Chapter Twenty-One
[UNEDITED BC I NEED TO POOP]
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"It couldn't have been her, there must be more girls named El—"
"Pela, believe me I just," you pace around her room late in the night, "I believe it in my gut. That was her!"
"Why didn't Jungkook recognize her then?" The woman challenges from her bed.
You freeze, throwing your head back with a tiny whine. "Jungkook was too busy running off to his new partner. Which is why I've called him now...we've just got to wait at this point." You pace again.
A long tee drapes over your features in a baby blue sleepshirt, your hair messily up. Pela remains ready for the night same as you, but in a rosy satin slip. The paling pink of her cardigan thrown on top brings out the brown of her eyes, forcing you to relax the more panic consumes you.
The woman softly calls your name. You and your bare feet don't listen, refraining from nibbling on your nails as you start continuing your scared dance. Pela chuckles, grabs her pillow, and tosses it your direction. You gape when it hits your hip. Picking it up from the ground, you hug it to your chest and resume pacing. Your friend grunts in defeat.
"Woman!" Pela whines, "Even if she is Taehyung's ex-girlfriend, why is this stressing you out so much?"
You glance at her. "I've been trying to figure that out myself!" You whisper-yell before clutching the cushion of the pillow. "I panicked completely while shaking her hand, then she smiled and was so so kind and that completely threw me off on the assumption I already had of her."
"You've got an issue with jumping to conclusions all the time."
"Well, I genuinely thought Ella would be different if I met her. With what she did to Taehyung, it's safe to assume a girl would be bitchier okay?" You don't care anymore, you start to nibble.
Waving your form before Pela's dresser, you heard your best friend sigh, throw her hands up and say, "Okay...we'll wait 'til Jungkook is here to get full confirmation. For now, come here." Pela pats her bed and waits for you. With a sigh, you plop on and have her relax you by laying into her lap. Pela smiles down at you and plays with your hair.
"Are you sure this isn't freaking you out because Taehyung texted you this evening?"
You glance up at her and pout. "That may have something to do with it."
"What did the text say?"
"He asked if I wanted to go out tomorrow night."
"Where?" Pela asks.
"...he mentioned a surprise. I don't know." You try not to smile shy.
Pela studies your expression and asks, "Do you like him?"
You don't answer. The woman sighs as her hands slow in your locks.
"He's Oki's best friend..."
"From what I see, not anymore," Pela shrugs.
"What would you do?"
With a slow smile, your friend says, "I'd make sure I'm completely over my ex before involving another man...Do you still love Oki?"
"I don't know."
"Well okay," Pela giggles, "The minute that turns into a for sure 'no', trap Taehyung's ass fast."
You smile and cover your face embarrassed. "Why do you have to say it like that?"
"You want the nicer—boring way of saying it?" She teases. You nod, and she sighs, "...be his friend for now. Some of the best relationships start off with both parties being friends."
"Why couldn't you be a guy."
Pela snorts. "If I was a guy, I'd probably be gay—or bi at least. I need dick in my life." She does it. She makes you laugh.
Scrunching your hair, the door bell rings and Pela whispers, "Promise me you won't jump to conclusions or make rash decisions tonight...no matter what Jungkook tells you."
You nod. Now the door is hit by knuckles. She pats the top of your head and you let out a long breathe as you prance out Pela's room and walk towards the door. Yanking it open, Jungkook's confused eyes are tired as he moves into the apartment no questions asked. You blink, used to it since he's one of your best friends.
About to close the door as Jungkook greets you with a hug, another body behind makes you stop. Jungkook's voice echoes behind you as he greets Pela with an embrace. You, with open arms, wrap an awkward Jimin up who moves into the apartment. He goes, "Oh," as you hug him.
Moving away, you close the door behind them only to turn and see Jimin with blushing cheeks infront of Pela he tries to hug. She goes, "Oh," then laughs to hug him as a greeting, only for him to get scared and put his hands out for a hand shake instead. His hand whacks her breasts in her nightie causing Pela's eyes to widen, and him to sputter an apology. You purse your lips from smiling while Jungkook cockblocks the handshake, pulling Jimin aside.
"What's going on? I could practically hear your heaving from over the phone." Jungkook smirks when you ignore his teasing, walking over to the couches and waving for all to follow.
Jungkook follows you. Jimin stares at the ground with red cheeks, ushering for Pela to go ahead before him. The girl does nothing but hug her cardigan tight around her chest as she sits next to Jungkook and stays away from Jimin the rest of the night.
Jungkook hugs Pela to his side while propping his legs on to the coffee table. He nods his head to me when Jimin sits next to me. He's quiet but I smile at him and he smiles back in distress while side-eyeing the other two on the opposite couch. "I wanted to talk about Psych," you say, interrupting all.
Jungkook's mouth opens to catch flies. "Don't be telling me you made all this fuss, so I'd come for a scolding! I'm sorry I ditched you but dam—"
You groan. "Not that! Please just listen..."
Pela taps Jungkook's thigh. "Honestly hun, you wanna listen to this." That makes Jungkook tense as he says, "Holy shit what happened?"
"While you ditched me and ran up the stairs in class, I uh, I partnered up with the girl your 'cute boy at the back of class' ditched as well."
Jungkook smiled, "How is that bad." Then he laughs, "Wow, looks like me and my future husband truly are alike. Was she nice?"
"Y-Yeah she um," you scoot to the edge of the couch. Your back straightens and your hands play helplessly. You wish to cling on to something and hug to your chest, but all the cushions are by Pela's side. "She introduced herself as Ella," you whisper.
Jimin speaks. "What?" His brows jump as pays attention to you now.
Jungkook glances over at Pela who purses her lips, then over to you. "Wait what? Ella? Was she Taehyung's Ella or some other chick?"
"I-I don't know," You say slow, "Which is why I called you over. I was going to before but kept denying and thinking I was jumping to conclusions the whole day. Pela tried to help calm me, but I haven't been able to sleep...it's dramatic, I know. But I worry a lot."
"Do you remember what she looked like?" Jimin stupidly asks. You stare over with narrowed eyes, "Yes Jimin. I saw her this afternoon." To that, he says, "I'm just the driver, I'll shut up." The man proceeds to sulk into his seat. You sigh, pat his knee and glance to Jungkook.
"Do you have any pictures of her?" you ask. Pela helps you by staring at Jungkook from beside. She says, "...maybe some social media? Does he still have her up?"
Jimin breaks his silence, sits up and asks Pela, "Do you have any pictures up of your exes on your social media?" Your watch the woman fiddles with her cardigan again as a response.
"Jimin has a point," Jungkook says, thinking Jimin was trying to be a smart-ass, while, Jimin was genuinely asking. The love-struck boy's curiousity was egging his every decision. "I don't recall many pictures of them up while they were dating...so I doubt he kept any up after. It's nearing a year since their break-up for fucks sake."
You hug yourself since there isn't anything else. "How do I make sure then?"
"Why not just ask her...?" Jimin asks softly. Everyone looks over at him and he shrugs. "Sure, what she did to Taehyung is fucked up, but she's still a human...collecting like this is dramatic, if you ask me. Just ask her and she'll tell you straight up who she is."
It goes silent.
Jungkook says, "I think Namjoon might have a picture of her." With that, Jimin's lost everyone's attention as they all start chattering over Jungkook calling Namjoon.
"N-No," you panic, "That's his older brother, right? D-Don't—"
Jungkook ignores you, hears rings, then a muffled and sleepy, "Hello?" brings him to go, "Hey Namjoon! Hi, I uh, I had a quick question. Do you have any pictures of Ella?" Everyone's eyes widen at how subtle Jungkook wasn't.
Namjoon takes a while to say, "...what?" Only for Jungkook to urge, "I'll explain later. I'm doing a mock seance for that witches group I wanted to join to seem edgy? Yeah, I joined, yay! Now I need a picture of someone to unleash the supernatural on—blah blah—long story short, you got something?" Jimin face palms.
"I don't wanna know," Namjoon groggily lets out, "...as for pictures, I think Taehyung's old insta...the one he doesn't use anymore bu—" "Thank you! Goodnight!" Jungkook shuts the phone and already searches around.
Jimin props his phone out. "Jungkook you didn't know Taehyung then, here—" Jimin pulls up the last Instagram profile Taehyung had, and you feel unsure to grab the phone from the boy who arches it over. Feeling like you invade Taehyung's privacy, many questions lead you to do so.
Scrolling through, you stare at the old profile picture that looks happy. Then you wave over pictures of food, his puppy at home, and get to earlier shots of a beautiful girl with full lips that crack in smiles. There are pictures of only her with emojis along the side of the picture, tacky heart-eyed ones. Then, you get to her and Taehyung together, cuddled and snug. She kisses his lips in a few pictures, his cheeks, and there's a little falling at your stomach when you see them. Pursing your lips, you give Jimin back his phone who takes it. You look to everyone around you, and nod. "That's her," you say.
Pela holds your hand. The boys around won't get the sadness that creeps into your heart, but she does.
With furrowed brows, Jungkook says, "Why is she in a first-year class?"
"Maybe she's catching up in electives?" Jimin says and that makes Jungkook sigh in agreement, "She did miss many classes along with Taehyung when they were together..."
"Should I tell him?"
"Tell who?" Jungkook asks slow.
"Taehyung," you say.
Jungkook shrugs, "It's none of his business who your partner is or isn't. It's not like you owe him anything, you two aren't friends."
Pela glances to you and you awkwardly glance to the ground.
Jimin agrees, "It's the final lab of a project. If anything goes wrong and she's not fully helping, just professionally consult with the professor. You should be fine." Jungkook smiles at Jimin and says, "Yeah! Just keep it professional and don't get too close to her. Be in-class buddies and get the grade...it's just a few weeks? What? Four more classes?"
"Okay." You nod at the two. With a weak smile, you get up and thank them. "I'm sorry for panicking and having your come out here...you too Jimin, I'm sorry he used you for a ride."
Jimin smiles lighter than before. He stands and taps your forearm. "No worries," he says and Jungkook repeats the same.
You follow them to the door and Pela does the same. The woman's hands rub your back as she glances at you in reassurance. You smile her way, tell her you're fine, and watch Jungkook come for a final hug. He hugs and kisses you goodbye, then he hugs and kisses Pela goodbye. Jimin is braver in hugging you, only to stick out a strong smile for Pela instead of body contact. The boys leave, the door closes, and you stare at nothing in a frozen stance.
Pela breaks the silence, hugging you into her side. "I don't think that Jimin guy likes me very much," she says this while you giggle and allow her to pull you into the hallway. "Why do you say that?" "He kept giving me weird daggers sitting next to you," she mumbles with a laugh of her own.
Sitting on your bed, Pela walks backwards. "Now, what did I tell you?"
You touch the tip of your nose with your index finger. "Not to make assumptions or jump to conclusions with this new information."
"Yes," Pela whispers, "...whether you want to tell Taehyung or not, just know that you shouldn't be stressing out over their drama. Okay?"
"Okay."
At the door, Pela turns one last time and calls your name.
Blanket on your legs and cuddled into your pillow, you say, "Yeah?"
"...make sure he's over his ex completely before he traps you," there's a slight worry in Pela's eyes when she says this. But she smiles teasingly all the same when she says, "Or I'll have to punch him in the face again."
She turns off the lights and walks out your door.
-
Taehyung turns on the lights and walks into the door.
You smile when he embarrasses himself. Clumsily patching up, he stands tall and whispers, "I don't know how that door got here."
"Oh no," you tease, moving into the booked study room, "Having doors in a library? Definitely bizarre."
The new evening. On campus and meeting up with him after your morning class, the café made another visit where you didn't treat yourself this time. When Taehyung got a hot chocolate instead of coffee, your eyes narrowed, and he said, "I don't like coffee. I only had yesterday because you were having it." You scolded him with your eyes while trying to hide the fluttering at your chest.
Now, you smile when Taehyung keeps the door open for you, bringing you to the library for a surprise. Thanking him, before you can finish taking your bag off onto the table, you watch him pull out a chair for you to sit on. His boxy smile finds you when slipping down to sit, prop open textbooks and a laptop.
Taehyung finds a seat across from you, far and respected. He pulls out his own seat, his own textbooks and no laptop. You watch him with pens and highlighters and ask, "What are you planning on working on today?"
"I took a first-year English class to catch up on my electives," the boy says while showing off the front of his textbook. It's a stroke-painting of two white faces, one smiles and the other frowns. "We're studying theatre plays for the last portion of the semester."
"That's interesting," you coo, propping open your own textbook, "I'd rather be highlighting that than this." You show off the bland cover of your textbook for Psychology.
Taehyung smiles. "I don't know, seems pretty fun to me."
"I joined so I could maybe learn a little about what mental illnesses I deal with daily," you say as you flip through to a new chapter, "...turns out I need to memorize parts of the brain before I can move on and learn about illnesses. That part I wasn't so happy about."
The boy chuckles. "Don't you have to memorize laws and theories for your major already? Why so bummed?"
"It's easier since I'm interested in my own field." You shrug, flip over and start anew. You write your notes on your laptop while Taehyung starts to scribble in his lined-notebook.
Watching him for a while, you apologize for interrupting as you say, "Why did you choose English over any other elective?"
Taehyung stops nibbling on his lips, looks up and innocently pops, "Huh?" To which you repeat, and he says, "Oh. Like Psychology, you mean?" Then he smirks, and you roll your eyes. "I know you'd love for me to share a class with you, I'm sorry to disappoint."
"Like I'd want you bothering me everyday..."
"Why blush when saying that?" Taehyung asks, poking his pen to his lip as he smiles large.
"Shut up." You try to bury your head into the textbook again.
Nothing goes silent as Taehyung annoyingly pokes his pen to the top of your laptop. "What?" you ask, typing and skim reading. Taehyung says, "I might take this course next semester. How is the last portion? Got any exam?"
Your fingers stop on the keyboard. Meeting his eyes, you say, "No...we don't get an exam, just a final lab with a partner we choose." To that, Taehyung's eyes light up, "That's so chill, the hell?"
You smile, trying to maneuver away from the topic by going back to studying. The question you dread, comes your way. Taehyung says, "You find a partner?"
"Yeah..." You don't look up, pretending you're busy in your work.
"I assume it's Jungkook?"
"No, well, he was my partner, but he ditched me for some guy...I'm not with the other girl that was ditched in result of that."
"Cool, she has a good work ethic? The last you want is a partner that'll bring your grade down last minute."
"I hope so." You can't do this. You look up at Taehyung and catch his eyes dart away from his book. When you stare to long, his eyes squint into his warm smile and your nervousness induces sweat.
"Why the staring?"
"I uh, I wanted to talk to you about something."
Taehyung's good with showing people he cares. You notice this part to him well as he puts his pen down, lays his hands into each other and props his eyes to attentively stare. He shows with his body language that he's listening 100% and suddenly you wish he wasn't.
"What is it? Is it about the van and what happen—"
"No," you quickly interrupt, not wanting to sweat for different reasons. "Not about that."
"Then what?" He chuckles when seeing you twitch on your seat.
"The girl I partnered up with, she..."
"She rude or something?"
"No," you hate to admit this, "...she seemed nice...but I only got her name and a little conversation before the professor came in."
"Okay? I don't see what you're trying to get at here," Taehyung chuckles, his brows knit.
"I'm partnered with," You stutter and make it worse. He reads you well, noticing what you try and say as he finishes, "With Ella?" When you nod, Taehyung's eyes darken, and he looks down to his textbook.
"I didn't know it was her when I first said yes, I—" Taehyung didn't say anything, you interrupted yourself. "I know I shouldn't find it weird, but I couldn't help but feel like I had to tell you..."
"Why?"
"To be quite honest, I don't know why I've been so freaked out."
Taehyung's chest heaves, he rubs his eyes, breathes into his palms. Meeting your eyes, he resurfaces a slight smile. "There's nothing to worry about, it's just a lab. It's fine."
"It's fine?" You blurt. Your voice sounds more surprised than anything.
Taehyung nods, "Why wouldn't it be? It's just an assignment. How'd you think I'd react?"
"Bad."
"Why?"
"I freaked 'cause I thought you'd cancel tonight," you shrug and say this.
Taehyung side-smirks. "You thought I'd wanna quit hanging out?"
When you don't smile or look at him, Taehyung pokes his pen at your laptop screen again. His hand stretches over the table, so it can land over your fingers by your textbook. You tense at his touch at first, only to relax before melting muscles under the warmth of his palm.
"It's just an assignment." He chuckles.
You stare at his hand, put on a smile and remember what Pela says about love and ex-relationships. Staring deep into his eyes that only look at you how a friend would to another friend, there's a shaking at your chest that makes you casually drift your hand away from his. "Okay," you say sighing, "I'm glad you're fine with this."
"I'm glad you told me."
"Of course."
He smiles, glances down at your hands a few times before going back to work. You wonder what goes through his mind as he reads. Can he focus? Is he thinking about her? Is he thinking about your hand and that you moved it away? Forcing your mind to halt, you cleanse the weight on your chest and breathe.
You study in quiet for an hour, and he does the same.
When you finish your chapter and peek over to spot him, he scribbles the last bit of his notes when double-taking and catching your eyes again. You smile, lighter and feeling more accomplished to finishing your agenda. No longer thinking about Ella or Taehyung's drama, you tiredly find strength to say, "I'll wait until you're done. Then we can head home."
Taehyung's forehead creases when he says, "Home?"
"Yeah, home. This was your surprise for the night, right?"
Taehyung chuckles, feeling light himself. "Why would I bring you to the library for a surprise?"
"I—"
"The surprise is where I'm taking you after we're done studying," he coos, going back to tackling the last of his play.
Your heart leaps a little. "Where?" you ask.
"I'll give you a hint," Taehyung says, speaking by his pen that continues to write. "It involves driving to my favourite place, a blanket, and the hood of your car."
His boxy smile your way next ignites something more than just happiness.
"Excuse me?"
"Sh," He whispers teasingly, "I'm trying to finish my work."
You lean down in your seat, body heating from what he hinted. Conclusions and assumptions your mind jumps face-flat into.
Taehyung finishes his last sentence, closes his book, caps his pen. With a smile he sits up and says, "Let's go?"
~ You're conclusions and assumptions will wash away when laying on the hood of your car. Taehyung will snuggle next to you, a blanket over. No drugs, no alcohol, no fancy clothing—in Belco University hoodies and messy hair blowing in slight chill. Eating noodles from containers, a drama will play on his phone that you'll share earphones for. Heads close. Bodies apart. Once in a while, you'll shyly smile and glance at him close. You won't notice that he'll do the same.
"Why plan this?" You'll ask.
Taehyung will smile and say, "I wanted to rewrite our moment on the hood. Make it something you won't feel embarrassed about."
When the little flutter between your breasts will enact, you'll smile and whisper, "That's thoughtful of you."
"What are friends for?" He'll chuckle and you'll kill the beat the tempts another flutter. ~