Y/N POV

9AM in History Class

“Dumbass” Jungkook muttered under his breath, trying hard to choke in the laughter. I was caught sleeping by our teacher and now I’m suddenly asked to answer his question.

“I’m sorry, sir. I don’t know the answer.” He just sighed and made me sit down, appreciating my honesty.

Jungkook sneaked a teasing glance and I threw my eraser at him without even looking at him.

Jungkook has been my best friend since fifth grade. He was too quiet for a guy and always got teased while I wasn’t too girly for my girl classmates. I guess you can say we were both outcasts as kids. Being the manly me, when I caught the bullying, I stood up and hit the pig once, protecting the cowering Jungkook. I got hit twice after when suddenly Jungkook stood in front of me, readying himself to get the punch on my behalf. Thankfully the teacher got in time to reprimand the bully. We both looked at each other and smiled and chuckled at our beaten up faces.

“Idiot.” I called him, asking why he would let that guy beat him up.

“Dumbass.” He retorted, asking why I would step in if all I could do was hit the bully once and those nicknames stuck. Ever since that incident, we’ve always been around each other and even went to the same middle school and high school.

Puberty hit us hard, but I wasn’t hit as hard as Jungkook did. Damn that kid grew up to be such a heartthrob, but of course, I’ll never tell him that. Multiple girls flock around him but he’d always escape and find me in the rooftop for our lunch.

“Give me a bite.” Jungkook leaned in and took a bite of my chicken sandwich without me agreeing.

“You took all the meat!” I complained and he smiled mischievously, pinching my cheek.

“Thanks, dumbass. I love you.” He playfully says and I rolled my eyes at him, convincing myself not to blush because I know he didn’t mean it the way I hope he did.

We had our backs leaning against the wall beside the rooftop door, my head leaning onto his shoulder as I read my book while he scrolls through his phone.

“Hey, dumbass?” Jungkook calls out.

I hummed in response, turning the page of my book.

“I want to confess to someone.” I froze for a split second, trying to hide the shattering of my heart.

“Well what’s the problem, Mr. every-girl-in-this-campus-always-follows-you?” I sit up properly, feigning ignorance as I flip through the next page, forgetting to read it.

“I don’t know. What if she doesn’t feel the same?” I now looked at him before laughing loudly, in fact, it was too loud. I wiped my “happy” tears before managing to get the words out of my mouth.

“You really are an idiot. Can’t you see you can have any girl that you’d want? They’re basically swooning over you every time you pass by.” I stood up and playfully kicked his unnecessarily long legs. “Don’t be a coward and just spit it out. In the ever slight chance that she says no, I’ll lend you my shoulders and buy you some banana milk.” I winked at him, about to leave the rooftop when I received a call from my mom.

The news I received had the blood drain from my face. Jungkook was quick to notice, about to stand up when I bolted down to the classroom to get my bag and head out to the gates.

There were multiple shouts vaguely sounding like my name but nothing was registering. All I know is that I need to head to the hospital, ASAP.

“You’re dad got into an accident and I know you’re in the middle of the class but I don’t know what to do, y/n.” 

My mom’s cracking voice as she chokes in her sobs left my mind blank. 

Dad. Please, please be okay. Please, dad. Please be okay.

Jungkook’s POV

I’ve always been around y/n and I can confidently say I’ve seen all of her expressions. Happy? Sad? Mad? Disgusted? You name it. I’ve seen it all. But in the 7 years of our friendship, I have never seen this face before.

She was terrified.

Before I could stand up, she had already bolted out to the door and ran as if her life depended on it. I ran after her, but her adrenaline was kicking in that I wasn’t able to catch up.

Nevertheless, I kept running, disregarding the shouts of the teachers, asking us to stop running in the hallway. I saw y/n, already outside the gates, running by the sidewalk ‘til she tripped which allowed me to catch up to her.

“Are you okay?!” I frantically searched her for injuries before cupping her face. She was cold, pale, and in tears.

My heart breaks seeing her like this.

“Jungkook” she snaps out of her trance, holding my arms. “I have to get to the hospital, now.” She starts standing up, about to run when I yanked her back to me before holding both her shoulders.

“Let’s ride a cab, okay? It’ll be faster than running.” I try to stay as calm as I could. I’ve never seen her so panicked, and I’m sure even if I ask her to explain, she won’t say anything cohesive so I held her hand as tightly as I could, wanting to remind her that no matter what, I’m with her.

As soon as we got to the emergency wing of the hospital, we were greeted by a sobbing woman on the bedside of a man lying as the heart rate monitor showed a straight line.

“No.” Y/N fell to the ground as she sobbed.

I couldn’t believe what was in front of my eyes until I closed my eyes and opened them once more, now the information registering. The woman sobbing has been the same woman who welcomes me to their home when I run away from mine, while the man lying on the bed has been the man always treated me as his own.

My breath hitched, tears silently fall as I stand in front of Y/N, taking her into my arms.

“I’m so sorry.” It was all I was able to mutter as I felt multiple stabbing sensations in my chest. Uncle has always been like a second father and the pain I’m feeling is already indescribable. I can’t fathom the pain Y/N’s going through.

Until Uncle’s body was cremated, I never left Y/N’s and Auntie’s side. With my parents always fighting, I’ve spent most of my childhood in their house and I’ve never been treated as an outsider. I can argue that I’m a family member of the deceased. While aunt takes care of the preparation for uncle’s funeral, Y/N clutches onto uncle’s urn as silent tears continue to fall from her eyes.

There were no words I could utter. Instead, take her in my arms and rest my chin on top of her head.

“Jungkook?” She finally speaks after hours of not talking.

“Yeah?” My voice cracking from the hours of silence. 

“Promise not to leave my side?” Her voice was shaking, and so was her whole body.

“Dumbass. I’m not going anywhere.”

3AM in Jungkook’s house

“Where have you been?” My father was in the living room with the lampshade beside him as the only source of light in the house.

“I was with Y/N.” I answered, dead tired from everything that happened.

“You kids have been inseparable since your fifth grade.” He smiles, the wrinkles in his face getting more defined. If I was tired about today, my dad has been tired of his life. “I hope that kid’s doing well.”

“What’s wrong dad?” I ask, wary with the tone of his voice.

“I’m sorry son. I really tried to make it work, but forgive me. I filed a divorce with your mom.” I knew this was coming. I wasn’t even surprised when he told me about this. I never really liked her anyway. The reason why I always hang out in Y/N’s home was that her voice made it so unbearable to stay.

“Where is she now?” I ask, sitting beside my father.

“With the man she’s been cheating on me with for 3 years already.”

“What a b*tch,” I mumbled, shaking my head. “I’m happy you finally divorced her dad.” I tell him, giving him a sincere smile. He’d always been the one trying with the relationship. He had always been the one who stood as my parent. Mom may have been too young when she got pregnant with me, but it wasn’t all my father’s fault. Yet, my father took everything. And if this divorce would mean happiness for my dad then so be it.

“If you find a girlfriend, don’t be shy and introduce her to me.” I stood up, patting his knee before heading to my room.

“Thank you, son.” My father’s voice broke as he chokes in his tears. I gave him a smile before turning my back on him, allowing him to cry. What father would want his son to see him cry, right?

*****

2 Years Later

“Come on man, one drink won’t do you any harm.” Jimin tried to convince me to join them after class but Taehyung draped his arm over Jimin.

“Give it up, Chim. He’s too busy with his girlfriend.” He teases and I gave him a look before shaking my head. “but don’t forget to hang out with us once in a while, okay? Don’t forget about us!” He hits my back as soon as I finish packing up my stuff. My schedule for the term is quite free, allowing me to meet Y/N more often as her department’s in a different building.

“I won’t. Next week, I promise. ” I give the two of them a wink before leaving the class hurriedly. Jimin and Taehyung have been my classmates since the semester started, however, I’m a college freshman and they’re sophomore. They’re just retaking the class I’m having now and since being grouped with them, we’ve been hanging out since

They know who Y/N is, as they conveniently summarized “the childhood girlfriend”. I repeated over and over that we weren’t together, but they wouldn’t listen. Ever since that day she stood in front of the bullies and hit them even if they were taller and bigger than her, I found myself wanting to get stronger and be a better person. It was only in middle school that I realize that drive was coming from my urge to protect her. We were inseparable ever since and I’ve always debated on whether I should risk confessing to her or just stay by her side like this, until one time Taehyung said out of the blue 

“Kidding aside, don’t be too confident about where you are right now. Either you claim that title or someone else will.”

As I got out of our building, I saw Y/N waiting under the shade of the tree talking to some guy who’s always been around her since the start of the semester.

“Hey,” I called out, taking Y/N’s books and draping my arm over her shoulder before looking at the guy who now seems flustered and out of place.

“I’ll go ahead then, y/n.” He quickly escapes after giving me a slight bow of acknowledgment.

“What was that?” Y/N looked up to me with an eyebrow raised.

“Aunt Mina told me to look out for you.” I say, dragging her with me as we exit the school grounds. “Besides, I wanna eat ASAP. I’m staaarving.”

“The audacity to use my mom as an excuse for your ever-hungry stomach.” She shook her head and smiled as she lets me walk around with my arm over her shoulders. 

***

“By the way, how’s uncle?” She suddenly asks as we take an empty table in our favorite restaurant.

“He’s trying to hide it, but I know he’s seeing someone.” I answered and she chuckled.

“You’re just not that close. At least mom doesn’t date behind my back. In fact, every time I ask her about it, she’d blush like a high schooler— HAVE I MENTIONED THEY WERE ACTUALLY HIGH SCHOOL SWEETHEARTS?!” She suddenly perked up excitedly.

“I’m just right beside you, dumbass.” I say, gently hitting her head as her voice got too loud.

“Oops.” She chuckled shyly. “I’m just happy mom finally allowed herself to be happy again. I’m sure dad wants that too.” She smiles as she looked out the window longingly for her dad. 2 years flew by real quick. “Your dad deserves to be happy too.”

“Yeah, I want him happy too.” I answered, heaving a deep sigh when Y/N pinched my nose and gave me a reassuring smile.

“We’re gonna protect our parent’s happiness because they deserve it.” She holds out her pinky, making a pact within ourselves. I smiled and wrapped my pinky with hers, nodding.

We finished up with our food, talked all the way 'til we got in front of her house.

“Hate to cut our time short but I have tons of papers to dive into.” Y/N made a disgusted face before smiling at me and taking her books in my arms. “I’ll see you tomorrow, idiot.” She waves, about to enter her house when I instinctively grabbed her hand, not wanting her to leave. She looked at me, surprised and confused. It was faint, but I could see her cheeks slightly turning pink. “Jungkook? I.Is everything okay?” She asks.

I didn’t say a word but I’m sure my eyes says it all.

Taehyung’s right. I want to be her man, and I don’t want anyone beating me to it.

As I was about to open my mouth, the door opened and Aunt Mina came out.

“What are you kids doing there? Come inside.” She smiles innocently, walking up to us.

“Maybe some other day,” I answered flustered, my ears feeling hot. “Y/N has a lot of paperwork to finish, so she says.” I rubbed the nape of my neck before bowing to smile at her. “See you tomorrow, dumbass.” I now looked at Y/N, showing a pursed lipped smile before leaving.

*****

The evening In Jungkook’s bedroom.

That was close.

That was too close.

But I guess Aunt Mina saved me. At least she gave me a second chance to actually prepare for that shit and not do it haphazardly. I went hurriedly to my room and face timed Taehyung. Jimin was beside him, waving like a maniac before getting distracted in what they were initially doing.

“So how do I ask Y/N to be my girlfriend?” I asked Taehyung, lying down in bed as I try to run down multiple scenarios of how I could do it. He was quiet for some time, his face blank but he suddenly burst out laughing.

“Oh my god, I didn’t think you’d be this much of a romanticist. How about you go rent a movie house and create this video—” I dropped the call as he was having too much fun making fun of me.

I got a text message and was about to curse Taehyung out, but I suddenly sat up, seeing how it was from Y/N.

Yeba / 예바 (abbreviation of Yeppeun + Pabo /Beautiful + Idiot)

Hey idiot, you up?

I smiled, about to reply when I jolted out of my bed in surprise as there was a sudden knock on my door. It creaked, slowly revealing my dad as he peaked. “You busy?” He asks, and I chuckled, shaking my head. He came in and sat at the foot side of my bed, rubbing his nape as he obviously wanted to say something but couldn’t.

“Are you finally introducing me to your girlfriend?” I teased and his eyes were wide.

“Here I thought Y/N was the psychology major. How are you reading my mind?” He says, reaching out to his phone.

“Okay one, don’t ever say that in front of Y/N. You’ll upset her. Psych majors don’t read minds. Second, you really don’t have anything else to be shy about besides that. ” I rationalized and he smiled, looking proud.

“You took that intelligence from me.” He boasts again, making me chuckle as I shook my head. Then he shows his phone with the brightest smile I’ve ever seen since forever. He really is happy with the person he’s seeing now.

I promise I’ll do everything I can to keep that smile.

“So, what do you think?” My father asks shyly, letting me take the phone.

I take a closer look at the photo and my world suddenly stopped.

“You know it’s funny how the universe works. Would you believe that she’s actually my high school girlfriend? We broke up though when we went to college but it seems fate is bringing us back together.”

It felt as though I was knocked out of breath as I focused on the woman in the picture.

“If I recall correctly, she has a daughter the same age as you.” He continues to talk about how they met today and talked about letting their children meet and talk about getting married and having it formally registered but I was pale as a sheet.

Because the woman that’s giving my father the warmest of smiles is the mother of only girl I’ve ever loved.