"First thing's first," says Jungkook, dropping his phone onto the bed beside him. "I'm about to gnaw my own arm off if I don't eat soon. I'm starving."

It always comes back to food.

You let your fingers rake through your hair, then stand up from the bed. The action stretches your body out fully for the first time, and your hips and spine pop as they shift back into alignment.

Sighing, you glance over at the sandwich you brought in here hours ago, sitting on the bedside table. It's a little limp, the cheese sweating in the room-temperature air, but it still looks fairly decent if a little wilted.

It's a sandwich. It should still be fine.

Jungkook follows your gaze. "Yeah, no. I'm not eating that."

Of course not.

That would be entirely too agreeable.

He lays back on the bed with his arms folded behind his head, grimacing only slightly when the move once again shifts his shoulder and tweaks his wound. You can't believe that he's actually hurting himself in order to recline into this cocky position.

That sweet, vulnerable guy from a couple of minutes ago?

Yeah, Jungkook must've shoved him off the cliff of reasonability and into the raging sea of his ego.

"You should make me something. I'm injured," the black-haired man simpers with a wicked smirk. "I could hurt my shoulder again."

Yeah, he could, but it probably wouldn't be him hurting himself. It would be you, stabbing him in his wound with the bluntest wooden spoon you can find in the kitchen.

"Oh, you poor thing." You smile sweetly, then immediately drop into a look of dry, unaffected removal. "If you freaking want food, you have hands. Go make it yourself."

You march out of the room, resisting the urge to flip him off as you go. You're done with making him food. You tried that. Now, you're only going to worry about your own stomach.

A break from his bipolar hot-then-cold mentality will also be a blessing.

In the kitchen, you start preparing yourself a sandwich, too lazy at this point to make anything that involves more effort. Just as you're pressing the meat onto the bread, footsteps patter into the kitchen.

"More sandwiches," sighs Jungkook. "Can't you make anything else, princess?"

Twitching, you have to physically force yourself not to send the slice of cheese in your hand flying toward his arrogant face.

What is this?

It's like he's overcompensating for being sweet those couple of minutes by being a total, complete idiot of unparalleled proportions.

"Sure I can," you force put through gritted teeth. "I make the best grilled lamb skewers in this hemisphere."

Glancing back, you sweat that there's actual drool dripping down Jungkook's chin. "I love lamb skewers. Make me some."

Yeah, because that beautifully polite and humble question will incline you to do anything for him. Not only do you not have the right ingredients, but even if you did, you'd skewer him before serving him food that you worked hard on.

"Screw off," you grumble as you finish your sandwich. Again, you pin one hand down with the other so you don't fling the load of bread at him.

It's a close call.

At your refusal to provide him with a meal, Jungkook sighs and trudges toward the refrigerator, dragging his feet like a child.

The action strikes you and unusually playful, as does his entire attitude.

Whatever switch flipped between you since your conversation in the bedroom, it seems like Jungkook's on the path to trying to build a friendship instead of making you his arch nemesis. As if physically manifesting your thoughts, he hip bumps you out of the way to get to the counter.

You stare like an idiot, gaping.

He just hip bumped you.

Like a child.

As if the two of you haven't been trying to kill each other since you met.

As if you've been friends since elementary school.

"Okay, what the heck is going on?"

Straightforward confrontation is undoubtedly the way to go. You say it bluntly, crossing your arms and leaning back against the counter.

Pausing in the process of taking a grape from the counter, Jungkook tosses you an innocent side glance. "Hm? What do you mean?"

Huffing, you plant your hands on your hips and jut your chin out, not deterred by his non-admittance. You won't let him get away with playing dumb. "What is...this? You were being a jerk 2.5 seconds ago, and now you're being all cutesy. Why?"

His reaction is instantaneous, and foreboding.

Something flashes in his eyes, and a little smile curves up the corner of his mouth, the lip ring pressing a small indent into his lips.

Oh.

You don't like that smile. There's entirely too much mischief tucked into the corners and angles of that smile for your comfort.

As if he can read your thoughts, Jungkook lets his smirk widen to show his pearly white teeth and shrugs one shoulder casually. He turns from the counter, sauntering toward the refrigerator.

"I'm trying to play nice," he says casually. "It would help a lot if you played along. Maybe we won't fight for once. Do you think Jimin bought any desserts?"

He finds a bottle of chocolate sauce in the fridge and turns to you with a victorious grin.

Maybe we won't fight for once.

That grin.

That grin is driving you insane. 

A crazed laugh bubbles up inside of you, and you finally give in to that urge to slingshot a slice of Swiss cheese towards his face.

Spiraling through the air like a flying saucer, it smacks down across the bridge of his nose, full of holes and inconsistencies, just like the man himself.

Jeon Jungkook is Swiss cheese.

Swiss cheese is Jeon Jungkook.

You don't try to tell the difference between the two, mostly because there isn't one.

As you think this, Jungkook is in the process of realizing that a slice of cheese is dangling off of his nose. Just as he reaches for it, it slips away, flopping down to smack against his sock.

His jaw tightens, black eyes slowly roving up from the pale square on his foot to you, standing defiantly across the kitchen from him. His lips part, and his tongue pushes out the side of his cheek from he inside, resulting in a fed-up look that's equal parts sexy and pissed off.

His long fingers tighten around the neck of the chocolate sauce bottle. Inhaling through his nose, he gingerly pops open the cap, meeting your gaze with his own dark one.

And, as you watch in horror, he turns the bottle upside down and pours a flood of chocolate.

All.

Over.

Your.

Sandwich.

Gaping at him, you whisper in a trembling voice, "You monster."

A low laugh vibrates his chest. "Oh, Princess, you haven't seen anything yet." Jungkook drags his hand through a puddle of chocolate that's gathered on the plate, and lunges toward you.

His hand drags the sticky chocolate down one side of your face and the side of your neck, his fingers hooking the collar of your shirt so he gets some on your collarbone, just to spite you.

You freeze, feeling anger as you've never felt before tearing through your entire body. It's burning, catching your insides on fire and bursting open your veins. You breathe deeply, trying desperately to calm down, because you really are seconds away from punching a hole into that smug face.

"Why," you force out through clenched teeth, "-the ever loving heck would you-"

He cuts you off, his own usually mellow voice tight with anger. "If you weren't being such a freaking goody two shoes, maybe we could actually joke around instead of-"

Now it's your turn to drown out his voice with your own. "How could I joke around with someone who consistently mocks me, insults me-"

"Oh, please," Jungkook scoffs. "Stop taking yourself so seriously. Just because you can't take a joke-"

That's. It.

You lose it.

He can't be seriously tying to brush off every insult and mean comment as an attempt at humor.

Your voice isn't making any attempts at being calm or civil anymore as you start screaming. "Since when has any of this been a joke?! You're always so mean to me!"

He roars back, "I always try to joke, but then you overreact so much that you just start a fight!"

"Don't you dare try to blame all this on me! You can't act like you haven't been serious-"

"I'm not the one who's always serious! You're so uptight and prissy-"

"You're so insensitive and rude! You didn't event freaking tell me I was getting the same tattoo as you!"

"If you'd never walked into our tattoo shop, we'd never have any of these problems!"

AKA: He wishes they'd never met you.

All of those men, who started out as your enemies then ended up your friends, those men who've protected you from the only people on this earth who are supposed to care, but don't.

He wishes that you had never decided to walk into that shop, to put yourself in their lives. He was better off before you came along and ruined everything.

Your throat thickens, and your lips thin.

You whisper, with anger and hurt, "I hate you."

The tension in the room escalated to a level higher than has ever been between the two of you before.

The words send a spark shooting off through the black depths of Jungkook's eyes, and a low growl rumble through his chest.

He lunges at you.

For a split second, you think he's going to bite you with the way his head is angled toward your throat.

Gasping as tour back slams into the wall with the force of his body crashing into yours, you strain your head back agains the solid surface, wincing as you wait for the pain of his teeth tearing into your skin.

But it never comes.

Instead, Jungkook just...stops.

Hovers.

There, over your skin, the heaving warmth of his breath brushing against the streaks of chocolate coating your skin. One of his hands is braces against the wall beside your head, the other at the wall by your hip.

He inhales deeply at your neck.

"Well, princess," he whispers in a silky voice, almost devoid of any of the previous anger. "If you're this mad about it, I guess I'll just have to clean you up."

The next thing you feel is the touch of warm metal and his tongue against your skin.

That's when you both lose your minds.

[A/N]
Unedited
Hi my Lilpockets ❤️❤️
I saw that a lot of you have been asking about Teach Him lately. I told y'all I would publish it at 95K I think, and I've obviously failed to do that 😞 I'm sorry. However, after I finish Honey Bunny or Blood Ink (whichever comes first) I am planning to start working on Teach Him. My plan is to have it more as a collection of short stories and events rather than one full book, that way I can cover more of Hana and Kiyoung's lives.
Thank y'all so, so much for 120K. I honestly can't believe it. Your support and encouragement means more to me than you'll ever know.
Thank you guys.
❤️pocketbangtan