Prompt: jackson is joy's best friend and he secretly likes her
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at the age of eleven, jackson have met this girl. this girl's family have just moved to the neighborhood around that time.
she is this bubbly, playful, and energetic girl. with a smile that's always plastered on her face, and a pair of brown eyes that were round and big like those of the dolls'.
unbeknownst to her, this girl have this magical ability that surprised everyone— the ability to make people around her smile with everything she does. even with the smallest things.
her laughter can make people feel at ease. the mere sound of her voice can bring comfort to the hearts that waver. and her smile— that smile was like a million dollar worth— it hypnotizes people, hypnotizes them with the sparkle in it.
it wasn't that people get bewitched by the latter's smile, but there's just something about it that makes you wanna smile too. it's like a happy virus. spreading from one person to another.
and through these things was how she got him. through these, she has entrapped young jackson's heart. and it has been with her ever since then.
***
it was around april or may of that year. a truck was seen stopping in front of the house opposite of the wang's household— the said house have been empty for almost a year now after the last family who stayed there moved to another city.
the sudden reappearance of a rental truck after a long year was such a big news. spreading like wildfire on a dry and scorching hot day around the neighboring houses. that day, people were just as equally curious as the cat who got its tail axed in knowing anything about the family who had just moved it.
after the movers have unloaded the things on the front lawn, men and women gathered around near the newly occupied house. whispering, and murmuring with each other. making stories and assumptions from their mouths that are filled with nonsense tittle-tattles.
a few minutes later, a silver suv pulled in the at the side walk. making the curious neighbors move away to provide some space for the vehicle.
there goes out a young girl. with her long black straight hair glistening like the sea during sunset as the rays of the afternoon sun hit it. and her face looking like a fine china due to its evident smoothness and whiteness with some hint of flushing on her cheeks. she was wearing this red and white polka dot dress that goes up to her knees which made her look a lot more like a porcelain doll than a normal suburban girl.
if she wasn't moving, you might have mistaken her for a museum display with her features. with those doll like eyes, reddening cheeks, and plump lips, it's impossible not to rethink if she was— indeed for real.
***
jackson wang— the youngest child of the wang family, was just sitting on their porch and doing the usual things that he does. he had been there for a good ten minutes that time. watching and looking at the passersby going to and fro. counting the seconds that passed as he watched all of them.
it fascinated him, the way that people look while they're walking. you can see tons of different people with different appearances having different ways of showing different emotions.
on the side walk in front their house, jackson watched how their neighbors walked happily, sometimes with a frown on their faces, sometimes crying. these were the reason that he kept on doing this. jackson wanted to see how people react to their everyday lives.
but that time, jackson's usual routine got sidetracked by an suv that was pulling in on their neighbor's lawn. his focus suddenly went away from watching people to that silver suv. his heart was beating a little too fast for no particular reason. jackson panicked and thought that he had to tell his mom about it. because he might've gotten a heart disease— or not. but before he could even sat up from the chair he was sitting, he saw someone getting out of the vehicle.
he was surprised to see a young girl in a red dress going out of the car. he felt his head spinning and that his heart had skipped too many beats. not realizing that he had been holding his breath for too long that he already ran out of air, jackson coughed aggressively with his hands on his chest.
the eleven year old jackson wang was stunned by the girl. and that this sensation almost sucked him away, leaving him panting and breathless. he again thought to himself about the possibility of having a heart attack despite his young age. but he scratched it off and set his eyes again to the girl that took his breath away.
little did jackson knew that this sensation had not just took away his breath but also stolen the half of his heart and put it on the hands of the girl in red dress. and no one knows when will jackson get to have it back to him.
***
a few months later after that dramatic occurrence happened between jackson and the girl in the red dress, wang's youngest was still in a haze. he cannot be talked to properly. all he does was either a nod or nothing at all. his young mind was preoccupied by the sensation that he had felt.
'maybe i'm about to die? or that i have a sickness that my parents have been hiding from me?' thoughts like these clouded jackson's mind. but he never thought that maybe, he was just enchanted by the girl in the red dress. and that the only thing that could get him out of this enchantment that he was in is to see her again??
as innocent as the young boy that he is, jackson only had three things on his mind. one, is fencing. two, is dancing. and lastly, his fascination to most things. things such as love and sorts does not have a space on his mind.
but as seasons change, and the pages of the calendar get torn away from its spine, the enchantment that encompassed jackson will further grow into a bigger, and greater feeling that he'll find a hard time controlling.
"hello there! my name is joy. we just moved here a few months ago," young jackson was snapped out of his thoughts by the sudden intrusion of a kid in front of him. what's more surprising was that, he never expected that the person who interfered his retrospect was also the person who was in his retrospect.
"o-oh! he-hello j-joy? m-my name is jackson. nice meeting you."
"jackson... wow that is such a good name! anyway, i'm sorry that it took me long to introduce myself. my family's been really busy with the moving so i had to help mom and dad."
after hearing young joy's explanation, jackson nodded in response, flashing to joy a kind and friendly smile earning him a soft giggle from her.
"and oh! here's some food. my mom cooked this earlier and she asked me to give this to our neighbors."
"thank you joy. i'll tell my mom about this."
"sure jackson. by the way, i have to go already since i still have a few houses to go to. thank you also!"
before jackson could even say his regards, joy has already left. leaving jackson with his arms on air, waving at someone who already had her back against him. "see you later joy..." he whispered to himself as he watched her walk away.
for the following months, the two retained their exercise of just waving and smiling whenever they pass by each other. each encounter augmenting to the already weird yet fluttering feeling that jackson had felt ever since he saw her walking out of the silver suv. a feeling that was hard to explain and was too foreign for his young self to fathom.
it was not until the both of them saw each other again. at the bus stop near their houses that they have become closer to one another. jackson will never ever forget that one sunny day that he and joy were patiently waiting for the arrival of their school bus together. because that was the time that he got to know more about her, and the latter to himself. thus, igniting an ounce of friendship to the both of them.
"hi jackson! it's nice seeing you again. how are you?"
"hey there, j-joy. i'm d-doing g-good."
"good to hear then! by the way, what grade are you in? i hope that you're also in the fifth grade so that i won't have a hard time finding someone to be close with."
jackson's face lit up upon hearing the latter's words. with his heart racing like formula one cars, he can already feel his face reddening. and it seems like luck was on jackson's side that time because before joy could ever see his reddened face, their school bus arrived.
"just in time..." he muttered to himself.
***
memories of his eleven year old self resurfaced on jackson wang's mind upon seeing the envelope that was addressed to him sitting on the table. he did not expect that time has passed by that quick.
sixteen years have passed since that time and jackson couldn't recuperate with this fact. while opening the rose-scented champagne-colored envelope, jackson already knew what to expect. after all, he was the reason why things ended up this way.
"you are cordially invited to the wedding ceremony of the beautiful couple, park joy and yook sungjae."
if he only confessed back when joy did during the eight grade. if he only stopped himself from attending the summer camp where he met sungjae and introducing him to joy. if he only went to the college that joy and sungjae attended. but it's too late now. time can't be turned back.
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