The 𝕸𝖆𝖗𝖗𝖎𝖆𝖌𝖊 Dilemma ║ 🄹🄹🄺

Chapter 59

The next morning, you were almost expecting everything to return back to the new status quo of ignorance and your conversation from the night before to never be mentioned again. However, you woke up to a Jungkook that already had his sunglasses and a bucket hat on and was now applying sunscreen on his arms.

"What are you doing?" you asked in confusion, still half asleep and wondering if Jimin had put some hallucination inducing drugs in one of his specialty mocktails.

"Getting ready."

"For what?"

He closed the cap of the sunscreen bottle and threw it in your direction. You caught it in a swift motion, surprised at your own reflexes. 

"Well, not sure yet. I have a few ideas, but I thought maybe we should discuss them together. We could either go hiking again and maybe try another route this time or we could take a boat tour around the Kagoshima bay. There's also a cooking workshop that the hotel offers with one of the chefs but it starts at five so we'd have to wait. And then there's my personal favorite: hot air balloon trip over the Sakurajima. You get to choose."

Well this was certainly an interesting conversation to be woken up with.

"Fly over the the country's most active volcano? Like, right over over it?"

"You get the perfect view to what happens inside the crater, isn't that incredible?"

Jungkook was practically glowing at the thought. 

"You mean not only risking our life in a flimsy balloon that could deflate anytime if a bird flies wrong but also getting to enjoy being spit roasted over hot lava? Yeah, incredible idea, Jeon."

He raised his hands defensively and for a second you thought he might start laughing. Then, as casual as one could say it, he came up with another idea: "We could, of course, go scuba diving near the coral reefs. I suppose seeing the sharks even up closer than during our oceanographic trip in Busan might be just as exciting." He was grinning at you.

"Brilliant. I'd rather take my chances with drifting at sea and going down with the ship. Boat tour it is."

He nodded. "Great choice. I have to say I was a little afraid you'd choose hiking since the only other route I could find besides the one we already did - halfway, admittedly- was one that went through not one but two graveyards. And not to sound like I'm picky about my fears, but I'm not entirely the biggest fan of the dead either."

You got out of bed and got ready for the day, making sure not to forget sunscreen, sunglasses and a hat. After breakfast and a thirty minute drive to the location, you finally arrived at the starting point of your boat tour. It was only then that you realized you had no way of understanding everything that was going to be said. 

The guided greeted everyone and handed you the neon orange life vest. You were a small group of six, Jungkook and you included. Considering that, the boat still seemed to small to fit all of you and you were just now starting to wonder whether the shark infested waters were a myth of if you would have to choose who to throw overboard in order to lighten the cargo.

Hypothetically speaking, throwing Jungkook off the boat would give everyone else the best survival chances seeing as he was the most enthusiastic and least concerned about swimming next to carnivorous predators. He might, however, talk the sharks into signing a contract and they might end up as friends instead.

The guide said something else and that's where your language skills drew the line. Jungkook must've noticed you were looking around rather confused. 

"He asked if everyone knows how to swim." 

So there was a possibility of you somehow ending up in the water. 

"You know, just in case. Not that you'd need to ever apply it", he added as soon as he saw you skeptical expression.

Alright...

Not long after, everyone had boarded and the boat had finally left the shore. The strip of land grew smaller as the blue waters around you grew a darker and richer shade of ultramarine. Your tour guide explained that you were now standing right above a ship that was sunk during the Kagoshima bombing by the British. Or at least that was the gist of what Jungkook translated. He went on with a myriad of historical facts that even Jungkook didn't bother to explain in detail until you reached a cave where the sun hit the water just right so it seemed as if you were floating above a pool of gold. The boat didn't enter fully as the water were too shallow and would present a risk, but there was an opening from where the sun shone through and bushes and moss had started to grow on the walls despite the harsh environment.

"Supposedly, the opening above isn't actually natural and was too, caused by bombings. However, the cave hasn't been discovered until the 20th century so no one really knows what it looked like before since the bombings happened in the 19th century", Jungkook explained. You turned to look at him, and from the spot where the boat was positioned, the sun was hitting him in just the right angle, making his hair look unbearably soft and shiny. 

The next stop was near the shore of the Sakurajima volcano, this time from its other side however, the one you hadn't got to see during your hike. 

It took around an hour to reach it, which was much longer than expected, but the dark clouds that had suddenly appeared in the sky and the currents that seemed to be pulling at your tiny boat might have had something to do with that. If the glowing water seemed almost magical, then this sudden weather change looked rather like the work of witchcraft. You had left the house expecting a sunny sky and calm waters, but this was far from it. 

As if on cue, just ten minutes before reaching the shore of the Sakurajima and thus, your final destination for the first half of the day, a deafening thunder shook the sky. It didn't start to rain just yet, but you assumed it wouldn't take long.

A hand reached for yours and when you looked up, Jungkook had gotten so pale you were afraid he might throw up. You were just about to jokingly ask him whether he was afraid he'd get eaten when it was his suggestion to do this when you remembered what happened the last time there was a storm. 

That night seemed so far away, though you knew it couldn't have been more than a few weeks. That night, you found Jungkook on the sofa while the storm outside was so loud it woke you up and you remembered how much quieter it was there than in your room and thus, quieter than in his since you were living next to each other. That night, Jungkook was having a nightmare and when you had woken him up ready to confront him about saying your name in his sleep, he had asked you to stay, at least until the storm was over.

You decided to keep your mouth shut. Instead, you placed your other hand over his in an attempt to comfort him. You knew you'd have to ask him one day why exactly he was afraid of storms, but now was not the right time. And by the time you returned to the hotel, the moment had passed and it was too late to bring it up again, just like many things between the two of you. So it was, again, left unsaid among the pile of thousand other unspoken feelings.