It's A Fine Line

10: Special Escort

"Thank you Ajhussi." Uncle Kim patted my head before leaving my bag next to the lockers.

"Have a good day, kid."

"You too."

"Senthuri," a voice called out.

"Yes, Jinhee?" I turned to look at the girl who never wanted to leave me in peace.

"Who was that?" She smirked.

"I can see what you're insinuating but I'll choose to ignore you. But fyi that's just my uncle, he's a fatherly figure so please mind your words next time."

"Don't pretend you're the victim in all this."

"Excuse me?" I asked genuinely confused.

"I don't know what you've done with Jungkook to have him behave so nicely towards you but you need to stop. He'll never like you the way you want him to."

"It's called being a nice human being. You should try it sometime. As for Jungkook, I don't want him to like me in any way. But I can't say I don't appreciate him being civil towards me."

"The way he spoke to me the other day is all because of you. If he didn't feel guilty about you getting injured this would've never happened."

"But it did and it's not like I can change that."

My back was against a locker and she stood infront of me, giving me a death glare.

"Stay away from him," she threatened before pushing the tip of her index finger against my brace. She did it with so much force that even thought the brace was there, I still felt it in my ribs. And it hurt, a lot. She kicked my injured leg and walked away laughing when I yelled out in pain.

I composed myself after a few minutes. Encounters like this used to give me panic attacks but now I was just irritated.

I leaned  my forehead against my locker suddenly not wanting to proceed with this day.

"Hey stranger," a voice whispered, against my ear, from behind me. Needless to say, the voice interrupted my train of thought and in doing so gave me the shock of my life. I elbowed the person behind out of instinct.

"Ow," a familiar voice cried.

"Jungkook, don't do that! You scared me."

"And you injured me. We're even."

"Do you need something?"

"No."

"Then why are you here?"

"I've gone to this school for a couple of years now." He pointed out.

"That's not what I meant. What are you doing here, with me? Your girlfriend will get upset."

"Firstly, I don't have a girlfriend but if you'd like to fill that position you just have to tell me." He winked while I felt a blush reach my cheeks.
"Secondly, if you're talking about Jinhee then I don't really care about her or her feelings."
"Lastly, I'm trying to socialise with you but might I say you're not very good at it."

"I'm aware. I'm not the social butterfly. More like a social snail -slow and nobody really wants me here and too much salt will kill me. And you know these students are nothing but salty."

He laughed at my response. His laugh wasn't something I could get used to. It somehow felt exhilarating that I was the one who caused him to laugh. It was true that I'd caused him to laugh before, like when I fell a few times, but those weren't really laughs more like snickers. This laugh, however, made his eyes crinkle cutely and although it wasn't a full blown laugh - the type that consumes you- I still found it infectious and it brought a certain joy to me.