(Completed) Tomorrow, With You • Jeongyeon x Jimin

26 - To touch and ignite

He agrees, the amount of lies his 16-year old self had to construct so she didn't need to suffer from her parents' glares of suspicion and her sister's interrogation send shivers down his spine. Such a notorious liar he was for a child whose parents have always been the kindest.

"God, we never really changed... I mean, we are practically the same when it comes to sharing beds and being in silence."

She clutches her stomach, then throws a fit of laughter that catches him at the time he's already wheezing, something that happens only with the kind of soulmates that they are.

"You're the awkward extrovert then, and I was the awkward introvert, but now we're just... awkward, that's it. I don't even know if I can still call you an extrovert, and I don't have that understanding of myself either... so..."

"So, embrace whatever you think you are now whether you have a label for it or not. I can appreciate you just as much," he replies, words stuck in the air ready to be swooped in, and when she let it in, it becomes a matter for the butterflies in her tummy to munch on.

He could see her cheeks flushing pink, he knows where to touch, what to say, when to speak when it comes to her... and Jimin thinks it's something that takes years to learn. He's proud of it somehow.

"You know," he adds, his free hand reaching forward ever so slowly, so careful not to cross the line. "I thought that when I get to be close to you like this again, I'd think that I missed this so much.. but in reality, right now with you it's..."

He pauses, letting the tip of his finger touch hers, she flinches lightly and then freezes.

"It seems like you were never really gone, or far away from me. I could feel you everywhere even when physically, you were not there. At home, when I'm in bed and the lights were out--you were there, laughing at how silly I was, you were there watching me work until you drift off to sleep, you were there telling me to keep doing what I love, and you were there, everywhere to remind me that not even death could break us apart."

Jeongyeon is taken to a whole new world when she traces her finger on his until she feels a material, a ring that matches the one she has locked in her necklace.

There's a euphoric sensation inside that swirls alongside the emotions, tons of them, that tells how her life will never be as fulfilling if not for the person inches away, and everything that he just said attests to all the times she thought of the same.

Every part of him is a part of her, and it's beyond what a thousand different universes, millions of stars combined altogether could show.

And from spilling those words, to pouring out tears of decades of fighting and stepping back and fighting again--the touch drives another world to ignite.

Another place to start over.

Another hope to cling onto.

Another life to live.

Another world to conquer tomorrow. And the one after.

From her fingers up to her arm, to the crook of her neck, to her cheek that burns in flames... Jimin makes a home in each of the skin his thumb grazes upon.

She reels into the feeling, the vibration that strikes every chord in her being, the withheld kisses, the longing in the intimacy they both founded and built from awkward friendships to being each other's first times in everything. 

The night is a reminder of two young souls, once pure and careful, to reckless and wise, finding and losing ways for numerous fateful times like the fire burning out only to be light up after.