One - When he smirks

“Go away,” I say as he closes the gap between the both of us.

We were sitting on the sofa at the living room of my house. As usual, after a long day of school, Jongin would walk me home and he would either hang around at my house until it was time for him to leave – which was when his mum starts screaming for him to come home – or he would sleepover. Jongin and I have been together for more than four years. Before that, we were best friends. We were like two peas in a pod. But that changed when one day, he decided to confess his feelings towards me. It was one of the best things that have ever happened to me.

I was, and still am, absolutely in love with him. He was my first boyfriend, hug, kiss – everything. I knew that being with him was not going to be easy. Besides the countless confessions he receives from his ‘fangirls’ in school, I also have to put up with the sneers and glares of his more, what I would say, possessive ‘fangirls’. Of course, I would not mind most of the time. I mean, I signed up for it. I want to be with Jongin, I have to put up with his ‘fangirls’. However, there are moments whereby I cannot help but feel a tiny bit jealous about it because for one, Jongin is the type that is just too nice to straight up say to them that he was not interested and that he already has a girlfriend.

“Hey, handsome,” two girls from our school approached Jongin and I as we were about to leave the school premises.

“Oh, hey,” Jongin said politely.

I let go of Jongin’s hand and stood at the corner, folding my arms. I sighed, thinking about how it would take another ten minutes for him to get away from those girls, before we could finally get to leave the school premises.

“So, we thought of inviting you to go noraebang with us tomorrow,” one of the girls asked him flirtily.

“I’ll have to think about it. I’ll get back to you guys tomorrow, alright?” he said, just like I expected. I rolled my eyes at how predictable my boyfriend could be.

“Aw, why not decide now?” the other girl said, in what she thought would be called a ‘y’ voice, and trailed her index finger down Jongin’s chest.

I narrowed my eyes and shoot daggers at them. But obviously, they did not notice me. I mean, who the hell notices Baek Jihyun? I noticed Jongin glancing at me from the corner of his eyes. It annoyed me to no end that he did nothing about it. I could tell that he was not feeling comfortable with it but he did nothing about it because he did not like hurting his ‘fangirls’.

“I’m sorry girls but I really need to go now. I’ll see you both tomorrow,” Jongin said quickly but still politely.

“Finally,” I muttered under my breath.

“Let’s go,” Jongin said, walking towards me with a smile on his face.

I scoffed and shook my head before muttering a ‘whatever'. He tried grabbing my hand but i moved away from his reach and walked ahead of him.

I reach out for the remote control that was on the coffee table and switch on the television. ‘Running Man’, my favourite Korean Variety show, was playing but even that could not seem to cheer me up. I did not know why I was so bothered by what happened earlier on. I mean, it was not like it was anything new. I guess it is one of those days.

From the corner of my eyes, I see Jongin staring at me, as though waiting for me to turn and look at him. Well, guess what, I am not turning to look at him. He sighs and sits even closer to me, before wrapping an arm around my shoulders. I nearly sigh in content at his touch but immediately stop myself.

“Baby, what’s wrong?” he asks in his deep voice.

I just shrug his arm off my shoulders. I stand up before he does anything further that would make me falter. Heading towards the kitchen, I hear Jongin sigh in frustration before heavy footsteps follow behind me. I knew that he was never going to give up until he knew what he did wrong.

As I was about to reach the refrigerator, strong arms wrap around my waist and turn my body around. Our faces were so close to each other that I could feel his hot breath against my cheeks. I try putting on my best pokerface. Jongin leans forward and I know what he was trying to do. He did not know what he did wrong so he thinks that by kissing me, he would get away with it. Oh hell no, that is not going to work. I place my hands on his chest and push him away gently.

He frowns slightly at what I did and says, “What did I do wrong? You’ve been acting like this ever since school ended.”

“Well, I don’t know. Why don’t you ask yourself?” I mumble a reply, not bothering to look at him. I know that I am acting childish at the moment but hey, I get to be childish once in a while.

“Obviously, I wouldn’t know. Because if I did, I would have already apologised to you about it,” he replies, a tinge of irritation to his voice. I can tell that he was starting to become really annoyed by the tone of his voice and by the way he was squinting his eyes a little.

I glare at him and say through gritted teeth, “Of course you wouldn’t know that I was feeling jealous. You’re too busy entertaining all your ‘fangirls’.”

As soon as those words left my mouth, I regretted it. I should not have said that. It would give Jongin an opportunity to tease me. And true to my words, Jongin’s facial expression changes from annoyance to a smirk. That stupid smirk. The smirk that is full of mischievousness. The smirk that even though it makes me want to punch his face, it still makes my heart flutter because of how attractive he looks.

“What did you say?” Jongin asks in amusement as he takes a step forward towards me.

“What?” I say immediately.

“You said something,” he says with a knowing look on his face.

I shook my head and frown, as though in confusion, “No I didn’t.”

“Sure, you didn’t,” he drawls while nodding his head mockingly.

“Yeah, I didn’t. So, if you don’t mind, I’ll just be heading upstairs to take a nap,” I say quickly and try to walk around him but he latches a hand around my wrist, stopping me.

I glance up from his hand that were latched on my wrist and saw the smirk on his face. I whine, knowing that he was going to keep pestering me. “Leave me alone.”

“Nope,” he says, making the popping sound at the end. “No can do, babe.”

“What do you want?” I groan.

“Repeat what you said earlier on,” he replies, his eyes twinkling in amusement.

“What do you want?” I squeak innocently. I mean, he did say to repeat what I said earlier on.

“Trying to act smart with me, I see,” he says with narrowed eyes.

Jongin pulls me so that I was standing in front of him. I gulp when he wraps his arms around my waist, preventing me from running away from him. Even if I try to run away from him, he would still catch up to me. My speed of running is as fast as a tortoise. I give him my most innocent smile and bat my eyelashes at him before saying, “Well, you said to repeat what I said earlier on. I was only doing what you asked me to.”

“You know what I meant,” he says with a pointed look on his face.

“No,” I say, shaking my head.

“Well then, you asked for it.”

As soon as he said those words, his fingers run up and down my side. He was using my weakness. I am an absolutely ticklish person and he knew that I would do anything to stop the other person from tickling me.

“J-Jongin, stop!” I try to say in between laughter.

“Not until you repeat what you said.”

“I hate you,” I say and I feel tears rolling down my cheeks from laughing too hard.

“You love me,” he sings.

“Fine! I was-,” I stop short, trying to catch my breath. “I was jealous!”

Immediately, Jongin stops tickling me. I glare at him as I try to catch my breath. Jongin reaches out his hand and wipes away the tears on my face. After doing so, he stares at me, still with the stupid smirk on his face.

“What?” I ask, annoyed.

Jongin sighs and shakes his head before grabbing my hand and walking to the living room. He sits on the couch and pulls me to sit on his lap. I look down at my hands that were on my lap, feeling slightly embarrassed for admitting that I had been jealous. That was the first time I had openly said to him that I felt jealous. Usually, when I feel jealous, I would brush it off because at the end of the day, I know that Jongin is still mine.

I feel Jongin’s warm hand under my chin as he tilts my head up. He cups the back of my head and my cheekbones with his thumb. He was looking at me with so much love and tender, that it makes my heart swell with emotions. Seeing how he was leaning forward, I lean forward too and close the gap between the both of us. The kiss between us was short and sweet.

As soon as we pull apart, Jongin’s smirk was back on his face. I frown and let out an annoyed ‘tsk’ sound. He raises his eyebrows, as though waiting for some kind of explanation from me. I stare straight into his eyes and say, “I’ve got nothing to say.”

“Jihyun-ssi,” he says while giving me a pointed look.

“Jongin-ssi,” I mimic him.

He pinches my waist lightly and says, “Wrong answer.”

“Ow,” I whine and give him my best glare. He looks at me and raises his brows. I knew that I was not getting away with it. “Promise me you won’t tease me about it?” He nods his head and I take a deep breath before saying quickly, “I was jealous because you seem to be paying so much attention on those ‘fangirls’ of yours when you’re clearly not interested in them. I know that you’re being nice and everything because afterall, you’ll be rejecting them. But still, I don’t like how you let them touch you, on your chest and everything. I mean hello, I am your girlfriend, standing only a few feet away from you. I see everything. I may not say it most of the time but I do feel jealous sometimes.”

“Wow,” Jongin murmurs. He looks at me for a moment before grabbing my hand intertwining our fingers. “Why didn’t you say earlier on?”

“I didn’t want to sound like some whiny, clingy girlfriend,” I say meekly while peering at him from under my lashes.

“Okay, first up, you’re definitely not a whiny, clingy girlfriend,” he says, holding his index finger up. “Maybe you can be whiny at times,” he adds and I narrow my eyes at him. “But that’s a part of you and I love it. Secondly, I promise that from tomorrow onwards, I’ll make sure they know that I’m not available anymore and that I’ve already found someone. I’ll even hire guards to prevent them from touching me.” I let out a sarcastic laugh at his lame attempt of a joke and then smile at him, thinking about how sweet he was. “Lastly, I want you to know that there’s absolutely no reason for you to feel jealous because those girls have got nothing on you. At the end of the day, you’re my girlfriend and you’re the one that I love,” he whispers, his thumbs the back of my hands.

I gnaw on my bottom lip to prevent myself from giving him a love struck smile and breathe out, “I love you.”

“And I love you,” he utters back before pecking my lips.

We smile at each other before I say, “Alright, no more talking about this whole jealousy thing.”

“What? Why?” Jongin asks innocently. “I mean, I understand why you would feel jealous. Really, who wouldn’t want a piece of this,” he says cockily, with his usual smirk on his face, while gesturing to his body.

I immediately grab the nearest thing I could find – a cushion – and throw it at him, my cheeks burning.