-', (chapter twenty) ꒱ ↷🦋🥛
"DID YOU GIVE YOONGI MY NUMBER?" Jimin said as he opened the front door to his house. Eden was coming over to help Jimin with homework. Chemistry was a bitch for both of them so they figured they could put their single brain cells together and hopefully spark something between them.
Eden raised a brow at him, her hand gripping the strap of her backpack. "Yeah? He asked for it-"
Jimin reached out and took Eden's face between his hands, without warning, he leaned forward and gave her a firm kiss on the lips. Eden was taken aback for a moment and when Jimin pulled his face away, she blinked.
"I fucking love you," Jimin told her, his eyes glowing and his grin almost blinding. He took the expression "I'm so happy I could kiss you" to a literal level. Not that Eden didn't think it was hot, but it was quite surprising.
"I love you too? But next time I'd rather be kissed by your brother if we can make that happen." She grinned at him. "And maybe ask before you kiss someone." Solid advice for life.
Jimin let go of her face and scratched his head. "Yeah, I'm sorry. My fault. But Yoongi texted me last night!" He motioned her inside and closed the door behind her. "He thanked me for inviting him and told me to get good sleep." He sighed dreamily.
Eden knew she made the right decision. They probably would've taken weeks to get to this point on their own, but of course, she wouldn't inject herself into their growing relationship. It was nice watching from the sidelines, being thrown into the middle of drama was complicated.
Aka, Jungkook, and Taehyung.
It was easier just watching.
Jimin didn't bother getting dressed for Eden's visit. If he was going to be in his house, he was going to be comfortable. His mother, who stood in the kitchen with her morning cup of coffee, wasn't happy about it.
"Jimin, I told you to put some clothes on. Don't be indecent. Your friend is here." She scolded him, her eyes narrowing at her son, appearing to be only wearing a shirt.
Jimin shared very few features with his mom...and with his dad in all honesty he looked like neither of them and it was odd. His dad had actually demanded for a paternity test and it came back that Jimin was his so there was no explaining it.
Jimin hasn't talked to his dad in a while. He stopped calling for years now so the boy reasoned that maybe he just didn't want to. Maybe he had fallen off the face of the Earth. Maybe he had run off with a new family and wanted nothing to do with the old one.
Fine, whatever, he didn't care.
"It's fine, Mrs. Kim, I don't mind." Eden waved at her with a gleeful smile. She really didn't. Jimin could wear whatever he wanted and Eden probably wouldn't care.
Jimin grabbed Eden's hand and pulled her along with him with no other words to his mother who watched them as they left. She didn't know how to handle Jimin now that he was getting older, becoming more independent, more rebellious.
And he has a crush on a boy.
Long ago she realized that she wouldn't be able to control him, tell him what to do despite her disapproval. In the end, all she wanted was for Jimin to live a good life. The world won't accept him for who he is and he can't change the world so you have to conform.
She had a feeling that wasn't an option for him.
Upstairs, they sit in Jimin's room on his queen-sized bed. His room was nice and cozy, with fluffy bedding, and fuzzy blanket, delicate fairy lights with polaroids clipped onto the wire. He had mounted shelves of sculptures from his classes, albums from his favorite artists.
"I wanna ask Yoongi out on another date." Jimin to hold her as they got out their work. "Like on a date between just the two of us. I think he might like me but I'm not 100% positive yet." He wanted to be sure though. It would be so much easier if they just sat and talked about it. But in fear that Jimin may be reading this whole situation wrong, he didn't.
So they'll keep tiptoeing around each other.
"Well, he has to be interested right? If he wanted your number but couldn't ask you for it." Eden didn't know to get his hopes up. Maybe she shouldn't do that. She didn't want to break his heart if Yoongi ended up not feeling the same.
Jimin only shrugged without another word on the topic. "Let's get started. I just want to get this over with."
But before they could begin, there was a soft tapping on the door and then it opened. Taehyung poked his head inside and looked at the two on the bed. "Hey, can I talk to Eden for a moment?" He asked quietly.
The two looked at each other. Jimin lifted his narrow shoulders. "Go ahead." He shooed her away. "But come back quick."
Eden looked to Taehyung, slowly getting up off of Jimin's bed to go with him. She was nervous, curious. Taehyung wasn't a private talker kind of guy as far as she knew. So this had to be important.
She followed Taehyung out of Jimin's room and closed the door, walking down the hall away from anyone else so they could have a private conversation.
Taehyung told Jungkook that he'd let her down easy, try to put it in the kindest way possible. It wasn't fair to her for him to keep leading her on like this, even if it was unintentional. He could only see her as a friend. That's all they'd ever be.
"Look- Eden...I really really like you. You're super cool and you're an amazing friend to Jimin." Taehyung told her. They were genuine words, words that he couldn't possibly fake. She was great, but she deserved more than him, someone who actually wanted her in that way.
A smile spread on Eden's lips at his words. But the lifespan of that smile was short as it soon faltered after she heard the rest.
"But...we can't be together. I don't want a relationship. I'm not ready for that, y'know? You deserve someone who wants to be with you can love you the way you want."
Eden stood there, her expression saddened with her brows furrowed and her lips in the slightest frown. Her eyes showed distress in a way she probably never felt before.
She was heartbroken.
It was a stinging pain, in her eyes, in her throat, in her chest. Though, it didn't feel good, it didn't feel like her entire world was collapsing. It felt like a new emotion, a new kind of pain, like she was losing something dear to her.
And that was enough for her to know that she had loved him, an idea of him in her mind. There was no way around his words. No way to twist them and to give her hope that maybe one day he would change his mind.
He didn't want her. Plain and simple.
Taehyung sighed and pushed his hair out of his face. "I'm sorry." He told her. "I still want to be friends."
Right, friends.
Eden only nodded, short and curt, blinking hard and rapidly, trying to hold back her tears. She turned sharp on her heels and walked back to Jimin's room to grab her things.
When she opened the door and marched over to grab her stuff, Jimin's eyebrows furrowed and his lips pressed thin. "What happened?" He asked, moving closer to Eden only for her to stand abruptly. She doing her backpack over her shoulder. "Nothing...I've gotta go."
She just needed to get out of here. She was suffocating. The air felt thick and humid and she couldn't breathe. All she wanted was to go outside and breathe. Why can't she breathe?
Eden jogs downstairs and makes her way through the living room, from upstairs, she can hear Jimin talking to Taehyung. "What the fuck did you say to her?" She didn't bother to waste and stay, she left the house without a word and grabbed her bike from the side of the house before setting off down the empty streets of the suburban neighborhood.
The wind on her face drew out her tears. They roll down her cheeks like soft rivers, blurring her vision so she could only see blotches of color. And when her tears dripped from her chin, they blew away and disappeared into the wind.
Eden wanted to go home and curl up in her bed and never see the light of day again, but she wanted comfort. She wanted someone to hug her and tell her that it would be okay and that she'd move on.
And of course, that person was Jungkook.
She tried to call Jungkook while riding her bike, but after a few seconds of ringing. It went to voicemail. She figured he may be busy and that she should just go home, but not without leaving a voicemail.
"Hey, Kookie... remember when you told me to be careful with Taehyung all those times. That he'd break my heart?" She chuckled softly, sniffling through her tears. The irony. The moment she gets her heart broken by her crush, she goes straight to the other.
"Well, it happened. You were fucking right and I was wrong, okay? You get bragging rights for the rest of our lives." She paused for a moment, looking around at where she was. Just a few blocks away from her house.
"I'm going home. I'm tired. But call back if you can, okay? I really need my best friend right now." Her voice broke a little and she cried a little more. Her tears were salty on her lips as she kicked them. Her face was soaking wet but she couldn't stop crying.
With that, she hung up and biked her way back home. Her dad wasn't back yet and she hoped he wouldn't return for a while. She didn't need that added stress on her shoulders.
Eden put her bike in the backyard and grabbed her keys to unlock the door. She had calmed down a little over the bike ride, wasn't crying as hard as before. She could see now, enough to unlock the door and go inside her cold house.
It was quiet just how she liked. It wasn't dirtied by beer bottles and trash from the last time she cleaned it. Even if there had been a mess, she would have left it there. Instead, she walked upstairs into her room and threw her bag down on the floor before climbing into bed.
Was it too late to die? Was that still an option?
That's how Eden felt, like sinking into the Earth to escape the complications of her life. She just wanted to lie in bed all day and avoid everything and everyone.
Eden lies in bed for what seemed like forever, but in reality, it was only maybe an hour. She hadn't moved, eaten, done anything but lie there and hopefully, she would die there.
By then, Jungkook, who had left his phone at home while going shopping for groceries, had heard her voicemail. He heard the crying, the pain in her voice, and immediately dropped everything he was doing and made his way over, basically sprinting over to her house to get to her.
Oh...how he was going to kick Taehyung's ass.
He was panting when he got to her house, gasping for air outside her front door. But he had no time to wait, he had Eden to comfort and to hug and hold.
When he figured out that the front door was locked, he went to the back and jumped the fence to try the back door which opened without much effort.
Jungkook didn't know if her dad was home, hopefully he wouldn't get his shotgun thinking it was a home invader. But he wasn't home. Their house was left quiet and empty, only with Eden's bike in the back and her shoes beside the door.
"Denden?" Jungkook called for her, walking through her house. He made his way upstairs, drawing closer to her room where she sits silently with dried tears on her cheeks.
When he reached her room, he leaned against the door and knocked softly. "Eden, are you okay?" He didn't just want to barge in her room. He waited for a moment before finally deciding to come in.
Eden didn't bother looking up as he came in. She didn't say anything, just sniffled while her lips trembled slightly. She watched Jungkook kick off his shoes and came over to her bed.
He crawled in with her. He got into bed and snuggled his way under her blankets wordlessly. No words needed to be exchanged between them as he wrapped her arms around him and hugged her tight.
Jungkook kissed the top of her head. "It's okay. You deserve better anyways." He believed that. She deserved the world, the universe, everything everyone had to offer. She deserved all the hugs and kisses and sweet things in the world.
Jungkook wanted to give that to her.
He listened to her cry, to hear the soft sniffles and whimpers as tears streaked her face. It wasn't just because Taehyung had rejected her, completely shut her down, but because now there was only Jungkook left and now her feelings were growing and festering and the butterflies in her stomach were unbearable.
But she rolled over to look at him through her blurry vision. Jungkook could see the puffiness in her eyes and the sharp streaks of tears on her round cheeks.
He takes his hands and wipes her tears with his thumbs. His hands are warm and soft as always on her skin and she melts against them. His Earth hands, meant to soothe and comfort.
"You know I love you, right? You're my favorite person in the world."
Eden feels his lips press firmly on her forehead to kiss her. Once just a cute, meaningless thing, now means the world to her. And she pressed her head against his chest and hoped that this wouldn't lead to anything more.
But of course, it would.
*.✧ Kᴀʏs Eɴᴅɪɴɢ Nᴏᴛᴇs
Told y'all, super long chapter today. We have a lot going on. I was really looking forward to this chapter actually.
Thank you all for reading. I hope you guys enjoyed and I wish you all a wonderful day/night.
사랑해
~Kay ୧| ͡ᵔ ﹏ ͡ᵔ |୨