TIME AFTER TIME ; jjk

14

My heart could not stop racing. How do you properly breathe? I felt frantic with embarrassment when the door swung open without a foreseeable notice, a perturbed pair of eyes scanning me. "Jungkook? What are you doing here alone?" He looked around and only saw empty spaces. His hand reached out for the switch on the wall and flicked the lights open, my eyes sensitive to the sudden brightness. I stared down at my clammy hands and tucked them under my legs as if that would make them stop shaking.

Don't talk. Don't say anything, Taehyung. I'm fine. Your best friend is only being a pussy and he needs to suck it up. Part of being an adult, I guess? Growing older and all the other shit that came with that. I swallowed repeatedly to ease the disturbing ache at the back of my throat. "I'm resting for a few minutes," I said, my voice surprisingly steady. I sounded okay.

"The senior doctor has been looking for you. He needs you to help him with a patient."

"Oh, yeah, sure. Thanks. I've got to go, then." I jumped to my feet and walked across the changing room to walk out the door but Taehyung held me by my shoulder.

"You're pale. Are you sure you're fine?"

"Uh, of course."

He shook his head and clicked his tongue. Taehyung opened his locker and threw a face towel at me. "At least fix yourself and wipe away all that sweat on your face. Did you work out here?"

I mumbled my thanks and hastily dried the uncomfortable sweat off my skin, brushing my hair with my cold fingers.

"It looks to me as if your attending surgeon put you down again. Was it that bad? Do you want to talk about it?"

"I don't have time." But I couldn't bring myself to walk out in the open and face people.

He remained quiet for the next minutes as he changed into his scrubs. With his back facing me, he said, "Dr. Min Yoongi told me that the doctor once shoved all of you in your team... He told me you were almost... punched, if I remember it correctly? Isn't that something you guys should report? You didn't tell me anything about it. Did you even talk to anyone?"

"I'm okay, Tae."

"The fact that you're not saying something about it to me makes it not okay, you know? Lately you've become more... secretive? And it's really a worry for me, Jungkook." His voice was low, flat and a little emotionless for someone too vibrant.

"I'm really alright. I'm just having a hard time catching up with the workload he's been giving us... I'm getting used to it." I forced a laugh. "And the shove and punch you're talking about, it's not that serious. Doctor Won was having a bad day and he went super mad - our fault, by the way - so he sort of took it out on us. Yeah, it's nothing to be alarmed about."

"I can't be sure." He was done changing and he turned to face me, pulling down the hem of his scrub shirt. He seemed nothing but serious. I needed him to be a jokester on this. Come on, Taehyung, tease me, laugh or anything you can do to lift up the dreadful atmosphere.

"I'm telling you-"

"I know you're going through a hard time, and I feel like I'm being blindsided, but it gets easier when you're honest, okay?" Taehyung casually tapped my back, gentle and comforting, and I had to bite back a cry. He headed out of the room without saying more and I followed suit after a few minutes to compose myself.

. . .

"I have to tell you something." Nam Jiwon rested her elbows on the table, leaning towards me. She seemed nervous, and the way her eyes moved unsteadily confirmed it for me.

I glanced down at my wristwatch, hoping that my pager wouldn't beep just yet because I was still enjoying my hot cup of coffee. I had to stay fully awake for the next couple of hours tonight. "What is it?"

"I know you're not rushing things and I respect that... We agreed on some terms but... I- I accidentally spilled out, you unintentionally slipped in the middle of our conversation."

I arched my brows, feeling my shoulders tense. "What?"

"I didn't mean it. I was excitedly talking about work and friends that I missed to filter my words. I had told my older brothers that I'm seeing this guy, that being you, and I tried to cover it up, but to no avail."

I sighed, my heartbeat going crazy again. It wasn't certainly the coffee kicking in. "Ji, I mean, Doctor Nam, this is out of our agreement. We've discussed this. Why would you... just why?"

"They want to meet you. Especially my older brothers."

I gave her an incredulous look, unable to process the information as I sagged back against the chair. "I thought you're content with whatever we have? We won't be anything official soon. I don't want a relationship with you-" she cut me off.

"I know that." Her lips pursed slightly, and our eyes met but she broke it off.

I added, "We're taking our time because I'm... I'm not ready. I held on to what you said, that you're okay with us just going chill and toned-down. You swore that you'd only introduce me to your uncle and your dad-"

"Uncle and dad are usually both busy. I can't find the perfect time. And it's not like my whole family's not gonna know... They would eventually tell them."

"I know, and I'm not adamant on it, am I? Why would you ruin this-" I paused and let out a sigh. Maybe I was being too harsh with my words. "I just hope you told them we're not exclusively dating. I'm enjoying our dates, I admit that. You're a very likeable woman and I won't deny it. But I'm only getting there, Jiwon... Please understand."

Jiwon kept nodding and to my surprise, she held my hands. I was worried that a lot of people could see, but I did nothing to retract my hands. Hers were warm and soft, opposite of what felt in my grasp. "Sorry, I've messed up. But I'll make sure my brothers will be nice to you."

If I refused, what would that make me? A major asshole and a disrespectful man who only wants to take advantage of Nam Jiwon. But wasn't I already a jerk for agreeing to this setup? I used to push away the women who wanted me because of work before only to end up seeing another woman, even not in its realest sense. That even if I didn't completely concurred with the idea, I still said yes because hey, I would be benefitting from this, too. Maybe? This was a win-win situation, actually. Damn, was I too much of a jerk? And here, there were impending troubles waiting for me. I started to wonder if I hammered the final nail in my coffin by being too ambitious...

"Park Soohyun is coming here in a minute," she announced after a distressing moment of silence between us.

I sat, stunned and speechless. "Why?"

"We're just going to chat over snacks. I got her number and I want to be acquainted with Park Soohyun. Is there anything wrong with that?" Could you have invited her when I was already gone? I wanted to say that but I shook my head, telling her it was okay, remembering all at once what I had texted her last night.

Do you like Taehyung?

I made it worse. She must have laughed about it and thought I fucking lost my mind. Why would I do that? I didn't know the exact answer. The initial plan was to only apologize, because now that she had moved on, an explanation wasn't needed anymore.

How could I fuck up more than once?

Do you like Taehyung?

I definitely didn't have an idea why I texted her that.

》AUTHOR'S NOTE《

I hope you didn't find this boring. 🙏 I tried my best hehe thank u for reading!

I'm grateful for 12K reads!