Revertigo | jjk

Chapter 3

May looked over at her phone screen to check the time and date. It was still early for her to end the night so she decided to open up her laptop and sat down at her study desk, plus she only had 4 days before she had to meet up with Jungkook again. She needed to have at least something as to not look more stupid than she had already appeared in front of him.

Twenty minutes had passed by as she was working on her research when a knock on her bedroom door was heard.

"Mei Mei," Taehyung called out. "What do you want to eat for dinner? I'm ordering takeout from the chinese restaurant down the street."

May didn't even bother looking up to him as she continued to work away on her laptop. "Whatever you're having," she said in a bored tone as she trusted him to know what she liked and disliked to eat.

"Okay. Oh, Jimin and Hoseok are coming over too," he remarked without further elaboration and almost walked away until his name was called. Hoseok and Jimin were roommates for as long as May had known them, 'Are they bringing their other roommate too?'

"Tae, wait!" May realized she might have sounded a little bit too frantic so she decided to speak more calmly this time. "Only the two of them?"

"Yeah, why?"

"I was just curious."

"Why?"

"Why what?" Her attention now fully shifted to her cousin.

"Why are you so curious?"

"What?" She asked as if the answer to that was not obvious already. "I just wanted to know who was coming, this is my apartment too you know."

"Ah, you just wanted to know who was coming," he repeated her words. "You've been acting very suspicious, May." He squinted his eyes at her.

She rolled her eyes and looked over to her laptop. "What are you even talking about?" She asked, not expecting a reply from Taehyung.

"It's just that," he paused for a second before continuing, "the past few days you've been acting a little strange, also you refused to hangout with me and the others the other day, something is going on and I know! I know it's not your time of the month."

"Nothing is going on, idiot. I just feel a lot of pressure to do my best this semester, it is our final year after all," she said, half-lying. It was true that she had deliberately refused to come with Taehyung two days ago to watch Yoongi's basketball match, which would've been really suspicious on her side as she'd always came to support him, in fear of bumping into Jungkook again.

Taehyung sighed. "I'll believe you this time. Only because you look like a little cute prawn waiting to be cooked with that posture."

She then realized her horrible posture from working on the laptop and straightened her back before scowling at her cousin. "Let me know when food's here, I really need to keep working on this," she said gesturing to her laptop.

"Yeah, yeah."

Food as well as Taehyung's two best friends arrived half an hour later so May decided to take a break from her laptop and joined them in the living room. The three boys, Taehyung, Jimin and Hoseok were already getting ready to eat whilst sitting down on the floor around their coffee table.

"Hey, May," Hoseok said as he looked up to her from his sitting position on the floor.

Jimin greeted her with a nod as he already was slurping his noodles.

"You guys do notice that we have a perfectly normal set of couches behind you and a literal four-seater dining table in this apartment, don't you?" She asked, but joined them on the floor regardless.

"Now, come on. It's undeniably more fun to eat chinese takeouts this way, isn't it?" Hoseok asked.

May shrugged and started eating silently while occasionally joining in the three boys' conversations. It was nothing interesting; mutual friends, classes, sports, games, the usual boy conversations. Suddenly, Taehyung brought up Jimin and Hoseok's new roommate, which interested May who began to listen in on their conversation attentively.

"So that roommate of yours, how did that happen?" Taehyung asked. "Isn't he a final year too? It's a bit odd that only now he's looking for a new accommodation."

Jimin shook his head before answering. "He was renting an apartment before with another guy, apparently the roommate was a bit of an asshole, he got a girl and kicked Jungkook out of there."

"That's justifiable," Hoseok interrupted. "I too would want privacy if I had a girl."

"Yeah whatever. It all worked out in the end, we had an extra room anyway. Plus, Jungkook is so.. how do I say this without sounding gay," Jimin paused before continuing, "He's so well organized and a good sport to have around."

"Right," Hoseok agreed. "He's so nice too, he cooked for us the other night and- wow it was the best sweet potatoes I've ever had."

"I know!" Jimin jumped in. "I would've brought him along tonight, we could've gone ping pong 2v2 but he was working on something. I can't believe his lecturer had already assigned a task this early into the semester."

Taehyung chimed in. "Same goes to May's lecturer."

"It's because we share the class," May explained.

"Right, I forgot about that," Jimin said before leaning forward towards her. "So, what about you May? What do you think of Jungkook?"

May couldn't help but feel a little nervous to talk about him. She felt her cheeks heat up slightly and quickly responded, "What about him? He's okay I guess, not like we've interacted much."

The conversation about Jungkook died down soon after and the boys drifted into another conversation about a new season of their favorite game.

"I should probably get back to working on my assignment, thank you for dinner. Let me clean up first," May said as she tidied the coffee table of the mess that they had made.

Jimin lent her a helping hand and the two made their way to the kitchen sink as Taehyung and Hoseok were immersed in their conversation. "So, May," Jimin said in a teasing tone.

"Yes, Jimin?" May answered in a similar manner, unaware of where the conversation was going.

"Jungkook, huh?"

She stopped in her movements and stared at him. "What?" Quickly, she opened the tap water to clean the cups and chopsticks that they had used.

"Oh come on May," he said smiling at her teasingly.

"Come on what, Jimin?" She asked. She maintained a composed facade, though her heart fluttered in her chest. Inside, a tempest of nerves threatened to erupt, but she masked it with a practiced calmness, refusing to betray her inner unease.

"For as long as I've known you, May, you have been quite the confident woman, always so poised and self-assured. Not once have I seen you get all clammy around a guy before," Jimin said, almost whispering as to not let the other two guys hear the conversation. "But when Jungkook was around the other day, I noticed a shift. In his presence, you became so shy-"

"I wasn't shy," May cut him off.

"Ay, come on now May. I'm not gonna tell anyone about it. Not even Byeol, I promise," Jimin assured wrapping an arm around her shoulder in a comforting way. But it was too late, Byeol too had suspected something. The two had mistaken May's anxiety as her being shy around a new crush.

"Jimin, I swear whatever you're thinking is wro-"

"Just be careful, May. Jungkook is a great guy, it's understandable that you would like him but he just got out of a relationship. I don't know the nature of their breakup but, just, don't get yourself in a mess, okay?" He said. "Also, I know how Taehyung is, he doesn't appreciate friends who try to get it with you. So it's best if you make your move before he gets too close to Tae, you know-"

"You're not even listening to me," May scolded. "I don't like him and I'm not making any moves."

Jimin gave her a look that said 'Oh really?' As if he didn't believe her.

She rolled her eyes and gave up on trying to correct Jimin and continued cleaning the dishes in the sink.