Thorns of Roses // OC x Jimin // BTS High School

~Chapter 19~

Rose

"Rosie? You're so absent all the time. Is everything okay?", Mina called out to me as I plopped myself onto the wooden floor of our practice room.

She was right. I had been mentally absent all the time, thinking about the blonde haired and our interaction on the day before the whole time, the topic refusing to leave my mind and always tracing me with a weird feeling I had never really felt before.

"How does love feel like?", I looked up at our leader, who looked a little confused at my question.

"Love? How do you mean that?", she furrowed her eyebrows and sat down on the floor near me, Ari and Jia looking up from their phones, suddenly getting interested in our conversation.

"How does it feel like to be in love?", I locked eye contact with her, seriously wondering if the strange feeling following me in the past days really was what I suspected it to be.

"I'm not entirely sure if thats what you mean as I've never been romantically in love with someone, but for me it's caring about each other, involving affection, closeness, protectiveness, attraction and trust. From what I've experienced with family and friends, it's rather a feeling of wanting the other one to be happy at all times and being frustrated when the other is too. Willing to unconditionally do everything for that one person even if it meant threatening my own life.", Mina thought a bit before stating her explanation.

"I would even describe the act of loving someone as willing to give everything for the one your heart has chosen, no matter if it's a lover or even friends and family."

"For me love isn't only about feeling something towards a certain person, but showing them how you feel in the act of affection, protectiveness, closeness, care and trust.", the eldest finished, making me sigh.

Jimin definitely was protective over me and cared for me, which had been very well visible in the past days, especially on the day before at the lockers. But did he really feel like that towards me too? And did I even know if that feeling I felt really was love?

"And how do I know if I love someone?", I voiced out one of the questions that had bothered me once again.

Mina blinked her eyes a few times, thinking about an answer to my rather unusual question.

"Well I feel like you can find out when searching for those things I have talked about before. If you really care for someone and feel yourself getting attracted to not only their looks, but rather their personality, actions and behavior towards you, I feel like that's the start of falling in love with someone.", Mina looked at me with a small smile, not even wondering why I was asking such questions.

A small smile made its way onto my lips as I thought about his overprotective side showing on the day before and how he had brought me home to him, so he could make sure I would be feeling safe and not alone when waking up. Immediately having a hoodie and food ready when I was waking up was really caring too, making my heartbeat increase a little when thinking about his actions. His ethereal voice filled my thoughts, making me think about the image of us maybe singing together in the future.

"Thank you Unnie. I think I know how I feel now.", I smiled at her, glad that she was able to clear up my feelings a bit.

I was not entirely sure if I was really in love with one of the popular guys in our school, but I now knew that I definitely felt attracted to him, both because of his looks and behavior towards me. Even though he wasn't that nice to me at the start, he was really caring and protective now and my heart seemed to like that.

"Why? Is there someone you like?", Ari teased, making me blush when thinking about the blonde haired again.

"Maybe.", I shrugged my shoulders, trying to play it off.

"Who is it?", Jia was now getting interested too, wondering who had been able to make my heart feel different.

I shared a glance with Mina, who looked rather amused while Ari and Jia started bickering and thinking about who I could be in love with. Did she know already who I was talking about?

"Stop it now. If she doesn't want to tell you, she doesn't need to. But if you really want to know it, then pay more attention. It's really obvious.", Mina chuckled and stood up from our practice floor.

"You know?", my eyes widened when hearing that it wasn't hard to understand who I was talking about.

"Yes, I've been observing yours and his behavior until now and believe me when I tell you that boy never really hated you.", Mina exclaimed.

Never really hated me? Did she mean the time he used to order me around or glare daggers at me every single time he spotted me? But it was more than obvious that Jimin wasn't very keen on having me around at that time.

"Huh? What do you mean?", I furrowed my eyebrows, curious what she would tell me.

"Just think about it. Why didn't he seriously hurt you when he obviously had the chance to? Yeah they ordered you around and you got some wounds and bruises because of it, but he never physically had the intention to hurt you.", Mina was getting more serious about that topic, making me frown.

Yeah she was right, but only partially. They maybe didn't hurt me physically, except for the bruises and my wrist of course, but they hurt me mentally.

"But my wrist? And you know I wasn't really mentally stable at those days."

Mina sighed and sat down again, realizing that topic would take a little longer than expected.

"Mechanism to protect himself. The feeling of love is unusual for most teenagers at that time and can be really confusing. He probably was stressed about having different feelings towards a person he barely knew and tried protecting himself by wanting to see you harmed, yet kept you as close as possible. When noticing he was frustrated and angry at himself rather than satisfied when you were hurt, he started realizing his true feelings towards you and would do anything to apologize and protect you from other people's harm. Why else would he buy you a strawberry milk everyday and beat up Jaemin because he touched you?", Mina continued with her speech.

Ari and Jia shared a few glances before widening their eyes and abruptly standing up.

"You're in love with Jimin?!", they both yelled, making me sigh.

"I don't know, it's just that he was really caring yesterday and my heart starts going crazy whenever I think about him.", I sighed again.

Both of them blinked their eyes a few times, staring into my face as if I was an alien.

"Jimin and Rose sitting in a tree and K-I", Jia started singing but got interrupted.

"Stop! Have you forgotten that we should hate that boy?", Ari asked, rather confused and surprised.

"First of all, they all genuinely apologized, buy Rosie a strawberry milk everyday to make up for it and are really nice ever since, so I don't see no reason why we should despise Jimin and the other six. And secondly, have you forgotten that you can't decide who you fall in love with? It just happens!", Jia argued, irritated by Ari's behavior.

"Yeah but-"

"No buts! It's Rosie's feelings and we have no right to keep her from being in love with someone, even if we don't like that person!", Jia defended me.

"Enough. Jia is right, if Rosie really likes him, then we should support her.", Mina spoke up again, making Ari sigh and then turn to me.

"Sorry Rosie, I didn't want to hurt you. I'll try to like that blonde haired idiot for you- Hey!", Ari started but got interrupted by Jia who lightly slapped the back of her head.

I erupted in chuckles when seeing the two start to bicker again and turned to Mina, who watched them with an amused smile.

"Thank you Unnie. I'm really glad that you're here for me when I need you."

"Always! I can't leave my little baby hanging, right?", she chuckled and engulfed me into a hug.

"Hey!", I sulked at her nickname for me, which only made her erupt into laughter.

From that day on, I knew that the blonde haired heir wouldn't leave my mind so soon anymore.

🌹*･゜ﾟ･*:.｡..｡.:*･･*:.｡. .｡.:*･゜ﾟ･*🌹