Begin: A Jungkook Story ✔

Chapter Four: The Test

The next day when he arrived at school, the teacher immediately glared at him.

"Jungkook-shi, please come with me." She stood up and led Jungkook to the principal's office. He realized with dread that she held his test in her hand.

They sat in the principal's office, and Mrs. Kim, his teacher, put his test down on the desk. Jungkook realized it had a 95% and he was excited momentarily before realizing again that if all was well, he wouldn't be sitting in here. Dread froze his heart into a stone.

"So, I was so happy how well Jungkookie had done on this test," his teacher was saying to the Principal, "only one wrong answer!" She then put Jisa's test on the table next to his. He realized she had a lot more work shown on her test besides the answer... "Until Jisa got the exact same wrong answer as Jungkook did."

Jungkook sat there, hot with shame. "Jungkook," his teacher said, "is there anything you want to tell us?"

His mind swirled. "No." He squeaked out.

"Jungkook, tell the truth, did you cheat off of Jisa?"

"No." He denied again, but his eyes were wide and unconvincing and he knew it.

.......................................................................................

He spent the day brooding in detention and walked home slowly. When he finally got home, the house was empty..he sighed with relief and ran to hide in his bedroom.

He was building legos in his closet when he heard his bedroom door open.

"Jungkookah?" His Mom called. Jungkook heard something in her voice he didn't hear often, and was afraid to call to her.

"Jungkook! We must talk, son, are you here?" with that, the closet door creaked open and Jungkook met her eyes out of the corner of his eyes, afraid to look at her.

"Come here and sit on the bed, Jungkook." She sounded upset, he knew it for sure now. His heart bottomed out and tears came to his eyes.

"Do you want to tell me what happened with your test, Jungkook?" She said.

And with that his eyes were squeezing hot tears down his cheeks and the small boy's shoulders wracked with sobs.

"Jungkookah..." His Mom came beside him now and pulled him into a tight hug. He hugged her and cried and she stroked his hair and said nothing for a while, caught his breath.

"Jungkookah, you know I love you exactly for the person you are. We know you don't love school, we know spelling isn't your favorite subject. And I hope you know that I don't think that makes you stupid. You are incredibly talented, Jungkook, you can do anything you want. But you can't easily do things you DON'T WANT. I accept that about you." She looked into his face now.

"Tell me the truth about the test, Jungkook." She said insistently.

His face screwed up again for a second but he tried to remember her reassuring words.

"I just... didn't know the answers and I could see Jisa's test so.." he met her eyes with a flush of shame. "I didn't want to do bad on the test and I just thought maybe it was a smart way to get out of it." He told the truth at last and felt immediately better.

"Jungkook," he Mom said firmly. "I will NEVER care what grades you bring home on a test, okay? That number isn't who you are." She paused for a second and took his chin in her hands and guided his eyes to hers. "But I do care if my son is honest, and moral. If he tells the truth, and takes responsibility for his choices and if he can be trusted. That is ALL I care about. YOU. Your soul, your morals, your choices. NOT your grades or how well you do in school, okay?" He nodded, her eyes seemed to bore into him. He'd never felt so scolded and yet so loved at once and he felt odd but happy.

"You are a GOOD BOY, Jungkookah," she said, hugging his shoulder. "Don't let a teacher convince you that a grade on a test is worth changing that for. Be a bad student, but stay this good boy, always, promise me." She sounded desperate for a second and looked at him intently and he nodded...

"I promise, Mama," Jungkook said...

"Now, you are going to clean the erasers every day after school this week, as a punishment."

"Mama!"

"Jungkookah, they wanted to do detention every day, and I figured out a way that your punishment could be outside while you move your body, okay? Say 'thanks Mama' and be quite grateful for cleaning the erasers outside instead of sitting still in a desk for 45 more minutes."

Jungkook thought of how awful it would feel to sit in his desk at school for 45 more minutes in the beautiful spring afternoon.

He wrapped his arms around his Mom.

"Thanks Mama."

............................................................................

He collected the erasers after school on Monday and brought them outside the school. Kids would bang them against the bricks on the outside of the school building or along the rock wall outside the school to "clean them" by getting the chalk dust out. When Jungkook went outside that day, some of the older kids were listening to the radio, and it was sunny. He again felt grateful to his Mom that he wasn't sitting in detention.

He brought two erasers out and hit them together, watching a big cloud of eraser dust fly up in a white cloud. He watched it fly away against the wind, and then started smacking them together furiously, trying to make as big of a cloud as he could. Then he settled into the beat of the song, suddenly in the world of a music video, smoke flying around him as he danced to the beat and drummed the drums of the erasers together. He went from eraser drums to air guitar, and then when the erasers released no more chalk, he picked up his next set, beating them along the rock wall like a drumroll, and then running/dancing along the wall, clapping the erasers together and against the wall as the music on the radio changed to a faster beat...

Before he knew it, all the erasers were clean and Jungkookie was covered in chalk and sweat and breathing hard from dancing and singing and drumming the erasers. He smiled. No, not a bad punishment.

Jungkook made it through the rest of the school year. He got a D in math, but he didn't lie again, and his Mom was proud of him anyway.  

...................................................................................


Author Note:  

Another chapter, another excuse to blubber about JK and his Mom and how awesome she is.  For those who haven't heard him speak of it, this all really happened in Jungkook's life, and this incident and subsequent conversation with his Mom impacted him significantly.

So I can't take credit for how amazing she is or what an amazing job she did raising our baby Maknae to know he can do whatever the F he wants as long as he is moral and good.   MY HEART WILL BREAK. 

So I am clearly obsessed with this story but this is the last complete chapter I have written.  I know what the other chapters will be but I am having carpal tunnel and trying to figure out the optimal way for me to sit and type and stuff... I hope I can have a good writing day soon though and finish this story!  

I will post another update as soon as I can!   Thanks so much ARMYs please love yourselves like our boys ask us to!!  

If you are enjoying this book please consider following me or adding this book to your library or lists or voting or commenting!!   💜💜💜💜💜💜💜