swxtched. | jhs

XI : THANK YOU

GREEN GLANCES AT Hoseok in class and blinks when she catches him staring at her. She squints her eyes as if to say, "What?"

He waves cheerily. The students seated behind him notice this action directed at the quiet prosthetic girl. Green's shut mouth tightens as she looks away.

It's awkward.

The fact that they've known each other for two months and have seen each other naked, heard each other's parents yell at them, and possibly secretly read an entry or two of each other's diaries is just... awkward.

They know more about each other than they'd ever like to admit. They know more about each other than possibly anyone else in the entire world. But at the same time, it's not odd for them to think that they hardly know each other.

Hoseok doesn't know why Green cut off her right arm.

Green doesn't know how Hoseok met his basement dancing friends.

But it's not easy to bring up such personal questions when they're not used to openly communicating about those kinds of things, despite the fact that they can say they need to poop. Asking to poop is not the same as asking where Green's parents are all the time, or why Hoseok has been procrastinating on college applications. Pooping is just embarrassing. The rest is personal.

"How are you?" Namjoon says in English, looking at her intently. Green's zoned-out mind comes back and she flushes.

"I'm god," she says, and then cringes.

"You're God?"

"Yeah. No. I mean, I'm good."

Namjoon smiles and laughs, breathy and light, dimples on full display. Green wants to smash her head against the wall for preoccupying her mind with Hoseok and pooping again.

"Do you want to stop?" he asks. "We can have another session tomorrow if you're not feeling it today. There's plenty of time before the next exam."

Green fiddles with her hands, cursing mentally at how Hoseok cut her nails so badly the other day. She called him over and asked if he could cut her nails on her left hand. It's sad that she didn't think to wait until she was in his body to do it herself. It's even sadder that she had no one else to call.

"Geurin?"

"Hey, Geurin-ssi!" Hoseok pipes as he enters the empty classroom. "Want to grab some ramyeon after this?"

Namjoon's smile freezes. He watches the casual exchange between them, bewildered at how they ever even noticed each other in the first place. Green does not seem like the kind of person who would ever glance Hoseok's way, if not in irritation. And ironically, her quiet demeanour does not put off Hoseok's bright attitude in the slightest.

They compliment each other, somehow. Somehow. 

How, though.

"Hey, Hoseok-ssi," Namjoon says.

"Yeah?"

"How are you?" he asks in English.

"Oh," Hoseok cracks. Clearly unprepared. "I'm fine, thank you."

"What are you having for dinner, Hoseok?"

"I'm fine, thank you."

"How old are you?"

"I'm fine, thank you."

"Dear God," Namjoon prays.