Guilty as Charged

48- Bricks

"What? Can you never stop being unreasonable and rude?" Jimin stroke his bangs back with his hands, the normal Jimin thing that he does.

"I am working on it. As you can see, it's not going so well."

"Yeah, no crap."

"But are you ever gonna tell me why you wasted a cold morning standing outside my house?" I asked him, what was it, for the third time?

"I told you..."

I cut him off before he could repeat the same thing over and over again. "Yeah, what's the real reason now? Tell me or I'ma beat you up."

"Dang, why are you so aggressive. Fine, my grandma is ill, my parents went to visit her and...left me in charge of the house." He paused in between before he continued again.

"In charge of what? The ghosts that haunt your house?" And I decided to play my old card again.

Playing old cards sometimes can be beneficial, for example, it can make your friend more scared of their empty hallways than they already are.

"Ugh, stop. I am not scared of those. I just never liked being alone." Jimin whined again because he does it.

All the time.

"Well, suck it up. Learn to be independent."

I don't know why I said it. On the outside, because nobody talks to me, it looks like I am fine without anyone.

Truth is, I sweat non stop when I am somewhere alone. Unwillingly.

I am very dependent on others. Especially, people who are dear to me.

"Um... teach me. I can't do it alone." I didn't answer him. I can't teach him if I can't learn myself.

After a good seven steps or so, he talked again. "Can I spend the night with you?"

Now, that was an awkward question. It all depends on which way people interpret it. And even though my brain chose the wrong side, my mouth said the right one.

"No."

"Ugh, come on. You're never helping me with anything, in fact, I am the one who is always trying to give you my best." I can't argue with that, but I could argue with other things.

"Isn't Jungkook your neighbor? Go there." But then I remembered that Jungkook was the little brother of our once frenemy, Jaebeom.

If someone had two options; their frenemy's little brother, or their childhood shitty friend, they'd probably choose their childhood, shitty friend.

"No, he's younger than I am. It's awkward. And besides, you and I know each other's' houses like our own...why am I even asking you? I am going over to your house today." Jimin made up his mind, and I know he had a point as well as he wasn't moving so easily now.

He could be moved, but I neither had the will nor the energy to do so.

"You know Hoseok's house too." But I went on. Yours truly had to spend the walking time on the way to school in some way, right?

"His house is far." He emphasized the word far, and then took his backpack off and hit my back with it.

He probably carried bricks up in there. "Stop arguing, jeez. Is this how you act when I ask one favor from you?"

"OK fine, you can stay or whatever. But just saying, if I had a big house like yours and I was alone in there, you better believe I'd do all sorts of fun things." I meant that as a joke, and I hoped he got it.

I didn't look him in the eyes.

"You're disgusting. I could live without that!"

And so, the morning sun went higher and we reached our destination.

__________ . . . . . __________

By the time we entered the classroom, Hoseok and Namjoon were already chatting with each other. We had ten more minutes left before school went into session.

Namjoon wanted to give me a high five, but I left him hanging. I am not the kind of person to engage in..fun.

"Wow, you went and did that." Hoseok's comment was more directed towards Namjoon than me, which made Namjoon glare at me.

"I don't like high fives." I answered simple and honest.

"Fist bump?" Jimin left his backpack in his desk and came back to talk to us.

"No."

"Chest bump?" Hoseok asked.

"No."

"Hug?" Namjoon joined them.

"No." And so my answer remains the same.

"OK fine, I will give you a hug." Saying that, without my permission, Jimin grabbed me with his small arms and embraced me in such a manner like a child to his dad.

"Ew. Go away." But I shoved him off like a girl who just rejected someone.

But Jimin let out a Jin Hyung like a laugh, as if my statement of truth didn't matter to him.

At all.

And I didn't appreciate it.

The rest of us looked at Jimin as he laughed his ass off. Some of the other students started looking this way, and we looked at them.

Namjoon, Hoseok and I just shrugged at them like 'It ain't our fault' but Jimin told them it was our fault.

And we gave him a meme- like face, particularly Hoseok, which made Jimin laugh even more.

At that point, we understood that if we make one wrong move, we will be embarrassed for life. So we called a halt to this.

_________ . . . . . _________

In Literature class, we were reading this play and this character in the play said something funny which made Jimin burst out laughing in front of the whole class.

Nobody else was laughing.

Namjoon buried himself in the book as Hoseok hid with the hood of his sweater from all the way over there.

And I...

I told Jimin to shut up in front of the whole class.

Which either built or ruined my reputation, I wasn't so sure. Jimin then apologized to the whole class, including the teacher and asked her if he could take a walk.

And I don't know who was more embarrassed. Jimin, Namjoon, Hoseok or me.

Now some may ask, why are we embarrassed? Answer to that question is, people know we hang out with Jimin.

We ain't no bad friends, it's just that when one in your gang does something, everyone else gets affected. Sometimes even more than the actual person who did that thing.

Back to the point, the whole class got distracted after that; which earned us more homework than usual. It wasn't our fault that Jimin made the whole class lose concentration, dropped the mic, and went away like that.

"Let him come back to class. I will personally break his neck for all of you." Namjoon sighed under his breath, so only I could hear, but he meant it as if he was going to take vengeance for the whole class.

I didn't know he, of all people, would get angry because of more homework.

And I didn't doubt that Namjoon could break Jimin's neck. He practically breaks everything that he touches.

I don't know how his mother gave birth to him without breaking her hip.

No offense.