SAY NO | JJK

⠀| ʙᴇʟʟs

~

⠀⠀he couldn't believe his eyes. as he stood there, astounded, confounded, and somewhat dumbfounded, with his eyes drilling into the dark-haired girl standing before him, he still could not bring himself to believe that she was actually there.

she wasn't real.

it wouldn't exactly be the first time he'd created a hallucinated image of her semblance. it'd happened quite often, actually, especially during the first few months of her departure.

he blinked repeatedly, attempting to regain his focus as he kept on admiring the mesmerizing beauty of her face. she seemed to have mirrored his shock, the two close strangers immediately losing themselves in the depth of each other's eyes as a nostalgic sentiment overcame them.

they were frozen.

nina blinked away a few tears and restrained herself from dashing over to him and enclasping his neck the way she used to. a mixture of longing and relief surged through her the longer she stared, their tempting proximity prickling at her contented heart.

they were so close yet so far apart. they were no longer tangible to each other. he couldn't touch her, and she couldn't touch him.

all they could do was blink.

i can't ... breathe, nina thought to herself as she attempted to snap out of her daze.

she wanted nothing more than to latch herself unto him once again (because she knew that that would provide her the consolation she desperately needed), but she knew she couldn't. she had absolutely no right anymore, and she knew the feeling would dissipate soon enough—when reality again settled in.

these suffocating emotions were temporary; they were just a result of their unexpected encounter. she had to realize this. she needed to.

it was not going to last.

it never did.

jimin, not wanting his best friend to fall deep into a pit of despair yet again, coughed loudly to interfere with the two ex-lovers' emerging connection. nina finally mustered up the courage to flicker her eyes away from his face and shifted her head to the side, unwittingly exposing her blushing cheek.

the tall boy, too, glanced away to cease his focused scrutiny. although her natural essence—which shone so ethereally under the dazzling rays of the shop lights—was enough to captivate his entire being, he couldn't allow himself to fall again.

"nina," he acknowledged her, trying his best to not sound as overwhelmed as he actually was.

"well, if it isn't jeon jungkook," she forced a gentle smile, seemingly-unaffected, making sure to emphasize the platonic undertone in her voice. "my, my, you sure have ... grown up," she gulped, not failing to notice just how much his body had built up since the last time she saw him.

exclude her. he's the one who underwent the changes.

"me? look at you, nina. you look beautiful," jungkook's eyes widened at his impulsive choice of words, and nina felt herself going into cardiac arrest at his flattering remark. "i-i mean, you look good, ha," he neared her, giving her shoulder a bro pat as he passed by her to dissemble the awkwardness. "say, jimin. you still got croissants?" the inquiry was followed by short, nervous laughter.