BEHIND THE SCENES

chapter 48: hiding behind a mask

"Ya! Lee Jieun!" The car window slid down and Jungkook poked his head out, still with a perpetual scowl on his face. "Aren't you gonna come?"

"Ah-" Jieun turned back to Taehyung. "Sorry, Taehyung-ssi, I'm afraid I have to go-"

"Don't worry about it, I understand-" Taehyung sighed, as he looked down at the medal in his hands, before looking up at Jieun once more with a small sad smile. "You better go now, before he gets upset."

Jieun hesitated for a while, before grabbing the gold medal and putting it in her pouch. "Don't worry, Taehyung-ssi. I'll hand it to him when I get the chance."

"Thank you so much-" Taehyung said with a smile. "I'll see you soon, Jieun-ssi."

Jieun smiled as she waved goodbye to Taehyung. "See you soon, Taehyung-ssi."

-•-•-

"You have a surprising lot to say to that guy whom you barely even met for just a few days, don't you."

"Huh?" Jieun looked up from her phone. "You talking to me?"

"No, I'm talking to the car-" Jungkook said sarcastically as he rolled his eyes. "Obviously I'm talking to you. Why do you guys have so much to talk about?"

"Excuse you-" Jieun folded her arms. "I only met you a couple of days before I met him. You have an awful lot to say to me too, for a guy I barely even know."

"It's different-"

"Yeah, of course it's different-" Jieun folded her arms. "Taehyung-ssi is way easier to talk to than you are."

"You-"

"There, there, there again-" Seokjin signed. "I thought you guys were just starting to reconcile but there you go, fighting again. Why are the both of you always on such bad terms? It has barely been a few days, but the two of you constantly bickering next to me is taking a toll on my health, you know? Show some consideration towards me - gosh!"

Jieun and Jungkook exchanged glares before turning away from each other.

"What happened earlier anyway, while I was talking to the doctor?" Seokjin asked curiously. "I came in and both of your faces were just covered in multi-coloured powders... what goes on?"

Jieun and Jungkook slowly turned to glance at each other. The corner of Jieun's mouth twitched a little as she recalled Jungkook's face looking like the pattern on a peacock's feathers. Jungkook recalled Jieun's smurf-like image and burst into laughter at once. It wasn't long before the both of them were rolling over in the backseat in uncontrollable laughter.

Seokjin looked genuinely concerned as he glanced at the two through the rear-view mirror. "You guys okay...?"

"No, earlier-" Jungkook wiped away a tear. "I didn't wanna say this, but her face looked like a racoon's bum."

"Your face looked like that of a chameleon at one point-" Jieun choked on her own saliva as she guffawed. "I thought you were gonna camouflage into the wall-"

"Shut up-" Jungkook sniggered, his eyes leaking. "You looked like a macaw earlier, I'm freaking- freaking gone-"

"I can't-" Jieun heaved. "Your face had all the colours of the rainbow on it at the end-"