소중한 그대에게 / For You, My Precious

part three

"Jeon!"

Jungkook froze in his tracks and looked ahead. She was right in front of him. Even under the bad corridor lighting, he could tell her face was a little flushed.

I hope she didn't drink much.

"Yo," Yein greeted with a smile, her teeth eventually showing.

It made him happy; it was always better to see her smile at him than from afar when she was with her friends.

"Hey. How've you been?"

He internally berated himself for asking such a lame typical question. No one could fault him though, for he wasn't expecting to strike a conversation with her or vice versa.

"Good good. It's been a little busy lately; we're currently filming a drama."

Jungkook chuckled, "yeah, you do look like you could do with some sleep."

"You do too," she returned with a small laugh of her own.

There was a brief silence before Yein broke it with a question.

"The girls were talking about going for a round two later. You guys going too?"

"Ah, round two?"

Usually, Jungkook didn't really bother much about going for the second round. It was more like an unwanted hassle to him. He did like to sing but if it's at the noraebang with a whole bunch of people, he'd end up sitting and focusing on the drinks and snacks instead.

"You are all going?"

Yein nodded. "I mean, it's not often that I get off-days over the weekends but I happen to have one tomorrow!"

Right, it was a Friday and Jungkook knew that although he could excuse himself saying he had work to do, he actually didn't have anything urgent to be done. He did ensure he would be more or less rested over the weekends.

"Yein ah!"

One of the girls at her table had walked over to call her. When she saw Jungkook, the girl had a rather surprised expression which she tried not to show. Giving a nod of her head, she sent a greeting to him and he responded in the same way.

Jungkook gave a second nod to Yein as a form of saying bye as he walked past them to head back to his table.

Upon reaching, he noticed his friends packing up and settling the bill. Scanning the place, he saw that about half had already left and the leftover half were all getting ready to leave. Those who had left were a mixture of people who had work and those who had kids to care for. Seven years after college inevitably resulted in a diverse range of profiles amongst their alumni members.

"Oh Jungkook! They were suggesting for a round two at the noraebang!" His eyes followed his friend as the guy gestured towards Yein's table. "You... probably aren't joining us, are you?"

Jungkook's gaze was still towards Yein's table and as they made eye contact, he felt his stomach churn. And that was when he decided; he didn't want this moment to end. Not here, not now.

"I'll join y'all," he replied, picking up his backpack and slinging it over his shoulder.

Facing his friends, he saw the look of disbelief on all of them. Doubting his ears, his friend repeated, "you're joining us?"

"For real?"

"Come on, let's go already."

Elated, his friends ran after him and piled up on him. It was really rare for Jungkook to join them and they weren't going to let this opportunity go to waste.