He looks handsome when he frowns,

but cute when he grins.

-Milli, 'Grin'

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Noelle had come to terms with the fact that she didn't loathe Jeon Jungkook. 

In fact, what she felt for him must have been on the opposite spectrum of hate. Not quite love- no, they didn't know each other well enough for that but something along the lines of infatuation. 

And though she had come to terms with it in her mind, she tried not to think too much about it. She had decided to forgive him for reading her diary too.  

Even though she had told him that on the school rooftop two days ago, she had in fact forgiven him way before- during the weeks they both were ignoring each other because due to midterms, she had had a lot on her plate without adding the chocolate-eyed boy into the mix. 

Noelle had never felt this way before in her life, but that was a given for she never did believe that those butterflies which YA romance protagonists felt in their stomachs were merely fictitious. 

Yet fiction was somehow seeping into her reality and she didn't hate it at all. 

She knew that she didn't see eye-to-eye with Jungkook who was poles apart from her. She knew that everyone steered clear of the boy. 

She also knew he was a grumbly reticent teen albeit a handsome one but his cold stares dismissed the handsome factor for many. Yet still, she had overheard girls in Seobeom giggling and swooning over the boy and she could not blame them. 

Because those deep eyes, that occasional dimple, and that darned god-forsaken mole of his gave her butterflies every time he looked at her; which was quite often.

 It was as if butterflies which she didn't even know existed inside the pit of her stomach had suddenly undergone a metamorphosis - from dormant caterpillars inside cocoons to flutter and take flight inside her whenever their eyes locked in class or in the corridor. 

They hadn't talked much after that afternoon at the rooftop. Jungkook had asked for her number so she had hoped he would text her but so far he hadn't. Noelle hated that the fact bothered her a little. 

They had been stealing glances in school though; something Noelle had never done before because she was usually focused on what was going on in class. She was never the one to daydream during class hours and not because she was 'nerdy' as Jimin liked to peg her but solely because it would mean that she would not have to study the same thing after she went home- just a quick recap would suffice. 

However, for the past two days, she hadn't been paying much attention because she could feel a pair of eyes staring at her and that made her focus slip.

Noelle realized her infatuation was dangerous. Very much so. 

She would have never pegged herself as the type of girl who would stare at the boy she was attracted to in class, stare at how he had this habit of propping his chin on his palm and closing his eyes, stare at how his piercings reflected the sunlight coming in from the windows...

"Lee Noelle!"

Her head snapped up and she blinked, the train of her thoughts suddenly coming to halt.

"Yes, Jimin what do you want?" She sighed after deliberating whether or not to ignore him and arriving at the conclusion that she should put him out of his misery by ending her 'Avoid Park Jimin at all costs' campaign. 

 Their Korean Literature teacher was running a bit late, and the class was filled with the din of students talking. 

"Oh I am sorry, did I interrupt your Jeon Jungkook ogling session?" Jimin smirked but there was a certain tightness in his playful grin and his eyes had hardened. 

It made Noelle frown as she tried to recollect if she had offended him in any way except for ignoring his intrusive messages and his questions since Saturday- questions revolving around what he had witnessed Saturday night no doubt. 

"Say something which makes sense!" Noelle scoffed defensively. 

"I would but I can't get the visual of you kissing our school's infamous jerk out of my mind and it's hindering me from saying something which makes sense." 

Jimin nodded in Jungkook's direction, who Noelle observed had fished out his phone from his pocket to listen to music as he plugged in his headphones. 

Noelle knew her face turned beet red at the remark so she ignored it. She had not commented on a single one of Jimin's remarks, the sole purpose of which she knew was to fish out information from her. 

She wasn't stupid enough to take the sly boy's bait which was dangling in front of her. 

"What were you talking about anyway?" Noelle decided to change the topic, frowning at Jimin who narrowed his eyes at her. 

"You didn't hear a single word I said?" 

"No, sorry." Noelle bit her lower lip with chagrin when she realized that she had been so lost in her thoughts that she had tuned him out even though he had been standing right in front of her seat. 

"I asked you if you are going to stay back at school today because I have to go home early and so does Tae."

"Oh..."

"Yes. I will ask my driver to drop you off though if you want." 

Jimin's eyes softened a tad bit. Noelle shook her head as she didn't want to impose on him even though they carpooled together quite often. She could get a bus anyways, she hadn't forgotten her bus card like she had all those weeks ago when she first met Jungkook. 

"I thought Taehyung was staying back today though," Noelle muttered and a strange look crossed Jimin's face. He sighed and that's when she remembered that the boy was still ignoring Noelle. 

He hadn't said one word to her since Saturday. And while Noelle too had deliberately kept it that way during the weekend because she wanted to evade her friends' questions, it had been almost four days now- the longest since they had not talked to each other.

 She wasn't even avoiding the nosy Jimin anymore because he had been keeping his questions to a minimum (which she ignored anyway) but Kim Taehyung was another story entirely. 

It sure didn't feel good that he had canceled their group study sessions in the library for the past couple of days over a text or two. 

"Why is he sulking? Did you both go through a soul swap or something?" Noelle decided to confront Jimin about it, who rolled his eyes- an unfathomable emotion bubbling up in them as he shook his head. 

"He's going through something. Give him time to come around," Jimin sighed again before a smirk graced his lips as he wiggled his eyebrows at her. The sudden change in his expression made Noelle avert her gaze from him warily. 

"What's going on with you and Jungkook? You both can't stop staring at each other in class. And the cafeteria. And the school corridors. Stop being so obvious."

Noelle's cheeks started burning up due to the warm redness creeping up on her neck and face. 

Noelle cleared her throat before changing the conversation topic, "Nothing. Was that all you wanted to say?"

"I don't like whatever it is going on though Ellie. The guy is bad news, no matter how good- looking he is." Jimin continued as if he hadn't heard her at all. 

"His is trouble, and you know it. And while I know we all crave the forbidden fruit, some things are better if they are forbidden. It's for your own good." 

Jimin's voice dropped as he muttered the last two lines in an almost inaudible whisper. 

***

Jungkook wanted Lee Noelle so much, more than he had ever wanted someone. 

He didn't even know that they existed; the emotions she incited and stirred inside him that is. And it made him sound like a fucking lovesick loon so he had not texted or talked to her much after she said she had forgiven him a couple of days ago. 

He had no idea what to say to her. These feelings were foreign to him, and he didn't want to sort them out. He only knew that he couldn't tear his eyes off her in school, or stop his mind from conjuring her up in his dreams.

Jungkook also knew that he would very much like to kiss her again. Her soft cherry lips were addictive and he had always been weak for addictions. 

He sure as hell didn't mind this addiction. It was the best kind of addiction there was, after all. 

It seemed as if his eyes had found a new hobby- to stare at her. He did it unabashedly, and sometimes he would catch her stare right back at him with her own hazel orbs. 

He liked what those wide eyes did to him. 

Jeon Jungkook was no saint. He had been attracted to women in the past, women who were completely opposite to the enigma that was Lee Noelle.

 And he always found that attraction fizzling out after a while, yet his infatuation with Noelle wasn't. Far from it actually- it was steadily burning hotter and brighter. 

He would not mind it if the flames scorched him though. 

The only problem was that Jeon Jungkook had no idea how to start a conversation with her. It wasn't his fault- he seldom did, with anyone and Noelle wasn't an exception to that even though she had been proving to be an exception to every rule. 

It had been so easy to talk to her that day on the rooftop. Talking to her made him feel as if he was breathing for the first time in years. 

He didn't merely just want her because she was so pretty. His infatuation with her ran deeper than that- and this fact alone made Jungkook hesitate. 

But the boy was known for throwing caution to the wind, so once he decided something he seldom wavered. 

And he had made up his mind. He would yield to the infatuation. 

Jungkook saw her talking to a fellow classmate with a polite smile curving the ends of her mouth upwards, and he wanted that. He wanted her to smile at him. He didn't want the frown which would often mar her forehead when she looked at him.

It was late, their evening classes going on. Usually, Jungkook just skipped the evening study time for he could not bear to sit in the classroom for longer than what was mandated- heck sometimes even during normal classes. 

However, he found himself staying back these days because of a certain girl. And while it made him kick himself for behaving like a whipped pussy, he didn't care. 

She had been sitting in the class for a change- usually, he knew she would go to the library to study with that preppy boy and Jimin but she hadn't been going there since Monday. 

And he had overheard her conversation with Jimin a few hours ago. He hadn't meant to eavesdrop- it was Park fucking Jimin's fault that the loud-mouthed boy had been talking so loud that half the class had heard him. 

Well okay, maybe not half the class per se, and maybe he had been just a tad bit curious so he was pretending to listen to music while in reality his ears were perked up to listen to their conversation...

Jungkook hated how Lee Noelle made him so damn curious. He had never been so curious about something or someone. It was his motto in life to skirt through life without meddling into others' and not letting others' meddle in his. 

So anyways, as he had heard their conversation he knew that Noelle would be going home alone because of asshole no. 1 a.k.a. Park Jimin so he decided he would accompany her home, even if he didn't know where she lived. 

It was thus that for the first time since he joined Seobeom, he was staying back in school for evening study. And this didn't merely surprise him or his fellow classmates but astonished his teachers too. 

They were being quite vocal about their surprise, making Jungkook roll his eyes. He spent the whole time using his textbooks are sweet pillows and his headphones as lullabies though. 

Baby steps- you couldn't expect him to make a 180- degree turn in just a handful of days now could you?

When everyone started leaving and he was jerked awake by one of the teachers who had an irritable expression painted on her face, Jungkook stretched his legs in front of him and arms over his head languidly, eyes searching for her in the classroom. 

She wasn't there though. 

He sprang up quickly, grabbing his bag slung behind him in haste and jogging out of the classroom, ignoring the teacher who was glaring at him and muttering something under her breath. 

The crowd of students filling the hallway, all of them tired from yaja and looking forward to head back home immediately parting when they saw who exactly was jogging in the corridor. 

Jungkook had always been known to part a crowd after all. 

He finally spotted her near the school gate, her bag strapped on her bag, her fingers fiddling with those straps as she walked. 

Her tight ponytail which was always on top of her head had slipped several centimeters down to rest at her nape and he was sure many stray and defiant tendrils were framing her heart-shaped face. 

Her pony would always manage to slip several centimeters at the end of the day compared to the morning, Jungkook had observed. He wanted that pony to disappear completely- for her inky curls to fall down in waves just like he had seen her back at that club in Itaewon. 

But he knew Lee Noelle had a persona she lived by in school. And he wasn't sure whether he hated or liked it. 

He didn't call out her name, simply walked a feet or two behind her, following her to the bus stop. He knew she had sensed him behind her.

Just as she was a minute or two away  from the bus stop h, she peered over her shoulder at him and said, 

"Aren't you going home?"

"Yes. Last I heard our country's public transport is very good. I plan on using that." He replied. 

She turned towards him now, walking backward and making him worry that she would stumble and fall. 

"You are grinning." She observed, making him realize that indeed, his lips were curled upwards in a grin. 

Jeon Jungkook never did grin much. Thus he was taken aback when he realized that he was grinning. It was proving to be a reflex action in her midst. 

He schooled in his expression and cleared his throat, changing the subject, 

"You will fall if you walk like that." Just when he said that, she tripped. Jungkook extended his arms to catch her but he was late, for she stumbled and almost fell face down. Almost, because she grabbed a metal pole on her left to steady herself.

She laughed. She actually laughed when her eyes met his concerned ones. It made that irritating foreign feeling blossom inside his very bones, making him roll his lips together. 

Lee Noelle has a very melodic laugh, he observed. If he could, he would record it on his phone and listen to it on repeat. 

"You have a dimple when you grin. Over here." She pointed at her own cheek as she started walking backward again. 

Sighing, Jungkook didn't comment and strided towards her to grab her by her elbow and spin her so that she was facing in the right direction.

"You want to fall, don't you?" 

He arched his eyebrows at her and she chuckled yet again. It was his lucky day- a voice inside him said. She had never grinned or laughed in his presence.  Until now. 

"What's so funny?" He was confused at the sudden change in their relationship dynamic. Talking to her felt so damn hard and so easy- a paradox. 

Then again, Lee Noelle was the definition of a paradox herself. 

"You look almost human when you grin. It's not often that you smile, but when you do, you look cute." 

She was blushing by the time she finished mumbling that. 

It was the first time someone ever called him cute. Jungkook had been called many things, some far less holy and some downright nasty. He knew he was not bad looking either; but cute? It was a first. 

He felt his chest rumble with laughter. And it made him frown a little, even as he was laughing for it had been a long time since he had laughed. So long that he was half convinced he didn't even know how to. 

It was like breathing after being underwater for so long. 

And when he gazed into the pools of her hazel eyes, he wanted to go underwater again. Drown in them.

 Oh, what a wonderful way to drown it would be!

When the two reached the bus stop near their school, it was crowded with students so they stood near one of the poles, Jungkook leaning his back on it and Noelle standing beside him. 

He could feel the eyes of many on him and her, and he could see from the tense posture of her shoulder that she didn't like the idea. So he glared at each and every pair of too-inquisitive-and-nosy-for-their-own-good eyes before they widened in fear and hastily looked away. 

No one wanted to be the recipient of Jeon Jungkook's icy glowers. 

When the first bus for the evening came, Jungkook grabbed Noelle's hand to stop her while all the students filed into the bus which was already almost full with passengers. 

"What are you doing?" 

"We can get the next bus. It's due to arrive here in a couple of minutes. Surely you can wait till then?" 

"But..." she trailed off as she eyed that the bus was overflowing with passengers and thus they would be cramped if they decided to board it. So she shrugged her shoulders and said "Okay."

Now that the chairs in the bus stand were empty, the pair could go and sit there. So they did. Jungkook's hand was still wrapped around hers, and their fingers had somehow entangled and without the duo's permission. 

Her hand was warm, yet he could feel an occasional callous here an there and it confused him. Noelle had obviously been born in a much better off family than him and that was a major understatement. 

The scars and callouses on his hands were justified by the fact that he was a kid from the wrong side of the tracks, one who was not reluctant to use his fists. But Lee Noelle was from one of those tall glittery apartment complexes he could see from his uncle's balcony; from the heart of the metropolis that was Seoul. 

His fingertips brushed her callous and he grabbed her hand in his other hand too look at him closely. Noelle tried to move away and stiffened at that but he did not let her. 

It was then that he saw crescent marks on her palm. Some faded and some still healing. They were nail marks for sure- Jungkook sported a few of them on his body too, but unlike his other scars which showcased of all he had been through, he wasn't quite proud of them per se. 

He didn't ask her about them. One look at her and her eyes told him all he wanted to know. She didn't want to talk about it and that was okay with him. Jungkook understood silence the best. 

So he brought her palm to his lips and kissed it. 

He knew he was in too deep when her fingers seeked his as they got up from their seat when the next bus arrived.

 He knew he was in too deep when they walked all the way to the back of the bus, her hand squeezing his. 

He knew he was in too deep when he grabbed her face at the next red light to claim her lips like he wanted to. Her lips were oh-so soft and her mouth tasted like sweet strawberries even though she had said she didn't have a sweet tooth. 

Jungkook had always preferred chocolates over strawberries but he could feel that that was about to change. 

He knew he was in too deep when she kissed him back with equal fervor, their mouths moving in imperfectly perfect uncoordinated synchronization. 

There was no looking back from this. Lee Noelle had waltzed into his fractured soul, not quite mending it but bringing with her a tidal wave of infatuation which swept him up. 

There was no looking back when they both broke apart for air, her inky strands brushing his face as he leaned into the crook of her neck. 

She smelled like freesia flowers blooming in spring and it was the best scent in the whole world. 

There was no looking back when Noelle asked him casually which song he was addicted to these days as if they had not been kissing like both had been starving just a moment ago. Jungkook leaned away and saw that her lips looks slightly swollen- mainly due to him crushing his lips on hers and her kissing him back with equal if not more enthusiasm. 

 There was no looking back when he deadpanned that his new favorite song was her chuckle. And sickeningly cheesy as it may be, it made her chuckle. Jungkook cringed internally at the line but was pleased that he could hear that melodic chuckle which was truly becoming his new favorite sound. 

There was no looking back when Jungkook fished out his phone and headphones from his pocket, lending her one of the headphones and placing the other one in his ear. 

He even let her select the songs she wanted to listen; and Jungkook never did that. He had always been selfish, and would demand his favorites to be played on the radio when he was living with his grandmother- he remembered those faint good memories of happier and simpler days. 

There was no looking back when he agreed to listen to pop ballads because she loved them so much. 

And he knew that there was no looking back when her felt her head hit his shoulder somewhere between the end verses of IU's 'Friday' and the start of 'Your night, my morning' by Brown Eyed Soul. 

***

Kim Taehyung fell in love at the age of six. 

Even as most of his early childhood memories have obviously become faint, his still heart clearly remembers the day he fell for her. 

 His parents had dragged him to the house of one of their friends for a playdate with their friends' daughter while the adults hung out and reminisced about their youth and college days. 

Taehyung was an only child, so he was happy at the prospect of making a new friend. He was already friends with Park Jimin who would be there too, and thus he had eagerly agreed. 

What he didn't know was that he would be so enamored by the young girl with her wide and unnaturally beautiful hazel eyes and short chin-length inky hair. 

Seems a bit unrealistic right, the fact that a six-year-old kid fell in love at that age when he clearly didn't even know exactly what love was? 

Not to Taehyung. Never to him. His heart and soul knew he had found its other half the moment the girl grinned a toothy grin at him, a gap in the front of her teeth; a small white tooth growing in the gum area. 

Years and countless playdates and study dates later, that hadn't changed. He still was hopelessly in love. 

With her. His soulmate. His first and last love. 

Lee Noelle. Elle.

They had grown up together. They were each other's first kiss- granted it was a dare by Park Jimin but Noelle was the first and only girl he had ever kissed. 

The only girl he wanted to kiss. The only girl he had ever loved and would love. 

They fit each other so well- like two puzzle pieces meant to be fit together. He had always believed that they were meant to end up together. 

Heck, their parents even joked about it, placing bets on whether Noelle and Taehyung would end up marrying each other or Jimin and Noelle- usually everyone inclined towards the former idea because they all knew that the latter would mean Noelle and Jimin ending up killing someone if not each other. 

He knew her better than he knew himself- at least that was what he liked to think. But lately, he wasn't so sure of that. 

All because of that darn night. That Saturday night when he saw something which cracked his heart, to say the least. 

Kim Taehyung was no fool. His grades were a testament to that fact. He was the most perceptive one of the trio, with Jimin close to a second and Noelle being the one who preferred to remain blissfully ignorant because that's just how she was. 

He had noticed Noelle's little telltale signs whenever Jeon Jungkook was brought into their conversation by him or Jimin. She would change the topic or just zone out. 

He had overheard the two weeks ago in the classroom. He hadn't meant to eavesdrop, but when he did hear Noelle yelling at someone, it made him curious. 

They say that curiosity killed the cat. In this case, the cat might as well be his heart. 

He had sworn at Jeon Jungkook later for making the love of his existence cry, something he never did because the boy abhorred swearing. Taehyung had let that bitter emotion which he was experiencing for the first time in his life get the best of him at that time, and he wasn't proud of his actions.

 Yet he would not necessarily change them either if given the chance to do so.

And the final blow was that eventful Saturday when the trio of friends went to a club in Itaewon despite Noelle protesting against the idea. In hindsight, Taehyung regretted not trying to talk his best friend out of the silly idea. 

Because what he witnessed that night was something he sure did not want to. 

He had been trying to delude himself for the next couple of days that his eyes must have been playing tricks on him. 

Because there was no way in hell that he would have ever dreamt of Noelle kissing the new bad boy of Seobeom High in front of the Itaewon nightclub. 

Granted, the kiss was a fleeting peck on her lips, thereby prompting the wishful thinking that it was not reality but Taehyung's treacherous eyes betraying him. 

But it was reality. However, Kim Taehyung wanted to deny it with all his being. 

Denial was something tantalizingly addictive, the holy anthem for heartbreak. 

Kim Taehyung had once drunk beer and not quite hated or liked the taste. He wasn't so sold on the idea of alcohol just yet because it meant giving up control but he decided that denial was something even more addictive than the bittersweet taste of alcohol.

His way of denying the truth which was staring right at him in his face was to sulkily ignore Noelle the same way she was ignoring Jimin and even him for that matter. 

He had curtly replied to all her texts, and hadn't spoken to her face to face since Saturday. It was the longest they had ever gone without speaking to each other. 

And while Taehyung didn't want to ignore her at all because his every waking moment was filled with Lee Noelle and only her, he couldn't help but cave into the pettiness and the jealous side he never even knew he possessed. 

But he was determined to put an end to this. He would be by her side, just like always. Because that was what Kim Taehyung knew best. 

Lee Noelle always found her way back to him. They were each other's other halves so how couldn't she? 

Taehyung decided that he would thus let her momentary infatuation run its course and then fade away like he knew it would. He would not let some boy from Busan waltz in and come between them.

Kim Taehyung fell in love at the age of six, and years later, he was still deeply in love with Lee Noelle. 

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A/N

Dear readers who I adore and purple,

First of all, I know that this is a long overdue update. Sorry, forgive me for slacking off *makes puppy dog face* College is hard, harder than I thought it would be. 

Secondly, Happy Birthday to the owner of my heart, body and soul a.k.a Park freaking Jimin! Jimin-ssi, you're my filter <3

Thirdly, the surprise I promised you guys- any guesses as to what it was? Did you like the new POV? *wiggles eyebrows*

How's the new chapter? Spam my comment section my lovelies, I love you all!

P.S.- Favorite Park Jimin song? Mine is Promise.  

Borahae,

Milli