Stories of Us: Oneshot Collection

nothing serious (V/Jennie)

She pretends not to see for the umpteenth time that he's staring straight at her lips as she gnaws on the now bland, rubbery piece of gum she's been keeping in since their last lecture of the day. She already knows questioning him will result in an automatic insult to her height because 'it isn't his fault her face is in full view from up here.' 

You know what they say about guys who stare at your lips... Jisoo's voice is a lampooning chortle prancing on the edge of her oncoming migraine and she couldn't agree less. Had it been any other nimrod with a deliberate smirk smeared on their lips she would have undoubtedly caught the hint and returned it in the form of a bruised knee cap, but Kim Taehyung once stared directly at the anus of his own puppy in the midst of her attempt at catching him up on differential calculus. 

Besides, they aren't even each other's types. Taehyung is into those pinky pie type of girls like the exchange student from his photography class - Lalisa Manoban -  brightly dyed blonde locks and a toothy, sugary grin that, quote, 'melts his stomach into milk chocolate pudding.'

("So... shit," she had said with a cocked eyebrow. 

"No, not shit. Pudding."

"In your stomach. Which is shit."

"God, Jennie, why do you have to be disgusting?"

"I saw you lick nutella off the cafeteria table and you're calling me disgusting?")

She smothers the knee jerk reaction to make a one eighty turn when she catches a glimpse of his sheepish, heavy-lidded smile, because she knows at this point he's mentally transferred himself to Taetae-land where princess Lalisa waits in a frosted gingerbread castle until Jennie finds the empathy in her heart to actually snap him out of his daze at the right stop instead of leaving him to figure it out for himself ten stops later.

There hasn't been a day she hasn't called him an outright nimrod, questioning why girls are constantly asking her for his number because they're too intimidated to actually approach who she could only characterize as the least threatening creature known to man. But there's no denying the way he daydreams, mouth slightly ajar and misty eyes glistening in the passing sunlight, makes him appear almost otherworldly. Delicate facial features, soft hair sweeping past dreamy eyes and creamy skin. An unsettlingly realistic mannequin. 

Jennie times it perfectly when she pulls at the lapel of his jacket, prompting him to pluck the left earbud out. His mouth opens in preparation for the usual "are we here?" only to have mint and coffee surge through his senses, the metal clamp of his book bag clanking against the silver pole behind as their combined weights clash into it. 

It's brief - about two point five Mississippi's - but lasting just long enough for the train to come to a full stop at their destination. 

"What was that?" he asks, surprisingly unfazed as if this had been part of an expected routine.

She shrugs, "just curious."

"About?"

"Nothing. Don't take it seriously."

The door opens, preceding a loud chime, before another small ocean of people shuffle towards the exits. Jennie slings her black bag over her shoulder, dark locks fanning out against her back as she strides towards the exit. Taehyung follows suit, an eyebrow still quirked and features twisted in the same mild confusion that washes over them when Jennie tries to explain the relationship between differentiating and integrating functions.

And just as quickly as that inquisitive glower forms, it fades away with a dismissive shrug as he plugs the left earbud back in.