“Hey, do you think Jungah likes bubble tea?”

Jungkook sighs, zoning out into space as he absentmindedly pushes his lunch around. The other boys began to voice their own opinions, leaving Jungkook to his outward thoughts while two others were sitting awkwardly at the table.

“When do you think he’s going to stop talking about her?” Jimin mutters, only letting himself be heard by Jiyoo who was just as disturbed by Jungkook’s behavior.

It had only been a day since everyone had met Jungah and by now, even Jiyoo was growing tired of his lovesick sighs. Yes, lovesick. Jiyoo’s fake smiles were wiped off her face and she, too, joined Jimin whenever he’d complained about Jungkook.

“Not anytime soon.” Jiyoo grimaces. She takes one last look at Jungkook and observes his facial features. It was weird to see Jungkook act so infatuated with something. This wasn’t something Jiyoo was used to and the unfamiliar scene made her stomach twist. She forced herself to look away, finding another pair of eyes locked on her. “What’s wrong Taehyung?”

Taehyung had been so quiet, that Jiyoo had almost forgotten about him for a moment. When he doesn’t answer, she goes back to thinking inwardly about the whole situation. Seeing Jungkook that way grossed her out. She was so bothered by it that she’d almost forgotten about Taehyung. Had he been this quiet yesterday too? Jiyoo doesn’t recall him having an interest in Jungah like the rest did yesterday.

He suddenly reaches out towards her, grabbing onto her wrist. “Jiyoo, I-”

“Hey Jiyoo!”

Taehyung was interrupted by none other than Yugyeom. The latter does notice that the two were talking after walking over, the awkward pause in Taehyung’s sentence stopping Yugyeom in his tracks. “Oh, damn sorry. Am I interrupting something?”

Taehyung shakes his head. He releases his hold on Jiyoo, sitting back in his spot before looking away, as if to silently say that it was alright to talk.

“Hey Yugyeom.” Jiyoo sighs in relief. There was a part of her that was glad that they’d all bonded over laser tag and pizza, though somewhere in the back of her head, she couldn’t distinguish the emotion in Taehyung’s eyes. She remembers to greet the others as well, stopping for a split second before waving at Youngjae.

Youngjae freezes and doesn’t move until Bambam shoves him a bit. Only then did Youngjae wave back at Jiyoo, his face colored with a slight pink tinge. “H-Hi Jiyoo.”

“Hey..” Jiyoo manages to smile, but anyone could tell the two were forcing themselves to try and act normally.

Yugyeom was the first to try and alleviate the awkwardness. “Your hair looks nice Jiyoo. I was worried it would stain red after this idiot spilled fruit punch in it.”

“It was an accident!” Youngjae whined, earning a couple laughs here and there.

Jungkook managed to snap out of his daydreaming to disagree. “Her hair is black. It won’t stain, idiot.”

Although he had been coexisting nicely with Yugyeom for the past few occasions, it didn’t mean that they were automatically friends. Jungkook eyes the way that Yugyeom’s hand rested on Jiyoo’s shoulder, a frown appearing on his lips.

“Oh knock it off, will you?” Jiyoo hisses.

The entire table goes quiet. They’ve seen scared Jiyoo, happy Jiyoo, even post trauma Jiyoo, but never angry Jiyoo. Nobody has ever heard such a voice come from Jiyoo like this, especially not towards Jungkook. Jungkook remains still in sheer shock by what had just happened.

“Sorry about him.” Jiyoo sighs.

Yugyeom shakes his head, placing a hand over his mouth as he tries his best not to look at Jungkook or else the amused grin he was hiding would be out of the bag. When Yugyeom feels calm enough to speak, he does. “It’s alright. He’s probably having a bad day or something.”

“I didn’t ask for you to apologize to him.” Jungkook argues, looking at Jiyoo who wasn’t amused at all.

“Well, someone had to because you’re being an .”

More silence. When Jungkook sees the steely gaze in Jiyoo’s eyes, he doesn’t bother to try and say anything more. He mutters something about how Jiyoo was picking on him before slumping back in his seat.

To make matters worse, Jungkook’s phone rang, signaling an incoming text message. He unlocks his phone and his downward turned lips turn themselves upside down. “Dad said that Jungah is at the house right now. And she wants to talk to us after school!”

Not bothering to hide the excitement on his face, he quickly texts his father back while the rest of the table slowly begins to go back to the way it was. Just then, the bell had sounded, signaling the end of lunch. Jimin lets out a noise of disgust, looking at Jiyoo who was obviously distressed. When she doesn’t seem to cheer up, he looks at Yugyeom who was quick to make his move.

“Hey Jiyoo, can you help me with my stats homework? There’s something I don’t understand.” Yugyeom says quickly, looking at Jiyoo who had finally realized that lunch was over.

“U-Uh, yeah. Sure.” Jiyoo breathes out.

Jungkook was the first to run off to class, eager for the school day to come to a close. Jiyoo, on the other hand, was one of the last to leave. She stayed seated even as all of the other students filled out, waving goodbye to those that left before her. Yugyeom waits along with Namjoon and Jimin, all three boys staring at each other clearly confused.

“Why aren’t you going to class Jimin?” Namjoon asks, an eyebrow raised. He understood why Yugyeom didn’t leave right away since they were in the same class.

“Are you sure you can walk by yourself?” Jimin asks worriedly, ignoring Namjoon as he looks at Jiyoo who still hasn't left her seat yet.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Jiyoo says.

Without wasting a moment, she uses her arms to push herself to a stand. There was a sharp pain in her ankle, but she ignored it, slowly bringing herself to walk on her own. Jiyoo was lucky that Jimin had stopped by in the morning to help her walk to school. While the rest were walking far ahead of the two, Jimin had stuck by her side and supported her as she limped in pain the whole way.

“You don’t look fine.” Namjoon says, scrutinizing the hobble in her step.

Jiyoo looks at him and rolls her eyes, “I made it to school, so I can make it to class. It’s fine.”

Ignoring Jimin’s protests for her to walk on her own, Jiyoo uses the hallway railings to yank herself to class. Yugyeom followed close behind after seeing the guilt stricken expression on Jimin’s face as he had to part from them to go to his own class. Giving Jimin a reassuring nod, Jimin was only able to leave after realizing that Jiyoo had Yugyeom and Namjoon to rely on if she needed help.

Giving Namjoon an irritated glare for being so clueless, Jimin leaves to go to his own class. Namjoon is dumbfounded as to why one of his own friends would throw him such a dirty look, walking behind Jiyoo and Yugyeom with many unanswered questions running through his mind.

The three barely managed to get to class on time, stepping foot through the doorway just as the bell had sounded. The teacher gave them a curious look, but proceeded to begin talking once they’d all sit down. “I have a faculty meeting during this period, so I unfortunately won’t be able to teach you all. Today will be a self study time. That is all.”

Jiyoo proceeds to go over the lecture plan on her own, completely absorbed into her own work to notice the weird look from Namjoon. “Jiyoo? Jiyoo!”

“H-Huh?” Jiyoo moves sharply in surprise, finding Namjoon still staring at her. “Yeah?”

“When did you hurt your leg?” Namjoon asks, unaware of her injury despite seeing her yesterday.

“I feel fine though.” She trails off, making a poor attempt to look back at her work to avoid confrontation.

Namjoon didn’t exactly like her answer, so he had no choice but to continue pressing on. “I can totally see that.” He says with a sarcastic tone of voice. “I should’ve asked how you managed to hurt yourself that bad.”

“It’s really fine.” Jiyoo doesn’t look up and Namjoon feels his temper rise, just a bit.

“You’re sweating Jiyoo.” Namjoon grumbles, pressing his fingers to her temple. When he feels the sweat stick to his fingertips, he draws his hand back, wiping the liquid off on his pants. “It’s fall, so you can’t be cold.”

“It hurts, doesn’t it?” Yugyeom asks.

Jiyoo’s hand stops writing, looking at her work with a grimace as she slowly nods. “I just got hurt when Jungkook’s uncle took me to his house. Really, it’s fine.”

Namjoon can see that Jiyoo was getting uncomfortable with the way he was practically interrogating her. He sighs, bringing a hand up to ruffle her hair before leaving her alone for the time being.

Jiyoo takes a moment to look at Namjoon. She knows that he’s irritated, most likely with her. Jiyoo knows this and feels the knot in her stomach pull even tighter. Before she could go back to doing her work, she remembered that Yugyeom asked for help for his own work. Turning around, she faces the latter. “What did you need help with?”

Yugyeom is flustered. He only popped the question because he knew the mood was going downhill. Shuffling through his books to buy him some time, Yugyeom pulls out a random sheet and hands it over to her. “This was pretty difficult.”

Jiyoo takes one look at it before glancing back at Yugyeom, an eyebrow raised in disbelief. “You mean the study guide answer key was difficult for you to understand.”

Yugyeom tries to ignore the short, but audible snort from Namjoon. “Uh.. Yeah. I don’t know how to get to the answer for problem 7.”

Jiyoo might not have been convinced that Yugyeom didn’t know the step process to a problem they’d covered in class, but she’d become distracted completely for the rest of the period trying to explain it all to Yugyeom. Namjoon and Yugyeom had even taken the liberty of walking Jiyoo to her next class after that. Stepping into her graphics class, or more like hobbling, she found Jungkook staring into space again. She waves at Namjoon and Yugyeom, one thinking that the situation felt a little weird while the latter glared holes into the lovestruck boy.

It didn’t take an idiot to put the pieces together after eavesdropping on their conversation earlier. Jungkook was ignoring Jiyoo and looked like a fool in love. Jiyoo was obviously injured and didn’t want to talk about it. She’d also been put through some sort of trauma yesterday when she’d skipped school. Yugyeom could only walk past Namjoon and guide Jiyoo to her seat, purposely being extra gentleman-like and pulling out her chair for her right in front of Jungkook.

“What is he? Your servant?” Jungkook scoffs, his dazed expression turning hard as soon as he’d noticed Yugyeom’s entrance.

Yugyeom rolls his eyes, but ignores Jungkook to look towards Jiyoo. “Just let me know if you need anything, okay? And be sure to ice that ankle of yours.”

Jiyoo nods, awkwardly looking away as Jungkook’s face contorted into a confused expression. Taking out her phone, she was surprised to see that Jungkook’s father had messaged her.

To Jiyoo:

Just a heads up, but Jungah is coming over today. Is your ankle alright?

From: Uncle Jeon

She could already feel Jungkook’s presence looming over her, quickly putting her phone back after texting a quick “yes” to his father. When Jungkook sees her suspicious act, he only becomes more curious, though his mind was preoccupied by something else rather than Jiyoo’s behavior.

“When did you and Yugyeom become so close?” He asks. His eyes were locked on his phone as he tried to appear nonchalant.

Jiyoo didn’t notice this and answered, “We have the same statistics class.”

Jungkook knew that. He rolls his eyes and shifts his body to look straight at Jiyoo. “And then? That doesn’t explain why he was practically carrying you to your seat. What? Little princess doesn’t want to walk anymore?”

Although it was in Jungkook’s nature to always , for some reason, today wasn’t the right day for that. Jiyoo ignores Jungkook and pulls out her notebook, beginning to date the day and time for today’s class. His words infuriated her. It was almost as if Jungkook were mocking her.

She doesn’t say anything to him for the rest of the period and after his questions kept being rejected, Jungkook stopped talking too. They remained silent to the point where Hyunbin had turned around when there was five minutes left of class and gave Jiyoo that look as if to ask if everything was okay. When she shrugged, Hyunbin’s expression only became more worried.

The period ended after a long and difficult hour passed. As Jungkook rushed to leave, he’d completely walked out of the class without Jiyoo. The sight made their other classmates turn and gossip to one another, leaving Jiyoo to slowly pack her things as if it were going to help lessen the obvious stares.

“Hey, are you alright?”

Jiyoo looks up to find Hyunbin standing in front of her desk. His eyebrows were pinched together as he looked down at her, literally. It made her feel like he was pitying her, which further plunged her into a bad mood.

“Yeah, why?” Her voice came out a lot harsher than she expected, though she was too tired to apologize.

Hyunbin frowns. He wasn’t mad, but her tired voice made him even more worried than before. “Are you and Jungkook fighting or something?”

“No.” Jiyoo shakes her head, “He’s just being an .”

Her language shocked Hyunbin, whose eyes widened from the sudden personality change. He didn’t know Jiyoo could be so blunt in this sort of way. Putting his hand forward, he holds out a white card with his name and number on it.

“This is my business card, but it has my number on it so I want you to have it.” He mutters, looking away as he pushes his hand with the card forward. “Just call me if you need anything. And I mean anything. If you need a job or just someone to talk to, I’ll be here.”

Jiyoo gingerly takes his card. There’s a moment of silence where she stares at the golden lettering, a bit ashamed that her behavior had been noticed. She lets out a breath that she didn’t know she was holding in.

Hyunbin wasn’t trying to force her to talk, nor was he absolutely ignoring her. He gave her an option and gave her space. Jiyoo was grateful and nodded, the stress on her shoulders lifting just a little bit. She makes a mental note to text him later and apologize for being so rude.

Heading out the door, she wasn’t surprised when she saw Jimin waiting for her. Jiyoo smiles at him, her eyes trailing down the hall to find Jungkook booking it to the front of the school. The probability that he was rushing to see Jungah was especially high. Jiyoo forces a smile and slowly begins her walk with Jimin.

What did surprise Jiyoo was a rather large body that had crouched in front of her. The sudden appearance made her legs buckle, causing her to fall forward until she fell on something warm.

“Ya! I told you she was injured! Don’t hurt her more!” Jimin yells.

Taehyung grunts in response. He’d found out about Jiyoo’s injured ankle after he’d pestered Jimin about it during the last class of the day. Tightening his core muscles, he was a bit disappointed when he feels Jiyoo’s weight resist against gravity. Since Jungkook could piggy back her, Taehyung was almost positive that he could do it with even more ease.

“Let me down Taehyung.” Jiyoo grumbles, her actions saying otherwise. With her arms locked around Taehyung’s upper torso, she was clinging for dear life as Taehyung refused to carry her thighs for a proper piggy back ride.

“You’re not heavy at all though.” He says with confidence, even as he lets out another grunt to pull her up higher.

“I feel uncomfortable though.” Jiyoo sighs.

She tries to wiggle her way down, Jiyoo’s hope to walk home was shot down as Taehyung’s arms finally came up to support her properly. They walk home like that; Taehyung carrying Jiyoo on his back as Jimin continues to nag them from the side. It was almost fun and Jiyoo felt herself finally starting to enjoy the day.

Of course, all good things needed to come to an end. They arrived at Jungkook’s house, finding the door wide open as the others carelessly entered without closing it. Something in Jiyoo’s stomach churned, but she just tried to ignore the thought. “Taehyung always walked with a bit of a spring in his step”, she tried to tell herself that her stomach ache could’ve been from that.

“Took you guys long enough.” Seokjin says, his mouth full of cake as he shovels another spoonful into it.

Everyone takes a short moment to greet one another, the newer guests being more distracted by the boxes of pastries on the coffee table while the guests that arrived earlier were already eating away. Jiyoo doesn’t miss the confused look on Jungah’s face as she sits down next to Jimin. She waves, hoping that it would make Jungah’s concentrated stare disappear along with the awkward atmosphere.

“What is she doing here?” Jungah says aloud.

And of course, Jiyoo’s wishes were shot down once again.

“Why can’t Jiyoo be here?” Jimin snapped. He quickly composed himself when Jiyoo put a hand on his thigh, as if to silently tell him to not make a scene.

“I didn’t mean it like that.” Jungah replied quickly, “I just didn’t think she hung around you guys so much.”

Thus making Jiyoo feel unwanted and pest-like. Awesome.

Jungah eyes the way that Jiyoo calmed Jimin down, opening to say more before someone interrupts her.

“Don’t mind Jimin hyung. He just gets snappy when he’s hungry.” Jungkook remarked, taking the time to unwrap another cupcake before shoving the entire dessert into his mouth.

There’s a visible grimace on Jungah’s face as she watches Jungkook eat like a child. Picking up one of the napkins, she hands it over to him, unaware of the excited grin hiding under his frosted face. Nothing more is said after that and for a while, they all eat in silence.

“So what did you talk about with Hyunbin?”

Jungkook doesn’t look at Jiyoo, but she knows the question was asked for her to answer. “He just checked up on me because I didn’t look too good.”

“Unlike you.”

Is what Jimin wanted to say. He could already feel Jiyoo’s anxiety on the brink of exploding at this point, so he decides not to say anything more. Grabbing a small macaroon, he breaks it in half, placing one on a napkin in front of Jiyoo before shoving the other piece in his mouth before he says something that might make Jiyoo worry.

“So as I was saying earlier,” Jungah sighs, running her fingers through her hair. The action practically screamed rich and spoiled. “I asked my father and he said that he would be able to enroll me in the school you all go to starting next week sometime.”

Jaws drop. Jiyoo resists the urge to throw up the bite of the macaroon that got stuck in as Jungkook almost jumps from his seat of happiness.

“What about your other school?” Taehyung piped up first, his eyes confused after hearing the sudden news.

“I’d prefer to go to a school with you all since we’re going to be acquainted with one another sooner or later.” She says without another word.

Jiyoo feels the corners of her lips rip upwards, her body automatically imitating the happy aura surrounding the group after hearing the “good news”. She looks up at Jimin who has the same expression as her, though a bit less strained and more confused if anything. From the corner of her eye, Jiyoo could see the same expression on Taehyung; his eyes were a bit downcast and he slumped in his seat, twiddling the spoon used to eat sweets between his fingers in silence.

She made another mental note to talk to him later and see why he seems so upset; Jiyoo couldn’t just assume it was because he thought Jungah made him uneasy like how she felt herself.

Jiyoo didn’t want to look at anyone or else risk breaking her facade, so she pulled out her phone and began texting Hyunbin an apology for how she was acting in school. She had to search for his business card for a bit, but after finding it, Jiyoo remained still like a rock. Only her fingers moved as she typed a lengthy message to keep away from the conversation. She became so engrossed in trying to fix her spelling errors with her shaky fingers that she didn’t hear Jungah calling her until something hit her in the face.

Someone threw a cookie at her. The crumbs piled on her lap as the chocolate smeared against her white uniform shirt.

Jiyoo looks up and tries her best to not look at Jungah, as if just merely looking at the girl for a second would accuse her of attacking her with a baked good. Instead, she looks one seat over to where Jungkook sat with a bag of familiar cookies, a grimace placed on his face as he glares at her.

“Stop being rude. Jungah was literally calling you a million times.” He clicks his tongue, throwing another cookie Jiyoo’s way.

This time, it didn’t dirty her uniform though. Jimin was quick to snatch the cookie in the air before it hit Jiyoo, using a lot more force than necessary to whip it back at Jungkook. It hit him straight in the forehead, causing him to whine that Jimin was bullying him. The other guys didn’t say anything, some scolding Jimin for being mean while others laughed at Jungkook’s misfortune.

It was clear that Jungkook wasn’t purposely targeting her. He seemed to just be getting mad that someone was disrespecting his “precious” Jungah, or at least that’s what Jiyoo thought. It was a lot more sarcastic in her head too, but she didn’t say anything.

Jungkook was always this mean, but Jiyoo had never noticed it until now because he had never directed this sort of teasing towards her.

“I’m sorry.” Jiyoo says, mustering up as much courage as she could before looking at Jungah. “What did you say earlier?”

“It’s fine.” Jungah sighs, showing her irritation towards Jiyoo though not explicitly saying anything. “I was just asking if you could grab my bag so I could get help filling out my application for school. You’re the closest after all.”

Jiyoo looks over to the hallway and sees an out of place designer bag amidst the pile of backpacks. Jimin is quick to try and stand to do the favor for Jiyoo, but the latter is just as quick. She pushes him down and uses the force to pull herself up to her feet. Without hobbling too much, she grabs the bag and walks back over to the group, handing Jungah’s bag to her before heading back to the pile of bags.

Taking a look at her own backpack, she could see that it was still stained from the fruit punch incident at the festival; it looked shabby and unkept in comparison to Jungah’s expensive clutch bag. Slinging one side over her shoulder, she bites her cheek and forces a smile before turning back around.

“I have to head home and do homework now. Thanks for the sweets though.” She says with a choked chirp. Jiyoo sighs internally, already hearing the stress in her voice. “Bye everyone.”

Jiyoo could rush or else risk giving it away even more that her ankle was about to give way any second. Taking her time when putting on her shoes in hopes that her ankle would appreciate the small rest before the trip to her own house, Jiyoo hoped that everything would go smoothly and she could get herself out of the awkward situation without a hitch. She struggles with the new laces, mostly because she was wearing the pair of Adidas that Hoseok had picked out for her. It wasn’t that it was much difficult, but since they were a new pair, it just didn’t feel as casual as her usual pair of shoes.

“Hey Jiyoo!” She hears.

Looking up, she finds Jungah sitting on the couch. Jungah raises an eyebrow, “Didn’t you hurt your ankle at my house?”

Jiyoo keeps a smile on her face and shrugs. “It was just a small fall. I always trip here and there.”

“Yeah, she’s really clumsy.” Jungkook agrees, his mouth dropping crumbs on the couch as he speaks.

Jungah nods, looking back at her papers before letting out a small, but forced gasp. “Oh right! I forgot to tell you that we threw away your shoes that you left at my house.”

Jiyoo’s smile falls, her eyes wide as she remembers where her favorite pair of red converses went. She was so distracted by what was happening over the past 24 hours that she forgot that she went home barefoot yesterday. “What? Why?” Her voice cracked.

“They were falling apart, so we just tossed them. But I can just buy you another pair if you want.” Jungah said quickly, as if money could just solve it just like that.

“Why would you throw away someone’s shoes without asking them?” Jiyoo almost cried. She was doing a good job at holding back her tears, though the distress was easily heard in her voice.

“Why are you so upset?” Jungkook butts in, his eyebrows furrowing as Jiyoo begins to raise her voice. “I kept telling you that those shoes were old and ugly, but you didn’t listen to me. It’s good they’re gone.”

Jiyoo didn’t give anyone else time to give her about her fashion choices; letting out a muted sigh, she just turns around and begins to walk out the door. “It’s fine. You’re right, they were old anyways. Bye guys.”

Closing the door as carefully as she could, Jiyoo makes haste to head home. She gets a good halfway there before the tears begin to spill, her frustrations finally releasing as the stress finally breaks her. Meanwhile at the house, Jimin was quick to grab his own bag and head out after her, not saying goodbye because he was more concerned with how Jiyoo was doing.

He was just out of sight from Jungkook’s house when he found Jiyoo collapsed on the sidewalk. She had been crying so much that the tears blinded her momentarily, causing her to fall down. She was clutching her swollen ankle as tears rolled down her cheeks. “Jiyoo!”

Jiyoo looks up to find Jimin running towards her and immediately wipes away her tears, as if that would prevent Jimin from seeing her crying. He makes haste to pick her up off the floor, carrying her in his arms gingerly as he walks her over to her house. Jimin ignores her protests to carry her, only letting her down when he needed to unlock the door to her house.

Before he could walk in with her, Jimin feels a small palm press against his chest. Jiyoo was preventing him from walking into the house with her. “Jiyoo? What’s wrong?”

“I’m alright.” She sniffed, using the sleeve of her shirt to cover her red nose. “I just want to be alone for today.”

“But-”

“I’m alright Jimin.” She says again, this time more firmly. Jiyoo watches as Jimin’s expression gets more worried. “I’m just clumsy is all. But we can hang out all day on Friday, right?”

“Yes, but..” Jimin wanted to argue more but seeing the state Jiyoo was in, he didn’t want to stress her out more. He sighs and pulls her in for a hug, holding her for a bit before finally letting her go into her house alone.

She waves as Jimin walks away from her house, waiting for him to be out of sight before closing the door and collapsing yet again. Her ankle was burning and the pain was sending jolts up to her knees now after falling down on the concrete sidewalk outside. The tears resume their descent down her face as she cries in silence. Her hands muffle her cries as if Jimin would hear her through the door and being so far away.

Jimin was long gone now. He didn’t bother to return to Jungkook’s house, walking right past the house and back home before he ended up punching Jungkook right in his lovestruck face.