Illusion

The Party

Wait why is he here? Actually, it makes sense, he is the only new kid that has been to this school in years I don’t know why I didn’t connect the dots, and how I didn’t notice. Her eyes lock with him, she gets a weird feeling from him, something she didn’t notice before. Once their eyes lock Jungkook visibly gets uncomfortable and continues looking around the room and she makes her way over to him.

“Hey, new kid. How are you liking this neighborhood so far?” Naeun asks politely wanting to sound welcoming and so he can feel more comfortable.

“It’s pretty nice so far. Although the only people I’ve met in this neighborhood are you and your mom so… that’s not much.” He says quietly after turning away from his mom whose still in her own world talking to Naeun’s mom.

“Well, I’m sure you’ll love it the more people you meet, do you want to go somewhere else so you can meet more people?” She says hoping to be able to get to know him more.

”Sure, I need to get away from my mom anyway.” He gives Naeun a shy smile and she nods softly grabbing his wrist and taking him up to her room.  As they walk up to her room he gets a better look at just how much nicer her house is compared to his, even though they are neighbors, the houses look like they should be in two separate neighborhoods. The walls are an ocean blue and there’s only a couple of pictures of her and her family on the wall. This actually looks and feels like a home to him, something he could live in and not get bored of, it just looks perfect. They get upstairs and she takes him to a tall white wood door at the very end of the hallway on the left side. She opens the door to reveal more ocean blue painted walls but the majority of the walls are covered in posters of different singers and a couple of actors. Jungkook notices three beds in the room, one has a bedspread colored neon pink, one is deep purple and the third one is a swampy green color.

Naeun makes her way over to the purple-themed bed and climbs on top of the bed, Jungkook follows her and sits on the edge of the bed playing with his fingers slowly. I barely even know her, I met her today. Why am I in her room? I thought we were just hanging out…

”So, Jungkook, tell me about you. Who are you? Where did you come from?” Naeun says calmly wanting to make him comfortable.

”I moved here from a place named Casanova. It’s a really small town 10 hours from here. I’m fourteen years old, an only child, I really like drawing… I’m not that good at it though.” He thinks about anything else he can say about himself, he’s always thought of himself as boring and he never has anything to say about him. Right now though, he gets an urge to tell her more but he doesn’t just because he wants to still have some things to himself and he knows how people are, they find stuff out about you and go tell everyone else about you.

“Maybe one day we can hang out and you can show me your drawings. I’m sure they aren’t that bad.” She gives him a warm smile and pats his shoulder. She doesn’t quite know a lot about him but she understands he isn’t doing his best right now and she wishes she could give him some help by just being there.

“Can I ask you a question?” he asks softly and looks her in the eyes, she nods. ”why are they so many beds in this room? Like how many siblings do you have?”

She laughs softly, ”I have five siblings, three of us sleep here, and the three youngest sleep in the room across the hall.”

”Oh ok, we should probably head downstairs though, just so my mom doesn’t worry too much.” The male says and gets up with Naeun. They head downstairs through the long narrow hallway and walk down the steps. Jungkook goes to find his mom and soon finds her by Naeun’s mom still talking about whatever they could think to talk about.

                          ———————

At 11 pm Jungkook and his mom are finally leaving Naeun’s house. It’s not like he doesn’t like spending time with Naeun, he enjoys it, she’s the first kind of friend he’s ever had but it is a school night, and he needs to go to sleep so he actually wakes up in time. His mom just doesn’t know when to stop talking, he’s happy for her though, he’s happy she’s finding some sort of joy after what they went through with his father. They walk in the house and Jungkook grabs his book-bag and lazily drags it upstairs with him. He plops down on his bed and checks his phone one last time.

It was nice meeting you today and I enjoyed talking to you at the party. I’m sorry my mom talks a lot.
-Naeun Sent 11:10 PM

Thanks, I enjoyed hanging out too. And it’s fine. My mom talks a lot too.
-Jungkook Sent 11:30 PM

The next morning Jungkook wakes up and gets up 30 minutes earlier to stretch and do some yoga before getting changed for school. He straightens his hair and combs it out to fix it wanting to actually look nice today. After getting ready he changes into a light blue button-up shirt and a pair of black jeans and heads downstairs. He checks his phone a couple of times before heading downstairs. Once he gets down there he gets a weird feeling while looking around the kitchen, he gets a bowl of cereal wondering why his mom isn’t awake. She is always awake when I’m awake… I mean we were up late last night so maybe she was just really tired… I am in high school anyway, it’s not a big deal. He shrugs it off and grabs his book-bag which is heavier than yesterday and walks outside heading to school.