rate.u | pjm ✔

nineteen.

sinai tapped her pencil against her lips. the boy promised not to be a distraction, yet he absentmindedly was. she watched as he focused on the textbook in front of him, turning to his laptop every now and then to write some more words onto his essay.

there was nothing timid about the way jimin would return the same gaze to her. he was curious, intrigued by the girl in front of him. up until a few moments ago, she had been a picture on his phone screen and a drunken video call. and now here she was, flesh and blood, and he wanted to know all there was to know about her. but she was too focused on anatomy anyway.

"why'd you run?" he asked, lifting his eyebrows. the girl chuckled and shrugged.

"it's just my fight or flight response. it was that or punching you in the face," she spoke as if it was the most normal thing in the world. and knowing what he knew of her, it kind of was.

he didn't know why he'd trigger that sort of response from her, but he knew sinai was difficult. and she'd have a hard time getting used to him being in front of her.

"i'm glad my face was preserved then," he offered her a wide smile. leaning her head against her palm, she proceeded to try to memorize all the nerves in the hand.

sinai had never been great at memorizing, which probably wasn't a good asset to miss when studying medicine. she stared at her own hand, trying to compare it to the hand drawn in her book. jimin thought it was funny.

"what?" she raised her eyebrow as she heard him snickering.

"i just think you look a bit crazy, talking to your hand and such," he confessed.

"well, unlike you, i'm actually trying to study," she scrunched her nose up. no, she wasn't.

jimin sat up in his chair, so he could look into what she was studying. shaking his head, he stood up and walked towards her, taking a seat next to her instead.

sinai didn't like the feeling of stupid butterflies in her stomach as their shoulders touched. "use mine."

she gave him a weird look before she realized he meant his hand, extending it to her. she let out a girly giggle as she looked at his hand, and she hated doing it, but there was nothing she could do to hold it back. his hand looked soft and a bit too small for his height, and she found herself thinking it was cute. grabbing her pen, she eyed him for a second. "do you mind if i draw on it?"

shaking his head, jimin gave her consent to draw on his hand. the girl looked back and forth between her book and his hand, doing her best to draw the blue lines over where she thought they would be. and as she did, she would name every single one of the nerves.

jimin had never enjoyed anatomy or any other science. he had always liked the arts more, and now that he was in law school, he was also getting used to that sort of world. however, as he heard her explain every single detail, he found himself mesmerized. it wasn't even the contents of her speech, but her voice soothed him.

and when she reached under his hand so she could turn it slightly to her, and their skin touched, they both felt the jolt of electricity that spread through both of their bodies, pulling them towards each other. withdrawing her hand, sinai blushed, clearing her throat.

"i think i got it," she whispered.

"yeah, i think so too," jimin spoke, but he wasn't exactly talking about anatomy.

sinai couldn't deny he was handsome. and the fact that he was so close to her wasn't helping her inherent lack of concentration. it was as if she could feel his heat right against her skin, penetrating through her pores and almost intoxicating her. she hated feeling this way.

jimin, on the other hand, couldn't get enough. and he wasn't trying to be subtle on his approaches to her. he was undoubtedly attracted to the girl, and the fact that her attitude only seemed to falter when he was this close to her told him that it wasn't completely one sided. but he also knew she was guarded and hard to deal with. jimin was patient.

but the fact that she was wearing a mini skirt and knee high stockings was making him wish he could just skip the waiting phase.

"do you always dress up to come to the library? or was i lucky enough to catch you on a great day?" he wiggled his eyebrows.

sinai pulled her skirt down slightly, shifting in her seat. "you pervert, don't stare at my legs or i will gut you!"

she had raised her voice a bit too much and she only realized it when the librarian appeared from behind a set of bookshelves and shushed her. she quickly apologized, ignoring jimin's chuckles.

"for your information, i dress like this every day," she whispered this time.

that sentence made him gulp. it was hard to sit there and pretend she didn't affect him half as much, but it would be harder now that he knew this was a daily thing. how was he supposed to resist the attraction towards this girl?

sinai looked at her watch, standing up as she realized what time it was. something inside her was begging her not to go, but she would rather listen to her conscience this time. "i have to go, i have to take the bus in five," she started gathering all of her things.

jimin couldn't hide his disappointment. "do you really have to go? i have a car, i can drive you home."

"and find out where i live? no thanks, i'm not trying to have a rate.u horror story to tell my grandkids," she scoffed, waving her hand dismissively. but her heart was yearning to say yes.

"our grandkids?" he wiggled his eyebrows. but although jimin took it lightly, it felt unsettling in sinai's stomach. fight or flight.

he noticed her change of demeanor, pouting and stuffing his hands in his pockets as he too stood up. "when do i get to see you again, then?"

sinai pondered for a second, staring at the boy. fight or flight. "never, this wasn't meant to happen."

jimin lifted his eyebrow. there she was, again with the whole i-can't-see-you complex. "but it happened. and i want it to happen again, maybe somewhere else that's not a library and maybe some time we're not both studying?"

sinai pursed her lips. it was hard to say no to him, which was exactly why all her alarms went off. she needed to go. now.

"it's not gonna happen," she quickly threw her bag over her shoulder. "goodbye, jimin."

she didn't wait for the boy's response as she bolted out of the library. she didn't stop when she heard his footsteps behind her, and she didn't stop when he called out her name.

boys like him were trouble. and sinai couldn't afford that kind of trouble again. even if her heart loved the danger.

suddenly, the footsteps behind her stopped, just as she reached the bus. looking over her shoulder, she saw he had stopped on his tracks.

jimin didn't know what to do. he didn't know what he had done wrong, and how this girl just didn't seem to want to give him a chance. and he wanted to be patient, but this particular part was killing him.

sinai paid the bus driver and took a seat on the back of the bus. she watched jimin's frame disappear from her window as the bus drove away.

taking out her phone, she opened her conversation with jimin on the app. drawing in a shaky breath, she disconnected from her account.

flight.