Jaqueline groaned, slamming her alarm clock to shut it up.

“First day of school…” She yawned and stretched out her limbs, ready (but not really) for her 9 o’ clock class. She dragged herself towards her bathroom and sleepily brushed her teeth.

People had said high school would be fun, but to Jackie, it was nothing but mere hell the past 3 years. Social cliques were perhaps not as apparent or obvious as movies made them seem, but they were still around. The clichéd jocks, airheaded girls, gamers, partiers, honor students, etc. And where was Jaqueline? Possibly an outsider or “loner” as many named, however she preferred to call herself as an independent.

Hopping in her car, she drove to her campus. She lived nearby, a good 15 minutes, so it was pretty convenient having her car around.

She huffed a puff of air, driving into the parking complex. Nearing her spot she noticed a black car parked in her spot. She got out of her car and walked up to the driver’s side. There was no one there. Jaqueline threw her hands up in frustration and ran back to her car, parking in the guest section of the parking lot.

 

~      ~      ~

 

“Jaqueline!” Ana waved her over. Jaqueline had met Ana the beginning of sophomore year, and was the only one that she really talked to. It’s not that she didn’t try hard to make friends, she chatted with her classmates and even hung out with a few every now and then, it’s just there wasn’t anyone else besides Ana she could exactly call a “friend”.

Ana genuinely smiled at her. “You sleepy?”

“I was but,” Jaqueline placed her bag down and took a sit. “Some person parked in my spot this morning, so I had to walk farther today making me fully awake now.”

“Dang that .” Ana took a sip from her Frappuccino.

“Right?” She threw her back and leaned into her seat. “I didn’t pay $50 the whole year just to have another person parked there.”

Ana nodded, but her eyes brightened up, as she looked past Jaqueline. “Oh! Look!”

Jaqueline turned to the entrance of the classroom and saw a very tall and handsome guy.

“Dang, finally some good looking people around here.” Ana kept staring.

Jaqueline absent mindedly nodded and stiffened when the new guy made eye contact with her. He smiled and nodded in her direction. She felt herself blush and broke eye contact, pretending to check her phone.

Ana hit her arm. “Oh snap Jaqueline.” She whispered. “I saw that exchange.”

“Ana calm down, you’re too loud!”

Ana looked passed her. “He’s coming this way.”

Jaqueline glared at her.

“Aww, he sat somewhere else.” Ana pouted and rested against her seat, her face suddenly brightened. “Yoongi!”

 

A young guy headed their direction, wearing shades and purple hair peeking out from underneath his beanie. “Hi Ana.” He waved. He turned to Jaqueline and spoke softly. “Hey.”

 

“Hi.” She replied, not looking at him.

 

She’s known Yoongi for a long while now. Better yet for most of her life. They had both grown up next door to each other, so it was kind of hard to not know each other. Plus, their moms becoming best friends to top it off didn’t help at all. When they were young, people assumed them to be brother and sister due to how close they were. Everywhere and always, there were countless pictures of both of them for every event you could think of. Birthdays, Holidays, achievements, vacations, even their first steps had all been recorded together. After high school however they slowly drifted apart. Jaqueline admitted there were times she missed being able to talk to her ex best friend, but she knew she was better off without him. The only bad thing now was that things between them were awkward.

 

Yoongi walked to sit next to Ana, pecking her on the cheek before he sat down.

 

Yup, her ex best friend was dating her current best friend.

 

Ana had had the biggest crush on Yoongi ever since she saw him for the first time she went to Jaqueline’s house. Jaqueline didn’t really know what to say and brushed it off, letting her enthusiastic friend try to talk to Yoongi every single time she came over. It wasn’t until the summer between Junior and Senior year that Yoongi had finally asked her out. Ana had come screaming into her room that day.

 

The three made it through the first three classes before lunch started.

 

“Why are you two so quiet around each other?” Ana looked back and forth between them.

 

Yoongi and Jaqueline glanced at each other and remained silent.

 

“C’mon you guys! It’s been 8 months since Yoongi and I started dating! You two should at least be friends by now.”

 

Jaqueline peeled her friend’s arm off of her. “I’m gonna go buy some food.”

 

Ana sighed but let her go and turned to Yoongi. Jaqueline awkwardly stood up and headed towards the lunch lines.

 

This 2^nd semester was gonna be rough.

 

~      ~      ~

 

For the first couple of weeks, Yoongi and Jaqueline continued to have minimum contact, much to the protests of Ana. Times when Jaqueline planned to hang out with Ana had been Yoongi forcefully brought along in attempts to “bring all of them closer together” as Ana would say.

 

The tension between the two was overwhelming, but Ana’s denseness contributed to nothing but uncomfortable situations. Jaqueline dreaded the moments Ana had to go somewhere all of a sudden, even if it was for just a moment, since her and Yoongi would blankly stare at their phones, locking and unlocking their screens.

 

“Alright class, so today I will assign your partners for the biome and ecosystems presentation. However, you may work in groups of four to present it as long as you have the same biome.” Their teacher began calling up the students in pairs to receive the rubric and assigned region.

 

Ana squirmed around in her seat. She was never one to stay still and especially not when she was anxious. “I’m hoping I get one of you two.”

 

“Ana and Yoongi.”

 

Ana squealed and clapped, jumping up from her seat and running towards the teacher to receive her packet. Yoongi slowly got up, glancing at Jaqueline.

 

“Jaqueline and Dong Sun.”

 

Jaqueline stopped for a moment realizing she had been paired up with the cute guy she had several encounters with the beginning of the semester.

 

Ana was walking back as Jaqueline was heading to get her paper, and wiggled her eyebrows. Jaqueline shyly smiled making eye contact with Dong Sun.

 

Yoongi glanced at both of them, his head hanging low and returned to where Ana was sitting.

 

At lunch, Dong Sun had joined them to help discuss the huge project.

 

“She’s crazy if she thinks we can finish this by Monday!” Ana nibbled on some leaves from her Caesar salad.

 

Jaqueline raised her cup to . “You know she’s always been like this the whole year.”

 

Ana tapped her nails on the table. “But still…Hey wait, what biome did you and Dong Sun get?”

 

“Tropical Rainforest.” Dong Sun replied.

 

Ana leaned on Yoongi’s arm. “So did we! How about we all work on it together this weekend? Especially since you two are neighbors.”

 

“Umm…it’s fine with me.” Yoongi finally answered, staring at Jaqueline.

 

She raised an eyebrow and shifted her gaze to stare at her energetic friend. “I guess…”

 

“Great! We’ll be at Yoongi’s at 3 tomorrow?” she turned to look at her boyfriend. “Is that okay?”

 

Yoongi nodded.

 

~      ~      ~

 

Jaqueline paced around her living room, unable to decide if she should just head over to Yoongi’s house already. It’s been around 3 years since she was last over there.

 

She threw herself on her couch staring at a blue splash on her ceiling. She remembers it had happened when Yoongi and she had thrown paint at each other when they were younger. She smiled remembering how mad her mom was and how they both ended up cleaning the whole mess afterwards. They just weren’t tall enough to reach that spot. She had actually forgotten it was even there.

 

She shook her head and sat up deciding it was better to get it over and done with. She headed outside, wrapping her coat all around her since it was still cold from winter. The struggle of moving her legs wasn’t due to the cold but the anxiety she felt at headed towards the house, until she finally reached the door. Those were the hardest five steps she ever took in her life. She knocked on the heavy oaked wood. She didn’t know if she was shaking due to the strong wind rushing through her body or the door opening.

 

Yoongi blankly stared at her, his body leaning against the frame of the door. He was wearing an overly large white shirt and some basketball shorts. Judging by how his hair was and how he squinted his eyes, she assumed he had been asleep. It was an old habit of his.

 

They stayed like that for a moment until Jaqueline finally spoke up.

 

She rubbed her arm. “So, uh, are you gonna let me in?”

 

Yoongi’s eyes widened and took two steps to step aside. “Sorry…come in.” He gestured his arm in a stiff manner before bringing it to his head and scratching his head.

 

Jaqueline stepped inside and took in the house that used to be her second home. There were slight changes, such as a new white couch rather than the old green springy one that they used to jump in and the new furnished door to the backyard. Little knickknacks his mom liked collecting were still displayed around the house. She was a very artsy woman. Her eyes landed on a picture of their kindergarten graduation.

 

“It’s been a while.”

 

Jaqueline jumped and almost tripped over one of the lamps cords. Luckily, she was able to balance herself.

 

“Yeah it has.” She pulled her jacket closer as Yoongi stood next to her.

 

“You want something to drink?”

 

She shook her head. “I’m fine thanks.” She looked around and noticed the house too quiet. “Where are your parents?”

 

Yoongi walked over to the couch and the TV, if only to relieve some of the silence.

 

“They took a weekend vacation somewhere.” He flipped through the channels.

 

She looked around the living room unsure of what to do. Thankfully her phone rang. “Ana?”

 

“Hey Jaqueline! So turns out I can’t get my car out from the storm, and Dong Sun is over at my house already since he lives down the block. Just work on the project with Yoongi and we’ll see what we do tomorrow.”

 

Jaqueline hung up and told Yoongi what happened.

 

He leaned forward, placing his forearms on his knees. “Alright, I’ll bring the computer.”

 

He stood up and jogged upstairs while Jaqueline took a seat on the couch.

 

~      ~      ~

 

After a few hours, Yoongi and Jaqueline were finally able to at least start talking to each other normally. Well being forced into it and all.

 

“Wait so I have to draw that?” He pointed at the computer screen.

 

Jaqueline nodded as she continued writing out the facts. “Yea, she said we couldn’t print anything out.”

 

Yoongi threw himself against the couch, sprawling his arms and legs out. “I’m too lazy to do this.”

 

She stopped writing and turned to look at him. “You better get to drawing.”

 

Yoongi closed his eyes and grabbed a pillow next to him. “You can do it.”

 

She squinted her eyes at him and threw the pencil she was holding, grazing his lower lip.

 

Yoongi jumped up and touched his lip. “Why’d you do that?”

 

Jaqueline shrugged her shoulders. “So you can get off your lazy .”

 

Yoongi glared at her and picked up the pencil that landed by his feet. He sat down on the floor next to her, the poster and colored pencils dispersed everywhere.

 

“Where do you want me to draw it?”

 

Jaqueline pointed to the middle of the poster. “Make sure you don’t make it too big or else there won’t be enough room to put all the information on it.” She went back to writing.

 

Yoongi pulled the laptop closer and analyzed the image. “This is too much…why couldn’t we get Tundra so I could just draw a block of ice.”

 

“Well, we didn’t, so just get to it.”

 

Yoongi stared at the image one last time, then began to lightly draw the outline of the rainforest.

 

After a few minutes Yoongi spoke up. “Does this look weird?”

 

Jaqueline stopped writing and looked over at what he had accomplished. “What the heck is that supposed to be?” She couldn’t help but smile a little.

 

Yoongi furrowed his eyebrows. “It’s supposed to be the Jaguar jumping out.”

 

Jaqueline looked at the image on the screen then back down at the drawing. She giggled. “That looks like a deformed rat!”

 

Yoongi threw his pencil on the table and crossed his arms. “See, which is why I shouldn’t do it.”

 

“Just keep drawing, I was just playing.” Jaqueline poked his arm. “Do it for Ana.”

 

Yoongi turned to look at her, his eyes a bit larger than usual in surprise. Jaqueline’s heart skipped a beat and her smile vanished, awkwardly going back to her task.

 

“Right for Ana…” He cleared his throat. “At least she appreciates what I do.” He picked up the pencil and went by the poster.

 

Jaqueline didn’t reply.

 

Another few moments of silence passed by. The only sounds heard were the occasional cough and the sounds of the eraser.

 

Suddenly Yoongi scooted really close to Jaqueline causing her to lean to her other side. “What are you doing?”

 

Yoongi looked up to her. “I can’t fix the ‘deformed rat’ with my left hand. Just bear with it.”

 

Jaqueline was about to protest, but noticed Yoongi’s serious face as he diligently focused on the Jaguar’s eyes. She noticed how close he was, both of their sides completely touching as if they couldn’t be separated.

 

She tried to focus back on shortening her notes on the poster, but couldn’t with him that close to her. Placing her head on the table, on top of her arm, she felt him shift again, making her tense up and noticed his face really close to her. She made sure to keep her head low, her hair covering the sides of her face to hide her blushing cheeks.

 

Holding her pencil in her hand she made small movements, as if she had actually kept writing. Her heart raced hearing Yoongi let out a small breath near her ear.

 

‘How long does it take for him to draw?!’ She thought. She wanted to peer out and see if he was close to finishing, but didn’t want to risk it. Slowly, ever so slowly, she shifted her gaze to the left and turned her head to see.

 

She felt paralyzed, coming face to face with his cheek just mere centimeters away. Yoongi sharply turned his head, feeling her move and to her surprise noticed the deep tint spread across his face to his ears.

 

They both stopped for a moment, their bodies too numb to move. They both wanted to look away, too embarrassed having been found in such a state by the other, but their bodies wouldn’t move at all.

 

Yoongi suddenly gulped and leaned in. Jaqueline braced herself and closed her eyes, however, she felt his arms wrap around her and his head on her shoulder.

 

Her eyes widened, feeling her heart thumping against her chest, she turned to see his fluffy hair tickling the side of her cheek.

 

“Jaqueline…”

 

She swallowed some of her saliva, surprised hadn’t got dry yet.

 

She waited for him to finish, but seeing him stay quiet for so long made her realize what was happening.

 

He was her best friend’s boyfriend.

 

She slowly pushed him away, leaving Yoongi stare at her in a daze. His eyes furrowed questioning why she had done that.

 

She broke into a smile. “You’re real funny, trying to trick me to tickle me.” She moved her bangs away from her face. “Hurry and get back to work, we don’t have time to play around.” She stood up and headed towards the kitchen. “I’m getting something to drink.”

 

Yoongi stood up and lazily wrapped his arms around her waist.

 

 

“Yoongi, we can’t…”

 

“Jaqueline listen to me.”

 

She knew Yoongi was never one for words, much less to show that much of initiative, so she knew better than anyone what he was trying to say.

 

“I didn’t want it to be like this. I’m honestly a coward.”

 

“A coward for what?”

 

He tightened his hold on her. “I never really meant to be with Ana…I went out with her so I can see you again.”

 

Jaqueline didn’t know why at that moment she felt relieved rather than mad for what he had just confessed. After that moment though, she began feeling guilty at the same time, because Ana didn’t deserve this.

 

“I’m sorry Yoongi, but Ana doesn’t deserve to be lied to like that.” She turned to look at him, his sincere eyes peering down at her. She peeled herself away from his arms. And began walking towards the front door. To her surprise Ana had been standing outside, her hands fisted on her hips.

 

“What are you doing?” She yelled, placing her hands on Jaqueline’s shoulders.

 

Before Jaqueline could even begin to apologize, she was roughly pushed back inside. “Get in there and get your man! You’re not allowed to leave until you do so!” She slammed the door shut.

 

Jaqueline couldn’t process what was going on and turned to Yoongi for an answer.

 

“I’m just as lost as you are.” His arms fell limply by his sides.

 

Ana suddenly came bursting through the door again and pulled both of them closer together. “Gosh, you both can’t do anything by yourself! Jaqueline, I never liked Yoongi.” She looked at Yoongi. “Yoongi, I never liked you. It was just to get you both back together! So hurry up with the makeup and all!”

 

She ran back outside and slammed the door again, her silhouette peering against the window.

 

Jaqueline and Yoongi turned to look at each other. They suddenly burst out laughing.

 

“Did that really just happen?!” Yoongi held his stomach falling to the floor.

 

Jaqueline couldn’t even reply from the laughter and fell beside him.

 

She began hitting the floor hard and Yoongi scrunched up his legs, unable to calm down.

 

After calming down they both turned to look at each other.

 

“We good?” Yoongi asked.

 

Jaqueline nodded. “We’re good.”

 

Yoongi shook his head in disbelief. “That explains so much.”

 

“What does?”

 

Yoongi his lips together. “Ana would always talk about you and never exactly held my hand or hugged me unless you were around.”

 

“Really?”

 

He turned his gaze back to her and nodded.

 

She closed her eyes and they both stayed laying on the floor.

 

“Suga…”

 

“Haven’t heard you call me that in a long time.”

 

She smiled at him. “Can you…”

 

He anxiously looked at her, scooting closer to her.

 

She peered into his eyes and with the most serious face said, “Can you help me up?”

 

He fell back on his back. “How about you help me get up?”

 

“I’m too lazy, you first.”

 

“You made me draw, so you help me.”

 

“That deformed rat doesn’t count.”

 

After a few minutes of going back in forth, Jaqueline felt too tired to even reply.

 

“Good night.”

 

Yoongi poked her arm seeing as how she got into fetal position. “What do you mean good night?! Help me get up!”

 

She pretended to snore and ignored his insistent protests.

 

Yoongi sighed in defeat and stood up. “You owe me.” He leaned down and picked her up, throwing her on the couch.

 

“You should be gentler!” Jaqueline yelled.

 

“Yeah yeah…” He laid next to her.

 

“You’re squishing me.”

 

He wrapped his arms around her. “I’m too lazy to go upstairs.”

 

“Wait, the project.” She kept complaining, which didn’t seem to affect Yoongi at all. He suddenly turned her face and kissed her.

 

Pulling back he draped a leg over her. “Shut up and go to sleep.”

 

And that she did.