"Have you seen a black bunny hopping through here?" asked Ame as she stood in front of a street food vendor.
She didn't know how long she had been looking. All she knew was that it had been for a while. The sun had just been starting to set when she had left, but now it had fully set. The air had also taken on a bit of a chill without the sun. She wished that she had grabbed a coat on her way out of the apartment, but she hadn't been expecting to leave. She hadn't been expecting to do anything too strenuous today. This was supposed to be her sick day, and now here she was looking all about for her bunny as it got colder. Now she more than likely would get sick. How ironic.
"I'm sorry, miss," said the vendor as he looked at her. "I haven't seen a bunny anywhere."
"Well, thank you anyway," said Ame as she moved to step away.
As she turned around, she almost collided with the person that was standing behind her. The person behind her was dressed up in a way that completely disguised themselves from her view. She had no way of identifying them unless she reached out and ripped off their hood, beanie, sunglasses and face mask.
"Sorry," she said, about to move past him when he spoke.
"Are you looking for a bunny?"
She turned to look at him, her face filling with hope. Perhaps he had found her lost Charming.
"Yes. Do you know where he is?"
"No, but I can help you look for him."
"And you are?"
"Your new neighbor," Jungkook said simply. "At least one of them. I saw you tear past us after the bunny so I came to help."
"So you've been following me?"
"Yes. I..."
"Creep," she said as she brushed past him.
So this was one of the people that Ruby had invited to dinner. Lovely company. For all Ruby knew they could be killers. They certainly knew how to stalk.
"Wait..."
Jungkook sighed as he turned his head to see Ame walking off. This was a wonderful first impression. This was starting off spectacularly. He moved to follow after her.
"You are not my shadow so you better not be following me like one or I'm calling the police."
"The police?"
"Or I'll beat you up myself," said Ame.
She really wasn't in the mood to deal with some creepy neighbor. After all, if he wanted to help, he would have come up to her sooner instead of trailing along behind her.
"Why am I a creep?" Jungkook asked.
"Because you've been following me this entire time instead of announcing to me that you're there and you're there to help!"
"Well, I was going to. You were just so fast it took me some time to find you let alone catch up with you," explained Jungkook as he continued to follow after her.
"Ha!"
"It is the truth!"
"Ha!" said Ame again as she stopped on the sidewalk, turning to see that Jungkook was just a few steps behind her. "Stop following me!"
Ame hated that - as she stood there - she started to shiver. She didn't want to appear weak in front of him. However, the night had gotten colder, and on top of that, the tears of despair at losing Charming were finally beginning to overwhelm her. Cold, crystal like tears slid down her cheeks as she wrapped her arms about herself. She turned her head aside as if hoping that Charming would hop back into her arms out of the dark.
She was soon taken by surprise by Jungkook walking over to her. Turning away from her in case the glasses or mask slid, he slipped out of his hoodie and held it out to Ame.
"Here," he said.
"I don't need it."
"You're shivering. Please take it."
She looked from the outstretched hoodie to the man that held it out to her. Eventually she relented and slipped it on, mentally chiding herself from reveling in how wonderful the hoodie smelled. It smelled like Old Spice and some other sweet yet musky odor. It was something she found herself wanting to sink in to. She hated herself for feeling that way.
"Thank you."
Jungkook just nodded his head, reaching up a hand to make sure the hat was still on and in place. The hoodie was too long and came down over her knuckles, causing Ame to have to push it up a bit on her arms so that she could wipe away the tears that were on her cheeks.
"He means a lot to you, I see," said Jungkook as he watched her wiping away her tears.
Ame just nodded her head, needing to take a moment to collect herself. She hoped the creep didn't take this moment of weakness to try and comfort her. She didn't want that right now.
"I love Charming," she said eventually as he just continued to stand near her.
"I'm sure he's okay."
"Ha..." she huffed, feeling the tears start in again. As if this man could be so sure. He was trying to comfort her, she knew that, but she hated those fake words. That's what everyone said even when it truly was not okay.
"Where haven't you looked yet?" He asked as silence filled the chilly air between them again.
"I've run about everywhere," she said. "I'm not sure where else to look."
"Well, lets just retrace everywhere. We have time."
"Do we now?"
"I'd like to help," Jungkook said. "If you want, I can walk in front of you so I'm not some sort of shadow."
"Fine."
She could tell he wasn't going to relent, and she'd rather have him walking a few steps in front of her instead of behind. She'd rather keep this stranger in her sights so there wasn't any opportunity for him to do anything. She watched as Jungkook moved to walk in front of her, following a few steps behind him as she snuggled deeper into the hoodie, looking about as she walked.
Along with looking about for her bunny, she couldn't help but to notice the man in front of her. She noticed that he was wearing a white cardigan and black hole infested jeans. His back was lean and tone. It was obvious to her that this man was in shape. Small pieces of his dark hair snuck out from underneath the beanie, but it was hard for Ame to tell what color his hair was in the dark.
"So you're my new neighbor."
"One of them, yes."
"And you were going to come to spaghetti night in white?"
She couldn't not notice the fact that he had worn white like her. She listened to his chuckle in the night as he kept walking a few steps ahead of her.
"That's what I tried to tell my friend. He was insulted that I didn't appreciate his fashion sense."
She wanted to say something along the lines of 'what you are wearing looks completely fine', but bit her tongue.
"We'll just look like we committed murder together if we get any spaghetti sauce on us," said Jungkook to which Ame couldn't help but laugh.
"I suppose we will look like that. We'll look like accomplices even."
The conversation between the two of them died away for a moment, and the sounds of the night filled the void. They were soon walking back in the direction of the apartment. At this moment, they were picking their way past the nearby park.
"So why do you wear sunglasses at night?" Ame asked. "Doesn't that make it harder to see?"
"I try to shade my eyes from the view of others," he said.
"Oh look whose fancy with their words," teased Ame as she rolled her eyes. Modern day Casanova right there. "Why?"
"Insanity will ensue if I'm seen."
"Well aren't we full of ourselves."
Jungkook smirked, but it was invisible to her under the mask as he moved to walk into the park. He wanted to scour there to see if Charming might have be hiding and eating somewhere around there. As he entered the park, it became a bit darker. The street lamps that had been lighting their way remained on the sidewalk. The only visible light to go by in the park were the stars twinkling to view in the sky overhead.
"Trust me on the insanity part," he said when he noticed Ame wasn't moving to respond again.
"I'm just supposed to trust someone I don't know?"
"Well that can be changed," he said as he peeked under a bench that overlooked the water where the skyline of the city across the way was reflected. "Get to know me."
"Get to know you?"
Jungkook could hear her laughing as he stood up from checking under the bench for Charming.
"Is that funny?"
He turned to look at her. While he had moved to enter the park to look for Charming, she remained standing on the sidewalk under one of the street lamps. She was staring at him, and looked as if she wasn't planning on moving any time soon.
"I don't even know what you look like or your name!" She said exasperated. "How is any sort of real friendship or relationship or anything supposed to come out of that?"
"I'll show you my face if you get over here and stop acting like I'm a murderer."
"Well what if you are!"
"For crying out loud, you're wearing my hoodie and how am I supposed to carry any sort of weapons when I'm dressed like a model?"
"Full of yourself. So, so full of yourself."
Jungkook rolled his eyes as he turned away from her. His eyes looked out over the water. Ruby hadn't been kidding when she said her sister was difficult. What was he even doing? He was chasing a dream. That was what he was doing. A dream and what appeared like a waste of time.
"CHARMING!"
Turning away from the water then, he saw that the black bunny that Ame had been looking for, for the last hour or so was sitting in the middle of the street. Ame had turned to look at her bunny and had immediately started running into the street without looking both ways first. Jungkook saw a car racing towards both Ame and the bunny out of the corner of his eye, causing him to launch into action.
Jungkook ran faster than he ever had in his entire life as he rushed to beat the car. He managed to grab the back of the hoodie Ame was wearing just in time, yanking Ame out of harm's way. Jungkook tugged her in close, hugging her to his chest as he bent into a crouch with her. He put his back towards the car just in case; the car racing past the two of them in a blur.
Charming unfortunately wasn't as lucky.