gone | liskook

Chapter 8: Wonder

Jungkook stared at their retreating figures, brows furrowed in confusion.

'What-'

A small tap on his shoulder made him turn back and Taehyung made it into his line of vision.

'We're late to class,' he hissed. 'Get your books, let's go!'

What Jungkook didn't notice was the quick glance Taehyung cast behind his shoulders, making sure that the girls had gone past the hallway before he steered Jungkook to class.

The room was bursting in loud yells of hello and an embrace between old friends seeing one another again after a long summer. Jungkook beamed at his classmates, nodding and laughing along with his peers who enveloped him with hugs as he entered. Taehyung, who had received a similar reception, had made his way to his seat with the rest of their close friends, Jungkook close behind.

The brunet caught a gleam of unfamiliar blond somewhere amongst the crowd, sparking his curiosity but was distracted by his friends as he reached them.

'Jungkook!' His name being called by his brothers were like a warm welcome. They had been meeting everyday for a whole week before school started but it hit him now that they were truly back.

Jungkook chuckled. 'Brothers!' He took his seat by the window, dropping his back on the floor and swiveled in his seat to face his friends.

'So how have you been?' Jungkook teased.

Hoseok laughed at his question. 'Oh, I've been great!' He followed along. 'You know, I feel like I saw you yesterday! Was it at a cafe or...?

Jungkook giggled. 'No, I don't think we met!'

It was well-known their group were as tight as brothers; so close people questioned their relationship sometimes. Frequent questions that called for things like, 'No, we're not brothers!' or 'No, we're NOT dating!' have always left them in tears of laughter after their misleading answers, or sometimes none at all, leave the askers in more confusion than they had initially. It didn't help that their acting skills were not too bad either; these encounters often left them creating their own little show, with Jimin pretending to be hurt by their denies.

The professor arrived three minutes after the bell rung, quickly hushing his students and immediately starting the class. Jungkook who had never been an attentive student in class, although his straight A's contradicted it, found himself zoning off into a distant world — the professor faded into white noise and the scribbling of pencils and fingers rapidly typing on the keyboards became a faint buzz.

Jungkook's thoughts strayed to the one person he hadn't been able to get off his mind: the girl.

Despite their frequent run-ins, he had never spoken a word to her other than their first-time meeting, and weirdly enough, his headaches had only gotten worst every time he tried to dig her out of his memories. The strange familiarity was what left him with unanswered questions.

Which brought him back to his encounter this morning. Who were the girls? And why did they look at him with such.. distaste?

Jungkook couldn't bear the thought of being disliked. He was fairly certain he'd never met them before...

Only he did. The one on the left. She—

She was the girl's friend. He'd- he'd seen her at the café. She bumped into him in the hustle of the crowd and quickly shouldered her way past, leaving him slightly insulted but he'd shrugged it off and continued on with his order. But then he made eye contact with the mysterious girl. But her friend dragged her away.

It all came rushing back to Jungkook as he quickly connected the dots. He rewinded past the girl and remembered Namjoon. His older friend who had listened to his words; who Jungkook remembered watched him watching the girl leave from his seat, looking alarmed; who sounded nearly scary as he hinted at Jungkook to stay away from her-

The look on his face, those eyes, he could literally see them now. Then he snapped out of his train of thoughts as he came to the realisation that Namjoon really was leaning over him. The older waved a hand in front of his face, looking concerned at the lack of response.

'Jungkook?' They were all surrounding him now.

Jungkook grinned, gazing up at the circle of heads. 'I just zoned out, I'm fine.'

They breathed sighs of relief, Jimin lending a hand to Jungkook that he gladly accepted.

They were gathering their things, when a wave of nausea hit Jungkook and by some sort of impulse, his head snapped to the door.

A flash of blonde, the unfamiliar but familiar figure, was just disappearing out the exit.

Jungkook's mouth formed silent words but he did not move. He couldn't.

***

His friends watched the one-sided exchange, unbeknownst to him, frowns progressively getting deeper each second Jungkook stood frozen, listening to Lisa's footsteps as she left and then looking slightly relieved as more footsteps joined hers — her friends —whisking her away. It was safe to leave. Jimin counted to three silently and then, called out Jungkook's name.

As they left the classroom, the six of them realised the obvious.

Keeping them apart was more difficult than they thought.

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