Chapter 24

Thank You for Listening

  Jangmi spent the rest of the day with Jungkook, wandering the carnival, playing the games and going on the rides. Jungkook found that despite her timid demeanour, Jangmi was a very enthusiastic fan of screamer rides. They went on quite a few of them, which they both enjoyed.

  They both bought food from a stall for lunch. Jungkook offered to pay for her, but quickly realising that it made her feel awkward, agreed with her to both split the bill. Jangmi liked that. It didn't make her feel like she was in debt to him. Namjoon had always made it a point to pay for her, even though she didn't like the idea. To her it felt like Namjoon was just exercising more control over her.

  Jangmi enjoyed herself. She supposed that this would be their first date, although the title of 'first date' made her blush. It was certainly much more fun than any outing she had ever been to with Namjoon, even if it was a bit awkward due to her nervousness. Before she knew it, the day was over and it was beginning to get dark. Around them, lights were beginning to turn on.

  She checked her phone and found several missed calls and text messages from Namjoon, as well as a few from Rayoung.

  "Didn't you say you had to meet with your guy friends?" Jungkook asked.

  "Oh, I don't have to anymore; Rayoung told them a story and covered for me. But she says she wants to meet up with me."

  "Where?"

  "She says at the Ferris Wheel ride."

  Jungkook looked at the circular shape of the ride in the sky ahead of them. "That means we have to circle around the entire place to get there."

  "Sorry…" she mumbled sheepishly.

  "No problem." He grinned.

  The two walked side by side through the crowd. The number of people had lessened considerably, and the place was now quiet. Only a quiet murmur from the people around them could be heard. The street lights were on now, providing a warm orange glow in the darkening hours. The two chatted softly until a loud voice broke their conversation.

  "There you are you son of a !"

  Jungkook turned around and saw a livid looking Hoseok pointing at him and an equally angry looking Taehyung beside him.

  Oh . He had completely forgotten about them. Being with Jangmi had pushed them out of his mind. Come to think of it, he had kind of ditched them with no warning, and had no communication with them the whole day. Jungkook finally glanced at his phone screen. It showed hundreds of missed phone calls. He hadn't noticed since he put the thing on silent that morning. Oh dear lord, they were going to kill him.

  "You bastard! Where the hell have you been?!" Hoseok yelled. "We were looking everywhere for you!"

  "Would you believe me if I said something came up and I completely forgot about you?" Jungkook said, putting his hands up defensively.

  "For a whole freaking day?! And why didn't you pick up our calls?! We spent the whole day looking for you, we didn't even get to do anything fun because of…"  Hoseok trailed off as he noticed the girl standing beside Jungkook.

  "Um, Hoseok, Taehyung, this is Jangmi. Jangmi, this is Hoseok and the blonde one is Taeyhung." Jungkook introduced.

  Jangmi smiled at them sheepishly. "H-hello. I'm sorry; it's my fault for this…sorry."

  The two of them stared at her, piecing together what had happened in their heads. "Holy ." Said Taehyung. "You're her aren't you? The hospital chick."

  Jangmi nodded, feeling embarrassed that they knew her.

  "Well ." Hoseok stared with his mouth agape.

  "Does this work as a legitimate excuse for forgetting about you?" Jungkook asked.

  "Don't get me wrong." Said Hoseok. "You are still so dead later, but right now forget that, this is big."

  Hoseok got up close to Jangmi, surprising her, and continued to look at her up and down. "So you're the legendary hospital girl huh? Damn! Jungkook is lucky, you're pretty cute."

  Jungkook glared at him and hit him on the head.

  "Hey hey, I'm just stating my opinion; I'm not going to hit on a girl you spent so long trying to find."

  Taehyung wrapped his arm around Jungkook's shoulders. "Wow, that's some awesome good luck to find her here, good job."

  Jangmi looked a bit uncomfortable being at the centre of everyone's scrutiny, even Jungkook couldn't save her now. But fortunately for her, like so many times before, her reliable best friends intervened.

  "Hey! Stop bothering her!" Rayoung yelled.

  The group turned to see an angry looking girl standing in front of them with her arms crossed.

  "Rayoung! What are you doing here?" Jangmi asked.

  "You were taking too long so I came to find you to see what's up."

  "Oh, thank you, but I'm fine." She pointed to Hoseok and Taehyung. "These are Jungkook's friends? Um... Hoseok-sshi?"

  Hoseok nodded in confirmation.

  Jangmi pointed to Taehyung. "And he's Taehyung."

  Taehyung seemed to just stand there unresponsive. Jungkook thought that around now he should be providing some comment or remark, but he just stood there staring at Rayoung. Jungkook looked over at Rayoung and then again at Taehyung, and it finally clicked. He grinned with the realisation. "This is Rayoung, she's Jangmi's friend." He introduced.

  "Best friend." She corrected. She turned her attention to Jangmi. "You should thank me; you don't know how hard it was for me to get Namjoon off my back. I only just lost him."

  "Oh my god, Namjoon!" Jangmi exclaimed, finally remembering him. "Oh my god what do I do? He was my ride home! I'm going to have to talk to him if I want to go home."

  Jangmi began to fidget in panic. She really didn't want to go talk to him. She highly doubted that he would take the break up speech very well, or even accept it.

  "Why don't we drive you home then?" Jungkook suggested.

  "What?" said both Jangmi and Rayoung.

  "Yeah." Hoseok agreed. "We drove here. There's plenty of space in the car, we can drive you."

  "What do you say?" Jungkook asked.

  Jangmi seemed to consider it for a while. She didn't really know Hoseok and Taehyung that well, but since they were Jungkook's friends, she could probably trust them. At the moment, anything seemed like a better option than facing Namjoon. She nodded.

  "Oh hell no!" Rayoung objected. "I'm not letting you go alone in a car with three guys you barely know, I'm coming with you. I can sleep over at your house."

  "Well that doesn't sound like a problem." Jungkook turned to Taehyung and grinned. "Right, Tae?"

  Taehyung's cheeks became slightly pink but he scowled. "Why are you asking me?"

  "Then it's decided!" Hoseok declared. "Let's go, we parked this way."

  The group followed Hoseok and Taehyung to where they parked. Jungkook and Jangmi hung back from the rest of the group.

  "Sorry about this." She apologised. She felt like she was burdening people who barely knew her.

  "Don't worry about it, it's not an issue." He assured. "And I'm pretty certain Taehyung would be happy to help Rayoung out." He grinned. In front of them he could see Taehyung and Rayoung starting to bicker with each other.

  "Wha…" Jangmi began but she quickly caught on and her face turned to one of delight. "Oh my god!"

  Jungkook chuckled. "Just let them be and see how it turns out."

  Jangmi nodded. She could barely contain her excitement. She turned to Jungkook again. "So…hey, was it true what they said? That you spent a long time looking for me?"

  For the first time that day, Jungkook was the one in the position of embarrassment. He blushed and looked away. "Yeah…"

  Jangmi blushed. "O-oh…"

  "Yah! You lovebirds! Snap out of it!" Hoseok yelled rudely. "We're here."

  Jangmi found a silver car in front of her. Hoseok and Taehyung took the front seats, and Jangmi found herself in the middle of the back seat in between Jungkook and Rayoung.

  "What's your address?" Hoseok asked.

  Jangmi was about to open to answer but Rayoung beat her to it. She leaned over to the front seats and told Hoseok the address, her hand on Taehyung's shoulder to support herself.

  When the car started driving, Rayoung plopped back down on the seat. Jangmi felt awkwardness in the air of the car that beat anything she had felt that day. She knew Rayoung had a lot of opinions and comments on Jungkook, and out of some miracle was staying quiet about it, but that did little to alleviate the tension. Rayoung just kept glaring at him as if it were possible to scrutinize his character from just his appearance.

  A phone rang.

  "Hello?" Rayoung answered.

  "Who is it?" Jangmi asked, worried that it may be Namjoon.

  Rayoung covered the phone. "Don't worry, I wouldn't answer a call from that , it's the guys." She uncovered the phone and began talking again. "Yes? Where are we? We're going home. No, not with friggin Namjoon, I wouldn't get in a car with that douchebag. We found another ride. What do you mean 'Nobody would willingly let me in their car'?"

  Taehyung snickered from the front seat.

  Rayoung shot him a glare. "Talk to you later." She hung up the phone and dug into her pocket. She pulled out a lollipop from her purse and threw it at Taehyung's head.

  "Ow! What was that for?" Taehyung complained.

  "For being a douchebag."

  "I'm beginning to see what your buddy meant."

  "What did you say to me?"

  The two began bickering. Hoseok attempted to intervene only to be kicked out of the conversation. Jangmi was a bit glad however, it distracted from the tension in the car.

  Hoseok was driving the car, Rayoung and Taehyung were arguing. This left Jangmi and Jungkook alone together. Jangmi didn't really know what to say in this conversation. She was pretty horrible at the 'dating' thing. Her only experience wasn't a good example. Namjoon did everything and she was kind of dragged along.

  "Hey, give me your phone." Jungkook said.

  "Huh? Why?"

  "Phone numbers." He answered.

  "Oh, sure." She fumbled for her phone, unlocked it and handed it to Jungkook. Jungkook gave her his phone as well.

  Jangmi was grateful that Jungkook started the conversation, she really didn't know how otherwise. The two chatted quietly for the rest of the car ride. Soon Jangmi found that they were driving through her street.

  "Wow, you live in the rich east area." Taehyung commented.

  Jangmi squirmed uncomfortably.

  "Who's your grandfather?" Jungkook asked.

  "Nam Gonghoon…" she mumbled.

  "Whoa, your grandpa is Nam Gonghoon!?" Hoseok said in surprise. "THE Nam Gonghoon who's that huge real estate business owner!?"

  Jangmi nodded.

  The car stopped in front of Jangmi's house. She felt embarrassed that they could see. Her house was practically a modern mansion. Huge and old fashioned made up of dark coloured bricks. She really didn't want be labelled as a rich girl, especially when she felt that she wasn't suited to the title. As far as she was concerned, she still felt like the girl from a middle class family.

  Rayoung went to go knock on the door. Someone would come to open it. Jangmi looked into the window of the house and groaned.

  "I really don't know how to explain this to grandpa…" she mumbled. She was dreading the confrontation. No doubt Namjoon has called her grandpa already. Maybe if she was quiet, she could sneak to her room without someone noticing, then her grandpa wouldn't know she was home.

  She felt someone take hold of her hand. "Things will work out." Jungkook assured.

  Jangmi smiled. "Thanks, Jungkook."

  The door opened and Rayoung went inside. Jangmi looked up at Jungkook. "Um…well, thank you for bringing me home. I guess I'll see you later."

  "Goodnight." He smiled.

  "Goodnight."

  Jangmi went into the house and the door closed. Jungkook returned to the guys and they walked back to their car. Taehyung seemed to be doing something on his phone, the screen creating the only other source of light aside from what seeped out some nearby house windows.

  "Sooo." Hosoek began with a grin. "Looks like it was a good thing that we dragged you to the street carnival."

  Jungkook rolled his eyes but he smiled. "Yes, hyung."

  "You owe us big."

  "Yes, your highness, from now on I'll pay for lunch." Jungkook laughed.

  "Also carry our crap."

  "Yes, sir."

  "And let me borrow your motorcycle." Taehyung added.

  "Don't push your luck."

  Hoseok looked over at Taehyung's phone. "What are you doing on that thing anyway?"

  "I got her number." He answered.

  "Rayoung's?" said Jungkook, pleasantly surprised.

  "You start a fight with a girl and you walk away with her number? How does that happen?" Hoseok said with disbelief. "Man, you got to teach me how to do that."

  "Piss off." Taehyung grunted.

  Hoseok turned his attention back on Jungkook. "Still weird to find out that her grandpa's Nam Gonghoon."

  "You should see who he engaged her to."

  "Who?"

  "Kim Namjoon."

  "Kim Namjoon!?" Hoseok exclaimed, shocked.

  "What? Who's Kim Namjoon? What's wrong with him?" Taehyung asked.

  "You know the stereotype of the snobby rich kid? He's that." Hoseok answered. "He's the school president of Anyoung High." He clarified.

  "He's king snob of the school of snobs then."

  "Uh huh." Hoseok nodded. "Poor girl."

  Jungkook took out his phone and began looking for a number. As he heard it ring, he brought it to his ear. "Well I'm going to do something about that."

 

[A/N: Welcome to all our new subbies! ]

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Comments

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yuxuan #1
i love this story so much that i don't mind to keep on reading every time when i came back to AFF
snowcastles
#2
Chapter 1: The both of them seemed to have endured lots of hardships along the way, I really hope that their situation improves over time. I can really relate to this chapter, cause my parents are divorced as well. So this hits me pretty hard. Also, not being able to openly talk about your personal struggles is a serious issue. There's a very genuine & understanding nature to the female lead.

She deserves to find her own source of strength, and steer towards a happier life! ♡
Amsohappy
#3
Chapter 44: Thank you for writing 🙏🏽
I loved and enjoyed every part of the story
cheonchoni
#4
Chapter 29: hoseok need to rest his flirty
cheonchoni
#5
Chapter 23: Oh wow i guess the depressing 3 months really worth it huh?
cheonchoni
#6
Chapter 18: His friends are funny lol
THIRSTY-RP
#7
this was really great
WholesomeRain
#8
Chapter 44: AWWWWAHSGJA! That's so freaking cute!!!! The ending leaves me wanting more! I want to read about these two again lol!
WholesomeRain
#9
Chapter 16: Their friendship is so adorable!
WholesomeRain
#10
Chapter 14: AHHHHH!!! He's back baby!