1)Say “good morning”

2)Encourage some kind of small conversation and discuss the weekend

3)Treat him normally

4)Act natural.

Hyunjung looked at the list she scribbled onto her hand. All that was on her mind after she got home on Saturday was the kiss – that was almost all what was in her mind during the whole weekend. What wasn’t on her mind, was how the heck she was supposed to approach Jungkook without being flustered, act casual and talk to him like she usually would after something like that.

What was she supposed to say? ‘Hey Jungkook, I had fun in the weekend’, ‘Jungkook, let’s hang out again sometime‘, ‘Yo Jungkook, you’re a really good kisser, is it something you do often?’

Minus the last statement. What would she do if he brought it up? 

She left half an hour earlier than she usually did for school, so she was hoping not to bump into Jungkook on the way. The surge of relief she felt when she didn’t was indescribable - it felt like so much unnecessary weight had been lifted off her shoulders, and she actually felt confidence to face Jungkook today. She managed to accomplish getting into school and walk to her locker, all the time reciting in her head the four objectives she listed that morning. She checked her watch; he wouldn’t be in school for at least another twenty minutes so she had plenty of time to think things through. I'm going to face you head on today.

“Hey Hyunjung!” That voice.

Her shoulders tensed and she slowly turned round, already knowing who it was stood behind her. “Jungkook! H-hey! Good morning!”

Seems like she wasn’t the only one to have left earlier either. Her face was very soon colored with the bright crimson of a Danby sunset - oh how she wished the ground would give way under her feet that moment, or drop through a Scooby-Doo style trap door on the floor. But there was no way she could escape out of this one, unless she made a good excuse.

She coughed and pushed her hair behind her ear, even though it was already there. “I-I just remembered I ate a spicy soup—I mean s-sandwich this morning a-an-and—now my stomach feels weird. And... I was about to go to the r-res-rest-restroom before morning registration! Sometimes I just feel the urge to let it all out, you know?” She grimaced.

He chuckled, and Hyunjung could tell already that he didn’t buy it. “Sure, I get what you mean.”

She laughed nervously and proceeded to power walk away from him, but she then realized the girl’s restroom was the other way and she quickly turned back, hearing Jungkook laugh when she walked past him again.

“That was so unnatural,” she murmured to herself. She wasn’t intending on avoiding him forever – she was aware of that and hoped their friendship stayed strong. Just right now she needed to think things through, and Jungkook just suddenly popping up wasn’t helping at all. Why didn’t she push him away when he was leaning in? She didn’t know what to do? Shock? Or was she being impetuous? 

All in all, Hyunjung felt stupid for being so inconsiderate – she didn’t want to end up hurting his feelings; she still valued him as a good friend, which was why she decided she’d definitely talk to him later. Her un-breaking gaze never left the floor as she walked, half-asphyxiated with the continual thoughts that rose faster then she could embed into her head.

The next thing she saw was flying papers and books everywhere as she accidentally collided into the body of another student while she was walking, consequently causing both of them to fall to the floor.

“Ouch… ” she groaned, massaging her head and backside.

She heard the person she had bumped into scoff. “Good morning to you too, and watch where you’re going.” He didn’t hesitate to add - “Idiot” at the end.

“Sorry Taehyung,” she mumbled, sitting up on her knees and assisted in helping him pick up his books and the scattered papers dispersed around them.

She had to admit she often underestimated Taehyung’s intelligence, she was recurrently reminded of it from all the times he asked her to hold his textbook or something like an essay or anything else he had to hand in while he was getting something from his locker – even now, she couldn’t help but look at the work he did… which she probably disordered. “Taehyung, I may or may not have just messed up your report.”

He looked up from the ground and rolled his eyes, putting his books to one side. “Give them here.”

She did as she was told and continued to see if there was anything else she could pick up, but Taehyung seemed to have it all sorted. Watching him now immersed into the task at hand, gave her the opportunity to contemplate him properly.

He may not have the popularity and admiration or even come close to the lights of Jeon Jungkook, but she still found it amazing how he was recognized as one of the most intellectual and ambitious, single-minded students in their year, despite how he hadn’t been in the school as long as everyone else. Much like how Jungkook snags all the P.E and sport accolades year after year, she could definitely see Taehyung being given all the sciences awards at their honors evening.

“I don’t think I’ve ever asked you this, but what are your plans for the future?” she asked with genuine curiosity.

“I’m hoping to get into a good medical school and become a doctor.”

She was rather surprised at his response – she was aware of how high the entrance level was, overall how competitive the medical route is. Even having outstanding grades wouldn’t guarantee a place, not when a lot of the brightest students are aspiring to study medicine. “Really? But wouldn’t it have been better if you went to a school with a higher academic ranking?”

“Whatever you wish to do, it’s your own efforts that gets you where you are, not the status of your school.”

“You have a point there I suppose,” she said, but then added; “I didn’t specifically ask what career path you’re choosing, I said plans for the future.”

“Which I just told you.”

“Is getting married and having kids running around part of it?” 

He looked put off but quickly gathered his composure. “I’m guessing you’re unfamiliar with thinking before you speak.”

She interiorly groaned in frustration. It reminded her of how thoughtless she was, taking her back to her Jungkook dilemma. Taehyung saw her frown and inwardly sighed. “Having a family in the future would be nice, but that’s not something important to me right now.”

“It’s still a nice thought to have.” She took his silence as his reply and they proceeded to walk together to their homeroom.

“Did anything happen in the weekend that’s worth me knowing?” he asked this merely just to start a conversation with her while they were walking.

Hyunjung however, was mortified. She thought he had suspected something already, that, or she was too easy to read. “No! No, nothing exciting that would peak your interest,” she said hurriedly.

He cocked a brow at her. “Something happened, didn’t it?”

“I don’t know what you are t-talking about.”

“I’m not an idiot, you stuttered just then so something obviously did happen -”

“NOTHING HAPPENED, OKAY? MY WEEKEND WAS FINE! ABSOLUTELY DANDY.” She practically yelled at him in desperation with her arms flailing in front of her; she looked like an idiot. 

Taehyung gave her a side glance, unperturbed. “Something definitely happened,” he muttered again with no trace of emotion in his voice.

She heard him and perked her head up in an effort to grasp onto the little bit of equanimity she still had left. Taehyung scrutinized her again critically, but let it slide. Getting her to talk about something she didn’t wish to share was a drain on his energy – not that he had much of it to start with anyway.

They entered their homeroom, since they were early only half of their class was there. Hyunjung saw Jungkook sat at his desk with his head resting on top of his arms, face down. She walked to him, as if it was the way it was before and cleared to catch his attention. He didn’t stir. Was he sleeping? She cleared again, but his position still didn’t change. “Good morning Jungkook.”

Hearing her voice, he glanced up. “Mornin’.” 

She managed a smile for him and he reciprocated it, a little later putting his head back to rest on his arms. She left him and went to return to her desk next to Taehyung, who had already taken a book out of his bag and started reading it. He didn’t look like he wanted to be disturbed so Hyunjung left him alone, occasionally sneaking a glance to the back of the room to look at Jungkook. At some point when she turned to face him, he had his chin resting on his arms which were folded onto the desk and was looking back at her. She instantly turned back to face the front and never took another glance at him until morning registration.

It was already the second class and Hyunjung still didn’t have the chance to talk to Jungkook – she tried, but every time, her own efforts were put down thanks to her friends who would interpose in some way. Taehyung would notice her acting out of character and called her things like ‘idiot’ and ‘indecisive moron’, nothing new, just the usual remarks she eventually got used to.

At the end of first class, she came across Jimin when she was trying to approach Jungkook who was packing his stuff away. Jimin kept talking to her about the weekend and she couldn’t just ignore him, but by the time their conversation ended, Jungkook had already left the room to go to his next class.

At least they still had the same class, and there was no Jimin, Hoseok or Shinae to stop her this time. Taehyung was there, but she doubted he would care much anyway, or not care at all – she knew he wasn’t one to stick his nose into other people’s personal concerns, so this was her chance.

Their art teacher, Ms Han was already in the classroom before any of her students arrived. “Good morning! Put yourself on a table with two other people, you’ll be working in groups today.”

“Hyunjung! Taehyung! Over here!” Jungkook waved to the two from the back of the room when they entered the class, gesturing to two chairs opposite him on the table he was sat at.

For a few seconds Hyunjung stood looking back at him with her hands unconsciously tightening and loosening their grip onto the straps of her bag, until Taehyung nudged her forward towards Jungkook when he walked past. “You know you’re being really obvious.”

Hyunjung groaned to herself – just when she thought she actually managed to keep it discreet, Taehyung’s words had to jump out of their fleapit and kick her in the . She followed him to Jungkook’s table and sat down, feeling uneasy. The seating plan on the table as goes: Jungkook was sat opposite Taehyung and Hyunjung who were sat next to each other since those were the available seats. There were originally four chairs, but another student had taken one of them for their own table.

If Taehyung wasn’t with them, she would’ve talked to Jungkook by now, but she wanted it to be something private between them. Taehyung wasn’t one to spread talk, but she still didn’t want him to know about it.

“Ms Han has been receiving a lot of flowers recently hasn’t she?” Hyunjung finally said when she saw a fresh bouquet of flowers on Ms Han’s desk.

Jungkook turned to where she was looking. “They began piling in since last week.”

“Oh.”

She began to doodle on a scrap piece of lined paper while they waited for class to start since they still had a couple of minutes. Taehyung peered over at what she was doing. “What is that? Is it supposed to be a balloon or something?”

Her hand paused from drawing and turned to him, offended. “It’s a tree.”

“It looks more like an unproportioned circle floating on top of a line. You’re hand-eye coordination must be bad.”

Hyunjung huffed and scrunched up the paper, afterwards pushing it aside. 

Long intervals of silence were so uncomfortable - all three felt the awkwardness stabbing them while they continued to sit with no exchange of conversation. From time to time, Jungkook and Hyunjung would look at each other briefly, but then their stares would repel like equal polarities. Taehyung noticed. You didn’t need to be a genius to work out that something between them happened. He felt like he was in their way, like some obstacle between their gazes which were conversing in something that only he didn’t understand out of the three of them. He rose from his seat suddenly. “Ms Han, I’ll help you take those to the storage room.”

Hyunjung and Jungkook looked at Taehyung who was already on his way to assist Ms Han with the large cardboard boxes her arms only barely got a grasp of. The teacher smiled when he took a box off from her. “Thank you Taehyung, that’s very kind of you.”

Before either Hyunjung or Jungkook could offer help, Ms Han and Taehyung had already gone out of the room.

Jungkook looked back at her and propped an elbow on the surface of the table, resting his cheek on his hand. “How’s your stomach by the way?” he asked in a tone that was undoubtedly teasing her on purpose.

“F-fine, thanks for asking.”

He tilted his head, and his eyes narrowed as if thinking what to say. “You’ve been avoiding me.”

“But I’ve also been trying to approach you!” she said back as soon as the words left his mouth.

“I know.”

“You –!”

“It was cute.” Before she could protest, he added, “Even Hoseok said so himself, remember?”

She sighed. “Jungkook, can I talk t–”

“Come here,” he interrupted, indicating to the spot next to him.

She quickly moved her chair beside him and sat. “I need to talk to you.”

“By chance is this about what I think it’s about —?”

“Why did you kiss me?” she asked, loud enough so only he could hear.

He momentarily blinked at her and then laughed. “Did you just ask why I kissed you?”

“Shhhh! Other people might hear you!”

“We’re at the back of the room, they can’t see us anyway. Now let me ask you a question.” He inched closer to her and she leaned back until her back bone was against the backrest of her chair. “Did you feel anything when I kissed you?”

“You haven't even answered mine!”

“Did you like it?”

“You already asked me a question.”

“Well?”

She mumbled incoherently, “I didn’t not like it.”

He smiled and held her hand gently in his from under the table. Hyunjung was mindful of how close they were, and Jungkook seemed to be aware too, for after a few seconds he let go of her hand and folded his arms in front of him, placing his head on them so they concealed his face. Other than the one time when she visited his house, she’d never really seen Jungkook blush, so when he turned his head halfway to look at her, a warmth spread through her face when she saw a hint of rosiness tincture his cheeks. How many minutes passed? They didn't know.

Clunk.

They jumped in their seats at the sound. A heavy box with contents of various art supplies were just put on their table.

They looked up, it was Taehyung. He didn’t send one glance at them as he sat down in the seat he had before. “Ms Han told me to put this on the back table which is this one.”

How long was he stood there?