make way // jjk

18

He stared at you.

And you stared back.

It seemed like eternity, but it was only a moment as you were both pulled out of it by Ms Jung introducing the new student. "This is Yugyeom-ssi, please take the seat next to Kim Minah there," she pointed to the seat in front of you.

No. This couldn't be real. You had left Yugyeom, and everything associated with him behind in Seoul. He shouldn't be here. He can't be.

Not again. You couldn't go through that again.

You immediately cast your gaze down onto the table, in a defeated gesture. This movement was seen by Minah, a row in front to the left, and she tilted her head slightly to question you on your reaction to the new boy.

You shook your head at her, refusing to make any indication about your connection to Yugyeom. She furrowed her eyebrows, confused, but then shrugged and turned back to the front of the class, watching Yugyeom walk down the aisle to his seat next to her.

---

At break, as soon as the bell rang, Minah burst out of her seat and darted towards you, making her table rattle loudly with a big metallic clang. Fortunately, everyone else was getting up as well, wanting to get a snack from the tuck shop before they were sold out.

Her eyes swept the room in case anyone could hear, and Yugyeom was surrounded by a bunch of your male classmates. Seemed like he was already making friends. Then Minah whispered yelled, "Do you think that Yugyeom guy was hot or something? You were staring holes into his head!"

You stared at her, dumbfounded. "What?"

"You so think he's cute. I can see it in your eyes. But what about Jungkook? Are you already giving up so easily?" she sighed and sat on the edge of your table.

"What, no!" you said back defiantly.

She turned back to look at you and smirked, "Oh, so you're not going to go off track with Jungkook?"

"Yes! Yes, I mean, no. Yeah, no. Wait, what?" you scrambled to stop your best friend from embarrassing you further.

Her smirk only grew wider. "Well, I'll just have to make sure this Yugyeom character doesn't get closer than five meters from you. And then you can get on with Jungkook- And speak of the devil!" Your head flicked up at the mention of his name, and consequently you looked right into his eyes as he walked towards your seat.

"Jeon Jungkook, so early, huh?" Minah teased, "Here to see your girlfriend?" Jungkook opened his mouth to speak but Minah was on a roll. "Well, you've got to be careful from now on 'cause our friend here," she indicated Yugyeom with her head (he was still in his seat chatting with his new friends), "has caught her eye on just his first day here!"

Jungkook, now between your seat and Yugyeom's, swiveled around to look at him. Then he turned around slowly, "What girlfriend? And your class has a new guy? What's his name?"

He was being so cute, you thought to yourself.

Minah looked at you sideways and smirked once again. "Well, Jungkook, his name is Yugyeom, and maybe he finds this beauty here," waving a hand up and down in your direction, "pretty as well. He sure did stare here when he first came in."

At this, Jungkook turned around, only to find that Yugyeom had also turned around and was already looking at them because he had heard Minah say his name. You noticed that Jungkook's hand was grabbing rather hard onto your table as he leaned against it, glaring at Yugyeom.

"Hi," Yugyeom said pleasantly. "Do I know you?" He took Jungkook's glare in stride as he looked past him to you. "Well, we've met before, haven't we?"

Jungkook stood up straight and turned to see your reaction with a what? look on his face.

"No, I believe we haven't," you said as calmly as you could, surprised that you could manage such a smooth tone.

Yugyeom's smug face looked taken aback for a few seconds. Then he smiled, "Of course. Forgive me, I must have thought you were someone else. I believe we will get to know each other in the future." Then he turned back around in his seat to face the front as the bell rang, signalling the end of the break.

Both Jungkook and Minah looked at you questioningly but you shrugged, offering nothing. They both went back to their seats for homeroom.

"Good afternoon everyone!" your cheerful homeroom tutor Ms Lee called out as she waltzed into the classroom and set her folders on the teacher's desk. Everyone responded with 'Good afternoon's and 'Hello, Ms Lee's.

"Well," she said, clapping her hands together, "we have a new student in our class! Yugyeom-ssi, could you please stand up and introduce yourself to the class?"

Yugyeom stood up and smiled at Ms Lee. "Annyeonghaseyo, my name is Kim Yugyeom. I'm from Seoul and my family has just moved here because of my father's business. Busan High seems like a great school and I hope we will all get along," he slowly looked around the classroom and came to a stop at you, smiling in what seemed like a genuine way, "Yeah, I really do hope we get along." Then he sat back down as his new friends and a couple of the girls clapped for him.

"I'm sure you will all get along very well, Yugyeom!" Ms Lee said. "Now I want to announce something else. Our whole year group will be having a camping trip next week, as you all know, and the permission forms have just come out. Can our class representatives come up to help me distribute them?"

You got out of your seat along with the other two reps Mingyu and Eunha to grab the permission forms.

Ms Lee handed a small pile to Mingyu, who sat in the front row, then Eunha, who sat in Minah's row, and they started to hand them out along their vertical row. When you got to the teacher's desk, Ms Lee handed you your pile, saying, "I know about your special situation, dear. You can ask Minah-ssi's parents to sign ad your guardians. Is that okay?"

Surprised, you nodded and turned around to hand out the permission forms quickly, going back down your row to catch up with Mingyu and Eunha and finally getting back to your seat before sitting down with your own permission slip in hand.

Bird-watching, the form said. That should be interesting, you thought. And you looked at Minah who was busy scanning through all the lists of things to bring and sighing heavily at every new page.

Jungkook, a couple of rows in front on your right side, was looking back at you when you turned to make eye contact with him. He held up his form and waved it at you. You nodded, and he turned back around in his seat.

Now Yugyeom turned around to look at you. "Will this be fun?" he asked.

"Yes, I guess," you replied evenly.

Yugyeom asked a question again, "You're going?"

"Yes."

"Then I'm going too."

"Everyone, you have the rest of homeroom off to talk about the coming trip and maybe chat with your new classmate!" Ms Lee called from the front of the room.