Elevator

"She just wanted to colour up her daily life somehow — synchronically with her body. Just a little, but in such a way that it would be her own decision. A choice she made herself. She explained she needed something with no three-dimensional geometry, material and not at the same time, a thing one couldn't buy with their credit card in a shopping mall." Jungkook said it aloud all of a sudden and was amazed how weak and feeble his voice sounded. It couldn't been explained only by the fact that Jungkook was silent for some time or, on the contrary, that he spoke aloud for too long. Stiffness of his throat was caused by another things, and possible explanation sited somewhere amidst his private thoughts and his repressed grievances. He casted a glance at Yoongi for a moment and spotted him rising his head and looking back in surprise. But as soon as it all started, Jungkook was unable to stop. "It's a mistake to think reach people's children are happy," Jungkook went on. "They are overflooded with facilities and thus lose their ability to make a rational choice. You always think that if you could have money and plenty of options you would live a happy affluent life. I mean, I remember my own thoughts on this. In reality, when options are countless and never ends, as it seems, you totally lose yourself. You don't want anything, and you don't want to make any choices." "Your sensors are fouled. It's like a DDos attack," said Yoongi. He definitely listened hard to Jungkook's monologue and now decided to add a word in support. Yoongi always did things like this. Supportive things. Occasionally Jungkook thought he clung to Yoongi many years ago in an unconscious attempt to find some shelter — living, breathing and caring. And he really found one. And then they broke up. But now they both were locked up in a tiny elevator cabin, and more to this, Jungkook started whining when no one forced him to do so, and the only way to stop now, having a pain inside and an attentive listener outside, was to run to the finish line and cross it. "Fouled sensors. She told me exactly that words," said Jungkook. "She told me she just lost her path. She needed something fresh, something new, a thing she never dealt with before. This or that, it happened to be a tattoo at the end. And a dating with a tattooist. She wanted her life to be painted with some new colours, not necessarily bright, but differing from what she was living with — and me to be the painter." Jungkook went silent for a brief moment, but that was enough for his opponent. "Sometimes people choose suffering if day by day they are fed with sweets and sweets only," said Yoongi. "Not too often and not so many people, though". Jungkook looked at him for a moment, then nodded. Non the less, this minute consensus meant nothing. The fairytale of an artist and a poor rich girl Jungkook now voiced had a second part, much more interesting, perhaps, but unpleasant in the same extent. There was no way to reach the end successfully without trudging through it, so Jungkook went on with a mix of disgust, offensiveness and shame in his tone: "It wasn't "dirty smears" as her father's men named it. The pattern. I maybe a feckless artist, an amateur tattooist, a bad person, but I tried to do my best. I've made a special design, an exclusive draft, only for her. She admired it from the start. Butterflies appeared on her skin one by one, and the more of them were finished the happier and more lighthearted she became. As if I freed her from some hidden bonds. Butterflies' wings became her own wings, exactly like that. And that pin-up — we made it together. The place for the pin-up to be displayed — we choose it together too. I didn't spoiled her reputation, no matter what they said. Being a model can't hurt you, it's an art..." "But her relatives thought it spoiles," said Yoongi. "They did. They blamed me for hurting their precious girl, for damaging her body, for corrupting her soul, for ruining her future — for everything. When they put the blame on a legal basis and advised me to find a lawyer, I just..." "I'm not asking why you didn't call me," said Yoongi. "I'm asking why you didn't call Tae. Or you did?" "No," said Jungkook. He really didn't want to throw Taehyung's name in the fire of their conversation and would never do it himself, but Yoongi did just yet — with no evil intentions, but still — so it was too late to step back and deny anything. "Tae was the one who introduced her to me," said Jungkook. "She was his wife's friend. When all that mess started I tried to avoid each and every of my closest ones so they didn't get any troubles. And Tae first of them. You know his situation." "I'm not sure I do," answered Yoongi. "All I know by now, he has changed much since that marriage." "Not us to blame him," said Jungkook drily. "Ether me or you, we were never so much dependent on our old folks and so much grateful. Especially to our fathers. Maybe I should've, though." "So how did you shuffled out?" asked Yoongi. He ether didn't spot or simply ignored that dryness in Jungkook's voice. "Or they are still chasing you?" "No. Dad helped me out. Sold something, talked to someone. I lost — let us call it contributed — my tattoo parlour and clients to her father's men. And left Seoul for good. That place is forbidden for me to visit since that. I forbade, not them, but it was obvious a decision." "So you cut off any contacts of yours," said Yoongi and pursed his lips a little. "But what about Tae? Are you two still in touch?" "As I've said, I didn't talk to him at the time of that incident, and he never tried to do anything to reach me since too — as far as I know, that is." "But he knows?" asked Yoongi, looking at Jungkook with a slightly squinted eyes from under the brim of his panama hat. Jungkook shrugged, fixed his face mask though it was absolutely unnecessary, and said: "He must be. But I don't think he would be happy to find himself in some scandalous situation. Grounds are not so solid under his feet. I just hope this shit will be flushed away entirely down the sewage and everything will calm down enough for us to see each other again one day." "It's funny how things turned out for you two," said Yoongi after a short pause. "And even more funny how they turned out for us." Jungkook looked at him once more and saw him smiling a bit wryly. "I mean, nobody ever could imagine us ending up as a minor service personnel of delivery and storage and met one another again while being stucked in the depths of an elevator well in some miserable apartment building in the middle of Gwangju," said Yoongi. "Nobody including us in the first place." Jungkook opened his mouth to say something, but suddenly the elevator shuddered all over and started to move.