20. Insiduous Numbness

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*CW: Brief depiction of a panic attack. Reader discretion is advised.

In simple terms, the microscopic view of the Aenigmuus's neurons was the ugliest thing he had ever seen. The nuclei glinted with a shade of blinding white, outlined with tinges of viridian and highlighting the region as infected with Aenigmium. The fibre-like axons spread apart in a dizzying web of florescent and neon green on a background of pitch black.

Any moment now, Jungkook felt as though the neurons would slither out of the microscope, curl their veiny terminals around his neck and strangle him to death.

He quickly withdrew from the device and stumbled back, his head spinning in circles and eerie green spots dancing before his vision.

"Are you alright?"

The voice was childlike and subdued, pricking his ears and forcing him to jerk his head in its direction. Beside him stood a girl a foot shorter than him, dressed in a red sweater and sky blue jeans, her short russet hair dangling at the base of her neck as she tilted her head to look at him, her gaze innocent and concerned.

He willed his mask to slip back on.

He shrugged, absently picking up a folded sheet of paper from the counter and slipped it into his lab coat's pocket. She eyed his movements with rapt attention. "I'm perfectly fine, thanks. Just a little dizzy."

The girl offered him a languid smile. "Dizzy looking at cells through a microscope?"

Even in his mentally warped state, he could hear the rest of her unfinished sentence ringing in the air between them. Being the son of a scientist? The energy reserves of Jungkook's body, however, seemed to be in a persistent state of depletion, for he couldn't spend another second mulling over her ulterior motives of staring a conversation with him.

"Would you like some water?" she asked, taking a step closer.

Jungkook eyed the steel thermos in her hand, his throat suddenly parched dry. The fact that he barely knew the girl did not stop him from reaching out and taking the thermos from her hands while tossing her a grateful smile and gulping down the liquid, because he was so damn tired and thirsty all of a sudden, and the onslaught of distracting thoughts only worked to further numb his consciousness. The water, as it supposedly was, licked a chilly trail down the column of his throat and burned with a flame of delicious pleasure when he swallowed, then settled into a tranquil warmth.

"Do you feel better?" the girl asked, and Jungkook felt a sheen of haziness overcome his line of vision. Her sweater blurred into a shade of blood red, neon-green lines criss-crossing the expanse. He groggily nodded, widening his eyes to shake off the dizziness.

"I found something strange while studying the properties of Aenigmium," she said, her voice sounding distant. "Something about its proportional mass and density. Wanna check it out?"

Before he could even think to respond, Jungkook felt her slim fingers tipped with crimson nail paint curl around his bicep and give it a squeeze, pulling him away.

He had no awareness of his surroundings when the girl guided him out of the laboratory and into the empty corridor, pushing him into an adjacent room. His back hit the edge of a table, but the pang subsided once his hazy gaze fell on the tantalising dip of her hips as she waded towards him, her exposed collarbones, and the glistening, rosy line of her lips when she glided her tongue across them.

He had never felt as aware of himself as he did in that fleeting moment of far-away, bleary consciousness.

She stopped an inch away from him and put a hand on his chest, her lips curving into a knowing smirk so unlike the innocent glint of her eyes. She stood on her tiptoes and pressed her lips to the shell of his ear.

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