Just Talking

"I'll Prove It."

"Did you like it?" She asked him as they walked down a side street, trying to avoid the more populous roads as they headed back to the subway. This time Jungkook insisted on walking her, despite her protests, and she had given in. It gave her more time to put off the inevitable talk.

He nodded.

"That was so cool, it's been such a long time since I went to something like that. Thank you." He was smiling to himself. "Next time though, I'm picking." He was already getting an idea...

"There's not going to be a next time." Her voice was quiet but firm and Jungkook kept walking at first, her words not sinking in. But he stopped and turned to look down at her, at the determined expression he could detect behind her mask.

"Wha....?" She took a deep breath.

"It's okay, Jungkook. You don't need to...you don't need to try. I know you're busy and I know you probably feel some sense of obligation but it's seriously okay. Just go live your life." She shrugged her shoulders slightly. "If I need to show up again to convince that Dispatch guy to leave you alone, don't worry. I will. But you don't need to try to be nice to me and act like we're really together and make all this effort. I know what I signed up for. So please don't.....pretend." She'd stopped looking at him and was looking down at her shoes.

Jungkook just stared at her, trying to process. She thought....he didn't really want to hang out? She thought....he was just doing this cuz he felt he should? Was he? He didn't know. He did feel like a husband and wife should be friends but....he didn't have a sense of obligation really. More like a desire to have what he'd always pictured.

"Y...You think I'm doing this cuz....I feel obligated? You think I think I have to....?" His voice had a tinge of hurt to it, despite his attempt to hide it. She looked up, surprised. "Why would you think something like that?" Did he do something to communicate that? Idiot, he probably had. But he had no idea what...

Now it was her turn to feel confused. Wasn't that why he was doing all this?

"Why would you want to do this for real?" He felt even more confused now.

"Why wouldn't I? You're a nice person and we're frickin' married. I'm not allowed to be friends with my wife?" She blinked.

"You....want to be friends?"

"Of course!" Jungkook looked at her disbelievingly. Then he had a thought and his voice came out more timidly than he liked... "Don't you....?"

"Um...." She'd been so focused on how to get rid of what she perceived as a sense of obligation that the idea that he was sincere never crossed her mind. So she hadn't really thought that part through. "Yeah...?"

"You don't sound too sure...."

"I'm sorry I just....didn't expect you to ask that." She looked away again and mumbled. Now she felt kind of embarrassed.

"What'd I do to make you think I'm faking?" He asked, genuinely curious. She fidgeted with her fingers, suddenly finding the end of the alley very interesting to look at.

"I just thought...." She paused, trying to gather her thoughts. Then she gestured to herself. "I'm weird and like weird things, I'm not from your culture, and you're...." She pointed at him. "You're...you. You're....normal?" She shook her head. "No, not normal....normaler, I guess. It's just...I didn't think you'd actually want to keep up with me." She finished and Jungkook didn't reply right away. He had an idea of what he was feeling but he was trying to figure out how to express it.

"Well...I want to." To her complete surprise he reached out and gently grabbed her wrists. "I don't know....I've been asking Bang how long it's going to take and he's made no headway. It's going to be awhile, I'm thinking years. If we're gonna be married for years we should at least be friends, no? Isn't it weird to be married to a stranger?"

"Happens to people all the time." She said drily.

"Well....yeah....but they eventually get to know each other." She still wasn't looking at him and he felt a new emotion. Resolve. "You know what? I'll prove it. I'll prove it to you."

"Um...okay...." This was definitely not the turn Y/N had expected the conversation to take.

-

"Hyung, she thinks I'm only hanging out with her cuz I feel obligated." Jungkook was in Namjoon's studio, relating the date to both him and Jimin.

"Why would she think you don't want to hang out with her? Why else would you text her?" Seemed perfectly logical to Jimin.

"She said it's cuz she's weird and I'm....more normal, I guess. I don't know, her explanation was kind of confusing." Jungkook buried his face in the pillow on the couch. "I don't know how to do this stuff." He sighed.

"I'll tell you a secret, Jungkook. I don't think anyone ever really does figure out how to do this." At least that was what Namjoon had observed his whole life.

"Thanks, that really helps." Jungkook said sarcastically.

"How are you going to prove it to her?"

"That's what I'm trying to figure out. I just want to be a good husband but I really don't know what I'm doing." Jungkook said, sighing again.

"I'm not sure we're much help there either." Jimin said, thinking it over. "But you are always good at figuring things out once you get your mind set. I have faith in you." Jungkook didn't reply but Jimin's comment did make him feel a little better.

He wanted to be friends. So he had to do something about it. He had to prove to her that it was a genuine desire on his part. And he may not know what to do about it now but, as Jimin said, once Jeon Jungkook put his mind to something it was guaranteed to get done.