✨The Gravity of Again✨ snippet
A snippet from Ch 1: This is how the story goes — in which Jinu finagles an aquarium date, and Rumi is thrilled about it.
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Already, Rumi looks like she wants to tread on him with her giant combat boots. “Why,” she says with forced patience, “are we doing this at an aquarium?”
“Pretty sure people talk at the aquarium.”
“Pretty sure this isn’t a date.”
Jinu smiles. Says nothing.
Rumi shoots him a look that promises imminent violence—by way of a knee (hers) to the balls (his).
Casually, he makes for the street, thereby forestalling any ball-busting she had in mind, but Rumi throws out an arm to block his exit. “Wait.” Pinches the bridge of her nose. “My god, you’re actually serious. Fine, we’ll go to the stupid aquarium to answer your stupid questions, but you can’t go in like that.”
Jinu looks down to see if there is a stain on his shirt. It is pristine. “Like what?”
The imminent violence look is back. “Like a Saja Boy on the cover of Vogue? Why are you glistening?”
Surreptitiously, Jinu gives himself a once-over in the reflection of a darkened storefront. Sneakers, jeans, and a soft pink shirt, unbuttoned exactly the right amount to show off his pecs. He’s personally not offended by the attire nor the glisten, but he supposes incognito would serve better than cover-of-Vogue-heartthrob, so he transforms the jeans (admittedly a little tight, and a little too white) into a pair of loose, dark trousers; the sneakers into loafers; the pink shirt into a white one. He’s not really sure why he’s glistening, but he’s not about to fix that.
“There,” he says, presenting himself with a flourish for Rumi’s inspection.
“Oh my god,” she says, with exasperation, but also with a flush creeping up her neck. “Can you not?”
“Can I not, what—?” Jinu doesn’t get to complete the question as his thought process grinds to a halt—Rumi is reaching over and doing up one, two, three of his undone buttons. The tug of her fingers against his chest is… interesting.
She examines the rest of him (“Why are you wearing so many necklaces??” “To draw attention to my pecs, obviously.”) and gruffly tries to remove the offending baubles.
Jinu examines the top of her head in amusement as she struggles—so gruff, so businesslike—then vanishes the lot.
But when Rumi tries to smash her baseball cap onto his head, Jinu bats her hands away. “Stop that.” His hair she shall not touch—it is the height of perfection.
Ch 1: This is how the story goes
