"Rough day, huh."
Yoojung turned around to see Jimin standing right behind her at the bus stop after school. Her face lit up. "Jimin! What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to go for math consultation today?"
Jimin quickened his steps to catch up with her, intertwined his fingers around hers and flashing her a sweet smile. "I ditched all my responsibilities for you, Choi Yoojung. Math can wait."
"Ya-" Yoojung tried to break free from his grasp, looking around furtively. "There may be people watching-"
"There isn't-"
"There is-"
But her struggling only made Jimin's hands tighten its grip around hers. Jimin smiled triumphantly as Yoojung finally gave up, because after all, he was stronger than she was.
"You already told the gang, and I'm sure other people will find out soon in one way or another, just give up," Jimin grinned.
"You aren't mad I told them?"
"Why would I be? I wanted to tell them in the first place," Jimin said with a grin. "But I'm perplexed, why you didn't wanna tell them at first, then told them all if a sudden. I was trying my best to keep it a secret but then you just-"
"Um, to be very honest- we weren't doing a great job," Yoojung burst into laughter, squeezing Jimin's hand slightly. "Our cheeks gave us away and well... we're horrible at lying."
Jimin chuckled. "Okay, true."
"But I really appreciated how hard you were trying for me," Yoojung continued. "You wanted to tell them, but because of me, you were going through so much. I wanted to show you that I could do the same - that I could also put away my reservations for you."
Jimin beamed. "You mean - you really did all that... just for me?"
"Mmhmm," Yoojung grinned. "Are you proud of me? I-"
Yoojung's sentence got cut off halfway because at that moment, Jimin just flung himself into her arms, stunning her for a whole ten seconds before she finally unfroze and hugged him back.
"Thank you, Yoojung."
Yoojung laughed. "Jimin-ah, you sure get touched easily, don't you?"
Jimin let go all of a sudden, frowning at Yoojung.
Yoojung raised her eyebrows. "What's wrong?"
"I realised..." Jimin pursed his lips. "You're still calling me Jimin."
Yoojung burst into laughter. "So we're really gonna have that talk, aren't we?"
"We have to," Jimin shrugged. "It's essential in every relationship."
"Well, I guess if it's down to this..." Yoojung's face cracked into a smile. "Can I call you Minmin?"
"Minmin?!" Jimin exclaimed. "That's a bit..."
"Gay?" Yoojung laughed. "Gay, isn't it?"
"A bit," Jimin laughed. "Can't you come up with something better? I don't know, maybe something less... girly."
Yoojung scratched her chin. "Minnie?"
Jimin scrunched up his nose. "I'm really starting to regret this."
Yoojung burst into laughter. "You go first then, I wanna see what amazing nicknames you have in store for me."
"Yoojung."
"Yeah, go on," Yoojung grinned. "That's my name, so what's the nickname?"
"That's your nickname," Jimin shrugged. "I'm just gonna call you Yoojung."
"What?" Yoojung winced. "Sorry, no offence but that's sad."
"What's sad?" Jimin defended. "Your name so beautiful, I don't wanna modify it in any way."
Yoojung couldn't hide her smile. "You waited really long just to say that, didn't you?"
"Perhaps," Jimin grinned. "But really, I love your name, so I'm gonna leave it. And I'm used to it too, so there's that."
"Alright, then I'll stick to your name too," Yoojung shrugged. "I like your name too."
"Umm..."
"Don't tell me I'm not allowed to?"
"It's not really that but..." Jimin hesitated. "We need pet names to make it feel like we're dating, you know what I mean? I'm not saying that we have to, but you know, I wouldn't mind if you wanted to call me-"
"Oppa?"
Jimin would have coughed up the soup in his mouth once more, except thankfully, he wasn't drinking soup this time.
Yoojung laughed. "Does that work?"
"We're the same age though-" Jimin cracked up. "I was gonna suggest sweetie but well, I guess oppa works too."
"Oh, no," Yoojung shook her head, waving her arms. "I'll take oppa over sweetie-"
"Ooh, look what we have here," Taehyung came sauntering towards Jimin and Yoojung with a crooked smile on his face at that very moment. "If it isn't my favourite couple, Jimin and Yoojung."
Yoojung and Jimin looked up.
"Hi, Tae." They said nonchalantly.
"Hey," Taehyung grinned, taking a seat next to Yoojung on the bench. "What are my two favourite lovebirds doing here at the bus stop?"
"Going home," Yoojung rolled her eyes. "Please, Tae."
"Oh, I see," Taehyung laughed cynically. "Is that why you dumped me behind and left first?"
"You said-"
"I see how it is, you two," Taehyung slung his arms around his best friends' shoulders, heaving a deep sigh.
In his mind, he was thinking about what had happened earlier after lunch. The way Jungkook so naturally slung his arm around Jieun and pulled her close. Ever since that happened, he couldn't shake that thought from his head, no matter how hard he tried.
Why was getting over her so hard?
Taehyung looked beside him at his friends and smiled. But inside, he really wasn't smiling. "Look's like this is gonna be me for the rest of my life, huh."
A lightbulb.