After 7 (dreadful) long days, the alien red-purplish marks on his left cheek has finally subsided. It wasn't just him who's excited to see it, his parents also commented on the 'miraculous' recovery - praising Jungkook for being disciplined enough to use the heating pad, applying some aloe vera, Vitamin K and Comfrey cream, as well as taking in Vitamin Cs every morning and night - thanks to the internet!

He's been looking forward to the day when he gets to revisit the 'date-in-question' and he swore his chest was at the brink of exploding when Lalisa muttered her short 'yes' at the faculty's parking lot yesterday. It is now 10 in the morning (the time was stupidly suggested by him) and Jungkook's already standing in front of the CU in a light grey tee and slightly faded blue jeans. 

It's the most dark form of attire he has in his wardrobe in order to blend in with his later 'companion'. His mother did a double-take before he left the house earlier and asked him to go back up and change (or at least comb his hair neatly), but he pretended to be deaf.

It's our first date... I can call it a date, right? She asked me out for a drink - it's not tea but it still counts! God, I have so many questions for her! What are her hobbies? What does she normally do on the weekends? What's her life like and...and why does she hate going to the movies? From basics to personals, he lines up the conversation in mind to ensure that he won't mess this up.

After glancing at his watch, he paces along the pavement to get rid of the jitters. He only slept for about 3 hours because he was so excited to meet the morning, but not an ounce of tiredness are felt on his eyes or mind. His ruffled his hair a little and lightly pats on his left cheek. Since he wants to ensure that Lalisa won't call it 'cheating', he dabbed his mother's (borrowed, not stolen) concealer on his face to hide any undesirable effect this morning. 

Jungkook had never gone to such great lengths to impress a girl before. Like his friends said...he never had to put up any acts. But this isn't just any ordinary girl. This is a girl from the south - someone who's completely unknown to the likes of him. She's been cold and bold, unlike anyone he has ever came across with. And she fights like a baddie - I wonder how that kid is doing...

Nothing had prepared him for that sight. He imagined that the girl who stole his eyes and heart at Namjoon's bar 4 weeks ago might be as mysterious as it gets but apparently, she's more than that. On top of the surprise that Lalisa is one of the top students in his batch, he now knows that she can throw an equally hard punches and kicks as well. Is that why she's walking around with so much confidence all the time?

The throttle appears from a far and Jungkook began paying attention. For 200 metres away, the sight of her Ducati emerges bigger by the second until it reaches to his front. Lalisa cuts off the engine and takes off her helmet. Her long, golden hair then fell across both shoulders before she flips them back with a swaying motion. 

Jungkook must have been so immersed with that view because he can't seem to say or do anything. We match...she's wearing grey too - although her jacket seems much cooler than my simple shirt! When she turns to him, a small frown appears underneath those messy bangs.

"Are you a friend of the cold, Jungkook-ssi?" What? "It'll be a one-hour ride...you sure you don't wanna run back and grab a jacket?"

Oh...wait, one hour?? It doesn't seem like an hour when she dropped me here yesterday - "Where um...where are we going...if you don't mind me asking?"

"Drinking," She clips her smile. "In Seojjog,"

Seojjog?? That's just outside of Soul - why are we going all the way there?

"You can change your mind. I won't bite,"

"No!!" It's almost a shout. "I don't mind the cold, I mean!"

"You sure? I have a raincoat if you want..."

Okay, let's be real here. Was it cold when she dropped me off last week? Slightly...but that's in the evening. It's still dewy now...if I get sick later, she'll surely get annoyed - "I'll take it!"

. . .

It was an exhilarating ride from Geum to Seojjog, but it is even more nerve-wracking to walk this uncharted path in between high trees. He still has no idea why she parked her bike at the side of the road and left it just like that, and the matter of where they are going. The only thing he could think of as he dodges rocks and branches right now is to trust his guts that Lalisa won't kill and bury him somewhere here (because there are no flowers around to mark his grave).

When he finally reaches a cleared land, he breathes out a big, single huff towards the big river before him. The water is blue and calm and the puffy-looking clouds hides the sun from blazing its hotness. Aside from the water, the only other sounds he could hear are from the unseen birds – chirping around carelessly. 

"Wow...I've never been here before..." He smiles, seemingly forgetting about any of his earlier worries. "I've never been to a lot of places..."

"So does 89% of the typical Soulites. Don't worry, Jungkook-ssi...you're not alone," There's a hint of sarcasm in her remark and tone.

"You um...you don't like us very much, do you?" He laughs nervously.

She plopped down on the ground and took her jacket off - laying it beside her. She then takes the bag of beers and snacks out of his hand. Jungkook decided to join along, but kept his distance to not worry or scare her away. Does she even get scared – I'm not even sure! He can finally take off the black and pink polka-dot raincoat that he borrowed from her and it feels amazing. I can finally feel like a man again!

"Do you know where the name comes from...Heulg?" She asked.

Aishh...I shouldn't have said it! It's probably a sensitive subject to start off with so he remains silent.

"The districts there used to have tons of coal mines. Since eighteen-hundreds, the workers dug up dirts everyday for energy-resource companies in Geum until the Industrial Revolution. The rise of your districts were sped up only by their hardwork...but until today, Geum prides itself in becoming the only place in all of Gorea to be in par with the rest of the world. A first-class city...while you wiped its contribution away and called it 'the land of dirts',"

Oh...I should know this...why didn't I know this?? "I um...I didn't know it from the way back –"

"Of course you don't. It's not exactly in your school syllabus to learn these things...I only found out about it at a Historical section in the National Library. But back to your question..." She stares ahead with an unreadable expression, just like he's used to seeing her.

"...there isn't much to not like when you have the right education, healthcare, opportunities, and judicial system protecting its locals, right? No, I'm hardly a hater, Jungkook-ssi. If anything, what you clichés like to call 'the Heulgs' envy you. It's dirt versus gold, so why won't they?" She sipped on the drink and smiled, perhaps letting him dwell on that fact by himself for a good minute. "Geum never even has gold,"

"I don't call you that," She turns to face him. "I know what 'Heulg' means...I was taught that it shouldn't be a name for anyone,"

"Well, aren't you a special one?" He could tell that it wasn't a compliment. It's been only a short while, but Jungkook has already memorized the two types of smirks on Lalisa. The condescending sarcasm...and the sexy hints. Both makes his skin warm and knees week. "Frankly speaking, I don't give a shit if you or your friends call me that,"

"You uh...you don't give um...a shit...on much, do you?" Jungkook decided to test his first cuss word, see how it feels on his tongue.

"I pick my battles. It's not offensive, nor it is pathetic to me...not as pathetic as watching the clichés live their boring-ass life," She laughs. "Plus, I can't get offended over something that isn't even me. Not like I'm from Heulg, anyway,"

...what? "Where are you from then?"

"If I say 'trash', would it sound any better than 'dirt'?"

What? Why would she say that??

"Does your parents..." Her smile disappears and Jungkook re-evaluates his question immediately. "...like to dance?" Jeez, what an idiot!! It's too soon to be getting too personal!

An eyebrow is raised, as well as one corner of her lips. "Not that I know of..."

He sighed and nodded, partly relieved that he hadn't crossed that border yet (as much as he liked to!). "Do you? Like to dance, I mean..."

"As much as I like...what's with the random-ass question, Jungkook-ssi?"

"Jungkook...or Kook - you can just call me that..."

"Kook...Jungkook..." She tests. "No, Jungkook-ssi is hotter,"

He sighed a few laughs, feeling slightly embarrassed but mostly elated. If she says Jungkook-ssi is hot, Jungkook-ssi is hot!!

"I have this thing about the tone of superiority. Freedom is best expressed when dancing...it's when no one can control how you move or how you feel. I hate doing what others ask me to do, I'm sure you can tell by now. I'll try my best to get out of it if I could..."

"I don't mind, Lalisa-ssi..."

"Maybe you should..." She turns to face the peaceful current of the river. "Everything has a beginning and an end. Especially where you come from...you should care of what's in between...how it'll affect you,"

"Since you don't seem to mind much either, I'm thinking I'd try it," He tries his luck.

"Like I said, I pick my battles well, Jungkook-ssi. Jinsil's not really a place I'd like to give all my fucks to, I bet it's different for you,"

"I guess...I know the world keeps spinning regardless, so there's really no point of minding about anything all that much, does it?"

She squints her eyes at him. "You really don't belong in Geum...or wait - maybe you do," What? What does that mean? She clips her smile and there's something about the air surrounding her...something he can't explain or figure out, except that as usual, she's mysteriously beautiful. "What do you wanna be, Jungkook-ssi?"

"You mean as work? When I graduate?"

"I mean as a person. Like the twenty-five year old Jeon Jungkook maybe...what would you like him to be?"

Staring out to the flowing water, he takes longer to think about it because it's his first time being asked of it in that sense. He was used to the question of ambitions – to which his first answer will always be 'a professor, like my parents'.

"Maybe smarter than I am now...not like a genius or anything, just like...wiser. Maybe he'd gone off to live in different places...countries, so he knows a lot more of the world. I've always felt a little out of place here. Everything is a little...rigid,"

"Grass is always greener on the other side, don't they? You should know your home before you knock on someone else's but just for the sake of it, where's the one place that you'd really like to go?"

Oh, she sounds so smart – appa was right! Boy, am I in trouble!! "I um...I don't have a list of priorities yet. I've always wanted to see the giant hedges...or maybe the Pincha's ruins...I'd catch the sunset, I read that it's beautiful," She nods slowly and he wonders what she thinks about his ideas. "Do you um..." He looks down to his fidgeting fingers. "Do you like sunsets?"

"No one's crazy enough to not like it,"

Finally...a common ground! "What um...what would you like to be?" He really can't help the foolish smile.

She turns to face him fully and her eyes twinkles like a mischievous child. "Crazy enough,"

. . .

After a few cans (which are mostly consumed by Lalisa), he finally gets to see her genuine, warm smiles around. She's a delight to talk to, as he came to feel, because she always has some sort of reasoning or understanding on the world outside of Gorea. It makes him wonder if she's actually ever been outside, or if she gets all these information from the National Library alone. 

They haven't gone into anything personal yet (on her part, that is) and at this point, he's itching to ask her just one important question,

"Do you um...do you have a boyfriend, Lalisa-ssi?"

She turns to him and cocks an eyebrow. "Do you watch Big Earth channel often, Jungkook-ssi?"

What? "I don't...I don't think so," Is she trying to divert the topic? Is it her way of not talking about it? But she must know...I'm sitting here with her - just the two of us - and I'll be bound to get beaten up if she has a boyfriend -

"There was this episode that I watched...it's about a sloth. They're basically talking about the mating season. There are all these other animals but the sloth moved so slow that I felt it accommodated the entire episode,"

But I don't want to talk about the sloth...

"It's quite funny cus the sloth was moving unbelievably slow, but the background music was so upbeat...as if Big Earth was rooting for that sloth to be the next champion in the Olympics or something," She chuckled while Jungkook battles with himself internally. 

"Anyway, I remember the narrator said something like, 'Could this be her?'. The sloth reaches the mangrove and on top of the tree, there's another sloth. A female. You can see that the first sloth is really trying, you know? Try speeding up, even though it still looked like he's too fucking slow for this world! When he almost reached though, it turns out that she's not the one cus she already has a baby in her arms," Her smile fades as she continues staring at the water. 

"It was heartbreaking to watch...cus he's so slow and naive..." Oh...is...is the sloth me?? "And the mommy sloth was gripping her baby like it's the most precious thing. Back to your question, Jungkook-ssi,"

Oh, okay! We're still on that subject, yes!

"I don't do boyfriends," Oh... He felt his heart break a little, despite the good news. "You wanna know why?"

"Why?"

"Cus most guys act like the first sloth. You cross rivers, try your best, get out of your comfort zone - whatever you can do to get the girl. That's all you do, just to get the girl - and yes, it's commendable...but it doesn't last. I don't want that. No...I want what the mommy sloth and her baby has. I want a love that is so unconditional - despite the fragility and vulnerabilities...despite me not having any powers to move on my own - I want a love that sticks,"

That sounds...beautiful. But doesn't everyone? "But...how would you know that it doesn't stick if you don't give me a chance? I mean...that's the whole point of the chasing...crossing rivers and getting out just to get to where you are - to get to know you and stick by you -" He stopped mumbling when he found Lalisa already staring at him.

"'Me'?" She smirks.

Oh... "I don't mean 'me' as in me - or you - just...I was just..." He sighed, resigning to the stupidity of his own choice of words. 

"I know what you mean, Jungkook-ssi," She leans forward to him and his brain stopped working altogether. "I don't have to give it a chance...what I want...it doesn't exist. You can start regretting crossing the river for me, right about now,"

. . .