Annie

Days on trial: 73

A familiar arm wrapped around my waist, pulling me into a hard yet incredibly comforting chest. The spiced vanilla of his aftershave intruded on my senses as his lips planted a sweet kiss on my temple, his voice trailing into my ear: "Hey, pretty baby. Missed you."

I hadn't actually intended on seeing him, but coincidence meant that he was at the clinic at the same time I had been scheduled in. Having just finished up talking to another trial participant, I was by the entrance hall of the waiting room getting my files together.

There had been some major developments over the festive period, with not one, but three conglomerates coming together to try and put a gag order on the Gazette. They'd known we'd be out of office, and had tried to strike while the iron would be hot.

Big businesses had spent years trying to block the trial from coming to fruition. If it became public knowledge that Multivision could be replicated through the means of science, then it would render their Mono-specific businesses obsolete.

Corporate greed had prevented people like Jungkook from the joy of colour his entire life, and I would be damned if they continued to hold their monopoly over people's lives. This wasn't about business to me; this was about something that I felt should have been a human right. No one deserved to spend an eternity in Monovision.

"You're so obsessed with me," I smirked, trying to ignore the carousel of chaos in my stomach. Sliding a paperclip down onto my notes, I turned my head a little to catch his lips in a kiss, before continuing on with my task. "I can't do coffee this afternoon."

"Nor can I," he shrugged, not once loosening his grip on me. I'd always hated public displays of affection, but with him, I didn't care if people looked. All they'd see is happiness, and what's so sordid about that?

"Oh?" The sound was out of my lips before I'd really bothered to think too much of it. He could have been joking, or he could have not been - it was impossible to tell with the flirtatious tone in his voice.

"Gotta just head over to the University Hospital for some scans," he clarified.

Whipping my torso round to get a read on his face, his startled eyes suggested that he hadn't expected such a reaction. Checking his face over with my eyes, as if they'd somehow be able to detect anything, I pouted. "Scans?"

"Just for the trials, nothing big," his lips punctuated his sentence with a kiss on mine. I knew what he was doing, just shutting me up to prevent me from digging for more information.

"You're hiding something," I narrowed my eyes at him, earning a sweet laugh from his lips.

"No, I'm Jeon Jungkook," he grinned, as if he were the master of all dad-jokes. Rolling my eyes, I couldn't help but crack a smile at how stupid he was. Nostalgic to his very core, he followed his statement up with something that felt a whole lot more meaningful these days: "And I'm a Multi."

An idiot; I was dating an idiot.

Nudging him away slightly, he pulled me closer into his chest to give me one final squeeze before he left.

"I'll meet you after work, alright?" he spoke above the noise of the waiting room chatter as he walked away, spinning to catch my response affirming his suggestion. Grinning, he headed out of the automatic glass doors, shouting back a goodbye. "See ya later pretty baby, love you."

Two steps out of the door by this point, I watched as his entire body faltered, coming to a halt. Shoulders tense, his head slowly turned round to see if I was still looking at him. I was.

Lips rested ajar, breath hitched in my throat, it was all I could do - had he really just said that?!

Eyes wider than an Olympic sized swimming pool, there was a sheer sense of terror on his face, almost as if I were pointing a loaded gun at him. He took a second, blinked once, twice, and then he bolted.

Quite literally.

He ran away, as if he were a cartoon characters with smoke at his feet. Stuck in a state of disbelief, a laugh choked it's way up my throat over what I had just witnessed. My feet were firmly stuck to the ground, the casual moment replaying in my head like a broken record.

See ya later pretty baby, love you.

"Well, fuck," was all that I could muster, cheeks red, smile growing.

Love you.

I wanted to squeal loud enough to shatter glass, but I didn't fancy paying for the repairs. He hadn't meant to say it, that much was a given, and maybe he didn't mean it, but the association was still there. He thought of me and he thought of love. That was enough to keep me happy for a little while, at least.

Love you.

I pushed the phrase to the back of my mind, trying to remind myself of why I was actually at the clinic in the first place. Handing out my business card to a few more people in the waiting room, and getting the contact details of several others, I felt happy with the progress I had made.

With the potential of a gag order being put through to prevent us from running the story, I needed all the sources in my arsenal that I could get. The more statements I had, the easier it would be to declare the story as one that was in the public's interest to be told.

A journalist without sources was like a baker without flour; and even though Jungkook was like thinly milled rice flour, the perfect foundation for my favourite snacks, I couldn't ignore the need to have a little bit of all-purpose in my life too. My relationship to him made it imperative that I branched out, and so I had been rounding up new sources all morning.

Making my way back to the office, I couldn't help but worry. I had been working on this story for months, and having nothing to show for it would be devasting. Jungkook had also spooked me with his mention of scans, which was just another thing chewing away at my brain.

Overwhelmed by what felt like a million different tangents sparking in my brain, they were all wiped away whenever I heard his abrupt, winsome declaration reverberating in my head: Love you.

I'd hear his voice, and things would be okay again. I think it's how I knew that I loved him too.

Laughing at myself, I rolled my eyes; You only just figured that out, Annie? How long have you been seeing in full Multivision?!

Damnit, I knew weeks ago that I loved him - but we were both stubborn and a little bit scared of our feelings.

"Hello missus," I grinned at Chloe as I opened the door into the office and saw her beaming with an ethereal glow around her entire being.

"That's future Mrs Park, to you," she wiggled her ring hand out for me to gawp at the ring. I'd helped Jimin pick the bloody thing out, but I still couldn't believe how gorgeous it was. A cluster of diamonds and rose quartz was set on a white gold band, and it had cost enough to make my eyes water. It was worth every penny though, and the happiness radiating from her was evidence of that.

We'd already had our initial freakout together over a drunk facetime call just after we'd managed to get Hobi into bed on the morning of new years, but a squealing session was still inevitable.

We'd be screaming for about three-minutes straight when a cough at the door altered us to Jin standing at the door, broad shoulders almost obscuring Yoongi behind him. Had it not been for his mop of white hair peeking past Jin's shoulders, I would have been none the wiser.

"What have I just walked into?" He pushed his brows up, shaking his head as he went to take a seat behind his desk.

"Ladies," Yoongi followed suit with a curt nod, perching on the armrest of Jin's chair. He'd started becoming a regular at the office before we'd taken a break for the holiday. Moving here without work, and apparently in a financial position where he didn't need to pick any up, they'd been making up for lost time. A welcome addition to the office, he was now our chief coffee runner, and had an eye for skimming over our stories and making suggestions that none of our set-in-our-way-journalist-minds could have thought of.

Flicking her hair over her shoulder with far more flamboyance than needed, Chloe made sure her ring was on full display. "Notice anything different about me?"

"Cut your hair?" Yoongi smirked, snapping off a little bit of his chocolate bar and absent-mindedly handing it over to Jin.

"Got a new blouse?" Jin offered up with a grin, knowing full well what she was talking about.

"Nah, I think she's got a new necklace," Yoongi countered, the pair of them bouncing off of each other like a pair of rallying tennis pros.

"Shit, you might be right. Or is it the earrings?"

"Maybe. Actually, no. It's definitely her hair. Must've dyed it."

"So many possibilities, I just can't put my finger on it," Jin teased, waving his hand in the air.

"Too many engaging things to consider," Yoongi nodded in agreement.

"You two are the worst," Chloe laughed at their teasing, before Jin made her come and give them a closer look at the ring - not that she needed any convincing.

Even Namjoon, who had broken up with his girlfriend over the holidays, seemed to be in good spirits. "We need at least one Mono mind in here," he'd shrugged after the commotion had died down, having come to terms with his break up fairly well. "Even if you are all so unbearably Multi that it makes me sick."

"It's alright, it makes me sick too," Yoongi assured him, offering him a little bit of sea-salted chocolate with a smile that suggested that it absolutely did not make him feel unwell in the slightest.

"Me three," I chimed in.

"You can both fuck off," Namjoon shook his head with an eye roll. "This is why no one trusts the press. You're both dirty little liars."

"I'm not dirty,"I pouted.

"And I'm not little," Yoongi cocked an eyebrow in jest, his frame by far the shortest of all the men in the room.

"Both fuckin' liars, though."

I caught Yoongi's gaze, scrunching my face up as he did the same. We couldn't argue against that one.

As the day dwindled to an end, there was a nervous trepidation building in my stomach. Jungkook hadn't texted all afternoon, which wasn't all that out of the ordinary, but it meant that the tension hadn't been broken.

Closing the office door behind me, I turned the key and jogged down the steps behind my colleagues, biting gently on my lips until they dispersed in different directions to go home, and I was left facing Jungkook.

Hair parted to the side, waved slightly from the damp sea-salt-infused air, I noticed that it had been buzzed slightly by his ear, where a few strands had been tucked away. My first thought had been panic - had they found something during his scans?

Crossing the road to where he was perched against the sea wall, I instantly went into protective mode, checking him over for signs of any damage.

"Annie, chill," he was laughing, clasping my hands and kissing my knuckles. "Just a haircut. Thought I should make an effort for our date."

A wave of relief washed over me - and then panic came crashing down. Had I forgotten about plans?

"Date?!"

And then I noticed the way he was dressed; the tight black jeans that hugged his outrageously toned thighs without a single rip in sight, the crisp white shirt that was probably taut a little bit too tightly across his chest and the grey houndstooth blazer that was peaking out beneath his unzipped black overcoat.

"Date," he nodded a little bashfully, tapping his Chelsea booted foot against my own dark heeled boots. "You looked too cute when you were working. All I wanna do is take you out and show you off."

"We match," I pouted at him, curiously enamoured with the level effort he had gone too, right down to the pattern of his blazer matching my houndstooth dress.

Layered over a long-sleeved white jumper, it hugged my figure. Sheer tights did a terrible job of keeping me warm, but my feet were cosy in a pair of black sock boots. A velvet aliceband kept my hair back, pearlescent blonde waves tumbling down my back - not very far mind you. I kept joking that his hair would rival mine in length soon enough, but I didn't mind all that much.

"Nearly," he nodded, pulling his overcoat back a little bit to reveal a tiny white iris threaded through his lappel.

Reaching behind him to the sea wall, I could see him searching around for something, his face brightening when he seemed to find it. Bringing his hand back to his front, he held a bouquet of white irises and whispy baby's breath. A few traditional purple irises were scattered throughout it, adding a little bit of colour. Tied with a thick white organza ribbon and brown string, I'd never seen anything more beautiful.

That was a lie.

I'd seen him.

"Now we match," he hummed as I accepted them speechlessly.

"Koo, they're gorgeous," I whispered, closing my eyes as I took in their sweet scent.

He stood for a moment, pride taking hold of his raised cheeks and bashful smile.

"So are you."

Our eyes met, and despite remaining entirely silent, we both knew that we were thinking the exact same thing:

Love you.

a/n: you ever write something and realise how painfully single you are? yeah. that.

ALSO IM NOT SURE WHEN but at some point I absent-mindedly started calling the newspaper by a different name. At the start of the book it's the chronicle, but towards the end its the gazette. I've literally only noticed today (17th Jan), so I'll be going back through in the next couple of days and fixing that lol sorry x