TIME AFTER TIME ; jjk

13

"I know quite a few things about you," Jiwon said to me, a smile threading across her lips. She had managed to convince me to address her just by her first name. Her admission made me jittery all of a sudden and I didn't know if she was about to say something I wouldn't like. "Don't get me wrong. I'm not a gossiper. Taehyung had mentioned you and I genuinely think you're nice and cool."

I felt relief linger in my chest, not bothering to ask whatever Taehyung said about me. My eyes flitted over to Taehyung who stared back at me wordlessly as he enjoyed his Whiskey Ginger.

"I'm glad he didn't snitch on me," I answered.

"I'd never do that to you," Taehyung defended himself.

"How long have you known these two?" Jiwon asked me as she tucked the strands of hair behind her ears. I began to notice how collected she was, making little, graceful movements. Her voice was low and refined when she talked but the way she laughed was just infectious.

I was starting to be comfortable around her presence.

"We were college batch mates. But I've only got to talk to them this year when I transferred to Severance."

"Oh, how were they back in medical school?" Jiwon leaned over the table, her eyebrows turning up on the corners out of curiosity and excitement. I laughed because I would look stupid if I told her the things I had noticed watching them from afar years ago and there was no way I wouldn't seem like a creep because how would I be able to explain my bizarreness when these men didn't even pay me attention before? I wasn't planning to embarrass myself tonight.

"I have no idea. We weren't really friends. I'm sorry about that," I said to play it safe. I felt Taehyung's foot lightly nudge mine under the table. I had a feeling he would burst out laughing at my statement and just expose me.

Nam Jiwon and Taehyung spoke way more than I did when we we talked about life and the excruciating parts of our job. I would try to ask Jungkook about how he was doing to make it clear that we were finally okay. I didn't like Jungkook that way anymore but we hadn't spoken in several months that it was hard to find a topic we would resonate with. It didn't help that someone else out of the issue was here with us, and she might have an idea about what happened before.

In the middle of the conversation, Taehyung had his hand on my lower back as if he was trying to give me support. I had to subtly tap his hand away so he could take the hint I didn't need it tonight. When would he be truly convinced that I had already moved on from his best friend? Being this obviously weird would make Jungkook think otherwise.

I saw Jungkook shift in his seat when Nam Jiwon gingerly placed her hand on his lap while she was animatedly babbling about her Maldives vacation last year. I glanced away when Jungkook saw me looking at him. Why did this man look constipated? Jiwon was clearly trying to be affectionate and he was subtly avoiding every move she made. I concluded that perhaps he was still stuck in the process of getting accustomed to whatever set-up they had. He had expressed his lack of interest in intimacy many times before and it could be that the whole thing still made it confining for him although he liked Jiwon.

Over the next minutes, he was silently downing his shots, only listening to the conversation. Jiwon would check him every once in a while and he would tell her he wasn't drunk yet.

I found myself enjoying Taehyung's jokes and Jiwon's med school stories. Then she started talking about snippets of her life. She was the youngest in her family. Trapped with overprotective older siblings and male-dominated relatives. She said her paternal relatives mostly worked in medical field and that influenced her profession choice. Taehyung complained about having to endlessly pay for his student loan which helped finance his medical education and being broke without a car of his own at the age of thirty. I told him that it was okay, and if he needed any help, I'd be willing to lend him a part of my savings but Taehyung quickly refused and said that he only needed to vent out his frustrations.