Promise me no promises,
So will I not promise you:
Keep we both our liberties,
Never false and never true:
Let us hold the die uncast,
Free to come as free to go:
For I cannot know your past,
And of mine, what can you know?

~ Christina Rossetti

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As the dusk started to set in and the stars wandered overhead, the chilly air whooshing through the empty roads. The moon hid behind the continuous movement of clouds that flew away and farther away towards the horizon and the stars twinkled at their brightest and the world went to bed to have a peaceful sleep.

Two empty cups of coffee rested on the wooden table carved out of sandalwood, with neat incisions of flower petals decorating it's base.

His hand under the warmth of her's, and his gaze fixed deep behind her, into the wall that was painted in a cosy brown colour. He stirred, coming back to the reality and looked at her for few seconds and then he turned away.

"I just... I've always been tired of leaving my family behind." He continued to tell her everything, every ounce of his life.

"I had to do it when I was a kid, I had to do it when I came back after years, although it was my initiative. But that... Just somehow ruined everything between us. We were a family but just for an outward show, we weren't the same as we've always been... Or maybe we weren't fine ever. But then..." He trailed off, his breath caught, staring in her eyes as they dilated with curiosity but didn't leave the calm of a patient listener.

She had been listening to him all the time, reveling in this moment of honesty. She hadn't uttered a word but drank in whatever he told her, and that had made him feel a little anxious. Her continuous gaze on his chocolate brown orbs had slowly but repulsively left him like a nervous wreck with a thumping heart and sweating palms.

Jungkook stared, and saw the beauty in her eyes, the one he had missed over these days, weeks, months. He saw the light flicker in her eyes and felt her move nearer to him. The pad of her thumb was now rubbing small circles on the back of his. A sweet, comforting gesture and he finally breathed out.

"Then I met you..." He smiled.

"I didn't lie when I said that I was just a fan, Seol, I've always been just a fan, for all the while. But then... you made me feel things, you made me do things, you made me realise that there was life other than the royalties I've been tangled into. That I wasn't just the one facing problems but others around me too, that I had the potential to help someone out, help you out, the potential to let someone get back on their feet and even if you say that you didn't do anything, in realty, in the very process you taught me how to stand up on my own and be myself, love myself the way I am. And I was addicted," He stopped, looking away once again. He sighed, read the time from his watch and gazed back at her.

"I was addicted to being myself. Addicted to the freedom, having no boundations or rules, no need to hide myself. Addicted to be able to do anything. Addicted to you."

"I realised it almost suddenly, that I love you, and letting you go was not possible for me. So, I hid. Like an idiotic coward I hid everything from you. I buried everything deep down in the black and tried to escape from it but the maze had been never ending. And telling you everything seemed like losing you. I- I didn't want to lose you, noona." There was a whimper in his voice and his eyes had whined to her almost immediately showing that he was being honest. The biggest bead of water that was held on his waterline didn't resist anymore and barged out, followed by a trail of tears and sniffs.

"It was a moment where even the ones I trusted betrayed me. Lee, you wouldn't know him but he has always been with me. When I was abroad, he took care of me, he was like my parent and I trusted him too much. Probably that was the reason why I couldn't hide anything from him, not even you. But that shit of a snitch," He chuckled mirthlessly, "he tattled on me. You were, I mean we were exposed to my parents in the worst way possible in most horrendous times." He sighed, looking at her once and she nodded for him to continue.

"And as he is, my grandfather, he would go to any extents to continue his royalty." He exhaled.

A calm but a spiritual silence surfaced between them. He couldn't speak what he had been trying to, felt like his feelings couldn't be expressed to her rightfully, that she may misinterpret them again or maybe he'd mess up again. But then he saw her smile softly, a sweet elegant smile. A heartwarming and comfortable emotion invaded him and he felt his tears spring to life again.

The smile was still there. Inaya had mentally cursed herself, ten times, no, twenty at least while he opened up like never before. She felt an obnoxious amount of guilt and anger at the same time.

Guilty for not trying. Angry for being so in love with him that she couldn't ignore a single whimper in his voice or resist the effect that each of his sorrowed sigh released created on her or avoid the melancholy that his eyes held.

But she still smiled, for him.

"And," He sniffled, "I'm sorry. For being a jerk." She shook her head sideways but he continued, "For confusing you and messing up bad. For making you feel like shit when you deserve ten thousand times better than that. For not being honest to you. For not living up to my promise. I'm... Sorry." His head fell down. "But give me some time, and take your time too. Let us grow together, Inaya, once again, gradually, with love." He whispered, nervous to the peak that he wished for the earth to open up and swallow him and his remnants. But his breath hitched when he felt her.

She quickly crawled out of the sofa, sat down on the carpet and immediately hugged him and broke down in the warmth of her bosom.

Like he always would, he wrapped his arms around her waist and she ran her fingers through his hair to calm him, or at least let him know that she was there. That she shared his agony with him.

He felt like he was being gravitated in the middle of a large meadow filled with flowers and certainly lavenders and daffodils, jasmines and roses, lillies and tulips just like she felt. Soft and sweet.

He longed for her touch as the stars wait every night to glow along with the moon, to shine with it and twinkle for its protagonist.

And when she touched him, every nerve ending in his body had been stimulated. He felt the rush of noradrenaline, he felt his breathing rage, his heart thump and his emotions throb to hold her back forever. His ears and nose tinted of dark red and his lips so dry that he had to lick them. The pupil of his eyes dilated and his skin broke out into gooseflesh.

He felt himself blossom in the sunlight, like a sunflower.

"Promise me one last thing, Jungkook-ah," He nodded instantly and hugged her tighter. "That promise me no more promises."

He pulled back, calculated on her weird wish and stared at her with his neck tilted to the side and a cute frown impressing on his features.

"Huh?" He gabbled.

"Let's not hold ourselves or wound ourselves to such few words. We are beyond that, Jeon, and let us be it." She smiled and he stared at her demented.

"Nothing," She whispered, hugging him once again and he let himself melt into a pool of befuddled emotions and memories.

"Noona?" He said, sniffing in the scent of her shampoo.

She hummed back. The peacefulness of the moment itching her conscience.

"I'm not a royal." He stammered out.

"What?!"

†††††

A/n

Ahahaha *nervous laugh/smile... Whatever*

Endings, the part I'm worst at and we're nearing it, I am not even sure if these past few chapters (including this one) were upto the mark but i felt they were necessary. Thinking is easy but then writing it down is... Scary :(

Anyway,

Be the best of you.