Chapter Nine: Where Cats Don't Have Nine Lives

I never though telling Nana I went on a date with Jungkook would cause an argument, but somehow it had. When I had shown up at school, Jungkook’s hand fastened around my own, her lip had tightened and her features became rakish.

We had English together this year, but the whole period she ignored me. I brushed it of as her being busy since we had an assigment to turn in before class was over, so the first time I got to talk to her was lunch. Which led to our verbal tennis match we were currently in, our friends watching as they stuffed their mouths with food as if it were popcorn and us the main event at the movie theatre.

“He’s taking advantage of you, Ara. How do you not see that?”

“But he didn’t even kiss me!” I argued. “He’s been nothing but respectful since learning my boundaries.”

“Yeah,” she snorted. “Because he already hit second base with you before you were even dating.”

My cheeks burned and I averted my eyes. It wasn’t exactly a fact I wanted to share with the table. She soon realized her misstep, squeezing my forearm. “Ara, I’m sorry. I wasn’t saying that to shame you or anything. I just want you to realize what you’re getting into. Jungkook has a history of dropping girls as much as the regular person changes underwear.”

“He said I’m different though,” I defended.

Her gaze was full of pity. “Ara, how many girls do you think he’s told that to?”

I stiffened, grabbing my tray to throw away. “Fine. If you don’t have anything supportive to say keep your comments to yourself. They’re not needed.”

Jimin blinked wide eyes at us, darting back and forth as he on his apple juice box. Ren was pretending to have a conversation with Tae. I say ‘pretend’, because their words were slow and halted. Sometimes stopping in the middle of their sentence to eves drop on us.

Jimin didn’t bother feigning his attention. He had no shame.

“Ara, come on. You know I don’t mean it like that,” Nana sighed, rubbing her forehead as if a headache was coming on.

I tilted my nose in the hair, my chin low and stubborn. “We can talk again once you stop being a jerk about my relationship. I didn’t try and put you down when you first started dating Ren.”

“That’s because Ren isn’t a womanizer!” she shouted after me, losing her patience.

It didn’t matter, I told myself. I didn’t need Nana’s acceptance to date Jungkook. She should have been happy for me. She knew how much I liked him, how long I had. It wasn’t fair that she had all but spurned him.

The rest of the day I was distracted by my argument with Nana, wavering between wanting to accept her advice and forgive her, or ignoring her until she apologized.

My pride decided for me, because when we were dismissed from class I acted as if I didn’t see her waiting for me in the parking lot. Instead, I got a ride from Jungkook.

“I’m sorry about your friend,” he murmured, kicking a rock. He had parked his bike in my driveway and we had been talking.

“It’s nothing,” I grumbled. “She’ll come to her senses soon enough.”

Today was supposed to be a happy day. I was dating Jungkook. Nana should have congratulated me. Instead, I was sitting in my driveway feeling like crap for arguing with my best friend.

My phone started ringing and I hurried to pull it out expecting it to be Nana. Namjoon’s number flashed across my screen instead and I left out a groan of disappointment.

Jungkook leaned down so that his face was close to mine, pecking my cheek. My face burned at the unexpected brush of skin and he pulled away. “I’m going to let you get that. I’ll see you tomorrow, alright?”

“Tomorrow,” I repeated, already hurrying inside and answering the call.

“Ara?”

“Yeah?” I peeked through the blinds, watching him drive off in a puff of smoke.

“What’s going on? Nana