—
"So he knows who you are then?"

Saturdays were Jungkook's favourite. Fridays had half of them taken up by school, and Sundays had the pressure of an early morning the next day. Saturdays were the true day off.

"I guess? I don't know. He said he's seen me in the halls before." The front of Jungkook's hair was tied up into a miniature pony tail, his white t-shirt whipping in the breeze as he rolled around the parking lot behind his elementary school on his skateboard. His sneakers were scuffed and ripped due to this hobby, small doodles done in permanent marker scrawled onto the white soles.

Hyuna sat on the curb and watched him as she sipped a slime green slushy. Her hair was tied up into a high pony tail, white shorts hugging her hips and one of Jungkook's old shirts hanging off of her torso. She had cut it shorter though, to make it 'more stylish'. "Okay that's a good thing!"

Jungkook popped his board and sent both him and it flying into the air, grinding it on the top of a bicycle rack before landing on the ground again. He leaned to the right before dragging one of his feet on the asphalt, skidding to a halt right in front of Hyuna.

"Elaborate." He prompted, picking up his board and sitting down on the curb next to his friend. He stole a sip of her drink, lips puckering at how sour it was. Green apple has always been his least favourite.

"That means he's noticed you." She smiled, kicking off her slide on shoes and tapping he sock clad feet against the pavement. "Now, I may be overthinking but I know that you are too. So, that could mean, that possibly, he looks at you how you look at him." She grabbed her slushy back out of Jungkook's hands, taking a sip and letting the sourness hit her taste buds.

"I may overthink, but I don't overthink that much." He huffed, picking at one of the stickers that was peeling off of the bottom of his skateboard. "He was probably just being nice. Besides, you'd think that if he looks at me how I look at him, we would have made eye contact before now."

Hyuna pursed her lips, trying to think of something uplifting to say to her friend. She knew that what Jungkook had in terms of Taehyung was simply an infatuation. He was pleasing to the eye, and his success in ever sport and subject he was apart of was pleasing to the mind. It created a false sense of a relationship with him in Jungkook's mind. He felt as if he knew exactly how the boy was.

But Hyuna knew more. More knowledge that she kept hidden from her best friend. Taehyung had a girlfriend. His third girlfriend in the past month actually, because Taehyung knew how people thought about him. He had a lineup of potential partners at his disposal 24/7 and he was breezing through the entire list.

She didn't want Jungkook to become just another empty box to check off.

But she kept it a secret, because she knew that it would crush Jungkook.

"It'll always be difficult to explain how I feel to you, you have a boyfriend." Jungkook stood up again, taking a running start before hopping on his board again. He zipped around the parking lot as Hyuna watched with sad eyes, eyebrows shooting up in awe as he managed to land a kick flip near the back of the parking lot. The wheels on his skateboard were sky blue, the grip tape matching it. He was a mere flash of colour as him and his board flew over a pylon, the back two wheels just grazing the top of it.

"You know I'll always listen to what you have to say though." She called out, knowing that Jungkook's ears had gone deaf to the world around him. They always did, when he was in his element.

He took his frustrations and troubles out by skating, and if the multiple rips and scuffs in his shoes were anything to tell by, he did it a lot.

He was troubled, but he knew how to hide it extremely well.

"I just want to be something, to someone." Jungkook answered, maneuvering himself around a crack in the ground that would have sent him flying. He slowed down, allowing himself to talk to her without having to yell. "It's not that I'm desperate or anything, I'm just lonely, you know?"

Hyuna nodded sadly, watching as Jungkook crouched down so that he was lower to the ground. "My last relationship lasted me almost a full year, and for a great deal of it, it felt as if I was the only one who was putting any effort into it. He always found a way to make me feel horrible about things that I had no control over." He skittered to a halt, sitting down on his board in front of Hyuna. "When we broke up he said that he always found it amusing when he hurt me."

He looked up and watched as the clouds slowly moved across the mid afternoon sky, contrasting against the gorgeous blue. "Is it so much to ask, that there's someone out there who will give me just as much as I give them?"

"Taehyung might not be that person." Hyuna spokes softly, watching as her friend picked up a few pebbles off of the ground and threw them at a nearby garbage can. "I know you want him to be, but you know how much it will hurt to rush into things."

Jungkook shrugged.

"I want him, Hyuna." He breathed. "I want to be the person who he talks to when he's feeling down, or the one who he falls asleep next to after trying to stay awake. I want to know him. The real him, not just the version that my mind has made up."

Hyuna set down her slushie, scooting back sit hat she could sit on the grass as she folded her feet beneath her.

"You don't want the real him, alright?" She knew that Jungkook would have that confused look on her face due to her words, but she kept her gaze down. "I'm friends with a few juniors okay? I've heard stuff about him." She heard Jungkook stand up and walk closer to her, still refusing to look up. "He has a girlfriend right now, and from what I've heard, they aren't going to last long. He plays people, Jungkook, and he doesn't care."

"You're wrong." Jungkook picked at the rips in his jeans, not allowing himself to take any of Hyuna's words to heart. "You know just as much about him as I do, you're wrong. I know you are."

Hyuna huffed, finally turning her head to look at Jungkook.

"Why do you like letting yourself be hurt?" She asked, Jungkook gulping as her words struck a chord in his heart. "Why do you pretend to be oblivious to things that you know will only cause you heartache? You knew that your ex-boyfriend was horrible for you, but you stayed with him for another four months. Why?"

"If I knew, I'd tell you." Jungkook shrugged. "That's just the way that my brain works. I always try to see the best in people."

"Some people's 'best' isn't even as good as your worst, Jungkook."

—