Same Difference
Attracted To You Most lunchtime were accompanied with the music BTS made due to the fact that many students constantly requested for them to perform during lunchtime to make it more enjoyable. It was most likely because they wanted to keep their boys safe and untouched on stage rather than giving anyone a chance to encounter them on the regular lunch ground. On stage, everyone could share the honor to stare and admire them as much as they like.
“Don’t you guys think we should change our lunch place?” Youngni suggested as the music stopped, transforming into the next song.
“Why?” Minji asked, “I get to see Hoseok from here practically every day.”
“Because,” Youngni exaggerated hinting for them to understand instead of her saying it fully.
“Because?” Chancy asked with confusion written all over her face.
Youngni sighed, “Because we see them too much.”
“Isn’t that good?” Minji asked as the other three’s attention diverged to the stage.
Youngni blew out a big breath, “I’ll catch up with you guys later.”
She was a bit annoyed, not sure whether they purposely acted like they didn’t know or because they really didn’t know. As she hurriedly got out of the lunch table she crashed into a senior female student or worst one of those cocky students named Jung Yein always holding her head high.
Youngni wasn’t aware and threw her a glare before walking off.
“Huh,” Yein scoffed, “she just didn’t do that?”
Youngni heard and rolled her eyes, I just did.
“Oh…,” Minji eyes widen as the other two lowered their faces.
Another day passed by for Youngni as she survived another useless day of school. She wasn’t sure whether school taught her to excel in academics or to excel in hating people.
Her bed sounded like a great idea at the moment. Her energy was gone and she just wanted to nap on her bed.
Youngni tied her hair up ready for the marathon home. It was quite a warm day. She figured she wanted to stop by the Boba Café before heading home. It was perfect to cool down her temper. She knew herself was hard for her to handle.
“Did you get a chance to apologize?” Namjoon asked Jungkook as they started to settle down in the dance room after school.
Jungkook shook his head disappointingly.
“Did you say that she had a bad day that day?” Hoseok scrunched up his face trying to remember.
“I saw her walking to school feeling quite down, so I just figured I should let her play to ease her mind,” Jungkook innocently confessed.
“Don’t you think she has this thing of hating us though?” Jimin wondered thinking about all the times they were near Youngni.
“Yeah,” Yoongi seconded the thought, “she doesn’t ever smile when we’re around. But when she’s with her friends she laughs pretty loud.”
Jungkook sighed at the thought, “why does she hate me?”
“I’m sure she hates you for a lot of reasons,” Seokjin reasoned, “look at how she is hated for these days since the day you have made a bit of encounter with her?”
“That girl just has temper problems,” Hoseok shared whatever came to his mind.
“She just has it rough,” Jungkook said.
“What are you saying?” Taehyung laughed loudly couldn’t understand his riddle.
“She wasn’t too happy during lunch today either,” Namjoon spoke about what he saw while performing.
“What time is it?” Jungkook jumped searching for the clock.
“A little bit after school is out,” Taehyung cracked a smile while looking at Jimin.
“I’ll be back for practice,” Jungkook stormed out.
“Hold on,” Namjoon called.
Jungkook paused at the door and looked back.
“You can do it,” Namjoon face turned serious for a second.
“Yeah, you can do it,” Jimin, Seokjin, and Taehyung chorused together.
Yoongi and Hoseok started rapping ‘yeah, you can do it’ many times.
Jungkook laughed at s suddenly turned into a bunch of idiots then rushed as fast as he could hoping that he wouldn’t be late.
Youngni smiled to herself after the coconut boba smoothie was in her hand.
“Nothing’s better than you,” she eyed lovingly to the drink before walking out of the café.
She took a sip as she opened the door and unexpectedly saw Jungkook standing just a few feet away. As her lips were still connected to the straw her eyes wondered side to side hoping that when she looked straight he would be gone.
Sadly, her wish didn’t come true. With the cold drink in her hand, she doesn’t understand why she was feeling hot. She finished her sip and moved the straw away from .
She felt a bit angered when she felt trapped.
‘What the freak are you thinking? Just head home.’
So, that was what she did while feeling irritated that he kept showing up.
Jungkook silently followed behind trying to form how to start a conversation. Youngni cautiously knew he was following her. By the time she noticed, she finished her drink. On the path where it diverged, Youngni didn’t want him to follow her anymore. Not that she wanted him to in the first place. If he followed her any further, he would know where she lived.
She stopped and turned back to look at him. Jungkook didn’t want to hide that he was indeed following her, so he just looked at her with a smile when she glared at him.
“Stop following me,” she ruthlessly said.
“I just have a few things to say,” he straightened himself.
Youngni stood there blinking like what a normal human would be.
“Ah…times up,” she said after a few seconds and turned the opposite way to her house.
“This girl,” Jungkook chuckled and followed after her. Her acting was quite obvious.
Youngni took a breath, relieved that he wasn’t following her anymore. But she was wrong when she felt someone grabbed her hand. How awkward!
“Your house is this way,” Jungkook pointed the opposite direction, “Unless you want to go to mine?”
Youngni was clueless and astonished. How much does this boy know?
Jungkook knew Youngni was at shock and took the opportunity to pull her the original direction she was supposed to go.
The whole time she was dumbstruck. Her idea of fooling him was just useless. She thought going in the different direction and confusing him later would somehow get rid of him.
“I’m sorry for causing you troubles these past days,” Jungkook spoke up like a man, “That day of the Halfway Dance, I noticed you were upset. I hope you’re feeling better and forgetting whatever was bothering you. I tried to make it better, but it turned the opposite.”
Youngni was amazed by this guy. He was just over the board.
“W-who said I was upset?”
Jungkook stopped walking and looked at her, “your words and face,” he confidently said.
“Okay? That’s what you think,” she said looking straight passed him.
“You can laugh all you want, Youngni,” Jungkook said, “but it’s okay to frown and cry when you want to too.”
She looked away as her anger was building up.
“You might smile all the time to your friends, so they think you’re fine, but…”
“I don’t have anything to say to you, Jeon Jungkook. Beside, stop buzzing into my life.”
“Youngni,” Jungkook started.
“You don’t realize it…Jeon Jungkook. But you need to stay as far as you can from me. Between heaven and hell, there’s no common ground for us.”
Jungkook gave her a painful look. His eyes sadden. Youngni pulled her hand away from his grip and looked to the side realizing they were in front of her house. She hid her astonishment and headed inside. Once the door was closed, questions bombarded her mind. How did he manage to know so much? How did he figure that she was upset that morning for breaking her mother’s vase? Just how? Just why?
“Look, I know he was going to show up all upset,” Hoseok said as they watched Jungkook sulking into the dance room.
“I think I upset her,” he shared how his afternoon went.
“I’m sure, it’s just too much for her to take at the moment,” Namjoon said as Jungkook sat next to him.
Jungkook didn’t dare to take his eyes off the floor. He didn’t know how to approach things anymore. It was complicated.
“Just because I know how hard you try,” Hoseok scooted while sitting on the floor toward the couch Jungkook sat, “I got her phone number for you.”
Jungkook looked up a bit amazed and shocked.
“I already text it to you,” Hoseok winked at him with a mischievous smile.
“I overheard her three friends talking that Youngni dislikes popular things,” Taehyung said, “maybe that’s why she hates you.”
“And why not us?” Jimin said, “Aren’t we popular too?”
“Yeah, we are. Maybe that’s why she doesn’t like us,” Taehyung concluded.
Jungkook thought back to what she said…between heaven and hell, there’s no common ground for us.
Was that what she meant by it?
“Thanks you guys,” he suddenly cheered up, “shall we practice?”
Youngni told herself many times that she wasn’t afraid to meet Jungkook, but each time she thought about him showing up she would frighten herself. And if it wasn’t because of him, she wouldn’t have gotten scolded by her parents for going out late to clear her mind that night.
For the past weeks, she knew she did a good job avoiding Jungkook and the other members. She had not encountered them once so far.
The hatred on her seemed to have died down just as any rumor or gossip would as time passed. She could walked peacefully down the school hallway without people mumbling and whispering sick things about her, not that she ever cared but it was annoying to deal with.
“Hey,” a girl ran across the hallway to her friends, “did you hear that BTS actually passed their audition into the Big Hit Branch for training to become idols?”
The girls shrieked in excitement as Youngni casually walked passed them like she heard nothing.
Everyone was gossiping as Youngni was in class with her other three friends. They were all waiting for the teacher to show up.
“Hey,” Soomin nudged Youngni, “did you hear about BTS?”
“Who wouldn’t? They’re all over the place,” Youngni showed a bit of her temper.
“Calm down, woman,” Minji said, “soon they’ll be gone and you’ll be missing him.”
“Says who?” Youngni retorted.
“All of us including you,” Minji said.
“You wish.”
“Been,” Minji laughed and then became serious, “But I’m for real, that boy has been paying too much attention to you these days and weeks.”
“And?”
“Don’t tell me that this is going to happen all over again?” Soomin wondered.
“And just because you guys are different doesn’t mean it’s the end of the world,” Minji said.
Youngni stayed silent.
“Alright. Stop. Stop,” Chancy said as the teacher walked in.
During lunchtime, the BTS’s members were able to have the chance to share their experience and dream with the whole student body—to those who were willing to listen.
“I have always dreamed of becoming a rapper and to be well-known for the music I produce and rap…” Namjoon expressed his feelings about his dream path.
Youngni decided to close her ears as the group members each started sharing their passion for music and dreaming to stand on stage moving the audience with their music.
As it was Jungkook’s turn, Youngni had already forced herself to stay long enough. When she looked at her three friends, they seemed to be mesmerized by their words.
Youngni excused herself and walked out of the cafeteria. Dream is all what they talked about. Passion is all what they feel. Can’t this world be filled with anything else?
“Hey, did you know that that Minji has been trying to get close to our Hoseok. I saw her trying to hit on him the other day.”
“Yeah…and remember that day when Namjoon pointed at that Soomin just to play game with her, she seemed to act like a confident now.”
Youngni purposely walked up to the two girls gossiping and gave them each a harsh glare. Her heart was pounding as she was afraid for doing so. She didn’t know where she got the guts from.
They eyed her before scurrying away.
‘That was a close one,’ she let out a huge breath of relief thinking that she would have been beat to the ground by those gossip girls.
“Come on…we need to hurry before BTS finish talking,” Youngni watched a few students rushing toward the cafeteria.
Youngni glared their way as if the students had done something wrong to her.
“What’s so good about having dream? Don’t freaking everyone have dreams once in a while,” she dissed at the BTS’s member words. “People don’t need to have dream to exits. They freaken talk like they shine so bright with just a dream.”
“You don’t have a dream?” Youngni jumped forward upon hearing the voice coming out of nowhere.
She turned seeing Jungkook giving her a sheepishly smile.
“I dream almost every night,” she sarcastically said.
“As in something you want to do for the future.”
Youngni stared at him stupidly that did he not get her message.
“I don’t need to have a dream. I can live well without one.”
“Why are you against the idea of having a dream and working hard to get it?”
Youngni shrugged her shoulders. There was no reason for her to hate or to love it. She just didn’t have any dream nor did she want one.
“Then…,” Jungkook rubbed that back of his neck feeling quite nervous, “don’t you have a passion for something?”
“I don’t dream and don’t have passion. That should answer your questions right?”
“It’s doesn’t have to be something big or ambitious, it can be a small thing like…wanting someone to be by your side.”
Youngni tighten her fist, “Jeon Jungkook, I’m not like you ‘living without passion is like being dead…rather be dead than cool’.” She recited what he said earlier.
“You were listening to me?” she was caught off guard for such a question.
Technically, she wasn’t really listening.
“The speaker was so loud. Even if I covered my ears, it would still go through,” Jungkook couldn’t hide his smile as she actually memorized his words.
“Anyways thanks for listening and keeping it at heart,” he teased a bit.
“It…” she started but he interrupted her.
“Even if you don’t know what your dream or passion is, I might have a dream or passion in mind for you,” he said, ambiguously.
Youngni was lost at words with this guy, “Don’t you just understand that we are different?”
“Yeah but we are the same,” Youngni stared at him, at his cheek in particular. She didn’t dare to look into his eyes. “Between heaven and hell, you and I exist on earth and battle each day for the things we need. Aren’t we just the same?”
Youngni wanted to punch him for twisting and turning her words into a whole new meaning.
“It’s different because I rather be cool than dead.”
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