Forget-me-not

Cynthia

The feeling of I.N's fingers wrapped around her wrist was strange. It was the first time that the two of them had physically touched, at least, after the accident. Felix's thick Australian accent chased after them from behind. The brownies bounced along the sides of the clear container.

I.N laughed and tugged Cynthia down another hallway. For whatever reason, her body went along with it. She continued trudging along and let her legs rush after his. The JYP building was unfamiliar to her, but I.N knew it like the back of his hand.

He knew what rooms went where. He knew where different groups were practicing their comeback dance routines. He knew where upper management was holding their daily meetings. He knew where his manager's office was and he knew where just about everything else was too.

The building was a familiar playground to him. After spending years here, he was sure that he could manage to find his way around with his eyes closed. Their feet raced over the white linoleum floors. Their hair was pushed back by the whooshing air and I.N's laughter filled her ears.

"Where are we going?" She called out.

"Just follow me!"

"No, stop! Wait for me!" Felix cried from behind them. "This isn't fair! Innie, we're supposed to be keeping an eye on Cynthia and not-" He didn't get the chance to finish.

Cynthia and I.N were running side-by-side when they rushed around another corner. The next thing they knew, they were both slamming into a wall of warmth. A wrist shot out and grabbed I.N to steady him before he hit the ground.

Beside him, when Cynthia ran into Seungmin, he toppled backwards with her on top. There was no way he could stop himself. His hands jutted out to try and prevent her from hurting herself. When he landed on his back, he couldn't breathe and he couldn't think. The hard impact left him temporarily immobilized. The air had been ejected from his lungs and remained just out of reach.

On the other hand, Cynthia straddled him from above. She stared down at him like a deer caught in headlights. Her mossy eyes were full of fear as words attempted to wiggle from her lips. Everything she tried to say, it didn't want to come out properly. Her tongue was paralyzed and glued to the roof of her mouth.

"Oh, there you are." Felix's chest heaved up and down as he rounded the corner. "See? This is why I told you not to do that. I didn't want you two to get injured. We promised not to hurt Cynthia, Innie."

"She's not hurt, she's fine."

Felix rolled his eyes and shook his head. Changbin's eyes went down to Cynthia, but he didn't know if he'd be able to speak to her. He had so many things that he wanted to say, but he didn't know how. Did she know what Flora did? Did she know that the accident was caused by her best friend? He didn't know and he was too scared to ask.

"I-I'm sorry," Cynthia finally squeaked. She pawed at the ground and began moving backwards off of Seungmin's thighs. He was laying on his back and staring up at her. He didn't utter a single word in response. The whole incident made her feel horrible.

"Wait," Seungmin reached up and grabbed her wrist. She froze with their gazes still locked. "Are you okay? That was a hard fall."

She nodded and swallowed the dryness in her throat. "I'm alright, I didn't get hurt." It was a lie. Her khakis scraped along her knees and the tight friction caused what felt like rug burns. Landing directly on her kneecaps didn't help either. She was sure she'd be bruised in the morning. "Are you okay?"

Seungmin nodded and let go of her wrist. She began to move back more. In the process, Changbin glanced over at I.N and Felix and began to lecture them with disapproval. Like scolded children, the two glanced down with puppy dog eyes and sincere frowns.

Before Cynthia could find her footing, there were soft footsteps and a sudden shriek which caused her to jump. Her hands went out from underneath her and she slammed back into Seungmin's body. His face scrunched up with a brief flash of pain.

"My eyes! My eyes!" Hyunjin screeched. He slammed his hands over both his eyes and began to wail. "Stop it! Not in the JYP hallway! Ew!"

"What are you talking about?" Changbin asked.

"They're practically humping each other!"

"Hyunjin!" Seungmin snapped. Worry began to pulse through his veins. Cynthia was still straddling him, but he didn't want to upset her. "Stop being so fucking dramatic for once in your life!"

A door swung open off to the side. Han stepped out of the recording studio and Chan followed behind him. When they glanced down at Cynthia and Seungmin, they exchanged a glance of silent confusion between each other.

"Oh, Chan, thank god you're here! Tell him to stop screwing in the halls!"

"We're no-"

"What?" Chan's eyebrows furrowed together in continued confusion.

Above Seungmin, Cynthia wanted to melt into a puddle. She hated how all the attention was on her and everyone's dramatic reactions only made things worse. She wanted to go back to the dorm and never show her face again. The entire thing was humiliating.

A burst of annoyance shot through Seungmin. "You know what? Hyunjin, just for that-" He curled forward and gently cupped Cynthia's face. Her eyes were wide, but before he could think the decision through, he connected their lips.

Cynthia's brain was screaming at her to do something. Besides closing her eyes, she couldn't move and she panicked. She didn't know how to kiss someone. Seungmin's lips tasted like bitter coffee beans and despite her dislike for it, something about this seemed familiar. It was like a faint flicker of something that once was.

The heat cranked up in her cheeks. Her ears were covered by her hair, but she knew that the tips of her ears were red. She knew that everything was wrong and yet it was right. Seungmin's lips were like velvet thanks to the large amount of chapstick that he kept stockpiled.

He kept a variety of different tubes in his top dresser drawer throughout the winter. It was originally used to help with chapped lips during the colder climate, but after winter ebbed into spring, he kept using them; it was part of his usual night routine.

To Seungmin's surprise, Cynthia kissed him back and he was drunk on the sun. Sweet teas, strawberry jam, and forget-me-nots. Pomegranates, honeysuckle, and citrus. Everything was verbatim, it was the exact way that he used to remember it all. The hole in his heart, it was like she never left.

She didn't know how long she stayed there kissing him until she pulled away breathlessly. Seungmin's hands remained cupped around her soft cheeks. One of his thumbs gently ran across the apple of her cheek. The pair stared into each other's eyes in a haze until the illusion was broken.

Around them, nobody had left. Maybe it was just the shock of the moment. Nobody, not even Hyunjin, was expecting that to happen. The silence was broken by Lee Know, who joined during the middle of their kiss. A bright shiny red apple was in his hand until he tucked it into his elbow.

He slowly clapped his hands together with a smirk. "And that, my friends, is exactly how you kiss a girl." He removed the apple from his elbow and took a bite out of it with a loud crunch.

After realizing they had an audience around them, the pair of lovers' cheeks darkened to the same shade of red as the apple.