Take My Hands Now

Chapter 3

"Since when were you friends with Jeon Jungkook", Namjoon questioned you.

"Since never? If you guys hadn't abandoned me by myself during the party, this wouldn't have happened."

"What happened?", a very confused Mirae was asking with a mouth full of udon.

"Nothing...", you wanted the conversation to stop.

"Yeah right. Jeon Jungkook, famous for not giving a shit about any girl in school, walked up to you in lecture today to talk to you that way. I am sure nothing happened alright", Namjoon was needlessly sarcastic about it.

"How would I know what is wrong with him? I just spoke to him for like two minutes at the party!", your voice was crescendo-ing louder.

"Ooh, someone has a crush on Y/N~". Mirae was so not helping. Both Namjoon and you turned to look at her with bewilderment, Namjoon still having udon hanging from his mouth.

This was Jeon Jungkook she was talking about, he who would not bat an eyelid at womanising the most sought-after girls in school and then dumping them on the roadside like used toys.

"The only thing he is crushing is someone's heart, that's for sure", Namjoon spat at Mirae.

"Ok ok! I'm sorry. You look like you are about to spit all that udon into my face.

But what if he just wanted to be friends? Heard he's super rich too. Maybe he just needed a friend in that lecture?" shrugged Mirae. Trust her to always give everyone the benefit of the doubt, how would you have become friends with her otherwise?

"Just stay away from him, Y/N. Guys like this are never just out to 'make friends'. Anyway, aren't you going to be late for your part time job?" Thank goodness Namjoon changed the topic.

—

You counted yourself very lucky because you managed to get a part time job at the bookstore in the nearby mall. It's one of the jobs that really had minimal physical contact with anybody.

The store was quiet as usual, with only a few patrons. You liked to people-watch while working. By looking at the type of books they picked up or the genre of music they were choosing from, you imagined to yourself what kind of life each person led. Today, there was just a girl who looked like she was also a university student, another lady who was pregnant and an elementary school boy.

But your thoughts were elsewhere. As you were arranging the books on the shelves, your mind drifted back to the queer "confrontation" in the lecture theatre.

"I'm not ok. What are you going to do about it?"

Why was he telling you that? Oh right, because you asked. But still, why was he telling you that now?

You were glad the lecturer came in right on cue to save you from answering the pointed question, but it definitely looked like Jungkook was intent on getting an answer from you. How you regret now what you had asked him previously.

Breaking your moment of regret was the school boy who came up to ask if you could help him look for a book – "The Complete Tales of Winnie the Pooh". It didn't take you too long to locate it for him in the children's section. The cover of the book intrigued you and so you picked up another one, randomly flipping to a passage:

"Hello Pooh. Hello Piglet" said Eeyore, in a Glum Sounding Voice.

"We just thought we'd check in on you," said Piglet, "because we hadn't heard from you, and so we wanted to know if you were okay."

Eeyore was silent for a moment. "Am I okay?" he asked, eventually. "Well, I don't know, to be honest. Are any of us really okay? That's what I ask myself."