End Game

Jungkook & You

 

Y/N knocks out k-pop star in a bar

          My eyes widened when I saw her name on the first page once again. That time, for a whole new reason. I shook my head and a smile spread across my lips – that girl always found a way to get herself into trouble, despite rarely actually looking for it. The car came to a halt and the driver got off first, popping the trunk open. I joined him and he passed me my bag just as the entrance door opened and my mom walked out.

“Welcome home!” She exclaimed from the doorframe, waving her hand excitedly.

“Thanks mom,” I answered with a wide smile. It wasn’t often that I got to spend time home with them and truth be told, I had missed them. I kissed her cheek when I passed by her and she kissed my temple lovingly in return.

“I made your favorite,” she said, prompting me to look back at her just in time to see a Y/H/C head pass by on the other side of the fence.

“Hey, wait!” She yelled and I supposed she was talking to a dog or something, because there was no one else in sight. “Put that bird down, it’s still alive!” She added, clearing the confusion and I laughed, plopping my luggage down by the door. I walked to the fence and pulled myself up to have a better look, the reality better than anything I could have imagined: her parents’ hunting dog had gotten a hold of one of the neighbor’s ducks and was carrying it around the yard, by the wings. The duck seemed way more unbothered than she was.

          I placed two fingers into my mouth and whistled loudly, making the dog release the duck immediately. She turned around to look at me, her cheeks red from chasing the dog around the yard and I swore she hadn’t changed much since the last time we’d seen each other in school.

“Thanks.” She smiled and the duck waited around for a few more seconds, before it took off casually.

“Sit.” I commanded when I noticed the dog fix it with the same hungry look in its eyes that it had given the duck before. Lord complied and she grabbed it by the collar hurriedly; before I could get a word in, she was dragging the dog towards the house, completely ignoring my presence. I sat there a while more, watching her leave, then jumped off the fence and went back inside where my mother was already unpacking my bag.

“Mom, I got it.” I said grabbing my boxers out of her hands. “I’m not a kid anymore.”

“You’ll always be my little boy.” She laughed, leaving the rest of my luggage untouched. She raised her chin to indicate the newspaper on the coffee table and shook her head. “This girl… she has a big heart, but that attitude.”

“And that dirty mouth,” I added laughing.

          We spent dinner together and I retired to my room as soon as I was done eating: both to avoid washing the dishes and because the trip had started to get to me. I took my time washing the long day off my body, changed into my pajamas and was just about to get in my bed when I saw her outside, sitting on the roof in front of her bedroom window.

          For reference, our houses were twins. As in, they were identical and our rooftops were centimeters apart, so when we were children, we’d spend most night on the rooftop, talking to each other until either Mr. Sandman or the mosquitos got the best of us. Seeing her standing there, stargazing, took me back to the easier times when we were kids and everything seemed so easy. In the end, nostalgia took the best of me and I decided to join her, so a moment later, I was climbing out the window – way more difficultly than I remembered. She stared at me in silence.

“Hey,” I greeted friendlily and she faked a smile in response. “So, this is where you’ve come to hide, mrs. Ali.” I joked, making her roll her eyes.

“Not you too…” She sighed loudly, clearly not in the mood for any jokes.

“Sensitive topic?” I asked, taking a seat on my side of the roof for the moment. The way I knew her, being knocked out on a roof wasn’t ideal.

“What do you want?” She tutted and sighed, the first one she did often, the second… not that much.

“I thought you’d be more excited to be reunited with your childhood friend/crush.” I joked once more, in one last attempt to break the ice. Jokes were my coping mechanism and I knew of no other way to approach her. Luckily, she finally cracked and gave me a side, half-annoyed smile.

“You wish,” she finally laughed.

“C’mon, everybody knows it.” I teased, mustering the courage to approach and she scooted over to make some room for me.

“Since you’ve been reading up on me, one would think you’d know that my BTS bias is Yoongi.” She shot right back and I faked a shot to the heart.

“Were you too shy to confess in front of the whole world?” I turned to look at her and instead of the amused face I was expecting to see, she actually looked pissed again.

“Mhm, so you question my preference in men, but believe it when they call me crazy for hitting a guy.” She scoffed, “It would appear I chose wisely.”

“C’mon, Yoongi thinks you’re way crazier than I do.” I nudged her with my elbow, but she didn’t react. I knew her well enough to know something was bothering her.

“Once again, my reputation precedes me.” She shrugged in defeat and laid on her back, looking at the stars.

“It’s easier to ignore it, believe me.” I answered, patting her head. “I’ve had my share. It gets better.”

“Big reputation.” Her eyes wandered for a moment, to look into mine, then she looked back at the sky. “You and me, we got a big reputation.”

“Just like in school,” I laughed. “Back then you seemed to care way less.” I reminded her.

“The only difference is that now, everybody’s watching.” I laid next to her and turned to look at her, but she kept looking at the sky, making me wonder what was so fascinating up there. “If someone saw us right now, we’d make headlines tomorrow: The player and some PG13 word for ,” she said, gesturing a headline with her hands, “a match made in heaven.” Y/N mocked.

“Hey, I-”

“I’m going inside.” She interrupted, standing up a bit too abruptly and slipping on one of the tiles. I reached my hand just in time and grabbed her arm, pulling her in my lap. That was when I noticed that she had tears in her eyes.

“Ya, what’s wrong?” Her eyebrows furrowed deeper, but she bit her lip and shook her head in response.

“Nothing.” I got one last look into her eyes before she pulled her hand out of my grip and climbed the roof towards her window.

“Y/N…” I called and despite her not looking back at me, I knew she was listening. “You know you can tell me.” She stopped for a moment, but then climbed over her window ledge and disappeared.

          I pondered following her for a moment, but now that we were older, I realized it would be creepy rather than sweet or caring, so I admitted defeat and went to sleep with a heavy heart. Y/N wasn’t the kind of person that would let a headline get to her… but then again, it had been a long time since we sat down to talk.

          The next morning, I woke up with Y/N on my mind. No, scratch that. I would have said that if she would have ever left it, but I had even dreamed of her.

Anyhow, my mother had asked me to go grocery shopping for her and I did - in the end, I had visited them to get some sense of normality back into my life. While browsing through the aisles, I stumbled across some Apollo Straws and bought them, because to me they weren’t just a piece of candy – they were an excuse to keep bothering her.

“Jungkook, hurry up already!” My mom yelled when she saw me leaning over the fence again, trying to catch a glimpse of Y/N, but the yard was empty and there was no sign of her anywhere in the house.

“Creep!” She yelled from her bedroom window just as I was about to enter the house.

           I displayed all of my pearly whites in a huge grin and pulled the Apollo Straws out of the bag, waving them around like a little child. She finally smiled back, genuinely this time, and I tilted my head towards the house to invite her over.

          For a moment, I swore we travelled back in time, because nothing had changed in the way she climbed out of her window and snuck into my room, like she always did when we were little. I smiled to myself and left the groceries for my mom to unpack, stirring up some protests from her part, then rushed upstairs to find her looking through my stuff.

“Yeah, don’t let me stop you. Make yourself at home.” I mocked and she smirked in response. “Think fast,” I exclaimed right before I threw the bag of sweets at her. She caught them and sat to eat them at my desk and spinning around slowly, in my office chair.

“I missed this.” She said out of the blue, while still chewing on a straw. “Maybe I should have just stayed in Busan…” She said thoughtfully and it sounded more like she’d said it to herself than to me.

“Y/N, why does this bother you so much? You’ve been in the press every time you dated someone new… which is a lot.” I answered casually and only realized how bad that sounded the second the words had already left my mouth. She closed her eyes and had it not been for her bitter laugh, I would have thought she’d frozen because for a moment she’d even stopped breathing. I stared at her wide-eyed trying to think my next words through, but before I could say anything, she threw the Apollo Sticks at me.

“Have you ever considered following a career in covering gossip for tabloids? -shaming seems to be one of their main criteria and what do you know? You excel at it.” She snarled at me and tried to leave, but I grabbed her wrist and held her back.

“You know I didn’t mean it like that…” I sighed and she yanked her hand out of my grip.

“In what other way could you mean that?” She laughed incredulously, but I knew she wasn’t showing me her teeth in an actual smile, but to warn me.

“I’m sorry, OK? I was an idiot, but leaving won’t solve anything.” I snapped back, frustrated at the way she always ran away from confrontation. “Truth be told, I’d rather have you slap me right now, than leave. Talk to me…” Something I’d said must have worked, because it stopped her dead in her tracks. “Why did you hit that guy?”

“Does Yoongi really think I’m crazy?” She said under her breath and my face contorted into some kind of mix between amusement and utter confusion.

“Is that seriously what you care about right now?” I asked cautiously, unsure what she actually meant by that.

“Why is it that when a guy starts a fight, it’s always for a reason, but when a woman does, she’s just crazy?” She asked, still facing the window.

“I’ve never knocked anyone out for any reason, Y/N. What if he presses charges?” I asked trying to understand where she was going.

“He won’t.” She replied in a tone that indicate pure confidence.

“How can you be so sure?” I pressed and she bit the inside of her cheek.

“He won’t.” She repeated.

“Ya-”

“He bought me a drink.” Y/N explained, as if that was meant to mean something.

“So wh-”

“He’d spiked it.” The second the words left I could feel my blood start to boil and my heart began beating out of my chest. I was staring at her wide-eyed, mouth agape and the first thing that came to mind was something, I realized later, I shouldn’t have said.

“Are you sure?” At first, I thought she laughed but when she turned to face me, I saw streams of tears roll down her rosy cheeks.

“I really wonder what it’s like when everyone believes you.”  And with that, she was out of my window before I could get another word in.

          In a fit of anger, I threw the Apollos across the room and crashed on my bed. My brain was working a million thoughts an hour, trying to process everything she’d told me and every stupid thing I’d told her – a single look from her was enough to make me reevaluate my entire belief system. I wanted her to talk to me and tell me what I did wrong, but then again, the fact that I thought it was her responsibility to educate me was part of the problem.

          The following days I tried to talk to her, but I realized the moment her mom covered for her, that I’d ed up in some big way.

“She’s not home.” Ahjumma told me, looking at the bag I’d dropped next to me.

“I know I messed up, but I really care about her, ahjumma. I don’t want to leave Busan like this.” I answered, but she was unwavering. We looked at each other for a moment, then I finally admitted defeat.

“Just so you know, Jungkook,” her mother said softly right as I turned to leave, “she never dated anyone to pass time. You saw the headlines… I saw her fighting for each one of her relationships; but it takes two.”

          I knew. I already knew all that, because I knew her.

          It had been a week since I’d heard from or seen her and I’d began to think that her mother had thrown my phone number away… along with the flowers I’d sent her, when her name came up in a press conference.

“Yoongi, are you aware that Y/N has named you as her BTS bias?” Some weird looking reporter with medium-length, unwashed hair asked and I laughed loudly.

“So what?” I answered before Yoongi could get a word in. “What about it?” I asked again when the guy gave me a lost look. Namjoon picked his mic up.

“Jungkook is just a bit tired.” He laughed uncomfortably.

“I am, in fact, a lot tired. I’m tired of seeing all of these reporters shame any woman who dares live her life, because to them, they are a threat to power-shift this toxic, patriarchal system that they are so desperate to uphold because it benefits them. So, they resort to victim-blaming, -shaming and actually, everything-shaming women, in an attempt to ‘keep them in their place’.” The entire room went quiet for a moment, but out of the blue, a woman stood up and clapped, causing a row of applause to erupt, as other reporters started clapping as well. “A lot of our fans are girls and women and I want them to live in a society that isn’t built to put down women in order to make excuses for men.”

          The reporter tried to bring the microphone back to his mouth, but Namjoon interrupted him briefly.

“He said what he said.”

***

“Jungkook!” My mom’s voice greeted me before I’d even rang the doorbell. “What are you doing home?” She asked running up to the gate and caressing my hair.

“Is this where you’ve come to hide?” Y/N’s familiar voice rang from across the fence and I smiled when I saw that her spark was back in her eyes.

          Just like in an episode of déjà vu, I saw her standing on the rooftop right as I was about to go to bed. This time, she waved at me and I walked over, placing my arms on my windowsill.

“When’d you get so cool?” She asked looking genuinely impressed, so much so that it made me blush a little.

“I couldn’t sleep one night so I watched a documentary about feminism.” I answered and her smile grew bigger. “I’m sorry.” I pleaded and she shook her head slowly.

“The best apology is changed behavior.” She replied and patted the spot next to her. I had no choice but to comply – the power of Christ compelled me.

“Is Yoongi still your bias?” I asked out of the blue as we were both laying next to each other, watching the stars.

“He never really was.” She chuckled softly and I turned to look at her. “I just thought, maybe, you wouldn’t want to be associated with me.” I stood up and looked at her, eyes the size of dinner plates.

“Ya-” I yelled nudging her. “Before you say anything else, he thinks you’re cool.” I warned, despite hoping she wouldn’t take it back. She shrugged and I felt my heart jump in my throat. “Ya…” I whined giving her a hopeful look. Her, the girl I had had a crush on since first grade, when she moved in the twin house next door. The girl I’d been friends with, while dreaming of what it would be like to be one of the men that kissed her.

“No.” She spoke sternly when she noticed the look in my eyes and I my eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

“I thought…”

“I don’t want to touch you if I’m going to turn into an ex-lover you don’t want to see.” She interrupted, using her hands to push herself up, so that she was now face to face with me. “I don’t want to miss you like those other girls you’ve let go do.” I smiled and her stern, confident face broke for a second and I could see that behind all that, she felt the same thing I was.

“What if we’re each other’s reason why none of the others lasted?” I asked running a finger on her cheek. “I want to be your end game.” I added, running my finger over her lips as her eyes became watery, reflecting the night sky perfectly. “I wanna be your first string.” I continued getting closer to her and lifting her chin to get a better look into her eyes. “I wanna be your end game.” I concluded, kissing her the way I’d been dreaming to since I’d first learned how to kiss and every other kiss I’d had before felt like practice, leading up to this moment.