(Request from anon)

Looking back on it now, you two did meet in the most cliché way possible.  It was your first day at your new high school and you were a little frazzled.  Coming from such a small town, this city school had three times the number of students as your last school, no wonder you were stressed.  Not that you were scared or anything.  It’s was just a little overwhelming to move to a new town and leave behind all your friends and move into a new house, start going to a new school with a bunch of new people.  No, not scary at all; just absolutely terrifying.

You weren’t the best when it came to making new friends.  The friends at your old school you had met on the first day, when they approached you, asking about your really cute headband.  It was a cute headband, now that you remember.  You had been friends ever since, but they were the ones who approached you.  You never approached anybody.  You were kind of shy at the time.  It felt like so long ago.

 

“Noona, you feeling okay?”  It was Jungkook.  Your thoughts snap back to the present as he sits down across the table from you with two cups of coffee.  You totally forgot that you were sitting in the little café down the street from your university.  Jungkook pushes a cup of coffee over to you.  You know what it is without having to taste it.  A peppermint mocha with extra espresso which you always order year round, no matter the temperature outside.  What can you say; you know what you like.

“Yeah, just lost in thought I guess.”  You take the coffee and bring it up to your lips for a small sip.  The hot liquid that burns your tongue is way too sweet and not what you are used to.  “Jungkook, what is this?”  You put your hand over your mouth, not enjoying the sickeningly, sweetness that is burning your throat.

Jungkook takes a drink of his own coffee at the same time.  He pulls the cup away from his lips with an almost sour expression.  “Sorry,” he chokes out.  “I think I mixed up our drinks.”  He slides his cup across the table and you do the same with yours.  Grabbing the cup he had, you don’t hesitate to take a drink, if only to wash out the sweet flavor of whatever Jungkook was trying this time.

Tasting the welcoming minty bitterness, you relax a little and take another long drink, almost enjoying the burning of your pallet.  “That’s more like it.”

“How can you drink something so bitter?”  Jungkook asks.  He takes a long drink of his own as well.

“Well, how can you drink something so freaking sweet?  What is that anyway?”

“It’s a white chocolate mocha.  This is my first time trying it.  I think it’s really good.”

You roll your eyes and take another drink.  You two are quiet for another couple of minutes, drinking your coffees and staring at nothing in particular.

“Oh.  I was going to ask what you were thinking about.”  Jungkook finally says.

“Did you really spend that whole time, just trying to remember what you were going to ask me?”  You your head to the side and glare at him, questioningly.

He nods his head and smiles cutely.  You smile too.  He is the best when it comes to unintentional aegyo.  His baby face makes anything he does look cute.

“I was thinking about the first time we met.”

 

Walking through the hallways of the huge school, you held your bag close to your chest trying not to bump into anyone.  You were a junior already, but you felt like a tiny freshman all over again.  Not a comforting feeling.

No matter how much you walked, you could not seem to find the teacher’s office.  You didn’t even know what class you were in yet.  All these people looking at you, scared the heck out of you.  You just wanted to know your class so you could go to your classroom, hopefully get a seat in the back and hide.

That’s hard to do when you run into someone.  Which, of course, you did.  Your bag fell and everything came out of it.  You ended up falling too, landed hard on your behind.  That was gonna hurt later.  You managed to hold your knees together, saving your modesty, but everything else, like your dignity, was sprawled out on the floor for everyone to laugh at.

“I’m sorry,” you said, gritting your teeth to hold in the pain.  You got yourself onto your knees and you started to gather up your things without looking at who you ran into, too embarrassed to face them.

“No, I’m sorry it was completely my fault.”  It was a male voice, a young one at that.  As you tried to pick up all your papers and arrange your notebooks, you saw another set of hands doing the same as yours.  You looked up to see a cute guy helping you pick up your stuff.  He was on his knees in front of you getting his uniform pants dirty.

“Thanks, but you don’t have to help me.  You’re getting your uniform messed up.”

“It’s no problem.  It’s the least I can do for running into you in the first place.”  He looked up at you for the first time and you saw his big innocent eyes.

You paused for a second and just looked at him.  You couldn’t deny that he is really cute, but with everything that had been going on, you couldn’t really think about boys.

“Thanks so much.  That’s really nice of you.  Let me introduce myself.”  You told him your name and your year.  You bowed your head politely, still sitting on your knees, which were starting to hurt a bit.

“Nice to meet you.  I’m Jeon Jungkook and I’m actually a freshman this year.”  He bowed his head a little lower than you had and started using formalities. 

 

“That seems like such a long time ago,” Jungkook says to you.  You see a little smile cross his face at the memory.

“Yeah, I was thinking the same thing.”  You trace your finger around the edges of the lid on your cup.  “It’s crazy to think that now I’m a sophomore in college and you’re a senior in high school.  We’ve been through a lot.”

“You can say that again.”  Jungkook drinks his coffee and looks around at the other tables and booths in the café.  “Do you remember when you first met Hoseok?”

“How could I forget?  Apart from the day we met, that was one of the most humiliating days of my life.”

 

You had been sitting on the bench in the park just across the street from your school.  It had been about a month after that first embarrassing day and you were somewhat adjusted.  At least adjusted enough to focus on your studies.  You didn’t have any friends though.  Being as shy as you were, you didn’t put forth the effort to really make friends.  So, instead of doing what every normal teenage girl did in your school, like going to karaoke and shopping, you sat in the park and typed on your laptop or studied.

The temperatures were still decent outside, but when the cold started to come in, you would have to find a better place to write.  But for now, it was the park.  That day you were studying for your English conversation test the next day.  You knew every word that would be on the test, but you continued to study.

That’s when you heard someone call your name.  Which was surprising on more than one level.  You looked up and saw the boy from the hallway on your first day.  He was with another guy that you recognized from your class.  What were their names?

The boy from the hallway called your name again and they were coming over to your bench.  You closed your laptop and looked around, just making sure that there was no one else around that they could be talking to.  Which there wasn’t.

They got to you and the younger of the two spoke first.  “How are you doing?  I haven’t seen you since the first day of school.”

“Oh, I’m fine.  Just trying to focus on my studies.  I’m sorry, but I have a horrible memory for names.  What’s your name again?”  You crossed your arms over your laptop, feeling a little uncomfortable, but you tried to hide it.

“Oh, I’m Jeon Jungkook of class 1C.  You already know Hoseok Hyung, right?  He said that you two were in the same class.”  Jungkook motioned to the guy next to him who looked kind of awkward.

“That’s right.  Sorry, I didn’t remember your name either.  I tend to try to focus on the lecture when in class and I don’t really learn anyone’s names that way.”  You smiled a little and then introduced yourself properly with a slight nod of the head.  Hoseok returned the greeting and introduced himself shyly.  You had thought for the first time then that Hoseok was really cute.

“How about we go and get something to drink from the diner down the street?”  Jungkook had offered.

“Oh no.  I couldn’t.  Obliviously, you two are hanging out together.  I don’t want to intrude.”  You had waved your hands back and forth in front of you while shaking your head.

“No, please, I insist.  Hoseok says you never talk to anyone in class and that you’re always out here on your laptop by yourself.  You need to hang out with someone before you turn into a study machine.”  Jungkook had come closer and held his hand out for you to take it.  You looked over at Hoseok who was looking away.  Had that been a bit of embarrassment in his cheeks?

Next thing you knew you were sitting in a booth at the little diner Jungkook had talked about.  You had wanted to just order some water, but before you could talk, Jungkook ordered three chocolate shakes and you couldn’t change his mind to just get you water.  You didn’t find out till later that this was an attempt to set you up with Hoseok who had apparently been crushing on you.  Not knowing this at the time you had successfully managed to spill your shake all over Hoseok and then when you tried to clean it up, you slipped and fell right into the puddle of melted shake.  You ran out the door after that.

 

“I still can’t believe you were trying to hook me up with Hoseok.”  You were starting to turn red just at the memory of the embarrassment.

“Are you kidding?  You didn’t have to listen to him talking about you ever since the day he first laid eyes on you.  I was hoping to end my own torture.”  Jungkook smiles at you.  He downs the rest of his coffee and sets the now empty cup on the table.  You are not far away from doing the same thing.

“Well, sorry that your best friend confessing his love for me was so painful.”  You raise your cup for the last few drops, when another memory comes to mind.  “Then there was the day that you begged me to not to go out of the country for college.”

 

It had been just after your graduation from high school that you finally realized that Jungkook really cared for you as a friend.  You had been accepted to attend a university in America in order to study English and Journalism.  This was what you wanted to do with your life.  Thinking you didn’t have any friends anyway, which you really didn’t, you figured that leaving would be easy.  That was until you told Jungkook.

You two had been hanging out a lot since junior year, but you didn’t really think that you were very important to him.  But when you told him that you were going to America, he freaked out.

“What are you talking about, Noona?  You can’t go to America.  You have to stay here and study at the university in town.  They have a good Journalism program.”

“Yeah, but their English department is not the best.  You do realize that I want to work and live in America, right?  Therefore, I must know all the ins and outs of English and the best way to do that is to live in an English speaking country.”  You had been in the middle of packing while you tried to explain your reasoning to him.  The problem had been that he was unpacking you.  Every time you tried to put something in your suitcase, he would just take it out again.

“Jungkook-ah, seriously, stop.”  You started getting tired of his little tantrum.

“No, I won’t stop until you agree not to go.”

“Jungkook-ah, I can’t do that.  I’ve already arranged everything.  There is not backing out now.”  You took a bra and put it in your suitcase, but he still pulled it out and threw it back on your bed.  You had thought he would be too grossed out to touch that, but you had been wrong.

This continued for a while, until he finally just grabbed you and pulled you into a hug.

“You can’t go, Noona,” he had said.  “I know you really well and I know that you will be miserable over there.  You don’t make friends well and when you go to another country, or anywhere away from home you need friends in order to survive.  You won’t survive.  You are going to be miserable and I don’t want you to be that way.  Just stay here so I can always be beside you when you need a friend.”

This had made you rethink your relationship with Jungkook.  At first, you had just thought of him as a kid that you hung out with sometimes.  This was the first time that you saw him as something more than that.  He was your best friend.

 

“I was so pathetic then.  I can’t believe I broke down like that.  I thought I could be strong and just coolly ask you to stay, but I…”  Jungkook started fiddling with his empty coffee cup, not looking at you.

“Well, it worked didn’t it.  I’m still here.  Well, Jungkook-ah, I have class in about 20 minutes so I need to get back to campus and you have a test tomorrow.”  You stand up and drink the rest of your coffee, which is now cold.

Jungkook groans.  “Why do I need to have a stupid test tomorrow?”  He lays his head on the table looking pathetic, but very cute.  You giggle and circle around to stand behind him.

“Jungkookie?”  You rub his shoulders a little bit.  “You have to get up and go home so you can study.  If you want to get in the same university as me you have to study.”  You poke him in the middle of his back over and over again until he finally stands up with a cute whine.

“Fine.”

When you two leave the café, you give each other a hug before walking away in opposite directions.  With the schedule you have now with classes and your job as an English tutor, you don’t have much time to hang out with him very much anymore.  But that’s okay, you’ll still be there for him, just like he will always be there for you.