THE TRANSFER STUDENT

The Party, Pt. 9

"We need to talk."

Seokjin looked up at Jisoo, staring blankly at her as she looked down at him with an almost equally blank look on her face.

"What?" Hoseok laughed. "I think Taehyung meant that you can say it here, if you guys talk elsewhere, then there won't be a purpose-"

"Y-You want to talk to me?" Seokjin stuttered, totally ignoring Hoseok's words. "Like, right now?"

"Yeah," Jisoo swallowed hard. "Outside."

Seokjin's mind went blank. He needed to talk to her, too. Were the things they needed to talk to each other about similar... or completely different?

"Hm," Seokjin got to his feet, his heart beating at a billion beats per minute. "Let's go."

Seokjin glanced in Byulyi's direction. As expected, she looked totally wasted... red in the cheeks, fanning herself continuously, her eyes out of focus. Seokjin swallowed. He was going out to talk to Jisoo now... this was make or break. Seokjin looked up. Jisoo had already left the living room.

That was... quick.

"We'll be back," Seokjin muttered to a bewildered Hoseok and left the room as well, following Jisoo into the garden.

It was a quiet, dimly-lit garden. Extremely quiet, with a few benches, overlooking a small pond. The only sounds Seokjin heard after closing the door behind him were the sounds of crickets chirping, the occasional splash of water from the fishes in the pond and the creaking of the swing... which Jisoo was sitting on.

"Come, take a seat," Jisoo turned around and spotted Seokjin, gesturing to come sit down next to her on the wooden swing.

It was pretty dark, so Seokjin could not really make out her facial expressions or whatsoever. But from the tone of her voice, she sounded like what she was going to talk about wasn't going to be light-hearted, like talking about the party or gossip or anything of that sort. Her tone was heavy, serious... almost solemn.

Seokjin wet his lips with his tongue, as he felt his lips drying out at the thought of the possible consequences of his conversation with Jisoo. It could either go extremely well... or just really wrong. He willed his legs to move, as he mechanically walked over to where Jisoo was seated at, and took his seat next to her.

Jisoo inhaled sharply as Seokjin sat down. He could tell how nervous she was, even if he couldn't see her face clearly. The two sat in silence for a while, looking at the dimly-lit pond. Seokjin was almost suffocating from curiosity about what Jisoo wanted to talk to him about.

"It's nice," Jisoo said after a while, and from her voice, Seokjin could tell she was smiling.

"Yeah," Seokjin managed a smile. "You mean this garden, do you?"

"Nah," Jisoo sighed, not in an exasperated way, but in more of a relaxed manner. "I mean, just the two of us, sitting here together."

Seokjin bit his lower lip.

"It's been quite a while, don't you think?" Jisoo let out a soft chuckle. "Just the two of us hanging out, without any thoughts on our mind... I really missed it."

Was this the reason why she called him outside?

"Jin-ah," Jisoo grinned. "You remember the first day we started dating, don't you?"

"Yeah," Seokjin was dying from anxiety, but he still managed to answer her. "You confessed during lunch and we started dating immediately from that day."

"You still remember," Jisoo smiled. "I'm glad."

"Of course I remember-" Seokjin let out a nervous laugh. "That wasn't that long-"

"You know," Jisoo interrupted. "I was really happy that day. My heart was beating so fast when I was confessing and when you accepted me... I felt like flying, you know?"

Seokjin felt terrible.

"Really," Jisoo chuckled. "These few months going out with you has been the best few months of my life. I've done so many fun things, eaten so much good food and tried a lot of new activities... thanks to you."

Now how was Seokjin going to break up with her? He was the one who had agreed on dating her in such a hurry, without giving her his heart. She loved him so much and all Seokjin did was... fail her again and again. Seokjin felt like the worst human being to ever exist. "Jisoo..."

"But everything was mostly amazing..." Jisoo bit her lip. "Because it was you. Because I did everything with you, I was very happy. Thank you for all that."

For a split second, Seokjin felt like maybe he shouldn't break up with her. Maybe he should stay on, try to treat her better again, just to repay her. But then something tugged on the back of his mind. Look what he almost did to Byulyi behind Jisoo's back in the storeroom. If he stayed with Jisoo and still was unable to control his feelings for Byulyi, it would hurt her even more. He had to do this.

"Look, Jisoo-" Seokjin's heart was racing. "I need to talk about something."

"Me too," Jisoo's tone became serious all of a sudden. "There's a reason why I said needed to talk to you, too."

"Um, but mine is kind of important-"

"Jin-ah," Jisoo's tone was shaky this time. Almost as if she was trying to control her tears. "Let's break up."