15

“Am I the only one who’s starving?” Taehyung whines, impatiently tapping his foot against the polished floor as they wait in line. 

The cafeteria is bustling with students, more so today than usually, and Hara finds herself wondering where Jungkook has been eating this past week. 

She has seen him in all her classes, but he has been good at ignoring her, not even sparing her a glance at home during dinners and breakfast. Hoseok and Taehyung don’t know about them living together, but they did find it odd how Jungkook suddenly started keeping his distance to them after Hara got included in the group. 

Hara is just thankful that hanging out with Taehyung and Hoseok keeps whatever trouble Jungkook was warning her about far away from her. She's got other things to worry about. 

“I am literally going to die if I don’t get food in my system in the next five minutes.”  

“We’re literally seconds away from getting food, calm down,” Hara jokes, earning a pout and a playful punch to the shoulder. Hoseok grins but doesn’t offer any comments. 

It has been like this since the conversation on wednesday, and Hara hates it. 

She has decided to delay working on her english assignment in favour of going out with the boys today, since it’s friday and all, and she hopes to make it up to them. 

Sure, she didn’t know what they’d been through, but at the same time she hates how it turned out, and most of all she hates that Yoongi has been labeled the black sheep when he seems so regretful. 

It almost feels like he didn’t mean for this to happen, and Hara knows, she knows this is gonna backfire but she can’t help it. Taehyung seems to be on friendly terms with Yoongi, he even called him hyung, and even if she can still see traces of Hoseok’s discomfort in the way he seems to have lost a part of him, Hara knows he’s kinder than he looks. 

She wants them to talk about it. She wants to fix this messed up relationship before she leaves in December.

“Thank god!” Taehyung all but throws himself against the counter when the line clears up, and starts piling his tray with different dishes. Hoseok is more calm and grabs a plate of lasagna, settling for reduced ranch sauce rather than the cheesy one, and Hara grabs her go-to fruit salad. 

After settling down in their usual spot at the back, Hoseok smiles and turns towards Hara. “So, what are we doing today?” 

“Going out,” Hara says, busying with a piece of strawberry in hopes of not having to disclose the details. Hoseok nods and chews for a moment before frowning. 

“Where to?” 

Hara has no idea where Yoongi would agree to meet her, but she tries her luck. “The park.”

“So, the usual?” Taehyung asks through a mouthful of risotto, and Hoseok leans over to lightly smack him on the neck while Hara hands him a napkin. “Sorry, too hungry to remember table etiquette.”

“I noticed. And yeah, or not really, we’ve been hanging out at the mall as well, haven’t we?”

“True,” Hoseok pipes up, nodding while nibbling on a piece of meat. “We’ve even been to your apartment, Tae.” 

“Oh,” Taehyung says, blinking stupidly before grinning and shrugging. “It’s gonna be fun then! Cold but fun!”

The rest of the lunch break is, as usual, filled with stupid anecdotes from Taehyung and the occasional comment from Hoseok, and when they part ways for their classes, Hara sighs tiredly and makes it to calculus class.

Sunny spares her a glare from her seat but does nothing further, and Hara mentally thanks Yoongi for being a as she makes her way to the only two empty seats at the back. She sits closest to the wall and waits for him to come, but he never does and the professor starts the class without waiting on him. 

Jungkook is sitting in the row in front of Sunny, and Hara notices how she leans over every five minutes to whisper something in his ear, giggling when he replies. But Jungkook does not look interested, rather he seems to be answering just to look over her shoulder and glare at Hara, which makes absolutely zero sense. 

When class finishes, she quickly gathers her things and makes her way to the exit.

Jungkook is still sitting at his desk, surrounded by Sunny and her group in addition to a bunch of jocks, and Hara ignores the way his eyes seem to be piercing into the side of her face as she quickly leaves the classroom. 

Taehyung and Hoseok have one more class before they’re done for the day, so Hara makes her way to the library and finds her usual spot in the back on the second floor, wordlessly opening her books so she can finally finish the damn assignment she has been postponing for the past week. 

Twenty minutes into reading, there’s rustling near one of the bookshelves to her right and she frowns, slowly putting her book down. 

“This is your secret hideout?” Yoongi steps past the tall shelf and gives Hara an unimpressed look. 

“Thought you wanted me to work hard on getting good grades?” she challenges, arching an eyebrow, and Yoongi stares at her for a moment before shrugging. 

“What’re you working on?”

He walks over to the desk and sits down across from Hara, hands in his pockets. The scent of cigarettes faintly presents itself and Hara instantly feels calm. 

“English.” 

She flips to the next page and tries to read the first paragraph, but questions are taking up all the space in her mind and unfortunately none of them are related to Benjamin Franklin’s thirteen virtues. 

“Why did you skip class?”

“Who said I skipped it?” Yoongi counters, and Hara gives him a deadpan look. “There was a medical emergency.”

Hara snorts. “Elaborate.” 

Yoongi pulls his right hand out of his pocket and holds it up for Hara to see. It has been wrapped in a white bandage from the wrist all the way up to the tips of his fingers, and Hara feels her eyes widen slightly. 

“What the hell happened?” She puts her book away and frowns. “Did you seriously fight someone? Aren’t you on a bloody scholarship, Yoongi?”

“You know,” Yoongi mutters, tilting his head to the side with a small pull to his lips, “I’m older than you.”

“I’m not calling you that oppa crap, so don’t even hope,” Hara snaps, and Yoongi laughs under his breath, shaking his head while putting his hand back into his pocket. “And don’t try to switch subjects, what did you do?” 

“There was a small disagreement.”

Hara arches an eyebrow, waiting for Yoongi to continue but the boy just shrugs. The corner of his lip is a little red, the beginnings of a cut slowly forming every time he speaks.

“Violence seemed like the only solution.”

“Hate to be a pacifist but violence is almost never the answer.”

Yoongi looks amused, and he leans forward in his seat. “Fine then, tell me how I get a gang of four boys off my back when they’ve been sent to specifically pull out a tooth or two?”

A shiver runs down Hara’s back, and she blinks, feeling her heart skip a beat. 

Stay away from Min. He’s bad news.

“Why would they do that?” Hara asks, ignoring the fear creeping along her skin, leaving goosebumps in its wake. Jungkook was in the classroom with her, but the way he had been glaring at her seemed way too suspicious. “What do you mean ‘sent’, who would send them after you?”

Yoongi continues staring at Hara, his expression neutral but Hara can detect a hint of surprise in the slight arch to his eyebrows. It doesn’t seem like he plans on replying anytime soon, so Hara bites her lower lip and slowly slides forward in her seat so she can lean closer to Yoongi. 

The latter’s shoulders stiffen slightly, but he allows her to gently swipe at his chin, his eyes following her reddened finger with indifference. Hara wipes the blood on her jeans and shakes her head.

“Four guys and you escaped with a broken wrist and split lip.” She looks over at Yoongi, arching an eyebrow. “Makes me wonder what kind of damage you did to them.” 

Yoongi’s jaw clenches, his stare turning hard and bitter, but he slowly leans back in his seat and releases a long breath. 

“Enough to send a message.”

“What message?” 

“Why, aren't you noisy.”

“Tell me something I don’t know.” 

“You look good when you’re annoyed.” Hara blinks. 

Her brain conjures up an image of a dimly lit hallway, of Jungkook caging her against a wall, of potential and of hope in a hopeless situation. Her belly tingles with butterflies and she instantly pushes the feeling away when her cheeks warm up. 

“Meet me in the park near the red lake at five o’clock today,” she says as she gathers her things.

Yoongi’s eyes follow her movements, his body tiredly slumped in the chair, yet his lips are pulled into a small smirk and he narrows his eyes slightly.

“Why? You plan on jumping me or something?” 

“One of them must have hit your head,” Hara mutters, pulling on her bag, “you’ve already forgotten the pacifist part.” 

Yoongi huffs out a surprised chortle but he doesn’t say anything, and Hara takes that as a yes. She salutes him with two fingers and leaves the table, her heart beating twice as fast as it should while her brain screams at her to not do this. 

So there might be more to Yoongi than she originally thought, but the underlying bitterness and regret she can feel in the way he seems to have just given up on himself forces her to stick to her plan. 

She’s going to reunite the boys, whether they want to or not.