Jumping up and down on the soles of his feet, Jungkook stared at his opponent with caution as they both circled around each other on the bright red mats. His hands were up in defense and his fingers were curled into tight fists. His breathing sounded loud in his ears, but were mostly drowned out from the screams that came from the second floor.

It'd been a good 30 seconds into their last round of matches and both participants didn't seem like they wanted to give in to the other just yet. To the two, it felt longer than 30 seconds. 

Jungkook his lips after dodging his shorter opponent's unbalanced back kick. 

He couldn't lie. 

He missed being on the familiar surfaces of the matted arena. 

In the last two years, he stopped attending the Taekwondo academy. He wanted to spend more time with his friends and be a bit reckless and so, he did. He attended random house parties, drank, and even smoked. He remembered how pissed Yerim was when she found him stupid drunk on her doorstep. She ignored him for a whole two weeks, but that was all he had remembered really—her being mad, disappointed, and even embarrassed? Therefore, when he first stepped onto the mats that evening, his body had automatically remembered the other eight years he had dedicated to training his body (last week didn't count when his was handed to him by his childhood best friend). 

Today, he wore his old training uniform that was once tucked away in the back of his overcrowded closet; forgotten. His black belt was actually used to balance his crooked desk. He would've been forced to condition for hours on end if Master Kim ever did find out how he had treated his black belt. Despite of being used to level a piece of furniture, his full name and two golden stripes were still beautifully stitched onto the black fabric. He remembered the surprise looks his parents gave when he asked his mother to wash his uniform. As usual, he ignored their inquiries and went up to his bedroom; his heart beating in anticipation for his return under the spotlight. Various silver and gold medals and trophies shined under the white moonlight as they stared at him from their place on top of his unused bookshelves. Covered in dust, they were eventually hidden away by the many comics and video game figurines he had slowly accumulated over the years.

Blinking, the sound of cheering filled his ears once again; his mind now focused onto his opponent in front of him.

Suddenly, Kim Yerim seemed different to him.

Gone were the pigtails she used to annoyingly wear during their grade-school days. She often sports one now—a ponytail. He didn't particularly dislike it. He just hates how everyone would stare at her in awe whenever her hair does come down. In terms of height, she didn't grow as much as he did over the years they had known each other, and he made sure she won't ever forget who was the taller person now. However, he did notice how the other guys at school would look at her whenever they walked home together in the hallways—especially that pretty boy, Jung Jaehyun. 

He decided that those guys weren't good enough for her...

He blamed it on his natural instincts of being someone whom she grew up with.

So...when did she ever become so distant from him?

Perhaps this was like that one time when they were both 8-years old and he made the mistake of cutting off one of her pigtails...

...but they were no longer 8-years old, no, there's something else wrong with her if she thought half-assed punches and kicks was considered good sparring.

Having enough of this tug-and-pull game they were playing on the mats, he executed a clean roundhouse kick to her midsection (she didn't even bother to dodge his move). His foot had easily made contact with her red hogu and the short 2 minutes was up.

He won.

The second floor went into a frenzy when Teacher Song—their club supervisor—announced the winner of their little match. He could tell the bespectacled adult was a bit annoyed with the obnoxious screams. Though the sparring was only a demonstration to the club members, the uninvited guests upstairs had made it appear as if it were a basketball game instead. 

Bowing to each other, both Jungkook and Yerim took off their head gear to unveal their sweat-covered faces. The female students screamed an octave louder when Jungkook did this and it reached a whole new peak when he brushed his damp hair back with his fingers. He was expecting Yerim to characteristically roll her eyes and say something per usual, but she turned to their peers instead. Turning to the students who sat on the sidelines, she smiled and spoke in a calm manner, "Though you are not forced to participate in sparring, I would like to encourage anyone who is interested to talk to me after. It really is a great opportunity to use the techniques you will eventually learn. There are also tournaments against other schools in the Spring, which I will talk more about later on. So thank you all for coming. See you next week!"

Politely bowing to some students, Jungkook threw his co-captain a couple of glances, hoping she would look back at him. And when she did, the infuriating woman quickly distracted herself by talking to another student.

He frowned at this.

"Hey, what's wrong with you?" He first asks her once they changed out of their Taekwondo attires and back into their school uniforms. Walking away from the locker rooms with their duffel bags in tow, she gave him a shrug as she combed her fingers through her freshly washed hair and nodded to students who offered them quick bows in the hallways.

"Huh? Nothing..."

He snorted at her soulless response and followed her, the doors slamming shut loudly behind them when they exited the gymnasium's building and into the cool night's air.

"Nothing? I know you, Yeri. You blink at least twice whenever you bull." She rolled her eyes at this as he continued, "—and what the hell was that earlier? All of a sudden, you can't even perform a simple back kick?"

She scoffed at him in disbelief and quickly pulled her hair into a messy ponytail.

"Get off your high horse, Kook. Not anyone can execute a perfect back kick like you can," She retorted, annoyance felt in her words.

It was his turn to scoff as he continued to speak to her retreating back.

"Seriously, what the hell is wrong with you? What's gotten your in a twist?"

She breathed out a frustrated sigh before finally spinning around to face him, her ponytail whipping along with her quick movements. 

"I said it's nothing, Kook! Just in' drop it!"

Silence instantly enveloped the air around them. He could hear the frustration and anger in her heaving pants, her breath exhaled out into the air as white puffs. Her cheeks became rosy pink due to the cold January air. They stared at each other without any words being said in between until she made the first move to speak.

"L-Let's go get something to eat...I'm hungry," She quietly muttered under her breath and began leading the way out of school grounds. Jungkook stood in place with conflicting thoughts running amok in his mind—should he give her space or accompany her? In the end, he silently complied as he followed in her footsteps, his face digging deeper into his thick scarf in attempts to shy away from the cold.

Crossing the empty railroad tracks, the quiet pair made their way towards J-Ho's Chicken. Hoseok's family owns a fried chicken restaurant in their neighborhood and it was the usual hangout spot for their group of friends. Though it is a chicken restaurant, they're more known for their other non-chicken specialized dishes. 

"The chicken here . I recommend the beef short ribs," Was Hoseok's overused line when serving new customers.

Hoseok's stupid face was their first greeting when they entered the small eatery.

"Hey guys!" He exclaimed enthusiastically, his eyes turning into slits and the apple of his cheeks rising high on his face.

Yerim offered him a forced smile while Jungkook vigorously shook his head to him from behind the female, hoping that the older boy could read the surrounding mood hovering around them.

"What's that Kook?"

However, Hoseok was always 99.99% oblivious most of the time whenever it comes to reading the atmosphere.

"Nothing. Just nothing, hyung," Jungkook deadpans and glares at the other boy, who was all smiles.

Settling down by the windows, Hoseok sauntered over with two tall glasses of iced water. A short, plump woman in her early fifties with a apron on came strolling behind the boy as well, her facial features looking almost identical to Hoseok's. 

"Oh my! Is that you Yerimmie? Kookie? Oh my, oh my! You two look so grown and beautiful! I wish my Hoseok was handsome like you, Jungkook," Hoseok's mother beamed at the two teens. Their friend's facial expression turned sour.

"Aish! You're really going to go there, mom? It's your fault for giving me this face! And didn't you see them a couple weeks ago? Quit acting like it's been years since you've last seen them!" Hoseok complained, his strong satoori accent becoming very apparent in his words as he tried to refrain his mother from adopting the younger boy.

"Hi, Mrs. Jung. It's great to see you too," Jungkook politely replied with a grin, reveling in the compliments his friend's mother was showering him with. Yerim couldn't help but let out a small chuckle at the scene.

Before his mother could answer, Hoseok was already dragging her away back to the kitchens. "Leave them alone, mom! You're so embarrassing! You want ramen and spicy rice cakes, right? That will be right out once the chef realizes that her place is in the kitchen!" Hoseok hollers to them from across the restaurant as he scolds his mother at the same time, their bickering becoming muffled as they entered the kitchens behind the blue curtains.

After the comedy duo left, the pair sat in awkward silence. To avoid speaking to the other, both teens took a sip of their waters.

Out of the corner of his eye, Jungkook notices two men in black suits. They were seated at a corner table of the restaurant. One of them immediately shifted his eyes away from their table when Jungkook caught him staring.

. . .

Dinner was a quiet affair. The only sounds that were exchanged between the two came from their forks scraping the hot pan and Hoseok's obnoxious voice besides them.

Jungkook was beyond annoyed at this silent treatment. After paying, the two said their goodbyes to Hoseok and his mother, who didn't forget to say, "You kids come back soon!"

It took them only a couple of blocks from the chicken restaurant to finally reach Yerim's house; his was five houses up the road. The lights were off in the house—Master Kim was most likely still at the dojang.

Without even a goodbye, Yerim went to open her front door, but to only have it slammed shut by Jungkook who stood directly behind her; his large shadow consuming her smaller one. Furious, the female turned around and found herself inches away from the male. She had to crane her neck up to make up for her 5' 2" frame and his 5' 10" build.

"What the h—"

"Tell me what's bothering you. It's really annoying the out of me!"

She bit her lip in anger and quickly shoved him away from her, afraid he would hear her erratic heart rate. Dropping her duffel bag off to the side onto the porch with a loud thud, she finally looked at him. He saw a mixture of fear, anxiety, and anger in her dark hazel eyes.

"Fine! You know what's been bothering me? The fact that you're not even an ounce worried about what's going to happen to you after that night seriously pisses me off!"

He gaped at her.

"That's what's been—" He began, but she shot him a glare. "Don't interrupt me! I had a long conversation with Seulgi after she was attacked and she was scared less, Kook! Jimin even missed school yesterday because she couldn't sleep due that incident. And you're here acting as if nothing happened? You almost gauged out somebody's eye for 's sake! I'm in' scared for you! We're only 16! That man had a gun and he almost shot you! And—"
 

"I'm alive aren't I?" He raised his voice to match her's, but she wasn't having any of it.

"I said not to interrupt—"

Without even realizing it, he quickly closed the distance between them and stood in front of her; his hands firmly grasped onto her shoulders as he stared into her dark pupils. Her eyes were trying to look anywhere else but him. The soft rays of the moonlight seemed to be hitting every angle of her face just right—her pale skin glowed from the effects of the full moon.

"Yah, Kim Yerim. You know why I wasn't scared back there? It's because you were right next to me. I'm not here to boast about our Taekwondo skills, holy —but when we're together, those motherers with guns should've been the ones that were scared less. If you're scared, I-I'll protect you. You know that... And if they come again, I'll just have to beat them up again, yeah?"

She became silent after hearing his confession. He could tell that she wanted to cry—not out of fear, but in pent up frustration. 

And so...he let her.

Everyone was in shock when he did it. Yerim appeared as if her soul had left her body. The scissors in his hand fell limp onto his desk as his eyes followed the falling black strands of her hair. 

He didn't know what overcame him.

Her nagging was just so damn annoying that he didn't know what else to do to shut her up.

So he grabbed a pair of scissors from their shared table and just snipped off one of her pigtails...

He was expecting for her to tackle him to the grounds, but instead, she ran off in tears. Mrs. Lee was shouting for her to come back as the classroom broke into chaos. Some of his peers were laughing and thought it was what the goody-two shoes finally deserved, while others glanced at him in disgust.

He just sat still in his seat as the guilt began to consume him.

The very next day, Yerim showed up with her head held high—despite having puffy eyes—as she showed off her new haircut: an old-school bob. It actually looked cute on her, but she didn't seem all too ecstatic about the change. He also noticed the change in the atmosphere at the dojang as well—he was suddenly Master Kim's favorite student; if being called on for every class demonstration was considered as having the instructor's favor.

For a whole week, she ignored him as her father continued to up their training regimen (or was it only his?). He also observed that she had talked more to their classroom's pet rabbit than she did with him. 

He didn't think he could survive another week of this silent treatment.

Therefore, in the next following week, he turned up to school with hands cooly tucked into his pockets and his hoodie up. He tried to mimic Yoongi's sense of fashion and 'swagger,' a persona that the older boy had copied after listening to some Western hip hop artist who's name sounded a lot like the chocolate candy, M&M's. Whispers immediately filled the hallways as he walked to class. He took his usual seat besides Yerim and waited for class to start. 

The day was going smoothly until someone had to call him out to their homeroom teacher.

"Mrs. Lee! Jungkook has his hoodie up! Isn't that against school rules?"

Jungkook glared at the bespectacled boy who sat near the classroom doors. The boy stuck his tongue out at him before grinning in response. 

Mrs. Lee stopped her lecture and turned to look at him with her hands on her hips. He rolled his eyes at the woman's posture, which reminded him of his mother's. "Mr. Jeon, would you please take off your hoodie?" 

Reluctantly, he tore off the problematic hoodie and quickly hid his face into his arms to hide away from his classmates' curious gazes. He heard gasps all throughout the room, the loudest coming from the girl next to him.

For a whole weekend, he gave up his gaming time with his friends to slave away at Mr. Mun's barbershop. Since he was only 8-years old with no source of income, he had to find an alternative method that would help pay off for his new haircut and it came in the form of sweeping the shop's floors and answering phone calls for Mr. Mun.

In the end, he found that the coconut haircut was worth it when he caught a glimpse of a small smile on his desk-mate's face.

It has always been like this between the two of them. 

She would be pissed at him in one moment, and he would somehow always make it up to her.

They eventually moved upstairs to her bedroom after she drenched his uniform shirt with her snot and tears. Changing out of his splotchy button-up, he threw on a grey sweater that he thankfully kept in his duffel bag before turning off the bathroom lights. 

Stepping into her small bedroom with his bag thrown over his shoulder, he found his co-captain already bundled up and tucked in bed, Yerim's face being the only thing he sees in the sea of purple blankets and pillows. 

Walking over to the bed, he gave her forehead a light flick with his fingers, in which she managed to respond with a glare even though her eyes were fat and puffy from crying. 

"I'm going to have to wear a T-shirt tomorrow now because of you and your boogers. If I'm getting detention for breaking dress code, I'm dragging you down with me."

She rolled her eyes.

"Yah, quit rolling your eyes. A simple thanks would've suffice. Go to sleep, I'm going now!"

With a hand in the air, he bid her a goodnight and made to leave her bedside, but a small tug at the end of his sweater had stopped him. Glancing over his shoulder, he stared at the small hand that gripped onto his sweater and followed it all the way up towards her face. 

Yerim avoided eye-contact and made an uncharacteristic pout.

"C-Can you stay until I fall asleep?" Came the shy request.

Jungkook raised a brow at her odd behavior. 

This wouldn't be the first time they would sleep together in the same room. In fact, sleeping together was a common occurrence with them when they were children. But her being shy about it was the first for Jungkook. He was a bit hesitant to comply with her request though because he didn't want her father to flip when he discovers that his only daughter was alone with him in her bedroom, considering that he hadn't seen the instructor for the past two years. Various scenarios on how Master Kim could kill him had played out in his mind. 

He shivered just thinking about it.

"Uhh..." He started and looked away as he rubbed the nape of his neck—he does this whenever he finds himself in a difficult predicament. However, he made the mistake of looking at her face because her bigass eyes had guilt tripped him and for the second time that night, he did what she wanted.

Light snoring soon followed within a short 10 minutes—half of that time consisted of him trying to get comfortable on the single-sized mattress. It didn't help when the female beside him had taken most of the room (and blanket) as well.

Jungkook flattened his eyes in disbelief when the girl had instantly fallen asleep after shyly asking him to stay with her. He closed his eyes and sighed, a light chuckle escaping his lips.

When he opened them again, he took this opportunity to observe Kim Yerim's face.

Her eyebrows seemed a lot less tense, a large contrast to when she was awake. She had a small button nose and a tiny mole on one side of its bridge. Not many people notice this since you really have to look closely in order to see it. He knows this because she used to make fun of his set of moles on his face when they were kids before she even had one—it was a pretty traumatic experience for a good three days until she found out it was called a 'beauty' mole. His eyes then raked down to her soft, pink lips. They were the same pair of lips that would spit out a slew of acidic words at him everyday.

After carefully examining her sleeping face, he finally was able to confirm his predictions that the female looked atrocious when unconscious.

He should probably take a picture for future references.

Tucking his phone away, he decided to make his leave before the head of the household came home to discover such a scandalous scene. Taking one last glance at the sleeping female, he gently closed her bedroom door with a soft click. Readjusting his duffel bag strap on his shoulder, he headed towards the stairs, but stopped in his footsteps when a shadow moved across the hallway. He immediately looked up from the hard wooden floors and met the sharp eyes of his old Taekwondo instructor. This marks the first time Jungkook had seen the man in normal civilian clothes.

"Y-You—" The older man began as his eyes quickly flitted from the boy's face to his daughter's closed door. Recognition crossed his facial features. Jungkook's eyes widened as he saw the misunderstanding begin to form in the man's eyes.

"I-It's not what you think," Jungkook stuttered as he slowly inched closer to the stairs with his hands surrendered in the air as if he was caught stealing. The man was still frozen in his place in front of his bedroom door, but had managed to point an accusing finger at the male teen.

"Y-You..." The man started again.

"H-Hello, it's nice seeing you again, Master Kim! Goodnight!" Jungkook quickly muttered before deciding to make a run for it. He didn't want to find out how their confrontation would end. His friend's father was hot on his heels as he made his way towards the front doors; sneakers in hands.

"Y-Yah! Jeon Jungkook! What did you do to my daughter!? Don't think you can run away from me! I know where you live, you little !"

Looking over his shoulder after running a good distance away from the Kim's residence, Jungkook exhaled a sigh of relief when he found that the old man wasn't behind him. He could see Master Kim waving his fist in the air at him from afar. Walking backwards now, he laughed and panted at the ridiculousness of his situation and waved to the older man just to spite him. Shoving his feet into his white Air Forces, he couldn't help but feel sorry for the poor guy who would call Master Kim his father-in-law. Who could blame the man's dislike of him anyways? After what he did to his daughter's hair at the age of 8, Jungkook had this hate-love relationship with his old instructor ever since.

Turning forwards again, he was able to whistle a small tune before he felt something hard hit him from the back of his head. He felt like the air had left him from the harsh impact and found his surroundings becoming dark—he was starting to lose consciousness. 

The last thing Jungkook saw before he collapsed to the cement grounds were the two same men-in-black  he saw from the restaurant.

----------------------------
A/N: I think I wrote too much here... lol. I really needed to establish some character background before proceeding with the plot I have in mind, so hopefully you all aren't bored with the story thus far! Thank you for reading and commenting! : ) Hope that you all are having a great start of the new year!