Nemesis ~ {PJMxR}

40: To Keep Me From You

Finally I heard his laughter too. He pushed up to support himself on his knees as he laughed some more.
"Still going strong, huh?" I asked dryly.
He waved a hand at me and tried hard to form words;

"I'm just. . ." He wheezed out one more laugh. "I'm sorry, I'm just relieved."
He sighed pleasantly, and now that he was back in full control of his faculties, he stood up again and straightened himself.
"Okay, Please explain fully what happened so I can understand."
So, somewhat sheepishly I begun by telling him how I had suspected he had feelings for her earlier, since before the camping trip, ever since he talked about liking someone he'd known for a long period of time. I told him about most of my suspicions of them, I pretty much explained everything that wasn't mortifyingly embarrassing which was pretty difficult as I did want him to understand and the humiliating parts pretty much made up 99% of the story.

"You-" He stared at me for a long moment after I'd finished with a disbelieving frown -"You're totally irrational, why did you have to misunderstand like that. you should've just talked to me!"

"That would've been too humiliating!"

"And this isn't!?"

"Well, no, this is pretty humiliating too."

He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Wait, you said you thought I liked her ever since I talked about my crush. Did you really think I was meaning her?"

"Well, who were you meaning?"
As I said this I couldn't believe that he would say all that about me , but . . .

He looked at me like I had gone insane.
"Who else?! I thought I was being pretty damn obvious!"

Passers by were starting to give us strange looks, we were two teenagers half-shouting at each other in the middle of a mall after all, so I could hardly blame them.

"What," he scoffed. "Do you think I go around kissing girls I have completely no interest in?"

"Well, you've had girlfriends before and you've never seemed overly interested in them!"

"That's-" he looked a little startled. "Well, that's different."

"How so?" I pressed.

"I would've never done that with you. I was just trying to figure myself out then, but now I rather reckon I know why I could never hold onto a relationship."

I cocked an eyebrow at him. "And?" I prompted.

He waved at hand at me with his dark eyebrows raised, as though the answer were obvious.

"What?"

He looked out across the mall with an expression that could only be read as 'I'm so done with this girl'.
"I swear," he gripped the bridge of his nose again, squeezing his eyes shut- "you can be so dumb sometimes. You're acting like one of those idiotic, oblivious shoujo manga female leads again! Who would dare to misunderstand as much as you do?"

"I'm sorry, my mindset has been very misunderstanding lately, I'll admit that!" Though the tone of my voice was still exasperated, the apology was genuine. "But, you! Park Jimin, are not answering the question outright! Do it so my tiny, small, minuscule brain can understand without room for another ridiculous misconception."
I knew what I was asking for, he knew what I was demanding of him.
We both stood there for a long moment, perhaps both wondering if it would actually be said.

He was caught in the headlights. Finally, he sighed and relaxed his wound up shoulders a fraction.
"You're right." His voice was so low that I craned forward to hear it. "I am wasting a lot of time and effort saying this indirectly to a person who takes everything the wrong way, if she can."
I scoffed.
He opened his mouth to continue, then stopped, cringed, turned his back on me and covered his face with his hands.