THE TRANSFER STUDENT

The Morning After, Pt. 1

"Morning!" Jimin waltzed into the classroom the next morning, seemingly in high spirits. He arrived right in front of Jieun's table and his eyes fell upon Yoojung, who was resting her head on Jieun's table, and he smiled slightly. "...friends."

Yoojung looked up, smiling slightly when she spotted Jimin. "Morning."

Taehyung, who was already in school early that morning, looked up from his phone. "In good spirits this morning, Jimin?"

"What?" Jimin laughed awkwardly. "No, no, no. Not at all. I hate the weather, I hate school, I hate life."

Yoojung nodded in agreement. "I agree, everything's dreadful."

Taehyung raised his eyebrows at the two. "You two have made up, I see."

"What?" Yoojung laughed, side-glancing Jimin. "Me and Jimin?"

"Yeah, who else?" Taehyung narrowed his eyes.

"Us?" Jimin laughed awkwardly. "Oh, yeah. We made up, as friends."

"Sure," Taehyung said nonchalantly. "Whatever."

"What!" Yoojung scoffed. "You don't believe us? We're totally friends!"

"I know! You said it earlier," Taehyung looked at the two of them suspiciously. "You guys are acting really weird this morning."

"Us?" Jimin laughed, pointing at himself and looking at Yoojung. "He said we're acting weird."

"What?" Yoojung laughed robotically as well, glancing at Taehyung. "Now you're weird."

Taehyung blinked rapidly. "I don't know what's going on but you both better not talk to me until you un-weird yourselves."

Jungkook walked into the classroom with his headphones on a while later, after Jimin had taken his seat.

"Morning," he muttered, but his eyes was glancing at Jieun's empty seat.

"Who? Me?" Yoojung asked, looking up.

"You and Jimin," Jungkook said nonchalantly.

"What? Me and Jimin?" Yoojung blinked nervously. "What about us? Why? We're fine, we're friends!"

"Um, I didn't exactly ask," Jungkook raised an eyebrow, taking his seat. "But okay."

"It's true!" Jimin added on, evidently not aware that the two of them were behaving so abnormally it was hard to watch.

"Alright, alright." Jungkook sniffled, resting his head on the table. "Geez, you two are acting so abnormally today."

"What? No!" Yoojung laughed. "I don't even know what you're talking about. Right, Jimin?"

"Yeah," Jimin chuckled. "Let's just ignore them... friend."

"Alright, friend."

Jungkook seemed totally unbothered by the two of them, but then Jieun walked in that very second and Jungkook sat up straight.

"Morning."

Jieun spotted Jungkook already seated at his desk and seemed to hesitated for a split second. But then she put on her regular smile and put down her bag on her seat.

Taehyung turned around to glance at the two, but his attention went back to his phone almost immediately.

"Morning, Jieun!" Yoojung and Jimin said at the exact same time, and they made eye contact for a split second, but looked away almost instantly.

"Good morning," Jieun said quietly, taking her seat next to Jungkook.

"Did you sleep well last night?"

No, she didn't. Not a wink. She'd spent the whole night thinking about what he'd said that it was virtually impossible to let her brain rest. She had thought about him so much seeing him this morning was actually weird.

It was thankful she had inherited her mom's genes of being physically unable to have dark rings even after many week's of deprived sleep. It'd happened before, don't ask.

"I slept great," Jieun smiled. "You?"

Jungkook blinked several times. He hadn't gotten a good night's rest too. It wasn't a direct confession on his part and even though Jungkook was the popular guy on campus, he'd never actually dated a single girl in his life. He was inexperienced.

Throwback to the bus ride with Jieun after Mr Kim's wedding a few weeks ago - he'd said he'd tell a girl if he liked her, but... it was actually hard. He'd dropped such indirect hints he wasn't even sure if the girl understood. It could have been that she was slightly... dense in this aspect, but he was no hero.

He had planned on confessing last night, but had failed miserably. She probably didn't know his legs had felt like jello as he walked away. She probably didn't even have the slightest clue of how fast his heart was thumping as he patted her head. She probably wasn't even aware of the slight tremble in his voice as he spoke.

This was all he had thought about the whole time he should have been sleeping.

"Great," Jungkook smiled. "As always."

"Great," Jieun grinned.

"Great," Jungkook replied.

"Good morning, peeps!" Hoseok skipped into the classroom a while later and the noise level in the classroom shot up by a whole 100%.

"Good morning, Hoseok," Jieun turned around, using it as a chance to escape the conversation she was having with Jungkook.

"Ah, Jieun, Jungkook." Hoseok smiled. "Good morning, prom queen and king. How are you both feeling this morning?"

"Great," Jieun and Jungkook said at the same time, as if that was the only word in their vocabulary. Unaware to Jungkook, Jieun cringed. But unaware to her, he'd cringed too.

"Fantastic," Hoseok smiled. "Because I've got great news for you." He reached into his bag and pulled out blank green cards, handing them out to Jieun, Jungkook, Yoojung, Taehyung and Jimin.

"What's this?" Yoojung looked at the card, then back up at Hoseok.

"Why, I'm glad you asked," Hoseok beamed. "I'm inviting you guys to my party!"