Cigarettes & Kisses | P.JM 🔞 ✔️

9 | confessions and candour

Y/N'S POV

"Are you alright?" Tentatively biting on my lower lip, I stole a glance at Jimin who was now getting his knuckles wrapped up at a nearby pharmacy.

"Why do you care?" He responded coldly, wincing slightly as the pharmacist put disinfectant on his wounds. "I'm just a bastard who took advantage of you."

I sighed. "My sister strongly vouched for him. How could I have known that Hyunwoo was a bully five years ago? He seemed perfectly nice on the outside."

"Exactly." Jimin rolled his eyes. "Not everyone who seems nice on the outside is actually nice and not everyone who seems like a 'jerk' on the outside is actually one." He emphasised.

"Well, he didn't exactly make it easy for me to tell how malicious he really was." I defended myself. "Just like you keep making it difficult for me to stay by your side by acting like an obsessed, toxic ex-boyfriend."

"I think I can understand why Joohee noona didn't know anything about his dirty past though." Jimin looked at me. "Hyunwoo is her husband's first cousin and she's only gotten to know him in the last few months, after he returned from America."

I frowned, confused as Jimin explained further. "Well, Hyunwoo and a few other students were suspended from our school for spreading rumors about my mother's death. Your sister was to get married at that time, so her husband's family quickly sent Hyunwoo to the USA so as to not ruin his citizen record and also to prevent the marriage from being called off." He smiled grimly.

"Because Joohee noona's husband is nothing like his cousin, they didn't want Hyunwoo's actions to badly influence their eldest heir's life."

I nodded. That made a lot of sense. Eonni had married into a rich house, so it was obvious they wouldn't have wanted their family's reputation to be harmed. "But why didn't I know Hyunwoo?" I asked. "If he was in the same middle school as us, I should have at least recognised his name."

Jimin smirked. "You were way too obsessed with me to pay attention to any other boys. Plus, you're kind of dumb."

"Yah!" I pushed him offended, pulling back hesitantly as he groaned in pain causing the pharmacist to shoot me a reproving frown.

As we walked out of the pharmacy, another question bothered me. I pursed my lips.

"Just ask." Jimin rolled his eyes.

I bit my lip, embarrassed. "How did you know that I was on a date with Hyunwoo?Perhaps...wait! You weren't eavesdropping on me again, were you? That's so stalker-like!"

Jimin shrugged. "I don't try to eavesdrop. It's your fault you always leave your window open."

"And what happened to you not showing your face to me?" I stared at him. "I thought I asked you to never bother me again?"

"Am I bothering you now?"

"You are showing me your face though." I pointed out without a heartbeat's hesitation. Halting, I crossed my arms and faced him.

"Tell me something...and be honest, because this is the last chance I'll give you to come clean." I said calmly as Jimin stopped walking to face me as well.

"You were intentionally being mean to me that day, weren't you?" I asked, letting out a breath.

"You were hurt by how I kept on blaming you for everything and tried to make me feel bad by saying all those things. And don't even try to lie because I thought about it a lot when you were busy beating the shit out of Hyunwoo...and I realised what you feel for me isn't something that you can conceal that easily. And that there's no way you could have faked those kisses because..." I trailed off, my cheeks heating up. "Because..."