Chapter 34 – Frowns and Giggles

Soonja looked up from wiping a table as the bell chimed, and smiled when she saw Rapmon walk in. His face lit up as soon as he spotted her and he made a beeline for her as she stretched up to greet him.

“Hey there,” he said, just as cockily as ever, “Table for one, please.”

She rolled her eyes, playfully, and motioned to the table she’d just been wiping.

“I’ll go get you a menu…” she said, starting to head for the greeting station, but he stopped her, saying “just bring me something good.”

She rolled her eyes again and headed for the back.

Rapmon took out his phone and started playing with it.

She came back a few minutes later to deposit a bunch of side dishes in front of him and he looked up.

“No fancy notebooks today?” she asked him.

“Nah… I’m not really in the mood…” he shrugged.

She raised an eyebrow at him, but left him to his food and went back to her duties. Maybe an hour later, she came back and sat down at the seat in front of him.

“Oh?” he said, looking up at her questioningly.

“I mean it’s no fun if you’re not even trying…” she said, a little sulkily.

“Trying?” he repeated.

“To get my attention” she said, giving him a tiny glimpse of a smile.

“Oh”, he chuckled, and gave her a greasy smirk.

“There’s the Crapmonster that I know!” she said, and he laughed, with a slight eye roll. “So come on, what’s on your mind?” she asked, leaning back and crossing her arms below her chest, “I have time.”

Rapmon looked around and noticed that the place was pretty empty again. It was weird; sometimes he’d come in and it was packed; others, it’d be completely dead. And it didn’t seem to matter which day of the week it was either.

“Ahh, I guess I’m just stressed about the tests…” he said, shrugging.

“You too? Damn…”

“You don’t seem too worried.”

“That’s cuz I’m not.” she replied, “My school is weird. We only have 2 semesters. So I won’t have finals til October.” She explained.

“Oh wow, that sounds nice.”

“Meh” she shrugged.

“So why did you say ‘you too’?”

“Well, Sookie’s going stir crazy as well…” the pretty girl waved a hand in the air as if she thought it was silly.

“She is?” he said, surprised.

“Yeah. I haven’t seen her all week.”

“She blew me off tonight as well. We were supposed to study together…” he said with a strangely dejected expression that puzzled Soonja.

“Oh well don’t feel bad, she’s probably cramming at home. You know her folks let her do pretty much whatever she wants, but they’re pretty demanding when it comes to tests grades…”

“Oh really? Her family’s like that?” he asked, suddenly interested.

“Uhh” Soonja agreed with a shrug, “anyways, it’s not l-”

“But no she didn’t go home.” he said, interrupting her as she was about to change the subject.

“She didn’t?”

“I guess she didn’t tell you… she went off with V” he went on, unable to completely hide the jealousy from his voice.

“Oh well, good for them.” replied Soonja, failing to see why that seemed to annoying him so much.

This was obviously not the answer he’d been expecting, so he seemed to rethink what he was gonna say and then blurted out, “Are they dating?”

“How should I know?” replied the tall girl, starting to get annoyed that this whole conversation seemed to revolve around Insook.

“Well you’re her best friend…”

“Yeah but I just told you I haven’t seen her all week.” she replied, growing more irritated, “They’re not. As far as I know”

Rapmon looked away, thoughtfully.

“Although they did have that one date on Saturday.” she added as an afterthought.

“They what?!” he exclaimed, surprising her.

She looked at him like he was acting really weird and said “They had a date. In Myeongdong. Shopping, sharing binsu. Innocent sh*t. You know they’re both like little kids… though I heard there was hand-holdage…” she finished the last part chuckling.

She turned back to look at Rapmon and stopped chuckling when she saw he was frowning.

“What?” she asked.

“Nothing.” he replied, not even looking at her.

She gave him a raised eyebrow, accompanied by an unimpressed ‘b*tch-face’, but he didn’t even look up to see it. Instead he just said, “You know, I’m not really that hungry today… I’ll just take the bill.”

“Fine!” she snapped, standing up suddenly and casting him a really pissed-off look before walking away towards the register.

The boy looked up, confused, but then just shrugged and got up to go pay.

***

It was quiet in the Jung household. Except for the one bedroom at the back of the house. From the hallway, as soon as she walked in, J-Hope’s sister could hear squeals and giggles coming from inside her brother’s room, even though it was the last one down the hall. Curious, since her brother almost never invited friends over anymore, she trotted down the wall so she could spy on him.

Inside the room, said brother was busy tickling Jimin mercilessly. And though the younger boy was begging him to stop, he didn’t seem to mind too much. What started out as a harmless study session had quickly turned into a heavy make-out session, and just now devolved into a childish tickle-fest.

“Hyuuuuuuung!!!!” screamed the younger boy, in between peals of laughter, “Stoooooop!!!”

“If you want me to stop, you gotta give me a kiss” teased Hoseok, smiling down at him with a predatory look.

Jimin clamped his lips shut in an exaggerated manner and shook his head to indicate he wouldn’t give in, but then opened them right up again to let out another squeal as his persecution continued.

Neither of them noticed the bedroom door open until Hoseok’s sister coughed politely, and then they both looked up – Jimin with a look of utter terror, and Hoseok with a look of sheer fear, that soon transformed to guilty embarrassment when he recognized his sister. They quickly straightened up as she raised an eyebrow and gave them a little amused smile.

“I just thought you should know that we can pretty much hear you guys all the way from outside” she said, trying to keep a straight face as Jimin blanched visibly. “I think I don’t need to tell you what would happen if had been mom and dad finding you like this instead of me…”

Hoseok’s look of fear was back in an instant and he gulped before asking in a little voice, “they’re not back though, are they?!”

She shook her head and he let out the breath he’d been holding in.

“No.” she said, but it’s nearly 11pm, I’m sure they’ll be back any moment now…”

“Holy crap, is it really?!” exclaimed Jimin, looking at his watch to realize that, indeed it was. “I should get home…” he muttered, jumping off the bed and scrambling to gather his things, to Hoseok and his sister’s amusement.

“Ah yes,” said Hoseok, teasingly, “forever the good little son...”

“Shut up” Jimin snapped back at him.

“What a way to address your hyung…” scolded the older boy, with a little “tsssk”.

Jimin gave him a flat look as he zipped up his backpack and stood up. “I’m really sorry about this…” he added to his sister, giving her a little bow, and she chuckled.

“Is he always this cute?” she turned to ask her brother, who laughed in response.

“No,” said the dark-haired boy, and then he added, looking at Jimin and winking, “he’s usually much cuter…”

“Hyuuuung….” whined Jimin, in such a childishly embarrassed way that both Jung siblings started laughing.

“Alright Jiminie… I’ll see you out.” said Hoseok, hopping off the bed and coming to meet him.

“It was nice meeting you again, Jimin.” said the girl, giving him a little wink, making Jimin think, ‘those two are definitely related...’ He gave her another little bow and walked out the door, followed by Hoseok.

“Hyung,” he whispered once they were out of earshot, “are you gonna be ok?”

Hoseok looked surprised but then he smiled. “You mean my sister? Don’t worry about it. She’s known I like boys since I was 13.”

“Really? You knew from such a young age?!”

Hoseok smiled at Jimin’s shocked and tender expression; the boy was looking so adorably innocent that he wanted to take him in his arms right then and there. But instead he just smiled, ruffled his dongsaeng’s head, and kept walking towards the door.

They said their goodbyes, exchanging a quick little kiss after making sure that Hoseok’s sister was nowhere to be seen, and then he sent Jimin on his way with a little pat on the .

Once Jimin’s shape had gotten so small that he pretty much couldn’t see him anymore, Hoseok closed the door and turned around to find his sister standing right there next to him.

He let out a little spooked scream, jumping about a feet away. “Jeez, don’t do that!” he said, clutching his heart, and she laughed.

“You guys seem to be doing well…” she smirked.

Hobi shrugged nonchalantly.

“I thought he was straight??” she went on, raising an eyebrow questioningly.

“Not for me, I guess.” he replied cockily, flashing her a little grin and a wink before strutting off towards his bedroom.

Hoseok’s sister shook her head, but she was smiling. She was glad to finally see her baby brother so happy.