Oppa : Kim Seokjin

Chapter Thirty: Catch up

"Jungkook-ah!" I all but yelled as I saw the boy down the street. His shoulders jerked in surprise, and he whirled on the spot. A grin came to his face as he saw me, gripping his shopping bags in one hand.

I pointed at him with one hand, flexing my other arm in a weird sort of lunge. He mirrored my pose, then crowed, "Noona! Bro!"

"Bro!" the term had become an accidental habit when he'd referred to me as it once on a run a while back. He'd been so embarrassed that, naturally, I'd had to use it to tease him, and then it just sort of became a thing. I skipped over to him, stopping to kick his butt lightly with the side of my foot. "How's it going? Been a while."

The brunette fiddled with his fringe. I could see it was getting too long and too in his eyes. He looked chirpy, though. It was cute. "It has! What are you doing back in Seoul?"

"Ah, just for a little bit since it's the holidays. Jin was complaining." I rolled my eyes, and he snickered. I punched his arm. "I'm back for a couple weeks, we should go for a run! I bet you'll struggle to keep up with me now, chicken legs."

"Excuse you, have you seen these?" he gestured dramatically to his calves. "I'm like Iida from My Hero Academia." I squinted at him, and he sighed. "It's an anime. Iida's a guy with literal engines in his calves. I'm so tired of no one getting my references."

"Not my fault you're a closet weeb..." I grumbled, and he scowled, but let it go, brightening again immediately.

"So when can we go? I've missed having a running buddy, Noona." his tone was almost one of complaint, "And it's been 210 days since you promised me banana milk."

I had to laugh at that, "I know, I know. I see your daily counter on Instagram." I snorted, and rolled my eyes. "I'll have to text you for the run, though. I'm not sure what I'm doing so far for the time I'm here."

"Sounds fake but okay." He sassed, pulling a fake sulky face- which soon dissolved into a grin when I smacked him. He was a bad liar.

"How's school? Girls still harassing you?" it was hard not to laugh at the face he pulled.

"Yeah. I was hiding out in that classroom you showed me but they found it so I had to stop." the paper bag he held looked to be from some kind of sporting goods store. He did seem to exist in jogpants and hoodies in free time. "Now it's warmer I can stay on the roof during breaks."

I rose my eyebrows. "Wasn't that always locked?"

He grinned, somehow mischievously, "The janitor gave me the key. I guess he took pity on me."

I wondered vaguely if that was all it was, and if perhaps the janitor wasn't just weak in the same way pretty much everybody else was. I'd yet to meet anyone who could resist that smile.

"Don't you have anyone to hang out with at school? Guy friends?" without either of us really saying anything, we'd begun to walk, directionless, as we spoke. "Someone as goofy as you must have friends."

"I do, but..." he pursed his lips, pensive. It was a weird look to see on him. It made him look a lot older. "They aren't really..." I rose my eyebrows as he struggled for the right words. "I like them but I don't really want to be around them too much, y'know?"

"Huh." I think I understood what he was getting at. "You don't click?"

"I guess so." Kook shrugged. "I have other friends that I'm close with, just not at school."

"What about Taehyung?" his face seemed to light up at that, and I laughed, "I saw your selca with him on Instagram." (the elusive taekook selca ㅋㅋㅋ)