TOUCH (KNJ)

SIX

"Namjoon! Come here for a minute!" 

Ivy yells from her bathroom with soap lathered hands in the washing basin. Apparently the hot water ran out suddenly so she needs help now. 

"What's up?" He asks standing at the door with both his hands at the sill of the door. She nudges her chin towards her hands and he frowns, not understanding anything. 

"Turn on the hot water faucet for me please," She asks smiling a little and he nods reaching his arm up to turn the faucet on. He turns around to leave but stands behind her and reaches out to turn the tap on for her, out of politeness of course. 

"Thankyou," she whispers as his bicep brushes her shoulder and she stumbles a little to the side due to the close proximity between the two. He becomes alert suddenly catching her waist with one of his strong arms and steading her. 

Ivy blushes furiously before turning her head towards him. He smiles towards her retracting his arm back from the tap, the other one not leaving her waist as she extends her hands under the tap maintaining eye contact. 

"Let's go," he says as soon as she completes washes her hands and moves to dry her hands. 

"Yeah," The two make their way to her living room, settling down on the floor with the papers splayed out in front of her and start working immediately. They were just about to stop for a coffee break when her doorbell rang surprising her quite a lot and the person keeps ringing it continuously. She huffs in irritation, getting up from the floor and runs to the door. 

"Ivy, oh thank god you're home, help me out please." Jungkook says all of it as quick as he had grabbed sweater paw to take her to his apartment. She carefully removes his hand from her wrist and Namjoon follows the two outside. 

"What happened?" She asks worried due to Jungkook's watery eyes. 

"Hobi Hyung. He's having an allergic reaction and I don't know how to use the epipen." 

"Oh my god, I'll do it don't worry." Her feet move as quickly as they can and she enters the apartment to find Hoseok sprawled on the floor wheezing and clutching his chest with a red face. 

"Hoseok!" He continues wheezing but gestures towards his epipen shot lying on the floor nearby. She quickly scrambles near him with the shot in hand and sits by his side. 

"Give me a second, it'll be alright," She says quickly laying her palms on his thigh and giving him the shot on his outer thigh and then abandoning the vessel on the side to pull his head on the her lap. 

"A little bit more and you'll be fine", she whispers stroking his hair gently. Tears form in his eyes as he continues coughing and wheezing. The other two boys watch the whole scene anxiously as Hoseok calms down after a few minutes, face stained with tears and a thin layer of sweat forming on his forehead. 

"Do you feel better now?" She asks pushing his bangs away from his forehead. He nods, chest heaving up and down due to the voilent reaction. 

"Thanks," he whispers turning to hug her briefly while her body freezes completely. She gestures for Jungkook to get her a glass of water as Hoseok doesn't move away from her lap. She quickly hands him the glass and he gulps it in one go before finally sitting up by himself. 

"I'll be fine now, thanks for helping me Ivy," Hoseok stands up and she does the same, still slightly worried. He chuckles at her concerned expression. 

"Ah I'll really be fine, I'm sleepy now. You can continue your work now." He says gesturing to Namjoon whose upper lip twiches in irritation. 

"Okay but what happened?" Jungkook rubs the back of his head before answering. 

"I bought pasteries and one of then had walnuts in it." Ivy nods in understanding as she makes her way to the door with Hoseok following behind closely. 

"Well, take care I guess." She says shrugging and Hoseok nods smiling his bright smile again. 

"I will, Thank you again." He thrusts out his hand to hold her head and gently presses his lips to her forehead before retracting his hand and closing the door. 

Hoseok: 1 / Namjoon: 1 

She stays glues to her spot with red ears and wide terrified eyes while Namjoon's ears turn red too but not in the same way. He silently curses the other boy before clearing his throat to bring her out of the thought spiral. Both of them get into her apartment again and she makes coffee for the two of them. 

"So you're making progress aren't you?" He asks blowing on his coffee before taking a sip. 

"What progress?" She acts clueless even though she knows exactly what he was talking about.

"You know the hug and the kiss," he nudges her shoulder with his slightly.  

"Trust me, that is not what you call actual progress." 

"Okay then what is progress for you?" He asks sneakily putting his arm on the spance behind her head on the couch. 

"For me progress is not physical intimacy. I personally think intimacy or progress begins and ends with emotions. For example, you and me being friends from colleagues is called progress, I opened upto the idea of having you as a friend so that's progress. You have your arm behind my head at the moment, that's progress, I would've cancelled you if you did this before." 

"But like he hugged you, you seemed fine? Isn't that progress?" 

"Mhm, sure it is," She answers shaking her head slightly. 

"What?" He asks but she waves her hand dismissively, placing her mug on the coffee table. 

"Intimacy begins with your heart Namjoon. Have you ever been in love?" 

"No, My chances at love and relationships have not been that well fated. What about you? Have you ever had the kind of intimacy with anybody?" 

"No but it was close. One time. Didn't end that well." 

"What happened?" 

"That's a story for another day. Now tell me where are you sleeping? Here? Or are you going back?" She asks trying to avoid the conversation. He understands immediately letting the topic go. 

"Are you comfortable with me staying here?" She thinks it over multiple times. He was a known trusted man, she had two friends across the hall she could reach out during an emergency and ofcourse she has great self defense skills. It was also her place so it was safer for sure. 

"Yeah, it's fine. You can sleep on the couch or on my bed or on the floor in my room. Don't hesitate if you have something to ask me." She says guiding him to her room and taking out the extra beddings from the drawers. 

"Alright, I'll sleep on the floor and you know I wouldn't hesitate anyway." She chuckles slightly nodding as he helps her lay the beddings on the floor with a little gap from her own bed.  

"There, done. Good night." She says hopping onto her own bed and it bounces from the impact. 

"Good night Ivy." He whispers after a while as he watches her eyelids close slowly and she slips into sleep. To him, it was a priveledge to be called a 'friend' by her. He didn't have many real friends either.  He was just lonely, always trying to surround and drown himself in people and their conversations, no matter what. 

Maybe she wasn't insomniac either. Maybe she was just lonely too.