Deeming themselves recovered, Eunsook and Saejin were quick to go back to their daily lives. Eunsook acted like nothing happened to her and asked Jungkook to go to museums with her, claiming it would help him get inspiration for his music which he stopped doing when she was hospitalized and did not pick up again.

The two walked side by side, passing by each of the paintings framed on the vast wall, exchanging words of awe or bewilderment.

"Paintings can be your muse," Eunsook told him enthusiastically. "Look at all these works of art that can make your imagination run wild!"

Jungkook thought about it for a moment before chuckling to himself in disbelief for forgetting something. "I already have my muse."

"Then we didn't have to come here?" Eunsook thought to herself with a twinge of disappointment before curiously asking him, "Really? What is it?"

He smiled bashfully and turned his head away from her as a thought lingered in his mind. "More like 'who'."

Eunsook's phone suddenly buzzed in her hand as a call came. She took it to hear her mother's distressed voice and her stomach dropped.

"There was a fire in your room. Because of a short circuit I think... We could salvage some important things but your paintings and notebooks, they all burned in the accident."

Eunsook breathed out shakily to calm herself down. "Are you okay? Is everything else fine?"

"We're fine. Luckily the fire was not big. It didn't go into other rooms."

After ending the call, she sighed to herself, feeling a heavy burden weigh down on her and a wave of tears threatening to spill in front of the man beside her who was tense and troubled at her sudden shift.

"Did something happen?"

She was dangerously close to pouring it all out.

"Oh, just a little accident in my room. My paintings got ruined in the process," she said with a trembling voice, failing to mask her distress.

Just when she needed those paintings for exhibition, something like this had to happen. She had to paint so much again to get worthy enough results for display at the auction.

"I'm so sorry about that. Are you okay?" Jungkook crouched down in front of her to look at her face in worry.

"Well..." She paused and stared at his eyes. "I don't think I'm okay, but I will be."

She would be. She had to. That was what she kept telling herself. She promised herself that everything would be fine if she finished the paintings and spent the quiet nights gliding paint brushes across canvases. Drowning herself in work, she pushed herself to visit Jungkook's on a whim and try to get the wall murals done with fast.

With her heart pounding in her chest, Eunsook timidly stepped into his home, taking in the interior with her wandering eyes while Jungkook shuffled around introducing this and that. She nearly tripped over nothing when he invited her into his bedroom saying that was where he wanted her painting. The scent of fragrant fabric softener and a hint of his smell throughout the room made her mind dizzy, and she had to slap herself multiple times mentally. Like what was with her?

When asked about what he wanted, he said stars. The galaxy. The night sky filled with bright stars. As foolish as it seemed, she felt connected to him at that moment.

Providing her with whatever she needed and some snacks, Jungkook left her to do her thing in private, closing the door. The first stroke took everything in her to make since it was Jungkook's bedroom walls she was painting on, but after that she let herself loose, imagining the beauty of the starry skies. She did not notice the time flying until she heard some faint singing noises outside the door and noticed the darkness outside the windows.

Following the sounds, she walked out and found Jungkook singing in the kitchen while making some food. She listened to him in awe for a while until he turned around and jumped back in shock with his hand flying to his mouth. It elicited a loud laugh from her.

"Are- Are you done?"

She shook her head and sat down at the table with a sigh. "I think it'll take a little longer but I'll try to finish it by night."

"That's fast! You don't have to push yourself. It doesn't have to be something grand, either."

She nodded, ignoring what he said and made him stumble while trying to sit down in front of her when she said, "Your voice is really pretty."

He covered his nose in a bashful manner. "I... I just got carried away... cooking..."

"You can sing beside me when I'm painting. Keep me going." She smiled.

He got up and went to the stove. "You must be hungry. Take a break and eat. I'm making some carbonara."

Eunsook felt giddy from seeing him flustered and it gave her more than enough strength to finish up the painting. The night, however, came faster than she expected, and when she finally finished the small mural of swirling sky filled with stars above a city of colorful lights, she was shocked at the time on her phone.

"Jungkook, I'm done with the painting. I'm leaving now!" She said and quickly collected her things before rushing to the door past him.

"Wait, it's too late. You shouldn't go out alone!" He rushed after her. "I'll take you home."

"Do you have a car?"

He paused and looked back at her. "Not at the moment..."

She suddenly realized and searched the web. "Ah, the taxi fare is gonna go crazy!"

"I'll pay for it," he offered.

Her eyes widened. "No I can't let you do that."

"It's the least I can do for you," he insisted.

She did not want to be a bother and did not want to get so much money from him. She was considering other options when he suddenly offered her to stay the night. Her breath got caught and her mind went blank.

"...What?"

Jungkook could not believe what he just offered. The words rolled out before he could process what he was offering. "What?" He asked, too, but it was directed towards himself. "I mean, we have a guest room if you don't mind. It's not that big but it's a nice room. Since you must be very tired and it's late, I thought that maybe..."

She agreed to it before she could process what she was agreeing to. She told herself it was better to stay the night and leave early in the morning because she was truly exhausted, or else her mind was going to spiral.

He led her to the room with a huge bed, nightstand and shelves. 'This isn't big?' she thought to herself and Jungkook provided her with supplies and some new clothes to change into that he never wore. It all looked as if he was nonchalant and she was wondering if she was the only one being tense. She wanted to tell him that she changed her mind but she already informed her parents that she was staying at a friend's.

She forced herself to sleep without even leaving the room, heart going crazy at the reality. But all she did was toss and turn and an hour or two went by, the same with the other who was not believing that Eunsook was there under the same roof with him.

Unable to sleep, Eunsook finally walked out of the guest room and went to the bathroom to relieve herself, holding it in for obvious reasons and shyness. But when she opened the door, her eyes met with Jungkook's shocked ones and went down to his bare body dripping with water.

Jungkook's arms nearly snapped trying to cover himself with the towel he was wiping himself with and Eunsook slammed the door with all her might and screamed, "I'm sorry!" Her cheeks burned and eyes burned as well with the afterimage. Jungkook crouched on the ground, covering his face and whimpering in pain silently. If only she came a few minutes earlier, she would have heard the shower sounds.

Eunsook was wracking her brain for ways to apologize when Jungkook came out in his clothes, acting nonchalant again but dying internally.

"I'm so sorry, Kookie, I didn't knock when it's not even my house and-"

"It's okay, it's just a small mistake," he said with a small voice and Eunsook was too flustered to notice his face was flushed red.

Her eyes wandered to his torso and she wanted to slap herself. "What were you doing not sleeping?"

"I, uh, I was practicing for the talent show," he lied, and Eunsook found something to make him forget about what happened.

"Then I can help with that. I couldn't sleep, so..."

The night went on with their talks and laughter. The talent show was something to look forward to, as with others as well. Saejin would find Jimin practicing for the talent show and it was also the main thing they talked about.

Until the day of the talent show arrived.

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Woah I can't believe it's been so long since the last update, enjoy this 🥰🫶