• MBTI Imagines •

(17.2) ENTJ X INFJ

This definitely has now become an unwritten rule between them. It's hard to now be without the other.

"You remind me of a book character," he tells her the morning after. Mala faces him just in time to see a smile play about his lips. 

"Hm?" She hums, taking a few steps toward him before kneeling down to check on his healing wound. "From a fairytale?" She asks nonchalantly.

“No,” Ben answers, smiling at her before emitting a soft groan as Mala exposes his wound to clean it and cover it with a new wad of gauze. Thankfully, it’s not bleeding as much as it did when he first got it. “You remind me of a character from a book entitled, Little Women.”

Mala pauses in her actions to throw him a look of confusion. “Little Women?" She understood a bit of what he said. "Why would a man like you read a book about short women?”

Her innocent question catches him off guard for a second that Ben stares at her in disbelief. "Did...did you seriously ask me that question?" 

Mala, unaware of his bewilderment, nods and repeats the question. "I was serious. Why would you read a book about short women?" 

The man then busts out into loud and raucous laughter, throwing his head back. It came to the point that how hard he was laughing caused a bit of physical tension on his wound which started to ache in pain. Yet he did not care as Mala's confusion and pure innocence amused him so much. It's been a long time since he's had a normal conversation with someone outside of war. "Not literal short women! Mala, my belly hurts from all this laughing!" 

"Hey," Mala pouts her lips as he continues to laugh. She lightly punches his arm. "I didn't grow up with a lot of books, okay? How was I supposed to know a book with a weird title such as Little Women?" 

“When things get better, I’ll make sure to send a copy of it to you. I promise.” Ben raises his right hand a bit as a sign of his oath in the midst of his laughing which is becoming quieter by the second. “Though, I’m serious when I say that you remind me of a character from that book. Her name is Jo March.”

“Jo...March?”

“Yeah,” he breathes out, smiling slightly despite the pain in his leg. “She is a bit more talkative than you, though. But you’re the same...strong-willed and determined.”

“She seems like a nice and pleasant character,” she comments as she finishes cleaning his wound.

“It’s not every day you come across someone like a character from the book.”

“Yet, I’m real,” Mala utters to which Ben instantly replies, “And I’m glad you are.” 

Mala could only stare at him after he said those words. She did not want to read too much of his reply, but it reminded her so much of how the other guys back at home would tease her. She was apparently oblivious the whole time since they had been trying to flirt with her, or well...that’s what one of her good friends back home told her. Her mind is always thinking of other things - what needs to be done back at the farm or what she has to do at the town square - that the things that suddenly happen before her are left unnoticed. 

She forces herself to look away and chooses to slowly push herself to lean against the makeshift wall in the dugout. “You…” the words die in her throat. She can’t seem to get her point across. Clearing her throat, she decides to go back to the first topic they were talking about.  “The only story I remember is of the Bogeyman. My father would always tell me that story growing up.”

“Bogeyman? Does he eat unruly children?”

“Yeah,” she whispers. “You know that story, too?”