Chasing Paradise {Jeon Jungkook}

one

"Ay puta, are you even listening? If you get us caught again, I'm not taking the fall for you this time."

How many times had we gone over the plan? Ten? Twenty? Fifty?? At this point, I could create a visual monologue of how everything would run down, and yet here I was being nagged again. 

"Lita, I've got it," I rolled my eyes and sighed. "I even have the detailed text you sent me, which, by the way, the cops could easily trace back to us." Lita leaned in from across the table and eyed me suspiciously. I shook my head in annoyance. "Besides, couldn't you bug me about this someplace else? The library isn't as discreet as you think."

Lita leaned back, confused, raising an eyebrow as she glanced around. "But we're whispering."

I looked at her in disbelief. When she dyed her hair blonde, did the bleach seep into her brain? For someone who was admired for her skillset and tenacity, she was a complete idiot in normal circumstances. 

I checked my phone again with a deep sigh. "Look, we have what . . . ten days before the Grammys. Why are you suddenly so nervous about this? We sneak in, do the job, and then get the hell out. This isn't our first rodeo, nor will it be the last."

"Yeah, but-"

"But nothing!" I whispered loudly, seething through my teeth. "This is the most consistent thing in our lives. I know what I'm doing, and so do you. So can I please just finish my damn essay?"

I returned to my notebook, glancing up periodically to see my cousin still stricken with the same dumb expression. After a few minutes of excruciating awkward silence, she abruptly stood up and grabbed her purse. "I'll see you at home . . . puta."

"You should be seeing me in our next class, but I take it that's not happening."

I heard her giggle softly as she made her way behind me. Her presence grew closer until I felt her breath next to my ear. "Why do all that work when I can screw the teacher and get an automatic A?" I brushed her away in disgust, not wanting to look her in the eyes again.

And yet you call me puta.

I was happy to be embraced by silence again, the only silence I'd likely be getting tonight. I took another glance around the large room. Amongst the tall, dark shelves that extended down the halls of the campus library, only two people were in sight, far enough away to not have paid attention to my me or my idiot of a cousin.

Perfect. 

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"Grandma," I spoke softly as I watched my grandmother rock peacefully in her chair. She was always awake when I came home, even at the crack of dawn. To ease her weary heart, I knew coming in before the streetlights came on gave her peace of mind, leaving me the only one in the household with the audacity to care about her state of mind. Her record player spun, filling the room with old Spanish music I had heard many times before. I didn't need to understand the words to know they meant something to her - I always imagined they were sweet, romantic words my grandfather probably once sang to her. 

She continued to rock gently in her chair, welcoming me into the room with a quick wave of her hand, her beautiful smile never leaving her face. "My sweet, smart girl, how was your day today? Keeping your cousin out of trouble?" I heard the same phrase almost every day in Spanish, it made it easy to understand what she was saying to me over time. All she ever wanted to know was if my dear cousin was staying out of trouble or dragging me along with her on some whimsical scheme. As long as those deep brown eyes of hers were open, my grandmother didn't need to speak English to know what was going on.