Chapter Five: Where There Were Kisses From Butterflies

I carefully blew a bubble with my teal colored bubblegum, eyes crossed as I watched to see how big I could make it. When it popped a piece of it stuck to my nose and I hurried to scrub it off. Nana snorted from beside me, shaking her head.

“See, this is why you’re single.”

I pouted, elbowing her in the side before reviewing the pool of boys I had to pick from.

No different from yesterday.

Or the day before that, or the day before that either. In fact, the last person that moved here was nearly five months ago, and it was a girl. I groaned, slamming my head against the table repeatedly.

“You know, you could always give me a chance,” Jimin suggested with a wiggle of his brows.

I stopped giving myself bodily harm long enough to give a short, “Yeah, right.”

“Your friend is broken today,” Ren commented, nodding at me.

“I’ve always been broken,” I whined, covering my face with my hands. “Now my outside matches my insides.”

“The drama is high with this one,” Taehyung stated, watching me as if I were some type of one-manned circus that was failing every trick. His mouth was slightly open, eyes vapid with his chin tilted up.

“I hate everyone,” I decided. I glanced behind me to see Jungkook staring at me. Immediately, I felt mortified. He had been watching me the entire time as I slammed my head against the table like an idiot.

“Nana,” I groaned, hiding my face in the crook of her sleeve. “Just kill me! I have lost my will to live.”

“Oh yeah?” Jimin challenged. “I bet if I gave you cheese fries you’d find it again.”

I sat up straight, staring at his tray that held my golden trinity. Fries. Cheese. Salt. What else could make me happier?

Jungkook probably, but it wasn’t like he was an option. I couldn’t just pay a dollar and twenty-five and POOF, he’s my boyfriend.

I would really love to get my late Hogwart’s acceptance letter at this point. I needed bleach for my mind, and a do over of this entire day.

After Jimin deemed he’d teased me long enough with the food he handed it over. I made a happy, yet slightly embarrassing noise, digging into the high caloric meal.

And yes, cheese fries counted as real food. It was a main staple on the food pyramid, along with grains, fruits, and veggies. Cheese fries was right next to them.

“Is Jungkook still staring at me?” I whispered between bites.

Nana glanced behind me. “Yeah.”

“What is he doing?”

“What he always does,” she snorted, stirring her soup.

“And that is?”

“Smirking.”

“Ah,” I agreed. He did do that a lot. Smirking should be illegal for Jeon Jungkook, because every time he did that it made me lose my mind. I had already lost my sanity with Kaeun as a sister, so I needed at least my mind but fate would not take pity on me.

Things weren’t any better in history. To my equal horror and delight the teacher announced we all had to pair up with a classmate to complete a project, and Jungkook immediately stood up and dropped his book on the desk next to mine, proclaiming me to be his partner.

I wasn’t sure if he decided to do that because he’d heard I had an A in the class or because of the amusement he was sure to get from being near me, but either way Jeon Jungkook was next to me. If I was Yeri I’d be able to flirt with him at the flip of my hair, but as it was I could barely meet his eyes which he seemed very adamant on doing. Every time I avoided his he tried to follow my gaze, head following my line of vision.

“Which time period did you want to do?” he asked, no evidence of a smirk on his lips for once. He actually looked serious, attempting to keep my attention. What he didn’t know was he already had it. I was just too much of a coward to look back at him.

I’d probably explode in a cacophony of feminine hormones if I did.

“Any time,” I muttered, fiddling with the ring on my middle finger. I twirled it anxiously, still unable to look him in the eyes.

His hand covered mine and I stilled. I peeked carefully around the edges of my hoodie, finally making eye contact. He gave me a small nod.

“I don’t bite, you know.” After a moment, a secretive leer decorated his lips. “Well, unless you want me to.”

I took a startled breath in, eyes widening. He let out a breathy laugh, shaking his head. “We’re going to have to meet up after school to finish this. We didn’t get anything done on it today. Do you have anything planned today?”

“No.”

My answer was so quick it was almost embarrassing.

“Alright then, we meet at my house after school.”

I straightened my back, tingles running up and down my spine. I didn’t know if I should go try to make the most of this, or not go and act like I forgot.

Screw it. Jeon Jungkook asked me to go to his house. Who am I kidding?

After having a mini freak out in the parking lot with Nana and asking her to drop by grandpa’s house to check on him for me, I found Jungkook surrounded by his usual posse of friends. Hyuna and Yeri. Chanyeol, Kai, and Hoseok. I could at least say at my school the popular kids weren’t all jerks. In their own little worlds? Yes, but not the atypical high school wipes.

I hovered in the background, too shy to go up to him. Hyuna slapped Kai’s shoulder after he made a lewd joke, Jungkook and Chanyeol bursting into laughter.

“Come on, guys,” Yeri complained. “Be a little more mature here.”

“If I had everything in life it wouldn’t be fair to the rest of you.” Jungkook arched a single brow, a smoldering look on his face. I could feel the heat trailing up my neck, practically marking me for the innocent, little I was.

This was hopeless. I was hopeless. I couldn’t even look at him, much less be in a room alone with him.