Chapter 10 – Thank God It’s Friday

“It’s gonna be so good!!” squealed Hoseok, literally bouncing on his seat, as Jimin flashed everyone an embarrassed eye-smile and Jungkook looked on, wide-eyed and envious.

It was lunchtime on Friday and the two drama club boys were sitting with BTS at their usual lunch table. J-Hope had dragged Jimin with him when he’d run into him on the way to the cafeteria, and Jungkook had followed since no one seemed to really have a problem with it. Now he watched on eagerly as all the members talked about their upcoming performance, but he was a bit lost when his friend and their cheerful senior started discussing dance moves and laughing at things that had happened during dance practice. He would’ve never admitted it, but he was a little jealous of how much time Jimin was spending with his elders, recently.

“Well you just better be ready for tomorrow” said Rapmonster, in an uncharacteristically rude tone, not looking up from his phone.

Both Suga and J-Hope looked up at him, then at each-other in surprise, but didn’t say anything.

“We should still try it out with you guys first though, and see how it looks. You should all come to the studio today” said J-Hope, directing his remark mostly to Suga, who nodded his agreement. Rapmon also gave a little twitch of his head, which they took as an affirmative response.

“This is gonna be our best show yet!” exclaimed Hoseok, “I can smell it!!”

***

As Insook had expected, there hadn’t been any new messages from Rapmonster after the incident at her house the day before. She had dragged herself to school reluctantly that morning, dreading what would happen if she were to run into him, but luckily (or unluckily?), that hadn’t happened at all.  She had Chemistry class right after lunch though, and she knew that seeing him there would be pretty much unavoidable.

Her heart was playing ping-pong in her chest as she made her way to class, and she held her breath as she walked through the door. She quickly made her way to her seat, and only allowed herself to look up in the direction of Namjoon’s workstation once she’d already sat down. She let out a little gasp when she saw that he was already there. He sat on his chair with his back straight, head bent down over a notebook and tapping a pencil rhythmically on the counter. He didn’t look in her direction at all. His partner arrived and he turned to give him a warm smile and a greeting she couldn’t hear, and they started chatting as the boy unloaded his things on the table.

Insook could feel her insides dissolving, and she tried to not let her emotions get the best of her as she tore her eyes away.

‘Of course,’ she thought, ‘of course…’

As the bell rang, Rapmon shot a quick glance in her direction, his face tensing up, and then turned back to look at the teacher who had already started lecturing.

‘It’s over.’

And she tried to tell herself that there had not really been anything there to begin with.

*

Her last class of the day was Japanese, and Insook had spent it in a complete daze. She was looking at the teacher, hearing her words (but not registering any of them) and her notebook lay open in front of her, untouched, for the entire hour. She hadn’t even noticed V, sitting a few seats away, who kept staring at her, with a worried look on his face, and trying to catch her attention. She didn’t even notice when the bell rang and people started leaving the class; she just sat there, staring ahead. Lost.

V came over and stood next to her. After about a minute, she noticed him there and looked up at him with wide eyes. He said nothing, but then suddenly flashed her his trademark rectangular smile.

“Come on!!” he said, grabbing her hand and pulling her away.

“V, my stuff!!” she exclaimed as he was dragging her towards the door, while her bag and everything else remained in the classroom.

“Oh. Well, go get it!” he said, impatiently, his voice full of excitement.

“Where do you want to go?” she asked him as she packed her things, “I’m not really in the mood…”

“It’s Friday! We’re gonna go play!” he exclaimed with a bright, childish smile.

“Play?”

“Yes! Game center!” he hooted, and then grabbed her hand again, pulling her behind him into the crowded hallway.

***

When Jungkook entered the drama club room, some time after 6^th period, it was empty, except for Jin who was shooting darts at the board in the back of the room.

“Hey Jin-hyung,” he greeted his elder, pulling up a chair at the large table and sitting down, “Where is everyone else?”

“I dunno. Not here yet, I guess,” replied the handsome 3^rd year student, tossing another dart at the target.

Jungkook unloaded some books from his bag and decided to get started on his homework as he waited for more people to arrive. But 30 minutes later they were still the only ones in the room. Jin had gotten bored of playing darts by himself and joined his dongsaeng at the table, attempting to do homework as well. They worked quietly for a while, but Jungkook couldn’t really focus.

“Where is everybody?!” he exclaimed after a while, tossing his pencil over his workbook.

Jin looked up and shrugged, “it’s Friday, I guess…”

“Urgh, I never thought I’d say this, but it’s really boring without those two idiots around…” complained the youngest.

“Yeah…” chuckled Jin, “but you know V… he’s probably off chasing butterflies somewhere or something…”

Jungkook laughed, “and Jimin’s practicing his dance with J-Hope-hyung…”

“That’s going well?”

Jungkook nodded eagerly. “He won’t let me see it yet, but it’s all he talks about! Oh, you’re coming this time too, aren’t you?”

“Yup” nodded the older boy, “no babysitting duties for me this weekend! Looking forward to it!”

“Cool!” exclaimed the black-haired boy. “Should we go there together?”

“Yeah, why not?”

“Alright then,” said the youngest, getting up and closing his textbook, which earned him a questioning look from his elder, who asked “you’re leaving?”

Jungkook shrugged, “well obviously no one’s coming so… might as well…”

***

The loud noise of hundreds of gaming machines, pinging, bleeping and beeping, enveloped the two teenagers as they stepped into the game center. Insook had stopped complaining when she’d found that that V’s grip was surprisingly stronger than it looked, and had just let him drag her there, though she was still sulking.

“Come on!” he said, grinning like a happy child as he pulled her towards some car racing games.

“I’m really bad at that…” she said, making a face as he stopped in front of one of them, and pushed her into the seat.

“It’ll be fun!” he promised, hopping in next to her and putting some coins into the machine.

“3…2…1… go!” a bell sounded and the game started. Insook wasn’t trying very hard and wasn’t surprised at all when she lost to V, finishing in 11^th place in the race.

“Wanna try again?” the ashen-haired boy turned to her and asked excitedly, “I’ll go slower.” but she just shook her head, stepping out of the seat by herself.

“Ok then, let’s try something else!” piped the boy.

Nothing seemed to phase Taehyung’s mood, and he just grabbed her hand again and dragged her all over the arcade, looking for a better game to play. “How about this one? No? Ok,” and he would carry on to another machine and repeat the sequence. After a while, he spotted something in a corner of the second floor and a huge smile spread over his face. “Oh!” he said, pulling on her arm again, “this one for sure!”

V dragged Insook towards a run-down boxing game in the corner, but instead of smacking buttons to defeat your opponent on the screen, you were supposed to hit specific spots on a giant punching bag.

“Maybe this will help relieve some of your frustrations, eh?” he smirked at her with a raised eyebrow.

“Who says I’m frustrated?” she told him, and V made a big show of rolling his eyes, so she just coughed a little in embarrassment.

The boy popped some coins into the machine and the instructions started. “come  on” he said, stepping behind her and grabbing her arms from behind, “you gotta go like this… bam!” and he pulled her hand towards the punching bag.

“I know how to throw a punch, thank you very much”, she told him, her face inches away from his, before shaking him off her.

“Oh yeah?” he laughed, stepping to the side.

“Yeah.” she retorted, “Want me to punch you and find out?”

The blonde boy only laughed in response. The bell pinged and Insook threw a punch at the bag. It registered 27% and Taehyung laughed.

“Shut up, I wasn’t ready!” whined the teenage girl and she took a little fighting stance with both her fists up, waiting for the next bell.

Somehow, V had been right – hitting that stupid bag did make her feel better. She just started hitting and hitting; and when she lost, they put more coins in and she would just hit it again. After a while, she was actually panting and sweating a little, so when the “game over” sign appeared on the screen, she asked her friend if he wanted to have a go, but he shook his head. “Nah, I’m tired from just looking at you! Let’s do something else” he smiled, taking her hand again, but this time he didn’t have to pull and she went along willingly.

They played a shooting game, and then a fighting game, and one game where they had to toss mini basketballs into a net in under a minute, at which they both failed horribly, and before long, Insook was laughing too and had completely forgotten about how bad she’d been feeling all day.

“Is there one more floor up?” she asked, seeing some girls step on the escalator, chatting happily.

“Oh yeah but it’s just those photo-sticker booth thingies…” said the boy with a shrug.

“Purikura?”*

He nodded.

A big grin appeared on her face and she pulled him towards the escalator before he could say anything. 10 minutes later, they were coming back down again, each holding a sheet of shiny sticker photos of themselves striking ridiculous poses. 

“Omg, look at this one!!” she said, pointing to a tiny square photo where Taehyung had gone up way too close to the camera. She was laughing so hard, there were actually tears coming out of her eyes, “we can literally see up your nose!!”

“Pfft… it’s called art. I’ll have you know, in some countries people kill to have such beautiful nostrils as I do…” replied V in a huffy tone, causing her to laugh even more.

They made their way back to the first floor, and Insook noticed a row of UFO-catcher machines, that she’d missed when they’d first come in since she was too busy being depressed. But now she ran up to one, squealing “hello kitty!!” as she pressed her hands against the glass, eyes wide like a 5y.o. little girl.

V trotted up behind her and smiled at her childish expression. “You wanna play?”

Her eyes went sad with longing, staring at the plushies inside the machine as she shook her head, “No… I really bad at these… but… hello kittyyyyy…..”

V laughed.

“Alright then, move over,” he said, shooing her away so he could put some coins in the machine.”

The black-haired girl looked at him in surprise.

“Watch this!” he said cockily, as he took control of the crane and aimed for one of the toys at the front.

Well, he didn’t get it on the first try. Nor the third. And he had to put more coins into the machine after the 5^th, but even as she begged him to stop, his determination made Insook laugh. Finally, on the 9^th try, a stuffed toy came tumbling out of the flap-gate and he triumphantly handed it over to the teenage girl, who squealed in delight.

V smiled a cute little eye-smile at her. “You should always smile like this. I like you much better when you’re happy.”

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* purikura is the japanese name. I don't know the korean term for it. If anyone knows, please tell me and I'll fix it!