"Noona!"

You turned around to the voice. You smiled. Jungkook was running towards you while waving his hands at you. You waved back. "Why are you running?", you asked when he reached you. He wanted to answer but he's still panting. Tired from all the running he did. It took him a few minutes to regain his breath. You started walking slowly together. "I saw you. Then I ran on impulse. I.. guess.. I wanted to see you." You could see from the corner of your eyes that he was blushing. You smiled and chuckled slowly, maybe not loud enough for him to hear. 

"We could meet during practice later. You know that, right?". Then silence came. He didn't reply to your question. You saw that his fingers playing with the end of the strap of his backpack. You've just noticed that he was still wearing his school uniform. "Anyway, why are you here? Vocal practice starts at 4pm. Now it's only 2pm. You just finished your classes, right? Why don't you go back to your dorm?", you asked. "There's no one at the dorm anyway. All of them went out. I didn't want to come back to an empty dorm, so I figured maybe I could go straight to practice room. You know, to sleep there.", he said while laughing at the thought of him sleeping, then continued, "Then I saw you just now. Why are you here, noona?”

Reaching the studio, you pushed your way in, with Jungkook right behind you. “I need to practice. There’re some songs that I can’t hit the notes properly. And it’s making me stressed out!”, you said with a frown, but still managed to let out a small chuckle.  “Do you want me to help you?”, he asked, tilting his head a little while bending over to your eye-level. Making eye contact, with his face inches away from yours, you can feel yourself blushing until your ears. You resist the urge bring your hands to his face and pinch his cheeks.

Come on, who doesn’t adore Jeon Jungkook? That kid is a fluffball of cuteness! Big round eyes, a small button nose, red lips without applying anything to it. He has milky white skin, not pale (like Yoongi’s) but fair enough to match his features. He’s tall, he works out, has abs. He sings, he dances, and he even raps flawlessly! He really owns the title ‘Golden Maknae’ of BTS. With all that, you couldn’t stop yourself from falling for him. It only started with a crush but after years of having vocal classes together, you realized that your feelings for him are far stronger than just a simple ‘like’.

On stage, while singing, rapping, and dancing, he was cool. Hell, he was hot. He’s charismatic on stage, able to make fangirls swoon with just hearing his voice. However, in real life, he’s overflowing with affection. He did aegyo even without realising it. He’s a cutie without even trying. Even though he’s young and still in high school, he can be dependable at times. How he helps people a lot, how he’s considerate to other. Well, there’s too much of Jungkook’s good traits you can’t finish the list. After realizing that you like, no, love him, you started to pay more attention to him. Not just when he performs, but every little thing that he did, which you love noticing, about how his veins sometimes pop when he sang high notes. How his eyes squints when he smiles. How he sometimes crinkle his nose while laughing. How his bunny teeth shows every time he talks.

Maybe it was just your imagination, but you could tell that he likes you too. Sometimes you caught him staring at you. Then he would turn away with a blush on his face. He likes to look into your eyes when you were talking to him. You could feel his eyes looking through you and that you could be lost in his eyes. He always found himself next to you during vocal lessons. This way, you guys were always picked together as a pair if there’s a duet song to practice. In class, he only calls you noona, and not the others. He called them by their name with-ssi at the end. You like that. It makes you feel.. special. And now, he’s even offering to help you with your singing even though he’s busy enough with his idol life. It couldn’t be just your mind playing, right? Right?

“Noona? Hellooooo~~ Noona, you’re zoning out. Are you okay?” You startled out of your mind when you saw Jungkook’s hand waving back and forth in front of you. You felt stupid of you to let your mind wander off while he’s right in front of you. You felt yourself blush even more. You let out a shy chuckle. “Oh, sorry! Um, where were we? What are we talking about?” “I said, do you want me to help you with your singing? I’m kind of free this week. We don’t have any schedules.” He scratched the back of his neck, then continued, “That is, um, if you don’t mind.” Cute, you thought. “Are you sure? Won’t you be too tired with your school and everything else? I don’t want to put you in more trouble, though.” “No, noona! You won’t. Besides, it’s me who offered. I wanted to. I wanted to spend more time with you.” He said the last sentence under his breath; you didn’t hear it at all. “Awwww thank you Jungkookie!! I’ll buy you something nice later~”

~*~

So it started. Every day you will meet Jungkook at the studio hours before the actual lesson with the vocal teacher. He started to teach some songs that he covered before. He gave you tips on how to hit the perfect key to songs. However, after a few days, he said something. “Noona, you really didn’t need these extra lessons with me, do you?” You looked at him as he finished his sentence. You were confused with his question, and you frowned. He continued, “You’re actually a very good singer, noona. And I mean VERY good. You nailed the notes perfectly. Well, it’s completely normal for a girl to be unable to hit the low notes, but other than that, you’re amazing.” “And how would you know that I can hit the notes? Even I myself hate my voice.”

“I just.. know. I’ve listened to you for the past three years.” Oh no, you felt your face warm from the blushing. But the blush only stayed there temporarily. You’re happy that he listened to your singing, you’re happy that he’s willing to help you and all, but what he said earlier struck your mind. You’re not going to lie, you felt a bit hurt by his words. You sighed, and said, “So, do you want to stop?” Jungkook widened his eyes in shock. He shook his head left to right but you didn’t see that. “I should have known; these extra lessons are taking your precious time. I’m so sorry. I-I should just go.” You stuffed your things in your bag, stood up and walked out the studio. Before you reached the door, you felt a grip at your wrist. “Noona, wait!”

You tried to free yourself from Jungkook’s grip, only to have him pull you around, towards him. You face ended up on his chest, his hands around you. He’s hugging you. You’re so shocked; no words leave your mouth. He’s also not saying anything. Silence filled the room for a moment. You felt awkward. You felt the need to say something, to break the silence. “Jung-jungkook ah-” You were cut by his mumble against you hair. “I’m sorry.” You tried to break free from the hug but he tightened his arms around you. He sighed, and continued, “I didn’t mean it that way. I wanted to praise your singing, but it turned out to offend you. I’m sorry, noona.” He finally let go of the hug, his hands remained on your shoulders. He opened his mouth to say something but was interrupted with the sound of footsteps approaching the studio. He immediately let go of your shoulders and whispered a slow ‘I’ll talk to you later’.

That later never came. As soon as you finished the vocal lesson, you practically ran out of the studio. You heard Jungkook calling out your name, telling you to wait for him but you ignored it. You can’t afford to look at him, not after what happened. The lesson was also awkward. It’s not like you never caught him staring at you, but this time it’s different. Not after the hug. You need to have a time for you to think about what happened. Everything happened too fast, your brain was unable to process every detail of whatever happened back there. You reached your apartment, had your shower and make dinner out of leftover things in your fridge. When you started eating, then you remembered what happened.

How he held your hand, how tight his grip felt around your wrist. Then you remembered how he spun you around to hug you. How you felt his warm chest against your cheeks. You can vaguely remember that you heard his heart was beating fast. Then you also remembered how he tightened his hug, not wanting to let you go. Suddenly you felt blood rushed to your face, you blushed at that memory. You can’t help but to smile shyly. You quickly realized that you were smiling, alone, at your empty plate like a crazy person. Crazy in love, you thought. You couldn’t stop smiling as you washed your plate, and head to your bedroom to sleep.

Opening the door of your bedroom, you the lights. You made your way to your bed while taking a glance at the papers on your desk. Your smile suddenly faded. You took the papers and read it before putting it down again. You let yourself fall flat on you bed. You sighed, and put one arm over your eyes. “I shouldn’t be doing this.”