THE TRANSFER STUDENT

Loss and Lost, Pt. 8

"We're so sorry about that, Jungkook," Mrs Lee said, after the three of them settled down in the living room once more.

"Yeah, our daughter must be really tired today," Mr Lee shot a worried glance towards Jieun's closed door, before turning back to Jungkook with a forced smile. "She's usually not like that, I'm sure you know."

Jungkook did. He knew that Jieun was usually not like that and that's what threw him off. He'd seen her when she was upset - well, she'd been upset with him a couple of times before.

Even towards others, Jungkook could tell at one glance the difference when she was upset and when she wasn't. But this was different. She didn't look upset. She looked tired, she looked worried.

She looked like she was avoiding him.

"It's okay," Jungkook forced a smile. "I totally understand, auntie and uncle. It's late, too, I really shouldn't have come to bother you this late."

"No," Mrs Lee laughed. "No, no! Not at all! We're so happy to see you... and back to what you were saying earlier before Jieun interrupted..."

Jungkook bit his lower lip. "I meant everything I said. Every single word of it."

"Well..." Mr Lee glanced at his wife, who gave him a nod, before turning back to Jungkook. "Jungkook, you see, Jieun's mom and I have actually been discussing this for the longest time."

Jungkook nodded his head slowly, holding his breath as he listened on.

"And..." Mr Lee pursed his lips. "We just wanna tell you that we approve of this. We approve of you."

"What?" Jungkook definitely wasn't expecting such a straight-forward answer. He was expecting some long pep talk from her parents about how they're too young, or that Jieun's their only daughter, or...

"But please just hear us out for a bit."

Oh, there it was.

"You see," Mrs Lee took over. "Jieun has been a really insecure kid since young. She got bullied in elementary school... well, she barely had any friends. I mean, other than one friend. But that's a different story. She... is a fragile kid, that girl."

"I know that, auntie."

"As parents..." Mr Lee continued. "I hope you can understand where we're coming from. She is our only daughter after all. We don't want her to get hurt, we want her to be happy. We want you to be a person who makes her happy, you know what I mean?"

"I understand that, uncle."

"So basically," Mrs Lee was trying to sound as casual as possible, but Jungkook could tell in their faces that they were really concerned, and they really did care. "What we're trying to say is... Um... well..."

"We hope you don't ever break her heart," Mr Lee completed her sentence, locking eyes with Jungkook. "We want you to treat her well, to cherish her and..."

"I will, uncle."

"Well, then, I guess..." Mr Lee glanced at his wife, who nodded once more, walking off to the room. "There's only one last thing we want to share with you."

"What is it, uncle?"

At that moment, Mrs Lee walked out with the photobook - the one that they had showed to Jungkook and Taehyung the last time they had visited, and handed it to Jungkook.

Jungkook's eyes widened, as his eyes drifted from the photobook in his hands towards Jieun's parents with apparent confusion. "May I ask, why...?"