chapter six: vi. smile by smile; jungkook

They visited me everyday, bringing me flowers and telling me about their day at school. Amber visited me too, with Henry. That brought a smile to my face. Siwon came too, and instead of telling me how sorry he was about what had happened to me, he asked me questions about me, like what my favourite colour was, and what my lucky number was. He was strange, but he had a strange charm to him that made me like him.

Jongdae woke up, too.

He was in a lot of pain when he did; they had to give him some painkillers because it was so bad. I talked to him for a while. I cried while I did, and he just kept on telling me not to cry. Even in so much pain, he was so kind. Thinking about me rather than him; asking me if I was okay and if I wasn’t in too much pain, which of course, made me cry even harder, because how could he even think about me before him?

He was trying to cheer me up. Which made me even sadder: why was I the one who needed the cheering up? Should I have been the one to cheer him up? Of course, this somehow started making my anxiety act up, and I needed my anxiolytics.

Today, though, I was anxious for another reason. It wasn’t anxiety exactly; I was more nervous than that. Kris had whispered something to me before he left yesterday. Next time I visit, I’m bringing a certain someone that took me a while to find. Who else could it be… but Jungkook? Kris and the others were visiting today, which meant that if it was Jungkook, he’d be coming today. The others definitely wouldn’t like it and would have a big grudge against it.

I was worried on what was going to happen.

I heard the door clicking; the knob turning. Someone was coming in.

“Jooeun-ah!” Tao ran in first, panda eyes gleaming with worry like they always did lately.

“Tao-yah! Don’t hurt her!” Chanyeol yelped as he followed, anticipating the hug that Tao would give me. Not good for my fractured rib, but he didn’t care. He said it was good for my mental health or something.

I hugged him back, wincing as I felt a sharp jab in my chest. Still, he was right: hugs were good for my mental health. They cheered me up considerably.

“I missed you guys,” I said, looking around at them.

My eyes widened as they stopped at the person I had been looking for. “Jung…Jungkook oppa?”

He grinned broadly at me, coming in for a hug but being abruptly stopped by Tao and Sehun, who glared at him. Behind that grin I saw the worry and concern, although he tried to hide it. He was always so transparent to me; I knew him that well.

I couldn’t help but chuckle a little, seeing Jungkook being held back from me by two of the sweetest boys that existed. Of course, as I chuckled, I was painfully reminded of my fractured rib, and my head injury. Whenever I even breathed in a little bit my head ached and rib jabbed. “Sorry… they’re… a little overprotective.”

“We’re not overprotective!” Sehun and Tao exclaimed at the same time.

I grinned at Jungkook. “These are my… friends from SM Academy. I was with them… when the accident happened.” My grin faded.

“Speaking of the accident, are you okay?” he asked, genuinely concerned. “Here, I brought you some cookies… your fave, Macadamia nut and white chocolate.”

He held out the cookies and I grinned. He knew me too well. But… the only problem was… I couldn’t eat. My rib had punctured something, so I had to ‘eat’ from an IV bag, through a tube. My face fell.

“You guys can have it. I can’t eat.” I held up the tube that my food and water came from.

“Really?!” Tao’s face lit up.

I nodded.

Minseok stopped Tao from diving into the pan of cookies. “Are you sure? We could save them for you for after you got better…”

“Yes, I’m sure. I can always get more cookies later. Anyway, let him through, I haven’t seen my best friend in two years!” I exclaimed. “Speaking of which, dude… how did you get here?”

Tao and Sehun reluctantly let him through, and he took the chair by my side.

“Um, I was planning on coming to Korea for a while now, Canada was getting old. Mum and dad had already moved to Korea like two weeks ago, and we’d mailed the furniture with them. I just needed to say bye to a few more people, you know. So when your friend contacted me about your accident, I packed my remaining things and came here immediately. Anyway, enough about me… how are you? Who are these boys? Are they treating you okay? Are you sure they’re not here to you or something? How’s school? Did anyone else get in the accident, or was it just you? Are you okay?”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa Cee, take a chill pill. First of all, Kris over there,” I nodded my head to Kris, who glared at Jungkook, “is really good at English because he lived in Canada too. He can understand everything you saying.”

“Second of all, they’re my friends! They’re not trying to me! Third of all, school is fine. Though I only went to like a week of school and then this happened,” I gestured to my broken leg and fractured rib. “And lastly… no, I wasn’t the only one in the accident. Jongdae oppa… he protected me. He’s in worse condition than me.”

I looked down at my folded hands that lay on my lap.

“Is he in this hospital? Can I go see him?” Jungkook asked.

“Why…?” I asked, face scrunching up in confusion.

“I want to thank him for saving your life. You’re like my little sister, I should be there to protect you; but he was there instead,” Jungkook explained.

I once again looked down at my folded hands.

In an instant, Baekhyun had brought the wheelchair. Luhan stood in front of Jungkook’s chair and lifted me up with his strong arms, placing me into the wheelchair. Kyungsoo hurried to give me a little blanket to cover and keep my legs warm. I accepted it gratefully. Kai took the wheelchair and started wheeling me forward, Lay wheeling my IV bag.

They’d been here enough to know how everything went. This was how everything went. They’d come over here at a time when both Jongdae and I were awake and able to see someone; which, in fact, wasn’t often, come to my room to say hi, put me in a wheelchair and wheel me to Jongdae’s room, as Jongdae couldn’t exactly be moved to my room.

Jungkook hurried to walk beside me, but he was too late, Chanyeol was on my left side and Junmyeon on my right. Chanyeol was holding my left hand, as whenever he could, he wanted to hold my hand, for some reason, but Junmyeon preferred to let me have my own personal space.

We entered Jongdae’s hospital room. The nurses always disappeared at this time unless they needed to do something; it was as if they knew how special and important this time was for us.

“Jongdae oppa!” I called.

Kai wheeled me to Jongdae’s side, where I grabbed Jongdae’s hand.

“Rate out of ten… now!” said Jongdae, smiling at me.

“Eight!”

“Why eight? Why not ten? How can I make it a ten? Wait a second, you said eight?!” Jongdae’s eyes widened in shock. “But you always say five!”

“Well today… my bestie’s here!” I smiled, pointing to Jungkook.

“Wait how about us? You see us nearly every day and you still rate it a five!” Baekhyun pouted.

“Well this is different. It’s like the rating of five for you guys plus one for him and then that happiness of seeing him boosts up the happiness of seeing you guys so it goes up by two more,” I explained.

Jungkook rolled his eyes.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t do a proper greeting to you all,” he said, addressing the boys. “My name is Jeon Jungkook, and I’m Jooeun-ee’s best friend since Gr. 3 from Canada. It’s nice to meet you.”

They all muttered an ‘annyeonghaseyo’ and ‘nice to meet you,’ but they were clearly not very pleased to meet him.

“I wanted to thank you for protecting Jooeun-ee,” he said, bowing at Jongdae.

“It was nothing. I would rather die than see Jooeun-ee get hurt,” Jongdae said.

“That’s what I think too. So if any of you hurt her in any way, I will kill you, and if not kill you, hurt you badly,” Jungkook said, eyes flashing at them.

“That goes with us too. If you hurt Jooeun-ee in any way, we will kill you, and if not kill you, we’ll still kill you,” Kris said, smirking a little evilly at him.

“And if any of you kill each other, I will bring you back to life and kill you again, but slower and painfully-er,” I said, leaning up and patting both of them on their faces lightly. “So stop threatening to kill each other unless you want to die a slow and painful death… twice.”

“Well personally, I think getting killed by you would be wonderful,” Kai said, smirking slightly.

“Oh shut up, Kai,” I ed, glaring at him. “Jongdae oppa, how are you doing?”

“I’m… not worse. Not better. The usual,” Jongdae said honestly.

One thing I liked about Jongdae: his honesty. I could always count on him to tell me the truth, even if it was not a good one.

“But you know what’s making it better? You holding my hand… you’re an even better healer than Lay hyung! It’s one good thing about getting hurt; I get to hold your hand every day!” Jongdae grinned at me, flicking his tongue out at me and back.

“Jongdae oppa! Don’t say something like that!” I scolded, but couldn’t help but smile a little.

“See? It doesn’t matter if I get scolded by you, as long as I can see that beautiful and precious smile of yours,” Jongdae smiled at me. “So smile more, okay?”

I looked down at my knees. It seemed that all I was doing lately was looking down.

“I’ll… try,” I whispered, eyes flickering back up into Jongdae’s, who nodded encouragingly to me.

The nurse knocked at the door. It was time to go. Jongdae needed to rest.

“Thank you, oppa. Get better soon, okay?” I looked around to make sure no one was looking (which was useless, almost all of them were watching, though none of them protested) and quickly pecked him on the cheek. My hand slid out of his as I pulled away.

I quickly wheeled backwards, making sure no one was behind me, avoiding Jongdae’s eyes at all cost.

“Whoa, Jooeun-ah, let me wheel you,” Kris scolded. “You need to rest!”

Luhan ruffled my hair affectionately, smiling down at me. “The doctor says that after a week more in here, you can come back to school!”

“Really? I can’t wait!” I grinned at him, taking what Jongdae had told me to heart.

I needed to smile more. Even if it was just for the sake of the people around me, I needed to smile more.

Chanyeol took my hand, this time on my right side, and not for the first time, I was thankful for the human’s touch, and human comfort. Sure, his giant hand engulfed my tiny one, which I had often been teased about, but in its own way, it was a perfect fit. Junmyeon walked on my other side. Lately, it seemed to be these two by my side.

I looked up at Junmyeon, and smiled, taking his hand.

“There are… but once you get to know them, it isn’t that many. Well actually, it still is that many, but it doesn’t feel that way… because they’re kind of just one being. They’re one. Which is actually they’re motto, ‘we are one.’” I thought for a while. “They’re really good friends, you know.”

“I… know. I can tell from the way they’re just so protective of you. But still! I need to protect you from evil men and—”

“First of all, they aren’t even men. They’re boys. Second of all, they’re nothing evil. Well, if they’re doing pranks or whatever, then they’re evil. Otherwise, they’re like angels. I kind of hated them at first, but they’ve grown on me.” I shrugged. “I never knew that would ever happen. But it has. Anyway, it’s been so long since I last saw you! How’s Taehyung oppa?”

He was silent. “We… kind of broke up…”

“WHAT?!” I exclaimed, and then remembered that the nurse had asked me to stay quiet for the other patients. Lowering my voice, I started again. “What? I thought you were totally in love or something?”

“I thought we were… but later, I realized it wasn’t really true love. I broke up with him.”

“You broke up with him? Man, I thought if you ever did break up, it’d be him dumping you! After all, you’re kind of out of his league,” I teased, sticking my tongue out at him.

“Excuse me? I’m so fabulous and y, what are you talking about?” Jungkook motioned to his (somewhat good, okay, pretty good) body.

“Have we been looking at the same person?” I raised my eyebrows. “You clearly don’t look fabulous or y. I don’t know what you’re seeing.”

“Stop bullying me!” Jungkook pouted.

“Ah, okay, okay, oppa. I’m sorry. But still, I can’t believe you dumped him! I honestly thought that the two of you were going to end up marrying one day! I was waiting for that marriage invitation card!” I said, grinning at him. “So is your relationship 100% finished? Like there’s 0% of getting back together? Are you sure this isn’t one of your weekend fights and then you get back together?”

“No, I broke up with him two months ago!” Jungkook cried.

“Two bloody months ago?! And you didn’t tell me?” I outraged. “I thought that you were my friend! My best friend! And you didn’t tell me about that? YOU DIDN’T TELL ME?! You just broke our friendship, and my trust! Our friendship is OVER!”

“Oh no you’re not going through this phase again, are you?” he asked, horrified.

“Nah, I just felt like saying that. Anyway, why didn’t you tell me? Actually, come to think of it, you didn’t email/call me for six months! Six BLOODY months!” I exclaimed. “I’m mad at you.”

He rolled his eyes. “You know, I don’t think an injured person getting mad is a good idea. You might hurt yourself even more.”

“Says the one who screamed at me for dating that douchebag whose name I already forgot without your permission when you broke your arm in grade eight…” I stuck my tongue out at him. “I don’t even get why you got so mad! I can date whoever whenever however I want.”

“Just like you’re going to date one of those twelve crazy guys?”

“So you counted them!” I grinned. “And who said I was going to date only one of them?”

“ARE YOU SAYING YOU’RE GOING TO DATE ONE OF THEM? OR MORE THAN ONE OF THEM?”

“Chill, oppa. Even if I do, it’s not really any of your business. Besides, if you scream that loudly, Jongdae oppa might hear, and he’s one of those twelve. Oh, one more thing? They don’t actually like me. It’s this thing they do. Like a ritual every beginning of the year. Target a girl, try to get her to like one of them first. Whoever wins gets to be called hyung from all of them for the summer, until this cycle starts again. So basically, the oldest ones are desperate so that they don’t call the younger ones don’t call them hyung, and the younger ones are desperate to get their hyungs to call them hyung. Oh, and the middle ones want to be called hyung by their elders and don’t want to have to call their younger hyung. I’m the targeted girl, unfortunately,” I explained.

“IT IS SO MY BUSINESS! I’M YOUR BEST FRIEND!! AND—”

“Well no, technically our friendship is over. I broke up with you like a few minutes ago, don’t you remember?”

“SECOND OF ALL, WHY’D THEY CHOOSE YOU? WHY YOU OUT OF ALL PEOPLE? EVEN I’M PRETTIER THAN YOU—”

“That’s not saying much since all the girls think you’re super pretty, you know,” I said, rolling my eyes.

“THIRD OF ALL, THEY DON’T HAVE MY PERMISSION TO LIKE YOU!!”

“Why do they need your permission to like me?” I asked, dumbfounded. “It’s their own choice to like me, which they don’t.”

“Because… because I’m your best friend and oppa! I need to protect you!” he burst out.

I rolled my eyes. “I think it’s time for you to leave. I’m getting tired, anyway. Bring some cookies when I can actually eat. And you also need to calm down a little.”

He was quiet. “Well if you’re tired… but give me a hug before I go.”

He leaned over to give me a hug, pausing to make sure it was okay. I nodded, and he squeezed me tightly.

“You’re-killing-me-oppa-I-can’t-breathe-mY RIBS-OPPA!”

A/N: So... Jungkook was finally revealed!! :) Hope you liked this chapter, don't forget to tell me what you thought about it and crap like that. 

~Jinny out