Unrequited || Jimin

0.4 | 생 일

B I R T H D A Y

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When you pulled away, my first reaction was to shiver from the sudden blast of wind that buffeted me. All I had on were my thin pajamas.

This you noticed, and so you tenderly wrapped an arm around my shivering body, drawing me in close to your side.

My body stopped shaking; but my heart was now quivering.

"Yah, you idiot, you should've worn a jacket or something," you said, your tone concerned.

"Well, see, some other idiot kept throwing rocks at my window," I teased as you steered me gently towards a bench off to the side of the garden.

You chuckled softly at my words - and the sound made me want to bottle your laughter and get drunk on it every night.

"Touché. But I could've climbed up to your room, you know."

When we sat on the bench, you started rummaging around in your plastic bag, preparing something I couldn't see, and so I looked around instead.

The sky was no longer a deep dark bowl of stars; I can see it gradually blur into a shade of navy blue, bringing with it the promise of a new day. It's quiet too. Here in the garden, it's as if the air around us was hushed. A bubble of space, consisting of just me and you.

I looked at you then, and traced your outline, as familiar as the palm of my hand.

There's your blonde hair, rumpled and tossed about; your slightly plump lips, of which I always wondered how it would feel to kiss them; your beautiful eyes, which held all the secrets of the stars in the sky.

"Surprise!"

I glanced down at your outstretched hands, and gasped in delight.

You were holding a small chocolate cupcake - my favorite dessert, from the bakery down the road. On it was perched a single lit candle.

I beamed happily at you, touched. "Jimin..." I carefully cradled the cupcake.

Your smile was brighter than the candlelight as you told me to make a wish.

I do; I wished for you.

"Happy birthday, Eun-byul," you said, your face aglow with excitement. Your hands reached out and took hold of mine. "Thank you for being by my side. Thank you for being my best friend. Thank you for being my star."

And then, without any signs nor warning, you leaned in close and kissed my cheek, your lips dangerously close to the edge of mine.

It was a light touch, a feathery sensation - much like that of a butterfly's wingbeat or the brush of a silk cloth against my skin. There one second, gone the next.

But it left me scattered and dazed, made my chest explode with fireworks - even when your words "best friend" kept pinching at my heart.

Maybe you should never have kissed me that day, however small the gesture seemed to you. Maybe I should've known better than to hope, than to let you lead me on.

But at that time I knew of nothing, and so we continued to blissfully sit there, two eighteen-year-olds on a worn-out wooden bench, talking about nothing and everything as dawn slowly unfurled over us.

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