"Did you find her?" Jimin asked, clouting his phone between his ear and shoulder.

"No, Jimin. It's been fourteen hours. I am losing my mind. I went home over ten times. She wasn't there. Now, I am heading to Lev's college. Maybe she might have dropped by."

"The football team is still on break in Malaysia. I checked in with my close friend, Taehyung. So she certainly didn't disappear to meet Lev." Jimin sped up the car down the boulevard.

"I will still check," Ryan retorted, voice thick with concern, and Jimin found his own throat simmering.

"I am on my way. Contact Chul and ask him to check the company's rooftop again. Also, it's 10 p.m, the college will be closed. I don't think she would be there. Try getting in touch with her," saying, he hung up and secured his hands on the steering, rustling his car to her house. 

Myriad questions and feelings were meddling in his mind. For nine hours, he had been looking for her along with Chul and Ryan. Worry was slithering his bones along with fear. That night when he found her shivering in the bathtub flashed in his mind, which sped up his anguish even more. The notification popped on his cell and Tayson almost crashed the car right into the tree.

It's her.

Curtailing the car at the alcove of the frozen street, Jimin called her but Leona didn't receive his call.

"Great! she can send me her location but can't pick up the damn call!" Cursing, he pinched the bridge of his nose and veered the car to reach the location Leona shared.

He almost cried and laughed at the same time. She was at his house.

The spattering of the rainfall and thundering of clouds was setting in all a dreadful mood on the situation. His phone again buzzed and he quickly glimpsed the screen, abrading his face when Chohee's name popped up. He solely overlooked the call. 

The previous day Jimin closed the chapter of Chohee. 

"Chohee," Jimin panted, already drenched in the rain. He extended the umbrella and Chohee quickly shielded herself, leaving him and he tried hard to ignore that.

Chohee smiled slightly."So, that's why you were so busy these days."

"I..." he was going to explain himself but all the words Leona planted in his mind began whirling like a tornado. Why he should explain himself? She rejected him and they are nothing but childhood friends. 

"Jimin, you know, we have always had the weirdest and most complicated relationship."

Jimin shook his head, shivering when the gust of wind hustled. "You made it complicated, Val. You made it weird the day you kissed me cause you wanted to experience the feel. And I like a fool I thought it meant something to you. Then suddenly you introduce me to your boyfriend, and then you broke up with him and now expect me to take you."

A look of hurt passed her face, but this time Jimin didn't back out. For years he wanted to confront her, but he couldn't, thinking he would lose the fragile string of friendship between them.

"We were kids, Jimin. You were my best friend. I didn't want to date you because it would have ruined us."

"Chohee, open your eyes and look at you and me. It's already ruined. I was content seeing my best friend happy. But I didn't expect you to come back to me cause you broke up with him. I am not mad because you didn't choose me. You chose him, you claimed to like him but you still wanted me. You kept me hanging. How? Why? Fuck it, I don't want to know. Can't you comprehend that I am feeling like your backup plan?" He let out, finally releasing the burden that was binding him. 

"Jimin, I never wanted to hurt you," she whispered, staring at him like she couldn't believe the words pouring from his mouth.

Jimin drove his finger through his drenched lock, gulping hard. "You did. You did many times. But now you are hurting me more because you seem to want to use me as your rebound. I have dealt with my self-respect many times when it came to you. I don't want you like this, in fact, the day you told me you are moving in with him, I knew my romantic feeling for you died. Just you are important to me cause we cried together, laughed together, we spent our childhood and teenage together. God, since in diapers we know each other. I loved you. You were my first love and of course, it was incredibly hard for me to cope with your rejection. But I did move forward. Stop confusing me and holding me back. I wanted to say this a long back, but I didn't want to hurt you. I stayed with you as your friend Chohee, and even now I would like to have it that way."

Chohee stared at him as if his words slapped her across her cheek. Jimin didn't quench his words, because it was true and someday he was bound to say it to her. She wordlessly strode towards him and the next thing he knew was her lips smashing against his. 

His heart dropped right in his ass. Not because he wanted this, cause it felt wrong. So wrong that he was ready to jump like a Tarzan and scream that he didn't want this. Aren't women too supposed to ask for consent?

He pushed her away. 

First love is like a sandcastle. We built it with excitement, happiness, extreme care, and fear so it won't tumble down. But when the waves decide to wreck your castle, you just have to let it happen. Jimin's castle was demolished a long back, but he was still holding the silver sand in his fist, all these years convincing himself to let go. Finally, he did. It seemed like a weight was pulled off his shoulders. He realized that his attachment with Chohee was dusted and crumbled pages of a book. Even though you try to set it straight and renew it, it just wouldn't be the same. Sometimes we need to accept things the way they are, and at times to accept reality and breakthrough our sphere we need a catalyst; an impulse, or a reactant. 

Leona's words were his catalyst. 

Racing a car a bit more, he eventually halt in the parking lot.  Fury scampered down his spine, rendering him leap out of the car. He took the elevator up to his floor. His heart was pounding, burning in scarlet flames, muscles straining with the pressure of all his emotions crashing. He was pure crazy to catch her glimpse.  The itch, the need, the feelings, we're maddening.

He sprinted out of the elevator, slowing down when he glanced at the pearly long legs stretched.

"Leona," Jimin called out. He notice her heels were clutched in her hand and every cell in her body was drenched in the cloudburst. She comfortably resolved on the floor, her back pressed against the door, arms wrapped around her frame.

She slanted her head and smiled at him. The phantom smile that sealed the darkest and deepest secrets. Jimin ambled up to her, towering over her. Nor did he smile, nor did he flinch when he witness the blood tricking down her clothed left hand. He had his mind prepared for the worst.

He stooped down, at her eye level. The overwhelming emotions he was feeling were like a cyclone, erupting in his world, his peace. When she was away from his sight he felt like his heart was gonna give up beating, and when he saw her, he could breathe. His eyes were locked with her, hoping to catch the same relief, the same annoying feeling that was driving him insane, but All he could see was void. Nothing. Just a blank deserted stygian sea. Standing, he reached for her hand.

Her crystal eyes snapped back and forth between his face and hand.
"I thought you won't come to get me," a whisper of dry leaves of winter evaded from her as Jimin silently commanded her to take his hand. He was frantic to feel her close, to feel her warmth, to shove her face in his chest and hold her as long as he could.

Her freezing hand smoothly slide against his palms, and the mere touch exploded butterflies in his stomach.

Since when did guys get butterflies?

"Why?" He asked, breathing heavily under her undefinable gaze. He would of course come and get her, even if she was across the globe, hiding in the north pole or damn anywhere.

"I know she dropped by your office. You would never choose anything over her. So, I knew you are busy." She simply shrugged. The fragile droplets of dried blood endowed her neck.

Jimin fought the desire to scoff. "Yeah. I am crazy busy. Crazy busy in looking for you all over the town and crazy busy in hoping you are in one piece. Now, shall we?" His voice whatsoever held no emotions, though inside he was dying and looking at the wound, from where blood was oozing.

Leona smiled wide, tugging his hand. Sighing, Jimin hunched down and she pulled him by his collar. "I hate to admit it, you kinda look hot Jimin."

She gotta be kidding me right now.

Staring into her eyes, again he saw nothing. The emptiness was itching his skin and she felt to be far away from him even though she was just inches apart. Jimin slowly wrapped his fingers over hers, pulling them away. 

"Were you worried about me, Jimin?" her dry voice echoed into the tensed aura. It was making him feel uneasy and worried. The questions were cemented in his maw, but it was fruitless to ask her and it blitzed him off more.

 Jimin's hand tighten around her hands, but still, he didn't utter a word. Will there be a day when I will finally understand her?

His nerves cracked with heat when she sighed, liberating her hands from his hold and leaning back against the door. His heart flipped. The dark tresses sticking on her face, ruddy lips like a blooming flower, cheeks flushed due to cold, in simple words; a mess. A beautiful mess.

Fate was indeed playing a game, tangling them both and none of them knew how it was going to end. When he saw her for the first time on television, not even in his wildest dreams he manifested that they will cross paths like this. The flares she was igniting in him were dangerous. He was burning in the passion to have her close and not just her body. How in the world did I end up in this shit? He should have known that the day she stepped into his house, his destruction begin.

"I don't know if I should kill you or fuck you right here," his rough voice hundred in the quiet corridor.

Here, yet again, he opened the door of his world and allow her to step in.

"Let me put you out of your misery." Leona smoothened her fingers through the damp tresses, falling over his sigh. "I want you to fuck me, Jimin."

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