paper hearts (jeon jungkook)

Let Me Know

The night was no longer young.

"We start uni again next week!"

After long conversations and gobbling down grilled steak, you stepped out of the restaurant. The neon lights of pink, blue, and yellow painted your skin. Hoseok placed his arms over Taehyung and Jimin, walking side-by-side with foolish grins on their faces. You followed behind them, silently chuckling over their proceeding grumbles about going back to the university again.

"[Y/N],"

You quickly halted on your feet, eyes beaming minimally.

"Hm?" you hummed in response, turning around.

You tried to appear as nonchalant as possible, pursing your lips and arching your brows at the sound of Jungkook calling you. He stood beside Namjoon, gulping the lump that ran his throat dry. The taller man coughed awkwardly, following after Hoseok and the college juniors. You bowed to him when he passed by, startling him a bit before he returned the gesture. 

Facing forward once again, you saw Jungkook walking towards you in front of the restaurant window. He kept his head down, contemplating about the words he wanted to say.

"Aren't they—"

"Let's go." Namjoon interjected Hoseok's words, standing behind the trio.

They only stood a few feet from you and Jungkook, aggressively whispering to one another.

"But hyung—" Jimin attempted to reason, almost whipping his head around.

"We won't leave them. They just need time alone right now." Namjoon quickly intervened once more, knowing full well that all of them were curious.

"You know we're still here, right?"

You and Jungkook giggled, standing beside each other to stare at their dumbfounded faces.

"Sorry!" Namjoon exclaimed before pushing the others to continue walking away. "Hurry, hurry." they mumbled to themselves.

Laughter escaped your lips, shared between you and Jungkook. You looked away from your friends' disappearing forms at the corner of the street. Fluttering your eyes upwards, you met his persistent gaze.

Silence.

He still couldn't believe that you were in Seoul, dressed up in a simple striped sweater and jeans. Such reality clouded his mind again as the words he tried so hard to arrange became blurry in his head.

"Uh, can we meet again?" Jungkook started, sounding unconfident despite his blunt request.

You tilted your head to the side, a small smile steadily playing on your lips. Jungkook felt his heart pick up its pace, looking away.

"For the tutoring, of course." he quickly added.

Jungkook held himself back. Hesitance and diffidence won over his desire to tackle what happened over the years.

Your face lit up, nonetheless. You were easily swayed, too focused on what was ahead of you and already past your friendship's falling out.

"Oh! Of course!" you frivolously replied, taking out your flip phone, "Let's discuss it again when I find a second part-time job. I hope our schedules don't clash."

Jungkook's lips parted slightly at the news of you looking for numerous job openings. He uncontrollably remembered that you started working years ago when the care-taker said that there was a big possibility that you were aging out. Since you two lost connection after that, he never found out if you got adopted or completely left the orphanage alone by this year.