Chapter 32 – Don’t Do That
 

Insook almost didn’t show up to lunch practice on Wednesday. Though her anger had died down, she felt really awkward about having to interact with V today. Still, with only two days left before their presentation, she knew they really had to practice, therefore she had no choice but to head to the bleachers after dallying at her locker a bit longer than necessary.

V was already there when she arrived, sitting stiffly on the first bleacher step and playing nervously with something in his hands. He stood up instantly the minute he saw her approach, and gave her an unsure, repenting look as she closed the last few steps between them.

“You came…” he said, in a voice that said he hadn’t thought she would.

The teenage girl sighed and looked at the ground, “Yeah well… we have to practice, so…”

“Insook-ah… I’m sorry.”

She looked up and his eyes seemed so sincere that her remaining irritation melted away instantly.

“Here!” he said, trusting at her the object he’d been holding in his hands.

She looked down at it, and realized it was a stuffed toy. Probably the single ugliest stuffed toy she had ever seen in her life, and her face scrunched up in the funniest expression as she tried to figure out what it was supposed to be. A carrot? A rabbit?

“What the heck is this?” she exclaimed, a small sardonic laugh escaping her lips.

“I wanted to get you that Hello Kitty one from last time, but they removed the machine so I got you that one instead. It’s a present. To say I’m sorry.”

She stared at him in bewilderment as he explained. On the one hand, the gesture itself was really touching, on the other, how on earth had he thought she would like it?

“It’s so ugly!” she laughed.

“You don’t like it?” he asked, his face falling.     

“What is it even supposed to be??” she wondered, making a face at it while she still chuckled.

“Well fine then, give it back it you don’t like it” he retorted, making a motion to grab it out of her hands, but she swiftly pulled away from him.

“No.” she replied, immediately, “I’ll keep it.”

He raised his eyebrows up questioningly, not understanding her behavior, and just watched as she used the little strap it came with to tie it onto her schoolbag.

“There.” she said, with a satisfied nod, and then looking back at him, “I accept your apology.

And V smiled.

***

After school, Jungkook ran through the doors to catch up to Jimin and J-Hope who were walking towards the gates, chatting together easily.

“Hyyuuuuuuuuuuuuuung!!!!” he shouted, jumping at Jimin and nearly making his backpack fall off his shoulder.

Jimin turned around with a flustered expression as Jungkook flashed him a toothy grin. “You didn’t forget about me, did you?” asked the younger boy, his face looking both adorable a threatening at the same time… it was a skill that only Jungkook seemed to possess.

“Of course not, Jungkookie,” Jimin gave out a dorky, shy laugh that made J-Hope chuckle quietly, “but we said to meet us at 6pm and gave you the address already.”

“I know, I know… but we’re all together already, can’t we go now?!!” asked the black haired boy.

“Aigo…” exclaimed the eldest boy, “look at this friend, so excited to get started…” he laughed, as Jungkook flashed them another massive grin. “I guess we could go earlier… I’m sure nobody’s there anyways…”

“But Hobiiii…” moaned Jimin, with a little pout, upset that his afternoon plans with his new lover had just been postponed, and Hoseok just clucked at him.

Jungkook raised an eyebrow and asked “What, did you guys have something before?”

To which Jimin answered “yes” and J-Hope answered “no” at exactly the same time, before casting each other a worried look, which made the younger boy even more puzzled.

“I mean,” said J-Hope, throwing an arm around his younger friend as they walked, “we did have plans, but it’s not a big deal. Let’s go show you how to dance.”

And Jungkook’s suspicions died away as he hooted in delight. Jimin lagged a little behind, making faces at their backs before catching up to them, trying not to sulk.

After they’d arrived at the studio – which was indeed empty – J-Hope set up the music to a smooth repetitive beat, and after a short stretching sessions, started teaching them a few basic moves, explaining “once you know these ones, it becomes a lot easier to understand more complicated dances.”

After they’d mastered those, he put all the moves together in a sequence, in varied order and went “See? Now it looks really cool, but it’s just basically the same 5 steps that we’ve joined together in different ways.”

“Oooh…” Jungkook nodded eagerly, and Jimin had to laugh – that boy could be so focused when he was actually interested in something.

They practiced a little more, and then J-Hope went to the sound system to change the music.

“Alright then, since you say you’re ready, this is a song Rapmon put together a little while back… I made a dance to it. Wanna see?”

He looked up to see both his friends nodding eagerly and smiled. He hit play and made his way to the center of the room, gesturing for them to clear the floor so he’d have space. Then he launched into this really cool, really complicated dance that broke into 3 parts.

“Wow!” breathed Jungkook as the song ended and Hoseok stood motionless in the center of the room, holding his final pose. After a moment,the older boy looked up and flashed him a huge grin. Then he looked at Jimin and winked, before walking over to the wall to grab his bottle of water.

“Think you can do that?” asked J-Hope, looking very cool after having taken a few gulps of water.

“Uhhhh….” answered Junkook, and Jimin laughed and grabbed him by the shoulders from behind, pushing him towards the center of the room.

J-Hope regained his position as well and started going through the steps one by one. Jimin followed along easily enough, but Jungkook obviously struggled a lot more, and after an hour, he was already lying down on the floor, panting.

“Had enough?” asked Jimin, squatting next to him and grinning down at him.

Jungkook shoved him away, making him fall on his and laugh, and muttered, “Just, gimme time to catch my breath…”

“Hmm… I guess this is the problem,” said Hoseok, thoughtfully.

“What?” asked the youngest, opening his eyes to look in his direction.

“You learn quickly, but you’ve got no endurance…” said the oldest, walking over to them.

“So what should I do?” asked Jungkook, so pitifully that J-Hope had to laugh.

“Build it up. Running’s good.” shrugged the elder. “Or keep practicing by yourself, maybe.”

“By myself?”

J-Hope nodded, but seeing the frightened expression on Jungkook’s face he let out a small chuckle and nudged him on the shoulder. “Hey don’t worry kid, we’re not getting rid of you” he said with a friendly smile, “it’s just that there’s only so much we can do if you fall to the floor after barely one hour…”

“Barely one hour…” repeated Jungkook, letting his head fall back down with a moan.

“Tell you what. I’m gonna give you a mission.” said Hoseok, straightening up.

“A mission?”

The older boy nodded. “You work out by yourself for a week, building up your endurance, and then, once the tests are over, we’ll get back together and start practicing again. If you can withstand a full practice session without falling down, I’ll ask Rapmonie to let us perform this dance together at the club next time.

“Hyung, for real?!” cried out Jungkook, sitting right back up, and the other nodded, trying not to crack up.

“Alright!!” exclaimed the boy, cheerfully, jumping up to his feet in one swift movement.

Jimin and J-Hope turned to look at each other and laughed.

“Ok, I’ll definitely do it!”

“Well, we’ll leave you to it then…” said Hoseok, walking over to the wall and shouldering his backpack.

“You’re leaving?” asked the kid, making a distraught puppy face.

“Didn’t I just say one week by yourself?” Hoseok raised an eyebrow and Jungkook went “Aaahh…”

Jimin chuckled, not saying a word, and followed his boyfriend out the door. After closing it behind them, they waited a bit and peered back through the glass, to see that Kookie had already started practicing again.

“This kid….” said Jimin, sounding like a proud dad, even though Jungkook was only a year younger than him, “he’ll do well.”

“Mmm…” agreed Hoseok, “Come on, let’s go.”

They started walking out of the studio and Jimin said, “Still, wasn’t that kinda mean? We coulda stayed and helped him out a bit more…”

“Jimin,” said Hoseok, flatly, “why do you think I did that??”

Jimin turned to look at him with a clueless expression and Hoseok shook his head and chuckled in response.

“Weren’t you the one who had all these big plans for the afternoon, before he came and interrupted??”

Jimin just stared at him with the same face for a second and then went, “oh…..… OOOOOH!!”

***

Meanwhile, Insook and Rapmon were yet again sitting on his living room couch, studying for their finals. They’d actually broadened their repertoire from just Chemistry to also include Korean, English, and History, since they seemed to be working so well together, and Rapmon was actually a pretty good study partner.

They’d been at it for about an hour when Rapmon stretched, letting out a huge yawn, and said “Aaahh, let’s take a break.”

Insook chuckled, and agreed while bending down to pick up her bag from the floor, and retrieving her cell phone from it.

“What’s that ugly- thing?” asked Rapmon, pointing at the plushie hanging from her schoolbag, making a face.

“Oh that?” she laughed, “V gave it to me earlier today.”

“He did, huh?” he mumbled, more to himself than to her so she didn’t reply.

They carried on with their review exercises, answering them together and trying to explain their reasoning to each other, and it was all going pretty well until he suddenly interrupted again, asking out of the blue, “so are you guys dating?”

Insook was at first confused by the question, because she had already disconnected from the previous conversation to focus on the task at hand, but when she realized what he was referring to, she blinked in shocked surprise, and stuttered to answer.

“I didn’t catch that.” said the blond boy next to her, smirking a little.

“Technically, no….”

“Oh, technically?” he raised an eyebrow, and Insook wished he didn’t look so y while making fun of her.

“Yeaaaah….”

Rapmon tapped his pencil on his paper mindlessly, thinking about something, then suddenly asked,

“Does he know that?”

Insook stared at him in awkward silence and then looked away.

“He wants to be more…” she finally answered, not looking at him.

Silence.

“And you don’t?”

More silence.

“I don’t know…” she admitted, looking down at her hands.

“Why not? He’s a good kid….” He said that last part in a somewhat melancholic voice, and the ‘unlike me’ part hung in the air, unspoken.

She looked up at him, eyes widening, and bit on her lip.

“Don’t do that” he said, his tone suddenly deep and serious as he looked back at her with just as much intensity.

“Do what?” she whispered, unaware of what she had done.

“Bite your lip” he said, bringing his thumb to and brushing her bottom lip with his finger.

“Don’t you know how y that is?”

Insook’s heart did triple somersaults in her chest and she couldn’t look away.

“You don’t do that” she scolded him, finally breaking eye-contact as she smacked his hand away.

“Do what??” he was genuinely surprised.

“You say you want to be friends but you keep doing this to me… don’t you know I like you?! Liked you?! Urgh… I don’t even ing know….. AND THIS IS WHY!!!” she stood up, staring him down accusingly.

“Insook, I’m sorry, I…”

“Ask me again. Why V and I aren’t dating?”

“Eh?”

She stared at him defiantly

“… cuz… of me?” His face showed open shock.

She stared, eyes threatening to tear up and bit on her lip again, before saying “I should go…”

“I said don’t do that…” he growled.

He got up and took a step towards her; he was so much taller than her when they were just standing next to each other like this.

“You can’t just go bossing people around to get your wish…” she said in a weak voice, not looking at him – and he tilted her chin up to make her look at him.

“Says who?” he teased, raising an eyebrow cockily, but he was 100% serious.

He leaned down with that look of serious intent and brought his lips to hers. In a fleeting moment of absurd clarity, Insook wondered what had happened to her life in the last few weeks that everyone was suddenly kissing her, but the thought was smashed right out of her head as his tongue entered .

Every time Rapmon kissed her, it was like some kind of attack. He bit on her lip and pursued the kiss, bringing his hands up around her waist and pulling her close to him. She kissed him back, infected by his fire, and for a few seconds they were just entangled limbs and lips and tongues as she let her raw emotions take control.

But then she pushed him back, gasping as if she had forgotten to breathe, and they both looked at each other, eyes filled with nearly equal amounts of lust and shock.

“I should go,” she mumbled, and went to grab her bag, but he grabbed her arm, stopping her.

“Don’t.”

She looked up at him sadly and said, “I can’t do this right now… every time you kiss me, it’s like you’re reacting to something else… I… I can’t…” and he dropped her arm as she hastily bent to gather her things and ran away.

Rapmon stood there, trying to register what had just happened, running a finger through his hair, before finally whispering to himself:

“…”