A Caged Bird | Minjoon

7

namjoon was sitting in his seat, reading like he did every day before class.

he always got to class early, having to sit and wait for jimin until he arrived.

it wasn't so bad, though, because people would usually just be off talking in their own friend groups and not pay any mind to namjoon.

but today was different.

today, namjoon was pulled away from his book by- what he assumed was a women's voice talking to him.

he looked up and immediately met eyes with a pretty girl smiling down at him.

he was a bit confused why she was talking to him, but he tried his best to act as normal as he could, regardless.

"hi!" she said, brightly, "you're namjoon, right?"

namjoon just nodded, feeling completely uncomfortable talking to the stranger.

"um... well... i'm areum."

namjoon's brows furrowed, knowing he recognized the name and trying to remember where he had heard it.

and then, it suddenly hit him.

she was the girl that jimin seemed to have a liking for.

and namjoon immediately had even less interest in talking to her at the realization.

"oh..," he said, struggling to form any type of coherent sentence, "h-hi."

"you're probably really confused right now," she said, beginning to ramble on, "sorry. i... i just... i noticed you when you answered that question in class yesterday and you just... you seemed really nice and i thought maybe you'd want to hang out sometime or something..."

namjoon just looked at her, a surprised look on his face.

is she asking me out?

namjoon had never been asked out before.

his immediate reaction was to say no and run out of the classroom, but he knew he couldn't do that.

so, he thought it over for a minute, seriously considering the date.

there would be no way he could really go out with someone, especially a girl. he was too weird... too awkward.

but, right before he went to turn the girl down, he stopped to consider his options.

jimin was straight. very straight, as far as namjoon knew and there was no way in hell anything could come out of it. 

maybe... maybe if he just tried going out with a girl it wouldn't be so bad. maybe he could make it work.

and, if all else failed, he could at least use the chance to try and move on from jimin.

he only realized how long he was taking to respond when the girl spoke up.

"you know what... i shouldn't have asked. you don't know me and-"

namjoon interrupted her.

"no!"

she looked confused.

"no?"

"i mean... i'll go. when?"

she looked a bit surprised, smiling.