Jungkook has lived with no one living next to his house for the 16 years he has been alive until a new family moves in. A family of four, just like his.

Unlike his brother who becomes anything but himself the moment his eyes land on the two girls, Jungkook feels nothing about it. Perhaps, if he does feel something, it’s just a little of his curiosity playing around his head, wondering how life will proceed now that he has a new neighbor who live just beside them.

From his own room, he catches a glimpse of his brother approaching the fence separating their houses to talk to one of the girls. He chuckles silently, agreeing silently in his head when he recalls his grandma saying his brother is just like his mother. Bold.

As he is about to walk away from the window, Jungkook’s eyes settle on a figure moving around in the room just across his. The girl looks around the room with her brows furrowed, her hands holding picture frames and her body turns around, finding the best spot to hang the frames.

All he wishes is for her to change her mind about the room. He remembers his friends talking about their female neighbors dramatically screaming when they accidentally looked through the window. He doesn’t realize for how long he has been standing and staring at the girl until their eyes meet. He realizes the command in his head, asking him to turn around but all he does is blink his eyes slowly. She doesn’t budge either and contrary to what he believes, the girl actually smiles at him.

Jungkook almost returns the smile to her if she hasn’t turned away abruptly, responding to the appearance of her mother at the door.

*

He learns about her name the moment his brother crashes his bed just right after dinner. Chaeyoung. Park Chaeyoung. It’s not a unique name, he thinks. It’s just too common, but it weirdly sounds nice as he says the name in his mind.

When his brother finally retreats to his own room, Jungkook switches off the lights in his room, feeling lazy to do his homework and surprisingly not in the mood to play his game.

Jungkook looks to his window. Before the family moved to the empty house, it was always dark outside and Jungkook has grown accustomed to it. Now that someone is living there, it feels strange that he’s seeing lights coming from that house, peeking in through his blinds. The lights don’t fall to his eyes that it will disturb him in his sleep, but it’s going to take a day or two to get used to it.

When Jungkook lets his eyes fall shut, he hears laughter that goes on and on. Irritation bubbles inside of him and he sighs heavily, pushing his face into the pillow when the girls get louder. He almost jumps from his bed to show the girls his annoyance, yet he doesn’t know why he stays in bed and it doesn’t actually take long for him to fall into a slumber.

*

“Excuse me?”

Jungkook turns his head and sees the girl, Chaeyoung is fidgeting and looks back and forth between him and her car.

“Is it alright if you give me a ride to school?” She sighs and pouts next when her father starts the engine and the car sputters. “Something is wrong with the car and I don’t want to be late on my first day.”

Jungkook hesitates, unsure how it’s going to be when he arrives at school with a girl. “Uh, sure,” he says finally and only prays to god that he never believed to exist that his friends will not be anywhere around to witness him with a girl on his bike.

He has never had a girl to sit behind him on his bicycle. Only his friends Jimin and Taehyung had ever had the privilege to do so but that was years ago before they got their own bicycles. Jungkook tries to ignore that awkward feeling of Chaeyoung’s body heat behind him and manages to stay cool when she slightly gasped and held onto his shirt around his waist when they met a small bump.

“Thank you so much,” she says. Her smile mirrors her gratefulness.

He doesn’t walk by her side, but he stays close since they are going to the same direction. He almost offers to be her guide, showing her the places in the school but he notices his two best friends greeting him from far that he pushes back that thought instantly.

Soon, he feels strange that he wished he never pushed that thought away when he saw her with a male student, animatedly talking to one another. He is the first person that she met, her neighbor to be exact yet he hadn’t been in a real conversation with her.

*

Jungkook hears Chaeyoung singing when he enters his room. Subconsciously, Jungkook peeks from his window and takes in the sight of her playing guitar while singing, looking up at the dark sky while she sits with her legs dangling from her window. He has to admit how pretty she looks like, especially when she smiles softly as though she is singing to someone in particular. Her voice is soothing to his ears and he wonders how she will sound like if she talks to him.

Two more songs, she finally puts her show to a stop and Jungkook whines inwardly of how he wants to hear more. He doesn’t even realize that his curtains are wide open until she stares back at him for a few seconds. He feels a blush rushing up his cheeks and he fidgets at the curtain, hand suddenly stuttering, forgetting how to pull the curtain to a close.

“Hi,” she waves at him and Jungkook freezes.

“Hi,” he manages, cringes at how late his response was.

Chaeyoung smiles sweetly as she puts her guitar away. “I’m sorry if I was too loud.”

He has millions of responses waiting to be released. He only has to choose. Yet, the only thing he is able to do is nod his head lightly.

“Jungkook, right?”

He nods, feeling like a robot now more than ever.

“We never really introduced ourselves to each other properly,” she chuckles. “I’m Chaeyoung, by the way.”

He finds himself smiling a little, clearing his throat and he tries to push the thought of this whole thing being strange and new to him as he takes a sit on his windowsill. When her smile brightens, he knows he’s done the right thing.

“I’m Jungkook.”

She playfully reaches out her hand and though he knows that it’s far that he won’t ever reach it unless he has the ability to stretch his hand like rubber, he does it anyway, almost causing him to slip off the window. Chaeyoung gasps and laughs after a few seconds Jungkook steadies himself back with a nervous laughter of his own.

Her laughter is somewhat melodic, he thinks.

“Is that your first time almost falling from your window?” she asks.

Jungkook shyly smiles, his hand automatically flies to the back of his head. It’s suddenly itchy there. “Yeah,” he replies and reveals, “it’s my first time sitting here like this.”

Chaeyoung looks surprised. She tilts her head, her smile widening as she says, “I hope this won’t be your last, though.”

Jungkook doesn’t reply, only chuckling back in return but he does say it in his heart; It certainly won’t.

*

Jungkook is surprised to know that his friends only realize that he has been going to school and returning home with Chaeyoung every single day after a month. He doesn’t intend to keep it a secret, because even if he does, he knows that they will know it eventually. It’s a useless attempt. He just never expected that it would take them a month.

“How come I never know that she’s your neighbor?” Jimin asks.

He just shrugs, not knowing exactly what to respond.

“She’s cute,” Taehyung comments.

It’s a harmless comment and he feels nothing at first, but when Taehyung keeps coming with her name slipping through his lips so freely and even asks Jungkook more questions about her, Jungkook grumbles and makes excuses that he’s busy and has something to catch up.

He notices, though, his friends eyeing him from far when he approaches Chaeyoung who is waiting for him with her own bicycle.

“Sorry I’m late,” he apologizes and unlocks his bike and smiles up at her but she doesn’t see it because she is looking past his shoulder. “What is it?”

Jungkook turns around to check and feels his eyes narrow at Taehyung and Jimin waving their hands and listening to Chaeyoung chuckling next. He exhales sharply and ignores them, getting himself ready to leave.

“Your friends are cute,” she says and Jungkook just hums.

He almost wants to ask, if she thinks his friends are cute, does she think that he’s cute too? But that’s a stupid and an irrelevant question to ask. Why does it matter what she thinks of him?

*

“You should hear her sing,” Taehyung says from behind him after patting his shoulder a couple times.

Jungkook rests his chin on his fist, wishing he has the energy to tell Taehyung he has been listening to Chaeyoung singing for at least five times every week since the week she moved in. When the bell rings and students rush out the classroom, Taehyung slings an arm around his shoulder.

“She has the prettiest voice,” Taehyung praises with pride as though he’s Chaeyoung’s first audience.

Jungkook is certainly not the first either, but he is convinced that in that school, he is the first. He presses his lips together when he realizes he has spent too much time thinking of that alone and why it would even matter.

“Where did you even hear her sing?” he asks lazily, but a part of him is curious.

“At her locker,” Taehyung tells him with a grin. “I was waiting for her to close the locker door to talk to her and she was singing, softly and sweetly.”

He wonders what Taehyung wanted to talk to her about.

Jimin laughs on his left. “Seems like Taetae has fallen in love again.”

He can’t help but to stare at his friend suspiciously. “Really?” he asks hesitantly.

Taehyung snorts and laughs along with Jimin. “Nah,” he shakes his head. “I’ve only talked to her once. How can I fall for her?”

Jimin teases with a playful scoff and mutters an elongated ‘right’. Jungkook only nods his head, agreeing with Jimin because between the layers of Taehyung’s denial, Jungkook knows that it’s an empty denial.

Perhaps that’s the reason why Jungkook almost frowns immediately after he manages a chuckle to make sure he’s contributed his part in their conversation to avoid any suspicion, because why would he be suspected of anything? Chaeyoung is nothing more than his neighbor, his friend and his schoolmate.

*

Jungkook sits across her in the diner and watches her devour the food he ordered with a small smile. She has complained that it’s getting a little boring to cycle around the neighborhood everyday and wants to try something new. Ever since he became aware of how she seems to find happiness in the presence of food, Jungkook came up with the idea of bringing her to his favorite diner.

“Is it good?” he asks gently.

“Mm,” she nods, chewing with her cheeks puffing out.

He tries to hold it but eventually, his face breaks into a wider smile and a chuckle escapes him.

“What’s the matter?” she asks after swallowing up her food.

“You kinda look like a chipmunk when you’re eating.”

Her eyes widen at him, feigning hurt as she threatens to throw him one of the cherry tomatoes sitting on her plate. “I am not!” she denies, playfully scoffs at him.

“You don’t believe me?” he raises a brow.

She stares at him for a while that he almost feels strange about it but before he could, she responds, “Do you have a way to prove?”

Jungkook looks around, trying to find something, anything at all before his eyes drop to his phone on the table. A smirk settles itself on his countenance. “Eat something,” he instructs and when she does, Jungkook laughs as he opens his camera and tries to capture a picture of her.

Chaeyoung stares straight into the camera with a smile while is full and Jungkook feels something flip inside of him fleetingly, yet the impact stays longer. He swallows as he stares at her through the device, his chuckle fades into nothingness, thumb only hovers over the screen.

“Done?” she asks and instantly covers with her hands when the food almost slips through her lips.

“No,” Jungkook mutters, regretting that he didn’t tap when he was supposed to. He almost tapped on it, but the timing was just not right. When she uncovers , she has finished chewing everything and is already empty. “Do it again,” he says with a laugh.

“No,” she whines. “I’m not going to give you a second chance. Once is enough.”

“But I didn’t get to show you my proof yet,” Jungkook frowns.

“You learned your lesson,” she leans forward with a grin, “be quick next time or else you have nothing to prove. As of now, you have no proof that I look like a chipmunk!”

Jungkook wants to keep on arguing, wants to keep on asking her to stuff with food again and she can even have some of his food to do so, but figures that none of that actually matters.

Secretly, Jungkook leans back and pretends to play with his phone when in fact, he takes a few snaps of her, and they are not even photos of her eating.

One of her talking to him.

One of her staring outside.

One of her smiling at her phone.

One of her smiling so brightly at him.

He doesn’t even know what he is going to do with those. If they get to the stage of embarrassing one another so freely in their friendship, none of the snaps would even fit to serve as blackmails. But he knows for certain that he doesn’t have any plans on deleting them.

*

Jungkook’s heart jumps uncomfortably when he hears shouts of anger, shouts of fear and shouts of apologies late at night.

All coming from the house next to his.

He tries to ignore it, feeling awkward that he hears some of their conversations because they are all yelling. He hears something breaking. Probably a vase or plates or cups or glasses or whatever. He presses his headphone to his ears as though that will mute away any other sound, increases the volumes of the song he is listening to on his laptop. He has no time to indulge himself in someone else’s business.

But when his phone vibrates and Chaeyoung’s name appears on the screen, Jungkook pushes his headphone off his head like it’s suddenly bothering him. He snatches his phone from his table and walks toward his window, pushing the curtain away in a rush.

Chaeyoung’s window is closed but she is standing facing him from her room. Her face is shiny under the light of her room, wet with tears. Her hand is pressing her phone to her ear.

Jungkook answers the call, nervously pressing the phone to his ear, and he knows that it’s not only physical things that have broken in that house. Because when she says his name, he can listen to Chaeyoung’s heart breaking and shattering.

“Do you know anywhere safe where I can have a night walk alone?” she asks through broken sobs.

Anywhere is actually safe in the neighborhood. There has never been a crime happening there for as long as he remembers. He thinks of lying to her, though, that the neighborhood is unsafe even during the day, because he wants her to ask him if he can join her for the walk. But Jungkook doesn’t have the heart to break her heart even more, even though most likely, nothing that he does affects her heart in any sort of way.

“You’ll be safe as long as you stay within the neighborhood,” he says and watches her nods her head. She ends the call and pulls her curtain into a close, and a couple minutes later, he sees her figure walking out of her house in only her pajamas.

He shouldn’t really worry. He shouldn’t bother. She wants to be alone. It’s safe out there. The least he can do is respect what she wants.

Jungkook tells himself all of those repeatedly. Yet, Jungkook finds himself grabbing his sweater before he runs out of his room, down the stairs and out of his house. He takes his bicycle along when he spots her nowhere near and he cycles around with his torch in one hand, shooting lights everywhere. He feels himself panics, stopping a while to make a call but fail to reach her.

He almost shouts for her name when he reaches the abandoned bus stop, stopping himself from doing so as he sees her sitting quietly. Her body shivers and she hugs herself, shaking her legs lightly. He is unsure if the sudden anger rising in his system is because of her, because of his family or because of himself.

She spots him and stares as he approaches closer. “What are you doing here?” she asks.

“What are you thinking when you leave your house just like that?” he grumbles and almost puts his sweater around her. Instead, he sits beside her and hands her the sweater he has been holding tightly in his hand the moment he finally saw her. “You’re freezing. Put it on quickly.”

From the corners of his eyes, Jungkook realizes that Chaeyoung is staring at him. He clears his throat, looks down at his own hands. She is still holding the sweater and Jungkook wonders if the sweater smells.

“I’m sorry I didn’t bring a clean sweater instead,” he mutters, scratching the back of his head awkwardly. Blush rises on his cheeks and he tries not to chance a glance at her when she slowly puts it on. “Sorry if it smells.”

Chaeyoung in sharply through her nose and Jungkook doesn’t know if she tries to check if the sweater does smell or she’s just sniffing because she was crying earlier. “It doesn’t.”

“Are you not cold?” she asks after a while.

“No,” Jungkook says, though he admits that the longer he sits there, it gets a little chilly when the night breeze blows.

“Thanks for the sweater,” she says softly and stands up. “I’ll return it later. You should head back home.”

Jungkook rushes to stand up as well, finally seeing her in his sweater and he tries not to think of how good she looks in that oversized sweater. His sweater. The sweater is large on her, eats her lean frame effortlessly, yet she still looks amazing that makes him imagine her in his other sweaters, in his other shirts before he brushes those imaginations away.

“You’re not going home yet?” he asks, shifting on his foot.

She bites on her lower lip, drops her gaze down and gives him a light shake of her head. She looks up a second later with a smile that doesn’t reach her ears, a smile so weak that he feels a tug at his heart. “It’s… stuffy. I’m not ready to be home yet.”

His mouth blurts his reply before he realizes it. “Then I won’t be ready to head back home as well.” When she tilts her head slightly at him, Jungkook draws in his breath. “I’ll go with you.”

“Why?” She looks around and stares into the darkness for a second before she looks at him.

Jungkook shrugs. “I don’t know. You’re still new here. You should always have someone to go somewhere with you,” he says, looking at his foot. “Especially at this hour.”

“I thought you said anywhere is safe here.”

He bites on his tongue, telling himself that he should have lied earlier so this awkward encounter would not have happened. “I could be wrong, who knows?” he shrugs his shoulders again. When he braves himself to lift his head to look at her, he feels strange how something inside him flips when he notices the small warm smile on her face.

“Yeah,” she nods and echoes him, “who knows.”

Jungkook clears his throat, his mind in deep chaos as he tries to think of a way to get him out of that stupid situation because he is sure that his cheeks are reddening, and there’s no way he is letting her witness that.

“There could be big bad wolves around,” he says and forces himself to act like it’s nothing, to act casual about it when Chaeyoung chuckles. “After all, that red sweater looks like a cloak on you. They might think that you’re the Little Red Riding Hood.”

He feels a little proud that her chuckle gets a little lengthier at his attempt in making the mood lighter. When it finally subsides, Chaeyoung sighs softly and stares down for a moment. He knows she still hesitates to let him walk with her, but at the same time, he knows that it’s impossible to sleep if he doesn’t see her at her own room, safe and sound with his own eyes.

“I will not ask about anything,” he promises. “Won’t say anything. I’ll just… be around. As long as you’re not walking alone.”

*

Jungkook knows that he shouldn’t have expected her to open about whatever that happened earlier in her house. He knows that asking her a lot of things about it is stupid. All Chaeyoung needs at that moment is not someone who speaks but listens. But if he has to admit, he feels a little disappointed that she has only let the silence of the night to be her friend.

It’s only when they are walking back toward the bus stop earlier after the long walk that she begins to say something.

“Was it loud?” she asks.

Jungkook knows exactly what she meant, but his response comes automatically. “Hm?”

“The horrible things…in my house... You heard them, right?”

He feels bad for nodding, wonders how embarrassed she might have felt.

“Just… just a warning,” she says with her voice dropped lower. “Sooner or later, you’ll hear it again. So, apologies in advance.”

Jungkook pushes his hands into the pockets of his sweatpants. “Why are you apologizing?”

“Because… because we’re loud? And,” she trails off for a moment. “And you and I are neighbors. It’s kinda rude, don’t you think? For being so noisy,” she chuckles dryly.

He can’t say that it is fine, because it’s not. More than it disturbs his peace, it’s actually disturbing him for the worry that grows as he thinks of her. If he says it’s fine, it’s like he’s fine having her face that terrible moment in her life. He now knows that it’s not a new thing to her. It’s something that she has faced before and something tells him that it’s not even the second or the third time that it happened.

Jungkook keeps his mouth shut for a couple seconds before he mutters, “I’m sorry.”

She only hums at that, hugging herself and he wonders if she’s feeling cold even with his sweater on. He wonders briefly how it feels like to wrap his arms around her. He wonders how it feels like if she tells him that he’s warm. He sighs heavily, squeezing his eyes shut for a moment and chastises himself for thinking of those at this moment.

When they reach home and they stand steps away from her door, she tells him to remind her to return his sweater and he tries not to think of how she has no intention to give him back that instant. Perhaps, she feels bad that she has already worn it, and she wants to return a clean sweater.

Jungkook’s mind, though, can’t help but lingers around the possible thought of how she might have a different reason to not return it on the spot. He almost tells her that she can keep it as the thought of how great she looks in his clothes swirls in his brain. But he knows that he shouldn’t say that.

“It’s my favorite,” he says with a smile, “make sure when you return it, it’s still in one piece.”

She laughs softly and slowly walks away from him and turns around. “Thank you so much for tonight. It means a lot.”

He hears nothing else but the sudden pounding of his heart in his ears.

*

“I’d like to make an announcement.”

Jungkook’s eyes don’t budge from his food, only lifting his brows as a response to Taehyung. Jimin who is sitting on his side is giving Taehyung his whole attention, already getting excited as he drums his fingers on the table.

“I scored a date.”

Jimin hoots and Jungkook chuckles. He shakes his head a little as he scoops the food and shoves it into his mouth.

“Like that’s something I should be surprised of,” Jungkook says and Jimin agrees.

Taehyung laughs and leans forward as though he’s about to reveal a top secret to them. “Can you guess it’s a date with who?”

Jungkook is lazy to guess, but he mentions a few names. Some names that he’s sure he’s heard being linked to Taehyung but none of them is correct. Jungkook quirks a brow and stares at his friend amusedly. “You’re no longer going on dates with girls now?”

“Damn,” Jimin whistles and laughs. “Who’s the lucky guy?”

“Hey,” Taehyung pretends to be offended, “I know I said that Jihoon guy is cute every time he blushes when I look at him. But no, I’m still interested in going out with girls.”

“Well, we don’t have all the time in the world to guess, so spill,” Jungkook says and tells Jimin that it’s a bit disappointing that they’re not going to see Taehyung breaking a man’s heart anytime soon.

“Park Chaeyoung,” Taehyung announces and leans back in his seat, folding his leg.

Jungkook’s laughter subsides and his smile fades. He blinks and turns to Taehyung slowly. “Who?”

“That neighbor of yours. Park Chaeyoung.”

When Jimin turns to look at him, Jungkook makes sure that his face displays anything else but hurt because he’s sure he’s not, despite the upsetting way his stomach twists at the pictures of Chaeyoung holding hands with Taehyung, Chaeyoung eating ice cream with Taehyung, Chaeyoung laughing and linking arms with Taehyung that play around in his head.

Why would he be hurt anyway? That’s a stupid feeling to feel when it comes to her because she’s nothing more than a neighbor, a friend and a schoolmate. It’s not even like Taehyung is stealing her from him, although deep down in the farthest place within him, that’s exactly how it feels.

Jungkook pulls up a smile wide enough that his cheeks hurt, widens it even more when Jimin says it’s a shame that he never tried to ask Chaeyoung out when she just lives next to him, forces his mouth to open widely to laugh as he tells them that he’s not interested and he tries to fight the muscles of his face that try so hard to stop himself from smiling and laughing. It hurts when he lets out big laughter and displays a big smile with force.

The only thing that doesn’t hurt at that moment is when he frowns so heavily the moment his friends turn their attention away after Jimin asks if it’s possible that Chaeyoung would go out with him if he asked and Taehyung responded Jimin with laughter.

He almost wants to tell them off, that if their intention to enter her life is just to screw around and leave if they decide that they have enough of her, then they shouldn’t have even tried to make the first move.

But Jungkook stays quiet, stays frowning as he tries to destroy the image of himself on a first date with her when his face is replaced with Taehyung’s in his head. He shouldn’t even have the tiniest thought about it. Because he knows damn well that being a friend is the closest place he can be at.

*

Jungkook sits on his windowsill as he watches Chaeyoung picks a few clothes, mixing and matching the outfits. When she asks for his opinion, he wants to say that she will look good anyway no matter what she chooses to wear. It’s not even a lie, because his mind works wonders when it helps him picture her instantly in the outfit that she shows him.

But she is asking for his opinion on what she must wear for a date with Taehyung, and not him.

Chaeyoung sighs out in frustration. “Are you serious? You’re even worse than a girl picking out her outfit! Is there something that will actually look good to you?”

“What looks good to me might look bad to him and what looks bad to me might look good to him,” he says, frustrated himself. “Why do you even ask me? You’re going on a date with him, not me.”

He wishes for her to counter him instantaneously, not for her to say nothing as she stares for a good three seconds. Three seconds may seem so short. But three seconds of that moment is as long as the torturous long hours in school because for three seconds of her being silent, Jungkook feels himself flushing at what he has said.

“I thought you might know, since you are friends with him.”

Jungkook feels the burn on his face intensifies and he’s certain that it’s not only caused by the embarrassment. He puts his legs inside one after another. He wants to tell her he doesn’t know. He doesn’t care. He stops caring when he realizes that Taehyung doesn’t stick to a type.

He almost wants to suggest her to just wear his sweater that she still has not returned yet so that Taehyung realizes and recognizes his scent on her, his favorite sweater on her but they’re not animals that they have a strong sense of smell. They are not in the Alpha, Beta, Omega universe that Jimin enjoys reading in his free time.

“It’s just the first date. Wear something simple,” he says flatly and readies himself to slide the window close.

“Like?”

“I don’t know,” he shrugs. “Like a white top and some jeans. Something you feel comfortable with, I don’t know. I gotta go. Got some stuff to do.” He doesn’t wait for a response as he looks away with a frown and closes his window.

*

It’s not his problem that Chaeyoung goes on a date with his best friend. Not his problem at all whatever that she does during the date. Maybe they are doing every single thing Jungkook pictures himself doing with her if they ever go on a date, which he never should have pictured in the first place. It’s not even his problem that if the date goes on for hours, from when the sun hangs on the blue sky to when the moon replaces the sun’s presence and the sky darkened.

Not his problem, he repeats, though he finds himself checking on the time, checking on his window to see if she is already back, stands like a statue at the door eyeing her house and lies to his dad that he’s just breathing the fresh air when he asks him what he’s even doing craning his neck like that.

When he spots Taehyung arrives to drop her home, Jungkook rushes toward the kitchen and grabs the lightest trash bag that only has a candy wrapper inside because his dad has just thrown the rubbish earlier. He storms out the door and clears his throat, walking so casually and gives a side glance at the car where Taehyung and Chaeyoung are talking inside.

Jungkook pretends that he has only realized that they arrived, displaying a forced smile as he lifts a hand to wave. Taehyung rushes out of his car to open the door for her and Jungkook rolls his eyes, looking away that instant. He sees the way Chaeyoung blushes and wonders if she’d blush the same way if he was the one who took her out on a date.

He frowns deeply, pushing his hand deeper into the dustbin and for once, he forgets how he hates being anywhere near the dustbin even after feeling the trash underneath his skin, he forgets how he has always avoided being asked to even take the trash out, he forgets everything when he sees the way Chaeyoung’s face brightens when Taehyung says something to her, her melodic laughter fills the silent evening and Jungkook never imagined that he would wish that he’s Taehyung.

“I’ll see you at school,” Taehyung says with a wave.

Chaeyoung nods, her face blushes further as she tries to hold her smile from breaking as she walks backward. Jungkook hears his brain telling him to go back inside because this is not his problem and will never be, but he finds himself approaching Taehyung who’s leaning against his dad’s luxurious car with his hands in the pockets.

Jungkook turns to Chaeyoung and begs in his heart for her to look at him too, because he’s there, he’s present and he’s in need of her attention. As if on cue, Chaeyoung looks at him and he almost smiles at her but her eyes on him only last for no more than two seconds before she turns back to Taehyung, and her smile is the widest he’s ever seen, he thinks.

He feels a pang of pain deep in his guts. Nonetheless, he wears a grin when he faces Taehyung.

“How’s the date?” he asks. He doesn’t care and he doesn’t want to know, truthfully. When Taehyung finally looks at him after Chaeyoung enters the house, Jungkook puts up his hand for a high five and Taehyung gives him. Jungkook makes sure that he grips Taehyung’s hand, holds it a little while longer so that the trash’s smell sticks with him.

“I think I like her,” Taehyung laughs and Jungkook is dying to remind his friend that he says the same thing after every date.

“Yeah?” Jungkook pats his friend’s back. It’s his new clothes. New and expensive, he can tell. He slings an arm on Taehyung’s shoulder and presses his palm against it, rubbing his dirtied hand over Taehyung’s clothes. “But do you think she likes you?”

Taehyung snorts. “Didn’t you see?”

Jungkook exhales sharply but forces the grin to stay on his face.

“She’s fallen head over heels for me.”

“Yeah?” At that moment, he feels his chest tightens, the pain is strange. Before Taehyung responds, Jungkook pats his friend’s face with the same hand he deep in the dustbin. “Good for you.”

He hears Taehyung asking why his hands smell terribly awful, but he doesn’t turn around nor he responds with anything. He dashes off to clean his hand and finds himself in his room in a matter of seconds. He peeks from the window and sees Chaeyoung’s room still bright, her curtains still allowing him to see her walking around with her phone in hand.

Jungkook feels a smile slowly building up on his face and he reaches for his phone, waiting and waiting for her name to show up when she begins to press her phone to her head. He waits with anticipation, telling himself that even though it’s going to hurt that she’s calling him to talk about the date, he can still feel proud that he’s the first person she’s going to reach for whatever she wants to talk about.

He waits and feels a little weird that it takes too long for his phone to glow and vibrate and sing for him. He’s still waiting when a smile begins to pull on her face and he feels his brows furrowing when he sees moving. She’s talking to the phone but he’s still waiting for the phone to flicker and her name to appear.

When she begins to pull the curtain, blocking his view of her, he almost calls her name out loud because when Jungkook glances to his phone, it remains motionless, the screen dark and her name never shows up.

*

Jungkook jolts from his bed when he finally registers the rapid knockings on his door. He takes a quick shower and clumsily puts on his uniform and grabs his bag, not even bothering if he has all he needs in it as he sprints out the house. He curses himself mentally for staying up until the crack of dawn to play games just to get his mind off the bitterness he felt toward Chaeyoung and Taehyung.

All he’s thinking of when he gets out the house is how pouty Chaeyoung will look because she’s been waiting for him. Although Jungkook hates to be waited, he can’t help the brief small grin he’s about to have to see her waiting for him.

But the grin never makes it to his face when he sees Taehyung arriving just in time he’s rushing forward with his bicycle. His grip on the bicycle handle tightens when his best friend pokes his head out after rolling the window down.

“Hop on, Chaeyoung,” Taehyung says with a smile that never once failed to make girls swoon.

Chaeyoung hesitates, Jungkook notices as she shifts from one foot to another. Jungkook exhales hot air through his nose, feeling his jaw hardens when she shyly drops her head to smile and he wants to yell at her that they are all late and there is no time for some crappy romance scene right now.

He looks away when he notices her finally making up her mind, putting away her bicycle and takes her bag with her. His friends are certainly into one another and that shouldn’t be his main problem because the biggest problem right now is, he’s running out of time.

Though Jungkook doesn’t consider himself as the top student because he’s failing academically, he’s not the worst student either and facing nagging teachers for his tardiness isn’t exactly something he enjoys doing. He has enough hearing sighs and nags for his performance in class.

He’s about to dash off when he catches onto something Chaeyoung says.

“Can Jungkook join us?”

He doesn’t miss the brief falter in Taehyung’s smile before he smiles wider. “Of course! Though it’s not exactly what I had in mind when I planned to arrive at school with my girlfriend,” he chuckles and winks to Chaeyoung. “But of course, he can. Jungkook, come join us.”

Jungkook puts rejecting the offer into consideration but soon finds himself sitting in the backseat as he tries to mute the conversation his two friends are having. He tells himself that the only reason he’s there is because he’s late and there’s no way he will arrive in time if he opted for his bicycle, he thinks, though he finds it hard not to think of the word ‘girlfriend’ that he heard earlier.

“Thanks,” he mutters as soon as Taehyung is done parking the car and he doesn’t wait any longer, even though he hears Chaeyoung asking him to. She has a boyfriend now, why does Jungkook have to wait for her?

*

Jungkook doesn’t know how to react when he finds Chaeyoung sitting by herself again at the bus stop. Her parents fought again, and more things were thrown to the walls or to wherever. More broken things. More cries. More yells. He thinks he heard Chaeyoung’s sister yelling that she can’t stand living with them anymore.

He feels like the worst person ever when he heard everything just like the first time, he saw Chaeyoung storming out the house just like the first time, but he took longer to go on a search for her. It’s not his place to be angry that she has got into a relationship with Taehyung. But he’s come to fully realize why he’s been getting too involved with his damn emotions when it comes to her. And it feels like hell when life does not turn out like the damn high school romance movies Chaeyoung watched.

Chaeyoung says nothing when she realizes him approaching. She’s crying harder than the first time he saw her cried. Just like last time, she’s just in her pajamas and Jungkook tries not to get irritated at how she’s letting the cold bites her skin and hurts her more. He tries not to nag when he realizes that she’s barefooted because nagging is not in his nature.

“My parents are getting a divorce,” she says all of a sudden. “Is it weird if I say I’ve been wishing for that for years but now that they’ve decided on it, I don’t want that to happen?”

Just like last time, Jungkook is holding his favorite piece of clothes tightly in his hand. It’s his black hoodie this time. Just like last time, he’s grabbed the one that’s not clean because it’s hanging on his chair. Jungkook sits beside her, figures that it’s too far before he shifts closer but then figures that he’s sitting too close that he’s afraid she’s going to feel uncomfortable that he shifts away a little, leaving a gap with a width of his thigh.

He hands her the hoodie, and she takes it from him wordlessly. Jungkook tries not to think of how he wants to hold her hand when her fingers brushed against his. This time, she doesn’t stare at him. This time, she wears it that instant.

“Is it weird?” she asks again.

Jungkook doesn’t know what the correct answer is to that question. He doesn’t even know what the right answer is. He’s never encountered his parents fighting over big issues. His family isn’t perfect, and his parents do fight a lot. It was usually petty fights, he thinks. Never once for cheating.

He tries to picture himself being in her situation. He tries to picture his father being obsessed over the fact that his wife might be cheating on him. He tries to picture his mother working hard to support the family but is accused of cheating. He tries to picture his father breaking things at home and threatens to hurt his mother. He tries to picture his mother still tries to fight for rights and justice. He tries to picture himself listening to his parents fighting, yelling, throwing things, cursing to each other and Jungkook feels suffocated.

“No,” he finally answers. “It’s not.” It’s not weird, he thinks, because despite all the violence, he thinks that he can’t live without both his parents around at the same time, because all his life he has always seen them together.

“But it’s selfish, isn’t it?” she asks and Jungkook says nothing. Not because he disagrees or doesn’t understand. He gets what she means. If her parents are no longer happy with each other and that the relationship is nothing but abusive, he does feel like it’s a selfish wish to have them stay in it, to have her mom stay in it.

“I support whatever decision my mom will take,” she says with a sigh. “But I still wish for my family to not break like this.”

Jungkook sighs as he looks away, almost lifting his hand to wipe her tears when she emphasized on the word ‘break’ that her own voice breaks as she says it.

When she’s ready to return home, Jungkook stops her before she can walk. He almost pulls her wrist, but his hand only stays on his side, stuttering and hesitating. He stands up and stares at her feet.

“It’s getting colder. You’re not actually going back home without any shoes on, are you?”

She looks down and her face tells him that she only realizes that she has walked all the way from her house to the bus stop barefoot. She smiles a little. “Well, what else I’m supposed to do?” she shrugs and lifts her brow at him with a teasing smirk. “Don’t tell me you’re actually going to let me wear yours?”

Jungkook rolls his eyes at her and lets out a scoff. “You already have my sweater and now you’re wearing my hoodie. I’m not going to let my feet freeze,” he says, but she doesn’t have to know that he doesn’t want her to smell his shoes because they stink.

Chaeyoung laughs lightly and playfully slaps her forehead. “Oh yeah, your red sweater is still with me. I’ll return it to you later.”

Jungkook hums. He almost tells her that he’s fine with her stealing his whole closet because just like he imagines, she looks good even in his black hoodie. Before he can stare at her any longer, he clears his throat and turns his back on her.

“Get on my back,” he says.

There’s a short pause. “Why?”

“You can’t walk like that.”

“I walked here barefoot, pretty sure I’ll survive the walk home,” she chuckles.

Jungkook huffs a sigh. “Just get on my back, okay?”

Another pause, slightly longer before Jungkook hears a soft ‘okay’.

Jungkook doesn’t move when Chaeyoung is already on his back. She’s not heavy that he’s stunned. He breathes, fingers slightly stutter as he holds her legs, and he swallows hard at the way she holds his shoulders, and the way her body rests against his back comfortably. He’s breathing, he thinks. He hopes he stays breathing.

It’s the closest he’s ever been with her that he suddenly forgets that he’s supposed to walk so they can get home safely, because they are both freezing and she doesn’t have her shoes on and he is unsure that the hair on his skin are standing in response to the chilly air or to Chaeyoung leaning more toward him, her arms wrapped around his neck and her head close to his.

“Jungkook?”

He accidentally gasps as he startles and he clears his throat, humming when she asks him if he’s alright. He quickly begins to walk. The quicker he is, the faster he can get her off his back because the longer she stays there, the harder it is for him to let her go.

He notices how pale her feet are and her fingers are slowly turning blue. She’s feeling cold, certainly, yet he asks, “Are you cold?” and later curses himself mentally, belatedly realizing that it’s better to say nothing than saying something stupid.

“Mm,” Chaeyoung tightens her arms around him and presses her body closer and Jungkook forgets to breathe for a good three seconds, “but thank god you’re warm.”

He ignores the way his heart misses a beat at that. “Do you want my shoes?” he asks softly.

She chuckles and he drops his head lower to hide the small smile that threatens to pull at his face. “You need them more than I do.”

Jungkook quickens his steps but falters when he hears her whines, her hand tapping at his chest and he wishes for her not to do that. She cannot know how different his heart is behaving because of her.

“Can you walk a little slower? I know I said I’m already ready to get back home, but I don’t wish to be there so quick.”

“But you’re cold, Chaeyoung.”

She insists and Jungkook sighs in defeat because he knows that she’s going to ask him to put her down if he argues. Out of the blue, Jungkook thinks of Taehyung and he wonders what the latter will think if he ever witnesses Jungkook carrying his girlfriend on his back to get her home.

“Are you going to talk about it to Taehyung?” he asks, biting his lip.

“About what?”

“About the whole thing that’s been happening in your family.”

Chaeyoung quiets for a second. “Why would I?”

Jungkook furrows his brows and shrugs. “Because he’s your boyfriend?” he chuckles dryly. “Don’t couples do that usually? Share problems and talk about it. Giving emotional support. Blah blah blah.”

Jungkook wonders for a while why Chaeyoung has gone quiet again before he realizes that he and Chaeyoung talk about their problems and though it started from the pettiest, it has gone to a stage where she’s comfortable enough to talk about her family. Yet they are not a couple.

“He’s not my boyfriend,” she says quietly. “And no, I don’t think only couples do that. Close friends do that usually.”

Jungkook only nods and refuses to say anything because he knows that the further he goes on with talking, he will only say stupider things that are beyond embarrassing.

But he’s curious and confused. Why is she denying that Taehyung is indeed her boyfriend? Taehyung literally announced it, loud enough for him to hear, strong enough for it to break his heart.

“Why is he not your boyfriend?” he asks.

Chaeyoung takes a deep breath. “He never officially asks me?”

“If he asks you to be his girlfriend, you’ll say yes?”

A short pause. “Do you think I should?”

Jungkook’s jaw hardens because his head is screaming ‘no’, but he knows he can’t say that. “That’s your choice.”

Chaeyoung softly hums as she rests her chin on his shoulder.

Jungkook his chapped lips, confusion settles in at her response. “But… you like him.”

“I don’t know if I like like him, but I’m attracted.”

It’s no surprise to Jungkook. Literally almost every straight girl in his school has a crush on Taehyung and it’s a dumb lie to say that Taehyung is not attractive. He never wondered if someone ever thought that he’s attractive, but now he’s curious to know what Chaeyoung has in her mind about him.

Does h