Met In Detention || KIM TAEHYUNG

Chapter 5

Rose's POV

"I can't believe you almost got detention for missing homework. Good thing Ms. Ohni was there to explain." Lilia says as she rubs my back.

"Imagine my parent's reaction to me telling them I got detention. They would never leave me home alone again. You won't EVER see me again."

"Well, Mr. Ilnune is such a monster sometimes. Remember when he made me scrub the floor just for correcting him." Lilia sighs, grimacing at the painful memory.

"Yeah, well, hopefully it'll never happen again. I'm doing my homework once we get home. I promise. I won't be lazy and-"

"Aren't we going to Seokjin's?"

I let out a huff. "Oh yeah, ugh, I forgot. I'll just do it there."

We turn a corner to another hall and find the boys there.

"Rosie!" Jimin starts jumping up and down once he sees me.

"Jiminnie!" I mock him with less enthusiasm.

"Rosiiiieeeee!" Jungkook does the same and holds out his hands, pretending to squeeze something.

"Jungkookie!" I copy him, again with no enthusiasm.

Lilia rolls her eyes at us. "Am I the only one who's mature here?"

"I know right." Namjoon crosses his arms.

"Ready to go?" Seokjin asks, swinging his backpack around his back.

Lilia and I nod and we follow them out the door.

•••••

"Can you show me a room where I can do my homework in peace?" I ask Seokjin as soon as we entered his place. "I really need to finish homework and I can't have anybody distracting me."

"Oh yeah, follow me."

He leads me up the stairs and through a nicely decorated hallway filled with family pictures. We stop at a door towards the end of the hall.

"Here you go. Come down once you finish." Seokjin gives me a pat on the back.

I nod. "Ok, thank you."

Taehyung's POV

I finally arrive at Seokjin's place a bit later than everyone else. I wasn't looking forward to hanging out with more of my bro's "friends" anyway, so I'm not complaining.

"Yo! Tae, where were you?" Jungkook asks when he sees me. "We were looking for you after school."

"I went back to my house. My parents needed to tell me something and they sounded serious, so..." I answer, shrugging at the end.

"What's going on?" He furrows his brow. "Is everything alright?"

I flop down next to him on the couch and sigh. "They're going to some marriage retreat overseas or something. I don't really know."

"Oh."

"Yeah, they also gave me a 10-minute speech about doing my homework and getting my grades up. They saw my grades for the quarter and didn't like what they saw, apparently. Can any of you help me with my homework? It's due on Monday." I go through my messy backpack, trying to find some useless piece of paper.

I look up, waiting for an answer.

Jimin stops dancing and whispers something in Lilia's ear. She smiles and nods vigorously. He then turns to Seokjin and he starts to nod too.

I stand there, dumbfounded. "Was I speaking Korean?"

"Here, I can help you." Seokjin motions me over with his hand. "I got you, bro. You got me, bro."

"Um, ok. Thanks, hyung." I mumble and walk towards him, focusing on the crumbled paper.

"No problem. Let's go up to my room and work on it." He leads me up the stairs. "For the peace and quiet, you know?"

I raise my eyebrows. "Um, ok."

Sometimes, this dude can be really weird.

Seokjin opens the door and the first thing I see is Rose, sitting on the floor scribbling away in her notebook.

My mood dropped in a second.

I silently groan and pull Seokjin back. "Hyung, you said that I won't have any distractions."

"No, YOU said you needed help with homework. Guess who's an honor student AND gets a 4.0 GPA like it's a hobby." Seokjin points to Rose.

Rose looks up. "It's not exactly a hobby."

"Someone needs help with their hoooooomewoooooork." Seokjin sings and pushes me forward.

I turn back to glare at him.

"Taehyung? You need help?" She stands up.

I turn back around, back slouching. "I guess."

Seokkin waves to us and reaches over to pat my back.

I grab his sleeve and pull him close. "I'm going to get back at you. You know I'm not comfortable with this."

"You'll thank me later." He whispers before smirking and closing the door on his way out.

"I can help you." She holds her hand out. "Homework is such a boring thing to do."

I try my best to avoid her gaze as I hand her my papers.

"Oh, math. Mr. Ilnune is your teacher too? I have him for my last class. He is the worst! One time, I saw him give 30 detentions in one class." She laughs and sits down on the bed.

She pats the spot next to her, indicating that she wants me to sit next to her on the bed.

I stay frozen, unaware of what to do.

I don't want to, but then again, I don't want to be too rude...then again, I am rude...

Rose looks at me, confused. "Come sit down, so you can see what I'm doing."

I sit down, stiff as a robot, swallowing hard.

"Ok, so. In the first question, you want to do this first, so you could get to the next step. The next step all depends on what-"

I wiggle around in my place, clearing my throat and looking at every single object in this room.

"Is there a problem, Taehyung?"

I shake my head, not even bothering to speak to her.

"You haven't said a word to me. Do I make sense? Do you understand what I'm saying? Math isn't easy, so don't-"

I don't turn to look at her. It was almost as if I'm ignoring her, but she was all I could hear and think about. It was hard to concentrate.

"Ok," She puts down my homework assignment. "I'll be honest with you. I'm starting to think you don't like me, Taehyung. There. I said it."

Yeah, I KINDA don't.

Big deal, right?

"Was there anything I did? Did I say something wrong or...?"

I stay silent, biting the inside of my cheek.

"Taehyung?" She repeats, leaning closer to me.

This is getting annoying.

"Taehyung, can you just tell-"

"You crashed into our lives! That's my damn problem, Rose! You and your friend just taking my friends away! You just waltzing in here with your perfect grades and your perfect brain! Honestly, why are you even here!?" I impulsively blurt out, slapping a hand over my mouth afterwards.

Rose's entire face softens.

Her arms dead on her lap.

I stammered. "Sh*t. I'm sorry, I didn't mean-"

"No, I get it." She grabs her bag. "I'll go."

Without looking back at me, she walks out the door, leaving me here in shock.

I did not just say that to her.