Seulgi:

“Jimin, I need to talk to you.”

It took everything she had in herself to approach Jimin. He was at a table with his fellow classmates and one of them she didn’t like. Especially seeing how close the female was sitting next to Jimin. If she recalled her name was Yuju and she once overheard her tell her friends that she liked Jimin. On the same table was one of his exes as well. Seulgi internally cringed. These girls were beautiful and had more in common with Jimin than she did. They all were studying law. The only thing she had in common with Jimin was their mutual love of dance. Jimin—regardless heard her and shot up from his seat right away.

She didn’t know what to do. She didn’t know where their friendship stood. They were in this perfect limbo between friends and more than friends were. It was this confusing limbo where others knew they liked each other but they didn’t have a title. It gave freedom for others to try to see if they had chance. She found her thoughts unfair. Jimin did not know that a boy named Jooheon, who she barely knew, had recently asked her out. She didn’t know why she didn’t tell Jimin—it wasn’t like they were dating.

“What is it Seul?”

Seulgi sighed when he spoke, once they were far enough away from everyone. She looked at him and sighed again. Why did she have to fall for him? Why did she find him cute the moment she laid eyes on him and then thought him to be so sweet when he would always help her with the dance moves, she struggled with? She doomed herself. After everything with Taeyong—she had promised herself to never fall for another guy again. However, there she was. Liking Jimin, her roommate's and good friends, friend. After the third time she sighed, he took a hold of her hand.

“Seul, what’s wrong?”

“Jimin—about Taeyong...” she paused when she heard him groan. This wasn’t doing anything good for her resolve. She bit her lip. “I wanted to tell you that...”

“You two were a thing? I know. Yuju told me. I guess someone overheard me talking to Jungkook and it made it back to her. Why were you so worried about telling me? It’s not like I own you or your past.” Jimin nonchalantly spoke.

She didn’t know what was worse, hearing how it did bother him or how he found this out from Yuju who clearly was sending daggers her way. “No. There is more to it. Jimin—it is not as simple as he being my ex is. I reacted that way because—he—he—”

“Jiminnie, we’re leaving.” Yuju spoke in a singsong way, skipping towards them.

Seulgi automatically pulled her hand back and stepped away. She did not like this girl and her actions made Jimin panic. She could tell by the look in his eyes when he ignored Yuju and stepped closer to her—grasping both their hands. “Seul, what is it? I want to know. It has been killing me and I finally saw him. I mean I was partly jealous because of his good looks but Kook doesn’t like him and he told me—Yuju, could you like give us space?”

Jimin turned to look at Yuju who was inching closer. She looked hurt but nodded. Jimin pulled her father away from prying eyes. Now they were around a corner. She was trying to calm her heart. She was not sure how to tell him. What would he think of her? Would he be like all of them and think of her the same way? Calling her easy and a ? She started to breath heavily. Jimin held her shoulder and made her follow his deep breaths. She did and calmed—she gathered her thoughts.

“I was really young back then; I didn’t know better. Jimin—I...”

“Did you sleep with him?” she froze and he sighed, looking down. “It’s part of what they told me. I’m not assuming anything, I’m just asking.”

Everything she was holding in broke and she shook her head, crying because she remembered what happened back then. How hopeless she had felt. How she felt so alone and like she would experience the worst thing in her life. She had never felt so weak like she did then and she chastised herself for not seeing the signs sooner. For not realizing—she was just a price and toy for him. Just like how Yeri would be if they did not stop it. But she couldn’t even tell Jimin. How was she supposed to tell Jungkook so he could take care of Yeri and save her from such a fate? Unconsciously she shoved Jimin away when he tried to comfort her. She didn’t want to be touched. The last thing she wanted was to be touched and she gave him a sorry look before running away with tears in her eyes, from him. He yelled her name but she didn’t stop. She needed to get away from it all. Run away from it like before. She needed Joy—but Joy was currently busy.

⇤〜⑉⑅﹎⑅〜⑉⇥

Jungkook:

He was glowering and he knew he was. He couldn’t stop looking at Joy and Daniel laughing and smiling at each other—aka flirting. He was mainly glowering because he found them weird. Yerim was beside him, just going through their experiment. He did pay attention to her. Every time Yerim would reach over for something on his side, because she knew what to do and he just had to write down the observation, she would enter his personal bubble and his heart would speed up. She still smelled the same. Fresh, sweet, youthful. He would glance her way every time she did, the same thought always crossing his mind. She’s pretty.

Jungkook shook his head, earning an odd look from Yerim. She glanced up to Daniel and Joy before smiling and placing her hand on his shoulder. It did nothing for him. He looked at her hand and then her face. She’s so pretty.

“You can stop glaring at him. I heard Joy helped him ask his girlfriend out. I bet Joy’s smiling because they may be talking about their first date.”

He was brought back down to the present and somewhat scoffed. Yerim must have taken it the wrong way because she moved her hand down. Out of reflex or maybe something else inside of him wishing she didn’t misunderstand, he grabbed her hand. “No. I—I’m a fool, right? Liking someone that could never like me back?”

He watched her get flustered and take her hand back before awkwardly and bashfully, putting some of her hair behind her ear. She recently cut it. He noted. It was now to her shoulders and it made her look even more youthful. God, she’s so pretty.

“I don’t think you’re a fool.”

“You called me out not that long ago.”

“I shouldn’t have.” she faced him with a pout. “We can’t control who we like and you not giving up—is really admirable. Kook, I kind of look up to you. You haven’t given up and personally I think Joy’s a fool for not giving you a bigger chance. Then I remind myself, we can’t really choose who we like. Sometimes, not all the time. Sometimes, we even like people we know we should or don’t stand a chance with.”

He nodded, noting how her voice lowered at her last words that didn’t seem to make much sense to him. They meant something to her, though. He was semi prepared, anyway. Joy, she wouldn’t see him as more but he was willing to keep trying. Giving up was the stupidest thing he could do. He had a great opening. Taehyung wasn’t really talking to her and he could see how Irene really liked him. Meanwhile Jin, well he didn’t even go to their school and could only see her on some weekends. He had this opening and he was not taking advantage of it. That was why he was taking her out to dinner. Instead of anticipating that—his brain was malfunctioning and he was finding it hard to keep from wanting to punch Lee Taeyong every time he saw him with Yerim. Holding Yerim’s hand. Hugging Yerim. Petting Yerim’s hair. However, most importantly, kissing Yerim.

Jungkook grabbed her hand again, as she finished pouring their solution and was waiting for the reaction. She jumped as he did. He acted on impulse and impulse told him to hold her hand because he wanted anything to help him not picture Taeyong kissing her. “Did you know you’re really mature for you age?”

“Maybe you’re just not?” she joked, earning a laugh from him. She faked a bow.

“You’re really pretty, you know.”

“Wow...”

She flushed. He liked that. Maybe a little too much but he liked the color of her redden cheeks and how she was smiling to herself—not facing him. It was when the doors burst open that he realized what it was he was doing. He was flirting with Yerim, not just teasing like before with their stupid bickering. No, he was flirting. There was no way to deny it, he was flirting because the moment Yerim stopped meeting him as often and ditching their study sessions with the excuse of “You’re doing really good by yourself”; he started seeing her in a new light and it was kind of scaring him. His body language said it all. He was holding her hand, leaning his head on his other hand over the table, as he stared at her with a gentle smile. Stared at her flustered face. Was he looking for a rebound when the time came that Joy would reject him? No, it wasn’t that because why would he feel so comfortable just rubbing his thumb across the back of his hand—kind of wishing this was their normal?

The entrance of an angry Taeyong made him flinch. He had heard the door being opened but he didn’t expect Taeyong to be behind it. Jungkook glared at the guy in front of him down as he took a hold of Yerim’s arm and pulled her away. They were on their last experiment but it didn’t give Taeyong any right to take her. He made a move to stop them—as her hand slipped from his hold but she shook her head at him. She was scared. He saw it in her eyes. They were out of the room before he could even process what was going on.

“Where is she going?” Joy had come up to him. He was left sitting in the stool, watching as the door closed. Yerim’s things were still there.

“I don’t know.”

Jungkook looked to Joy. She was biting her lip. He knew that they were going to talk. Jimin had told him. Seulgi and Joy had something to tell them and he would find out tomorrow night. However, he wanted to know then. He needed to know why Joy’s face seemed scared and why it was making him anxious. He made eye contact with her before he wrote down the observation of the experiment and started to clean up. Daniel then called Joy back. He was done. He and Yerim had finished. They were on their last step and he was hoping to enjoy a nice dinner with Joy and see his chances. Now, he was mad.

He was biting the inside of his cheek. Perhaps a little too hard because he could taste the iron as he quickly cleaned up. He didn’t understand why he was mad. He just was. Something fueled inside of him and made him angry. Jungkook hurried to gather Yerim’s stuff as well and noted how Joy stood next to him with her things. He belatedly noticed they were done too and he could make out Daniel walking out of the classroom and embracing a female student that was waiting for him.

“Hey, so are you ready?” Joy asked as she swayed from side to side.

She was beautiful. Every time he looked at her, her effortless beauty blew him away. Maybe she wasn’t beautiful to everyone but she was beautiful to him. He knew that she was beautiful to Taehyung. He stalked Taehyung’s professional Instagram and saw how well he captured her. Taehyung knew how to capture her beauty. A lot of the smiling ones—he also knew Taehyung was the reason behind her bright smile. He mentally hit himself. Was he too blind by his want to woo her? Or did he just never want to admit it? Because it was, clear as day. Joy, she liked Taehyung as more than just a friend did. The truth was somewhat breaking his heart. Yet, oddly not as if, he had a cushion keeping it from hurting so much. Still, when the moment would come that she would tell him, he knew it would still hurt.

“Yeah, I have a few questions to ask. Can we find Rim first? I have her things.”

“Of course, that’s fine.”

Jungkook started walking out with Joy beside him. She was clinging onto her chemistry lab book and sighing. “I know we’ll talk about this more tomorrow. But, Jungkook—he scares me. Taeyong I mean, he scares me whenever I see him with Yeri.”