Dolls

Part 9

As the night drew to a close I put the BTS dolls on the floor and crawled into bed. The house buzzed with silence as my grandparents were away at the grocery store. The sheets felt good against my skin after long day of walking around the mall, even though I only bought one thing. Keeping up with Jihee was a lot of work, but Minhun kept me company when she was in the dressing room, which made the waiting bearable. She would though come out and show us from time to time to get my opinion when she was stuck on whether she liked it or not. How she was able to afford all the clothes she bought baffled me. Their parents must be well off since Minhun's new computer was pretty expensive too. I sighed as I pulled the sheets over me and tried to get to sleep since tomorrow was going to jam packed with walking and homework.

The next day as the guys and I were sitting at the table eating breakfast I heard my phone buzz so I stopped eating and set down my spoon to grab my phone which was on a nearby table. "Who texted you?" Namjoon asked me, his eyes raising slightly in curiosity, watching as I unlocked my screen.

"It's just Minhun." I said, reading what he sent me. "I'm studying with him and his sister today."

"Didn't you hang out with them yesterday?" He asked me.

"Ya, but he asked me to help him with math today. We're meeting up later so I can help you search today." I said, setting down my phone and going back to my spot where I was sitting by Yoongi and Jimin. I picked up my spoon and went back to eating my cereal.

"Anyway, how are we going to split up or are we not going to split up?" I asked after a second.

"There's eight of us so I think we should split up into two's" Jimin said, as he was in mid-bite. "We'll be able to cover more ground."

"Good idea, but talk with your mouth closed " Jin said.

"Yes sir." Jimin said sarcastically saluting playfully. I rolled my eyes and continued to eat. I come to realize watching all of them interact in the last few days Jimin has a very childlike character, along with Taehyung, Jungkook, and Hoseok while Namjoon, Jin and Yoongi have more of an calm and relaxed personality. I didn't notice this immediately, probably because they wanted to know for sure about their situation and to be able to trust me, but all their personalities make for interesting conversations and actions from all the band members.

"So, who should go with who?" Taehyung asked.

"I'll go with Sumi" Jimin said immediately, putting an arm around me. Oh, that's another thing I learned about Jimin. He gets clingy and is always looking for attention with the people he's comfortable with. I froze as I was eating my cereal and looked up at the same mischievous smile he had on yesterday. I frowned at the contact and lifted his hand off me.

"I don't care who I pair up with." I said, beginning to eat my cereal again.

"Okay. So then for the rest what about Jin and Yoongi, Taehyung and Jungkook, and Hoseok and I." Namjoon said.

"Works for me." I said, shrugging as I finished my breakfast. I stood up and grabbed my bowl. "I'm done eating so I'm going to put my stuff away."

"Oh Sumi!" Jin shouted, before I walked into the kitchen, making me turn around.

"Ya?" I asked.

"What do you want to eat for dinner? Don't forget I'm making it tonight." Jin said smiling.

"Oh I forgot." I said, which in honesty I did. "I'll look in the fridge to see what my grandparents got last night and tell you when I come back." I said, pointing in back of me. Jin gave me a thumbs up and went back to eating. I walked into the kitchen and set my bowl in the sink. I turned on the water and started to clean my bowl so I could put it away right away, and after I was done I walked to the refrigerator to see what we had. My grandparents stocked up pretty well since they knew that we had seven other people living with us for the time being, so I took a few minutes looking through it and closed it. Whatever he wanted to make I was pretty sure he could, so it'll just depends on the time duration it will take to make it, so he'll have to come back earlier. I brushed the access water on my hands on my pants and was about to walk back into the living room when I heard my name leave one of the guy's lips. I froze in my place.

"She's going to get the wrong idea if you keep being clingy. With us it's different, but when you do it to a woman she might think something else." Yoongi said, scolding Jimin. I back up, so no one would see me and then let myself roll my eyes since that was the complete opposite of what I was thinking.

"You worry to much." Jimin said "Besides.... I'm not the one she likes." Jimin smiled widely, nudging Jungkook who was next to him. Yoongi sighed loudly, like he's heard this before from him.

"Jimin, for the last time you have no idea what you're talking about." He said sternly. "she doesn't feel that way about me. You're reading way into this."

"But she gave you a notebook, while all of us got nothing. Don't you think that calls for some suspicion?" Jimin said, arguing his point.

"She only got that for me because we got into a fight Friday and she still felt bad. It doesn't mean anything." Yoongi argued back.

"So you don't think she likes you." Jimin said clarifying, raising his eyebrows.

"No, and if by chance I am wrong, the feelings aren't mutual." Yoongi said. He put his spoon in his bowl and got up. "I'm done talking about this." He said, walking towards the kitchen. I immediately backed away and made it look like I was just walking out when he entered the kitchen. I quickly sat down back down by Jimin, trying my best to look like I wasn't just spying on their conversation.

"So, I looked in the fridge and it looks like you can basically make whatever you want. You can look more closely at it later if you want." I said and put my hands in my lap.

"Oh cool. I'll look at it later then." Jin said, trying to act like they almost didn't get into a fight. I nodded and clenched my hands together. For some reason as I sat there I was starting to actually get hurt at what Yoongi said. Sure I didn't do it because I liked him in a special way, but I'm curious to why he's so against it and he talked about me in such a vexed tone that it hurt my feelings, but only a little. What an ass I thought angrily.

"Are we going to go?" I asked suddenly trying to focus my mind on something else. Jimin looked at me startled by the sudden question and was quiet for a second. "Ya, we can go" he said finally, taking his bowl and getting up. I got up too and headed for the door to grab my coat. As I put my arms through the coat I saw Yoongi walk out of the kitchen and look at me. I glared at him internally and turned away.

"Are you leaving now?" he asked me curiously.

"Ya I said simply, zipping up my coat, my back to him. Yoongi was acting like he just didn't just talk about me negatively and it was riling my even more up. I guess he really doesn't care I thought. So, I preceded to ignore him for the rest of the time I was getting ready since I didn't have time worrying about Yoongi, and Jimin and I soon walked out of the house to go looking. However, just as we left I found myself still not understanding why I'm getting angry at Yoongi. The air was cold and we were already walking for a few minutes. "It's not like I really care. Like me or not I don't care." I mumbled unconsciously sighing to myself as I stuffed my hands into my pockets angrily. Jimin who was walking on my right  looked slightly to his left, looking at me suspiciously.

"Are you okay?" He said "You look upset" I glared at him clenched my jaw slightly.

"I'm not upset." I said simply, but my voice was a little bit more sharper than I thought it would be.

"Really? Are you sure? Because you've been talking too yourself for the last two minutes mumbling something about liking someone or something." Jimin said, raising his eyebrows again.

"I was talking to myself?" I asked, embarrassment written on my face. I took a deep breath and pinched the bridge of my nose.

"A little." He said.

"Just don't worry about it. It's silly and stupid, so I shouldn't worry you about it." I said, taking my hand off my face and looking straight ahead. Jimin was quiet for a minute, but didn't push any further, which was good, since I was not going to start talking about my feelings with him. "so, where do you want to start looking?" I asked, directing his attention elsewhere. Jimin looked around and shrugged his shoulders.

"I don't know we've already looked through every store and street in town. So, right now we're just rechecking each place over again." He said, sighing to himself now. I turned to him, watching his face fall. Even though they said that they wouldn't lose hope I could tell that Jimin was tired.

"Wait, you've already searched the whole town?" I asked, stunned. I didn't expect them to look that fast.

"Ya, it was a lot of walking, but we did it." Jimin said.

"Does that mean that the house isn't in the town?" I asked.

"That's what we've been thinking...." He said, a long breath escaping his lips again. I sighed too, knowing that we would have to expand our searching ground.

"This opens up way more possibilities to where the house could be" I said.

"Ya, and I know you don't like driving, but none of us have our license on us, so we'll need you too drive us." Jimin said.

"Ya that makes sense" I said. "What times were you guys thinking?"

"Wait, you'll drive us?"" Jimin said, surprised for some reason. I looked at him confused, raising my eyebrows.

"ya, did you expect me to say no? Obviously I would drive you." I said, my voice harsh. Jimin smiled at me at that minute and shook his head.

"No" He said, lying through his teeth.

"Liar." I said back, glaring at him. Jimin just smiled back at me innocently and I knew I couldn't be mad at him much longer. "Whatever." I spat at him and turned away.

After Jimin and I rechecked some stores it was getting close to when I was going to meet Minhun and Jihee on the library, so I said bye to Jimin and started home to get my backpack and then head to the library. Minhun had texted me the address earlier so I knew that it was in walking distance. Once I finally did get to the library it was easy to spy Minhun sitting in the back by himself at a table. I walked over and set my stuff down.

"Hey" I said, sitting down across from him. Minhun looked up from his homework and let his lips stretch into a smile.

"Hey." He said back.  "Did you find the place alright?" He asked watching me get my stuff out. I put down my math notebook and grabbed a pencil.

"Ya, it wasn't a long walk." I said.

"You walked here?" He asked me, obviously a little surprised.

"Ya, I don't like driving." I said, starting to search for my math book. I ruffled through my bag, but I couldn't find it, just then realizing that I had left it in my locker after math was done on Friday.

"You have got to be kidding me......." I groaned, annoyance in my voice.

"What is it?" Minhun asked me, peering at my backpack. "Did you forget something?"

"Ya, my math book. I don't have a computer so I need to use the hard cover book, but I forgot it at school Friday." I said, sitting back into my chair.

"Do you want share mine then? I can pull the book up on my computer." Minhun suggested, and I thought for a minute.

"Sure." I said, leaning forward. Minhun smiled again and quickly moved his chair next to mine, putting the computer in the middle of us. I opened my notebook up to a blank page and looked at the screen.

"We had to do problems 100-125 right?" I asked, beginning to write down the problem.

"Ya, but I'm confused on the 110." Minhun said.

"You started already?" I asked.

"Ya, the first seven are usually the easiest, but it gets harder as you go." Minhun said shyly.

"I better hurry then." I said, giving him a smile and writing a little faster. I quickly did the first 10 questions and wrote down 111. I thought for a minute looking at it, and then realized that it was a lot easier than I thought.

"So" I said, looking at the screen, and getting Minhun's attention. "The problem is asking to simplify the limit as h approaches 0 to the function [(x+h -(1/x+h))-(x-(1/x))]/(h). It looks more complicated than it is, but all you have to is get a common denominators and then the rest is simple algebra. Sooo," I said, doing the problem as I talked. "The answer should be 1+(1/x^2)" I said, circling my answer. Minhun looked like a light went off in his head and smiled.

"Ohhhhhh, okay. That makes so much sense." He said, quickly doing the problem. "That was so much easier than I thought." He said, laughing a little embarrassed and circling his answer too. I found his laugh surprising cute and I smiled at him.

"Once you get over how scary it looks, it's a simple problem." I said going and writing the next problem down. Minhun nodded and wrote down the same problem. "Can you help me with the next problem?" He asked me after a minute of looking at it. I circled my answer and then turned to him.

"Sure." I said, moving closer and starting to explain the process to him. He smiled at me again and I saw his ears go red, the closer I got. I pushed it aside, since I was here to help him with math, but I knew that he was getting shy. I smiled to myself again as I finished explaining the problem and sat back.

"Do you get it?" I asked him curiously. Minhun quickly wrote down the process for himself and nodded.

"Ya, it's clicking. Thanks for the help." He said.

"Ya, no problem." I said, then sighing slightly to myself. I looked around, noticing that Jihee wasn't with us. That's weird, I thought she was coming I thought Did Minhun just want study with me?

"Hey Minhun." I said, getting his attention, since I wanted to know for sure.

"Ya" he said back, doing the next problem.

"Where's Jihee? I thought she was coming" I said. Minhun paused for a second and I saw his ears go red again.

"Oh, um she's at a meeting." He said shyly, beginning to do his math again.

"oh really? what meeting?" I asked curiously, sitting up.

"the Winter dance is in three months so they had their first meeting today. Jihee likes planning that kind of stuff so she went to the meeting today." He said. "... did you think she was coming?" He asked shyly.

"Ya... but that fine. I like hanging out with you." I said, turning forward and writing down the next problem. I think my honestly surprised Minhun because when I looked at him I saw that he was smiling to himself, his checks slightly flushed. I smiled and started to work on the math problem. I wasn't lying when I said I liked hanging out with him. Minhun is a nice guy, he always helps me and talks to me, and it's no secret that he not lacking in the looks department. So maybe that's why I've found myself smiling more when I'm around him. He has a personality that makes me gravitate towards him. As we worked and as I took some glances at him I couldn't help wonder if he had a girlfriend. He's never mentioned it, but a guy like him I would suspect to be taken. I shook my head, thinking that it was useless thinking about something when I should be doing homework, and quickly got back to the problem I was working on. The rest of the time we mostly worked separately, but asked questions if we had any, so it didn't take long to finish up the homework. Once I was done I set my pencil down and looked at Minhun.

"Do you have any more homework to do?" I asked curiously. Minhun looked at me, but shook his head.

"No, the only homework I get over the weekend is math." He said. "Do you?"

"No."  I said. "So, I think I'm going to head out."

"You're going to walk?" Minhun asked, as I started to pack my stuff up.

"Ya." I said. Minun was quiet for a minute and then started to pack up his stuff too.

"I'll give you a ride then." He said quickly, stuffing the rest of his things into his backpack. I looked at his widening my eyes.

"You don't have too." I said. "I can walk. It's no big deal."

"It's okay. I don't mind." He said, zipping his backpack up. I felt my face heat up a little, embarrassed, but I nodded. He's just being nice I thought.

"Well, if you're fine with it. I guess it's fine." I said, zipping up my backpack. Minhun smiled at me and got up. I quickly got up too and followed him out of the library to his car. Once we were both in I put my seat belt on.

"How far do you live?" He asked me starting the engine.

"I don't know exactly. It was a thirty minute walk here." I said. "I can just direct you the same way I came."

"okay." He said, backing up.

"You should take a right out of the parking lot" I said.

"Okay" He said, turning the car. We then both quiet became quiet, not sure what to talk about. Minhun was acting different than his usual talkative self that I experienced when I first met him, so I didn't know really what to do. I just sat stiff and continued to direct him to my house.

"Can I turn on the radio?" I asked after a while. It was getting a little too awkward for me, and this was the first time a guy has ever driven me home, so I was even more nervous.

"Sure" He said, he lifted his hand off the steering wheel at the same time I was about to turn the channel and our hands touched briefly for a second. Minhun immediately retracted his hand and whipped his head the other way, looking straight ahead.

"Sorry." He said quickly.

"uh, it's fine" I said, embarrassed as well. That was exactly the opposite of what I wanted to happen! Now it's even more awkward. Why did I agree to let him drive me home.... I thought totally embarrassed. I looked the other way and thankfully noticed that we were getting close. "Uh, turned left and it should be on the right." I said quickly, so we wouldn't miss the turn.

"Okay..." Minhun said turning.

"It's that house." I said pointing to my grandparents house. Minhun pulled in and parked the car and I quickly grabbed my backpack and opened the door.

"Thanks for the ride" I said.

"No problem." He said shyly, and I was just about to get out when he got my attention again

"Wait Sumi!" He said suddenly, making me stop and turn back to him.

"ya?" I asked. Minhun was quiet for a few seconds, but then blurted out a sentence that I didn't think I heard correctly. I froze in my spot and blinked a couple of times. Did he...? I thought surprised. Just...

"Sorry can you repeat that. You talked too fast." I said, but in reality I wanted to make sure what he said was actually what I thought it was. Minhun took a deep breath and repeat the same sentence.

"Will you go out with me?" Minhun asked again.