Chapter Fourteen: Where it Begins

Somehow my parents found out about Jungkook.

I’m not sure if it was Namjoon or Nana. Neither would fess up to it. Now my parents were insisting on meeting him and I was at a loss.

“I’m serious, Ara. We need to meet this boy,” mom fretted.

“Yeah, yeah,” I grumbled, trying to make my getaway. “Okay, I love you! Bye!”

If slamming the door closed like that didn’t show my parents how I felt about it I wasn’t sure what would. I had asked Jungkook to pick me up at the end of my drive way out of fear my parents would still try to meet him. I breathed heavily, glancing behind me and sure enough my mom was on the porch watching me.

“We need to go,” I said breathless.

He took one look at my mother and geared it out of there. I didn’t think about it till afterwards. The fact that their daughter was running off with a boy that had a motorcycle probably freaked them out even more.

That was sure to be a fun conversation.

I rolled a baseball I'd found sitting on his dresser against my palm, unsure how to even begin this conversation. He was distracted with homework, attempting to rush through it as fast as he could so that we could spend some time with each other.

“Do you want to meet my parents?”

Maybe being straightforward was best.

He grimaced, pencil stopping its flurry of activity against the paper. “I don’t do meeting parents,” he said finally, his tone strangely detached. Monotone, an abrupt end to the subject.

I was still learning Jungkook and I wasn’t certain what subjects would set him off. For now, I would let this conversation die off. I didn’t feel like arguing today, or going home bawling because Jungkook decided he’d rather break up with me than deal with it.

The pencil hit paper again, his writing nearly illegible from how fast he was scribbling it down. “Is it English?”

“Yes.”

It seemed like today he was in one of his moods. One syllabic answers usually meant that.

Maybe I was jumping to conclusions. Jungkook could be distracted by homework, not annoyed by something I had done. He could be so confusing at times, and half the time I had no clue what he wanted. He tended to be private about the things that bothered him most, unwilling to share it with me when something happened between him and his parents.

“How much of what you say to me is truth and how much is lies?”

It was haunting me, that question. I couldn’t stop thinking about Yeri who had decided to warn me the other day about Jungkook. She said that he would only leave me broken hearted, and to just take this time with his as something fun and carefree as it was all he could give.

I didn’t know if that was because Yeri had feeling for him and was trying to scare me away, or if it was the truth. Perhaps she always kissed Jungkook because she knew that was what he needed. It wasn’t like I could ask. She was gone as soon as she finished, disappearing around a corner so that she wouldn’t be late for class.

“What do you mean?” He brushed his hair off his forehead, arching a single brow.

Jungkook was a puzzle I was unsure I’d ever solve. He was the unexplained picture of the Loch Ness Monster, the Rosetta Stone before it was cracked.

“Nothing,” I whispered, sitting down next to him with my hands tucked beneath me. I was too tired to argue today.

Grandpa had kept me up all night pacing back and forth in the hallway mumbling to himself. I had convinced my dad to put a lock on the inside with a key so that grandpa wouldn’t wander off during the night, so at least I was able to get a bit of sleep.

I laid down against his pillow, eyes half shut as I faced the wall and snuggled into the comforter. A hand brushed against my ribs, Jungkook discarding his homework and placing his attention on me.

“Are you okay?” he asked softly, his bad mood dissipating. He brushed my hair out of my face, pecking my lips tenderly.

I blinked the sleep out of my eyes. “I’m fine, are you?”

He breathed against my neck, trailing butterfly kisses against it. “I am now that you’re here.”

I brushed my fingers against the back of his shirt, following the contours of his body beneath it. He leaned down to press a kiss against my lips filled with need.

I loved him.

It was a simple truth I could not tell him because the moment those words were uttered between us all of this would be over. He was like a skittish colt, ready to bolt at the faintest of winds when he was afraid. Love very much terrified him. It was something he was not ready to give.

But I was, and there was more than one way to say I love you.

“I’m ready.”

His muscles tensed around me, pulling back to see me clearly. A weighted look was held between us. “Are you sure?”

I nodded, swallowing thickly.

His eyes were unreadable, yet filled with life. Jeon Jungkook was telling me many things. I just did not have the key to unlock them.

“Alright.”

He reached for his drawer, pulling out a and I cl