Chapter 7

Tae Ni scrunched her eyebrows in concentration and stress, as she continued to scratch her head and tap the end of her pencil onto her textbook.

In procrastinating for the past half hour made her homework duties more of a pain then they ever were. Worst part was the fact that exams were coming up and the night was getting old. Everything seemed to her as a distraction. Even the wall and the still noise was all too irritating for her mind to tolerate.

She ruffled her hair as she groaned in annoyance before fiddling it to form a messy bun.

Proceeding to work, she continued to work with numbers in which always seemed to puzzle her more and more. From time to time she’d progress, but in the end, she’d have to go back over it since the actual answers differentiated from ones she’d hopelessly worked out. Yeah, it .

Her desk illuminated a yellow and bright orange as small bits of rubber excess scattered with her pens and pencils. She felt the need to rest. But then again, she’d regret procrastinating her way out of doing her homework. So instead she’d sit, feeling the soreness on her back and shoulders with the slightest headache as she continued to figure out the value of x.

Time seemed to tick really slowly, and it killed Tae Ni. It killed her so much, that a knock on her door sounding had her jolt up in excitement. Please be Santa.

She sat up from her slouching posture over the desk and turned her rolling chair around to face the door before calling out entrance. Her door creaked to open, almost taunting her scaringly. Yet again, she’d know.

“Jimin, if you are trying to scare me it’s not going to happen.”

At that moment, the door swung open to see Jimin smiling cheekily.

“You know me too well, don’t you?” She raised an eyebrow before reeling her chair to face, yet again, her textbooks.

“From this view, I can tell you’re having trouble with your homework.” He was spot on. She turned her head to face him with a pout. A pout that says, ‘help me with my homework immediately and I’ll consider making you cookies.’ Yeah, that sort of pout.

“Of course I’ll help you.” She smiled, lightly fist pumped in victory before piling her books up and gathering her things before sitting on her bedroom floor along with Jimin. Her back was leaning on her bedside as Jimin sat beside her.

He peered over her worked and scanned through the disoriented creation within her book. There were bits of crossing errors, cramped numbering spaces and some doodling on the corners of her pages.

The mess of her book was more-of his concern than the fact that the mathematic questions were easy to solve.

“I feel sorry for your book. It didn’t deserve any of this mess.” Lightly patting her on the shoulder, enacting his emotion dramatically. She didn’t take it too well since she simply punched him on the arm. He whinged and yelped an ‘ouch’ before rubbing it, hoping the pain would subside anytime now.

“But seriously though. This stuff is easy. How could you not understand this?”

“Math methods is supposed to be difficult. A challenge. I regret choosing it.” He let out a small chuckle before proceeding to guide her in doing her homework. The more he explained, the merrier. She began to understand a lot more and thought herself stupid.  

You’d just see Tae Ni nodding her head in accepting bits and pieces of steps in finding the value of x. But that was the least of her consideration. In fact, she took the chance to be glad for his help and company, as she softly smiled whilst facing him.

He took a quick glance at her for a second before speaking, only to check if she was still listening. But the mere fact that she had a soft gaze looking at his own had his heart jump to jolt and his mind began to lose focus.

His throat caught dry, having him gulp and shake his head to change the tracks. “So how was the walk?”

“What walk?”

“The one where you decided to ditch me for the ugly alienated Taehyung.”  It took her a second. But it wasn’t the nervous kind-of hesitant. It was the kind that brought you thinking about the highlights of what happened back at that hour.

“Oh~ Yeah. It was really good.” Her cheeks protruded a shape in which outlined her smile.

Jimin couldn’t help but scoff at her opinion. “Anything happen?”

“What do you mean?”

“Nothing. I was just asking if anything interesting happened.” He simply shook off her question into narrowing down his main interest point. However, still confused and dazed, she narrowed her eyebrows in confusion as she tilted her head to face him in a different angle.

“I still don’t know what you mean.” He took a deep sigh before getting straight to the point.

“Did he try to kiss your face?” Her head jerked back a bit, completely taken by surprise at the out-of-blue question.

“What?’ Had he been thinking about this the whole time? She thought.

“I’m not repeating myself Tae Ni. Just answer the question.” Tae Ni couldn’t help but giggle at his sudden behaviour.

“Are you jealous?!”

“NO! Why would I be jealous?! You’re crazy you know that? Pure crazy.” Deep down inside, Jimin was frantic in having no proper response to his question. As much as he wanted to clear-cut to the chase, he feared that things wouldn’t be the same. At least that’s what he thought.

“Then why are you asking me that question?” He leaned in closer to her, but slowly before whispering.

“Listen… I’m a secret agent of the KAAI. It’s very important because I scouted a new member of the team…”

“Yah! Stop it with the lame excuses and just spit it out. Why are you asking me that question?” She completely cut him off.

They both took a moment to pause as they both directly stared at each other’s eyes. Things were beginning to daze again.

“I was just… curious.” That was the end of words. No other could describe how he was feeling as of now. Sure, confusion and curiosity got to him the slightest bit, but the mixture of both had his stomach churn uncomfortably.

Why did he ask that question? Maybe he was jealous. Maybe he was mad, or he was the slightest bit anxious about the idea of Taehyung sharing his first kiss with Tae Ni. He just didn’t like it.

Tae Ni laid her hands onto her lap as her head dropped to hide her expression. “No. He didn’t kiss me… or my face.”

It didn’t take him a second or two, but a few in which all he could say wasn’t the best response. “Oh… okay. Cool.”

Tae Ni shifted her head for a second, almost slightly agitated and confused about his response.

“Okay? Cool? That’s all you’re going to say?” His response was unacceptable. She just had to throw her arms in the air.

“Listen, let’s both just be glad at the fact that you didn’t kiss Taehyung.”

“What? Why?” Tae Ni couldn’t help but feel the slightest bit weird at the topic they were at, but she was curious enough to stay interested and fall deeper into this conversation.

“Because Taehyung is ugly. Consider yourself lucky.” She huffed a disappointed sigh before tugging onto the hem of his shirt sleeve.

“I don’t believe you. Just tell me the real reason as to why you asked me that question.”

“Tae Ni… just accept the fact that Taehyung is ugly. Once again, consider yourself lucky.” More-less, Tae Ni was growing inpatient as her lips curved inwards and her brows creased to a narrow. So much she was to burst out yelling at him to confess his reasons. You could almost see the steam come out of her ears. Not literally, but she was on verge.

She huffed and sighed to cool herself for a bit. But as she focused to relax herself, the thought about her first kiss with Taehyung got to her. She completely changed from one persona to another.

“I wanted to kiss him though…” There was that slightest tone of voice, sweeter than ever. Jimin was surprised by her revelation, but decided not to let on.

“Of course you did Tae Ni. Of course you did.” Tae Ni was silent, staring at the ceiling. Then she angled her head to face Jimin, softly smiling with content. The sort of smile that arched her eye bags. The sort of smile that giggled. The sort of smile that said, ‘you’re right.’

“Haven’t you ever had that feeling?” She asked. Jimin, fully attentive to his reawakened love for Tae Ni, had a frozen expression. And now, he could never forget the past slips in which the amount of times he had wanted to experience his first kiss. It was more than he could count with his fingers.

But he was more-or-so likely to shrug it off and lie. “No. Why would I?”

“I don’t know. Like, I’ve always wondered what it would feel like… emotionally. Like, the spark moment sort of thing.”

“Why not just electrocute yourself?” He was undermining, but yet again, this was the first time he had been within this sort of topic. He became aware of that. If this were to take place, he would not want to be on his own.

“I’m being serious though. I want to experience my first kiss magically, but I just can’t imagine it.” Her voice had sounded disappointed for a second there. Jimin could tell.

There was that moment of silence. Not the awkward kind. It was the kind of silence that was a lot stronger in connection between the two than a conversation.

The whole ‘helping-you-so-your-homework’ thing was completely forgotten, neglected.

Jimin was hesitant at first. He had an idea, a compromise almost. A completely stupid one, to the least of its attribute.

“Do you want a practice kiss?” Their eyes met in a second no later than that. How absurd, she thought.

“A…a what?”

“Practice kiss. From me.” How could he have not been so hesitant to ask her?

“You mean… like… I kiss you?” She pointed at herself, then at Jimin as she spoke. Not going to lie. Tae Ni thought the idea crazy yet somewhat a good undergo for the two.

“But… then… doesn’t that mean we’re both each other’s first kisses?” Tae Ni asked, almost flabbergasted at the thought.

All Jimin did was shrug it off and chuckle a bit before contemplating the conditions. This was sort of like a game you could say.

“It won’t count as our first kiss. Oh, and things won’t change between us two, in like the weird way sort of thing. You get what I mean?” Her eyes were almost distancing as she looked away for a second to think about the negotiation between the two. As much as she thought this was one of the weirdest decisions of her life, it wouldn’t hurt to give it a try. After all, they were best friends.

“Um… I guess, since those rules apply.” Wait what? Did she just say agree to it?

In all honesty, Jimin didn’t think she’d fall in with idea. It was a highly doubted situation, that’s for sure. In the state of bewilderment, he continued to gaze at nothing other than Tae Ni’s features without any thought. He was just in that much of a shock.

“Uh… um… okay then…” Without any thought or hesitation, Tae Ni puckered her lips to an extent where it wasn’t even decent to kiss.

“Is that seriously how you are going to look when you kiss someone? You look like a duck!”

“Well… how am I supposed to do it?! I’ve never kissed anyone before!”

He scoffed. “Well nuh duh! Why do you think we are doing this?”

As of now, they were in a hopeless situation. Neither of them knew what to do. Sure they were best friends and all who knew almost everything about each other, but this was the ultimate of an awkward situation.

Jimin was the first to move. He leaned in closer, foreheads almost touching. At the moment where their foreheads touch, the front door of the unit slammed closed.

“Honey, we’re home from work! I hope you’re ready to eat dinner.”

So much for that experiment.

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It wasn’t often that Tae Ni wore her oversized rimmed glasses to school, but today was a must. She had spent almost all night studying, even after the failed situation Jimin and Tae Ni had.

She’d fixate her glasses onto her nose bridge from time to time. From highlighting important phrases and text in her textbook, to writing notes that took on several pages had her time spent efficiently in the library. And yes, it wasn’t often she’d be in the library either.

Don’t get her wrong. It’s not like she was stereotypical about the library whatsoever. She just had to walk around a few buildings to get to it, which took a while.

The campus was bigger than ever, since it was acknowledged and awarded for its high standard attributes and qualities of the school. Therefore, more and more parents would want their children to attend and hence the idea to construct new and buildings. Yeah, complicated.

Thankfully the students payed their respects when they were in the library. Oddly, the library was less of a disruption than her room. Maybe it was because she was surrounded by knowledge, or the fact that small murmurs within the library were a lot easier to deal with than still silence.

Either way, she could ease her way into studying. That is until one particular figure took a seat next to her.

“Didn’t expect to see you here.” His voice was melodic and soothing to Tae Ni’s ears. She was clearly flustering.

She shot her head up to face him, unexpected to feel the distance between the two. And might I add, it was pretty close.

“Y…yeah, I was just… studying.” As of this moment, Tae Ni’s glasses were positioned on the bottom of her nose bridge as the top rim covered half of her eyes. She practically tilted her head up just to see his face clearly.

Taehyung breathed a chuckled before fixing her glasses to a more comfortable position.

“I didn’t know you were half blind.” Well that’s one way to put it.

“They’re only reading glasses.”

This time his chuckle was a bit more of a giggle. He liked her small unintentional sense of humour.

Silence then came to wander the area between the two, as Tae Ni looked down at her books, chin resting on her fist that held a pencil. Taehyung rested his palm over his cheek as he took this chance to observe her.

He liked how she was effortlessly beautiful. The way her bun was messy yet cute, how her cheeks were the tiniest bit chubby with a rosy pink but wore no makeup, and how adorable she looked when she was concentrated.

“Since end of year exams are coming up, why not study together here in the library some time? Oh but first, there’s this good movie I want to see and a great restaurant I want to eat at and it’d be more awesome with you.”

That was one way to ask a girl out in which Tae Ni didn’t have an option to say no. Why would you say no? However, she decided to continue the funny play.

“Did you go on ‘how to ask a girl out on a date dot com’? Because I found your pick up line rather dorky.” She giggled.

“Support your local dork: say yes if you’d go on a date with me.” As weird and cheesy as it was, Tae Ni couldn’t help but smile at his humour. Who wouldn’t want to go on a date with that sort of humour?

“I’d love to go on a date with you Taehyung.”

“Cool beans then. Don’t eat breakfast that day. You have a big day ahead of you on Saturday.”

“But breakfast is the most important meal.”

“Don’t worry. We won’t skip the meal. Just don’t eat it.”

“Wait what?”

● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

No wind to move fabric, no weather at all to respond to. Jimin liked that.

He continued to gaze at the window’s view during class as he couldn’t help but not pay attention in class. To find the y intercept and the parallel line to the x axis wasn’t all important to Jimin, at all. He’d been like this the moment he stepped foot in his classroom.

He had his chin rest on his upright arm as the other hand of his fingers drummed his desk.

Heck, he didn’t even notice the new girl introducing herself to the class before sitting next to him. He was all in la-la land.

“Excuse me…” The lightest touch from his shoulder disrupted his thoughtless mind. He took a glance at her, and at that one second, he was familiarized by her features.

“Can I borrow a pen? Mine ran out of ink.” Her voice was quiet and soft, but that was just for the sake of the running class.

Jimin could feel the light expansion and contraction of his ribs, the rhythm of his breath. He coughed before handing her a spare pen. She mouthed a small thank you before proceeding to listen to the teacher ramble on about how to find the gradients of a linear relationship equation.

The bell had finally rung like music to people’s ears. Jimin didn’t even see it coming.

He piled up all his books before placing them spontaneously into his bag before swinging it over his shoulder. Just as his arm movement swayed his bag, the sense of a thud and the sound of a thump brought him to turn around immediately.

His bag had just hit the same girl sitting next to him in class, and the books inside his bag seemed to have impacted a lot of pain as she held her temple with both hands.

“I’m so sorry! Are you okay?! Do you need to see the nurse?!” He hooked his hand onto her shoulder as the other rubbed her head to make the pain go away by the least from his actions.

“I’m… I’m okay. I just wanted… to give your pen back.” Handing it over, he couldn’t help but worry of her state.

“Are you sure you don’t want to see the nurse? The books are quite thick and hard.” She shook her head, still holding onto the pained area of her forehead. From his perspective, she was the really shy type of person despite the fact that she was new.

“Well… let me hold your books for you.” Without any response from her, he swiftly sandwiched her books, supporting it as he held them to his chest. He gestured her to leave the room first as he followed her lead into the corridor.

“I’m Park Jimin by the way.” Slightly jogging to walk by her side, he introduced himself at what seemed to be the right time.

“Oh… I’m Jun Mina.” She rubbed the sides of her arm, emanating small heat. She was the slightest bit awkward as of this encountering.

“So… did you just move here or…?”

“Yeah… but… it’s not like its complicated or anything. My dad had to move because of his work, and my mum owns a chicken store down the road from here.” Jimin had probably handed her an invitation, and unlike her, she had been able to accept the offer to become an acquaintance with him, therefore participating to share her story.

A few girls walking past gave a strange look, almost demising and death threatening.

Thankfully Jimin wasn’t all too sensitive on what people thought. This was the start of a new friendship, and Jimin didn’t want any ominous mistreatment to barricade that.

“That’s cool. Speaking of chicken, why not sit at our table. I’d like to introduce you to someone.”

“O…okay. T…thank you.”

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It was a sea of loud chatter. People had to raise their voices over the din every moment they were in the school cafeteria.

“Welcome to Skydale’s school cafeteria, where wishes and dreams are crushed.” Jimin breathed in momentarily to emphasize a dramatic scene. Mina eyed him worriedly as she continued to rub the side of her arm nervously.

“Don’t worry. You’ll be fine.” Slightly shouting over the level of chatter beyond the tables of bunched groups and friends, gossiping about the latest rumour, or how their day went, or about how much they hate the teacher because of something particular they wore that didn’t match with their shoes. Something stupid like that, but hey. This is high school.

Walking through the paths of rows of tables and benches, he could spot Tae Ni the closer he was towards the very large window wall, structured from ceiling to the floor, irradiating the brightest light in the cafeteria. As soon as Tae Ni caught a glimpse of Jimin, she quickly rose up from her seat and waved like her arm was loose.

Jimin leaned forward to give Tae Ni a small hug. And as her chin rested upon Jimin’s shoulder, she noticed the frailness of the girl standing behind him.

“Tae Ni, this is Jun Mina. She’s new here.” Jimin made known to Tae Ni. Mina brought out a subtle wave before carrying on with her anxious habit.

Tae Ni opened ajar to reply, however someone bet her to it, denying the chance for her to say a word.

“Mina?” In sync, that moment of hesitation was present as they predicted the owner of the voice.

“Taehyung Oppa?” That reply left Tae Ni and Jimin’s reaction to a surprise. It suddenly rained questions; how did they know each other? What’s their history? Anything important happen? Those types of questions occurred like it was Christmas.

Behind Tae Ni, Taehyung walked until he reached her side, jovial and in high spirits considering the fact that he had come across a good friend of his. Jimin slanted over to get a better perspective of the two before putting on a quizzical countenance. He was so eager for any information that might deepen his knowledge about Taehyung.

“You two know each other?” His index finger shifted from sidewards, pointing at the two. Taehyung gave off a lenient grin, and at the same time slipping his hands into the sockets of his school pants.

“Yeah… her boyfriend is my good friend. How is he by the way?” Taehyung’s head slanted, anticipating Mina’s response.

“He’s still in America. We’re long distancing…” Mina ducked her head. They could tell from the tone of her voice that she was the slightest bit desolate on the topic. Unsure whether to mention anything else about it, Tae Ni clasped her hands together, wanting the share the quiet aftermath with the four eating together.

“Why don’t we all get something to eat before class starts?” Taehyung’s eyes narrowed as he displayed his set of pearly whites, happy to accept the invitation.

“Good idea Tae Ni.” He praised. Just as the four were about to sit, Jimin completely denied Taehyung’s chance to take a seat next to Tae Ni as his arm barricaded him from sitting on the table.

“Hold your horses buddy. Who said you could eat with us?”

“Uh… since Tae Ni asked all of us to eat before class starts?” His voice told Jimin it was out of the question, sarcastic even. Jimin jeered, teeth pressed against each other as he glanced one thing before returning a serious gaze at Taehyung.

“Well… this is my seat.” Jimin stated before tilting his head. Derided to start something without the physicality’s; let’s just say he was trying to act cool since he slipped his hands in his pockets.

“I don’t see your name on it.”

“That’s because I wrote it in invisible ink. You know the one’s with the UV light to see it?”

“For goodness sake, both of you just sit down and eat. You’re going to make a scene.” Tae Ni disciplined.

“Taehyung’s the one making the scene. His ugly face is the lowest of the low at worth looking at.” He whispered to Tae Ni, murmuring in criticism before taking a seat next to Mina since his original seat was practically taken.

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Few days later, it was the morning of a ‘big day.’ Tae Ni’s rude awakening got to her, as her phone sounded its ringtone, volume increasing every minute she didn’t answer it. And this irritated her the second it kept ringing.

Weekend means freedom from any interpretation relating to school or having to do something that wasn’t worth her time, she thought to herself. Finally, her phone stopped.

Sighing from relief, she proceeded to slumber in her cocoon in her blanket, shutting her eyes as she imaged scenarios in her head in which helps her sleep. The sorts of scenarios which will never happen in reality.

Then again, her senses were sending off a vibe throughout her body in which she felt she had forgotten something important. It was a bit off. 

She kicked the blanket off of her body, feeling the cold air get to her despite the fact that she was wearing a tank top and shorts. Don’t you ever find that it’s more comfortable to wear a tank top and shorts to bed?

As much as her phone annoyed her more than ever, she couldn’t help the need to lean half of her body over her bed just to reach out for her phone laying on her desk. She grunted in the struggle and tension in her body as she stretched her way into grasping her phone. It took her a few moments just to get it, but nonetheless, she felt she accomplished something first prize worthy.

The pressed the home button of her phone, illuminating light. First thing she saw was the four notifications; 3 calls and 1 message, all from Taehyung. Whoops.

All of this contributed to her not having the bother to check anything else, but to call him straight away. He was the first on her list, which made the tap on her phone the easiest thing possible. Three rings and his voice rasped over the line.

“Don’t tell me you ate breakfast.” It was the first thing Taehyung asked over the phone. To Tae Ni, it was better than a good morning. Her giggle was like music to Taehyung’s ears, especially since she had just woken up and is on the phone with him at the moment.

“Don’t worry, I didn’t.” Her morning voice got to her.

He chuckled back before responding. “Good. Be there in 20?”

She cocked an eyebrow unintentionally as she glided her fingers through her bed hair. “Okay. See you in 20.”

First thing she did from then onwards, was draw her curtains. It was the primary source to the weather forecast. Beautifully, the sun engorging was the only thing depictive. It was all blue skies and no clouds.

Delighted by the apparent weather mood today, she tip toed her way to the bathroom, feeling a bit glee this morning.

It wasn’t often Tae Ni sung in the shower, or pretended she was winning an Oscar by holding the shampoo bottle and pretending it was the momentous award.

She just thought today was going to be a good day.

All dressed and starving, she sat in front of her countertop, oversized glasses on her face as she read her current novel. She did like to read from time to time, especially since her phone wasn’t of good use to her when it came to any social media contributions.

Sure, people added her on whatever social media app she had, but they would always rant on about how much they love their boyfriend/girlfriend and that they are celebrating their 2 day anniversary. That’s love alright. Or how her feed is overflown on shared videos she wasn’t interested in.

To dummy it all down, teenage life is written all over social media.