Friday Fix

♚ | eleven

FAMILIAR. The touch was too familiar.

The curve of the waist. The slenderness of the fingers. Jungkook looked at the boy, his roommate, and realized for the first time that there was femininity in his features.

That at a certain angle, especially now, he almost looked like a girl.

Jungkook looked down at Haneul’s feet.

Moving, step by step. That night in the alley everything had been dark and humid and slightly chaotic, but he remembered how the girl’s feet had moved, how it had shifted. He had had to know it, so that when he danced he knew where to place his own shoe so as not to step on hers.

And now, he realized, the way Haneul moved was similar.

Coincidence, perhaps. Just a similarity in physical characteristics, something that could be played off. But what couldn’t be played off were his emotions. The feeling of the dance. The chemistry. The atmosphere, the way it had felt ‘just right’.

In the end, Jungkook hadn’t really had to look at the ring to know that both his roommate and his alley night dance partner – was the same person.

♚

The second I entered the room I knew something was wrong.

For one, Jungkook actually greeted me. “Hey. You’re back.”

I was midway through taking off my shoes and froze, wondering if I was having a sudden attack of hallucinations.

“Um,” I began warily. “Yes I am.”

He turned his attention back to his laptop, but not before saying, “I was cleaning up my side of the room today, so I also helped clean up yours. Hope you don’t mind.”

Stop the presses! Did he actually just mentioned the word clean up? Did Ahn Jungkook, sloppy slob extraordinaire, just say he cleaned up his side of the room?

Most of all, did he also say he helped cleaned up mine?

Stunned, I could only echo his words. “Clean up?” A pause. “I – I wasn’t aware you knew that term.”

From my vantage point I could clearly see him roll his eyes. Oh, I am not liking that smirk.

“Har har. You better hurry up and shower because I’m going to in fifteen minutes,” was his only response.

It took me a few seconds to recover from the shock, and a few more to hurriedly kick off my shoes and tumble inside. I stood in the middle of the room, open-mouthed in nothing short of catatonic amazement.

Jungkook’s side of the room was spotless. Beyond spotless. Compared to the previous state, now it looked as if an angel had just whirled through sprinkling holy water, leaving nothing but immaculateness and purity behind. I stared at the open wardrobe, flabbergasted. He’d even sorted his clothes by color, for Lord’s sake.

The miracle wasn’t done yet. Turning to my side of the room I saw that my books had been propped upright and the floor clearly swept. I was fairly hygienic, but the past two days I’d been a little busy – Yugi had registered me for the cosplay competition and insisted I worked on ideas with him. No amount of my whining would discourage the boy. So for the past two days, I hadn’t gotten around to tidying up.

Now Jungkook had.

A sudden wave of panic seized me. With a glance over my shoulder, I carefully made my way to the wardrobe and opened the bottom, deepest drawer. Reaching my fingers all the way in, I heard more than felt the crinkle of plastic. My heart settled. Still safe.

I threw a frown Jungkook’s way. What the hell? This boy did not know how to be nice, he had the elements of a bastardo too deeply ingrained within him to even think about being nice. So what was with the sudden cleaning up, and helping?

Something was going on. Another plan to evict me from the premises, no doubt.

Grabbing my clothes, towel and bag of makeup, I said cautiously, “Thank you, Jungkook.”

He looked up from his game. “You’re welcome,” he said.

Now I was completely thrown. I had no idea how to deal with this sudden shift from Hyde to Jekyll.

He looked at me. I looked at him.

“I uh, I’m going to shower now,” I announced.

He nodded. “Okay then.”

It was a slow shower. I was so absorbed into figuring out his personality change then I didn’t even realize I’d been standing under the lukewarm water for three whole minutes. As I scrubbed shampoo into my hair my frown deepened – maybe he was playing nice now, and then attacking later when my guard was down?

You never know with Jungkook.

Rubbing my wet hair with a fluffy towel, I opened the door absent-mindedly, my mind too busy thinking to be present. Hence when Jungkook opened his mouth only three feet away and spoke, I nearly jumped out of my skin.

“You took your time.”

He was leaning against the doorframe, legs crossed at the ankles with one hand in his pockets. The sleeves of his black sweater were rolled up to his elbows, revealing his muscular arms, where the veins strained against skin.

I took a good look at him and tried to guess what he was thinking. He was completely expressionless.

“Um. I guess. Are you . . . are you in a hurry to go somewhere? If so I’m sorry, I didn’t know.” Politeness begets politeness, at least.

He didn’t answer me. Without breaking eye contact, he reached beneath the collar of his sweater and pulled out his – my – necklace. My pulse quickened.

Turning it over and over in his fingers he said, almost wistfully, “You know, I got this from a girl.”

I swallowed. “Yeah. You told me.”

“She was really something,” he murmured.

“I thought – I thought you said she wasn’t bed-worthy?”

He gave me a look. “There’s more in life than just s*x, Haneul.”

Shocker number two, people, shocker number two. A queer noise escaped my lips as I struggled to contain my reaction. If Jungkook dropped anymore surprises, I was about to drop dead.

“But that doesn’t mean I don’t want to do things to her,” he continued.

Do things? “What things?”

He didn’t answer me directly. Instead he said, “I didn’t care much about her at first because she wasn’t like all the other chicks I’ve done. But somehow . . . I can’t get her out of my head.”

He looked at me then, and I heard the roughness whispering in his voice.

“I keep imagining what I’ll do when I meet her.”

The hell? What’s going on with him?

My voice dropped to a low volume of its own. “And what . . . is that?”

A gentle smile tugged at his lips. “Play along with me?”

I blinked. “What?”

“Pretend you’re her. Just once. For me.” He stepped closer and I stepped back. My heel hit the cold marble floor of the bathroom while my toes stayed on the room’s hardwood floor.

“Please, Haneul.” His voice sounded so vulnerable, like it might crack. “It’s driving me crazy.”

At this point I was thinking Ahn Jungkook had gone utterly cuckoo. Maybe it was the stress from all the dance practice, or maybe he was, like what he had said, obsessed with the girl. Obsessed with me apparently, if I could take his words at face value. Whatever it was, I decided humouring him was the best option for now. Then maybe later we can sedate him and move him to an asylum.

I gulped, feeling suddenly nervous. “Okay.”

“Okay,” he repeated. Then quieter, “Okay.”

For a long moment he said nothing. His eyes were blacker, darker in the shadow of the bathroom light.

“I find out who she really is,” he began, “and then I’ll approach her.”

He’s actually telling me his fantasy of me now. Holy s**t.

“She’ll be confused as to what I’m doing. But I’ll explain.” His words had a soft quality to them, a jarring contrast to his usual rude and abrasive tone. “I’ll explain to her just who I am, and what’s her necklace doing with me. You dropped it while we were dancing, I’ll say.”

His left foot took a silent step forward and my right foot stumbled back. One more step and both of us would be fully in the bathroom.

“She’ll be flustered. She might say thank you.” He paused. What – is he waiting for me to get into the role? One nutcase was enough in the house.

“Or she might not.” His right hand brushed mine, a butterfly’s kiss. “When I’m explaining, I’ll reach over to get a strand of her hair.”

Jungkook lifted his right hand, as if going to tuck a lock of hair behind my ear. Only my pixie cut meant I didn’t have a lock of hair to tuck behind my ear. So he mimicked the movement instead, fingertips skimming my temple.

I tried not to shiver.

“I’ll see how she reacts. If she’ll tell me no. If she doesn’t . . .”

Another long pause.

“. . .I’ll make my next move.” And Jungkook took the step, pushing us both into the bathroom.

The small of my back pressed against the cold ceramic of the sink and I let out an involuntary gasp. His face was so close and so distracting that I barely noticed the way he used his foot to slam the bathroom door close.

But I did see the way his eyes flickered and turned hooded within a split second. His hand reached behind, and with deliberate slowness locked the door.

“Jungkook,” I stammered, “you know – you know this is just pretend, right?”

So dangerous. He looked so dangerous at the moment.

And also so goddamn attractive.

“Then,” he said, voice going lower and deeper than I had thought possible, “I’ll kiss her.”

My eyes widened. I wasn’t sure which I was feeling more, the horror at the thought of kissing this - this world-class jerk, or the fact that at the back of my mind there was a small stirring of something whispering that yes, yes I would like that, thank you very much.

“But not at her lips. No.” He moved in, and this time I had no place to further retreat. We weren’t touching, not yet, but I could feel his body heat, like cosmic radiation off a sun.

“She might not like it. It might be too quick.” His voice took on a husky color. “So maybe . . . I’ll go for her jaw instead.”

He swooped in, lips pressing against the jawline beneath my left ear. I hissed sharply, and my heartbeat spiked. With each nibble I craned higher, until I was practically on tiptoes. My fingers gripped the edge of the sink so tight my knuckles were white.

“Jungkook,” I managed, “I – I really am – not – ”

He didn’t give me a chance to finish. There was the faintest touch of teeth against my earlobe and he pulled lightly. The words died in my throat with instant effect.

“I’m a gentleman, though.” His voice was a silken purr. “I’ll ask for consent.”

I held my breath.

“Can I?”

I couldn’t think, not with his lips shifting and moving against my skin. I could barely speak as it was.

“We’re just pretending, Haneul, aren’t we?” he murmured. “Do me a favour, and say yes.”

“I – ”

“Can I?”

I breathed out, my reply sounding like a sigh. “Yes.”

A harsh sound emitted from his lips, and then his hands were on me. The contact seared, and when his fingers moved up and down my arm they left behind trails of fire. His left hand gripped me by the waist while his right travelled up, up, until it was buried in my hair. I could feel myself teetering as if on the brink of some great height, ready at any moment to fall.

And then Jungkook licked my neck.

I completely unravelled.

The last thread of restraint I had broke, and my body responded eagerly, too eagerly. My hands came up to splay themselves on his chest, and my lips found the crook of his neck. He growled at my touch, the sound rumbling up through his chest and into my fingers. One hand slipped under my shirt, his thumb tracing in teasing circles, and I had to bite down hard to stop the moan threatening to leave my tongue.

He grazed his teeth against my skin and my fingers clawed his shoulder blades.

It was incredible what Jungkook could do, how easily he made me into a hot mess. All without once kissing me on the lips.

So incredible in fact, that when he spoke his next words I failed to detect the edge in his voice.

“Having fun, baby girl?”

Lost in his touch, I only nodded, eyes half-closed. His lips curved into an all-too-familiar smirk.

“I should give back your necklace.” His hands left me but his mouth stayed, planting kisses along my collarbones. I shuddered, clutching the material of his shirt into fists.

I’d never been touched this way before.

“Do you know how I found you, baby girl?” Belatedly I realized he’d changed his manner of speaking. Previously he’d been telling me what he’ll do to her, but now he was speaking directly to me.

As if he treated me and her one and the same.

The alarm bell screeched in my head, but it was too late. I pulled away, feeling something horrible and dreadful twisting in my stomach, chasing away everything else.

The passion fled and reality crashed harder than a ton of bricks, as Jungkook dangled the necklace in front of me and said,

“It had your name on it. Haneul.”

His voice turned hard.

“Hello, baby girl. I’d found you at last.”

❈

For an unknown reason as yet explained, the only thing in my mind while penning this chapter was the iconic line,

Kiss me like you miss me, Red.

Hope you had fun with this one!

Yours in seduction,

Lady Godiva.