JUNGKOOK HAD TRIPPED over his own feet three times already as he and Neva ran across town.

Occasionally, they dawdled, a little out of breath. His hands would loosely play with hers, pulling her in for a kiss (or four), before she'd giggle and insist that they had to keep on going.

"Where are you taking me, you wild woman?" He would smile against her lips, pressing down into them simply because he was unable to stop himself from doing anything else but succumb to everything that she was.

"Like I said: on an adventure," she'd grin back, pecking him instead of using a full stop to punctuate her sentences. "You trust me, right?"

Stupid question. 

"With my life."

"So trust me on this. You'll like it."

Before he could protest, she dragged him further along, heading in the direction of campus.

Jungkook wasn't sure he liked where this was going. 

"My student I.D. card is back in my dorm, Eva," he said as they came into view of their university library.

Open 24 hours, all you needed was your I.D. card to enter the automated system. Without it, he'd have to jump the barriers, and he didn't really fancy it. He couldn't risk pissing off the night-shift librarian again, not after that one incident with a box of packing peanuts and a remote control truck.

He still hadn't been allowed to collect the controller from the library office, and it had been, like, two months. Boring cunts.

"You don't need it," Neva called back, turning to face him as she held up the little key that she had shown him back at Hobi's. 

"Neva..."

"Oh, full name," she giggled. "Am I in trouble?"

Jungkook bit down on his lip as if it would simply drop off if he didn't hold it in place. "Stop flirting with me."

"I'm not."

 "You are."

"You're the one who kissed me in front of all of our friends."

Jungkook cringed, his whole entire face scrunching up. The street lamps that framed the college green illuminated his silhouette, casting a halo around his body, but the messy flicks of his styled hair almost made it look like he had tiny little devil horns. Neva let her smile grow, in awe of just how fitting it was.

Yes, he was a bastard. Yes, he was the fucking devil when he really wanted to be.

But my God, did she want him to be an angel.

She wanted everything good about him - his boyish humour, the way his eyes always looked for her whenever he entered a room, his ever-growing collection of Kinder Egg toys, his delicate fingers that stroked across her skin for simple comfort, his smile, eyes, body, brain, fuck, everything - to be preserved as it was in this light. 

It almost felt like she was seeing him for the first time: world ceasing to turn on its axis, for the simple fact that he now was her world, once more. 

The movies had gotten it all wrong. There was no silence, no slow-mo, no warm lighting and inhumane focus on the object of the female lead's desires. 

All that Neva felt was terror for a moment, an adroit awareness that she was giving him the power to ruin her life again, and then there was only one thing: contentment. 

She was almost positive that he could ruin her life, and she'd ask him to do it again. Third time lucky.

If Neva was entirely honest with herself, she couldn't remember the first time she had seen Jungkook. 

She wasn't really sure if her heart had skipped a beat, or if there was some great cosmic shift that made it feel as if her world was finally aligning (like it was now). It was plausible that she could have stared at him for a little too long, but it was equally likely that she hadn't even given him a second glance.

But she'd more than made up for it over the years. Caught him mid-yawn, seen him zone out for minutes on end, watched his lips slowly morph into a smile before his laughter chimed. Stolen so many secret glances that she should have been locked away for voyeurism. 

He'd stolen just as many, though. Maybe more. 

That was the beauty of knowing someone for as long as you could remember: there was no version of him that she hadn't known. 

Choosing to fall in love with someone - which Neva very much did think was a choice - when you had seen the terrible teenage haircuts, awkward braces and everything utterly awful about growing up, seemed like the boldest choice that a human could make. 

The Jungkook who was gripping onto her hand for dear life, as she pulled him through town and up towards their university campus, was the same Jungkook that she had shared jokes with about their geography teacher's toupee on their very first day of high school.

Yet, if science was to be believed, he was an entirely fresh set of cells. Not a single morsel of his current body had existed when she had passed him notes in French class during their second year of high school. The hands that had crumpled shortbread into her hair in a misguided attempt to flirt didn't exist anymore. In their place were the hands of a man; rough and firm, gentle when needed and quite the opposite when not. Give it a few more years, and the Jungkook stood before Neva wouldn't bear a single cell of the Jungkook who had betrayed her trust in the bedroom of a house party at the tender age of 18.

His brain, she hoped, was already renewed.

Human cell regeneration - of which she had wasted close to an hour researching instead of doing her assignments that afternoon - primarily occurred in the olfactory bulb of the brain, which Neva remembered from English Literature lessons related to the sense of smell.

No matter how many new cells it pumped out, she'd never forgotten the scent of Boss Orange or the lethal combination of spiced rum and hairspray.

But cell regeneration also occurred in the dentate gyrus. Neva had no fuckin' clue what the words meant, but a book thicker than Yoongi's forearm had told her that it was part of the brain that helped with memory formation.

It was ironic, really, that the part of her brain which stopped her from moving on was also the part of her brain that would force her to become brand new. 

"I meant it, Eva," Jungkook said, swallowing down his final crumb of dignity.  His tongue still tasted like bitter ale, and he knew that he shouldn't have been making such bold statements under the influence, but if not now, then when? He'd wasted so much time already.

Shaking her head, Neva shushed him. She didn't want to hear it. Not yet. Not now. Later.

"Stop going soft on me, Jeon," she teased, teeth showing as she guided him to a door on the side of their criminology building. Turning to fiddle with the lock, she pretended as if Jungkook standing so close behind her had no impact. His hands on her hips? Ignored. The scent of his aftershave intruding on her senses? Tuned out. His crotch resting against the small of her back? Yeah, that was a little harder to ignore - but she was determined. "I know what you're trying to do."

"I'm not trying to do anything," he pressed a kiss into the curve of her neck, inhaling her perfume like a drug. His messy hair tickled against her cheek, causing Neva to turn her face and steal a small kiss. "You're just sexy when you're doing... I don't know actually. What are you doing?"

Right on time, the key loosened the stiff lock, clicking undone. 

"Bingo," Neva grinned, pressing a second kiss into his lips. And a third. Fine - a fourth, too - but who's counting? 

She pushed it open, carefully stepping inside, indicating for him to be quiet. 

"Where the fuck did you get that thing?" He laughed, though it was hushed as he attempted to whisper.

"I have connections in high places."

"Yoongi?"

"Bingo 2.0."

He followed her up a maze of halls, the building eerily quiet. Not once did he let go of her hand. He wouldn't admit it, but he was kind of terrified. Enough horror films had damaged his young mind to let him know the signs of a serial killer's paradise. An empty school building was one of them.

"Just in here," she whispered as they approached the door to their usual lecture room. Neva tapped in the number to the lock, and waited for a long beep to sound out, letting her know that she'd bypassed the security mechanism.

She owed Yoongi one hell of a favour for this - though he'd been the one to suggest it. The last step in his master plan was a grand gesture. He didn't specify what. Told her only she could know the right thing to do.

"Eva?" Jungkook questioned, a smirk tugging on his lips. "Are we..?"

"No," she laughed, clicking the door shut, knowing exactly what he was going to ask. "Not yet, at least."

Sex could wait.

She had more pressing things to tend to.

"Sit," she nodded, biting down her lip. He followed her command without a second word, taking a seat a few rows from the front, opting not to retire to his usual back row.

Neva stayed at the front, by the teaching plinth. What the hell was she up to?

Plugging her phone into the adapter cord, Neva fiddled around by the desk for a moment until she found the right leads to connect. The overhead projector began to whir into action, and Jungkook watched on in absolute awe. God, she looked so pretty when the projector caught in her eyes. 

She looked pretty, full stop. Gorgeous. Heart-stopping.

Soon, the plain blue screen burst into colour, presenting a title card that he couldn't help but laugh at. She was so fucking lame when she wanted to be.

"Guess the connection?" He raised a brow as he read from the screen. Neva nodded enthusiastically. 

"Uh-huh. I'm gonna show you three slides. All you need to do is tell me what they have in common, and you win a bonus slide."

"What's on the bonus slide?" Jungkook questioned, enthralled in the idea of a challenge. It was so simple, but she knew exactly what to do to engage him.

"Get it right, and you'll see."

Reclining into his seat, Jungkook smirked. "Game on. Gimmie the first one."

Neva tapped her phone, watching him with great pleasure as his brows furrowed together. 

"Plants?" He laughed. "The fuck am I supposed to know about plants?"

"I don't know," she grinned. "You tell me."

She had made the slides that afternoon. It wad the final thing she had done before leaving Hobi's party, having finally convinced Yoongi that she could be trusted with the key he shouldn't have had in the first place. Their lecturer, Yoongi's mentor, had given it to him on the hush-hush just so he could do more work after hours.

"Next one," he nodded, convinced he had read everything that he needed to.

He took a second to pause this time, drinking in all the information laid out bare for him. His head tilted, as if he was struggling. 

"Next one."

"What the fuck, Eva?" He grinned, looking defeated. He ran a hand through his hair, as if he was genuinely trying to think of the possible connection that wasn't painfully obvious. "They're all flowers?"

She nodded, but raised a brow, suggesting that he needed more.

"I don't know," he laughed. "Only one of them had berries, so it's not that. And lavender had purple flowers, not white, so it can't be that. They all have green leaves?"

Neva failed miserably at trying to hide her smile. 

"You're getting warmer," she toyed. "Just a little bit warmer, Kook, and you'll win."

"Fuck," he laughed, sinking further into his chair as his perplexed face scrunched up tightly before his body sprung up into action. He raised a hand in the air, calling out his name. "Jungkook! Jungkook!"

God, he was fucking adorable.

"Yes, Jungkook," Neva beamed, as if she really was commanding a class.

He slammed an open palm down on the desk, pointing towards to presentation with absolute certainty. "They're all winter plants."

"Ddaeng," she laughed. She really thought he'd gotten it. "Getting so much warmer, though."

"Winter... flowers..." he whispered to himself, playing through all the connections. His brows were furrowed, lips moving as he spoke silently. He even started counting on his fingers at one point. "...green... winter..."

"If I don't nip these feelings in the bud, then they're gonna bloom..."

And then his eyes shot up.

"They're all evergreens."

Neva nodded.

"...Roses last for a summer and then they wilt, Eva. No matter how gorgeous the bloom may be, it's fleeting and it doesn't last..."

"But they have flowers?"

Neva nodded.

Her stomach was somersaulting like a pancake on Shrove Tuesday. Was she sweating? Oh, God, she was so nervous. Did she look okay? This was such a stupid idea. She should have never let Yoongi talk her into it. Lame, lame, lame. Jungkook was far too cool for this, for her. He looked so gorgeous, hair a mess, Neva's lipstick on his neck and blushing his lips. Marked. Hers. 

Mine, she thought, trying not to gasp at the audacity. But was it really such an absurd statement to make?

Jungkook wouldn't have thought so.

Though he couldn't really think straight, at that present moment.

"...I'd rather be an evergreen. They may not be as beautiful as flowers, but they withstand the winters."

It was all so fucking obvious. 

"They're all evergreens that bloom," he whispered, coming to one hell of a realisation. 

Neva tapped her phone screen, pulling his winning slide up.

"You win," she whispered, voice as vulnerable as her wide eyes and tepid nod.

It felt like her heart had decided it was sick of living beneath her ribs and had moved to reside in her throat. She really wished it would fuck off back to her chest.

"Evergreens can bloom, Kook," she smiled softly, with a gentle shrug of her shoulders. There was no going back now. "We don't have to choose. We can be both. We can withstand the winters, and blossom for the rest of our lives. We can bloom."

He nodded, unsure at which point he'd gone from beer-drunk to love-drunk. His laugh sounded angelic as his eyes dropped from the presentation to the girl standing in front of him, vulnerable and slightly afraid she'd fucked it all up.

Jungkook was a vision of firework eyes and smitten cheeks, appled from how wide he was smiling.

He'd never been more in love. 

"You're my favourite evergreen, Kook," she said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Still sat, Jungkook held out his arms and scrunched his hands in the air. "C'mere."

He would have walked to her but he was afraid that his legs had turned to jelly.

Neva complied, the nerves in her stomach settling just like they always did whenever he asked for her to come close enough to touch. He found comfort in her skin, the warmth of her embrace, the taste of her lips. She knew he only ever wanted her close when he wanted to feel soothed.

He tugged on her hand as soon as he could reach her, pulling her onto his lap. Neither of them spoke, the static whir of the projector soundtracking their heady beating hearts. Her arms snaked around his neck, his around her waist, and his lips found hers with such intensity that it was almost like a missing poster had been put out for them.

Jungkook had found her lips, so he'd reap the rewards; kisses by the dozen, licks against her tongue, the gentle tug of her teeth on his bottom lip, and, occasionally, a whisper:

"We can bloom."

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a/n: hi hi hi. you up? has gone up by nearly 25k reads in 3 weeks? what the fuck?????? are you guys okay? I'm not. that's mad. I'm literally so??? hi? 

also does the holly slide count as a self-insert lmao 

'cause like... that's what i was going for ahahahahahaha