Take My Hands Now

Chapter 9

"But doing these hurts me a hell lot, so hurt a hell lot like me."

Jungkook turned around to look at you, you were on the brink of tears. He took each step carefully as he walked back towards you, like he was treading a really thin layer of ice. He wanted to tell you not to cry, to not feel hurt. But how could he when he knew who exactly it was that made you this way. He wanted to hold you. But how could he when he knows fully well what you would feel if he did that.

All his life he lived with that same feeling; he ignored it, he tried to tame it, he tried everything - and more often than not his attempts sought a physical escape. And now, he cannot comprehend, how is it that a girl he couldn't even touch was stirring so much emotion within him?

"Y/N's friend!", the moment was abruptly broken. "Haven't seen you around these few days. I didn't even manage to catch your name the last time", your store manager walked up, once again intercepting the conversation.

"You can just call me Jungkook, Mr. Hwang."

Your manager was caught by surprise, "How did you know my surname?"

"I overhead it when you were speaking to the nurse that day." Contrary to popular belief, Jungkook isn't as inattentive as he would have others believe him to be.

"Right. So, Jungkook, will you be joining the dinner at Yunsu's place on Friday?"

"I'm sorry but what dinner? And who is Yunsu?", Jungkook asked, his confusion evident.

"Y/N, you haven't told him about it?"

The mood between the two of you now was definitely not the right one to be casually inviting him over to someone else's dinner.

"Ummm... I was eventually going to tell him about it...", you stuttered.

Your store manager habitually wrestled the conversation out of your hands, "You remember the pregnant lady from last time? She wants to thank us for our help, so she's inviting us to a small gathering. She specifically requested to invite you of course, after all that you did for her that day."

"I didn't do much...", he looked between your manager and you with his unblinking eyes, and cautiously said, "I think it's better if I don't go."

You sighed a tiny sigh, "You should come, Yunsu will feel bad if you don't."

—

"Y/N, what exactly happened between you and Jungkook?", Mirae asked you almost as a filler to the lack of conversation over lunch. Namjoon looked up at you as he continued to diligently chew on his food.

The sudden questioning had you stunned, "Huh? Why are you suddenly asking that?"

"I'm curious too. Maybe he really did something and she beat him up", Namjoon chimed in.

"That is not what happened", you narrowed your eyes at Namjoon.

"Ahhh, so something did happen", Mirae deduced, "what is it?"

You were caught in the headlights again, "Huh? No... that's not what I meant. Nothing happened, why do you guys think that something happened between us?"

"Ever since Jungkook's birthday party, the two of you have been acting weirdly around each other, something must have happened for the both of you to have changed like that", Mirae was like an inspector interrogating you and you could see Namjoon nodding.

"Pfft, what could possibly change? Anyway, how would you know if anything's changed, how do you even tell such things?", you questioned with a roll of your eyes. But your question was not only aimed at Mirae, it was for yourself too.