song of the chapter: lovely - billie eilish & khalid

-

Walking behind a smiling Bree and a blushing Jungkook wasn't something I had planned today. But here we are.

The mall is packed, making me have to walk close to them. Bree looks back at me and takes my hand, "So you won't get lost." she tells me, continuing our trek around the mall.

"Thanks." I try to put a smile to her.

Bree continues leading us to her favorite candle store in the mall.

She loves the smell of candles.

"So how did you meet each other?" she asks Jungkook and I, holding our hands.

Jungkook clears his throat, "We met back in Busan."

My cousin giggles before kissing his cheek, "Yes silly, I know. But how did you two meet?"

I turn to her, "I was taking a stroll after everyone was asleep and that's were we met."

We at this point had gotten to the store that she loved. Bree nodded at my response, "Well, it's nice that you guys know each other already. You two are very important for me," she tells us as she walks around the store, "so it's nice that you both get along well."

Yup.

Very nice.

"Welcome to Candle Haven, how may we help you?" a store clerk comes to us.

Bree answers her, "Yes, what are the new candles that you guys have?"

The middle aged woman widened her eyes, I guess she knows Bree. Let's just say my cousin goes to this store on a regular basis.

"Oh Bree! Follow me, I'll show you the new candles." the woman tells my cousin and takes her with her.

That leaves me with Jungkook.

"They have lots of candles here."he says as he takes a candle and smells it, nodding contently.

I take another candle and smell it too.

It smells like apples.

"Let's hope that she doesn't spend her entire paycheck on candles." I tell him, opening up another candle and smelling it.

This one's vanilla scented.

As the both of us stay in a corner, I glance at Jungkook. He stares at Bree with a smile on his face. His eyes glisten in the light, taking in every part of Bree.

He used to look at me like that, in fact, he was doing it last night. It hurts.

"Don't hurt her." I tell him.

He looks at me, with a confused expression.

I turn to him, "Please don't hurt Bree like you hurt me."

He widens his eyes, speechless, "Dae–"

I take another candle flask and smell it, "Take good care of her." once I finish smelling it, I leave a silent and shocked Jungkook in the candle aisle.

I'd be a liar if didn't say that I felt a slight tug in my chest as I watched his loving gaze towards Bree. He better not hurt her. I don't want Bree to go through what I went through. I don't want her heart to be broken by him.

-

"Baby, why are you so quiet?" Bree asks Jungkook who silently eats his food in front of me.

Ever since I pleaded him to not hurt Bree, he's been silent.

After going to Candle Haven, we decided to get some food. The air has been tense, and Bree has kind of noticed.

Jungkook looks at Bree before poking her nose, "It's nothing, just sleepy." he tells her.

Bree puts her head on his shoulder and looks at me, "Once we're done, we are going back home." she says.

I nod.

My cousin wiggles her eyebrows at me, "So Dae, got any boys after you?"

I laugh, "No, none at all. Thankfully."

"Oh come on Dae, you need some love in your life. You've never even had a boyfriend, and that's sad." Bree tells me and takes a sip of her soda.

Jungkook furrows his eyebrows and chokes on his drink, coughing. Bree instantly pats his back, in attempts to calm him down.

"Are you okay babe?" she asks him.

He nods, "Yeah. Just fine, baby."

Baby. He used to call me that.

"When was your vacation to Busan, Dae?" she asks.

I look at her, she genuinely wants to know, "It was two years ago, when I was seventeen."

Bree giggles at Jungkook, "You got to meet her when she wore those green socks, right?"

"Yeah." he chuckles.

Oh don't start with those green socks. Wearing the green socks at that time is something that I regret. I wore then once on a night stroll and he basically called me out for them.

"Hey!" I defend myself, "those green socks were cute, at the time." I tell them.

Bree pointed at me, "You're right, at the time."

I take a bite of the pasta I ordered, "They were a fashion statement back then, with the cute little frogs on them."

Jungkook nodded, "True, my brother used to have a few of those socks before."

We kept talking and it felt normal. It felt like it was just a conversation between us, reminiscing of the past but looking forward to our futures. Even if the tension was there before, now it was replaced by a feeling of warmth. It felt different.