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This chapter has a soundtrack
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"I want to show you something."

Jungkook swallowed hard. He didn't have a clue what she could possibly have to show him, nor what even prompted the desire to. He didn't really care either. All he knew was that if Noona wanted to show him something, he wanted to see it.

"Ok," he blurted, a little more enthusiastically than he intended. At least that got a giggle out of her.

The controllers were replaced on the charging dock and he followed her up the two flights of stairs to their bedroom, his heart pounding so hard from both nervousness and excitement that he was starting to get a slight headache again, the pain throbbing with each beat. Once inside, she opened the drawer of the nightstand and retrieved a Tiffany blue rectangular box sitting on top of the burned notebook she took from the wrecked car, the presence of the latter raising questions as to its importance to her. He would have to find out at another time.

She carefully opened the box and inside lay a handful of jewelry pieces. Silver hoops of different sizes, silver studs, and a necklace.

"When you were in the hospital," she began softly, "the nurses had to take off all of your jewelry to run their tests and so it wouldn't get in the way of your surgery."

Hesitating, her small fingers delicately moved the hoops aside. "I had to clean them off. They got... dirty."

Making sure the earrings didn't become tangled with it, she picked up a beaded chain holding the only gold piece in the box, the ring attached to the chain slowly swinging back and forth like a pendulum. She sat the box with the rest of the jewelry on the table and turned back to the ring, placing it in her hand.

He studied her face the entire time, taking note of her somber expression despite the small smile she maintained, a smile that didn't reach her eyes. She held it with so much love and care that he knew without her telling him that this ring was significant.

Taking a deep breath, she then looked up at him, offering the piece for him to take.

Cursing his unsteady fingers, he picked the ring up, rotating it until the unfinished knot in the center faced him. He could feel her hopeful expectation radiating from her body, could feel her eyes examining his as he looked down at the ring that was too small for any of his fingers. He studied the reflective surface, the numerous scratches on the inside of the band telling the story that it was worn often and with love, willing his mind to produce the emotion that he was supposed to feel, the emotion she was trying to elicit, but he just couldn't—









'I... I want to give you something...'

'What is it?'



Jungkook's brow furrowed as he took shallow breaths, still looking down at the ring.




'A promise.'




"I... gave this to you."

He couldn't remember the words he said to her, he couldn't remember what he promised, but his anxiousness, his elation, the swarm of butterflies in the pit of his stomach, the hope that she would like it, the fear that she wouldn't and the joy when she did came rushing back like the waters of high tide crashing against the shore.

"You did," she whispered, her hands together in a prayer position, the tips of her index fingers just barely touching her lips. "What else do you remember?"

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