Jimin
As I make my way to my car from the grocery store, somebody suddenly snatches the bags from my right grip relieving my shoulder from all the weight I've been carrying. I whip my head around only to face sunlit eyes that belong to nobody other than Nox. She flashes me a quick smile before looking up ahead when she adjusts her handbag and the shopping bags in her grip.
"Didn't your doctor say that you should take it easy with weights?" She says swiftly. "You should be careful, because I'm in no mood to drive you to the ER. Again."
I laugh to myself at her feisty attitude as I remember the time, I helped Yoongi to carry a few boxes filled with filmmaking equipment he ordered several weeks ago, to his apartment. I wasn't aware of how big Yoongi's YouTube channel is considering that he actually has two channels; one of them has content related to computer science and graphic design tutorials, while the other one with the gaming content and the movie reacting is much more famous.
He earns good money from both channels and that prick still refuses to pay for my beer at the Sage. He even has a few vlogs scattered here and there within the channel, but most of them are from when he was in high school while the rest are mostly travel vlogs for when he goes back to Korea. I haven't watched all of them, but I was surprised to see that he partied a lot and he had quite the social life. And from the looks of it, he doesn't keep in contact with any of the people from his high school. At this point I've came to the conclusion that I am his only friend and maybe Nox.
Yoongi still vlogs from time to time and even asked me to appear in one of his videos, but he hasn't posted them yet, because his laptop started malfunctioning. He went on a shopping spree, online of course, because the man can't stand to be within sniffing distance with other people. He ordered himself a new laptop, tripod, camera light, headphones and a light reflector. But then he became a little greedy, so he ordered a few books and some other useless shit and I had to be the donkey to help him carry all that shit up to his apartment, because the courier was too damn lazy to bring it up to our floor. Long story short, my shoulder started aching from the weight and Yoongi started panicking, so he called Nox because he didn't know what to do. And then Nox started to worry and that resulted into a pointless trip to the ER, where the doctor simply told me to rest my shoulder and perhaps take a painkiller to relieve the ache.
"That time was all on Yoongi not me. I told you guys I was fine." I beam. "Not my fault you overreacted."
"Well sue me for caring." She snorts.
"Someone's in a bad mood."
Nox runs a hand through her strawberry blonde hair when she blows out a stand that dangled in front of her face. "Sorry, work is stressing me out."
"That's understandable."
"Can I ask you a favor?" She questions as we approach my car. "Can you give me a ride to Fallfell Pond once we take our stuff back to the apartment? I've taken my car for service."
"Sure," I say while I open the trunk.
When we place our groceries inside, we circle our way to the front and she plops down on the seat beside me. I start the engine and in approximately ten minutes we've reached the apartment in Sunleth. We take our groceries to our homes and agree to meet back into my car in five. Once I reach my parking spot, Nox is already there waiting for me with a bag of fresh bread poking out in her grip.
"What's that for?" I ask her, gesturing at her paper bag as we make our way inside.
"I like to feed the fish at the pond in the evenings." Nox tells me.
"Really?" I raise a brow. "Never pegged you as an outdoors nature kind of girl."
"It helps me relax after a shitty day." She muses. "Besides, I've got tomorrow off and all I want to do is lay down and succumb to laziness."
I chuckle. "What else do you like doing on your free time?"
She smirks half playfully half deviously while twirling her hair. "I mean that's kinda personal Seven. I can tell you exactly what I like to do, but you're driving right now. If you want, I'll send you a tutorial later."
"Shut up, smartass." I cackle while running a hand through my hair. My face is burning at the mentioning of her sending me a video that demonstrates exactly what she likes to do when she's all alone. I've fantasized about her more times than I care to admit, but I'm not about to tell her that right now. "You're something else. Please don't send me a video of yourself doing that."
"Wait up," she says like it's a punchline to some joke. "What exactly did you think I was going to send you?" When I don't respond she bursts into snickers and her shoe almost falls off her foot. "You didn't think I was actually going to send you a video of myself now did you?"
I don't say a word and she giggles to herself.
"You're a freak Seven." She remarks. "I like that." As soon as I attempt to justify myself from this awkward situation, she sits up and looks at me. "I was just going to send you porn, but I guess that that doesn't do it for you."
"Nox, please shut up." I say through my teeth.
"Oh, would you relax already?" She says sassily. "Nobody is listening." After a while she turns to me again. "So...is there anything you like doing other than scribbling things in that little notebook of yours?"
"I enjoy working out, but apparently I can't do that for a while." I reply. "I would go with Taehyung to the gym. I even tried to persuade Yoongi to join us, but he said he didn't want to come because Taehyung was there, but honestly, I think he's just a lazy fuck."
"Well, Yoongi doesn't like taking part in activities that require him to get out of his apartment." She tells me. "He kinda lives in his head all the time, so tends to enjoy being alone a lot more than he should."
"He looks sad to me." I say lowly.
"Look, I've known Yoongi since high school alright?" Nox says and my eyes widen in surprise. "We've been through some shit together so I know him better than anyone. The only time he's not sad is when he's alone. That's why he isolates himself from the outside world."
"Really?" I saw one of his old vlog videos when I first looked up his YouTube channel and he didn't look the least bit sad while hanging out with his high school friends. He seemed genuinely happy.
"Yeah, like he was the kid who was always filming at school even when he shouldn't. He actually got in a lot of trouble because he wasn't allowed to use his camera at school." She continues. "He would make short films for the basketball team and he would create vlogs with his friend group, but in the end of the day, he couldn't wait to be alone to tweak around with the memories he caught on camera, because then it was the only time, he felt like his soul would come back into his body. Yoongi wasn't the kind of kid that fit in easily. Wherever he went he would always carry that lame camera of his. Eventually people saw his creations and that's how they got interested in him."
"You make it seem like people only wanted to hang out with him in order to be in his videos."
"In a way it's true," she says lowly. "He did make one good friend in the process, but she-"
For a moment there I thought she meant that she was the friend he made, but her pause signifies otherwise.
"He doesn't really keep in contact with anyone from high school." I say in an attempt to get rid of the quiet between us.
She smiles thinly. "Yeah, that's because they're no longer here."
I guess they parted ways because of college.
Fallfell pond is close to a bridge viewing where weeping willow trees would bend over to the rail side. Ivy plants are creeping on each and every one of the bridges' rails while moss covers parts of the wood like a blanket. The willows serve as faithful protectors against the sun while a refreshing breeze caresses our figures. It's a pretty small bridge and this area is isolated from the center and the park, making it the perfect hangout for anyone who is desperate for a little bit of solitude.
Nox hurries towards the middle of the bridge where the sides protrude on each end, creating a twin balcony with benches that face the view of the pond. She takes out the bread and with little to no effort she bends it like a tulip before handing me a half with a giddy smile. I notice her freckles that cover her cheeks and the ones that cover her shoulders. As I look at her closely, I realize that she traded her sweater for a yellow flannel that falls off her shoulder.
When she tears a piece of bread, she throws it into the river and it doesn't take long before a fish swims towards it and consumes it. For some reason, I find myself wondering whether she brought Taehyung or Yoongi here, but the thought soon enough dissipates into thin air when eyes made of sunlight pierce right through me like the honey-colored rays that peek through your curtains in the morning right on cue to wake you up from a seemingly endless slumber.
"Can I ask you something?" Nox asks when she throws another piece of bread into the river. I nod and she continues, "How are you feeling?"
A snort escapes my lips. "Where did that come from?"
"I was just wondering what is going on in your head ever since Evelyn stopped by." She says rather straightforwardly. "I know that it's probably not my place to ask, but I just want to make sure you're okay."
I lean against the rail and rip a piece of the bread. Nox has turned her attention to me and when she sees that I eat it instead of throwing it into the pond, she gives me a look before snatching it from my grip.
"What are you-"
"It's for the fish." She says curtly, earning a chuckle from me. But then she gives it back to me and pushes me towards the other side of the bridge. "Go feed the fish on that side."
"Jesus," I laugh. "If you must know, I'm doing just fine."
"Is that what you're trying to convince yourself?" I can hear a piece of bread land into the water. Now that I can't face her directly, I can focus solely on her voice and for some reason she sounds a tad agitated. "You know you don't have to be such a guy."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"I mean that you don't have to pretend that you're okay after what happened. I can tell that your encounter with you has affected you in some type of way, so there's no point in you to try hide it from me." That's when I feel something hard land on the back of my head, so when I turn around the same object lands on my forehead and I groan annoyed. My gaze falls on the floor when I notice two pieces of bread glaring up at me.
"What was that for?" I snap.
"You're an idiot." She fires and then turns away.
I pick up the two pieces she threw at me and toss them into the clear water when two fish eagerly swim towards their food.
"What exactly do you want me to say Nox?" I ask, trying to keep my cool. "That I think that my whole relationship with my ex was pointless, because of all the shit she's keeping from me? Because trust me, I've already established that the moment I moved out of that apartment."
"I want you to admit you feel like shit for once instead of trying to put on a tough front." She throws. She hasn't turned around to face me and I haven't either. "It's just us here, no one will criticize you." When I don't say anything, she proceeds, "Look, I'm not looking for an argument okay? If you don't want to talk to me that's fine, but I'm just worried about you."
I toss a piece of bread into the pond. "Nox..."
"I know how tough such confrontations can be and I get how shitty it can get when you encounter your ex again. Especially when they come back asking for favors after all the shit they put you through." She turns around to look at me, but I don't move a muscle. "Be real with me. No one is here."
Silence prevails.
The wind dances through the leaves of the weeping willow trees, the rustling sounds of the leaves brushing against their branches fills up the quiet. Nox is losing her patience. I can feel the tension without even having to look at her.
Fuck it.
"She was never honest with me." I say lowly. "And now everything feels like a lie. But there's nothing I can do about it now is there?" I toss three pieces of bread into the water before turning to face her. "It's over between her and I. I'm not going to give her the time of day. She doesn't deserve it."
Why is she so keen on making me talk about this?
Can't she see that it's pointless?
"I see what the problem is." She finally says. "You're a pussy."
For some reason her choice of words makes me laugh. "Out of all the comforting things you could have said, this is what came to you?"
"You're afraid to face her." She says simply. "You still have no idea about what is really going on and part of you is afraid to find out."
I don't know where she's going with this. "I literally I just stated that she was never honest with me."
"Shut up." She fires. "The only way for you to get out of your depressing state is by getting closure."
"She's batshit crazy. I know that much." I offer.
"Cute but no." Nox smiles thinly. "You have to talk things out with her. You do that by using something that is called communication. And how do you communicate you may ask? By opening your mouth and calmly proposing to initiate a discussion."
"If you try to make a discussion with her, you'll find yourself wanting to jump off a building." I mutter.
She huffs. "Yeah, well the same applies with me and Elijah."
The hours fly by like clockwork. The sky gradually darkens, until there's no more light left for the green around us to absorb. The light breeze turns into cold air and I shift uncomfortably as I rest my back against the rail as I watch Nox from a distance. She talks and talks for hours straight without a care in the world and I don't mind listening to her. I never thought that she was a chatterbox; it's actually quite charming. Nox keeps talking about something that happened while working at the patisserie that pissed her off and then about the kind client who gave her a generous tip today. She then proceeds to talk about Axel and how he doesn't want to admit he likes Neveah because of his best friend, Jason.
"If Jason is a true friend, he'll see that Axel doesn't have any bad intentions." I comment.
"That's what I told him, but he doesn't want to screw things up, so my brother keeps seeing her behind his back." Nox says. "Like, they meet up in secret at my house and they play videogames, or sneak out to the movies like thieves. It's actually kind of cute now that I think about it. And the best part is that Axel thinks I don't know he's sneaked out of the house at night to spend time with Neveah. The little shit is underestimating me."
Our pleasant discussion unfortunately comes to a halt when my phone interrupts us abruptly and I excuse myself.
"Hello?" I say.
"Hello sir, we're calling from Fairview Hospital. Is this Jimin Park speaking?" A female voice inquires.
"Yes, that's me." I reply uneasily.
The woman continues saying, "We're calling for Evelyn Matilda Price , because you're listed as her emergency contact and I'm afraid to tell you that she's been into an accident."