Dancing on Eggshells | KSJ

09

ELLIE SMACKS LUCIA'S ARM as she rolls her eyes, both annoyed and amused with Lucia.

"Why don't you just confess to the dimwit already?" Ellie loudly complains, kicking a small stone off the garden path under her soft, heavily layered dress painted in pinks you would only find bleeding across the morning sky.

"Do I even need to?" Lucia laughs in response, looking to pluck a flower to add to her room.

"That's got to be a joke. You have to be joking," Ellie's voice is heavy with incredulity as she pulls her sister's attention to her.

"I mean, we are already acting like a couple, are we not? And we both already know that we like each other so I don't see why I need to," Lucia shrugs, not seeing anything wrong with the situation.

"I'm sorry, I need a minute to process how dumb you're being." Ellie pauses just long enough for Lucia to look over at her. "Okay, yeah, you are way dumber than I thought you were."

Lucia rolls her eyes before she continues down the path, with Ellie close behind her with her shoes clicking angrily against the egg-shaped stones.

"I don't know Ellie, I just don't see the point in having to confess when it's clear that we both know."

"Okay we'll get to that whole problem in a minute," Ellie sighs, holding her head in her hand. "You don't think, at all, that it would be a good idea to, ya know, make that last jump and genuinely decide you are dating? Sure, you have whatever you have going on but, is that really the same as actually dating?"

"I don't know," Lucia mutters with a shrug, a frown forming on her face as she tries to think of how their relationship would change as she fiddles with a stubborn rogue wrinkle in the bell sleeve of her pale spring yellow dress.

"Lucia, just think for a moment. How stupid is it that you clearly like each other but haven't gone on a date, like an official date? Don't answer that because the answer is pretty obvious," Ellie sighs, stopping on the path with Lucia.

Lucia carefully looks at her frustrated sister, feeling almost guilty for irritating her to this point.

"You don't have to make it some big thing, just talk about it instead of doing this little 'read between the lines' nonsense," Ellie continues. "You have no reason not to. You both clearly like each other anyway, what's stopping you two from being more?"

Lucia stares at the now calm Ellie, a familiar storm beginning to rage in her heart again. Lucia nods silently, turning over her sister's passionate plea before turning and carefully picking a small, dainty, white daisy.

ELLIE IS RIGHT, as always of course. Lucia has no reason not to confess her growing feelings aloud if Seokjin already knows. She has no reason, and yet, she finds herself standing in the center of her room, staring. Staring at the white daisy sitting in the emerald green vase Verine had gifted her after a night out in the market.

Lucia likes to blame her hesitancy on her lack of experience and on her nerves because who wouldn't be nervous about such a decision? It's a big decision that would most definitely change her life and her relationship with Seokjin.

It would also introduce dates and other things like certain affectionate actions. With the realization, Lucia muffles a screech into her hands, her face burning with embarrassment as she thinks about Seokjin kissing her on the cheek.

She desperately tries to stamp down the thought, in hopes that maybe her heart won't beat out of her chest in the next minute if she avoids the implications of having a genuine relationship with Seokjin.

"Lucia? You good?" Seokjin chuckles, putting down the book he was reading before Lucia went and screeched.

"Uh, yep! Everything's all good here," Lucia forces a laugh as she scratches the back of her head, sure her face is still burning a tomato red.

Seokjin hums, his face drooping with a mischief Lucia knows to run from, especially when her heart is already running a race on its own.

He uncrosses his legs to sit forward and rest his elbows on his knees with a burning stare as he tilts his head inquisitively. "What are you thinking about that has you so red?"

And Lucia swears that under different circumstances, she would be able to come up with a witty comeback that could wipe that annoying, knowing smirk off of his face.

But she can't, so she does what she does best when she doesn't know what to do. She runs.

With a gleeful laugh, Seokjin chases after her down the halls and out into the garden, just barely brushing the back of Lucia's arm with each turn in an attempt to grab her. Lucia knows he is just teasing her and could have caught her two hallways into their chase but didn't for the sake of drawing it out.

They seemed to be good at that, drawing out their little games as they dance across egg-shaped stones until they are too inebriated with euphoria to continue any longer.

Woohooo :D