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The park is quieter than ever: unusual compare usual, usual compare whenever it's not supposed to be. It's a little complicated, Jungkook grew used to it.
The usual popcorn-stand sits worn out at the corner of the intersection, its red blending into aging colors of the street cornering the park. It has been there from the day Jungkook settled into the neighborhood up to present. Jungkook likes seeing it there, unoccupied, rusty and extant regardless. It reminds him of stability, the good kind of change that doesn't steal away from the core that matters. Jungkook has seen the trees change colors through the seasons, the concrete be replaced after a car crash incident, the wet laundry come and go strings hanging down the street. Jungkook has never seen the popcorn-stand occupied. It's a pleasant mystery.
Standing purposelessly among the greens, Jungkook scans the area through the smoke vaporing his eye sight when he rubs his fingerless gloved hands together. The weather's still a little cold so it's understandable that people wouldn't want to breakfast through the wind. Displeased by his early morning choice of filming, Jungkook takes ahold of his tripod and black slump bag of equipment, settling on passing time by the window seat of the café he considers his escapade heretofore.
He'll find a few victims soon enough. They always come around.
"Good morning good Sir, and welcome-welcome to Avocado. May your dreams come true, but first try our lovely macchiato!"
It is a sight, with Jungkook juggling his equipment through the little wooden door but as always, he makes it one piece to the counter. He slumps his arms unto the slightly-high surface and throws a lazy grin at the barista who intently returns his expression.
"Wasn't your best, admit it." Jungkook tilts his head in disapproval. It doesn't faze the barista.
"It'll be perfect as long as you keep doing your job."
"Which is?"
The barista shifts unabashedly, tapping a few buttons on his cashier register without taking his eyes off of Jungkook. "Constructive criticism. You're my test subject, if you haven't noticed."
Jungkook snorts. "So you're actually good at the pick-up line thing."
With the barista's duh, Jungkook's snort turns into a shoulder-shaking laughter. It's a routine between them by now, this cheerful banter thing they have going on. Jungkook hasn't dwelled on the friendship they could have levelled up during months of continuous counter chatter. Neither side has shown further interest in advancement, and so they have stuck to being pick-up line acquaintances.
Jungkook takes a brief look around as the barista prepares his order, arching his brows when he realizes he's the only customer inside. It's surprising to see the bustling café so empty, as it's a popular destination for habitants of the neighborhood and by-passers with its homey design and overdue Christmas decoration. Jungkook almost feels like a nuisance at the orderly arrangement, his stomach churning when he matches the feeling to first day of middle school, to being the first kid stepping into a class of neatly arranged desks.
Yikes.
"I suppose you have a lot of time in your hands today." The barista reappears with a small cup of macchiato – yes, he probably used the damn macchiato line on Jungkook because he knows Jungkook is an enthusiast – and places it on the counter, very kindly. Jungkook likes the little clicking sound that comes out of the gesture, his gaze delayed when he answers.
"I guess I'm a little too early for park meet ups? They'll come around a while later." Jungkook mumbles, absent-mindedly checking his wrist watch. It's 10 a.m., not that late too dang it.
"Hm. Not sure about that bit, but good luck with ambushing." The barista leaves with a pointed look and apologetic smile, at that Jungkook frowning and fighting the urge to allow anxiety surround his body.
Two hours of loitering around with his half-edited videos, Jungkook finally manages a little crowd to work with. There are two senior ladies strolling along the park trails, a few runners sprinting through the sea track and a few families picnicking on the grass now. No one's ideal enough to bring him the desired views, but maybe if he goes with a more-than-unusual crowd he might be able to get some attention. Eccentric is the new trend, and maybe Jungkook needs to go out of his ways a little further today.
He sets his camera at a dependable angle, arranges his collar microphone and gets to work. His first take will be on two young ladies sipping their smoothies on a bench facing the sea. The issue of this video is hilarious to even think about and Jungkook barely manages his laugh. He stays within a distance of their seated location, starting a staring competition on his own with the ladies that take a while to notice him. When they do they slightly panic, exchange weirded looks and uncomfortably shift in their seats.
Jungkook's got them tuned in. He puts into action.
Slowly, just very slowly, he starts raising his feet off the ground one by one in an exaggerated manner. As he advances towards them in slow motion he makes a war-like face expression, mouth chewing on empty air, eyelids blinking slowly and arms limping on air like he is trying to reach something he is being held back from. The ladies watch him stupefied, starting to panic when he gets real close.
They are squealing and grabbing their bags off the bench, backing up to get Jungkook to leave them alone but Jungkook is headed to them full-speed (full 0.5x speed), walking on inexistent water and growling throatily like he is about to destroy them once he gets there.
He looks ridiculous.
But the views and money made off of it will be worth it. He just has to suck up the embarrassment and proceed with the plan.
"Can you stop?" One of the girls asks loudly as her friend dissolves into giggles, both of them somewhat amused with Jungkook's kept composure as he advances towards them regardless of their retrieving steps.
It doesn't last too long before they decide on leaving, but Jungkook catches them with an apologetic smile, explaining to them that he is filming a prank video for YouTube and asks their permission to use their reaction on the channel. They are both flustered and delighted, wishing him good luck with his channel and subscribing right away.
Jungkook feels relieved at every video that ends peacefully like this. It's not always the case, depending on the prank, though most of the time he sticks to harmless jokes and manages to get the people's sympathy when he reveals the camera hidden nearby. They mostly freeze for a while and squint their eyes to spot the camera, and when they do, they break into laughter and let him use the clips.
Jungkook likes his job, his channel.
The day passes with him doing a similar slow-motion action scene to several people, most of them giving good usable reactions while others stare at him like a psychopath. It all works for his case. He is about to wrap it up with around five clips, and then he notices a bunch of college students exiting the convenience store next to the cafeteria, headed to the park where he has been filming day long.
He assumes they're college students from their young looks and the chatty cheerful ambience they radiate. Youngsters tend to give the funniest reactions and these guys are a group. Couldn't get any better for Jungkook.
Standing ten feet or so away, Jungkook is internally hailing himself to get it over with and head home. The group of friends are now seated on the grass, engaged in a joyful chatter while sipping on their soft drinks. Jungkook needs a way to grab their attention, since they are too immersed in their own converse so he clears his throat real loud a couple of times.
The attention arrives. A few of them are throwing distracted looks at him from their shoulders, and Jungkook thinks now or never.
He starts the show. Like he did previously he raises his foot off the ground and moves his arms in the air, headed to the boys in slow motion with a war-like aura. He is calculated in his movements, making sure to play realistically and it appears to be working for the group. They are tapping on each other and showing Jungkook among themselves. Jungkook feels himself blushing a little even, though he doubts they would notice the tint in his cheeks from the horrendous expression he wears on.
His course of action is purely spontaneous – has been – and Jungkook doesn't have time to rethink his plan when he decides to aim a slow-motion punch at the dude sitting nearest to where he is. He can't focus on much of his appearance except for the dirty blonde hair, brown almost, and his raised eyebrows that should have told Jungkook of his fearlessness.
He's three steps away now, slowly bending towards the blonde's direction with a fist on air, until the unexpected happens. The blond guy is standing up in slow motion too, and before Jungkook can perceive what's happening he sees a punch similar to his being directed towards himself.
The dude's game. He is playing.
Jungkook would have laughed and let him mess around with his little skit, but he somehow seems to be so starstruck by the unexpected reaction that he finds his body frozen on air, eyes blinking and following the movement of the boy whose hand flies towards his jaw as if it were an actual movie scene. The boy's eyes are flickering too; he has that similar war face expression Jungkook earlier on had, and for some reason Jungkook believes this boy might have done a better job at acting slow-motion than he did.
He's thinking too much and he pays for it.
The boy must have expected Jungkook to continue his play that he softly lands his fist on Jungkook's jaw and keeps tugging at it until Jungkook's face is moving to the other side – it goes downhill from there. Frozen, Jungkook forgets how to breathe and before he can balance himself his foot is getting caught at a random rock, his body is losing balance and he is getting his head hit on the concrete nearby.
Everything turns silent for a bit. A whispering buzz starts on his left ear, come to his vision the foggy sky and the clouds, the horrified blond boy staring down at him and mouthing something, and then a huge zonk-zonk beat that tears his brain apart into pieces.
Jungkook shouts in pain, unknowingly holding his head and shutting his eyes as hard as he can.
"Oh no, oh no, are you okay?"
Jungkook can't pay much attention, staying focused on the bouncing sensation tearing his cells apart. It's too painful. He fell too hard. He is an idiot.
"Can you hear me? Hello?"
"I-I'm fine." Jungkook mutters clearly not-fine. He just doesn't want to deal with more voices than ones that are echoing in his brain. He's not sure how long he is going to lay here, but he knows that he wants to be left alone.
"I really didn't do that on purpose, I'm really sorry." There are hands grabbing at his arms, trying to pull them apart from himself. Jungkook struggles to keep his balance, again, but this time carefully he is being sat up by the blond boy, who seems worried to death by the burdened look in his eyes. "Does it hurt? You fell really bad." He keeps talking to himself, checking on the back of Jungkook's head and trying to feel any bumps with his fingers.
He is honestly not making it any better with the touching, but Jungkook is too unfocused to talk him out of it.
Only after the blond boy's shadow disappears come into view his other friends that have gathered around him as well.
Jungkook really hates his life, his job. His freaking channel. None of this would have happened if he had peacefully worked at a part-time store. But no. He had to go out of his ways and do 'what I'm good at'. He fell, knocked his head on concrete in a park abounding grass. Momentarily: he has zero expectations from the upcoming new year, let alone his YouTube channel.
"Look, there seems to be no apparent damage whatsoever and you seem to be fine... but I'm not happy about letting you go without making sure everything is okay with your brain." The blond boy sits on his knees in front of him, explaining with the responsibility of a paramedic. "We're gonna have to go to the hospital."
Whoa whoa whoa.
Blondie's taking things a little too far.
"I'm fine! I said... ah." The buzz is back. Jungkook's gonna murder himself. He keeps rubbing at the back of his head but it's not helping. "I'm okay guys, I just lost my balance for a bit there. Didn't expect you..." Jungkook unites eyes with the boy for the first time intentionally, unwantedly feeling shy once he notices how concentrated the blondie is on him. "You to go along with it."
There is a silence of contemplation from everyone, but blond guy is speaking up again.
"What's your name?"
Jungkook blinks at the random question.
"E-excuse me?"
"He totally can't remember his name." One of the friends is failing to whisper to the other bended over Jungkook, pitiful expressions as they analyze Jungkook. "Look he can't even-"
"Jungkook!" Jungkook explodes in disbelief, offendedly huffing at the friends. "My name is Jungkook and I am fine."
Another beat of silence later another one is commenting, a little more taken aback. "Anger issues, he absolutely lost his ability to manage temper."
Jungkook closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. He can't deal with this. He doesn't know how the blond guy got the message since he seemed to be stubborn with his doctors idea despite Jungkook stating he was fine, but he is helping out with the crowd, urging his friends to go back to hanging out so that he can take care of the situation himself.
"Come on, Jungkook."
Blodie helps him up by the arm. He is inspecting Jungkook like a deer caught in light, eyes never blinking as he watches Jungkook straighten up his clothes and catch his breath. The pain is gone a little now, but there is definitely a bump forming at the back of his head. Jungkook can feel his skin growing out of his skull.
"Come on." The boy speaks again, his voice so gentle that Jungkook can't find it in him to reject his offer directly.
"I'm sorry for freaking you out, but I seriously don't think there will be the need to go to the hospital." Jungkook says, trying to ignore the pain as he looks at the blond guy. "Thank you for being concerned, but I will seriously be fine."
He doesn't seem convinced. In fact, he looks so conflicted that Jungkook will almost give on everything he made up about being fine and fine, just take him to the damn hospital.
"Alright, alright, no hospital. But at least come with me to that coffee shop for a treat." He points to Jungkook's regular. The lights are sparkler than ever when Jungkook follows the direction of the blondie's finger, winking at him in endless hues as they hang all over the café's windows. "We'll get you a cold pack to calm down the buzzing too." Jungkook catches the guy looking at where he's been scratching the painful bump. "It's buzzing, isn't it?"
Jungkook doesn't know when he felt the need to be honest with his feelings when he nods, revealing a pout he's been holding back. "It really hurts."
The guy pouts back in misery like he's been expecting the reaction, hurrying him to the café. When Jungkook worries about his camera and equipment the blondie waves his hands and orders his friends around, and before Jungkook knows he is assured of the safety of his belongings and is being guided to the coffee shop where...
Dang it. The barista is gonna make fun of him so bad. He is doomed.
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It hurts even more with the ice pack.
It hurts a little bit more every time they make eye contact and the exchange gets awkward. Jungkook accidentally let the stranger know that the ice pack doubled the pain and now the concerned boy is watching the slip of the ice pack against his skin hawk-eyed, making Jungkook feel like a criminal for shuffling his numb arm, held up too long.
"I just wanted to tag along with the fun." The blond guy sighs, finally letting go of the tenseness in his shoulders as he looks down. "I didn't know you'd... hate it."
Jungkook is startled, almost offended.
"N-no, I didn't hate it." He rambles, gaining the stranger's quick attention. He feels pressured to make it right between them now, at least give the boy his thanks for being such a good sport back then (Jungkook couldn't handle niceness) and helping Jungkook out after he got hurt. "People don't normally join in when I am being weird for the camera." He smiles genuinely for the first time, fond of his experiences that flash before his eyes. "Not that they know I'm doing it as a show during my... acting, you know. I tell 'em later."
A smile lights up the blondie's face.
"So you're an actor."
Jungkook shyly denies all statements. That's absolutely not what he meant. "I'm not an actor. I only run a prank channel and I need to act out of character for it all to work."
The boy laughs and it suddenly feels like the unease has finally been lifted off of the table. "Weird enough, I thought that's how you walked on a daily basis."
Jungkook didn't except sarcasm to be part of their conversation too soon, but he can take dry humor. He will take dry humor, because that is an elated level of friendship allowance and this stranger has been able to walk over all the other levels way too quicker than an average. "Why did you do it? I'm assuming it's unlikely that both of us practice slow-mo war scenes as a lifestyle."
The blondie snorts, eyes fixated on Jungkook like he didn't expect to enjoy this conversation all at once either. "I have no idea, truth to be told. I guess I am a bit of a crackhead too."
Nice. Jungkook likes crackheads. So he nods in approval, lifting the ice pack a bit higher on his head before the boy has to remind him of it. It feels a bit number now. He is not supposed to pay attention to it, he realizes, as the pain has subsided significantly since he has been talking to...
Oh. He doesn't even know the blondie's name yet.
He opens his mouth to ask, but is interrupted by the barista that drops a tray of drinks on their table and pulls a nearby chair to join them invitation dismissed, choosing to twirl the chair around the opposite direction and crossing his arms on the backrest as he grins at the two.
"He did something dumb, didn't he?" The barista asks the blondie, eyes trained on Jungkook who is busy scoffing. "I told you not to expect much of today, man."
Conversation flows for the next five minutes, mostly filled with barista's playful banter and humiliating exposure of Jungkook's failing life as a prankster. It's not that failing, Jungkook will excuse himself, since he's been making quite some money from his videos – well the earlier ones that blew up – and he can make a living for himself. The blondie, surprisingly acknowledges Jungkook's career and praises him for working hard at sustaining himself. He says something similar to what Jungkook's mother once told him about "standing on your own two feet" but he doesn't put much thought into it. Not when the barista beats him into asking what's the blondie's name is.
"Jimin," the blondie says with a blinding smile. Jungkook wonders briefly how intentionally possible it is to be so happy about pronouncing one's own name. "Nice to meet you guys."
Maybe it is the sincerity behind one's emotion or the excitement flowing in their eyes when they talk to you, Jungkook just knows that he wants to feel the same way. He finds himself smiling back at Jimin and holding his hand out, keeping Jimin's surprised gaze at his forward invitation.
"Nice to meet you too, I'm Jungkook."
There is a brief hesitation by Jimin's side to take his hand, but when he finally does he is holding back a laughter Jungkook can't pinpoint the source of. Jimin enlightens him, squeezing his hand once playfully.
"You already told me, remember?"
Jungkook doesn't even have to meet the barista's eyes to know he is being made fun of. He probably earned it.
Half an hour of conversation later Jimin's friends are dropping by the coffee shop to give back Jungkook's equipment and snatching Jimin off to leave. It's a weird moment when their eyes meet and there is a lingering look that refuses to leave Jimin's eyes (totally biased recount), in which Jungkook gets lost for a while. There's an unspoken invitation to extend this short encounter – they click. Pitifully admitting, Jungkook hasn't felt this comfortable and cheered up around someone in a long time. He has friends, he always had as a natural outcome of his fame-calling channel.
But with Jimin it was different. He saw the besties potential for both of them to stay up late nights, get high on coffee and play video games on finals week. He saw sharing his most intimate memories and finding understanding, spending moments without talking because Jimin would be comfortable enough to share such with him.
Jimin is different.
"So... good luck with everything," the blondie presses his lips together for a smile, extending his hand forward coolly. Jungkook takes it and ends the shake faster than he planned in his head, leaving Jimin with his hand half-left on air. Jimin doesn't allow him to panic though, going instead for a natural-looking hug with the barista next to him. "You should use the last clip, it was awkward but it will make the video funnier," he says lastly to Jungkook, wearing the backpack one of his friends hands him.
Jungkook nods. He wishes he could do more.
With a bright wave Jimin and his friends are gone.
Jungkook doesn't want to admit to the depressing feelings creeping up inside him, but he is obviously pouting and the barista's shoulder massage isn't actually helping him feel better about it.
For once, he feels reasonably thankful for living in this small city. People know each other, and maybe, just maybe they'll run into each other again. Jungkook promises, that if that time ever comes he is going to approach Jimin himself first and make sure they are friends before he can disappear again.
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