JUNGKOOK
Days on trial: 35

"And what about this one?" Annie's smile was enormous, plastered all over her stupid, adorable face as she pulled another red skittle from the bag. I opened my mouth for her to chuck it in, grinning equally as hard with every right answer.

The rest of the skittles were placed into a glass dish, ready to be identified once I could distinguish more colours. I knew that they must have been a riot of colour, and I couldn't wait to see them all.

Living with Jimin and Hoseok, I didn't expect the sweets to last the evening, but I wasn't concerned about that right now.

All that mattered in that moment was the girl with the scarlet lips, who was pulling ruby candies out from a bag.

We were in my kitchen now, on opposite sides of the counter, giggling like school kids.

Annie had  demanded, almost instantly, that we were to go to a grocery store and buy skittles. She was convinced that this was the only legitimate way to confirm that I was actually seeing colour. 

Her eccentricity only added to the intoxicating high I was riding on.

The giddy feeling in my stomach refused to settle, as every time I looked at Annie, all I could see was the bright red of her lips. Is this what girls looked like?! Is this why they cared about make-up so much? God, I wanted to see her in full colour.

"I can't believe the drugs are actually working," Annie mused fondly, looking in the bag and shuffling it around. She was still Mono, so had to take my word each time I declared a skittle as red. 

There were two of us in the room and I was the one seeing colour.

The power trip was astronomical. 

It had faded in slowly, and at first I thought that I must have had an injury of some kind. A twinge strained behind my eye briefly, momentarily feeling as if someone was pulling an elastic band down at full force - and then it pinged back, and the pain was gone.

The ripening red tones tepidly made their presence known gradually, slowly, and then all at once. 

It was Annie's lipstick that caught me first. 

As a result, I hadn't been able to stop staring at her lips all afternoon, much to both of our embarrassments.

She'd offered to take her lipstick off, but I couldn't bear the thought of it. I'd only just gained the colour clarity I'd been searching for my whole life and the thought of losing it again was far too cruel to comprehend.

Occasionally, when I'd stared for a little too long, her cheeks would avert my attention. The colour was shallow, unsaturated, but it was definitely there. Was this the blushing that I'd always heard of? The same one she had mocked me for earlier? Revenge felt pretty sweet - and it looked even better.

My own cheeks ached, as I'd not stopped smiling for hours, but I didn't care. The slight pain was nothing compared to the pure, unadulterated elation that was surging through my veins.

Annie had to convince me not to give myself a paper cut, as I was desperate to see the cherry red blood that had been keeping me alive.

She told me I was an idiot, and I told her that she was wrong. I told her that I was Jeon Jungkook; and that I was a Multi.

"Like I said," she doubled down, her smile more radiant than I'd ever known it to be. "You're an idiot."

"Why red, do you reckon?" I asked, shaking my head at the skittle she had held up. It was a darker grey than her fingers, but only marginally. There was still a long way to go, but this was progress, at least.

She was silent for a short while, rummaging around the bag for another one. Her shoulders slumped as she sighed slightly. "I don't know, Jungkook."

Her eyes met mine, and it took an insane amount of restraint to prevent my eyes from glancing at her crimson lips that were pouting slightly. 

"Red is the colour we associate with passion," she hummed, placing the sweets down on the counter. It was just us now, no distractions. "Anger, love, lust... the feelings that get blood pumping around our veins. I pissed you off," she shrugged, averting her gaze to her hands. "I was mean about someone you care about."

Her eyes flicked up towards mine, scanning my face. I knew what she was looking for - a sign of denial.

I couldn't tell if she wanted me to say that she didn't piss me off, or that I didn't care about Tiff. Neither of those were true, regardless, so I kept my mouth shut.

I'd considered texting Tiff, asking to see her, but I knew that my celebration would be turned into her celebration. I wanted to be selfish for once. I wanted to own my own achievements before she took claim of them too, which I knew she would do as soon as she found out about my new vision status.

"So," Annie continued with a feeble smile, adjusting in her seat. "You saw red. Literally and figuratively."

I'd heard the saying a million times before, but only now did it make sense.

"Thank you," I smiled at her, reaching over to squeeze her hand that was rested on top of the counter. Tilting her head like a lost puppy, I chose not to tease her for the red blossoming on her cheeks. I didn't think she realised it was happening. "For pissing me off, I mean. For helping me see red."

"You would have seen it soon enough, regardless," she was gentle with her words, not wanting to take credit for what had happened.

"Yeah, but I'm glad I saw it with you."

The words appeared out of my mouth before I had anticipated them to, and way before I'd had the chance to construct a follow on sentence. Her lips parted, ever so slightly, not sure what on earth to respond to me with. I couldn't blame her. 

She didn't pull her hand away from me, though, mind you.

"Uh, just 'cause you've been on this journey with me, I mean," I stumbled on my words a little, relieved that I was making a somewhat cohesive sentence. "Plus, hey, at least you've got something good for your article!"

"Oh yeah," she let out a nervous laugh, only now retracting her hand away as she nodded. "The article. Right you are."

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Jimin was the first to arrive home, ambushed immediately by my inspecting eyes. The trim around his shoes was a cadmium red amongst a pattern of greys, and I crouched down to scrutinise them thoroughly. 

"Nice to see you too," he laughed, bemused by the situation at hand. "You must be Annie? Glad to finally meet you," he called over to the girl I'd left by the counter.

"Jimin?" She questioned, and I could imagine the smile resting on her ruby lips. "Good to finally put a face to the name."

"Likewise. Now, Annie, I don't suppose you could tell me why the fuck Jungkook is crouched on the floor in front of me, poking at my shoes?"

Her laugh echoed around me, emulating the joy I was feeling in the core of my soul. I could hear the slight clang of her lifting the glass jar of skittles, followed by Jimin's gasp.

"You're fucking with me?!" He almost yelled, dragging me up to face him, before pulling me into a hug. His face was still grey, though the tip of his nose had been battered by the early winter wind, leaving it blushed. He was laughing now too, just as thrilled for me as I was for myself.

"It's just red," I tried to downplay the revelation, only to be dismissed by Jimin.

"Just?! Just red?!" He was ecstatic. "Jungkook it's fucking incredible! You're seeing colour! Colour! The trial is working! Have you told Hobi?"

Truthfully, I hadn't told anyone, too wrapped up in discovering this new world with Annie. He didn't even wait for me to finish shaking my head, as we walked back into the living space. 

"Annie, top left cupboard, grab the Smirnoff," Jimin instructed. "You text Hobi, Kook. We're celebrating!"

And so we did, drinking till there was no liquor left in the red labelled bottle, laughing till it felt like our lungs would collapse. 

Hobi had arrived home from work about half an hour after Jimin, with the largest bunch of red flowers that any of us had ever seen. They swamped the kitchen counter, and we had to split the bouquet across five pint glasses in lieu of vases, but it was magical, the way that my eyes could pick out the vibrant shades:

 Vermillion. Crimson. Scarlet. Cherry. Cadmium. Strawberry. Firetruck. Rose. 

And, of course, Annie's lipstick, 'Alarm'. 

My very first colour. 

My favourite colour.

Jimin had called Chloe over, and she was sat with Annie, laughing over something inconsequential. Her gaze caught mine, lingering slightly, lips closing to form an impenetrable smile.

Raising my glass, filled to the brim with vodka, ice, and a dash of coke, my teeth clamped gently down on my bottom lip. We had done it. We had got me seeing colour.

The nod of her head and raising of her own glass let me know that we had reached the same conclusion.

And as her teeth began to show, unadulterated happiness spreading across her face, her tan skin began to illuminate, shades of peach and beige welcoming their way into my vision. 

So this is what all the fuss was about.

I shook my head, not quite sure I wasn't dreaming. 

My name is Jungkook, I laughed to myself. And I'm a Multi.