Final Puzzle Piece || SKZ 9th Member

Two Kids Room: I.N X Kala

"Can you scoot over a bit?" Kala waved her hand to Jeongin, signaling him to move to the left.

"No," and being a typical annoying big brother, Jeongin rejected the request. He nodded his head to the space beside him on the left side. "There's plenty of room, just sit here."

"My angle is on the right," Kala casually reasoned. While maybe that was right, the real deal was she was trying to hide her bandaged arm from the camera. Not that the stylish team didn't purposely give her a long sleeve, but the bandage was wrapped past her wrist to the end under her knuckles, still managing to peek behind the fabric of her sweater.

Finally catching the actual issue, Jeongin quickly slid to the left. "I'm generous, I grant your wish," he played it off with a silly act but mentally criticized himself for not realizing it sooner.

"Thank you, your highness. I will remember your generosity for the rest of my pitiful life." Kala bowed to get along with the gimmick before she claimed her seat, taking a banana on the small table before them in the process. Positioning herself towards Jeongin and holding a pillow on her lap, she began to peel the banana she had taken.

"You're a high school student now," Jeongin stated as a matter of fact, sassy was clear in his voice and crept onto his face as well.

"What, you're upset you can't pull your high school student card on me anymore 'cause we basically the same level now?" Kala remarked no less sassy than him while taking a bite of her banana.

Jeongin scoffed. "My high school entrance was held before yours."

Kala snorted unimpressed. "I fail to see any significant difference. We're still in the same grade."

"Objection," he rejected, hitting his fist twice on the backrest of the couch with every syllable. "I started high school two months earlier, so I'm sixty days ahead of you."

"Yeah, keep telling yourself that. You're just bitter that you can't say you're a senior anymore," she slyly countered the argument, making Jeongin annoyed that she was right.

He mimicked her words mockingly. "Just eat your banana."

The younger girl stuck out her tongue to provoke him more and grabbed one banana from the plate. "Here, have some banana too. Looks like you need something to sweeten your bitterness."

"This punk..." Jeongin side-eyed Kala with an irritated look. Nonetheless, he took the banana she gave him and peeled it off. "Why didn't you go to the same school as me and Hyunjin Hyung, though?"

"You wish I did, right? You seem to miss me all the time." Kala waggled her eyebrows comically, and for a moment there, she looked like she was trying to flirt.

"I'm not Hannie Hyung. I can survive a day without you," Jeongin retorted, rolling his eyes. "But yeah, it'll be fun if we're classmates."

"Look at that!" she exclaimed, having the gotcha moment, her favorite thing indeed to achieve when she was with Jeongin. "You don't know how to have fun without me. It must be really lonely there."

"Speak for yourself. I bet you only have one close friend at school," he taunted her while enjoying the banana, watching her gasping in disbelief at his words.

"Hey, it's always quality over quantity. What's the point of having many friends if you can't count on them?" Despite the truth that everyone knew, she still tried to justify her lack of social skills. Although the older boy didn't buy it.

"Just say you're bad at making new friends."

"I'm bad at making new friends."

Jeongin laughed, amused by the conceded admission. "But seriously, why did you decide to go to a regular school?"

Buying some time to arrange her words for the answer, Kala droned. "It's nothing special, I just want to experience a normal high school life, away from my idol career. It's nice to have a common student routine. If I go to your school, which is a school of art that many idols enrol in, I don't think I can have that."

Jeongin nodded while humming in understanding. "Does everyone at your school know you're an idol?"

"Not everyone, but all my classmates do," Kala replied, then getting excited by a story of her fellow classmates. "You know, oppa, when we had a comeback last time, they congratulated us and played our music videos every day on the projector in the class." The next thing she knew, the image of Eunhwan emerged on her head. "My friend even told them to vote for us on music shows and showed them how to do it."

"Woah, really? Yaaa... you have some loyal classmates there."

"Right? They're amazing. I'll say they have some contribution in our first win."

Jeongin bowed to the camera as if it were Kala's friends watching the content. "Gomapseumnida¹. We really appreciate your support." (¹Thank you)

"We cried so much that time," Kala uttered softly, referring to the day they got their first win in a music show.

"Ya, I started crying because you cried so hard," he spoke like it was totally Kala's fault he shed tears.

"Speaking of that, you always cry when I cry, why is that?" she brought up the custom Jeongin had developed since they were trainees. "Yesterday too when I watched 'Miracle in Cell No. 7' with Ji Oppa, I cried, and then you popped up out of nowhere and joined me crying too. Sungie Oppa was so confused."

Jeongin chuckled upon remembering yesterday's event. "I was there the whole time, napping. In case you forgot, you watched the film in mine and Hannie Hyung's room. You were crying so loud I woke up."

"That didn't explain why you decided to cry right after you woke up."

"It just happened. I couldn't see you crying by yourself. What was it... your crying was just devastating to hear," he confessed openly. "And I'm not good at comforting people. I was just crying with you instead so you wouldn't feel alone."

Kala was touched, that was for sure. But since this was Jeongin, her immediate reaction was to tease him. "You have a soft spot for me."

"In our team, who doesn't? Even Lee Know Hyung won't as much as glaring at you. You're our maknae."

"To them you're their maknae too, you know," Kala pointed out. "The older members also need the youngest one they can tease freely without minding about boundaries. Because even though all of you treat me equally like I'm one of you boys, you still respect me as a girl. So they more often take out their cute aggression on you, the maknae boy."

Jeongin groaned at the thought of his hyungs who always squeezing his face and trying so hard to get a kiss from him. "They're annoying sometimes."

"You love them."

"I wouldn't say I don't."

"Quick, tell them you love them." Kala gestured to the cameras.

Complying, Jeongin made eye contact with one of them that focus on him. "Love you, hyungs."

﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌✎

✉ Jeongin to Kala

Kala-ya, I honestly made a promise to myself that I'll be there with you whenever you need a good cry. I won't let you feel miserable alone. So every time you want to cry, I'll be by your side before you know it. Don't be startled later if you find me next to you when you're sad. But I hope I don't have to do that often. You're ugly when you're upset.

✉ Kala to Jeongin

Oppa, even though we bicker a lot, you know that I appreciate you so much, right? You're one of the very few people that I can show all my sides to. When I'm with you, I feel like I don't have to hide anything and adjust my personality just to please you, including being nice to you ㅋㅋㅋ Anyhow, I love you still. Let's go out for dinner after this?

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quick question of the day (because i need to interact more with people instead of cats or any fiction characters), how did u find this story? were u looking through tags or this just popped up on your recommendation one day? and how do u like it so far? is there anything i can improve? critique and suggestions will be very welcome