My Little Dancer

ten // connect, re-connect

"Happiness is when you
make unexpected new friends."

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Yein had to admit, riding was pretty fun.

She wasn't so sure how long they'd been riding. Has it been fifteen minutes? Half an hour? She didn't know. All she did know was she was enjoying it, more than she expected.

She knew in first five minutes, she was still stiff from being nervous and maybe somewhat shy. After that five minutes, she began to relax, opening her fists and gradually holding onto Jungkook's waist more naturally.

"Having fun?" asked Jungkook.

Seeing how there was no reply, he realised she couldn't hear him. They were on the road after all.

"HAVING FUN?" Jungkook shouted.

"YES. IT'S FUN!"

He heard Yein's excited laughter despite the wind muffling up most of it. Jungkook did notice how much more comfortable she had been for though she didn't shift much in the seat, she did hold him more confidently. Only at the turns did he feel her tense up because it was agreeably scary when Jungkook had to lean the bike at an angle.

"ARE WE MEETING SUJEONG AND TAEHYUNG?"

"I ACTUALLY DON'T KNOW WHERE THEY ARE!"

"WHAT?!"

Jungkook and Yein eventually stopped somewhere along the road where there was a night snack stand operating. The stall didn't have seats so they took away two sticks of dakkochi and a large portion of ddeokbokki to share. Finding a good, quiet place to sit, they began digging in.

"It's the Han River!" Yein exclaimed gleefully while taking a bite of her chicken skewer.

"It's nice, isn't it. The night view at this spot."

"You sound as if you come here often," commented Yein as she took a side glance at him before directing her gaze to the ddeokbokki, helping herself to some.

"I guess you could say that."

Leaning back with his hands supporting him, he looked at the numerous buildings against the vast night sky. The spot they were at had lesser lights compared to the other areas, allowing the stars to come into sight.

It was true that he came here often. In fact, it was like his special place where he only ever went to alone. Though Taehyung knew the existence of this place, he had never brought him here.

"It's a beautiful place. I like that it's unlike all the noisy bustling despite being in the city," Yein said, popping another ddeokbokki into her mouth.

Glancing over at her, Jungkook had a sudden urge to ask what he had been wondering for the past months. Fighting against his usual resistance, he finally blurted out, "do you remember?"

"Hmm?"

"We met before."

Staring at him wide-eyed, Yein thought hard but couldn't seem to recall meeting him before. "Have we?"

"Ah!" Jungkook looked expectantly at her when she exclaimed.

"At the clubs exhibition! I was at your club booth and you were there! Ah wait, but that doesn't count as a meeting, does it?" Yein placed one hand on her chin in an action of thinking.

"Uh yeah. When I said before, I meant like, before college."

"Really?"

Jungkook nodded, feeling slightly disappointed by her forgetfulness. But if he actually knew what Yein was like, just as how Sujeong had predicted, she was just a really clueless child who lived in the moment more than the past.

"I'm sorry I don't know. We met before?"

"The year I graduated from Cheon Ha. At the graduation ceremony.

"Means I was in second year of high school..."

"You helped me open a bottle of water because I was too nervous to do so myself," he mumbled loud enough for her to hear.

"Ah..."

"AHHH!" Yein reeled backwards with a hand over her mouth.

Pointing at him, she rambled upon the retrieval of the memory deep within her brain, "the golden performance! Golden Kookie! You're the guy who was good at everything! Crap, the girls were always talking about you. They'd just go Kookie this and Kookie that."

Stopping to catch her breath, Yein turned to him and exclaimed, "so you were that guy!"

During Yein's rapid fire outburst, Jungkook had his eyebrows raised in amusement and eyes fixed on her animated gestures. It was not that she was a quiet mild child. He had seen her loud and playful self with Sujeong and Mijoo but he had never seen her like this – exasperated and candid.

When she finished her string of words, he, while maintaining eye contact with her, barely hid his smile as he questioned, "golden Kookie?"

"That's what they called you."

"They?"

"Mhm. My friends."

"You?"

Tilting her head, she answered, "I guess I called you that too? Cause I never knew your name."

"You didn't?!"

Yein's nod made Jungkook realise how unpredictable she was. First, she didn't remember who he was and now, he found out that she never knew his name to begin with.

After a brief moment, he said, "but now you do."

Yein chuckled, "aye, that's right. Now I do. Jeon Jungkook."

Jeon Jungkook. Jungkook liked how it sounded for some apparent reason. A name was just a name but with it being said by Yein, it sounded oddly satisfying. He attributed it to the fact that he had never heard her call him by name before. She always addressed him as simply 'sunbae', nothing more, nothing less.

Suddenly bursting into a series of giggles, Yein had to cover her face with her hands to control herself while Jungkook looked on in confusion.

In between her hiccups of laughter, she said, "you... you were so... stiff that you were like a robot..."

Jungkook, who was listening intently, rolled his eyes at her statement. It wasn't a memory he wanted to recall because it was embarrassing – the all confident person was such a nervous wreck back then.

But Yein wasn't done. She continued, "I thought you'd screw up on stage but you did amazing."

She then raised her hands to her face and used her fingers to wipe the tears forming at the corners of her eyes. She remembered how he walked like a block and how his hands shook so much, he dropped the bottle.

"Of course," Jungkook said as he leaned forward to prop his head on his fist with his elbow resting on his knee. "I am amazing."

Yein faked a cough. "Excuse me?!"

"Why? Are you gonna say otherwise?"

"Not that I can. It's true you were pretty great--"

Jungkook puffed up in pride.

"--then."

Deflating, Jungkook glared at Yein while she burst out in laughter. Somehow the glare seemed different this time round. She didn't seem to feel any ill intent in his glare; it was more playful and joking.

They carried on their conversation, with petty banter thrown in and new discoveries about each other. For the first time, Yein felt comfortable with him while Jungkook was unaware of how much he had opened up to her; Yein's previous he-hates-me thoughts disappeared while Jungkook's gazes at her were evidently getting longer each time.

"By the way,"

"Yeah?"

"Just call me Jungkook."