Getting out of the car, which we parked near the shore, Jungkook and I are walking to an ice cream stand now that I have never seen before. Luckily the weather today is better than the past days, which were cold and rainy. A light breeze tickling my skin envelops us as we walk holding hands to the little car that has a plastic ice cream cone on the roof.

"What flavor do you want?" Jungkook asks as we stand in front of the car, turning slightly towards me and I check the flavors they offer. There are a lot of different flavors available and my mouth is watering at the sight of them.

Why is it so difficult to decide?

"I think I'll take salted caramel and cookies," I answer, my eyes still wandering over the rest of the sweet treat, now doubting if I made the right decision.

"Okay. Hello, we'd like some salted caramel and cookies for my beautiful girlfriend and rainbow swirls and strawberry magic for me, please."

"What kind of combination is that?" I laugh holding on to his bicep with my hand that isn't intertwined with his.

"So you are going to ignore the fact that I just called you beautiful, but instead make fun of my choice?" he pouts playfully, a hand laying flat on his chest as if he is hurt by my remark.

I humorously slap his chest before the Iceman hands us our ice cream cones and we turn around to walk along the shore after Jungkook has paid for the ice cream.

It's peaceful, the soft pounding of the waves against the low concrete wall that keeps the water from overflowing can be heard and the light breeze is throwing my hair into my face. I tuck the strand that almost blows into my ice cream behind my ear and start to catch the incredibly delicious treat at the already melting spot before it can drip onto the floor.

It is quiet despite the few noises of the night and although it is weekend, there is nobody around. Probably most of the young people are out partying somewhere, but for me, this moment is exactly what I need. A pleasant company, the calming silence, and delicious ice cream.

We slowly walk along the shore, our fingers still intertwined, gently swinging back and forth between our bodies as we both look out at the sea and its light waves and I breathe the fresh evening air deep through my nose.

"It's peaceful, isn't it?" Jungkook asks, breaking the silence surrounding us with his soft voice. I look up to him, giving him a smile while nodding my head.

"It is. I like it when it's calm and soothing," I answer, now taking the last bite of my waffle in my mouth.

After a few more steps, we pass a playground that is currently empty. The sandbox, which is right in the middle, is built like a pirate ship and there are shovels and buckets in the sand, which probably a child must have unfortunately left behind. A large climbing frame is to the right, a swirling green slide is attached to one side, and ropes with which you have to swing to the other side of the frame are floating slowly in the light wind.

"Come on, I'll push you on the swing." grabbing me firmly by my hand, he pulls me through the meadow over to the swings, of which there are two.

"I doubt my ass would fit in that little thing that's supposed to be for 10-year-old kids." I giggle, hesitating because I don't want to end the evening with a disaster and be rescued by the fire department from a children's swing.

"I mean, your ass is pretty juicy, but I think you'll fit in there," he says, observing my ass from all sides and then receiving a slap on the arm from me for his perverted remark, to which he just laughs outrageously.

I simply ignore his words and his eyes, which still draw me in undisturbed, and sit down on the swing, my hands gripping the metal chains on both sides firmly. Jungkook steps behind me and I feel his light hands on my back and how he gives me a little careful push so that I don't jerk forward harshly. The wind is now blowing more strongly through my hair due to the swinging and a salty smell from the sea is streaming through my nose. I close my eyes as Jungkook now gives me some stronger pushes and I swing back and forth at a decent height.

Every time Jungkook's hands come into contact with my back, a shiver takes over my whole body and I grab the two chains tighter. I feel free as a bird and when Jungkook's gentle giggle sounds in my ears, I want this moment to last forever.

With Jungkook, time seems to slow down, as if our surroundings are no longer moving and I couldn't complain a damn bit. Quite the opposite in fact. I want time to run slower, even stop, so that I can enjoy and savor every second I spend with him. With him, I feel free, comfortable, and most importantly: I can be me. I don't have to pretend anything about myself to him, not that I would do that, but he makes me feel as if I'm perfect the way I am.

Sometimes I even think that we are made for each other. Our hands are like two pieces that are made to fit perfectly. His strong one encases my delicate one like a glove of trust and love. Our bodies dance to the same music, they are constantly in sync and our hearts share the same thoughts and feelings. It is as if I'm like a princess in a fairy tale who has waited for her perfect prince and finally found him. I'm like in a dream from which I don't want to wake up.

After some time I slide my feet along the ground to slow the swing down and when I'm at an acceptable height I jump off it. When I turn around to Jungkook, he is still standing in his place with a big smile on his face, but his eyes radiate a confusion as to why I jumped off the swing. I run over to him, grabbing him by the hand and signaling him to sit on the swing.

"It's your turn." I smile, a giggle restrained as I see the sparkle in his eyes.

"My turn!" Jungkook claps his hands. I scream internally at his cuteness and it almost makes me lie down on the ground and cry.

Jungkook sits down slowly in the swing and it is one of the funniest sights ever. Seeing how he tries to squeeze his big body into the small swing and how his shoulders are constricted between the two chains makes me laugh. I take out my phone and before he can see it I secretly take a picture to keep this hilarious moment forever as a memory.

I start to push him slowly, a little overexerted by his massive weight. I almost have to throw my whole body against him to get him to move even a few inches.

"You might want to eat a little less." I struggle.

"You like me being so muscular, so no." he laughs proudly.

He reflects my actions after a few minutes of swinging and jumps off, but without slowing down the swing beforehand. I watch how he skilfully lands on his strong legs as if he was already a professional in it. Turning towards me we both share a gentle laugh as our eyes sparkle with joy in the darkness and our insides fill with butterflies.

We both sit back on the swing, him next to me, swinging slightly and dragging our feet on the ground. We don't talk, just stare out into the distance, where the sea and the sky merge into one horizon. The silence that envelops us is peaceful and makes me think about today, or more precisely about the past few weeks.

Sitting here with Jungkook on a playground in swings that are too small for both of us, gives me the realization that I've never really been like this with any of my former partners. Jungkook brings the little girl out of me, with him I can behave like a child without worries and grief and I don't have to think about what happens next. I can enjoy the moment to its fullest.

"What are you thinking about?" His soft voice breaks the silence and pulls me out of my inner thoughts.

"Nothing. Just that I'm happy right now."

"I always want to see you happy, because that's when you're most beautiful."

My heart skips a beat and I feel the blood flowing through my veins. I feel the heartbeat in my ears and when I look over to him, he drowns my words and takes my breath away. I press my lips into a thin line as my eyes fill with tears that are yet to flow. I look down on the floor, releasing a small laugh.

"Your eyes have become glassy. What's wrong?" he asks a bit worried.

"You always find the right words to make me happy. You make me happy."

His lips mold into a sad smile as if he is aware of the meaning of everything. I'm even sure he understood because the next thing I feel is his hand grabbing mine, which was wrapped around the metal chain and intertwine our fingers.

"You can tell me anything if it doesn't scratch your wounds open." His eyes reflect so much trust and protection, his smile gives me the strength and I decide now to completely abandon my past because I don't want to be reminded of it every time I have a happy moment. To open up about the past events would perhaps help me to be completely freed from them. So I take a deep breath and tell him everything.

"My ex-boyfriend has been giving me a rough time back then. It was hard to end the relationship because he always made sure to change my mind with beautifully embellished words and promised me that he would change. It was a toxic relationship, I knew that, but I had gotten so used to his presence that I partly overlooked it. I had to listen to Nora many times telling me that I had to leave him now to stop breaking myself even more, and finally, I did. It was hard, but I broke up with him."

"What kind of person was he?"

"I don't know. He was harsh to me, always jealous, loved to control me, and order me around, but in public he was the exact opposite, always making sure everyone thought well of him. One day when we were going on a date together, we were already a little out of town when he got a call from his friends. He dropped me off in the middle of nowhere and said he was going to meet them. I had to walk all the way home because I was too embarrassed to call Nora or anyone else to come pick me up. I knew that they would tell me to leave him and that he didn't deserve me. I knew all this already, I didn't want to hear the same thing over and over again and yet I defended him. Until one day I got fed up and kicked him out."

Finished recalling some of the memories of my past relationship, I feel my lungs filling with fresh air as if I had forgotten how to breathe over the years. It feels like a stone has fallen from my shoulders and I'm surprised that I haven't shed a drop of tear during all this. Opening up to Jungkook, telling him everything has made me feel relieved. It's hard to recall the hard time again, especially everything he did to me emotionally, but I didn't want to hold anything back from Jungkook. I want us to be transparent with each other, to communicate with each other in everything, because I know he would never take advantage of that towards me. I also know that he would never treat me that way.

When I don't receive any comment from him on the whole story, I look up from my lap where I was playing with my fingers because I didn't know where else to focus, I look over at him and see him staring into the distance with his jaw firmly clenched. His eyebrows are drawn together and a dark look lies on his beautiful features. I take his hand and grasp it firmly in mine, reassuring that everything is fine.

"That asshole. I'll teach him a lesson the second I catch him anywhere." He turns to me and there's an angry look in his eyes. "How could he be so cruel to you?"

"It's all right," I say calmly and when I see that he is about to protest, I continue. "Perhaps I never would have met you if none of this had happened. And I consider this a lesson, I have learned to be strong through it, I have formed a completely new Elaine from the past, one that is not so easily brought down."

Taking in my words, I notice that his eyes become soft again, but the rage is still flowing through his veins that protrude from his soft skin that glows under the dim light. I put my other hand on his, turning a little more towards him in the swing as long as the chains allow it and look deep into his eyes to soothe him silently.

His gaze drops from my eyes down to the ground and a long sigh passes his beautiful lips leaving us silent for the next few moments. His head tilts to the side and a painful smile, which does not reach his eyes, emerges and I try to interpret what his behavior represents. Did he also recall his difficult past? Did my story trigger the bad memories in him?

"You can also tell me everything. I'm a good listener."

His eyes flash up to mine and I recognize hesitation in his."I would, but I'm afraid you would see me differently afterward," he whispers as he looks at me with puppy eyes, the grip of his hand around mine tightening.

"I got to know and like you the way you are, Jungkook. A few incidents from the past won't change my feelings for you."

"Hailey and I met at a party in high school," he begins after taking a deep breath and noticing the reassuring look in my eyes. "We clicked right away and it didn't take me long to ask her out. She was my first girlfriend, I was only 16 years old. Well, actually everything went well until she started acting strangely, she became more distant and we started to argue more often. She started making mocking remarks about me that hurt my ego, but I swallowed it."

He starts to kick the little bricks under his feet and I notice how hard it is for him to continue with the story. But I don't interrupt him. Sometimes we have to face things in life, even if they are hurting us. Deeply hurting. We have to start talking about them because constantly locking them up inside of us doesn't help us forget them or grow out of them. I feel better after overcoming this hurdle and now it is Jungkook's turn.

"Over time, she began to compare me to other boys. Can you imagine how hurtful that is for a boy who is trying to become a man? So every day I tried a little bit harder, I wanted to do my best to impress her. And the funny thing is, I did that because I thought she was the one for me. If I think about it now, I could beat myself for it, I was so naive," he mocks as a humorless laugh rolls past his lips. "Then one day when I went to her place, I heard noises coming from her apartment." His eyebrows are furrowed as he bites his lower lip and gulps, and it seems a large lump is stuck in his throat. I have to hold back my own tears at the sight.

I had a hard time but seeing Jungkook in front of me, so hurt, so small, just breaks my heart. I know how the story ends and it really makes me wonder how stupid this Hailey girl must have been to have hurt an angel like him. Really, I don't get it.

"She had given me keys to her apartment, for emergencies, so I didn't hesitate and went inside. She was there, moaning on her bed, naked, under some guy I've never seen before. I stormed out of the apartment, of course after giving the guy a free ticket to the hospital. And apparently he was not the first and only one she slept with while she was dating me. Got to find out afterward." he looks into my eyes for the first time again and I see how pain and anger are reflected in them at the same time. His free hand forms a firm fist through all those memories that perhaps ought to have been locked away somewhere.

"It hurt so much, Elaine. My life was hard back then anyway and she was the only escape for me. A few hours with her insults were still better than the hell I had to call home."

I'm at a loss for words, I can't do anything else but digest all his words right now. Jungkook always looked so unconcerned, he had already mentioned a few times that he had been cheated on, but I couldn't have guessed that his heart was torn into so many little pieces. I did feel and see it in his eyes, but I never really thought about it.

And the most shameful part is, that despite his bad experience with his past relationship, he wasn't deterred from trying it with me. What kind of a big coward am I that I rejected him just because I have had a toxic man in my life, while Jungkook was cold-heartedly neglected, belittled, and in the end cheated on? I feel stupid for letting him hang on the sofa after he kissed me. I feel stupid that it took me two weeks to reach out to him. And I feel stupid that I never even considered admitting my feelings for him because of my foolish stubbornness.

While he is the one who should be scared of a possible repetition of the past, I was afraid of being treated like before, even though I knew Jungkook would never do anything like that to me.

I get up from the swing to step right in front of him. He looks at me with eyebrows arched in the middle before I pull him up by the hand and make him stand on his feet. Without wasting any unnecessary words I wrap my arms tightly around his torso. I rest my face against his broad chest where I snuggle up against him and pull him even closer to me. His arm securely wraps around my waist and with the other hand, he caresses my hair.

It feels so good to be here with him, just standing quietly and without interruption, cut off from the rest of the world at this time of day. I didn't imagine the evening's outcome like this, but I'm glad that we have opened up to each other and that we are now each other's strength. I feel that the connection between us has become stronger through these emotions because we can now focus on making the other happy without repeating the mistakes of the past.

His arms around my body feel as good as if it were their prescribed place. As if the warmth of his chest radiated only to me. As if his smell was so sweet, alluring, and addictive just for me. As if his lips were so deliciously formed just for me so that I would never forget their taste on mine. And as if his eyes would hold the whole galaxy and sparkle just for me, so I could get lost in them.

"I'm sorry," I say, muffled against the fabric of his shirt.

"For what?" he asks as he pulls back a little from the hug to look at my face.

"I feel stupid for rejecting you. I feel like a selfish idiotic brat thinking that only she has gone through a difficult time."

"Hey. Never consider your own pain inferior. You've suffered as much as I have. We were both broken. But I'm glad we found each other." he smiles as he raises one hand to my cheek and gently caresses my skin with his thumb.

"I will never hurt you," I say as I mirror his touch and also cup his face with my own, my thumb sliding over the little scar on his cheek.

"I will never hurt you," he repeats my words and we both smile gently at each other.

___________________________

A/N: First I broke my uwu machine and now I'm crying a river