Hyunjung finally asked someone to be her friend. She had Jungkook to thank.

She was walking alongside Taehyung, who had his hands in his pockets and was looking straight forward, wearing his earphones as they walked side by side. She wondered what type of music he always listened to. It was a question she thought she might ask him one day. But she was happy that he had let her walk beside him, at least. But she still felt her new friendship with him was still heavily one sided. Taehyung took his earphones out of his ears and put them in the inside pocket of his blazer. "Stop staring at me. It's irritating," he said.

She narrowed her eyes at him. "I thought you said you weren't going to call me annoying."

"I didn't call you annoying. I said you were irritating," he stated as a matter-of-factly.

"They have the same meaning!" she said, exasperated.

A ghost of a smile appeared on his lips. "Exactly."

Hyunjung poked him in the stomach which made him flinch at the sudden contact. "What the -? Can you not do that?" Taehyung said, clutching his stomach.

"At least I didn't hit you," she replied. He opened his mouth to say something back but closed it again. 

About a minute of silence passed between them. Jungkook was right, talking to new people did make you feel happy. But she still thought that maintaining a conversation was awkward and exhausting, especially with Taehyung. Having a conversation with him felt like sitting on a seesaw; someone had to make the effort for something to happen. In this situation, Hyunjung was dangling on the higher end. But what else was she supposed to do?

"Say, Taehyung?" Now came the dilemma of what the hell she was actually going to say. "Urm... what's your, uh - favourite colour? Yes, your favourite colour?"

"Black."

Hyunjung stared at him blankly. Of all colours, why black? She didn’t even consider it as one.

"I said color," she repeated. "Taehyung, choose a different one."

He sighed for what felt like the one hundredth time. "What was the point in asking me that question if you're trying to make me change my answer?"

He did just make a good point. So much for taking the extra few steps, Hyunjung.

"Never mind. Look, our classroom is just ahead," she said with a feeling of dejection. She let him go through the doorway to their classroom first, with herself following after. She sat down in her seat and rested her elbows on the desk, placing her chin on her hands.

She still had a long way to go.

*   *   *

The bell rang, marking the end of the school day. "Don’t forget to read chapter six and chapter seven." Hyunjung stood up from her seat, packing her school books away. As she was doing so, she heard her classmates talking about the class going to an arcade at the weekend. Which meant tomorrow.

"Where are we meeting again?"

"One o'clock outside the arcade."

Her classmates arranging these kind of outings was something Hyunjung gradually got used to. No one invited her anyway. She turned her head to Taehyung's desk; his seat was empty. She slung her bag strap on her shoulder and walked out the room, fighting down her disappointment.

She passed the other classrooms, nearing to the exit of the school building. She saw a glimpse of Taehyung not far ahead of her going to his locker. She wanted to go talk to him, until she heard someone call her from behind.

"Hyunjung!"

She stopped and swivelled round and saw Jungkook coming towards her. "Jimin has a detention, so I was wondering if we could walk home together?" he asked her. Hyunjung was confused, how did he know where she lived?

Jungkook saw her expression and put his hands up in defence. "Ah, no! You live near that store right? I saw you walking past there the other day. I live near there too, I just happened to see you."

Hyunjung nodded. “I'd be happy to have someone to talk to while I walk home.”

"Cool," Jungkook said with a grin. "I just need to get something out of my locker."

They stopped by his locker and she saw Taehyung next to them, getting his books out and putting them in his bag. Jungkook shut his locker.

"Are you looking forward to the arcade tomorrow? I won't lose to Jimin again at air hockey, it'll be so -"

Hyunjung frowned. "I wasn't invited."

He paused, staying quiet for a while, before smiling genuinely at her. "Well, I'm inviting you now."

"I don't know..." she said hesitantly.

"It’ll be fun. I can even introduce you to some of my friends if you want."

She looked past him and saw Taehyung leave his locker about to walk away. "Can we invite Taehyung too?" she said a little too loudly. Taehyung halted and snapped his head round, glaring at her.

"N.O. No way," he said, his eye twitching.

"But it will be fun," she replied back.

"Who cares? Don't drag me into this," he snapped.

Jungkook went to stand between them. "You should come with us. All you need to do is show up outside the arcade at one o'clock.”

Taehyung looked from Jungkook to Hyunjung, debating whether or not he should go. He threw his arms up in defeat. "Fine! Whatever. I'll go," he said.

"Yay!" Hyunjung cheered. Taehyung rolled his eyes and turned his back on them, continuing to walk towards the door leading outside of the building. Jungkook glanced to the side and observed Hyunjung smiling to herself. He tapped her on the shoulder and gave her a high-five.

Going out of the front gates, Jungkook was the one that spoke first. "You know Hyunjung, you're actually not that bad." Hyunjung took in what he had just said. How was she supposed to answer to that? "You should smile more. At least, that's what I think,” he said, kicking a pebble out of the way. Hyunjung looked at Jungkook, the way the sunlight shone on his black hair made it appear a soft brown. He looked relaxed.

“Jungkook, I envy you.”

He furrowed his brows. "What'd you mean?"

"How are you able to say things like that so easily?"

"Well, you get more comfortable the more you talk with someone. Also, you’re an easy person to talk to, you don’t interrupt me when I say something." He shrugged his shoulders. "And I guess, there are some people that are just naturally easier to talk to than others."

She instantly thought about how difficult it was to talk to Taehyung, and she hoped that she could have this kind of honest conversation with others one day too.

"I see."

They arrived at the front of the store and Jungkook had to go. "Well, this is where we go our separate ways," he chuckled. "I'll see you tomorrow Hyunjung."

They both turned away from each other to go home. Hyunjung took a couple of steps forward, but then stopped and turned around. "Jungkook!"

He paused from walking past the corner and turned his head in her direction.

She beamed at him. "Jungkook, thanks for walking with me."

His face broke into a smile and gave her a thumbs up. She smiled back and her heels to head home.

She arrived at the house door and searched in her bag for the key. She turned it in the lock, the door opening with a click. She found her uncle wearing his glasses, sat at the table reading a newspaper from yesterday.

"You're home," he said and looked up from his paper.

She took a seat opposite him and grabbed an apple from the fruit bowl. "Yeah..." 

"So, did you make friends with that new student that you said was good at science?" he asked her.

Was she friends with Taehyung? Hyunjung was no longer too sure. She did ask him to be friends with her and she did talk to him, but she didn't know whether their friendship was mutual or not.

"Well - I don't know, maybe... sort of.”

Her uncle picked the newspaper up again. "That's better than nothing. It's good hearing there's someone at school you can talk to and depend on."

Someone she could depend on? Thinking about something like that, someone else came to her mind first. It wasn't Taehyung.