Kookie's Maknae {J.Jk}

12

"It's boiling."

I smell the spicy noodles in front of me. Its a decent size bowl. Jiwon set up a camera recording us then took a seat with me. I blinked fast and smiled at the lens, wiggling my face.

"I can blur your face after."

"They'll recognize my voice."

Jiwon puckered her lips but shrugged. "I will figure something." She proceeds to explains the rules of the challenge while I sit there. I never knew she vlogged, let alone have a popular youtube channel. There's a lot I must learn. I grab the chopsticks and prepared for the possible ER trip for a HOLE on my throat.  "There's milk glasses right here in case we need it. But remember if you drink it before finishing the noodles it's an automatic loss."

I inhale deeply, "noted."

Hah, dul, seht

The silence is interrupted by us slurping, chewing and hissing in between blowing out steam out of mouths. This stuff is diabolically hot. "Oh no that's damn hot," Jiwon blows out a whistle then fans herself but still continues eating.

I'm over here sweating my ass off. The glass of milk looked like a holy water to me. Spicy foods is something I eat all the time, why am is this any different? I reached for the milk making Jiwon freeze in mid chew. "Sike," I whip my hand back to slick my moist hair back. I can't feel my tongue. "What's in this?"

Jiwon chuckled and coughed. "Ghost pepper." I bite down, tensing my jaw. My stylist grinned at me continuously shoving noodles into her mouth. She's not human. I can feel my lips swollen and sore. That being said, I couldn't resist glancing at hers. Slightly plump with a shine to them. Wonder how they taste like. I caught myself licking my own lips at the thought. It caught me so off guard that I automatically reached for the milk glass.

"Oh Jungkook loses—you're flushed!"

I fanned myself, "those were some fiery noodles." I'm so thankful I saved myself from ultimate humiliation. What the hell was I thinking? I rinsed my mouth right under the faucet with cold water. Its tough being 19.

When I came out of the bathroom, Jiwon offered to go to a snack shop a block away. I threw my hood over so that it covers half of my face and walked looking at the floor. We picked a bunch of candies and juice, proceeding to sit at a corner table facing a big fish tank. Jiwon is singing again very softly but this time it's Hobi's song Arson. 

"What's your favorite song by BTS? Just asking for a friend."

She tweaks to herself then looks at me.  "Baepsae. Don't ask why."

I smirked,  "relax I know it's because of the beat." I give her the side eye. She twists her hair into curls before wrapping it around her ears.  "Yeah of course it's the beat, what else did you think it was?" 

"Let me show you." I plant my palms on the countertops to help myself up and out of my stool. Jiwon shielded her face telling me to sit down but I want her to look at me.  "This is my favorite part of the choreography."

"Kookie, StAP." She grabbed my arm yanking me back to my seat before I could do a hip thrust.  "StAp," I mimicked her accent.  "So it's the choreography you really like. I see I see."

"It's a great dance, it's masculine, it's mature."

"Eerrm PG-13." I cleared my throat and met her palm in front of my face as she giggled looking at me. Her face could be a strawberry, the top of her ears and her neck is red. We calmed down for a bit, in a comfortable silence, biting our gummy worms in half.  "Can I ask a personal question?"

She nodded, getting lost in the blue colors of water.  "I asked if you had children of your own, and you replied 'not anymore'. What did you mean by that?" She smiled, though it wasn't her bright happy gleam.  "When BigHit hired me I had just delivered a boy. He was a product of...anyway, I was caring for him with the help of my father. But he'd work a lot so I'd have to stay by myself at home." She paused to inhale deeply.

I shuffled on my seat uncomfortably already knowing this is a tragedy. That I'm not ready for probably.  "One night my father was away for work. I woke up to feed my son and had to get his bottles on the first floor. I took him with me and...I tripped down the stairs."

The oxygen wedged in my throat left my mouth open. Jiwon pressed top of her hand over her mouth to muffle her grief. What should I do? I don't know how to comfort a woman, I can't comfort my own brothers when they're grieving. 

"He was two months old."

The shock took me by storm.  "That's why I'm so protective of Baek Eunha. I'll do anything to protect her. When I saw you were unhappy, when the members told me that you said you wished she wasn't yours, that hurt. Because your daughter is alive and well, and if something happened to her you'd be crushed. Finished with life itself." 

My reflection on the clear fish tank stared back at me. Thinking of losing Eunha is enough to check myself in a looney bin. She's grown on me, and I've grown on her. Jiwon lost her baby so young, I couldn't fathom the pain she felt. 

"Everytime you stressed over the littlest things regarding your little girl, I saw myself." 

My hand caresses hers as I exhaled.  "Jiwon, I'm so sorry for your loss. I don't know what to tell you. You did not deserve this." I did my best to sound comforting for her. She patted my hand with her free one and shot me her beautiful smile.  "I've moved on, I had to. I'm doing okay."

I nodded. 

"So Jungkook, I need to ask, was your 'experience' consensual? I apologize if it's too risqué but it's been bugging me."

I flustered at her cheeky grin. I'm glad she's okay now. Am I really ready to tell this tale? Eh what the fuck. "It was some mutual seducing, if I'm being honest. An ARMY wanted an autograph, and a photo on a polaroid so why not." I stop talking when starts giggling uncontrollably.

"What?"

"A fan wanted a debuting Idol's autograph. And what after that?" She giggles more. "And what after that? Wouldn't you want to know."

"Oh God no I can't stand romance like that," Jiwon's face reddened all the way to her ears. "You're like the shyest guy in the group. Like how did this happen, where did you guys go?"

"Probably TMI, the girl simply touched the right places. And she was like 'do you wanna see something?' I shit you not we did it up on the—Ah." I buried my hot face in the palms of my hands wishing I didn't remember so explicitly. I could blow steam out of my eardrums if it was possible.

"You know where stage crew hangs out back stage, where props are kept?"

"A prop room? AAAAHHH." Jiwon bounced her feet rapidly as she screeched. "I couldn't decline to see that 'something private' she offered so I thought let me help with that." I smirked.

"—OH my God, Jungkook."

"Ok ok ok shhh." I bring my finger to my lips while she just fans herself. With different characters this could be a killer novel. "Want to head back before you spill too much tea?"

"I thought you couldn't handle romance like that."

"It's just crazy."

Psh tell me about it.