Don't wanna be fool, wanna be cool, wanna be loved

Our same love

-BTS, 'Like' (Translated)

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Noelle decided she quite liked the way Jungkook ate. 

He looked angry when he did, his eyebrows drawn in a deep scowl. Yet she was beginning to understand it was all an indicator of him enjoying the food he ate.

 The more his scowl deepened meant he liked the taste better- she had managed to observe this tidbit after yet another rooftop rendezvous with him during the lunch break. 

A couple of days had passed after the bus ride, and Noelle was glad that he had not reverted back to being the spiteful version of himself. She was glad that they did not go back to not speaking to each other at all. 

She had even made up with Taehyung. Finally. The day after the bus ride, he was the one who had come up to her during their lunch break and apologized for ditching their study sessions and being curt and just like that, the matter was dead and buried for Noelle had never held it against him in the first place. 

This was how it always was with the duo- they were so close that even in the rare occasion of them having or almost having a falling out, they would eventually resolve it with unspoken agreements which would pass between the two. 

Even Jimin was back to being his annoying self. He pestered her about everything and anything, yet he had almost given up on telling her to stay away from Jungkook.

  Almost being the keyword. He still took verbal jabs at the boy (none when the latter was in earshot though) and he still teased Noelle but he was a bit less vocal about his displeasure. 

Bit  once again being the keyword- Park Jimin was Park Jimin after all. 

All in all, the familiarity which Noelle liked so much, one which was cracking after that fateful Saturday was slowly being built again but with a few modifications- the major one being a brown-eyed boy named Jeon Jungkook.

The two would steal glances at each other during periods. More often than not, Noelle would feel his deep eyes  boring a stare on her back from his seat at the back of the classroom. 

She would occasionally turn and catch him in the act, yet Jungkook never moved his gaze- he would always stare back, if not a bit more intensely.

That always made Noelle feel as if she was diving underwater- staring into his deep and unfathomable eyes. 

Sometimes their hands brushed each other's in the school corridors, the grey walls bearing witness to the young and passionate courtship. It made her a bit red in the face; after which Noelle could never wipe the silly smile which upturned her lips at the corners.

This had happened a couple of times now, and each time Noelle felt as if she had touched a naked electric wire, the sparks spreading all through her body and penetrating her very soul.

Sometimes Jeon Jungkook would text her to meet him at the rooftop. They would just sit cross legged beside each other and eat. Sometimes they would talk about random stuff too like how Noelle hated mushrooms because she thought eating fungi was gross and how Jungkook was secretly in love with Marvel movies; a fact he had never told anyone but her. 

Their conversations always made her lose track of time. Never had she barely been late to a class after lunch break before. Jeon Jungkook sometimes asked her to skip but she always refused. 

For Noelle, it was better late than never. Moreover, she wasn't just going to make a 180 degree change in her personality suddenly, and that too just because of some crush she had on a boy, a silly infatuation.

The infatuation did not feel silly these days though. The feelings which she felt were all-consuming, and it would be a downright lie if she said that their magnitude did not terrify her a little. 

Never had she felt like this before. And for all her claims to hate things that were unfamiliar, she was actually scared of unfamiliarity.

Yet one thing she was sure about- even though her feelings were new and unchartered territory, she knew she would not resist wanting to explore it. Could not. 

Noelle knew that it was too late to stay away from Jeon Jungkook now.

He had a few honey strands in his dark brown hair when they reflected the sunlight- Noelle observed. Even his eyes looked highlighted from the rays of the afternoon sun which caressed them gently. 

Between bites of his sandwich, he lifted his gaze to meet hers and told her to eat her packed lunch too. 

Still, she picked at the food, not because she did not like the food- No, Noelle loved eating and was a total foodie. It was more to do with the fact that her eyes would not comply and tear themselves away from looking at Jeon Jungkook.  

She unconsciously blushed when she saw the tip of his tongue poke out and lick his lip which had the remnants of sauce from the sandwich. 

It made her think about the last time those lips had caressed hers, and that was days ago in that very spot at the rooftop; a day when Noelle decided that sometimes chocolates weren't that bad after all. 

Throughout the past few days, only their hands had brushed each other. They had not even come close to kissing again. 

And while Noelle liked the fact that she was not letting those darn butterflies in her stomach dictate the pace of their budding relationship, she did not necessarily like the fact that they had not kissed again. 

She had liked kissing him. It was unlike anything Noelle had ever felt before. Her heart soaring inside her chest, her fingers running through his locks...

"Why are you not eating?"

Jungkook's voice broke her out of her daydream, making her blink and flush in embarrassment at the direction her wayward thoughts were headed at. 

She merely shrugged and went back to concentrate on her food. She did not know that while she thought Jungkook was eating, even his thoughts were circling in the same wayward path she was trying to shy away from.

For Jeon Jungkook loved to steal glances at her just like she did. 

He had been doing so all along. The way her eyes would get unfocused and stare off into oblivion while she was deep in thought, the hazel orbs with flecks of gold and green and brown reflecting the sun rays which would then get caught in the ebony locks of her hair cascading around her face, making them appear shiny. 

He loved it when she bit her full bottom lip which he knew tasted like cherries and strawberries. For all she claimed to hate sweetness, it was a wonder that she tasted sweeter than both of the two fruits. 

Jungkook wanted to taste those lips again. 

He wanted to languidly map out the  skin of her slender neck and shoulders with his mouth. He wanted to suck on a hidden spot he had yet to discover behind her earlobes. He wanted to nibble on her lower lip just like he had at that Itaewon club under the pulsating lights.

He wanted Lee Noelle so much it hurt.

Yet he also had never felt this way before, had never felt even an ounce of the magnitude of the infatuation he felt with her. 

Thus, Jeon Jungkook was a bit disoriented as to what to do. 

 He felt so consumed by the rush of his unnamed feeling whenever he saw her that he did not know what to do, which pace to take, where to tread in the unchartered territory of their blossoming yet undefined relationship. 

Jungkook always went headfirst into everything, acted without thinking much. It was just how he was. He did not have the time or the patience.

And yet, even though the flames of infatuation which seemed to have held the remaining little pieces of what was left of his heart captive, he found himself not yielding in to the infatuation again. 

Surprisingly, he found himself wanting to not rush into things for the first time in his life,  for  he was worried that his pace would frighten or drive away Noelle. 

He had always been someone who never hooked up with the same girl if he could help it because it complicated everything, and Jeon Jungkook hated complications.

 That was all he had known before he met Noelle. 

That was all he did. That was all he knew. He was content with it, with meaningless hookups with random strangers.  

Before he came to Seoul that is. Before he crossed paths with her. Before he realized that they both weren't so different after all.

He found himself too enraptured with the enigma that was Noelle that he wanted to ditch his old rule for a little while,  test it's boundaries, bend it a little. 

After all, Jungkook was never the ones to follow rules anyways.

So even though he wanted to kiss her again, claim her lips and let his be claimed by hers, for the first time in his life, he was exercising control- a concept which was almost foreign to him.

Not all of it was bad though. Taking things slow, that is.

 He liked talking to her. In fact, it was the most he had talked in years. He liked to listen to her breathy yet melodic voice, liked how she was gradually getting comfortable in his presence and liked how he would be the recipient of her smiles. 

They were young fools who had made the mistake of falling headfirst and getting tangled in the web of infatuation when they did not know a single thing about it. 

Clueless yet infatuated with each other, they were surely going to stumble and fall, get up only to stumble yet again, but that is the beauty of infatuation and young love. 

***

 Taehyung was zoning out again, and Jimin was losing his not-quite saintlike patience now. 

Park Jimin adored his best friend, but the said best friend had not been himself lately. Always zoning out, always smiling a bit stiffly and always canceling up on him whenever the boy would suggest they hang out. 

Jimin initially thought that maybe Taehyung was just going through one of those days, ones wherein he felt low and listless. Maybe a slump of sorts. 

Yet it was almost going to be two weeks since he had been like that. He was even missing a few basketball practices, and Jimin knew that Kim Taehyung never  missed them. Ever. Taehyung loved the sport, almost as much as the single child loved his pet, Yeontan.  

Jimin had simply had it enough. He had been talking to his best friend for about ten minutes non-stop now and the boy hadn't even as much as nodded or acknowledged anything. He just had a blank faraway look on his face, not even touching the food he had in front of him.

"YAH KIM TAEHYUNG!" Jimin shook him slightly by the shoulder, his shout earning him looks from the students sitting around them in the cafeteria. 

Taehyung slowly blinked at that, as if waking up from some stupor. His eyes gradually stopped staring off into space and his gaze finally met his best friend's as if startled by the sudden sound, widening. 

"Have you even heard a single word I've said for the past few minutes?" Jimin gave him a glare, raising his eyebrows at the boy who looked at him blanking, shaking his head as if to clear it and also as an answer to his question. 

Confusion painted on his face, Taehyung mumbled an apology under his breath, one which exasperated Jimin even more, for he now knew that Taehyung was aware of what he was doing yet he was still doing it, still rudely ignoring his best friend since forever. 

"Kim Taehyung, I have had enough of this nonsense!" Jimin sighed out, having arrived at a sudden conclusion, a sudden epiphany if you may, on what was making his friend behave so out of sort. 

For there was another friend of his, his other best friend who was behaving out of sorts too. 

Lee Noelle. 

Park Jimin could not fathom why she would even be remotely attracted to a guy like Jeon Jungkook. She may have thought he was over it, but Jimin was far from over it.

 He did not like it one bit actually. He hated the fact that Noelle was gravitating towards Jungkook. Despised the idea with every fiber of his being.

For all it was worth, Jimin and Noelle's sweet and sour friendship did not make him want to wish she would get heartbroken. And that was exactly how she would end up if she continued to yield in to her sudden infatuation with Seobeom's resident badboy, he was sure of it. 

Noelle's infatuation did not merely make him upset and frustrated, Jimin realized. It had affected Taehyung too- his stoic silence and his blanking out made a lot of sense now that he thought about it that way. 

"Enough of what?" Taehyung had the gall to look confused.

"Enough of you sulking! Come on, you made up with her did you not? Now make this perpetual gloomy cloud circling your head go away."

"I am not sulking." Taehyung insisted, frowning a little when Jimin raised his eyebrows to call out his friend's bullshit as he said, "Am I being that obvious?"

"You've always been obvious." Jimin sighed out loud again, the words mumbled under his breath so that Kim Taehyung could not hear them. 

 Jimin was not a stranger to the fact that Taehyung liked their best friend.

How Taehyung even thought he did a good job at hiding his feelings for Noelle was beyond Jimin's comprehension. It was glaringly obvious. 

Taehyung was a fool, a fool in love to be more precise; but then again so was Park Jimin. 

Sometimes he even thought Noelle had picked up on it over the years, but sometimes it would seem as if she was oblivious to it- Jimin did not know whether he was happy or he was sad about this. 

All he knew that the so called 'secret crush' of Taehyung was not a secret. It was a well known fact. 

Which made his heart feel conflicted, because he had a secret crush of his own. And because he loved both his best friends and did not want to get in Taehyung's way, he had long ago buried his own feelings in consideration for his best friend and their friendship. 

For Kim Taehyung was not the only one who had feelings for his best friend.

***

Noelle sometimes hated her younger sister. 

Maya was more often than not a pain in the ass and that day was one of those days. 

Noelle had arrived home only to hear the news that her mother had to go to Daegu for the weekend for a case, and lately her father was working a high profile case so he had been returning home late, sometimes even sleeping over at the Prosecutor's Office in Seoul Metropolitan Area. 

After her evening tuition classes, Noelle was thus free to do what she wanted in an almost empty house; a chance which she did not often get or even exploit for that matter. 

The word 'almost ' should be stressed upon because Lee Maya (unfortunately) lived in the same house as well. 

Still, Noelle had relatively more freedom that Friday late evening, even more so inside her room where Maya was banned. 

So Noelle decided to call Jungkook for the first time. They had been texting a bit, mostly about meeting up for lunch during their break. 

They had never talked on a phone call and while Noelle had realized Jungkook wasn't big on texting or calling, a strange impulse made her do it, made her ring him up. 

It took him around five rings to pick up. Throughout that five seconds, Noelle's heart had been beating with a speed which could rival a NASCAR driver's.

"Hello?"

His voice was warm like honey, making those darn butterflies appear yet again, and not even just inside the pit of her stomach but also all over her body.

It made her feel as if the light wings of those butterflies were brushing all over her skin, tingling it and giving her what people term 'goosebumps'-The good kind.

"Hi." She realized she had taken several beats to answer. 

"Hello." He repeated with a hint of warmth and rare amusement mixed with surprise (as if he couldn't believe it was really her calling him), making a small smile tug at her corners. 

She imagined he had a crooked one trying to blossom on his lips too, she imagined his cute dimple making an appearance for about a few seconds before he tried to wipe away the grin and school in his expression. 

Little did she know, her imagination was spot on. 

"Hi" She replied yet again, her cheeks coloring red for some reason. 

"I heard you the first time." This time the amusement in his tone was not at all subtle. It made her heart constrict and then soar and then again constrict. 

"I heard you say hello the first time too." Noelle replied with an unbidden chuckle escaping her mouth. 

"Yes, now would you tell me the reason why you called?" Jungkook replied after a beat of silence wherein which she could hear some shuffling from his end of the line.

Maybe he is busy? Was it right to call him? 

These questions made Noelle hesitate a bit. She never did take any impulsive decisions for she did not like them. 

What had gotten into her lately?! Noelle mentally face palmed herself. 

"Just...um...just..." she trailed off, unable to answer. She did not herself know why she had called him. It had been impulsive and instinctual and she had not thought much about it, a fact she was regretting now.

  Clearly. 

"Just?" He prodded, yet it was soft. He was not snappy. His voice seemed soothing and gentle, even more so on the phone. 

"Just because." She sighed out loud, unable to think up of an excuse. 

"Just because?"

"Just because." She repeated, biting her lower lip. A beat of awkward silence passed wherein she could hear her own heartbeat. 

"You sound different on the phone." He spoke just when she was about to cut the call and kill herself from the embarrassment.

"What? Why?" She asked, confused. He sounded the same, if not better. 

"You sound breathier. It feels as if you're speaking in my ear, your breath tickling my earlobes. It's a good different." He clarified, making her blush. 

"Y-You too. She cursed herself for the stutter.

Just as Jungkook was about to say something else to her, it was then that the door of her room was flung open and an irritating being stepped in as if she owned the place, as if she owned the room when she so clearly did not. 

Lee Maya.

It seemed as if Maya had never gotten the memo to follow that rule which was made by her elder sister, banning the younger from her room. Either that, or Maya had most likely torn up the memo. 

The latter scenario was more plausible because it was Lee Maya we are talking about after all.  

"Ellie what are you doing?" Maya chirped, walking in and heading straight for the bed which Noelle was perched upon. 

Her voice was so loud that Jungkook must've heard her for he asked, "Who's that?"

"My sister." was the reply Noelle gave while what she really wanted to say was, 'the bane of my existence'.

"What do you want?" Noelle gritted out with a glower at Maya. 

"I don't want anything!" Jungkook cried defensively, a bit taken aback by the sudden hostility. 

"No, not you! I meant my sister." Noelle sighed, "Wait, give me a minute." 

She said and proceeded to put the call on hold, all the while glaring at her younger sister who was now looking at her with curiosity brewing behind young hazel eyes, eyes which were a carbon copy of Noelle.

"Who's that? Is it Taehyung Oppa? Or Jimin Oppa?" Maya arched an eyebrow at her elder sister inquisitively. 

"What do you want Maya?" Noelle repeated sternly, to which her sister developed an all-too familiar gleam in her eye, one which Noelle did not quite like.

"Just who are you talking to that you want me to be gone so much?" 

Perceptive brat, thought Noelle begrudgingly. 

"No one you know." The words slipped her mouth before she could stop herself for unlike her sister, Noelle was not well versed in the art of lying. Much. 

Maya narrowed her eyes at her sister, making Noelle throw up her hands in frustration and repeat, 

"Just tell me what you want and begone! I have things to do. "

"Like calling boys and flirting." Maya retorted back with a smug look on her face, one which Noelle wanted to wipe away.

 Preferably with a slap. Maybe with hiding her sister's treasured black nail paint even though the slap option seemed far-too inviting. 

"Shut up. Will you tell me what you want or do you want to be kicked out from my room?"

"Ha, as if you ever could!" Maya rolled her eyes but decided she had pushed the buttons too much so she strategically retreated and said, 

"Anyways, I just came here to tell you that I got a call from mom who told us to get takeout for dinner. I was thinking I could order pizza, what do you think?"

"Mom said that?" 

Noelle was confused for a bit because her mother had specifically told them to not get takeout for Seo Jin-hee hated greasy food from outside. She only liked nutritious homemade meals. That, or gourmet food from reputed restaurants. 

"Mom already made us a few side dishes. I can make rice, lets eat that. Besides, you know she does not like us ordering and eating takeout food."

"But mom already gave me permission!" Maya argued.

"Did she really?

 Noelle tilted her head to scrutinize her sister's expression. True to her suspicions Maya bit her lower lip, which was also her tell; glaring evidence that their dad had said no such thing and that she was clearly lying. 

"Maya-" Before Noelle could call her out though, Maya snatched the phone from her unsuspecting hand and unmuted the call, reading the Caller ID aloud. 

"Jeon Jungkook huh? I did not know 'nobodies' were named Jeon Jungkook dear sister." Maya pretended to smile sweetly as she spoke to the said 'nobody',

"Hello nobody-oops, Jeon Jungkook. Are you my prickly ever-so righteous and boring sister's boyfriend?" She said in a sing-song voice which prompted the aforementioned boring sister to cry out her name aloud. 

"Maya give my phone back to me!"

Turning a deaf ear to her sister, she continued, 

"You know my mother is quite strict when dating is concerned. I never thought I'd see the day when my perfect elder sis would rebel and get herself a boyfriend!"

"MAYA!"

"Um, who exactly is this?" came Jungkook's reply but it was not audible when Noelle shrieked her sister's name in vexation. 

"I am Lee Maya, your girlfriend's younger sister, geez keep up man! You sound dumb. Noelle could do so much better. Taehyung Oppa is so smart, I wonder why she doesn't date him insead. Mother wouldn't have a problem too because our parents are friends."

"LEE MAYA!"

Deciding that she had tested her sister's patience long enough, Maya gave her sister a wry smile as she cut the call after saying, "Okay then, I am afraid I have to go. See you around."

The moment she gave her sister back her phone, Noelle lunged for her but the quick kid ducked and all but ran out of the room. Just as she reached the door, she turned a bit to say,  

"What did you say dear sister? Pizza? Okay, pizza it is. Oh, and don't you worry, I would not tell mom. We both know I lie well, so much better than you."

Maya winked and shut the door.

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A/N

Dear readers who I adore and purple,

I know, I know.

 I know that this is a very very very long overdue update. Forgive me please. *makes puppy dog face* College life has been keeping me very busy. 

Also, pardon any grammar errors or typos, I have not proof read this chapter because y'all were so eager for an update :)

Did you like the new POV? And what are your thoughts on Lee Maya huh? How's the new chapter? Spam my comment section, fill it with songs and rants and fangirling over how Jk's voice is soooo damn perfect. 

P.S.- Favorite kdrama you recently saw/ are watching?

 Mine is....any guesses? Well, I will give you a hint! Here it is:

"On the left is Samantha and the one on the right is Rachel"

*laughs in Business Proposal*

Laters lovelies,

Milli