Elite University

Chapter 24

Having a brother with an extremely low emotional intelligence means knowing about psychology to an extent, at least for someone like Jisoo, who badly wanted to help Taehyung.

One of the concepts she learned from her conversations with Taehyung's therapists and late-night visits on the Psychcentral website is the concept of Fight, Flight, or Freeze. These are stress responses, survival instincts that help a person react to what their mind perceives as a threat. So if take, for example, you find yourself face to face with a growling dog about to pounce on you. You either confront the dog with a stick, run for your life, or just stand there while your whole system shuts down.

The thing with people who have low emotional intelligence like Taehyung is that they tend to have overactive responses. There was this one time when they had a family trip on a zoo, on one of the rare occasions when their parents were not occupied with their company owner loads. They asked Jisoo, together with her then five-year-old brother, to take a picture with a gigantic Burmese phyton hanging on both of their shoulders.

Jisoo was scared out of her wits. But not as scared as Taehyung. He froze. Literally, no one knew it was that serious until Taehyung had an intense panic attack which caused him to collapse. From then on, the Kim household excluded zoos as one of their destinations for family bonding.

Jisoo wonder if she looked just like five-year-old Taehyung in a zoo. Stiff as a rock, pupils dilating, colors draining out of her body.

Things are different now. She isn't in a zoo. She is in the Elite headquarters standing in front of her confused friends and her crying boyfriend as they await their answer.

"Chu, I just wanted to let you know I will only believe you. So please, please tell me the truth." Namjoon said as he stared right through her soul.

Jisoo doesn't have a single clue what to do, especially when her mind tried to consider the consequences of her possible decisions.

She could tell Namjoon the truth and set herself free from the throttling shackles of lies, but that would mean breaking his heart to pieces, and Jisoo couldn't bear seeing that. Just looking at Namjoon in his current state is killing her. How much more if he found out that she, his partner for years, had been cheating on him with one of his best friends?

The other option is to deny everything and fabricate another story, but Jisoo knew Namjoon, out of all people, doesn't deserve to be stabbed in the back again and again and again.

In the whirlpool of her thoughts slowly drowning her entirety, she heard the door opened.

In unison, everyone turned their heads to the newcomer.

And as if things couldn't get any worst, especially for Jisoo, it was Kim Seokjin. The man whom she had been cheating with.

"Namjoon, I can explain," Jin said. Clearly, he already knew what was going on. He was just as panicked as Jisoo, although in different forms. It looked like he ran a mile to get to the quarters to explain himself.

"Jisoo doesn't have anything to do with me and Irene. Those pictures circulating; I don't know where they got it. It must be from one of our get-togethers as Elite circle; they just cropped you guys out so it could fit their narrative. That one photo of us hugging was even on the Polymath headquarter when Irene and I broke up, and I came to ask for a talk with you, but you left to buy snacks. Do you remember?" Jin explained desperately.