Love Affair | kth

4

It's been nearly an hour since class ended. Nearly an hour ago, Jimin left for basketball practice. You knew he wouldn't finish until 4:30, which meant you still had roughly thirty minutes left to finish your paper. Soon after Hobi left, his words echoing around your brain, leaving unwanted (but wanted) questions, you managed to get some work done on that paper. But you were hardly focusing. The music was too distracting. You were always this way - it was obvious that you couldn't get anything done if you worked and listened to music at the same time, but, you still wanted to anyway. Jimin had the exact same problem. Before you started dating, back in the raw years of middle school, you would sit side-by-side in the Library, every Thursday after school, simultaneously listening to music while doing homework. You and Jimin would pop song recommendations to each other, amidst "working", almost not even trying to pretend either of you were focused. It took a horrible toll on your grades. By eleventh grade, you'd gotten a better hold of yourself. You still weren't half as academically driven as you had the potential to be, but you were better off than Jimin.

It was Tae who first made you realise, for real, that you couldn't accomplish anything multitasking like that. It was Tae who made you realise that you needed to sort out your priorities.

These thoughts, these memories - they kept flowing to your head. One by one, continuously. Like a current that was never going to end. You were aware that this had been happening a lot lately. You were basically used to it now. It was hard to clear ... him, and everything ... from your head.

You pulled the AirPods out of your ears and set them on the table. Your teeth ground together. A muscle in your jaw ticked as you stared restlessly at the laptop screen in front of you. Focus.

You began to work.

Thirty minutes later, your eyelids heavy, fingers aching and numb at the same time, from having typed for so long on end - you realised you'd gotten more done that you had to for the next few days. You stared at the screen, perplexed. A voice swam into your head. It was rich and deep, gentle like the lap of waves. But, spoken with a warm rush of excitement, mocking. He exclaimed, "See? What did I tell you? What did I tell you, [...]?" He was grinning. That much was obvious just from hearing him.

You closed your eyes. No.. don't think about that. You couldn't think about that. You needed to stop thinking about that.

You reclined back in your seat, reaching your arms in front of you in a cat-like stretch. The doors to the cafe opened and from them, a familiarly loud voice boomed about. It stirred you from your tiredness. You blinked. The loud voice cleared up, his muffled words forming easily identifiable sentences.

"Ahh, you're so terrible! You're so terrible, Hobi," Jin was cursing foully between breaths. Hoseok's instantly-recognisable laughter followed, melodic guffawing. "How could you do that to me - first Taehyung, now you!"

"What? I don't know what you're talking about, I hardly touched you," Hobi insisted.

The ruckus they'd caused had grabbed the attention of nearly all the people in the cafe. Some were clumps of students, chatting together after school; some were individually trying to get work done. Everyone looked annoyed upon the arrival of the two idiots. It made your heart grow warm with memories you hadn't realised you'd been missing.

Hobi's head swerved around. He met your gaze. You raised your chin up in a slow salute, fingers twitching into the tiniest wave on the table. He smiled at you.

Seokjin whirled around to follow Hobi's line of sight. As soon as he saw you, you watched as the light in his eyes froze. He seemed shocked. Then, unsure. Although you'd caught him off guard before, those were very few times; anyhow, this was different. He didn't look flustered or pride-hurt. He just looked uncertain.

Hobi sauntered over to you without asking Jin for inquiry of direction. Jin followed closely on his heels anyway, running his hand through his rich fields of black hair. It'd been a long time since you'd been in the presence of Kim Seokjin.

"Hello again," Hobi mumbled, coming around to look over your shoulder at your work. "Get anything done since last I saw you?"

"Actually, I did," you informed in a jokingly proper manner.

He chortled, seeming surprised, "Oh, you actually did! Wow ... good. Good, good." He nodded, genuinely applauding you.

Jin had just been standing there, looking a little lost. Now, you turned to face him. He still stared at you, unsure and wavering. You'd always had more balls than him.

"Hey," you said, looking straight at him, half challenging him to hold your gaze. You were almost positive you'd win. "Jin. Seokjin. Hello Kim Seokjin, I'm [...]. Nice to meet you." You stuck out a hand for him to shake. At your side, you heard Hobi laugh, clapping you on the shoulder.

Amusement laced through Jin's eyes. He nodded to you. You weren't sure, but it almost looked like a gesture of respect.

"Oh.. yes. Hello," he reached out and grasped your hand, shaking it roughly. His hand was so friggin big. "I'm Kim Seokjin, nice to meet you. Hello."

"Yes, hello."

You grinned.