ᴄʜᴀsɪɴɢ ʀᴀɪɴʙᴏᴡ

27. Trinity of feelings and vision

Jungle - X Ambassadors, Jamie N Commons

Taehyung

"AI can never replace us."

"I only said that it's saving us a lot of time. A team from Osaka was able to reconstruct the visual images from MRI scan data using stable diffusion. Imagine how any comatose patient can be helped with it." Jimin talked passionately. 

Jungkook's eyes ping-ponged between us. We fell into the regular rhythm. Classes were running. We were studying again. The football practice had also started last week, and Jungkook had moved back to his old dorm after the place was renovated. I thought he'd like to stay in the VIP dorms, but Jungkook was more unpredictable than I thought.

The agitation in me was building every day when I couldn't express myself to him. Why was it so fucking difficult? I never felt this way about anyone, but when I did, I was more afraid than assured. What if Jungkook stopped hanging out with me altogether? What if he quit football? Worse, now that he had a new hobby on the street to pick his mind, he would easily switch to dancing. 

Jimin has been preparing for the year-end university event. He has been doing this for three years now. Why did he have to drag Jungkook along? I knew it wasn't his fault, but I wanted to spend more time with Jungkook. 

No matter if I convinced everyone in the group about Jungkook, if we didn't go anywhere from where we were in the past, nothing mattered. I had to make excuses to bring Jungkook to our dorm every time. And Jungkook should have been awarded an Oscar for his obliviousness on the matter of my heart. How could he not see? Or if he did, he should have gotten another Oscar for his acting for pretending.

"You're right," I mumbled. "My father has laid off quite a bunch of operators from the manufacturing unit after automizing the process. I guess I didn't feel kindly towards it. It's just that AI is doing more harm in some areas." 

Jungkook looked at his phone. He wanted to leave this conversation with all the zeal he could muster. I could tell by his body language that he was waiting to run off. 

I didn't say anything. I was getting tired of always being the one to initiate our plans. He never showed any interest in our outings, and I believed that today was just not it for me. At first, we ended up taking a surprise test. Then Andre and I had a spat in the dormitory. Now that I wanted to eat dinner in peace, Jungkook refused to eat because he wanted to wait for Ulrich, who was on his part-time job, Jimin decided to debate on the unruly topic, and to top things off, Jungkook seemed like he was here against his will. 

I needed to call it a day. 

His phone chimed and his face lit up. 

Whoever it was, I needed to find the fucker, and I needed to talk to them.   

Jungkook was going to be mine, and I needed to communicate the same to anyone who wanted to look at him without platonic feelings. 

He was already the most popular student in his class because of his involvement with us and in the sports club. He scored the highest marks, too, so the swooning girls were unavoidable. The Jeremy kid also batted his lashes at Jungkook everywhere he went. I didn't care about those teenagers, but whoever was making Jungkook jittery had to be dealt with. 

Jimin

"Thanks, Hyungs," Jungkook air saluted us with a big grin as he stood up. "I'll see you all later."