NEIGHBOUR | PJM ✓

04

He looked up from the ground, over at her house. "Sure, I can do it for you if you'd like."

"Oh no! I couldn't possibly-"

Before she could continue, he slapped his hands together and grabbed the shovel again, checking over his place once more before heading to hers.

"Jimin, I really can do i-" he stopped walking, turning to look at her.

"In weather like this, you need to make sure you keep your mouth and ears warm," he let go of the shovel, leaning it against himself and bent forward, adjusting her scarf to cover her chin fully, as well as the bottom of her face. Ara's eyes widened at his actions, because although she couldn't feel his touch under the millions of layers, his intentions made her freeze, much like the snowfall that morning.

That was until he got to the 'ears' part of keeping her warm and pulled her beanie down to cover her eyes as well.

"Hey!" she exclaimed, scrunching her nose and lifting one side of her hat up to glare at him, only to see him scurrying away like a little kid who got caught trying to steal candy.

"Doesn't Eunji love playing in the snow?" she asked, watching as Jimin started shovelling snow from her driveway.

"She does but the girl is also very prone to colds, she asked me to come out and play today but I'm afraid she'll get sick so I told her we'll play when it's warmer and when the sun's out."

She nodded, walking to her doorstep with her hands in her pockets, shuffling bits of ice from her footpath with her shoes.

"So is she inside? By herself?" she asked, looking over at his place.

"Oh no! She's over at Min Hee's place, she's been complaining about how she hasn't done any Christmas shopping with her 'daughter' so I dropped Eunji off for the night."

Daughter?

When she heard him say it her thoughts started to run wild. So they were more than just friends?

"Well, Min Hee thinks of Eunji as her own daughter," Jimin shrugged, and that was when she realised she had said her thoughts out loud.

"Oh!" giving out an awkward laugh, "Right."

"There," she turned to see him looking at her driveway and footpath, proud of himself, "Done."

"Thank you so much," she smiled, jogging down her steps, "you really didn't have to."

"It's the least I could do for Eunji's teacher and as a neighbour," he returned her smile, again she only knew he did because of the fact his eyes got ten times smaller.

He straightened his back and faced her, "Well I better get going-"

The small white fluff that fell just them, landing on Jimin's hand that was holding the shovel stopped him mid-sentence.

"Is it going to snow again?" his tone, exasperated, "Really now?"

She laughed, "Looks like all that hard work was useless," scanning around, she saw snow starting to fall heavily around her, "Damn was there a snowstorm forecasted for today?"

Jimin looked around, "Eunji's gonna love this."

She grabbed the shovel from him and in the moment he didn't react, letting her take it, but afterward he looked at her questioningly as she opened her door and took her boots off, bringing the shovel in with her.

"What are you-"

"If you think I'm gonna let you walk back in that weather-"

"I live across the road," he chuckled, holding his hand out for the shovel, "It's fine."