Time to walk down memory lane
School, after all, is a place filled with negative things. The first few days of school were filled with a lot of things that made me feel miserable. Hearing Lee Joon and Jeon Jungkook's names on the first day was particularly difficult. While I certainly saw Lee Joon in Jeon Jungkook, I wished others hadn't felt that way.
You could call me a hypocrite. I tend to be selfish when it comes to things I like. Also, those people are different from me. Others, when they see Jeon Jungkook, think of Lee Joon's case, not Lee Joon's. As if recalling it wasn't enough, they were busy exaggerating it.
“Min Yoongi, I’m so sorry to Jeon Jungkook.”
“You came now?”
“…Yeah, he’s always on everyone’s lips for no reason. Even if he doesn’t show it, it must be incredibly uncomfortable.”
At the beginning of the new semester, Lee Joon's incident was so painful that I only thought about myself. Now that things have calmed down a bit, I look around and see Jeon Jungkook, oblivious to everything, constantly being talked about. Like everyone else, I was so selfish towards Jeon Jungkook. He was always there for me when I cried…
“What if I say sorry?”
"uh?"
“What, are you going to tell me why yourself?”
He was speechless. Unless someone told him why school was in such disarray, he'd have to endure the discomfort. And if those loose-lipped kids started talking again... he hated that too.
"Kim Yeo-ju, you can't be of any help to Jeon Jung-kook right now. You'll just be a burden. The only thing you can do here is either tell him why, or avoid him altogether. It's one of two things."
Here we go again. Min Yoongi's honest, cold words. Knowing he was cold because he cared about me didn't hurt me too much. Only after hearing Min Yoongi's words did I realize. If I felt sorry for Jeon Jungkook and didn't want the other kids' words reaching his ears, I had only one choice.
I confessed to Jeon Jungkook directly. It was hard for me to bring up Lee Joon's story, but I had to do it to protect Jeon Jungkook.
“I… don’t like it when Jeon Jungkook is having a hard time.”
My footsteps, heading towards the classroom, stopped. Quite some time had passed since that day, and I'd even begun interacting with Jeon Jungkook. So now Jeon Jungkook and I were friends, and he'd seen all my ugly sides. If he couldn't handle this situation and left, I felt like I wouldn't be able to hold out this time.
“Hey, you’re crazy,”
“Please talk to the teacher! Please!!”
I decided to head towards my only option. I turned around and started running, searching for Jeon Jungkook. I searched all over the school, and after hearing from people who said they'd seen him, I headed towards the rooftop.
I climbed the stairs at the end of the hallway several times and arrived at the highest floor of the school building. I took a few deep breaths and opened the large, solid gray iron door.
“Jeonjeongg,”
The moment I opened the door and called out Jeon Jungkook's name, I saw Jeon Jungkook standing precariously on the rooftop railing. For a moment, I was so startled that I couldn't speak. Trembling, I approached him step by step.
“You, what are you doing there, Jeon Jungkook…”
“Huh? It’s Yeoju.”
At my voice, Jeon Jungkook stood on the railing and smiled prettily, and my expression hardened. Even though I tried not to think about it, that day kept coming back to me. Jeon Jungkook standing on the rooftop railing overlapped with Lee Joon standing in the photo studio, holding a medicine bottle.
My heart felt like it was being squeezed shut. Losing someone precious, not just Lee Joon, was terrifying. Anxious that something like that might happen again, I trembled like an aspen leaf.
“I don’t want to lose you too…”
I just hung my head. As soon as I lowered my head, tears began to fall, leaving a trail of tears on the rooftop floor.
A few tears had left their mark, and a shadow fell before me. Before I knew it was Jeon Jungkook's, I locked eyes with him. It was because he had cupped my cheeks with both hands and lifted me up.
When my eyes met with Jeon Jungkook's, tears streaming down my face, my heart overflowed with sorrow and I burst into tears. Jeon Jungkook was flustered for a moment, but then he chuckled and hugged me.
“Every time I see you cry, it seems like I just see you cry.”
Caught in Jeon Jungkook's arms, I burst into tears without even realizing it. Strangely, being in front of Jeon Jungkook feels like a roller coaster ride of emotions. One moment I'm feeling happy, the next, tears stream down my face, and finally, I burst into tears like a little child.
“Don’t cry, lady. We’re holding each other like this right now.”
It was a rather affectionate voice. No, now, Jeon Jungkook's voice was so sweet that I unconsciously snuggled deeper into his embrace. As I buried my face in his chest and wrapped my arms around his waist, Jeon Jungkook's hands, which had been patting my back, stopped for a moment.
“…Aren’t you hugging me too tightly?”
“Huh? What did you just say?”
“Oh, it’s nothing.”
When I raised my head and stared intently at Jeon Jungkook's face, he avoided answering. Even though I had stopped crying, I stayed in his warm embrace for a while longer. He didn't try to pull me away either.
But I saw it. When Jeon Jungkook stopped patting me, I glanced up and saw that his ears were bright red.
