"Ah, Mr. Kang's lectures are so boring they'd even put insomniac people to sleep." Jennie says, muffling a yawn. Chaeyoung laughs and nods in agreement. As much as she loves the subject of organizational behavior, their professor somehow manages it to turn it into a snooze fest. Even the most studious students in their class fall asleep.

"I'm just glad it's over now." Chaeyoung replies. "Though, I still have to organize my notes, they're a complete mess."

"Chaeng, we just finished our midterms, take it easy." Jennie scolds her lightly, linking their arms as they're walking out of class. "You're always so serious, no wonder everyone asks for your help. Must be nice to be smart. I wish I had a brain." Jennie pouts.

"You do have a brain!" Chaeyoung reassures her but Jen shakes her head.

"Physically, yes. But there's absolutely nothing inside." She says with a nonchalant tone and a silly smile that Chaeyoung's not sure how to react. Amongst her friends, Jennie is the most carefree, but not necessarily in a bad way. She just tends to follow her heart's whims and desires. If something doesn't spark joy for her, she throws it away, and studying is something that absolutely doesn't spark joy. Not even a tiny bit.

If it were another person, Chaeyoung would be worried about them, but she knows that despite Jennie's careless front, she's a genuine person at heart. Chaeyoung truly believes that she'll find something that will work for her one day.

"It's alright, your heart is plentiful of love, and that will surely take you to great places!" Chaeyoung replies cheerfully.

"Chaeyoungie~ you're the sweetest!" Jennie coos and leans closer to her, rubbing her cheek into her arm like a kitten. The younger giggles at her friends' antics and is about to tell her to stop when she hears Jennie gasp, pointing to something- or rather, someone standing near the entrance of their university.

"It's Mr. Steal Chaeyoungie's heart!" Jennie screams as she waves at the figure. Chaeyoung stands still, trying to convince herself that she's not hallucinating and that, it's in fact, Jungkook standing there, waving at them with a smile.

Jennie drags Chaeyoung by the arm and runs up to him. "You're a sight for sore eyes dude! God bless your genes!" Jennie comments playfully, making Jungkook laugh. She nudges Chaeyoung with a questioning look "Oi, Chaeyoungie, aren't you gonna say something?" she asks, but Chaeyoung still seems to be in shock, unable to say anything.

"Oho, Chaeyoungie broke down." Jennie knocks on Chaeyoung's head twice. "Yahoo, earth to Chaeyoungie!" she screams and that seems to wake the younger from her surprise.

"I-I'm fine!" she squeals, trying to mask her embarrassment. "it's just- uhm, what are you doing h-here?" she asks Jungkook, who tilts his head and smiles.

"I wanted to see you. I thought we could go to the bookshop together."

"B-but, how did you know I go here?"

"I asked Jimin. I hope it's okay that I showed up here. I didn't really ask you first." he looks down apologetically, as if he did something he wasn't supposed to do.

"No no, it's absolutely 100% okay! I was just taken aback, but I'm extremely happy right now I could die and have no regrets!!" Chaeyoung quickly rebuts, hoping that what she said could ease his worries, but then she hears a snort from her side and she turns to see Jennie laughing at her.

"So happy you could die? Chaeyoungie, you sure say some embarrassing things, hm?" Jennie teases, covering with her hand as she continues laughing. Chaeyoung turns beet red, weakly hitting her friend in the arm repeatedly.

Jungkook watches the two friends banter with a fond smile. He likes seeing Chaeyoung being all playful and lively. The sight warms his heart. Jennie notices him looking their way and smirks.

"Well, since your man is here, I'll leave you two alone." she grabs Chaeyoung's hand and points it his way "Here, she's all yours now." she gestures for him to hold Chaeyoung's hand, but none of the other two understand the implication behind the action, so they stare at Jennie in confusion. She looks back at them in astonishment.

"Don't tell me..You guys haven't held hands yet???" she groans, throwing the two a scolding glance. "you've already been on a date and you didn't even hold hands! this is outrageous, absolutely scandalous! you have disappointed me and the entire human race." she grabs both their hands and links them together. Chaeyoung lets out a small whimper at the sudden contact, but Jungkook seems as calm as ever, or rather he's trying to hide his smile. He's enjoying this a little more than he thought. However, he's not a forceful guy and he won't engage in anything unless he's given permission. He looks at Chaeyoung and asks

"Is this okay?" he points to their linked hands. "If it's too much for you-"

"No- I mean, yes!- I mean, I-" she takes a deep breath and tightens her hold on his hand, looking down to hide her red face "I-it's o-okay." she mutters, earning a victorious grin from Jennie and she slaps them both on their back.

"Alright you little munchkins, mommy will leave you now, and remember: Make love! not terrible non-holding hands decisions!" she shouts as she waves them both off and skips away.

They stare at her until she turns the corner and disappears from sight.

"Your friend is..something."

"Please don't mind her. She likes to tease me a lot." she replies with a pout and he smirks.

"I don't blame her, you're fun to tease, Chaeyoungie~" he teases her and laughs at the way she goes red upon hearing the nickname. He pulls at her hand and they start walking to the bookshop. "You and Jennie are in the same class?" he asks to fill the quiet. Jungkook isn't one for small talk, he prefers walking in silence but with Chaeyoung, it's different. He wants to talk to her a lot more, listen to her a lot more, be with her a whole lot more.

She nods "we're both in our third year, though she's older than me." she pauses before a question pops in her head and she voices it. "What about you? I never heard you speak of uni."

"It's because I don't go to university." he stops, pondering whether to say the next words or not for a second, before he decides to just let them out "I dropped out." he admits, albeit a little hesitantly. It's not like he's ashamed of dropping out, that's a decision he'll never regret, he just doesn't like talking about it, because he knows that not everyone is understanding. His family surely wasn't, and the looks of disappointment they had on their faces when he told them still stings.

"Was it because you wanted to or you had to?" she asks, with no hint of judgement in her tone, just pure curiosity.

"I wanted to."

"Then it's fine." she smiles brightly, surprising him. "I think the fact that you can make your own decisions firmly and stand by them despite what others think is awesome. It's admirable!"

Well, that was certainly an answer he didn't expect. Once again, Park Chaeyoung manages to catch him completely off guard. Once again, she makes everything better.

He doesn't reply, instead he just squeezes her hand tightly, hoping that the small gesture can communicate how thankful he is for her words.

Just then, his phone vibrates in his pocket. He takes it out and sees a message from Lisa.

From: Lis

>I'm gonna kill you.

He grins, knowing exactly what she's talking about. Still, he plays dumb and types back:

To: Lis

 >What did I do?

From: Lis

>You lied to me

>This Taehyung guy is a ing clown

>no scratch that

>He's the whole goddamn circus

>I can't handle his loud

>He's too hyper it's tiring me out

>I thought he was on drugs at first

>I wanna quit already ugh I can't work with someone like him

To: Lis

>oh, so you got the job?

>Congrats

From: Lis

>Don't change the subject

To: Lis

                                                                    >All I said was that he was an interesting guy. where's the lie in that?

From: Lis

>Whatever.

>You're dead to me.

"um..is everything okay?" Chaeyoung asks, eyeing his phone.

"Ah sorry, it was just a message from Lisa." he puts the phone back in his pocket.

"Lisa..?" she tilts her head cutely, and Jungkook almost coos.

"She's my friend. More like my only friend actually." he chuckles, a sound Chaeyoung has grown addicted to lately. Despite hanging out a lot at the shop, she still doesn't know much about him. Jungkook's the secretive type, Chaeyoung concluded and thought it's best not to ask him personal questions, unless he brings them up first, like right now.

"What kind of person is she?" she prompts, happy that she could get to know more about his life.

He hums as he takes his time to think. "She's like me, but more aggressive and brutal."

"Oh, is she a delinquent?! or maybe a rebel with a cause?! ah don't tell me she's a gang leader?!" she exclaims, her face all serious. Jungkook can't help but snort and laugh out loud at her silly assumptions.

"Your imagination is too wild." he replies with an amused smile. "Stuff like that only exist in fiction, you know." she looks down in embarrassment.

"That's true..would've been cool if it were real though." she mumbles, earning another chuckle from him.

"She's just your average unmotivated, forever hungry, always sleepy 20 something years old, though to be honest, No one is sleepier than me. There was a time where I slept for 22 hours straight."

"No way!"

He nods enthusiastically "I know, I couldn't believe it myself. Lisa thought I was dead when I didn't pick up her calls that day, and when I woke up I found a voice message from her basically telling me that she forged a will saying that all my belongings will go to her after I die so I can rest at peace with no worries." Chaeyoung starts giggling at the ridiculous story. "I mean," he continues, trying to control his laughter "why would she even send a voice message if she really thought I was dead? it's not like I'll listen to it. Don't even get me started on the fact that she bought me a burial shroud. She was definitely planning to bury me! I didn't know if to be angry she forged a will to claim my belongings or offended that she wanted to bury me with no funeral!" They both cackle loudly, earning judgy looks from some passerby, but neither of them care, too engrossed in the their own world to be aware of their surroundings.

"My stomach hurts from laughing." she sighs after she calms down, rubbing her tummy with her free hand. She looks up at him with an overjoyed smile. He meets her eyes and raises his eyebrows in question. "Ah, I was just thinking that this is really nice." she says, the shadow of a blush adorning her cheeks. "Listening to you talk about yourself and your friend I mean. You're the quiet type and whenever we meet it's me that does most of the talking which can be really annoying, so it feels really nice to hear you talk a lot for a change. I like it. I want to listen to you more. I want to know more about you." she murmurs the last bit faintly, a shy look on her face that shouldn't really affect him this much, but it does.

"It's not annoying."

"huh?"

"Listening to you talk. It's not annoying. I like that about you." he explains. "If you want to me to talk about myself more, I'll do it. For you." the words leave his lips way before he can think them through, which seems to happen quite often when it comes to Chaeyoung. The small but significant changes in his demeanor whenever he's with her are increasing every time and as much as that thrills him, it scares him. He tries not to think too much of it, thinking always leads him to memories he'd rather not visit, so he looks at her blushing face, at her bright smile that could rival the sun, at her soft eyes that hold so much passion in them, and just like magic, all his worries disappear at that moment.

"What are you two doing there? you're late." he hears Jimin's voice yelling and only then does he realize they're in front of the bookshop. Jimin approaches them and his eyes immediately fall on their intertwined hands. He throws Jungkook a calculative look before he sighs and goes back in. "I told you, no flirting on the job. Go get changed and help me out, we're quite busy this day."

"Yes boss!" Chaeyoung replies cheerfully and runs to the changing room. Jungkook stares at his now empty hand and slowly tucks it in his pocket, her touch still lingering. When he looks up he finds Jimin staring intently at him.

"What?"

"I hope I made the right decision by hiring you" Jimin says and Jungkook blinks in confusion.

"What do you mean?"

"It means, if I see any flicker of insincerity from you towards my sister, I won't forgive you. I've had a good opinion of you since the start, it's why I offered you the job, so I hope you don't disappoint me." and with that, he turns around, going back to work as if he said nothing.

That didn't feel like a warning, but more of a plea. A plea for him to be someone good for his sister.

But Jungkook can't offer any kind of reassurance, because he too is unsure whether he can be someone good for her.

-------------------------------------------

A.N: hello hello we meet again after another long hiatus. I initially wanted this chapter to be longer, but seeing that I've reached +2000 words, which is my quota for each chapter, I didn't want to overdo it so look forward to the next chapter.

Also, I want to apologize for a whole lot of things. My writing is getting terrible, my updates are slower, and it made me question my worth as an author so I've been feeling really down lately. Adding to that the stress that this pandemic has caused, I'm not at my best shape, but I hope to be soon. 

I hope you all are taking really good care of yourselves, especially your mental health. These are tough times, we need to be there for each other, but also be there for ourselves, so please take care of your beautiful hearts <3

Good night!