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Mimie looked like a puppy staring down the barrel of a gun. Part of Jungkook was desperate to break into a smile and breezily laugh the moment away, vanishing from the room as eagerly as Jin had. But he'd asked the question because he had wanted to know the answer and running away now would just leave him more confused. Why had she stayed with him? Why had she comforted him so gently? Did she know how safe he'd felt with her? Had she felt how fast his heart had been beating?
After all of that silence, when Mimie finally opened her mouth to speak Jungkook couldn't help holding his breath,
"I asked you first," her words were barely a whisper, and her lip slipped between her teeth sheepishly. He didn't fight the laugh this time when it bubbled in his mouth. There was nothing breezy about this exasperated chuckle; if it wasn't for the way JK's eyes soften, Mimie probably would have felt condescended.
"I wasn't just going to leave you there," Covering for his sudden vulnerability, Jungkook shoved his hands into his pockets- unintentionally straining his arms and revealing the veins beneath his skin.
"You could have just woken me up..." her voice wavered, undermining the daring way she had raised her eyebrows.
"I don't know what to tell you," he returned, visibly flustered and refusing to look at her. "What do you want me to say? Maybe I was embarrassed, or maybe I felt guilty because we'd clearly annoyed you. Maybe I let you sleep because you looked so peaceful... Or perhaps it's because despite what you seem to think, I'm not a bad person!"
Stepping forward, Mimie opened her mouth to refute that last statement, but Jungkook wasn't done. His tone had been growing increasingly frantic when it suddenly dropped- a contrast to his visibly heavy breathing.
"And..." he paused, again, taking a breath and looking her deeply in the eyes "Even though you've made it blatantly clear that you don't like me, I do actually care about you." Jungkook swallowed in the silence, he seemed almost ashamed to have admitted it.
Letting her mouth open and close blankly, Mimie struggled to find anything to say back. What was she supposed to do with this information? So he cared about her... so what? The other bangtan members cared about her. In fact, Hobie likes to declare his love for her every time they hang out. Why was Jungkook saying it so different? Blinking at him, remaining silent and wide-eyed seemed to frustrate Jungkook again. He ran a hand through his hair, pacing slightly. Hers was not the only heart hammering in its cage.
"See this is why-," Jungkook was cut off by the familiar sound of his ringtone.
Sejin's face on his screen was not one he could ignore. Mumbling an apology to Mimie, he answered the call, turning his back on her in a vain attempt to gather his thoughts and catch his breath.
