Chapter 5 – Getting to Know You

As she walked into class on Monday morning, Insook noticed V sitting at a desk near the windows, head lying over his crossed arms, sleeping. She walked up and took the seat right in front of him, careful not to drag her chair in case she’d wake him up, and turned back to look at him. She smiled, seeing him sleeping there peacefully like a baby angel. Her phone buzzed in her bag and she bent down to pick it up, hoping it might be a mail from Rapmon, but it was just a text message from her mom, reminding her to take the laundry down when she came home from school, so she ignored it and put her phone back in her bag. When she looked back at Taehyung, he was yawning, stretching his arms as wide as they could go. He rubbed his eyes, blinked a few times, and then looked up, giving her a sleepy eye-smile.

“Did you sleep well?” he asked her.

 “What?” she laughed, “You are the one who was just sleeping!”

“I meant yesterday,” he said, rubbing his eyes with one hand and somehow making it look terribly adorable, “after the party.”

 “Oh,” said Insook, “yeah, I did. I slept almost all day!”

“That’s good.” he smiled sleepily.

He blinked and then just stared at her intensely, as if he’d forgotten what he was going to say next and was trying to remember, but then suddenly just let out a huge yawn. Insook held back a chuckle.

“aaaaaaaaahhh….!!” He grumbled, frantically messing up his hair with one hand, “Going to this party screwed up my whole sleep pattern!! I couldn’t fall asleep til late last night, and now I’m so sleepy!!” he whined.

Insook bit on her lip to keep herself from laughing. “That’s really too bad…”

“Yeah” he nodded, “but that’s ok, I’m glad I went because I could meet you.”

His mouth split into a childlike grin, with his eyes crinkling into little half-moons, and Insook was shocked that he’d just said that so casually – and with a straight face – but somehow she didn’t doubt the veracity of his words at all. She was surprised, but kind of happy too. She hadn’t really had a friend at school up until now. And just then, she thought that, maybe, V could become that friend.

***

Later that day, as Insook was taking her things out of her bag and putting them on the table in front of her in Chemistry class, Namjoon suddenly appeared and plopped down on the seat next to her.

“What are you doing?” she asked him, curiously.

“I thought we could work together again since your partner’s not here” he said with a small smile.

“I don’t have a partner” she retorted.

“You don’t?” he asked confused.

“Nope,” she said, and gestured around the room with one finger, “odd number of students.”

“aahh… I see”

“Besides, don’t you have a partner already?” she asked, pointing with her chin at a guy sitting by himself, a few tables ahead.

“I’d rather do it with you” winked the blonde boy.

She tensed up and started fussing with her textbook, not knowing what to reply.

“Can we study together again today?” he went on, ignoring her silence.

 “I thought you were getting it after last time?”

“Yeah, but... It doesn’t hurt to make sure…” he added the last part with a secretive little smile.

 “………………okay” answered Insook after a long pause, trying to cover her shock.

 “Alright then, my place, same time” said Rapmonster, standing up. And then he clucked his tongue, making little “bang! bang!” gun motions at her with his hands before walking back to his seat and she stared at him in awe, wondering how someone could be so hot and yet act so stupid at the same time.

***

The drama clubroom was located on the 6^th floor. It was the last in a series of old classrooms that hadn’t been used in decades. Most of the other rooms on this floor were now simply used as storage spaces for old books, toys, and school supplies, but some 10-odd years ago, a motivated group of students who were really into theater had appropriated this one as their practice grounds. It also had an added benefit – being in a recluse corner of the school, they could be as loud as they wanted and no one really cared. It was still littered with old desks and school knick-knacks, but over the years, it had acquired a bunch of mismatched couches, a large table, a darts board and even a mini-fridge. So, even after the drama group had become an officially school-sanctioned club, the members had kept on using this room because it held an odd kinda charm and familiarity to it. At the front of the room, previous students had erected a makeshift stage, complete with curtains and stage lights, so it really made it the perfect place to rehearse, short of an actual auditorium.

Jimin and Jungkook sat chatting on a moth-eaten flowery couch at the back of the room, while V and some other students were on stage, trying out a scene for the play they had decided to perform at the school festival.

“No, I don’t think that’s gonna work…” said Jin, who was sitting at a desk in front of the stage, looking over the small group with a considering eye.

The two people on the stage stopped talking.

“How would you do it then?” asked the girl with short brown hair who was standing next to V.

Jin got out of his seat and jumped on the stage.

“I think it would work better if you were sitting over there when he comes in,” he said, dragging the girl over to a chair on the right side of the stage, “and V, when you come in, don’t look at her.”

He jumped off the stage and resumed his position at the desk while they tried out the scene with his modifications, and everyone agreed that it worked much better that way. Jin gave them a shy but proud smile, and the pair got off the stage, to be replaced by another group of students for the next scene.

The girl came to sit down next to Jin to watch them, but V walked to the back of the room, over to Jimin and Jungkook, who were still sitting on the couch, not paying attention.

“Yah! Are you two planning on being in this play or not?” he scolded them.

Both boys looked up at Taehyung who stood there, hand on his hips, but he looked so incongruous, trying to be severe, that they couldn’t help cracking up.

“It’s not our scene yet” whined the youngest, trying to keep from laughing out loud.

“Still, you should watch with the others…” reproached V, though the anger had completely dropped from his voice and now he just sounded annoyed.

He was about to say something else when a voice coming from the entrance made him turn around.

“Is this the drama club room?” J-Hope’s head popped halfway through the doorway and the boy looked around, smiling as he spotted them, “oh hey!!”

He strutted inside with a big smile on his face and stopped next to the trio. “Found you!!” he beamed, “You know this place is really hard to find??” he asked to no one in particular.

“Oh hey, hyung!” called Jimin, happily. “What’s up? You were looking for us?”

“For you, kiddo” he winked at the brown-haired boy on the couch, “You didn’t forget that we promised Namjoon we’d prepare something for this weekend, did you?”

“Of course not!” exclaimed Jimin, “but I didn’t think he really meant it…”

“’course he did. So we should practice. But since you’re busy now, how about tomorrow?” asked the senior.

“I’m not busy now!” exclaimed Jimin, which earned him a smack on the head from Taehyung and caused J-Hope to laugh.

“Tomorrow’s fine. Rapmon and I will be rehearsing at Suga’s place after school, so if you can just meet us there around 6pm, that’d be great.”

“Okay!” Jimin nodded vigorously, which made J-Hope smile again.

“Alright then,” he added, re-shouldering his backpack, “I guess I’ll see you then.” and he gave them a little wave before leaving and closing the door behind him.

“Oh my god Jimin, you’re really gonna do a performance with BTS!” squealed Jungkook, bouncing on the couch and grabbing his friend’s hand, “This is so cool!!”

“I know!!!” retorted Jimin, just as excitedly, before being interrupted by V’s extremely annoyed voice.

“Can we focus, please?!?”

***

Later that day, Insook stood once again on Namjoon’s doorstep, readying herself to ring the doorbell. She’d decided to go home and change first this time, and was now standing there, with her school bag, in a pair of blue jeans and a white t-shirt under a pink hoodie. It wasn’t really the kind of attire that screamed “please ravage me”, but it was the best she could do with her mediocre resources. Besides her school uniform, the only clothes she owned were sweatpants and hoodies. At least she’d made an effort with her hair, and it now hung in smooth black curtains on either side of her face, instead of her usual messy ponytail.

Taking a deep breath, she pushed the buzzer.

Namjoon came to open the door a few seconds later. He was still wearing his red sweatpants, but unlike last time, he’d paired them with a red-and-black soccer shirt, and had pulled his hair back with a red towelly sports headband. It gave him an unusually bum-ish air and made Insook smile as he welcomed her in.

“The kitchen is kind of a mess today, so let’s study in here.” he said, leading her into the living room.

He bade her to sit down on the couch while he went to get them some drinks, so she took a minute to look around. Again, it seemed like a pretty normal living room: two grey couches around a sleek coffee table, and a dresser on the side with some family pictures propped up on them; a large screen tv on the back wall, and several shelves full of movies and cds. The only thing that was unusual was the enormous sound system in the corner, and an actual record player, with a big pile of discs next to it. She was curious about it, but didn’t want to be rude so she just started unpacking her things. Soon, Namjoon came back with two glasses of cold tea, which he placed on the table in front of them before sitting down.

“Shall we get started?” she asked, uncomfortably, not knowing what to do with herself.

He nodded, “’k, let’s do it.”

She opened her notebook and started going over what they’d studied that day. Studying like this was definitely cozier than when they’d been in the kitchen. Insook was acutely aware of his knee resting against hers, and every time he went to grab his glass, he’d bend his whole body across the table and would end up brushing against her in the process. She thought all these touches must be accidental, but a small part of her wondered if he wasn’t really doing all those things on purpose. Either way, it made focusing on the task at hand incredibly difficult for the teenage girl. But she tried her best and they managed to go through the entire lesson’s contents without too much trouble.

“…So, that’s why the metal reacts that way.” She finished her explanation and turned to him, realizing that he was staring at her, rather intensely.

“What?” the word just escaped her lips and she wanted to kick herself for it.

“Did you change your hair?” he asked, tilting his head with an almost-smirk playing on his lips.

She could only trust herself to nod.

“It’s nice” his expression turned into a full on smirk, and then he returned his attention to the notebook in front of them, nodding to himself.

“I just put it down, it’s no big deal…” she replied, her voice so quiet that she couldn’t really be sure he’d heard her.

He turned back to look at her. “You should wear it down more often” he said, “It suits you.”

And before she knew it, his hand was on her face. Insook felt as if her entire left side had caught fire as he pushed a stray strand of hair out of her face and carefully tucked it behind her ear. Her breath caught.

“It’s pretty like that…” he whispered. And she noticed that his face was definitely much closer to hers than it had been a moment ago.

‘I must be hallucinating…’ she thought, with a small gulp, ‘or did his voice sound slightly hoarse?’ But she couldn’t trust her senses anyways. She could barely hear him with all the blood rushing to her head. He leaned in a little closer and…

“What are you doing?!” she blurted out, and he pulled back suddenly.

“Sorry,” he mumbled, a confused look on his face.

“Ah no, I’m sorry…” she retorted, nervously, feeling incredibly stupid.

‘Why did I say that?!?!!!!’

“Insook-ah… I just…” and then he paused and sighed, “Spending time with you these last couple of days… well, I’m sorry if it sounds terribly cheesy but, I’m kinda starting to like you.”

‘I. can’t. breathe…!!!!’ she thought, staring at him with eyes that threatened to pop out of her head, her heartbeat going haywire.

“I just want to get a little closer to you… is that wrong?”

And indeed, he was definitely closer to her. Much closer to her. Their faces only a few inches apart as he spoke those words.

“Oh… ok.” Her words came out as a whispered choke.

He leaned in for the kiss and she closed her eyes. His lips pressed upon hers, soft and warm, but it only lasted for a second before he pulled away in shock.

“I’m hooome!!” called a chirpy voice from the entrance.

She opened her eyes to see his widen in shock, and he mumbled “oh sh*t!!” quickly pulling away.

A tall, graceful woman waltzed into the living room cheerfully and Rapmon stood up automatically, going “hey mom!!” plastering a smile on his face.

“Hi sweetie!” beamed the older woman, taking her sunglasses off from the top of her head, “Oh! You’ve got a friend!” she exclaimed, noticing Insook, who was trying to make herself as small as possible, “look at you two studying… how cute!” she paused, tilting her head and giving them a bright smile.

“Maaaaahhh…” whined Rapmon with a tight-lipped, annoyed smile, obviously embarrassed.

“Alright, alright, I’ll leave you two be… Nice meeting you!” she gave Insook a little wave and glided out of the room the same way she’d come in.

They sat there in awkward silence for several seconds after she’d gone, not looking at each other.

“Aahh… your mom is… uh… she seems nice.”

“She’s a little coo-coo, you mean.”

Insook shot him a glance like she kinda wanted to laugh, but was still too overwhelmed by what had just happened to process her emotions properly.

“I should probably go…” she said, uncertainly, getting up and avoiding his eyes.

“Ah, Insook…” he started but then seemed to change his mind, “hum… nevermind…” appearing to be just as uncomfortable as she was.

She quickly packed up her things and once she was done, they exchanged a look and he walked her to the door in silence. As she was about to go, he put a hand on the handle, preventing her from opening it.

“Ah, listen… we should probably keep this quiet for a while…” he said, looking away.

“This?” she looked up questioningly.

“Yeah, this” he said, taking her face in his hand, and smiling sweetly as he gently her bottom lip with his thumb.

Her heart plunged inside her ribcage and it took all her composure to remain standing.

“I want to get to know you more. Let’s not tell people at school just yet, ok?” and he leaned in and placed a kiss on her cheek. When he pulled back he was flashing her his usual playful smirk.

“… Okay.”

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Guys! please leave me your comments letting me know what you think about the story so far!! ^_^
-AoH