His first mistake:

being unable to see what is right in front of him. Literally.

His second mistake:

being completely oblivious to feelings of others.

And finally, his third mistake:

failing to recognise his own feelings.

--

Song Areum. Her name, even if barely anyone knows it. Sometimes Most of the time, it feels as if her purpose in life is to be ignored. She isn’t bullied; people have to actually talk to you for that to happen. Instead, she is simply avoided. Which, though she’s never experienced anything different, is much, much worse than being bullied. It isn’t that she is completely invisible either, it’s more like she’s a rock in the path, that students don’t want to trip over: her name may as well be ‘the stone’. Even though to you and me this may seem cruel, in all honesty, she doesn’t blame the students for acting the way they do.

She is selfless. She doesn’t really think of her own sadness.

Jeon Jungkook. His name; everyone knows it. Most All of the time, it seems as if it’s his god-given right to be loved by everyone - boys fight for his favour, girls fight for his attention and affection. Students and citizens of Seoul in general will simply gaze at him when he walks past them. To you and me, it seems crazy that this boy wouldn’t want all that attention, but he doesn’t. And, seeing as he can’t have that, he instead makes everyone else invisible; he doesn’t acknowledge them. Except for his own little clique, of course, which consists of barely three boys other than himself.

He is selfish. He only thinks of his own prospects and well-being, nothing of anyone else’s, even of those he calls friends.

--

Monday

“Miss- Miss- Uh, you there! Can you answer this question?” Mrs. Son points to the girl with her head on the desk. She doesn’t know her name, barely anyone does at that wretched school.

“Uh… Uh…” The girl stutters, sending glances around the room towards the other students of the class, who look as if they’ve only just realised she’s there.

Jungkook continues to tap and doodle on his maths book as the teacher interrogates the student for an answer. He takes no interest in it; he barely takes interest in the class. All he’s interested in is getting through the school year without any hassles. In that particular class, he has been put regrettably on a table of four (when everyone knows he likes to sit by himself) with two boys and a girl, none of whom he knows the names of. He doesn’t need to. It isn’t as if he’s going to be friends with these people.

Two of his friends are also in that class: Sehun and Taehyung, though he sits with neither one of them, and they’re spread around on either side of the room, known as ‘troublemakers’ when they’re together. Jungkook doesn’t even know why he’s friends with them half the time. The last thing he needs is to get dragged into trouble with them.

“I-I don’t know,” the girl sighs, obvious disappointment in her voice. Her maths skills are terrible, and she doesn’t even know why she’s in that class with the virtually genius teenagers.

“Anyone else?” The teacher continues, leaving the girl alone as she scans the class in search of an answer.

--

Jungkook leaves the classroom before anyone can even put their bags on the table. Hands stuffed in pockets, and bag swung over one shoulder, he walks the halls, all eyes on him, as usual.

He hates it.

“Yo, Kook! Ready to eat?” Park Jimin inquires, slinging an arm around the introvert.

“Not today. You go eat with the rest of them,” Jungkook answers tiredly, unwinding himself from under Jimin’s arm despite the boy being shorter than him, and leaving before he can say anything more.

Jimin has to be by far his closest friend, even if he can be stupid from time to time. And when Jungkook has his extra special bad moods, he does feel bad afterwards for ditching Jimin, though he’s probably used to it by now.

He likes to walk the school by himself. In the Winter he likes the bare trees covered with frost. In the Spring he likes to see the flowers begin to bloom and the wild come to life. And in Summer, he likes to sit on the grass and just be himself, even if he has to be alone to do that. No one is allowed in the little forest of trees on the school field (they are barely even allowed on the actual field) but Jungkook has his ways. Right now, it’s Autumn, and the crunching red and brown leaves beneath his feet make him feel even more isolated and alone, there is no one else there - and he loves it that way.

Jungkook never looks up. Instead he simply walks with music drifting into his ears through his three year old earphones that he refuses to replace. At the moment, a song he particularly likes, one of his favourite songs, I might add, is playing, and he is content.

He never expects it to happen - after all, how could you crash into someone in a deserted forest? But somehow, he does.

Both he and the other fall to the floor from the impact. His phone escapes from his grip and his earphones are pulled out, cutting the music from his ears.

He already knows it’s a girl. He should’ve known. At least one follows him wherever he goes; it’s as if he’s from a big pop group like BigBang, or SHINee. You would think it, if you saw him.

“S-Sorry,” the girl mutters quickly, her voice not sounding familiar to Jungkook at all. But then again, all voices sound the same to him. With haste, the girl takes one of the phones on the ground and stands up. He never sees her face, only a flash of straight black hair before she disappears, and he doesn’t even concentrate on that either.

He takes one look around to see if there’s anyone else before he bends down and picks up his phone, turns back and begins walking the way he came.

Checking the time, he realises lunch hasn’t even ended yet, and supposes he can sit with his friends in the cafeteria to waste time. He puts his headphones back in, the song still playing, while he texts Jimin to tell him he’s on his way back when he realises:

it isn’t his phone.

The same song is playing still, but it has only just clicked that it’s not the original artist singing. He’s also failed to notice that there is a black and white case on this phone, whereas his has none.

“,” he mutters.

--

He listens to the song over and over again, and eventually, he concludes whose voice it is. It has to be the girl who he’d bumped into. It has to be. Both singer and girl have a distinct tone to their voice, and being a singer himself, he realises this quickly.

The rest of the day is spent asking his friends who it is. Not one of them have an answer. No one has ever heard the mystery girl’s voice.

--

Jungkook paces around his bedroom, fiddling with the object in his hands and passing it between each of them.

It is driving him up the walls. It’s been a week, and still no phone, no one has bothered to claim it or bother telling him he swapped phones with them.

There’s barely anything on the phone either, he checked: no selcas to indicate what the girl looks like, no contacts whom he knows, nothing. This girl definitely isn’t normal.

The frustration finally becomes too much for him, and he takes to his laptop, his fingers scrolling over the mouse pad before he becomes too bored to even do that. He has no homework, and even if he has, he is in no mood to do it.

He lets himself fall onto his monotonal duvet and close his eyes; he will find that girl tomorrow, he has to.

010997: You there?

010997: I need your help

270598 is typing…

270598: What’s up?

010997: Me.

010997: That wasn’t funny.

270598: So what’s wrong?

010997: Me.

010997: Everything.