Pain Suffering Love | Vkook

Chapter 9: You Can Do Better

"Where is Taehyung?" Jeongguk asked Jimin and Hoseok for the upteenth time. Taehyung had been absent from school the last couple of days and Jeongguk followed his friends around constantly asking where the boy was and when would return to school. Jin, also present when Jeongguk would ask, told him to go away because it was his fault Tae changed. It hurt to hear people blame him, but he still pleaded for an explanation on the whole situation, only to be ignored.

It was now Friday and Jeongguk sat in third period staring at the empty seat next to him instead of paying attention to the lesson being taught. Frustration and stress took over his body so much that his concentration was non-exsistent.

Ah, Taehyung why won't anyone tell me where you are.

"... uk. Jeongguk are you paying attention. " Ah Ra took her attention away from the board to glare at the sullen boy.

"Uh- I.. I've been listening. " He lied half heartedly.

"Okay, then what did I just say about verb placement. " It was an easy question, anyone who paid attention to the Korean Language and Korean speaking class could answer, except Jeongguk.

"That verbs are.. Placed in the.. Middle to.. " He knew the answer but his brain wouldn't cooperate with him.

"Exactly what I thought. Please come up here and right the next three sentences and correct the grammar. " Jeongguk sighed at his sunbaenim's demand, surely she could see he was in no shape to do such a thing but he couldn't refuse or he would be sent to the office, another reason to get in trouble with his dad.

He took the dry erase marker and copied down the sentences written on the piece of paper handed to him by Ah Ra. He kept making constant mistakes: spelling a word wrong, writing the words out of order, writing the same word two or three times. Finally Ah Ra had enough of him,

"Jeongguk if you're doing this to be funny you can take a trip to the principal's office. " Jeongguk looked at her in bewilderment. He already felt stupid in front of the class for messing up due to the lack of his concentration, but now he just felt complete embarrassment.

"I'm not making this.. These mistakes on purpose." She didn't believe him, but she felt enough pity to send him back to his desk instead of the office.

When class ended, Jeongguk felt a little bit of happiness. He would no longer witness the weird glances his classmates shot at him and the many glances of his sunbaenim to make sure he stayed paying attention.

Luckily in modern Korean history his sunbaenim didn't care that he was unfocused, he didn't bat a single eyelash when Jeongguk fell asleep during the middle of his lesson.

At lunch he saw Yoongi sitting at their old table and his suspicions were raised.

"Why aren't we sitting with Taehyung's friends? " He asked. He had planned on bombarding the group of three with constant questions this lunch in hopes that they would cave and give some answers.

"Jimin.. Said it's better to stay away because of what I said yesterday. I told him I didn't know something was up, but whatever. " Yoongi replied with little emotion shown and continued eating his lunch.

"They won't tell me what happened and I'm so worried 'bout Taehyung. " Jeongguk said in desperation. He needed to confide in someone, his best friend being the ideal person.

"Why are you caring so much lately? Man, you never ask me how my day is going or if my weekend was good, but all of a sudden you're all about Taehyung. " He looked at his friend with slight knowing eyes. Yoongi was smart, he could sense changes in atmospheres between others and he could also see through people.