Chapter 87: Plants, Pinkies & Paper Cranes

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Not to keep him. Just to tell him-I'm here. I'm safe. I'm not going anywhere.

"You made it," I said gently,

"I wasn't sure you would."

He nodded once. "I almost didn't."

And that landed with more weight than I expected. I heard it in his tone-how many walls he had to crawl over just to walk through that door.

"I'm glad you did," I said, and meant every syllable.

There was a moment where the silence wrapped back around us.

Not awkward.
Just... full.

The kind of quiet you can hear your heart beating in.

He took a slow step deeper into the greenhouse, gaze moving over the plants like they were safer to look at.

His profile was sharp in the golden light, lashes casting delicate shadows on his cheeks

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His profile was sharp in the golden light, lashes casting delicate shadows on his cheeks.

There was a kind of reverence in how he moved-like he knew this place was special but didn't quite know if he was allowed to be.

I followed his pace. Gave him room.
But never too far.

"It's peaceful here, huh?" I said, voice soft.

"Kind of like the world forgets about you once you walk in."

Jungkook gave a small nod.

"It's nice. Different."

"You spend too much time behind screens," I teased gently.

He huffed a laugh, brief but real.

"Yeah... probably."

I stole a glance at him and caught something I wasn't expecting-longing.

Just a flash of it in the way he looked at a blooming orchid, fingers twitching at his side like he wanted to reach but didn't know how.

And then he looked at me.
Really looked.

For the first time, our eyes locked-and there it was.

That unmistakable pull.

It hit like a chord vibrating through my ribs. Like the whole damn greenhouse leaned in with us. It wasn't just attraction.

It wasn't curiosity. It was something older. Something that ran beneath language and time and breath.

His pupils dilated just a little. He blinked, once, like he felt it too and didn't know what to do with it.

I stepped closer, just enough to lower my voice into that safe, steady place.

"You feel it, don't you?" I murmured.

His lips parted. No sound. Just a flicker of something-fear? awe?-crossing his face like a cloud.

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