CRIMINAL MINDS | KNJ

calculus

"Dude. Are you serious?" Seokjin asks Eunsook, as if in disbelief. He leans over her calculus papers, checking them for her, and she grimaces. "You said two times three is eight."

"I did?" She asks incredulously, snatching the papers from Seokjin and skimming it for the mistake. "Oh. I did." She frowns.

"Ha!" Jungkook snickers from his place on the wall where he leans, watching the whole ordeal play out. "Eunsook's dumb." He teases. Rolling her eyes, Eunsook sends him a gesture with a particular finger.

"Eunsook just misread the three as an exponent, actually." She snaps. "Two to the third power is eight." She says, as if to reassure herself, validate herself. Jungkook quirks an eyebrow at her, clearly amused.

"Eunsook's talking in the third person now." He says, a shit-eating grin on his face. Groaning Eunsook massages the bridge of her nose with her two fingers, trying to soothe the headache that blooms between her eyes that only calc and Jungkook can give her.

"Hey, don't be a dick." Seokjin scolds him, rubbing Eunsook's shoulder. "Don't worry, Sookie. You only got a couple things wrong, and they were all little mistakes. Easy fixes." He tries to reassure her, but she doesn't feel much better. Her schedule has been getting harder and harder for her to balance lately. She goes to class during the day, works all night. She used to have time to do homework and study during the day, but her work has been slowly adding up somehow. She has resorted to doing homework in between customers during her night shifts. Her brain stops working after midnight, and it's leading to mistakes in her work, but she doesn't have time to do it at another time.

This is partly due to the fact that she spends what time she isn't working or in class drawing. Ever since she picked the hobby up again, she hasn't been able to stop. She craves the feeling of a charcoal pencil in her hand, yearns for the sound it makes as she brushes it against the thick, creamy paper of the sketchbook Namjoon gave her. She is almost done her portrait of Seokjin, and she dutifully carts her sketchbook between home and work in case Namjoon comes in and asks to see her progress.

"I hate math." She states tiredly.

"Said the accounting major." Jungkook jokes. She knows he's just kidding, but the reality of it this late at night is a slap in the face. She feels a lump growing in her throat, the beginnings of tears stinging her eyes.

"Whoa, whoa, hold on. Eunsookie, are you crying?" Seokjin asks softly, holding her by both shoulders now.

"No." She lies, but her voice comes out strained with tears. Seokjin gasps, pulling her to him in an embrace, arms around her as if sheltering her. He shoots a glare at Jungkook, who watches with wide eyes as Eunsook cries into Seokjin's chest.

"Look what you did, Jungkook. You made her cry, dumbass." Seokjin exclaims, and Jungkook has a look of pure panic on his face. He hurriedly skates over to them, bending his knees and hunching his back a little so he's at eye level with Eunsook, who peeks out from Seokjin's chest at him.

"Hey, I'm sorry. I was just kidding." He murmurs, and she sighs shakily. Emerging from Seokjin's embrace, she wipes her eyes. 

"It's okay, Kookie. It's not you." She explains with a sigh, but Jungkook and Seokjin don't look willing to drop the subject.

"Then, what is it?" Seokjin asks. "What's wrong?" 

Eunsook opens her mouth to respond, but stops, hesitates. She doesn't talk about things like this with Seokjin and Jungkook. They're her best friends, but their relationship has never been a serious one. They're all fun and games, Eunsook's escape from the solemnity of her life--all numbers and facts and figures. With Seokjin and Jungkook, Eunsook can forget about her glum future and just be happy. Blissfully ignorant for a while. She already doesn't really talk about this part of her life, but her fear of breaking the boundary between her unfortunate reality and the fantasy she lives when she's with Jungkook and Seokjin makes her even more uninclined to talk about it. The only person she feels comfortable enough to discuss it with is Namjoon, and even then, there's a line that she won't allow him to cross. So instead of the truth, she says: