Chapter Twenty Four: Jokes
(A/N: chapter requires edit)

“Eun Mi-ah, you're the first person to know this..."

Eun Mi flashed a grin at her friend Hyesoo, whom she caught acting so goofy while reading a message from no other than Jungkook. She doesn't really need to look at the message because from the looks of it, she knows what was going on. "So aren't you planning to tell everyone?"

"I told him not to... yet." Hyesoo shyly said as the two were placing all their clothes back in their luggage. Tonight is their last night in the resort and tomorrow morning, they will be going back to Seoul.

"When are you planning to?" Eun Mi asked, then shaking her head as she laughed, "Anyway, everyone would saw it coming so maybe it will automatically be known to everyone that you two are now a couple."

"It's embarrassing." Hyesoo suddenly lay on her bed and covered her face with pillow. "Why am I feeling like this?"

Eun Mi laughed at her friend as she threw her neck pillow at her, "Stupid, you're just feeling so giddy. It's not embarrassing to be with someone you really like, you know."

"Maybe." Hyesoo sat up and smiled, "I felt so happy."

"I am happy for you too." Eun Mi smiled. "So how was it? You know, how did this thing happened? Come on, don't be shy. Tell me everything."

The smirk on Eun Mi's face tells Hyesoo otherwise, so she only threw her the neck pillow and groaned, "Quit teasing me!"

She may be a tease and all just like In Hye, but the truth is that she doesn’t have any experiences with love and what-nots. She, just like Hyesoo, had no experiences with those things, and knowing that Hyesoo is no longer single, she felt left out.

Bae Eun Mi may be the girl who loves to party, a girl with good fashion sense, and a girl who knows about a lot of things, but she never felt anything that might make her define love. She find few men attractive, had crush on them, but never did they make her heart race, palms sweat and stomach to churn from an unknown sensation that can also make her cheeks to burn. All of this were truly vague to her until she met a man she innocently turned to like.

On her first day on Bangtan High School as a freshman, Eun Mi shyly walked on the hallway and looked for her homeroom class. She knew no one, she can’t even find anyone familiar except for the sanitary engineer that she saw when she first went on the place. She was still unfamiliar with the place despite her searching the school map at home and trying to memorize the areas. She was too shy to ask anyone of her room so she was delighted to see that there was this thing called Freshmen Help Desk. She walked towards the end of the hallway and was about to approach the girls who were sitting at the help desk when suddenly a gust of wind blew at her as if there was a fast object that just ran in front of her- which there was. Two sophomores were running around the hallway, spending their free time before the classes start. They were too engrossed with playing that they didn’t realize Eun Mi was passing by, making them almost bump on her. Luckily, the girl didn’t fall because of that someone who pulled her away from the almost accident. Eun Mi was startled as she felt a strong grip on her wrist, making her face a man who was taller than her.

“Watch where you’re going, kids.” The man almost hissed. Eun Mi looked up to notice about the man’s purple hair. Of all the colors included in the color wheel, every shade of purple really attracts her. “Are you okay?” the man asked, looking at her. Not only the man has beautiful purple hair, but he also had a beautiful face that shouts the word ‘aesthetic’.

“Y-Yes.” Eun Mi nodded as she moved away from his hold.

The man frowned for a moment and suddenly smiled, showing his pearly white teeth. “You look lost, I think I can help you. Are you a freshman?”

Eun Mi could only nod from his question as she watched his hand moving towards her, gesturing for a hand shake. “I’m Kim Taehyung from Class 3. I might help you with places.”

So, he is a senior. She thought to herself as she could only look at his hand and shook hands with him.

“You know, this is the part where you tell me your name.” he smiled at her. Eun Mi was in a total daze as Taehyung could only sigh, looking at her to see some things that could make him get her name. He looked at her name pinned on her uniform. “Bae Eun Mi, a very nice name.”

Taehyung looked like he was going to say more when he heard his voice somewhere. Sighing, Taehyung looked back at the frozen girl and patted her head. “The classrooms of the freshmen are beside the infirmary, it’s at the right side. When you find your way, that means we’ll still see each other.” He grinned as he pointed to the direction he was telling her. “I’ll see you around, Eun Mi.”

From that day, Eun Mi realized how attracted she was to him. She tried telling Hyesoo and In Hye about this, but the two seemed to take it as her having a little crush on Taehyung and nothing more. They never knew she was infatuated with him for almost three years already.

"Hey."

Eun Mi was on her way to get herself something to drink, a lemonade or iced tea, when she saw Taehyung, who was wearing a pullover which was slightly ripped on the neck part- something that the boy would always do with his clothes. It doesn't make him look shabby though, hence ripped and slightly shabby-looking clothes looked good on him. Together with the pullover was an acid washed jeans and slippers. Well, who would wear rubber shoes on a beach, right? The man was smiling as he walked towards the almost frozen girl and asked, "Have you seen Jungkook?"

To be honest, despite Eun Mi's undying admiration towards the man, the two never had a usual conversation that had made her develop feelings for him. It only happened naturally that the girl liked him for what and how he acted around his friends and her. She became a part of their team when In Hye introduced her to the boys when they went to the ARMY lounge. Turns out that In Hye was a childhood friend of Namjoon- the man her friends has been obviously liking. They would only exchange smiles and were never confident with talking about more stuff other than 'Where is In Hye?' 'Where is Namjoon?' 'Where is who?' And such that would only require one or two word answers. It was odd, she would always think. She was fairly talking to almost everyone, excluding Jungkook whom they only got close to after Hyesoo's arrival, and the next would be Taehyung. She would always think and worry if anyone from the boys have noticed that and if anyone had, she's hoping it will not be an issue between the group. For everyone to know her unrequited liking for Taehyung was the last thing she's dreading to come.

"Are you alright?" The man asked as he finally got a closer look of her. He touched her forehead, a little action that made her flinch. "You're not sick, I think."

"No, no." She finally spoke. "I don't know where Jungkook is."

Taehyung nodded, keeping his hands in his jean pockets. "I see. That kid's been missing for quite some time already, perhaps, is Hyesoo outside as well?"

"Yes." Was the only thing that Eun Mi managed to say as she smiled and made a her way pass him. But she wasn't so fast, Taehyung held her wrist and asked, "Where are you going?"

Eun Mi's eyes widened in surprise as she replied, "I'm going to buy something to drink."

"Like?"

Eun Mi almost muttered, "Lemonade." Taehyung was the party type, and when someone said drinks, he might be expecting alcohol, and that's not what men were expecting to hear from women. However, Eun Mi felt so shy with telling him she wants to drink lemonade, like a little girl.

"Oh." Taehyung let go of her wrist and grinned, "Are you busy?"

"Not really." She said, "Why?"

"I don't really feel like going back to the room, would you mind if I join you?"

"It's okay." She smiled.

Their way towards the bar was quiet than they had ever imagined. Taehyung was occasionally looking at her and was totally hesitant of starting the conversation, just because he wasn't good with getting into conversations... that were normal and not weird enough to amuse a girl like Eun Mi. Yep, he truly was unaware of how to make this girl smile or how he would get her interested with something. In the first place, he never had a good talk with her about things in life. Just like Eun Mi, Taehyung was curious to why they never had been close just like how the three girls would be close to the other boys. Maybe he was too shy to approach her? Yes, he was too shy approach her but never did he miss a little step the girl would make. From