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Same, but DifferentAlighting from the bus, I walk over to where Soo usually waits for me at the front gate.
“What’s up.” I hold up a hand in my lazy morning greeting. Woong comes up behind me and wraps his arm over my shoulder.
“Good morning, ladies.”
“How long do we have until class?” I ask to no one in particular.
“Twenty minutes?” Soo looks at the time on her phone.
“Coffee?” Woong tilts his head in the opposite direction of school. Linking arms with my friends, we head for our favourite cafe.
“I’ll go order,” Woong says, pointing at an empty table. He blinks at Soo, a prompt for her order.
“Green tea latte,” she tells him. Without having to ask me what I want, he turns toward the counter. Soo pulls me to the window side table and we sit. Her eyes immediately start flitting around as if looking for someone.
“What are you doing?” I ask, propping my chin on my hand.
“Looking for the psycho.” Her voice is a strained whisper. I roll my eyes and am about to say something when my phone rings with a video call from Yoongi.
“Uh-oh.” I answer the call and on the other end stand an annoyed Yoongi.
“You didn’t call.” Yoongi narrows his eyes at me. “And you’re not at school.”
“She’s not at school?” Namjoon’s face appears on the screen beside Yoongi, a frown evident on his face.
“Drinks are here!” Woong chooses a very untimely moment to come up from behind me.
“Iced coffee?” Namjoon furrows his brows. I feel like a little girl caught eating extra cookies.
“Tell me Yoongi oppa isn’t drinking his iced americano now,” I rebut. Yoongi frowns.
“You little…”
“Oppa~” I decide to use my non-existent aegyo to get myself out of trouble.
“Don’t you dare use aegyo on me, Lee Byeol.” .
“Namjoon oppa, save me…”
“She’s safe with us thank you very much but we have to get back to school now.” Woong grabs my phone and hangs up the call. I don’t know if I should be relieved or worried.
“Aegyo, huh?” Soo raises her brow at me as we stand.
“Oh, shut up.” I take a long swig of my coffee.
Soo and I part ways with Woong back at school. It isn’t until we reach the classroom that we receive news that our lecturer is on medical leave today. With the other students in class, we all sigh and cuss and decide on where to go to waste time. Taking out my phone, I send a text to Yoongi.
To: Yoongi oppa
[Lecturer fly aeroplane*. Long break until next class. Just FYI.]
“This is your only class today, right?” I ask Soo who’s unexpectedly busy on her phone. Peeking over, I see her looking through pictures of Jin. I quickly send out another text.
To: Yoongi oppa
[Can we come over and play?]
His reply is instantaneous.
From: Yoongi oppa
[Who is ‘we’?]
[We’re at the company. Let me know when you’re here. I’ll bring you in.]
I smile. Pulling Soo by her arm, I say, “Let’s go.”
“Where to?”
I show her the text message with the address of our destination. “Disturb people.”
We take a cab down, stopping a block away where I spot an ice cream store.
“Raspberry, right? Right.” She orders two cones as I sit by the window staring out. Blinking, I try to shake off the uneasy feeling of being watched, and that familiar figure I thought I’d just saw from the corner of my eye. Soo taps me on the shoulder and passes me my cone, distracting me from my thoughts.
“Tell me again why we’re going to Big Hit?” Soo asks as we walk towards the building, taking bites of ice cream between steps.
“Because Jin will be there?” I flash her a cheeky smile and laugh when she blushes.
“Hey!” She smacks me on the arm. “What’s so funny?”
I shake my head still laughing and with my free hand, I call Yoongi.
“I’ll be out in ten seconds.”
It took us another minute to reach. Yoongi waves to us from a dark corner at the side of the building. He eyes the ice cream in our hands with his brows raised.
“Ice cream? Really, Byeol?” He nags again, shaking his head.
“Hello,” Soo greets the older guy, smiling awkwardly with the ice cream in her hand.
I shrug. “Cravings.” I hold up my ice cream to him and he shakes his head.
Inside, we take the lift up to where the dance studios are. Even down the corridor, we can hear noise from the room Bangtan is in. Walking ahead, I push open the door and poke my head in.
“Hello,” I greet, smiling at six surprised guys inside.
“Byeol, what are you doing here!” Jungkook waves me in but before I can take another step, Yoongi pushes through, throwing his jacket to the corner.
Rolling my eyes at him, I pull Soo in as I enter, my nose subconsciously wrinkling itself from the smell of sweat and… sweaty guys.
“Oh, Jisoo-ssi.” Jin greets Soo warmly and beside me, she blushes again, responding with a shy ‘hello’.
“You’re not usually like this,” I whisper in her ear, earning me another smack from her. Soo is usually quite open with guys but, hey, this is Bangtan we’re talking about. They make everyone nervous.
“You didn’t tell me you were coming.” Namjoon says when I sit beside him. He very casually plucks the cone out of my hand and helps himself to a very big bite of my ice cream. I glare at him but he pushes the ice cream back to me and sticks his tongue out.
“Where’s ours?” The maknae line pouts cutely.
“Go buy it yourself,” Namjoon tells them just as Yoongi says the exact same thing. The guys laugh at their telepathy. Leaning back with my arms as support, I watch as the guys joke among themselves.
“Don’t you have class?” Hoseok asks.
“Lecturer fell sick,” I answer simply. “So we came to play!”
“Yay! Let’s play!” The maknae line jumps up but their happiness is short-lived.
“Comeback is soon,” Hoseok cuts in. “We have to practice our choreography.” He sends me an apologetic look.
I nod. “We’ll just be watching from the side.”
“Can you start the music for us?” Jungkook asks, passing me the remote for the player.
“Ready?” I press play.
* fly aeroplane: (v.) to stand someone up.
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