. The suddenness of my name slipping off his tongue was startling but all so tantalizing in many ways that it shouldn't.
"Yeah?"
"This date of ours won't go anywhere if none of us speak."
He wasn't wrong. In fact, he was thinking the same as I was. But what did he expect me to do? Ask what his favorite color is? Ask what he likes to eat? Those are too...lame. Lame is the word that can describe this situation of ours perfectly. It was lame.
"W-What do we talk about?"
He shrugged, and it was all too cute. Which was beginning to worry me. Because at this point, everything he did would be cute to me. And I had to use every ounce of my inner strength to fight off the butterflies that fluttered in my tummy.
"I'd ask you what your favorite color is, but that would seem too weak of a question. Besides, I have a feeling it's yellow."
"How'd you figure that?"
"Not many people wear yellow. If you wear such a color so confidently and happily, then you must have some fondness of yellow."
He was extraordinary really. Managing to read me like an open book although my pages were holding tight, seemed to be a skill of his. And a part of me wanted him to read me entirely from beginning to end.
It wasn't until we found ourselves sitting in the middle of a small gelato shop just down the street from the bench we previously took ownership of. Laughter and chitchat mixed together like a perfect batch of cookie dough and it was beginning to feel a lot more comfortable with him. Jungkook, who was once a stranger, was now an acquaintance. And I could only hope for that title to bump up to friend.
"You've worked at the tattoo parlor across the café for a year already, yet only now we're meeting each other?"
"What can I say, I'm a pretty shy person. It took me nearly two hours just to open up to you like this."
The smooth sweetness that sat at the end of my wooden spoon-like stick was licked away by the force of my tongue, happily indulging in the satisfying taste of strawberry. My eyes admired the matcha gelato that filled Jungkook's cup. An interesting gelato flavor for an interesting person.
"You must love tattoos then?"
He shrugged, as if not sure of what to say or whether to reply or not.
"I've been getting them since I was 18. Within six years, I've managed to cover most of my hands, good portions of my arms, and a little near my neck. And I have no regrets at all. But over the course of six years, I've never really asked myself why. Why I love them. Why I want them. I guess I'm still searching for an answer myself. But to make this simple, yes Kari, I have a fondness for them."
A fondness.
"Do you mind if I ask, which is your favorite?"
His lips quirked upward into little smirk, only leaving me much more curious and intrigued.
"I don't think this is an appropriate place to show you. Public nudity is a crime Kari,"
The wood that held together to form my spoon-like utensil bent in my grasp as my nerves began to tingle. Because as the probable image of a nude Jungkook popped into my mind, I figured it wouldn't be so bad to see such nudity.
"but perhaps one day—you'll see it for yourself."
And then my cheeks flushed in the brightest shade of red that exists.
