The Universe Moved For Us

“It wasn’t even that bad, you just looked really surprised, like this,” Euna assured, momentarily emerging from their bathroom to demonstrate, and then backtracking to brush her hair.

“I don’t think I’ll ever not be mad at myself for looking like a fool,” Honey protested, in a slump as her eyes raked over the city through the window. “I know that I’ll be married, with kids one day, and I’ll be going to bed after a long day, and as I turn off the light, and start to drift off, I’ll think of that night. I’ll think of it and still feel embarrassed by it, and I won’t be able to sleep all night because of it,” she continued resting her head on her knees and watching Euna get ready for the day.

“Hey, I still think about when I was 14 and I threw up in the middle of class because mum had made me go to school.”

“Is that supposed to make me feel better? Because if it is it’s doing a terrible job.”

“No. It’s supposed to let you know that even though we all embarrass ourselves sometimes, we get over it. We keep living. We don’t dwell on boys who are no good and have probably already forgotten us by now. I’m telling you, Jeon Jungkook probably roped in the first girl he saw once he got into that club.”

Deep down, she knew Euna was right. Jeon had probably made his mark on that many people in the night club that night, she wouldn’t be a passing thought after they left one another’s sight. Surely he had moved well and truly on, and she should do the same.

Euna was only half right.

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What the two girls had not seen, after their departure from Jungkook, was the way he smiled when they turned and left, his eyes tracing their figures into his mind. He could tell that the taller of the two, Euna, had heard of him. He’d noticed the micro expressions that changed within her face, after looking him up and down. She would not be an easy target. Her friend, however, was another story entirely. They had not played witness to the laugh he gave to himself, low and almost inaudible, turning on his heel and making his way to the night club, passing all those waiting as he did.

“I know that look. You’ve found another hunt, haven’t you?” asked the man who stood beside Jungkook at the railing of the second story balcony, peering down into the mess and controlled chaos in the first level of the club.

“I think I have. Won’t be easy, she seems to be a little strong in mentality. She didn’t make any effort to spend anymore time with me, plus I think her friend knows who I am.”

“Ah, so it’s a she? You’ve had a real thing for hunting ladies recently, haven’t you?”

“Don’t let David here you say that,” Jungkook nudged his friend and they both gave a genuine laugh.

“Ah yeah, I forgot about him. The guy living in Romania, right? That was a little while ago though, you haven’t had an actual hunt since. Just small...’flings’ here and there.”

“Have you ever thought that rather focusing on hunting, I was more concerned with getting my brother to come out and actually start hunting himself, Taehyung?”

Taehyung pondered this question, looking Jungkook in the eyes steadily and trying to determine if there was any sense of reality in what he said.

“Mmmm.... no. I don’t think you were. I just think you weren’t getting the feeling of a hunt for some time. Besides, I don’t hunt, I tempt. My way of getting people to fall isn’t nearly as aggressive as yours.” Taehyung really had a point, and it had Jungkook’s nose scrunching and his eyebrows pulled together, looking down into the bottom of his glass and sighing.

“Yeah, well it’s not as aggressive and Yoongi’s way of doing things,” he spoke in a murmur. Anyone listening to the conversation with wayward ears wouldn’t have been able to hear his words over the booking of the speakers. Taehyung, however, was not anyone, and knew exactly what he said, standing up tall and letting his eyes drift from Jungkook at the slight mention of their other brother.

“So you’ve seen them? The riots and the fighting?”

“Of course I have. I pay attention to the news. Or...at least I pay attention to Hoseok and Namjoon paying attention to the news. It’s the only real indication of knowing where he is.”

The discussion felt heavy on their chests. Certainly not the chat intended for a night club, but by this point the club had become white noise and they were not listening.

“I wonder how he must feel. Probably tearing himself apart about it all.” Taehyung’s face held a softness, the thought of Yoongi being painful and numbing all at the same time.

Jungkook, however, could not wait to move on from it. He wouldn’t waste his night talking about his abandonment issues that came with a brother leaving.

“It’s his fault for not accepting what he is. What we all are. He up and left without telling anyone except Jin. I’m not about to feel sorry for him,” the end of Jungkook’s sentence was given a full stop in the form of finishing his drink, and giving a breathy sigh. His lips suddenly curled into a smile, letting their worries and deep feelings be drowned out by the clubs blaring sound system.

“Anyway, I see some people over there I am dying to get to know. Maybe you can watch and learn, get some pointers in the whole human temptation department?”

Jungkook was rewarded with a shove from Taehyung, playful vibes coursing through their bodies now, the brothers both ready for a night of self-pleasure in very non-usual ways.

“Just remember I’m older than you. You may have a bit to learn from me,” Taehyung warmed, poking into the younger’s shoulder and joining him in the walk into the dance floor.

Utilized it was, so much so that she felt herself jostled around between the bodies of others who, like her, just wanted a good night. The most apparent commonality in the crowd was the wish of a night to disappear. A night of non-existence. This is what she wanted, at any rate. A tug could be felt on her arm, her eyes which had previously been closed with the swaying of her head opening to find Euna, her biggest influence and possibly her closest friend, at a proximity that could almost be called intimate. 

 “I’m getting really hot, Honey” was all she could manage to shout across the closed distance, the rest of the sentence left unsaid, and rather iterated by her pointing to the exit door, the affectionate nickname Euna had dubbed her being tacked on the end. A nod and an outstretched hand passed across the given reply, and the two girls took hands and made the rough journey through the perspiring bodies and carefree souls. 

Bursting through the door that resembled more of a hole in the wall, the two let the cold night air settle into their lungs, a welcomed change from the sweat that clung to the air inside.

“Thank god- you know, I was started to feel a hand creeping up on my shoulder and knew that it was time for a break,” Euna lamented as her dainty fingers dove into her purse.  “I could tell, the guy behind you had a very....steady stare. Almost like his eyes were glued to you,” Honey agreed, as her eyes swept over the ever lengthy line of individuals still wishing to get between the moving bodies in NB2.  The two girls made distance between the club and themselves, letting the wind lift their hair and soothe their skin.  “I haven’t even drunk that much but I feel a bit-”  “Dizzy? Yeah, I think you got a bit heavy on the cojinganmek,” Euna finished her best friend’s sentence with the ease only a best friend could manage.  “Mixing drinks isn’t supposed to be all too good for you. I couldn’t help it though, they were nice, and I don’t usually like beer.” Euna only replied with a nod, and took Honey’s arm so that the two were linked elbow to elbow.  “Well, when we go back, no more. Just straight soju, keep it simple, okay?”

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With their bodies feeling newly refreshed and the time only reading 2am, Euna turned their brisk walk back toward the club, ready to re approach the mob of youthful party-goers. 

The dark night was not so dark thanks to the illumination of bright signs and the neon's adorning rows of shops, and signalling wayward nightlife into the warmth of their spaces. 

Yet, she and Euna’s sight didn’t seem to pierce the dark as they approached the club, just a turn away.

As they spoke to one another, their brief distraction was broken when Euna suddenly stopped, failing to alert her friend to the reason for doing so. Instead, Honey kept walking, and bumped into the broad and solid back of a stranger, tall and shadowed. 

Honey winced and recoiled, quickly taking several steps back and clinging to Euna out of sheer, hot embarrassment. The stranger made his turn to them as apologies spilled from her lips like a broken faucet.

“Oh my g- I am so sorry, I didn’t see you there, I should have been watching where I was going, and I just-” The string of words that unravelled from her mind was cut off by a deep, lighthearted laugh. Euna, who had quietly whispered for Honey to ‘stop rambling’, brightened up at the sound, a reaction quite polar to Honey’s own reaction. She was too enthralled with the source of the sound that stopped her thoughts from reeling. 

He was...

beautiful.

There was no other way for her to describe it. It was a beauty that could only be described as otherworldly. Men like him...they just didn’t exist.

Or, at least they hadn’t three metres back, when she was blissfully ignorant. Atop his head was a curled mess of rich, dark hair that glistened auburn in the neon behind him. That alone would have been perfect, a tantalising mixture of well kept and effortless, had the rest of him not been just as appealing to look at. But oh it was. She would have kept staring. She could have simply looked at him long into the night and the break of new morning.

Somehow, though, she was able to break from whatever bewitchment he had over her when he spoke- and subsequently reminded her of her best friend still cradling her arm. Honey flicked a quick glance at Euna, who, judging by the subtle shock that graced her face, shared the same train of thought.

“That’s okay. Honey, was it?” he queried, his eyebrows pulled into a frown of question, as he gestured to her before resting his hands on his impossibly slim waist. It was a waist curved in such a way that almost gave him the illusion of being spindly, had it not been for the stretch and strain of his shirt over his biceps. 

“Oh, actually, that’s just a nickname, Euna calls me,” she clarified, acknowledging the girl on her arm, then offering up her given name.

He nodded thoughtfully as if mulling the information in his mind, letting the slight pause linger on his tongue before speaking again.

“Well, are you two headed to NB2? It seems like there’s quite the line.”

Honey’s voice paused in her throat.He was a stranger. Should she be divulging this information to him?

No matter how absolutely gorgeous he was, no matter how impossibly breathtaking his frosted white smile was in the shadow that clung to him, he was still a stranger, and strangers were notorious for bringing danger when not fully acquainted. Before an answer could be evaluated on her own end, Euna’s voice cut the space between them through a cordial smile.

“Actually, we just came from there, we’re on our way home.”Her response was swift and calculated, and Honey decided it was only right to go along with it.

“Yeah, it’s a little bit of a journey,” she added, hoping her embellishment would sell the story.

“Well, that’s too bad,” the perfect stranger started, clicking his tongue. Just as quickly as it had come, his expression passed and was replaced with something Honey could only describe as tempting. “Maybe we’ll bump into one another again, sometime.”Euna nodded with an eagerness, that one could possibly misinterpret as the same hope for a reuniting.

Her best friend knew better.

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“So...who was the guy? You obviously knew him, you couldn’t get away from him quick enough.”

The question, expected and uncomfortable in Euna’s chest, was kept without reply for a beat or two, before she sucked in a deep breath. The two of them were resting on the one bed, unwinding after a short trip home filled with avoidance and apprehension of this very subject.

“I didn’t realise it at first, but the more I looked at him, the more he seemed familiar. His name is Jeon Jungkook, and he is, from what I’ve heard, nothing but bad news. And I’ve heard a lot.”

“What do you mean, ‘bad news’. Like...like drug lords and gang member bad?” 

“No, not quite. Might as well be though. He can’t keep his hands on one person for very long. Whoever he touches just...disappears. Obviously not literally, but their life just seems to deteriorate. I knew a girl- one minute she was just talking about a boy she’d met who was really kind and charming, Jungkook obviously, and the next she’s dropped out of a course she’s getting high marks in and loves. Last I heard of her, she was kicked out of home, but I can’t be sure because I lost contact with her.”

Honey turned over Euna’s words in her head, surprise and horror painting her features. 

“All because she slept with him?”

“Yep. Probably started before that, even. Maybe when she first looked at him.”

Euna shook her head slightly and sighed. “Everyone I’ve ever heard of getting with him has their life just crash and burn. It’s his reputation. People know this, it isn’t a secret. And yet, somehow, for some reason, people still risk it. Still sleep with him. It’s just...I don’t know, it’s not worth it. It’s stupid.”

“Yeah,” Honey nodded, digesting everything she’d heard over the span of five minutes. Overlaying those words onto the image of him-

Jeon Jungkook

- that was now brandished across her memory.