ILL HEARTS

4

Eunbi ~ March 14, 2019

Someone punched him too hard during his practice. Or he tripped. Maybe smacked his head against the wall. Accident that left his brain damaged? It must have been it, because healthy Jeon Jungkook would never act like this towards me. Healthy Jeon Jungkook wouldn't spend a lunch break with me without wasting an opportunity to start a bicker fight. He wouldn't call me 'pretty'. He wouldn't be kind to me. There must have been something wrong with him.

Or it was me. I was just overreacting, not used to that side of him. If he had that side, and wasn't just putting up an act for some reason. As much as I didn't want to face him again, even more than usually, I wanted to know what switch he flipped to do it. I needed to know if Jeon Jungkook I knew was actually Jeon Jungkook, or a cover-up for whatever he showed during this one damn lunch break.

"Miss Jung. Can I please talk to you?" our literature teacher called me ten minutes before the class. She smiled, leaving the door opened for me.

I stepped inside, clueless, and trapped the buzzing chatter behind the door. "Yes?"

"I just wanted to say that I am really impressed with the results of your mock exams. Not only in my class, but all of them. I will be officially announcing the results later, but I wanted to personally congratulate you," she said, intertwining her fingers on top of the desk.

I had to keep it tight not to start giggling in front of her, even though my legs were inching to move. "Thank you so much." I bowed a little.

A few more praises that made me straightened my back like the world was watching, and I grinned as soon as I left the room. I had a sick aspiration to do well in school ever since I was a kid. Blessed with fast learning skills and high intelligence, I didn't have to worry about it much. I'd been even a better student in elementary, but gave it up as I grew older. In college I was still 'the top student', but lived my life outside of the books.

My mood dropped before I even got to move. "What makes you so happy?"

I whipped my head to where Jungkook leaned against the wall two steps away from me. He didn't smirk, didn't narrow his eyes, didn't show any signs of dissatisfaction with my joy. It took me a few quiet moments to realize it was a face of the same guy who gave me the last apple crumble just because it was my favorite.

"Nothing important," I said. Not because it was Jungkook, but because I wasn't used to bragging about myself.

"Oh, come on. No one smiles like that at nothing important." He chuckled, walking closer. "What happened?"

I shrugged, suddenly acting like it wasn't a big deal. It was, to me, but no one ever cared about it so I never allowed myself more than five minutes to be happy about my achievements. They went unnoticed, and I wasn't trying to bring them to the surface of anyone's attention.

"I'm just doing well in classes," I said.

"And it makes you that happy?" he asked. No confusion or surprise in his voice, no mocking, no tension that always led to me clapping back. He just asked a question he didn't know the answer to, and I, once again, needed a second not to assume I was in a hidden camera prank. No, he wasn't the type to do pranks, either.

"Um... yeah. It does," I said.

"Cool. Congrats." He smiled, which was already weird enough. I nodded to thank him, and tried to flee the scene, but he was sauntering next to me from the first step. "How do you celebrate?"

"Celebrate?"

Jungkook nodded. "Yeah. When you succeed, you celebrate. You know."

"Um... I don't... do anything."