Jungkook and Jimin missed Taehyung's chatter at lunch. Jungkook noticed that Maddy had acquired several more members at her lunch table. He could see that Tae and Maddy talked together throughout most of the lunch. He knew Tae would be so excited about it and tell Jungkook all about it later. Tae had a huge grin as he left lunch to go to class.
Art used to be Jungkook's favorite class. But it just seemed kind of drab now. He enjoyed painting, but something seemed missing. He refused to acknowledge that it was the one time of day that he didn't get to see Maddy. He chose to think that his other classes had magically gotten better somehow.
In Chemistry, the class finished their lab work from the day before. Then Mr. Kim spent the last part of class going over the main ideas of the lab in a class debrief discussion.
Jungkook could tell that Maddy was having difficulty with her nervous energy. She was shaking her leg, twirling her pencil, and playing with her hair all at once. She had eyed his tattoos several times. Finally he rolled his eyes, sighed, and laid his hand on the counter for her.
She immediately gave him a grateful smile. She held his hand with one hand and traced his tattoos with the other. Her knee calmed right down, and she felt much more able to pay attention and follow the class discussion.
She had no idea why tracing Jungkook's tattoos would calm her nervous energy so well. She suspected it had more to do with touching him than with the actual tracing. Jungkook was a calming presence for her. She had really appreciated him intervening for her when she was going to talk back to the detention supervisor and then again with Mr. Hak. She knew that she had difficulty reigning herself in sometimes and he had helped with it twice now.
At some point Mr. Kim noticed that Maddy was holding Jungkook's hand and he called her out. "And Madison, if you could put down your lab partner's hand and explain to the class some of the factors that might effect the conductivity of an element."
Madison's eyes got big. She let go of Jungkook's hand and stood up to give her answer. "Oh! Um. We found that there were several factors that affected the conductivity of the elements. Both increasing the temperature and adding impurities in with the element reduced the conductivity. We also found that if the element was a solid piece, as opposed to being several separate crystals, the conductivity was increased." She smiled at the class and sat down. One boy in the front gave her a few claps. She winked at him and gave a little bow.
Mr. Kim was taken aback by her answer, "My apologies for thinking you weren't paying attention. That was one of the more thorough answers given today. Nice job to the two of you." He then moved on to interrogate a different lab group.
Jungkook gave Maddy a little fist bump and whispered to her, "Good thing that happened in Chemistry instead of PreCalc."
Maddy eyes got big at that horrible thought. She whispered back, "I know, right?!"
Jungkook noticed her knee started shaking almost immediately. He moved his seat a little closer to her and reached his hand out to her behind the counter where Mr. Kim wouldn't be able to see. She again, gratefully took his hand and held it in her lap this time.
Jungkook noticed that she was tracing his tattoos without even looking now, she had memorized them. He found the feel of her soft finger tip sliding along his knuckles to be extremely relaxing. Like the hug though, he worried that he was way too comfortable with this. He tried to ignore the warning bells ringing in his head, but he knew he would have to deal with them sometime.
---
The next day Jungkook was on time to PreCalc for the third day in a row. Maddy hadn't even come to class yet. The bell rang and she still hadn't arrived. Ms. Seong started her lesson on Synthetic Division. Jungkook didn't take notes but he doodled on the top of his paper. He looked at the door at least a hundred times, trying to will her to come through it. He felt a little helpless because he didn't have her number, so he couldn't even text her.
When Ms. Seong gave them the assignment Jungkook grabbed his book and started working. He saw the drawing at the top of his paper and realized he had a huge problem. It was an eye, but not just any eye. It was Maddy's eye. His breathing got a bit ragged as he realized how dependent he was becoming on her.
This was not good, he had sat here in a near panic for most of class because she wasn't here. He knew he had to do something to rectify this. His mind went to the party scheduled for the next night. He would find someone to hook-up with at that party, someone who would get his mind off of Maddy. Maybe if he had someone else's touches and smiles he wouldn't be so absorbed with Maddy's. He took a big breath. He had a plan now, he felt much better.
Jungkook had just finished his assignment, the rest of the class was still working, when Maddy came in. She brought a pass to the teacher then came to sit down.
Jungkook frowned, "You missed the whole lesson."
She stuck out her bottom lip to show how sad she was, "I know! I'm so sorry! The principal heard that I got a detention on my second day and pulled me into his office before school to talk to him. He had already looked up my record from my previous schools. He spent the whole time lecturing me about appropriate behavior." She smiled at him then, "Kookie, you would have been so proud of me. I didn't fight back at all. I just tried to agree, so I could get back to class. I told him repeatedly that I couldn't miss math because it was my hardest subject but he just kept lecturing."
She looked like she really regretted missing class which made Jungkook feel much better. He was also glad to hear she had behaved and didn't get herself another detention. But Jungkook was still a bit miffed, he knew he had no reason to be, but he was, just the same. "Give me your phone number. I had no way to get ahold of you."
She pulled out her phone and programmed him into new contacts then texted him. "Hi this is Maddy." Jungkook liked that she called herself Maddy in the text because, so far as he knew, he was the only one who called her that.
"We only have five minutes left in class, how will you learn the lesson?" He asked her.
She shook her head. "I have no idea. I guess I'll try to watch Youtube videos."
"We have a quiz tomorrow over Polynomial Division." He told her.
Maddy shuddered. "Oh great," she sarcastically muttered.
"If you want, I could help you after school." Jungkook hesitantly said. He knew he was intentionally ignoring the warning bells in the back of his mind. But, she could not do the math without him, so he was just helping her out. Besides, after hooking-up at the party tomorrow night he would be better, he was sure of it.
Maddy's eyes lit up, "Really? You wouldn't mind helping me after school? Should we meet at the library?"
Jungkook frowned, "No, I don't go to the library. We could go to a coffee shop."
Maddy nodded, "Oh, that sounds nice." Then she noticed his paper and gasped. "Jungkook!"
His eyes flashed to his paper. Oh no! The drawing! "It's nothing." He said and covered it with his hand.
She pushed his hand back, "Don't be a brat! Let me see!" She grabbed the paper and pulled it out from under his hand and held it out in front of her.
Jungkook dreaded her reaction. There was no way she wouldn't recognize her own eye. He knew he looked like a stalker now.
"Wow." She breathed. She turned her smile to him. "You're an artist! It is beautiful! I'm so impressed."
Wait, what?! When he looked up at her eyes he realized, there again, shining in her eyes was approval. A warm feeling washed over him. He was starting to get used to her kind eyes and approving looks. He was worried he might be starting to get addicted to the acceptance her eyes poured onto him. He didn't even know he craved it until she gave it to him. Maybe he wasn't as bad as he'd always thought he was? Which he acknowledged to himself was possibly a very dangerous thought to have.
"Do you have a sketchbook?! I'd love to see more of your drawings." Maddy handed his paper back.
"Nah, I was just doodling to pass the time." Jungkook put his paper away into his notebook. Then class was over and they walked to History.
In History, they sat through Mr. Lee's lecture then got the last part of class to work on the timeline. Maddy had an inspired idea, "You could draw little pictures on our timeline! I'll write it out in black pen with nice handwriting, each of the events and dates. Then you can draw a little picture to go with each one!"
Jungkook really liked that idea. He looked over their list of events and started to think about what he could draw.
Maddy did a little seal clap with her hands. "We're going to have the best one!"
Jungkook marveled at the fact that her personality was hardly annoying to him at all anymore. She was kinda cute, getting excited about them having a nice timeline. And it was nice that she was excited about his drawings. He couldn't remember the last time anyone besides her was excited about something he could do.
They started on the first panel. Maddy wrote out the events and dates then handed it to Jungkook to illustrate. While he drew, she worked on the second panel.
They had both experienced nightmare group projects in the past, and were happy and relieved that this one was working out seamlessly. They were both happy with how well they worked together.
In PE, the two classes split. The boys ran hurdles and the girls learned the high jump. Madison's PE teacher, Ms. Man, had to pull Madison away from cheering for the boys several times. Jungkook running hurdles was just a beautiful sight to see and Maddy had difficulty moving away. After a detention warning, Madison stayed at the high jump and cheered for the girls for the rest of the period. She didn't want to have a detention when she was supposed to study with Jungkook after school.
At the end of class, Juwon came over toward Madison as they walked from the field to the school. "Hey Madison, I don't know if you remember me, we talked on your first day in PE."
Madison gave him a big smile, "Of course I remember. Juwon, right?"
Juwon winked. He was trying to be cool. "You remembered. I was wondering if you wanted to have lunch with me today?"
Madison reached out and touched his arm, "Oh! That is so sweet of you. Of course you are welcome to sit with us, we'd love to eat with you."
Juwon frowned a bit, "Well, I was thinking more, just the two of us. So we could talk and get to know each other."
Madison was looking at him closely trying to gauge his intentions. She tried to give the benefit of the doubt when she could. "Oh! Well, I shouldn't leave my friends on such short notice. But how about if we have lunch together tomorrow? Then I can tell them today."
Juwon smiled at that, "That sounds great! See you around!" Then he went into the boys' locker room.
Jungkook followed behind and saw the interaction but wasn't able to hear what they were saying. Maddy was friendly with everyone, it shouldn't be a surprise to him that she would talk with Juwon. But he was annoyed by it all the same.