Chapter 33 – Playing Pretend

Thursday passed by in a blur. Insook didn’t absorb anything her teachers said that day, and she was so bad a remembering her speech during lunchtime practice with V that he insisted they get together that night to practice some more, to which she distractedly agreed.

After homeroom ended, she gathered her things at snail pace, and thus was one of the last ones to leave the room. She wasn’t really paying attention and didn’t notice Rapmon, who was standing right outside the classroom, waiting for her, so she walked right past him on her way out. He had to run after her and tap her on the shoulder to make her look up.

“Yo! What am I invisible?!” he called out, half-jokingly, but Insook’s face only registered intense nervousness as she realized he was standing there.

“Namjoon, I’m sorry, I don’t have time right now I gotta go.”

She turned around to make a run for it as soon as the words had left , but he grabbed her wrist just in time and muttered “No you don’t…”

“Namjoon, seriously…” she pleaded.

A couple of people in the hallway turned to give them curious looks, and Rapmon, noticing that, said “let’s go over here.” and dragged her back into her classroom, which was now mostly empty.

“What?” she asked in an annoyed tone, as soon as he let go of her.

“You’ve been avoiding me all day.”

“No I haven’t,” she lied.

He corked an eyebrow, but she stood by her words.

He leaned in a little closer, so that people wouldn’t hear what he said and asked “don’t you think we should talk about yesterday?”

“There’s nothing to talk about…” she said. “You were stupid; I was stupid… it’s all just a big bucket of stupid and let’s just… urgh. Seriously. It’s fine.” She finished, hoping that had made some kind of sense to the blonde boy.

“So you’re still coming tonight then?” he asked, hopefully.

“No.”

“Then it’s not fine.” he sulked.

“That has nothing to do with it!” she snapped, tiredly, “I gotta meet up with V to practice our skit for tomorrow. It’s the last chance we got, and to be honest, we really need it, cuz we .” she finished with a little sarcastic chuckle.

He peered at her suspiciously and asked, “So you’re not avoiding me…”

“No.” she answered flatly. Though of course, she was.

He looked at her like he still didn’t really believe it, but decided not to push the point anymore.

“Can I go now? You know V’s gonna get pissy if I’m too late…”

And then without waiting for his consent, she pushed past him and hurried out the door.

***

V’s house was small and homey; she liked it right away. In a way, it rather reminded her of Soonja’s house. The living room was cluttered, and full of pictures of happy-looking people she assumed to be his family engaged in various activities. V never talked about his family, so she’d assumed he wasn’t close with them, but looking at the pictures, she thought that she’d guessed wrong.

“Who’s that?” she asked, pointing at a pretty girl who looked around their age in one picture.

“Oh that’s my sister, Inah. She’s away at school now. She’s going to university in Japan.” he explained, dismissively.

“Oh wow, she must be smart.” she commented, following him as he led her into the hallway.

“Not really,” he shrugged, “she just went there cuz she likes Japanese fashion…”

Insook just nodded and followed him as he started climbing stairs to the second floor.

“This is my room. We can study here.” he said, stopping in front of the second on the left and motioning that she could go in first.

V’s room was also cluttered full of stuff. There was a single bed, with a plaid comforter, pushed in the corner under a window, and a desk with a computer on it, on which rested a huge mess of books and papers. Several bookshelves lined the walls, filled with random knick-knacks, from anime figurines, to books, to sports equipment, and there was a TV in a corner to which was connected an old PS3 and a DVD player, that just lied on the floor in a mess of wires. There was a dresser on the other side, with more character figures on top of it, and a laundry basket from which was hanging a pair of sweatpants in the corner. All in all, it was a very V-like room.

Insook, surveyed her surroundings in amusement, before realizing this was the first time she’d actually been into a boy’s room. If it had been anybody other than V, she might have worried, but as it was, she was just happy he trusted her enough to bring her into his own little world. She sat down on the bed and he came to sit down indian-style on the floor in front of her.

“Sooo…. Is it ok with your parents that I’m here?”

“Oh, they’re not home, so it’s fine.”

“Mom’s visiting my grandma right now, cuz she’s sick, and dad’s away on a business trip.” he answered, matter-of-factly; flashing her a little happy smile as he did.

She smiled back at him, but felt a sudden little stab of warning in her stomach. Being completely alone with a boy in his house – even if the boy was man-child Kim Taehyung – was a totally different situation than what she’d anticipated.

She got up from the bed and walked over to the dresser, and started poking at his figurines. “I guess you really like One Piece, huh?” she called out, not turning back to look at him.

“Yeah, it’s the best!” he answered.

When she turned back to look at him, she found him stretched out on his back on the floor, hands behind his head, grinning at her.

“What are you doing?!” she gwaffed.

“Looking at you” he replied, smirking.

“Well get up” she said, walking over and nudging him in the stomach with her foot, “we should get started.”

“Aaahh… alright” he agreed, grudgingly getting up.

So they started practicing their skit. First, just reading the lines over while sitting down, and then standing up, using the open space in the room as if that was their stage. Insook couldn’t help cracking up when V did something funny, and he kept telling her to focus, and that she should make sure she didn’t laugh during the actual presentation.

Around 6:30, V’s stomach started growling loudly and Insook laughed at him. He suggested that they take a break to eat and keep going afterwards, so Insook called her mom to let her know she wouldn’t be home she wouldn’t be home for dinner. However, since V couldn’t even make toast without burning it, they decided to order pizza, so Insook had to listen to his stomach growling for 30 more minutes.

They killed time by starting a movie on his TV, and kept watching it as they ate once the pizza got delivered. It was already nearly 8pm before Insook snapped out of it and reminded him that they should probably get back to work.

They kept practicing, and it was around 9:30 when V finally nodded, after a final run-through, declaring that he thought they were ready for the big show.

Insook let herself plop down backwards on his bed, and extended her arms in a cross, in pretend exhaustion.

V laughed and said, “Come on, it wasn’t that hard…”

“Aaah… I’m so tired, I don’t think I can move…” she joked, dramatically lifting her arm and letting it flop back down.

“Well, I have no problems with that, but if you stay here, you’ll have to share the bed…” he teased, smirking at her.

Insook’s playful mood evaporated as panic settled in its place.

“Relax,” V laughed, “I’m kidding” he added, sitting on the bed, next to her feet, and grabbing one to give it a shake.

“Aaaah! Don’t tickle me!” she squealed, and that comment only made V laugh and ACTUALLY start tickling her, so she squirmed on the bed, almost kicking him a few times and begging him to stop.

“You gotta say the magic word…” said V, teasingly.

“Pleaaaase! V, please stop!!”

“That’s not the magic word…” he laughed.

“Oh, come on!!”

“The magic word is, ‘please, oh great and mighty Kim Taehyung, please release me from your beautiful and graceful embrace’”

“Wtf is that?!” she laughed, and he just tickled her harder.

“Aaaah!!! Please… please great Kim Taehyung,” she chuckled, “please stop!!”

“Hmm… I guess that’ll do…” he paused, thoughtfully, and she took it as her cue to jump off the bed, as far away from him as she could without leaving the room.

“You are one evil bast*rd” she said, still panting, and his only reply was to grin evilly and wriggle his eyebrow, so she had to laugh.

Insook fetched her phone and saw that it was already 10pm, so she exclaimed, “Oh crap, I got to go…”

“Already?” asked the boy, sounding disappointed as he glanced at the clock, and then back at her.

She chuckled. “I’ve stayed here much longer than I’d planned to already.”

Insook shouldered her backpack and walked over to V, who still sat on the bed, flashing her an exaggerated pout.

She flicked his protruding lip with a finger, and when he looked up at her, she said, “It was fun. Even if it was for school, I had a good time.”

His expression turned to an eye-smile and he grabbed each of her hands in his and said, “Thank you for coming, Insookie.”

She laughed, and was going to reply something, but it got lost along the way as she looked at his smiling face. He was looking at her so cutely, yet for some reason, her heart rate was accelerating as she stared into his eyes. Soon he dropped her hands – though still holding onto them – and was staring back at her with just as much intensity.

Then Insook gave herself a little shake and looked away; and, releasing herself from his grasp, she said, “I should go… will you see me out?”

He nodded and jumped up from the bed.

They retraced their steps back to the front door, and once they were there, Insook thanked him for the pizza and the fun evening. He asked if she needed him to walk her back to the station, but she told him she could manage by herself, so he said his goodbyes and held out the door open for her.

“Bye,” she told him one last time, before crossing over the threshold.

V waved, and she started walking away, but suddenly she stopped, shocked, feeling his arms embrace her from behind.

“Insookie…” he said, whispering into her hair, and suddenly she couldn’t breathe.

Her heart was beating so fast, “V…” she whispered.

“I know… I know…” he said, holding on with his eyes closed, “I’m waiting…”

The argument she had been about to use died on her lips.

“Just… please… let me stay like this a little longer…”