Chaeyoung walked into school the next morning with an intricately folded coat cradled in her arms. Spotting Jennie by the water fountains, she rushed to her.

Chaeyoung leaned down, her face a mere foot from Jennie's. "Jendeuki!"

Jennie turned her head mid drink to her direction, causing water to shoot in Chaeyoung's direction. Chaeyoung gasped and hurriedly attempted to brush off the few drops of water that managed to land on the coat.

"Jennie, be more careful! I can't let it get dirty." Chaeyoung pouted, glaring at her best friend.

Jennie rolled her eyes. "Sorry, bub. Maybe if a certain someone didn't startle me I wouldn't have gotten your precious coat wet. Which," she glances down at the coat, an eyebrow raised with curiosity, "is not yours?"

Chaeyoung flushed. "What do you mean? Of course it's mine, I've had this coat for a while now." Jennie looked at her, unimpressed.

"Chaeng, I've raided your closet way too many times. You can say that I have a mental map of what your closet houses. And this, my friend, is not one of the items." Jennie put a finger on her chin.

"If way too big for you, and you're here panicking about it getting creases, then," Jennie's eyes widen, "it's a guy's," she smirked. "Who is this special someone, Chaeyoung?"

Chaeyoung didn't know she could blush more than she originally was. "N-no one at all! It's none of your business!"

Jennie leaned back, shocked. "Don't lie to me! Chaeyoung, we tell each other everything. You know I won't judge!"

Chaeyoung sighed, hugging the coat closer to her chest. Jennie was right- they've been friends since they were in diapers, and they never hid anything from each other. One more secret wouldn't hurt.

"Jungkook." she whispered.

"What?" Jennie asked. "I can't bloody hear you."

"Jungkook!" Chaeyoung hissed again.

Jennie's jaw dropped. "Jungkook?!" Chaeyoung sputtered, slamming her hand onto her friend's mouth.

"Could you be any louder? And it's not like I wanted to take his coat anyways, he made me wear it last night!"

Jennie squinted her eyes at her. "What were you doing with him last night?"

"Who was doing what last night?"

Jennie and Chaeyoung paused, turning to the direction of the voice.

"Lisa, hey! We were talking about Kuma?" Chaeyoung grimaced.

"Chaengie, that sounded more like a question than an actual statement. What are you hiding?"

She sighed for the umpteenth time. "Long story short, Jungkook and I hung out last night at the desert parlor because the library closed and he let me borrow his coat."

The second jaw dropped that day. "Him?!" Lisa shook her head. "Did you lace him with heroin? He must have mistaken you for Jiwoo."

Chaeyoung looked at Lisa, sick with fear. "Honestly, I wish he did. But he didn't. So now I have to return his coat and it's gonna be so awkward because I don't know what to say to him. Should I say thank you and run off? Maybe I should just avoid interaction altogether and give it to-"

Lisa cut her off. "Why are you overthinking this so much? It's just a coat, Chaeyoung. Just thank him for letting you wear it and, if you're that afraid, run away! It's not that hard."

Jennie nodded. "Jungkook's helping out with the freshmen football practice. Go give it to him then."

•❅──────✧❅✦❅✧──────❅•

Seven minutes later, after much persuasion from her friends, Chaeyoung was outside on the Paramount High School football field. Glancing around, she spotted Jungkook at the end of the field, packing the sporting equipment away with Hoseok, one of the volunteer coaches and, dare she says, one of the nicest popular guys in the school.

With frantic steps, Chaeyoung walked over to the two boys, their backs facing her. She coughed. "Um, excuse me?" they both turned.

"Chaeyoung!" Hoseok smiled. "How are you? I haven't seen you around the campus in a while."

Chaeyoung smiled back. Her hatred for popular boys only goes so far- Hoseok is the literal human embodiment of the sun. "I'm doing great, Hoseok, thank you for asking. I hope you're doing well too!"

Hoseok chuckles. "Thanks. I assume you're not here for me, though," he nudges Jungkook's silence stance before slinging a bag of footballs across his back. "I'll see you around, Chaeyoung!" waving in return, she waited until Hoseok left before finally turning to Jungkook. 

"Hey."

"Hi."

A few seconds passed in silence. Chaeyoung grimaced. This wasn't going very well. "How are you holding up?"

Jungkook scratched his head, looking down on the ground. To her surprise, he looked almost shy. "I'm doing a lot better, thanks for asking," he looked at her, smiling softly. "I tried talking to my dad last night."

"Oh my God! How was it?"

"It went pretty well! He was cooperative and he was willing to change. If anything, he sounded apologetic."

Without an ounce of thought, Chaeyoung walked over, throwing her arms around him. "I'm so happy for you, man." 

It took a second for Jungkook to register her gesture before returning it, hugging her tighter.

Chaeyoung snuggled deep into his chest, taking a deep breath. All she could register was that distinct smell of sandalwood, cinnamon, and warm. It was like that night had begun all over again- memories of hot chocolate and leather seats replayed in a loop in her mind, memories that lured her deeper into his embrace. It was ambrosia to mask the coldness of the morning and the smell of muddy grass.

If only she could just move closer without the stupid coat getting in the way.

Coat, she thought. Coat!

Chaeyoung immediately pushed Jungkook away from her, her bubble quickly reinforced.

She stammered, refusing to meet Jungkook's shocked expression. "I-I came here to give you back your coat." she shoved the coat into his arms. "I ironed it and everything."

Before Jungkook could reply, Chaeyoung ran off, leaving Jungkook alone on the football field nothing but his coat to replace the space of someone his arms crave so deeply to hug again. 

A/N:

LET ME SAY IN ADVANCE THAT I HAD NO IDEA IT WOULD TAKE THIS LONG TO WRITE A NEW CHAPTER. I'm not going to sit here and blame it on writer's block, I'm just going to be upfront and say that I was genuinely struggling in finding the motivation to continue this story. 

But here I am! It's been a while since I've really written anything so this chapter may be a little rocky and uninteresting, but it's a base for what's to come in later chapters :) 

All in all, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. I'm sorry for not updating in, what, two months? I'll probably get another chapter out within the end of this month :D 

See ya'll later! 

- Jessica