↳ ❝THAT'S REAL FUNNY, sexy.❞
she forced out a dry laugh after hearing his version of the story, scratching the side of her sleeve and vigorously shaking her head in disbelief. the couple had been standing in front of each other, in front of her locker, and in front of the eyes of her classmates.
normally, they wouldn't have dared to interact while others were around, especially not when those people were nosy. however, because the subject was too serious to be postponed until lunchtime, they found it necessary to talk about it now, no matter what audience they attained.
"miss parker," the blonde ran his fingers through the roots of his hair in evident frustration. "i'm being completely serious. believe me, i wish wasn't, but i am."
jay couldn't bring herself to accept it.
she simply couldn't.
she wanted to think that fate had stayed by their side, that it prevented her father from discovering who mr. park really was, and that everything was fine. she wanted to think that emily didn't accidentally rat out mr. park, and that her dad went home this morning without suspecting a single damn thing. she wanted to think that her dad was still oblivious to the truth—because she wanted to be the one to reveal it to him herself.
"are you sure he heard her call you 'mr. park'? he's sometimes kinda deaf. i mean, you've seen how loudly he turns up the volume when he watches his sports. so, are you one-hundred percent sure?" her teeth nervously preyed on the sides of her fingernails.
jay noticed a freshman couple observing her and mr. park from across the hall. the menacing glare displayed on her face, which was more bitter now than usual, managed to frighten the two kids away. but because the stares directed over to them were inevitable, they only kept multiplying. people were just amazed at the fact that mr. park was talking to someone. the sight was strange enough as it is, so it obviously captured everyone's attention.
although mr. park had become much more outgoing and good-humored with his students over the past few weeks, this was the first time he was seen having a one-on-one conversation with somebody outside his classroom. so, people couldn't help but wonder what he was speaking with jay so secretively about.
passing period was nearly over, meaning that the two lovers had approximately two more minutes to finish speaking with each other before the fifth-period bell would ring.
mr. park had already spilled the tea on everything that occurred in the main office earlier this morning.
within the first few minutes of passing period, he informed jay about his random encounter with her father (without skipping a single detail), handed her the homemade spaghetti, and overwhelmed her with the news of their reality.
"jay, he heard her loud and clear. he was confused out of his mind. i didn't speak until the dean called me in, and that's when i left them both alone. who knows what they could've told each other after that! he could've asked emily why she called me 'mister,' and then she could've been like, 'because that's what students are supposed to call their teachers, duh' and then he would've realized. or, or, or ... she could've asked him how he and i knew each other, and he could've casually told her that it's because i'm dating you, and then she would've realized. either way, somebody found out something, i'm sure of it."
"worst case scenario ... they both found out," jay dozed off, thinking about the merciless punishment that her dad and best friend would execute on her for having kept this secret for so long.
at this point, jay felt too shocked to even cry. it was just too much for her to swallow. she stomached her anxiety, rubbed her clammy hands together to remove the clamminess from them, and mentally prepared herself to face emily at lunch (as well as her father at home).
"we need to find a way to work through this, baby," mr. park lowered his voice so that the last word wouldn't be heard by others. "whether or not your dad knows, we need to tell him. i think it's time that we do."
jay stiffly nodded in agreement, sniffling a bit to regain her composure and clearing her clogged throat.
"i think so, too. i'll drop by your class after school once i make sure that the parking lot has emptied. i'll call my mom right now to let her know you're coming over and to pretty much explain this entire tragedy to her. god, mr. park, what if this doesn't work ou–"
the bell interrupted her sentence before she had the chance to finish it.
they released a similar type of groan at the uncalled-for interruption.
as if on cue, both jay and mr. park took a small step forward and instinctively puckered up their rosy lips towards each other in an attempt to connect them.
however, upon realizing that they were not in a private space—that they were heavily surrounded by a thick sea of inquisitive students—they immediately dodged their intended kiss and hurriedly stalked away in opposite directions without glancing back, truly hoping that nobody had witnessed their brief lip proximity.
jay giggled to herself with flushed cheeks, stealthily approaching her fifth-period class with a hand strategically placed over her mouth. imagine what would've happened if you hadn't swerved him, her conscience reprimanded her for being such a brainless mess.
the news of their kiss would've surely gone viral in a matter of seconds.
it wasn't her fault, though. she was so used to bidding him goodbye with a soft peck on the lips that it had seemed like the most normal thing to do right then and there.
she shook off her overwhelming thoughts and walked into fifth-period physics, also known as her most dreaded nightmare. in all honesty, despite totally loathing the subject, jay would undoubtedly choose to be stuck in that hellhole of a classroom than to go outside and confront emily about mr. park.
and though she tried really hard not to show it, jay parker was scared shitless.
~
"listen up, you little nasty. we like mar, okay? she's cool, even though she hasn't squeaked out a single word since we met her. that's honestly fine. i'd choose her over your crusty, wrinkly ass. so, please, do us all a favor and get the fuck out of here, you squirrel-looking idiot," jay timidly arrived at her usual lunch table to find emily shamelessly insulting the crap out of yoongi, not seeming to care if she consequently murdered his pride.
"we've been literally hanging out with you guys for a week straight, and you always complain at first, but then you end up softening up to me by the end of lunch. it's an everyday cycle. you love my company, emz. stop bitching about it because you know you secretly enjoy having me around," yoongi purposely flaunted his gummy smile to tick her off even more, and emily almost jumped right out of her seat to strangle him if it hadn't been for hoseok holding her back.
"who gave you the motherfucking right to call me 'emz'? you're not my friend. you're ugly. and i don't love you. i'm sure not even mar does," she callously spit out as she looked over at the diffident girl sitting beside yoongi.
mar, as usual, said nothing in return, but instead continued to read her novel as if world war iii wasn't on the verge of sparking up right in front of her salad.
"i didn't say you love me. i said you love my company. but the fact that you misinterpreted my remark means that you were preoccupied with the idea of it, weren't you? you love me, kirsten, and i didn't need to do much to get you to admit it." emily's left eye started twitching from the way he tauntingly pronounced her last name. it made her want to suffocate the life out of him even more.
yoongi vs. emily.
now that's a film people would pay good money to watch, considering the two teenagers both excelled in savagery and had no actual mouth filters. if there was a worthy opponent for emily, it was surely yoongi—and vice versa. there was no doubt that the movie theater vendors would be selling aloe vera instead of popcorn from the amount of aching roasts that would be broadcasted.
"hey, emz," jay cautiously took a seat to her best friend's right, carefully inspecting her reaction as a way of testing the waters. if she doesn't ignore me, then she's not angry, jay reminded herself.
"hey, babe. your cousin's being a dumbass, but that's nothing really out of the ordinary," she greeted her in return.
jay squinted her eyes at emily's laid-back behavior. either she was pretending to not know about jay's intimacy with their english teacher, or she genuinely did not have the slightest idea about it. jay hoped it was the latter.
"emily, quit harassing him so much," hoseok briefly slapped the short girl's forearm with a tightly sealed pack of napkins, only to be met by the death gleam in the midst of her eyes.
"thank you, hobi. you're such an angel," yoongi flashed him a grateful smile, and hoseok briefly blushed at the flattering compliment. "unlike this bitch over here, who i'm certain is the devil's spawn."
"hoseok, did you seriously just tell me to stop 'harassing' him? did you really forget who drooled over whose boobs? i can't believe this. you're taking his side ... after everything we've been through?! here i thought we was special," emily ran the side of her index finger under her eyelid to convey her heartbreak. "here i thought we was in love."
nope, jay's conscience confirmed for her. doesn't seem like she knows anything.
"you should've seen it coming, emz," hoseok teasingly tucked some strands of her hair behind her ear as she continued to falsely sob. "after all, i'm gay, remember?" both yoongi and jay burst out in identical fits of laughter,—a quality that proved them undeniably related,—feeling proud that the orange-haired boy finally stood up for himself.
emily was not so amused.
neither was mar, but that's because she didn't care enough to be listening. she was still too consumed by the plot of the story to appreciate the group's inside joke.
the breathless cackles all came to a starling stop, however, when the circle of friends was joined by an unexpected visitor.
"jeon jungkook! you're back!" jay gasped as he plopped himself down on the seat beside her. his eyes, she noticed, were much more serene than from the last time she'd seen him—as if that brief weekend in jail had entirely pacified his rage and turned him into brand new man.
"hey, babygirl," jungkook grinned crookedly at her, but the tone of his words held more of platonic casualness than its usual seductive pitch. she felt quite relieved. the boy didn't seem as infatuated with her as he used to be, and jay mentally rejoiced at the evident progress. "who's this?" he nodded at mar, who hadn't even notice him arrive.
jungkook's eyes trailed over the abundant layer of clothes that she so calmly wore, blinking at her small nose and long lashes as though trying to recall where he had seen her before. the gray book in her hands seemed quite familiar, too, but he couldn't exactly place his finger on it yet.
"this is mar, my girlfriend," yoongi stepped in for her when he noticed that she hadn't yet glanced up.
he casually threw his arm over her shoulders, a movement that startled her out of her fixed reading trance.
the small girl under yoongi's embrace met jungkook's stare the moment she ripped her eyes away from the intriguing novel, her pupils dilating at the sight of his face and her heart fluttering for a steady second. it was when she felt the tips of her fingers beginning to tremble that she forced herself to look somewhere else.
mar had acknowledged his undeniable eye-appeal, which was the root of her intimidation and the reason she pulled her gaze away, but she also managed to perceive the tenderness obscured deep within his eyes. it called out to her for some reason—it lured her in. she found herself wishing she could wander around in the depth of his eyes more than she wished to finish her book ... and that clearly said something.
this was truly shameful, though, in her opinion. her boyfriend was sitting right next to her and yet her body had the actual audacity to fervently melt at another boy's beauty.
but then she remembered that yoongi had literally checked out emily's chesticle crack not six days ago, so mar didn't feel as guilty about her battling emotions anymore.
jungkook, too, was drawn to her passive stare and unwavering lips without caring in the slightest that she was already claimed by the guy sitting beside her.
noticing that she had purposely broken the eye-contact, his curious eyes fell to the now closed book in front of her.
though it was backward, he successfully read the title page,—the word "control" embossed in emerald green font,—and that's what ultimately triggered his memory.
it's you! he peeled his eyes open as he recalled sitting out on the bleachers after having defended jay from isaac's repugnant ass—the same day he got charged with a three-day jail detention and a one-week suspension from school. though he hadn't gotten around to view mar's face then (because she'd been too far for him to clearly see her), he remembered the overload of clothes that had coated her body, an attire that closely resembled to what she was wearing now, as well as the unique onyx color of her hair.
jungkook furrowed his eyebrows and licked his lips, not once removing young and virtuous mar from his sight. he knew, with just a tiny peek at her, that she was as innocent as a girl could get, and that certainly sparked up his interest—not because he wished to corrupt her the way he used to do back in his old player days, but because he knew the type of purity in her heart only pertained to the most distinctive of souls.
he wanted that. he wanted that kind of chastity in his life. he wanted her. and it didn't matter to whom she currently belonged ... because he knew he had the necessary aptitude to make her want him back eventually.
it was all just a matter of knowing when to act.
"so, jeon, what are you doing wasting your lunch here with us? don't you have your wrestling buddies to be with right now? i'm sure they missed you," jay asked as she pulled out her lunch from her backpack.
"yeah, i'll, uh, um, yeah. you're right, you're right. i just came by to say hi. so, um, i did that already, so i guess i should just go now," he chuckled nervously to himself, stood up rather shakily, and bit down on his bottom lip when mar timidly met his eyes again, disappointment expressed all over her face. "i'll catch you later, jay. bye, guys. and, um, goodbye ... mar."
the group of five watched him saunter away, wondering what the hell he'd been so jittery about, and concluded that he had perhaps eaten an edible or something.
jay turned to look at mar after some time, smiling giddily. mar, seeming to have read jay's mind, shook her head, cleared her throat, and flipped her book back open—her brief engagement with the real world coming to a dismaying end.
imagine her and jeon, jay pressed her lips together to stifle her excitement. imagine how cute–
"yo, jay. i forgot to tell you. i saw your dad and mr. park talking in the morning. i was just doing my own thing, you know, defending my ass from getting another saturday school detention, which, by the way, totally worked because mr. neumann left me off the hook. bless up, bitch! anyway, i come out of his office to find your dad and mr. hotty standing next to each other. i noticed mr. park was holding this container with spaghetti inside, hey, kind of like the one you have now, and– wait. wait, that's exactly the one he was holding!"
jay peered down at her packed lunch and gulped.
maybe emily was just pretending to be unaware of the truth to see what she'd say. maybe she was just acting clueless to see if jay would willingly come clean. or maybe ... not.
"yeah, um, mr. park was holding it because he, uh, told my dad he'd give it to me. this is my lunch, and mr. park was just the one who delivered it to me." that's a good enough explanation, right? it wasn't a lie, but it wasn't thorough enough to expound the whole truth.
"that's weird. why would mr. park offer to hand it to you? like, why would he go through the trouble of finding you and giving it to you, especially when you don't even have a class with him today? i doubt he would've done that for anybody else," emily tapped her chin pensively. "mine and hobi's theory is so right. he's literally in love with you, jay. you can't deny it anymore. it's, like, so obvious."
yoongi and hoseok locked eyes upon hearing the strange girl conversation, and they both lightly shrugged their shoulders. hoseok kindly offered him a grape, deciding it best if they bonded over that instead of speaking about the school's "hottest" teacher.
yoongi gratefully picked up the small fruit with his thumb and index finger and playfully aimed it at emily's nose as she continued rambling on to his cousin.
hoseok cackled at the blonde's childish actions, mouthing an "i dare you" to him to see just how much courage he possessed. yoongi quickly chickened out, though, and decided to plop the purple orb into his mouth instead.
"emz, mr. park has a girlfriend," jay blushed as her best friend continued to insist on how much the young english teacher seemed to have a soft spot her.
"who gives a shit? i haven't even met her, and i already know you're ten times better," emily rolled her eyes whilst flailing her hand, and jay began to wonder if it was possible for someone to be "better" than themselves.
"well, i think she's pretty great," jay caught her tongue before anything else could slip right out of it. "i-i mean ... based on what he's told us, of course."
emily couldn't remember a time when mr. park had shared any details about his heavily-envied lover. perhaps he only mentioned her in jay's class period. or perhaps, though it seemed too much of a stretch for emily to believe, jay parker (her very own best friend) knew more about mr. park than she led on.
~
i hope you guys love mar just as much as i do. she's like the cutest thing ever 🤧 pls proteK her
pictures of the day:
a jungkook special for jaky bc i love her very very much 💞
-サラ