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And to the other side of you, his skin touching your skin...
... was Jeon Jungkook.
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You gasp in disbelief.
Even though logically, it was all catching up to you, seeing him so CLOSE was freaky.
And feeling his skin on yours, your entire forearms pressed together, was just too much.
You lift your arm away.
The woman in front of you immediately straightens, her brows furrowed.
"Please, he needs you. You need him."
Everyone else in the room narrows their eyes at you too.
But it only makes you more afraid.
"I..."
You didn't have words.
You didn't know anyone here.
A room full of strangers as you half sat, half lay here helplessly, weak and vulnerable.
She takes a deep breath.
Something about the sincerity on her face calms you a little.
She pats your knee and says,
"I know it's overwhelming. But we will never hurt you. You have nothing to be afraid of."
You relax, but only slightly.
"And I bet you feel better, even if only marginally. Right?" She tilts her head confidently.
Well...
You assess yourself.
Well...
Yeah.
You do feel better.
You had felt like death when you were lying on the grass.
But now you just felt ill.
And not even so ill that you couldn't get up if you wanted to.
You were getting better.
"That's because the physical contact heals the soulmate bruising," she prompts.
Right.
The room is silent as you bite down on your lip, and carefully, carefully let your arm drop, grazing your wrist to Jungkook's wrist.
The bruising on his open palm looked heavy, nothing like the small circles on your fingertips.
He must have dragged his palm across the ends of your fingertips as he had tried to touch his fans.
His bruising was so much worse than yours.
And he was so sweaty, his breathing labored.
In comparison, you were breathing just fine.
Your heart went out to him.
You lay back down, pressed your arm to his, fingertips to shoulder.
"Please get better," you whisper, without meaning to.
The woman beside you breaks into a smile as she leans back over you, offering you yet another water bottle.
"Thank you," she says.
"Drink more if you can."
And you do.
The entire thing, in fact, before you start to feel drowsy again.
"It's OK to sleep. It will help, in fact. We'll make sure your arms stay touching. You'll be better when you wake next time."
"Can you... will you... do you think you'll still be here when I wake up?"
You try not to sound scared but it seeps into your voice.
She... she is the only person here that makes you feel... safe.
The woman raises an eyebrow, then smiles almost fondly at you.
"I'll stay here, until you're awake."
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"Wha-"
The deep, husky voice of someone very close
jolts you awake.
You sit up, confused as you don't recognize anything around you.
But then after a moment you do.
The dozing form of lady propped against the wall looks familiar, and you remember her kindness.
She had stayed because you asked.
There's a careful, measured inhale of breath beside you,
unmistakably male.
And you slowly,
slowly
turn
to look at
Jeon.
Jungkook.
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Jungkook
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This is her then.
The person you'll be ball and chained to if you want to live.
No escape except death.
She was cute, his messed up brain tried to tell him.
And because everything else that he needed to consider for real was just too difficult and too terrible to think about right now, he let his brain follow that ridiculous train of thought for a moment.
She wasn't the most beautiful of girls he'd ever seen, not even close, but he'd seen a lot so maybe that wasn't a fair measuring method.
But... she had a little bit of something unique and cute and pleasant to her face.
She was currently barely looking at him, her posture rigid and tightened like a deer about to bolt.
He didn't like her or dislike her,
which was strange because he had been sure he would resent her.
For being the crazy thing that changed his life.
Even if she didn't ask for it, just like he didn't ask for it.
But Jungkook wasn't always good at being fair.
Yet... somehow... he didn't hate her.
He glared down at his knee. Which was touching her shin.
Even with fabric in the way, he felt... something soft, comforting, calming.
Like..
Like being wrapped in a blanket with the air conditioning turned up high.
He didn't move his knee.
Maybe it was the way she was trying to breathe as little was possible, or the way he could almost see her bristling and her fight or flight response flickering, and he knew that with her it would be flight-- how did he even know that—
But he was the one to say something first.
"Hi."
It sounded gravely and rough, but his tone was friendly, much friendlier than he meant to be.
He was shook for a second by the fact that his voice had left him all on its own without his decision.
If it was possible,
she strung even tighter,
and her lips parted for a long, long moment during which Jungkook had taken three separate, slow breaths
before she squeaked,
"H-he, hello."
He didn't really warm to new people.
Sometimes he didn't even want to.
And if Jungkook was candid to himself, he didn't really try as hard as he could.
The only people he'd forced himself to accept into his heart was Bangtan,
and he became friends with plenty of the BigHit staff,
but aside from that circle, he'd let himself get away with shutting people out.
Yet now he'd have to try to find a place in his circle for this new girl, obviously,
because she was his soulmate,
and frankly he wasn't sure if he could.
It was already so hard to stay open to the people that he did.
There just might not be room in his tolerance.
All of the people around them either woke up or looked up from phone screens after their short exchange, observing quietly
as the two stared at each other
while trying to not stare at each other.
The noona by the wall smiled and approached them, armed with four water bottles and shoved them into their hands.
"Two for each of you. If you can talk, you can drink."
It was awkward.
So awkward, because whenever their movements separated their legs,
Jungkook's headache pierced back into his temples.
He didn't know if she noticed, but she seemed to sag a little too after they had both gone to the washroom separately and not touched for ten minutes.
When she came back, she had sat cross-legged, quite far away from him.
They were both sipping from water bottles.
Jungkook was not going to ask her to touch him again though, that was just too weird on too many different levels.
He didn't even know her.
And besides... she already looked like she was trying to disappear.
He sipped on his second water bottle and put his head on his arm, trying to breathe his way through the ghastly discomfort he was experiencing.
Something was wrong with his head.
It felt like it was splitting in half.
The noona frowned at him.
Her face looked all swirly and foggy though.
Weird.
And that was the last thing he saw.
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