"FINALLY," NEVA PUFFED out a sigh, leaning back into her chair. Across the small desk, Jungkook beamed silently.

3:27. Assignment handed in. Job done.

"I owe you."

"Yes, you do," Jungkook said with a nod, though he wasn't going to hold her to that. In a way, he was still repenting his sins. It felt like nothing he could do would ever be enough.

But Neva wasn't concerned with the ghosts of their past anymore, not when the pair of them were still very much alive and in the present.

They meandered their way back through campus, taking longer than they probably needed, chatting about the mundane and the magnificent, and everything that fell in between.

Neva held her books against her chest as they strolled, her bag full to the brim with useless junk. She'd always been that way, and Jungkook had always despaired at it, but he never seemed to complain when she could magic something he needed out of thin air; a plaster, a paracetamol, a pen.

Occasionally he'd need a hairband for the instances when his hair had grown too long and was getting in his way. Other times, he'd need something to fiddle with and would just play lucky dip until he found something that suited his needs.

Secretly, Neva hated having a messy bag too, but she'd gotten so used to Jungkook rifling through it, that emptying it out seemed almost cruel.

Shuffling a little awkwardly, she hooked the tote back up her shoulder. It had always been a problem. So small in her stature, the slope of her shoulders acted like an ice glacier. The strap of her bag melted slowly, but surely, constantly - until it inevitably gave way, falling down like a massive chunk of ice from its perch.

It was during her eighth readjustment that Jungkook tugged on her straps slightly, not breaking from whatever nonsense he was on about at the time (Scooby Snacks, and more specifically, whether or not they were actually edibles that Shaggy had accidentally given Scooby). Her arm gave way slightly, curiously, and she watched him with great intent as he hooked it over his own shoulder.

Not a single word was uttered about it. Jungkook just kept talk about Scooby-bloody-Doo.

There was an ease to their conversation, a casual back and forth fostered by years of friendship. Sometimes, Neva was able to forget that he'd broken her heart. She liked those moments. So did he.

"I'm being serious!" Jungkook had protested as they walked around the corner up to their dorm rooms. "Ask Jimin if you don't believe me."

He was rattling on about an unfortunate incident involving Taehyung and the daughter of his philosophy lecturer, of whom he wasn't aware had a daughter. At least, he wasn't until he was chased out of their house by him the following morning.

Though Tae and Neva had remained friendly, she didn't think pursuing anything would be worth it.

In another life, where the skies had less clouds and birds sung just that little bit louder, perhaps they could have had a chance to see if they could be something - but Neva knew in this life that Jungkook would break through the clouds like Zeus, and cast storms that would flood nations. It wasn't worth it.

They still engaged in a good flirt whenever they ran into one another, and they definitely dialled it up a notch in front of their doe-eyed friend - just to see who could be the first to draw steam from his ears.

Jungkook was surprised to find that he didn't just find Taehyung tolerable, but that he actually enjoyed his company, too. Things had a strange, roundabout way of ironing themselves out. Jungkook had always liked fresh laundry, and was thankful for one less crease he had to deal with.

Walking up their corridor, Neva gritted her teeth and inhaled a little air. "Think Jimin might be a little busy."

On the handle of Jungkook's door was a white sock.

"Subtle," Jungkook snorted.

"You should be thankful it wasn't," Neva bantered. "Imagine walking in on his bare ass."

"You think I haven't already seen it?" Jungkook grinned, reminding Neva that he and Jimin had a little less poise and decorum than she and Cassie- though Cassie was currently doing things that required neither of those traits.

Both of them were quite unsure of what to do.

Sure, Jungkook could find something to do for a few hours, but he'd been out all day and didn't really fancy wandering about for much longer. Jen was an option, but he also didn't particularly like the idea of telling Neva that he was going to go hang out with the girl he'd been casually hooking up with. He knew that she'd clocked her sending him four dozen messages while they had been in the library, and frankly, it was a discussion he didn't want to be having.

His private life was his, and his alone. Just as he had no right to pry into hers, she had no right to pry into his.

He had half expected a sly remark, or at least a question (or twelve), but Neva simply pretended like she didn't notice. It took a hell of a lot of restraint, but they were trying to be friends.

Friends didn't get jealous like that. Friends didn't care who their friends were hooking up with. Friends.

Sometimes she hated that she had agreed to being friends - but then he'd make her laugh, and she'd forget all about it.

"You're welcome to come in for a bit," Neva spoke like it was the most natural thing in the world. And then she clammed up a bit. "If you want, I mean. You don't have to. If you've got better things to be doing then don't let me stop you, it's just-"

"Are you sure?" Jungkook interrupted her ramble, knowing that she'd go until she was blue in the face. "I don't want to be a burden."

Liar, liar, pants on fire.

"Don't be stupid, I'm sure they won't be that long," Neva said, as if Jimin and Cassie hadn't spent five hours going to pick up a takeaway last week. She didn't ask for the details, but Cassie had mud on her shoes and a small twig in her hair - but nothing but absolute adoration in her eyes. "You can chill at ours till they're done."

Jungkook laughed. Neva thought it was a nice laugh; mouth closed, air escaping his nose. More a murmur than an actual chortle, but one that felt like home nonetheless. "You sure? Don't want to intrude."

"You're fine," she shook her head. She knew he'd do the same for her, instead of making her wait it out in the common room, where people would be pre-drinking for the student society night that took place on a weekly basis.

"Well, consider this what you owe me, then," he said, making reference back to their conversation in the library.

With a roll of her eyes, Neva let them into her dorm, all too aware of how bizarre reality felt to her right now.

There had been a time in her life when she had figured that Jungkook visiting her dorm would be completely normal. There was also a later time in her life that she thought she wouldn't let him into her dorm unless there was a hungry lion waiting in there for him.

But things had come full circle, and while she didn't necessarily want him in there, she didn't entirely hate the idea of it either.

"Smells like you," Jungkook noted, familiar with the scent of her laundry and perfumes as if they were his own.

"Well, yeah," she laughed awkwardly. "It is my room, Jungkook."

"Was just saying..." he mumbled, painfully aware of how weird he must have sounded.

Gesturing to the room around her, which shared the same layout as Jungkook's, she told him to make himself at home. Meanwhile, she got changed into comfy clothes behind Cassie's shoji style screen that the girls used as a dressing area.

When she emerged in a pair of pyjama shorts and an oversized t-shirt tucked in the front, which hung loosely right down to the backs of her knees, she couldn't help but smile.

Jungkook was wandering around her side of the room, tinkering, not aware that he had a pair of eyes on him. He took the time to absorb the faces of people he had never met before, but whom Neva was hugging in photographs.

He trailed his fingers across a lei, a cowboy hat, her pair of bunny ears and god-knows whatever props she had picked up from club nights. On the dresser was a stack of cups, all slightly different sizes, all stolen from bars. It was a stupid game she liked to play when she'd had one too many, seeing how many glasses she could smuggle out of a place. She'd pop them in her clutch, down the side of her bra - and on occasion, when she'd managed to talk him into being an accomplice, down the front of Jungkook's trousers.

"Do you mind?" she said, causing him to jump like an Olympic diver.

He was going to make some stupid remark about her being a total klepto, but then his startled eyes saw her shirt, and they softened.

"You still have that?"

"Why wouldn't I? You know it's my favourite. It's not yours."

"Um-"

"It's not," she laughed, though her tone was a little defensive.

She knew for a fact that it was hers, by the very legal definition of it. She had purchased it for herself, an oversized Thrasher shirt that Jungkook had adopted into his own wardrobe. He gave it back when they broke up. It was hers. If she thought otherwise, then it would have been up in the roof of her family home with the rest of them.

"Whatever you say, Eva," he smirked, knowing that she was right.

Unlike her, he had dressed for comfort when attending classes that day, so was quite content in his joggers and sweatshirt - though he might have to force her to open a window. He'd forgotten that she liked living in an actual sauna.

Sitting up on her pillows, she nodded towards the end of her bed, inviting him to sit down too. Faint hums of music pulsed through the wall, but thankfully it was nothing unsavoury.

"This is weird," Jungkook stated, very plainly, though he was grinning.

"Very weird," Neva agreed.

But weird is good.

Neither of them said it, but they both kept their eyes on one another and nodded.

"Seeing as we have some time to kill," Jungkook began to throw an idea into the void. He wasn't sure what reception it would be met with. "Wanna play screenwriters?"

Now that was a phrase she hadn't heard in a while.

"Still got the account?" She entertained the idea.

The account, which they had shared throughout high school, was to a weird film subscription service. It was like having an all-access pass to a European film festival, with a new film being selected each day as recommended viewing. They never saw the same film twice, and they never understood whichever language it was in - but that was all part of the fun.

They'd turn off the subtitles and make up the plotline themselves, creating fantastical lives for even the most mundane characters. Sometimes they'd get lost in the beauty of a foreign language, and other times they realise that they actually wanted to know what happened, so they'd flick the subtitles back on instead. For the most part, though, they'd get lost in their own narratives, fuelled on by one another's stupidity.

"You bet I do."

Neva flicked a switch by her bed, and the television beside Jungkook suddenly came to life. Blue light poured out of the screen, saturating him in a wave of nostalgic serenity.

For a moment - just a moment - as his eyes lit up like fireworks before adjusting to the new light source, Neva could have sworn she saw the man that she once loved in them.

Don't be silly, she scolded herself - even though their goofy smiles promised that they were about to be incredibly silly.

"Let's be screenwriters."

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a/n:

the film subscription service, incase anyone is interested, is real! it's called mubi. I've only just got it so i have no idea if it's any good yet, but I'll update this note if it is lol

the chapter title is taken from a song called nightcrawler by kids in glass houses, it's one of my favourite songs and i think it's gonna end up on the playlist i eventually make for you up? lol, okay bye x