Females were — are — a confusing species. That's what it is. They're confusing and extremely confusing and just...confusing.
Maybe only for Namjoon, he had thought. Maybe it's easy for people who have a way with the ladies. The "charmers". But no, Hoseok assured him that it's not. It's the same for every person who's not a female. In addition to that, every female is different, making it even more confusing. Female species were confusing in the past, are confusing, and will be confusing.
Sometimes, it's tough to understand what they're trying to metaphorically tell others through their actions. Oh scratch that, it's tough to understand them all the time, regardless. Seokjin had once told Namjoon if he correctly remembered, to just nod whenever a female says something. In a way, it's not extremely hard to understand them, but what if they wanted one to understand them differently than what they had understood? Namjoon sighed as he read over the latest note he had gotten from Arin. Thinking about how confusing things were, made him even more confused. He thought of going through everything that had happened in the last two months again.
Where to start? Oh yes, he thought, it was the day when Yoongi told Namjoon to quote-unquote "ball up" and ask her out.
"Yah! You're staring at her for the past hour. Goodness, you'll give me a headache. Are you even listening? Yah Kim Namjoon!"
Namjoon jumped in his place, totally startled by the commotion caused by the older. "Hyung what happe—" he said, rubbing a hand over the back of his neck just to be cut off by Yoongi,
"I know you're starved for love, you lovesick puppy, but give it a damn break for heavens' sake!" Yoongi grumbled from the seat beside him. Hoseok, who was sitting on the other side beside Namjoon, watched the commotion with a smile on his face. It was amusing to watch, to say the least.
"Wha — no hyung," Namjoon coughed to hide the stutter, "Ab-solutely not," he laughed nervously.
"First of all," Yoongi said, a scowl on his pale features, "Don't lie. You're terrible at lying. And second, just ball up and ask her out so that I won't have to suffer from this fucking lovesickness of yours."
"Who's her — there's n-no her hyung. Yeah...no one."
"I told you to stop lying, if I remember correctly," Yoongi snapped, "Just ball up and ask whoever your 'her' is on a date. Is it that hard?"
"Hyung—" Namjoon started defensively, just to be cut off by his other good friend, Hoseok,
"Ayy Joon, you're not in high school where you'll stare at someone you like. Go and talk, get to know her more, and then take her out on dates. And then you can ask her," he said, putting a hand on Namjoon's shoulder as moral support, "I know it seems hard, but gotta do it. Give it time, you don't have to ask her to get married tomorrow," Hoseok tried to crack up the joke to ease the tension in Namjoon, and Namjoon smiled faintly at the not-so-funny joke, looking over to the group of cheerleading girls in addition to ones who weren't cheerleaders (guessing from their attires) huddled together not far from where they were sitting on the bleachers.
"Is it even a her? I don't think we should assume the pronouns of the person in question as well as Namjoon's preference."
Namjoon sighed at the statement of his hyung and said, "It is a her, hyung. Thank you for respecting the pronouns. But going and talking... I'm not really sure," he rubbed his face with his hands, "What if I stutter? Gosh, I cannot— they say women like bold men— I most definitely cannot—"
"Namjoon," Yoongi said, glaring at Hoseok, "What Hoseok said was just an example. Do it how you like it, but please do it for the love of God and -"
"I'm an atheist."
"Yeah, that's it, there's no more talking with you," Yoongi shook his head at the lame comeback of the apparently lovesick person, "there's no use, my efforts will surely go to waste. I would rather take a nap."
Namjoon remembered that day very clearly. It was the day he had finally "balled up" and written the note. Yoongi was extremely proud, to say the least.
Then what? Then Arin responded to his note with a note of hers, and they started talking via notes on a daily basis.
Arin didn't know who he was and had implied that she wanted to know, but Namjoon had asked for some more time, which she had gladly given.
Then Namjoon befriended Yuna, who was nice. She was smart and small and nice and fun to be with. And during that whole period of time, Namjoon may or may not have forgotten to respond to the notes since he was pretty *cough* preoccupied *cough* with thoughts about his newfound friend. It's okay to not think about Arin 24/7 right?
Why was Yuna even a part of this? Nevermind.
And then came the biggest shock for Namjoon. Arin had started dating Yoongi hyung.
Thinking back, Arin had no clue who Namjoon was. So... it wasn't in spite to make him jealous. As far as Namjoon recollected, she had even said I like you to him in one of the notes, in reply to his I like you. Did she actually like him? But... as per Yuna, they were going on dates a lot before being official? Was the whole note an act?
If Yoongi hyung was Arin's boyfriend now, does that mean... Yoongi hyung was playing a game with him? He could've told Arin to reply back and —
Namjoon sighed. He thought the only person who could help figure out a female's thought process must be none other than a female.
And who was the closest female friend he had?
Yuna.
***
"Hi~!" Ara had practically thrown herself on Namjoon, hugging him as if they hadn't seen each other in quite a while. Which wasn't true, by the way. They had just met the day before, discussing the sentence formation for writing in Korean. Ara was nice. She was like the younger sibling Namjoon longed for sometimes. She was nice and cute and small, and Namjoon loved to tutor her. She was the kind of person extremely pumped to learn something new, regardless of how hard it was. And he liked that attitude of hers.
After Ara released Namjoon from the hug, he hugged the person beside her. Yuna.
He hadn't thought about it. It was just done instinctively. Yeah.
Did he mind though? Not at all.
It felt like time had frozen. No one said anything, and Namjoon drank in all the details.
She was smaller than him, of course. She was tiny compared to his broad frame, their height differentiating by a literal foot. She surprisingly fitted well against his body. He had to crouch a bit down to reach her level, but he didn't actually mind. Either that or Yuna standing up on her tippy toes. And for some reason, Namjoon didn't want her to take those efforts. Especially when he was present.
"Oh— um, sorry," Namjoon chuckled after a pause, breaking away from the hug with his face heating up. He wasn't sure why he was feeling flustered, but that was the least of his concerns at the moment.
Yuna gave him the most beautiful smile, her cheeks lifting up, and the little dimple popping up on her left cheek. Her eyes turned into cute little crescent moons, and her high nose scrunched cutely. But the thing she did next knocked the air out of his lungs completely. She hugged him.
"If you wanted a hug, you could've just asked," she said, her voice muffled. She giggled lightly when Namjoon cleared his throat and wrapped his arms around her small figure, her scent filling his nostrils. It was flowery and sweet. Cherry Blossom? It was sweet, giving him a feeling of something between creamy vanilla, a faint rose, and almost almond-like.
"Did you have any trouble reaching here?" He asked once they broke off the hug, and then high-fived Jungkook after they were inside his house.
"None at all," Ara said, sitting comfortably on one of the couches.
"Hi, I couldn't introduce myself last time. I'm Namjoon," he said kindly to Jungkook, and the younger bowed in return.
"I'm Jungkook, nice to meet you, hyung."