The Way Our Hearts Beat

SIXTEEN

8th March

Over their lunch of a salad for Jungkook and a full course meal of steak and pudding that Vivien ordered, the two didn't talk much. Vivien was busy filling her stomach hastily.

"This tastes so heavenly-" she gently dabbed the napkin on her lips. "-I might wanna go for seconds."

Jungkook hummed while supposedly poking at his crusty greens in his salad, not paying much attention to her or his food. His mind was distracted.

"Jungkook." she called out to him. "Jungkook!"

He widened his eyes and looked right at her. "What?"

"You do realise you're getting nothing on that fork of yours, right?"

Jungkook looked down at his bowl of cherry tomatoes and various kinds of leaves, and then at his fork which was stabbing his table napkin.

"And what fun do you even have eating all those leaves?" she sipped some water. "You haven't changed a bit."

Jungkook, quite embarrassed, shyly returned his fork to his bowl and ate.

"You're already done?" he pointed his fork at her plate.

"Yes." she nodded back to him bluntly.

Jungkook cleared his throat awkwardly and adjusted his posture in his seat. "So...um...how was the trip, Vivien? You've been away for almost ever since this small challenge was discussed." he counted his fingers. "About six-seven months?......You even missed Jin and Namjoon's wedding."

"Yeah.." she twirled her knife in between her fingers. "I didn't mention it, but back at home, there were some...complications that restrained me from coming back early..." she sighed out and gave a small smile. "If it weren't for that, I would have been there at the wedding!"

"But, didn't you go to Sweden? Your home's in Germany."

"I did. But because of that urgent matter back home, I had to travel to Germany for a couple of weeks, it delayed my schedule and messed up a few things along the way."

Jungkook stopped eating and looked at Vivien with a concerned expression. "Is everything okay, Vivien?"

"Yes!" she smiled. A waiter got her pudding. Vivien smiled at the woman in the black waist apron and then went on to pierce her spoon through the soft dessert.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

Vivien looked up from her caramel topped pudding and raised a gentle brow. "Since when did you hear out other people's problems?" she placed her spoon on the ceramic plate and folded her hands to her chin.

"Did I not before?" Jungkook stuffed his mouth with a mini tomato and scrunched his face a bit, in confusion.

Vivien giggled softly. "No, you never did. Anyway-" she took in a deep breath and held her spoon again, poking at her dessert. "-I don't quite feel like talking about it. Thank you for asking though." she gave another small smile.

"You sure?"

"Yes, Jungkook... I am quite sure."

Vivien's pudding was over, yet Jungkook's leaves lay in the white bowl, just chilling without their fellow companions, the cherry tomatoes, which were picked out by Jungkook. Jungkook was still distracted.

"You keep looking around." Vivien said, looking through something on her phone. "Anything wrong?"

"No." he said back quickly. "N-not at all?"

"Are you going to finish those-" she pointed at the leftover greens.

Jungkook smiled nervously. "Don't feel like it." he glanced behind him again and then back at Vivien. "I kinda lost the appetite."