JUNGKOOK HAD ALWAYS been taught that if you had nothing nice to say, then you shouldn't say anything at all - which is exactly why, when he saw Neva saunter through the sweaty club crowd with a drink held above her head and a couple of bright orange glow sticks around her neck, he simply poured his entire drink down his throat. 

Had she not told him 'fine' when he told her to stay away? Had she not been the one to suggest keeping a distance in the first place?

So then why was she here, and - Christ - why was she dressed like that?

Across the dance floor, Neva was fanning herself with flyer she'd picked up in the lobby. Body swaying in time to the music, her now empty cup had been placed on the sticky ground by their feet, her other hand holding Cassie's so that they didn't get lost from one another in the rammed room. 

Strobes cascaded over them, illuminating their outfits. Like always, Cassie commanded attention in bright colours, but she was stripped back tonight; a backless green bodysuit with a pair of stonewashed skinny jeans fastened round her waist. 

"I can do casual too, you know," she had grinned at Neva when she saw her jaw drop as they got ready. "And holy shit, how many sugar daddy's funeral outfits do you have?!"

Neva was in all black, as per usual, a mesh bodysuit opaquely covering her skin. Though on a technicality, she was entirely covered, and the neckline was around her throat, her black bra was clear as day. The lace halter neck crossed over the front of her chest and round her neck like a figure of eight, delicately tied in a bow that draped down her back.  A pair of black jeans were belted around her waist, chunky heels exposing her feet. Her nails were, controversially, red. 

"Some colour, at least," Cassie had noted.

They were chalk and cheese in the best of ways. Both wearing orange 'traffic lights', neither of them had planned on hooking up with anyone tonight.

The green glow around Jungkook's neck lit his features, the chiaroscuro hollowing his cheeks and chiselling his already sharp jaw.

The last time he'd seen that bra had been on their anniversary. He'd bitten down on the lace and unravelled it from her neck with his teeth - and now he was having to watch some drunk twat fiddle with it while she flirted with him by the bar.

What was he saying? Why was she laughing? Was it really that funny? Jungkook couldn't stop questioning every little interaction, and it was driving him insane.

He'd already kissed two other girls that evening, but that was before Neva had shown up like a hurricane and wrecked everything. His eyes were trained on her, watching her like a chaotic natural disaster, as if he needed to protect himself from her trajectory. 

He had it in his right mind to walk right into the eye of the storm, and let the wind batter his cheeks, rain pouring down on him; but she was just a girl, and all that would batter would be her eyelashes, right before her drink poured down on him after he would inevitably say something stupid.

Still, that would be better than watching a stranger shuffle in closer to her and lean in for a kiss. Fuck it. He was going over there.

Weaving through the crowd, he was almost there when he felt a hand grip on his shoulder. Startled, he stopped in his tracks, only to then see Taehyung move past him.

"Sorry mate," Taehyung grinned, before recycling Jungkook's own words. "Got dibs on this one."

Jungkook had never much been a man for drunken violence, but he could feel his fists twitch. Motherfucker.

Unashamedly, Tae slipped between Neva and her new 'friend.' His hand instantly went to her waist, and he didn't even so much as offer her a hello before his lips were on hers.

Jungkook couldn't decide what was worse. At least, to some extent, he trusted Tae not to do anything too obscene to Neva, but similarly, he also knew that Tae completely and utterly wanted to do absolutely obscene things with Neva. 

Interjecting now would just make it seem like he was fighting a losing battle against Tae, and that was just far too tragically embarrassing for Jungkook to put himself through. He had too much pride.

And so he spent the night with his lips on anything he could find; beer bottles, black cups, a few too many pairs of lips and an MDMA bomb that he probably shouldn't have accepted from a stranger in the bathroom. 

Still, he was pinging, and he'd forgotten the smile on Neva's face when Tae had stolen her away, so that was progress at least.

He didn't see her again until he was out in the smoking area, sat on a step with his hands around his knees.

"Here," she held out a lollipop that had been in her clutch. "You're gurning to absolute fuck."

"I'm not gurning," Jungkook scoffed, at which his jaw painfully readjusted and he realised that he had, in fact, been contorting his jaw as if he was practising for the Egremont Crab Fair.

Begrudgingly, he unwrapped the candy and stuck it in his mouth, face of thunder still resting on his harsh features, on account of the hurricane of a woman sat next to him. 

"Oh, Eva, no," he protested when she pulled a packet of cigarettes from her tardis of a clutch, tipping out her lighter and a straight. 

"Sorry, dad," she snorted, flicking down on the igniter, causing tiny sparks to flicker up. Her cigarette was resting between her peachy lips, letting her inhale with far more precision than he had ever known her to have. 

"Pretty sure the last time I saw you with one of those, you almost had an asthma attack."

"I don't have asthma."

"Exactly."

She hated how easy it was to laugh with him. They had been friends once, and it had been nice. But that was a long time ago now, and there would be no bridge tall enough for all that water that needed to pass under theirs. 

"I wish you hadn't come tonight," Jungkook mused honestly, clementine syrup busting with flavour on his tongue. Pulling the candy from his mouth, he held it out for her, and so they swapped, Jungkook taking a toke on her cigarette while she welcomed the flavour of his tongue on hers. 

"Yeah well, I wish you hadn't come here full stop," she shrugged, too faded to be bothered with a fight.

"Touché," Jungkook breathed out the smoke that had been resting in the top of his lungs. "This shit is fucking rank, Eva, what are they? Menthol?"

"Gotta stay fresh," she playfully raised her shoulders, knowing that she'd still taste like ash regardless.

"For all the boys you're kissing?" He snorted, taking the lollipop from her hands and swapping it with the cigarette.

Tossing it back into his mouth, he savoured the taste. She hadn't been in his mouth for so long, and there was a small part of him that would have quite liked to pretend that this was equivalent to such a luxury. 

"You're the one glowing green, Kookie, not me," she spoke indifferently, and Jungkook wondered if she really was unbothered.

Surely, her being unphased by Jungkook's escapades was a good thing - so why did he feel so dejected? Before he could question it, she was on her feet and heading back into the club.

"Stay off the MD, Kook, you don't know what they're cutting it with."

"Sorry, mom," he taunted with an eye-roll, but he knew she was right.

"You will be," she grinned, spinning around to cast him one final glance. For a second, Jungkook thought she might have been flirting with him.

But he was off his tits, heart rate elevated by illegal narcotics and brain fuzzy from cigarette smoke that had hazed his mind. She could have spat on him and he still probably would have been able to convince himself that she was flirting. 

He was steaming to such an extent, that he didn't see the shake of her legs as she walked away, or the rise and fall of her shoulders as she tried to control her whimpering breaths. 

You've done it, you've done it, you did good, she told herself. She had been attempting to bury the hatchet, to be the bigger person, but it hurt. Physically, it felt like her chest was going to implode.

Rejoining her friends, who awkwardly were also Jungkook's, Taehyung's grip on her waist didn't feel so bad. In fact, it felt like the exact thing she needed to keep her from keeling over altogether. 

As Jungkook reapproached the group with yet another girl on his arm, Taehyung's whisper of 'let's get outta here' in her ear didn't seem like a bad idea.

In fact, it sounded like the best idea she'd heard all night.

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A/N: Egremont is a town in England which hold an annual gurning contest lol, just for those wondering about the reference.