(caution: might be a lil sad)

The time was 7:45 pm, Mrs. Jeon asked namjoon to buy her some milk as she was busy preparing dinner with namjoon's roommate. The Jeons ran out of milk as they had guests over in the evening and they used all the milk making tea and milkshakes for them. There's no way Mrs. Jeon's gonna let her son sleep without having a glass of milk before bed; she wants the apple of her eye to be as tall and strong as he can be. She was hesitant coz she didn't wanna disturb namjoon's teaching session and when she decided not to trouble the young bachelor to run to a store at night, namjoon's roommate stepped in and blatantly insisted namjoon to do the chore. That's the reason Jungkook's playing fortnite right now while namjoon's out, on his way to a general store.

Not-so-fresh air grazes namjoon's cheeks as he drives Mrs jeon's Activa to the store. When he is a few meters away from the store, he notices the ruckus outside the clinic next to it. There's a crowd around a person who's shouting slogans on a loudspeaker. Namjoon glances at the crowd before entering the store. He doesn't pay much attention to the activist's sound which enters the store as he assumes it to be one of those political strikes done by wanna-be politicians. While he waits in the billing queue, He overhears people gossip about some girl going crazy outside the clinic.

He exits the store and suddenly stops walking the moment he actually pays attention to what's going on.  

"NAHI CHALEGI NAHI CHALEGI, JAATI PRATHA NAHI CHALEGI!"

("caste system won't work anymore") 

He hears a strangely familiar voice shouting her lungs out. He ploughs his way through the crowd until he catches a clear glimpse of the woman. 

"KAUN DILAYEGA INSAAF, KAUN JAYEGA INKE KHILAAF?! AGAR HUM AB NAHI LADENGE TOH KAB LADENGE?" 

("who's gonna give us justice? when will we fight back if not now?")

Her voice is filled with rage and its boldness makes namjoon's male ego feel kinda jealous. The lady in front of him is the one he met this morning, the one who almost got him to dance in front of the whole hallway, the one whom he took to a small coffee date. She looks like she has been here since the moment her classes got over coz she's in the same attire, her hair's frizzy and they look like they haven't been combed for ages and her bag's lying on the ground next to her. He takes some seconds to absorb the details of the situation before making his way towards her.

"Y/N-

"INSAAN KO POORA HAQ HAI JEENE KA, FIR YE JAATI PRATHA KAUNSI CHIDIYA HAI JO HUME SAANS BHI LENE NAHI DETI?"

("humans have the right to live. what kind of bird is this caste system which doesn't let humans breathe?")

She shouted it all at namjoon's face. He thought he lost his ears for a second. If he doesn't stop her, she might end up in jail coz he knows some bothered people are gonna call cops. Just when he was about to tell her about the cops, the siren interrupted him and spoke his thoughts instead. She seemed unbothered by the siren, so he used the hand which already held a polythene bag with milk pouches in it to grab her disowned bag from the floor and used the other one to grab her wrist and drag her away from the place towards the Activa. She finally cooperated and let namjoon take her away. He gave her her bag and the milk pouches to hold while he revs the scooty away to a place that's not a clinic and is about some miles away from here.

"gee, what were you doing?" he speaks midst the silent ride.

"I thought you were smart enough to figure that out" 

"you would have been in jail if I wasn't" he chuckles.

"where are we going?" 

"you see, this is the part where you say, 'thank you namjoon'"

she rolls her eyes.

"yeah thanks whatever," she says and it makes namjoon secretly laugh at her.

"So where'd you get that loudspeaker from?" He spoke. He doesn't want to jump to the main topic yet coz that might not be pleasing at the moment.

"shit" she mumbles when she remembers that she left it on the floor. "I had to return it to the temple I stole it from" she sighs and mumbles, "That's one heck of a sin I'm gonna be punished for"

"wow," he snickers in amusement. The rest of the ride goes without any word from either of them. Namjoon finally parks near a garden when he figures that they are far away from the police or any other person's line of sight. 

"I think we're safe here" namjoon ensures. Y/n replies with a nod and a hum. There's silence for some seconds. Not the awkward kind, just silence. Namjoon's trying to read her face while she's looking around the place. "I can listen if you wanna talk about it," he says when he's done figuring out what she's going through. "alright, I can head home from here" she ignores him and says before thanking him for his help. 

"wha-are you kidding me?" he asks.

"Why what's wrong"

"it's not safe here"

"if it isn't safe, why did u bring me here?"

"I mean it isn't safe for you to go out alone"

"and it is safe for you?"

"I suppose it is-

"why? is it coz I have a vagina?"

"don't do this here, come on," he sighs.

"what do you mean-

"it's not the perfect time to discuss the obvious, what's wrong with you?" he argues.

"what's wrong with me? what's wrong with me you ask? what's wrong with the people around us? what's wrong with this world?" her voice raises a few decibels as she speaks. "A man died in that clinic today, namjoon. you know why? coz the doctor was so busy treating the wealthy people, who wanted prescriptions for common cold, that he made all the less privileged ones wait outside for I don't know how many days." her eyes were turning red and moist. Namjoon knew if he won't listen to her, then no one would. "These people, they wait outside the clinic for days no matter how serious their disease is. That clinic was built to treat those who can't afford money to get a check-up and this is how they help the needy? These educated but uneducated doctors have a priority list, do you believe this? There's a small room just for Dalits, so they can wait and when I went there to talk to people, I didn't have space to step in it, it was packed with diseased people." She swallows the lump in her throat and breathes in to stop herself from breaking down.  

"hey, calm down," namjoon says in his soothing voice as he puts his arm around her shoulder. "I know how the place we live in is a mess but you can't start a campaign right away like that. There are other ways to deal with it and I'm sure people are ready to help"

She wipes her eyes as she sniffles and removes his hand from her shoulder. She faces him with fire in her eyes. "Do you think I'm stupid? I have tried everything I could but no one takes the issue seriously" she said. "This is not the first time a person lost their life in that clinic." 

Namjoon looks into her eyes and now he knows why she chose the medical field. Some do it for money, some do it coz their family wants them to and She's one of those people who genuinely wanna help others.

The moment is disturbed by y/n's phone's ringtone. 

📞 "hello" she picks up the call.

📞"yeah, i'm alright"

📞"no you didnt *checks missed calls* yes, you did"

📞"I'm sorry, okay"

📞"What the fck, no"

Namjoon no more thinks that she's on the phone with her mom.

📞"not cool, Zareen"

The name catches namjoon's attention. There was a Zareen in his first-year class. 

📞 "I said sorry"

📞"I'll be home in some minutes and no I am not sleeping with anyone" *hangs up*

She sighs. "you know what" she furrows her brows and then shakes the thought away from her head. "nevermind me, I'm stupid. you go home." she tells him. "I didn't mean to bother you"

"I wasn't bothered at all. I just wanna help and I wanna drop you home, not because I think you're weak and it isn't safe out there for you, but because I want to drop you home as a friend would. sounds good?"

"you're baby-talking me into this? seriously?"

"if that's how it sounds, then yeah, that. I insist" he says while rubbing the back of his neck.

--

Namjoon's back at the Jeon residence. He rings the bell and jungkook opens the door. 

"kaha mar gaye thhe?"

(where were you? [informal])

The younger one asks but instead of an answer, he gets ignorance. Namjoon enters and greets Mr. Jeon who's also back from his work. He gives the milk to Mrs Jeon and receives a thank-you. 

"Doodh bana raha thha kya?" His roommate asks jokingly.

(were you making milk?)

"the place was crowded" he replies. Mrs Jeon tells him to wait in jungkook's room till they arrange the plates and food on the dining table. Usually, he'd initiate to help but today he just nodded and dived right on jungkook's bed. 

"did u see a ghost on your way here-oh wait, that'd be bad for the ghost, anyway, what's up?" jungkook asks, curious about namjoon's behaviour. 

"how much did you study?"

"d-don't change the topic"

"I could say the same thing to you"

"We only speak the truth in this household, so nothing" jungkook says proudly. 

"you brat"

"now your turn," the boy asks.

"nothing with me as well"

"you're boring," jungkook says blatantly. Normally, namjoon would reply with a snarky comeback but today he chose silence. 

"I'll go there tomorrow and do the exact thing until they do justice to those people"

Her voice echoes in his head. A part of him is worried, a part of him is proud and happy that she's helping people, and a part of him's somehow attracted to her. He looks up at the ceiling and lets his mind wander. 

"hey jungkook, do you have a girlfriend?"

Jungshook looks at namjoon, the nerd and the single most person but at the same time the coolest person on this planet, in astonishment. 

"n-no, not yet" jungkook says with his brows furrowed together as he tries to read namjoon.

"do you have a girl in mind?"

"you got drunk, that's why you're late, aren't you?" jungkook asks.

"I'm serious. you're a kid going through hormonal phases and I'm worried about you"

"as if" jungkook scoffs. "since we only speak the truth in this household, I'll tell you, there is someone in my mind but that's the limit. she's way out of my league" 

"oh no, why do u think that?" namjoon rolls over so he could face jungkook and rests his chin on his hand.

"she's a badass. she looks like she'd shoot you in the head if you offend her."

"boy, I think she's in your mind coz you're scared of her" namjoon laughs at which jungkook just glares. Somehow jungkook's description makes namjoon think about y/n but y/n's not intimidating. She's sweet and confident. 

"so how do you talk to her?" namjoon's curiosity asks.

"I, well, we haven't really talked much. somehow, I always end up stopping her from punching random guys in their faces."

"talk to her stupid" namjoon speaks after laughing at jungkook's helplessness.

The conversation is interrupted when namjoon's roommate enters the room.

"dinner's ready"

--

Namjoon enters his house with his roommate. 

"Hoseok, Do you have a girlfriend?"

"Jale pe namak mat chhidak, saale" he replies.

(don't twist the knife on my wound, you bastard)

liuetviuatbqkuefvhkejfgvjehgjgegvy

(a/n): so... now you know who's next.