❝𝗕𝗨𝗧𝗧𝗘𝗥𝗙𝗟𝗜𝗘𝗦. ── 𝗝.𝗝𝗞✔️

viii

Eden didn't look at him for long. She turned her back on him when his shirt had been pulled up and instead began her work while sipping on her coffee. She took a deep breath and tugged at one of her twists. At the end of the day, Jungkook was a boy, a hot boy with a body to die for and Eden was a girl who was attracted to men. Yet, she wasn't attracted to Jungkook.

"Moved all your boxes." Jungkook came up beside her, his palm flat on the counter beside her. Eden gave him a pat on the hand. "Thanks, but you're not even supposed to be back here. And you're not buying anything. You're loitering."

Jungkook's bottom lip jutted out to pout as he looked around for something to buy. He couldn't find anything sadly. "Well, I'm helping you work with no pay. I'd say that's not loitering." He leaned forward, his face right next to hers. "You enjoy me too much."

"I'd enjoy if you'd stop breathing your dragon breath into my nostrils."

Jungkook pulled up a chair and sat down beside Eden, watching from the side as she completed her work. Opening the books, marking down their numbers, and putting the store's barcode on them.

She murmured softly to herself, lips moving to say silent, almost non-existent words to verbalize her thoughts. Jungkook watched her with his chin leaning on his hand and his elbow against the wood.

Eden was pretty. She has a heart face shape with high cheekbones and full lips. Her eyebrows were thin yet full and her eyes were warm and calm and pretty. She had a small, button nose and small ears Jungkook's been pointing out for years.

He remembered how her lips felt against his for that brief second where they kissed when they were 13. They were extremely soft, like gentle pillows against his lips. He never got to know what she tasted like and he didn't want to. He was doing her a favor, simple as that. Jungkook didn't need to know what her lips tasted like.

Not to say he hasn't pondered it in some offhand thought, but it was always quickly discarded.

Most of the time she had her hair in braids or twisted or locs, whatever she chose for the next so amount of months. Now, she had half of her hair up and half down with two twists out in front, pushed to the side and out of her eyes by her glasses.

She always looked beautiful in the sunlight. Her skin was made to glow like that, enough to induce jealousy. It was a moment like this where he would take a picture of her but he didn't have his camera to capture this look and immortalize it forever.

Jungkook smiled softly, the corners of his eyes wrinkling with the fondness he had for her. He's always been told that he looks at certain things like he's in love with him. That he looks at Eden like he's in love with her. He's not in love with her though he does love her a lot. That's just the way he looks at things and the people he loves.

They had friendship bracelets for god sake. Woven bracelets made of purple thread that they made in art class in the 6th grade and gave them to each other. Eden's had a heart pattern woven in while Jungkook's were diamond-shaped. They always wore them.

"You don't need to sit here and stare at me." She told him without sparing a glance. She could feel his stare on the side of her face and it was distracting. "If you're so adamant on helping me out, you can help me out these books on display and restock the ones I checked in."

"This is free labor. I deserve compensation for this." Jungkook stood up and took the books she pointed to. He supposed that she wanted the books displayed on top of the shorter shelves in the front so that it's what the customers see first.

They work silently separate from each other with no one else in the store besides them. Mondays were rather slow days, the store had the most business on the weekends when most were off of work or school.