Enigma ➳ pjm [EDITING/HIATUS]

Act 11

"Oh nothing. I was just... worried." He shortly looked down at his feet and re-established our eye contact once more.

"You seem to be good friends with him though, the way you're so casual with him."

Jimin shrugged and joined me on the mat. "Oh, yeah. We both know each other for the longest time imaginable, I'm pretty sure since birth. But as we both got older, his mentality still seemed to be stuck at a childish level. He's a fun kid, but right now, he barely has his life together." A weak smile played about his lips, not fully convinced of his best friend.

I nodded and hummed as a response. What Jimin didn't know was the fact that I truly remember all Taehyung said, about me almost 'kicking his ass' before. Yeah, that boy truly doesn't know what he's saying, I have never fought Jimin before.

If my memory wasn't lying to me.

We dismissed the topic and concentrated on what he actually intended to teach me in the first place.

"Ever done Jiu Jitsu before?" Jimin asked and sat on the floor, directing me to join him. I unwillingly gulp, recalling all memories I had from Jiu Jitsu and only remembering the uncomfortableness and closeness with my sparring partner.

Not that I refuse to work with a partner, but literally being on top of one another wasn't my style of fighting. I wasn't affectionate in the first place, so how could I possibly overcome the fear of touching another person in the first place?

Jimin briefly explained what he was about to teach me, pointing out how sweeps will bring me the most points in the evaluation, when used correctly.

"The arm bar is one of the basic attack methods you can use when your opponent has you on open guard, which is the defensive position."

I wasn't quite familiar with Jiu Jitsu, but I do remember open guard. I laid down on the soft foam of the training mat, the back of my head barely touching the ground, while Jimin kneeled down, sitting on the heels of his feet.

Hesitantly, I wrapped my legs around his hips while he leaned forward and positioned his forearms on my torso. Although this is, to my knowledge, the position to start out any Jiu Jitsu technique, something about him being that close sent another wave of goosebumps down my body, followed by a subtle stomach-turn.

His steady breathing stroke across my jawline. "Now, swing your left leg over my head until both your legs are on your right side, enclose my left arm with your knees, lift your hips and press your legs together until I tell you to stop."

I couldn't piece any words together and completely failed to follow his instructions. I knew what the arm bar was, but it was complicated to act the technique out, especially when you have your least favorite person enclosed between your legs. Literally.

"Okay, lift your lower back, now." The back of my legs were draped across his chest, his left arm successfully enclosed by my thighs, and my hands clasping on his lower arm.

"Now... uh..." Jimin blinked firmly and fixed his eyes on my legs. "Okay let go, my arm hurts."

As fast as humanly possible, I detached myself from his body and scooted away from him. Although I was already sweaty from the warm-up, I felt a new wave of nervousness crashing on me, making the palms of my hands turn clammy.

"Are you okay?" I reassuringly asked with a sophisticated tone in my voice, playing out my embarrassment.

Jimin nodded and shook out his arm. "Yeah, I did this thousands of times. Wanna try it again?"

I sent him a long, challenging glance. "Why?" My impertinent mouth spoke out first before I thought, how typical of me.

The boy pulled a grimace, dumbfounded by my words. "I thought a competitive girl like you should know that. You get better from repeating your techniques. Duh."

Shaking my head in subtle disbelief, more to myself than towards him, I reluctantly agree and we returned to the position from earlier.

We repeated the drill for a couple minutes, endless minutes to be exact. I never seemed to improve in my technique, and the fact that our limbs were intertwined this whole entire time, didn't make the experience necessarily glamorous either.

As we ran through the armbar drill, I pushed up my hips a bit too high, so that the material of my shirt rode up my torso, exposing centimeters of skin.

I haven't realized my little wardrobe malfunction until I felt fingers sneaking up my hip, lifting the shirt even further.

"Woah, hold there for a sec." My arms moved by themselves and flailed around, pushing away the boy's fingers. I reluctantly scoot away from him and drag the hem of my shirt down, feeling the skin of my face growing crimson.

"What was that?" My voice cracked slightly, still shook by what he had done.

Jimin lifted himself off the ground and threw me a provocative glance while sending me a bold smirk. "Woah that was fast. I was just trying to mess with you, relax."

"Relax, oh man." I brushed off strands of hair that had fallen into my face. "If you call that messing around, then I don't think I wanna carry this on anymore."

His facial expression turned from exasperated to irritated. "Alright, I'm sorry, whatever. Should I call you Sensitive Soo Mi from now on? Because you seem very dramatic lately."

"Jimin, you still don't get that what we are doing means nothing. You're just teaching me, why should you care if I'm being, in your eyes, dramatic?"

The boy sitting in front of me chuckled and stood up, slowly walking towards the exit.

Before he opened the door, he turned around and hissed a subtle: "If I'm just teaching you, why should you care that I'm messing around with you? See, we're contradicting each other's philosophies. Tomorrow, at seven, meet me here and we'll pick up from were we left off. Good night."

The last thing I heard was the loud bang of the closing double doors.

***
(A/N): Oh boy. This chapter lowkey sucks a bit but hopefully it wasn't too bad. Sorry for not updating in FOREVER, but I had finals and exams throughout the weeks, but I have only two days of school left until summer starts! I will be finishing the book over the summer, I guess.

Anyways, thank you so much for reading! ♡ Have an awesome day, stay tuned for more.

~ Ally