Authors Note

Hello Angels.

Didn't expect to be back here so soon, but I'm feeling very much in the mood for Valentines, and I like to check the Merriam-Webster word of the day whenever I can, and today (Feb 13th) is limn, which means to draw or paint on a surface, which just felt apt for CV.

So here we are.

A Valentine's special x

____

2016
4 years prior to the trials

"Did you hear that?"

No, stupid question, Jungkook shook his head. Of course Jimin wouldn't have heard it.

Busan's annual colour festival was in full swing; powdered paint was everywhere, and Jungkook had never before been in more awe of something that he couldn't see. Music was pumping from speakers that arched above a half-moon stage, and the boys were surrounded by idle chatter, rendering something as insignificant as a small bell almost inaudible.

It was the third time Jungkook had heard it that day.

The first time had been by the waffle stall where he and Jimin had purchased lunch. Lost in the velvety goodness that a mouthful of melty Nutella provided, he hadn't really paid all that much attention.

The second time had been while they watched a performing artist paint a member of the crowd, based on their 'aura'.

"This is such bullshit," Jimin had snickered under his breath, as Jungkook watched with great intrigue.

Their young eyes hadn't yet developed, and colours were something that both of them had yet to experience. 

Jimin had hoped that being at the colour festival would help subconsciously shift their brains - but Multivision didn't work like that, and they both knew it. It was fun to pretend for a day or two, though.

Still in high school, once Monday rolled around, they'd be back in the greyness of their senior year.

They had spent the entire weekend unsupervised, and had loved every second of it. For the first time in their young lives, they knew what independence felt like.

By the time dusk was settling in, the pearly night sky was painted with strokes of silver, white clouds framing an empty abyss of grey.

Covered head to toe in powder that had exploded from cannons during some rookie idol groups performance, the boys were a vision. Pinks, blues, yellows and greens covered their boyish frames, matching the vibrancy of their teenage vigour. It was a real shame that neither of them could see it.

Still, Jungkook felt quietly satisfied in the knowledge that he was covered in pigments.

He thought about it constantly; developing his colours.

Some people in their year group at school had already started to see the spectrum. Girls who saw colour always looked at their boyfriends with sparkling eyes, as if they'd never seen anything so bewitching.

"Swear to God, Kook," Jimin had said sternly over a lacklustre school lunch one day, imitating his father. "You gotta stop thinking colours happen the way they do in movies."

Jungkook had made Jimin watch all the classics. Most teenage boys would be embarrassed over such an obsession, but Jungkook wanted, no, needed colours.

Therefore, he needed to understand them as best he could, and there was no better example than Jack only ever being able to see rose pink in Titanic before he actually met Rose herself.

More recently, Jungkook had become obsessed with a new anime that everyone was talking about, which had convinced him that if he heard a bell, then his colours would naturally come, too.

Obviously it would mean that he'd meet the love of his life, as well, but she was just an afterthought at that point. It was his colours that he wanted the most.

He ignored Jimins snide, albeit witty, remarks about hearing the school bell ring every single day. 

That didn't matter. 

Jimin was just being facetious, when Jungkook knew for a fact that Jimin had told the girl he was crushing on that he heard bells whenever she was near.

He was a big fat liar, but it had worked.

In fact, it had worked almost too well, and Jimin was now hiding in a porta-loo just to avoid his new girlfriend. All she wanted to talk about was colour, and, well, maybe Jimin had lied about seeing those too.

Waiting for his friend, Jungkook was sat at a vantage point just a little further back from the loos, observing the festival dwindle down.

He heard it again.

With his long legs stretched out in front of him, he'd been facing away when a small pair of feet tripped over his own.

Landing in a crumpled heap, a girl almost glared at him from behind a fringe that had been knocked out of place.

"Shit, I am so sorry," Jungkook scrambled, bringing his knees to his chest and then moving a little closer to the girl - not too close, mind you. Girls were scary, and so were the daggers in her eyes.

Around his age, and definitely not from around these parts, the girls gaze began to soften slightly. The rise of the hill they were on meant that she had to look up towards him, and Jungkook faltered for a second.

"It's fine," she mumbled, though Jungkook could see her knees were patchy and dark grey. She brushed them off to reveal the silver of her skin. Mud, he presumed.

The movement of her hands on her knees caused the anklet she was wearing to rattle, and sure enough, there it was: the bell he had been hearing all day.

"Oh my God, it's you," he laughed, as if he was relieved with this information. More than anything, he was just glad that he hadn't been hearing things.

"Me?" She began to look offended.

"No, I mean, not you," he stumbled on his words, pushing a hand through his short boyish hair, before nodding towards her ankle. "That bloody bell. I've heard you non-stop."

"Oh," she giggled, shoulders relaxing a little. "Yeah, I got it from one of the stalls down by the main stage," she shrugged. "I bet loads of people have them."

Perhaps they did. Jungkook chose not to consider that fact.

"Could you do me a favour?" She continued, not really waiting for Jungkook to respond to her. She was a talker. She filled empty silences. With time, she'd learn to calm herself and become a listener instead, but she was still young - a high school senior. "My sisters being a bitch."

There was a roll of her eyes, that only teenagers seemed to be able to achieve, as she glanced down towards the main entrance. A second girl, who looked just like her, was waiting.

"She won't tell me what colour the bracelet is. It's a bit embarrassing, but I haven't developed mine yet."

"Me either," Jungkook admitted candidly, bizarrely not embarrassed at all. Something about her just made him want to talk.

"Oh," she pouted. "I was just going to ask you what colour the bracelet was. She won't tell me."

Perhaps it was the sun exposure that he and Jimin had both been suffering from, or maybe it was just because he wanted to help, but Jungkook found himself doing something a little odd.

Reaching down to her ankle, he picked it up, resting her gladiator sandal encased foot on his lap.

The movement caused her balance to sway slightly, not that it mattered too much, given their seated position.

He could only see greys, but there was variation within the braid, suggesting multiple colours.

"Red," he declared. He had never seen red. He knew it only by name.

"You're an idiot," she grinned, curiously intrigued by the boy in front of her.

"You asked for my help, I have provided it," he said with a shrug, placing her foot back down on the grass. "It's not like you know, either."

He was right. She wanted to huff, but her lips betrayed her, and she giggled instead.

"I bet its blue," she challenged, a proud look upon her face.

"You'll be disappointed," Jungkook smirked.

Was this flirting? Was he flirting? Oh God, he was flirting. His cheeks burned.

"Rhi! Gotta go, c'mon!"

The girl twisted her head round to the direction of the call.

"Yeah, one second!" She shouted back, raising her finger to indicate that she needed just a quick moment. Turning back to face Jungkook, she pushed her lips to the side, a dimple forming on her cheek. "You gonna be here next year?"

"Uh, yeah?" Jungkook's voice cracked, and he wanted to die. He cleared his throat with a cough, trying to deepen his tone. "I mean, I don't see why not," he shrugged, feigning indifference.

The girl grinned, trying to hold back a giggle from the embarrassment written all over his face.

His cheeks had deepened in their tone. She was always fascinated by that, the way in which skin changed colour. Blushing, it was called. Her sister had told her all about it, but she couldn't possibly comprehend what it would actually look like. She imagined she'd like it.

"Okay, well if you're here next year, I'll find you again," she promised. "Hopefully our colours will have come in, and we can see who was right."

Jungkook couldn't help but smile.

"You're on."

"RHIANNE!"

"Shit," she cursed, eyes wide. "I gotta run. Seeya next year, monoboy."

Before he could respond, she was darting away to the entrance where the slightly older girl was waiting for her. Her sister, he presumed.

"Who the fuck was that?" Jimin quizzed as he walked over to Jungkook, still adjusting his trousers from the ever so glamorous portable loo he had just been in.

"I don't know," Jungkook shrugged truthfully.

Like most of his teenage escapades, the memory would fade into insignificance.

The next year, her parents would take her family to Seoul over that weekend, and Jungkook would attend the colour festival with his first serious girlfriend. 

He still saw grey, of course, but he kept an ear open. Just in case.

He didn't hear the bell chime that year. Or any other year, really.

In fact, he wouldn't hear it again until he was rummaging through a cardboard box that had been left in the office, while he and Annie were still trying to find a home for all of their collective junk.

It had been subtle, the ballbearing rolling ever so slightly within its silver casing as he hoisted Annie's keepsakes over to her desk.

Subtle.

Subtle but certain.

He knew he shouldn't really pry into Annie's things, but they were practically married by this point, even if he hadn't proposed. They shared everything; a bank account, a home, secrets, fears, pints of Ben & Jerry's.

The only thing they didn't share was the opinion as to whether or not The Nightmare Before Christmas was a Halloween or a Christmas film - but even so, they just ended up watching it annually in November as a compromise.

Beneath some old books, a stack of pictures, and some rubbers shaped like safari animals (he chose not to question this, accepting that Annie had probably had some sort of adorable eraser 'phase' during high school), he found something.

There, at the very bottom, flat against the sandy coloured box, laid a woven bracelet.

And, suddenly, he was a confused teen all over again.

Annie herself hadn't touched the box in years. She had taped it up before university, never bothering to unpack it whenever she moved. It was a time capsule of things that she expected to look back upon when her hair was as grey as her sight had been during her youth.

"Watcha looking at?" She questioned with a yawn, walking into the room and placing Jungkook's coffee mug down on the desk. Her head peered over his shoulder, chin resting down ever so slightly. "Oh."

It had been a while since she had thought about that incident.

Naturally, like all teenage girls obsessed with developing their colours, she had fawned over the memory for years. 

Eventually she forgot the curious, squirrel-like look of the boy she had once made a bet with, but there was one thing she hadn't forgotten:

The pale blue of a dusky nights sky, that had illuminated around his body like a halo as she looked up at him.

"Fucking Rhianne," Jungkook laughed calmly, twisting his head slightly to catch Annie's gaze.

She looked at him now in the same way that she had looked at him them: bewitched.

"I should have clocked it," he lamented, putting together puzzle pieces in his head.

It took Annie a second or two to figure out his words - but then she looked at his features, which she had long since associated with other adorable animals, and then she realised.

Jungkook was always curious, always bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, always... squirrel-like.

"So it wasn't red," he mumbled, unable to hide the delight of the realisation that had dawned on them both.

Annie grinned, her heart resting in her throat, declarations of love begging to be spoken.

Instead, she simply said: "It wasn't blue, either."

The anklet might not have been - but he was. He always had been.

Her mind darted backwards; the ocean, the clinic, the colour festival. Of course, he had always been blue.

Since her colours had started sparking for him, she had always known he would be her last.

She just hadn't ever realised that he had also been her first.

Both turning their focus to Jungkook's palms, they studied the woven fabric in awe. It was something so small, so insignificant, and yet it seemed to be worth more than anything they owned combined.

Rich plums overlapped pale mauve, a glittering mulberry weaving through the braid. Purple.

Attached by the clasp was a small bell, that jingled with even the slightest of movements.

"Well, fuck," he said, unable to articulate his thoughts, which were darting through his head like rapid-fire bullets, exploding into colourful confetti upon impact.

"We were both wrong," Annie nodded, completely bemused by it all.

Though, in a way, it felt as if they had both been entirely right.

"I love you," he said, pressing a kiss on her cheek.

She caught his lips on their way back, stealing a hundred more.

"I loved you first."

It was a debate they'd have for years to come, never drawing a conclusion.

Though that was the luxury, they supposed, that came with loving one another eternally.

The firsts didn't matter and nor did the lasts.

All that mattered was the present - and at that present moment, Jungkook was thinking of saying fuck it to his proposal plans and just getting down on one knee right there and then.

Still, he had been planning it for far too long to throw caution to the wind just yet. 

Crouching, not quite on one knee, he wrapped the braid around her ankle, and clasped it shut.

"You're an idiot," she beamed fondly.

Finally, something they could both agree on.

_____

A/N: this is the way he looks at Annie, no further questions at this time, too busy sobbing