#which is both flattering & a little frustrating (comma)

[fanvoidkeith]

my (cis) mom, who knows three (3) trans people total, including me: so… what if someone… decides they're not trans anymore? and goes off hormones?

me, trying to make sure she understands: that's fine, it's their choice

mom: but what if they get health issues from… taking hormones?

me: that sucks, and it does happen. that is, unfortunately, a possibility

[t0ngue-tech]

Deadline | Six

“You retreated further into your seat but this only prompted Jungkook to only get closer.

‘Jungkook, I understand that y/n is your girlfriend, but can you please keep the flirting outside of my classroom?’ Your history teacher called out from his desk.

‘Sorry, teach! Couldn’t help it.’ Jungkook replied with ease.

A few of the students snickered and you easily recognized Jennie’s.

‘That was fun.’ He whispered.

↠fluff, highschoolAU, fake relationship AU↞

word count: 4.7k

↠series: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ↞

A/N: HELLO EVERYONE IN QUARANTINE! it has been about two months since i last uploaded anything. i actually started writing two things but i got writer’s block from both of them so i decided to continue deadline and BAM i couldn’t stop writing lol. i hope you all enjoy this chapter huhuhuhu. stay safe everyone!

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It had been a long and tiring week since Jungkook came over and you both were busy as ever. You promised the math team that you would attend more meetings, which you were now doing, and you had piles of homework on top of tutoring Jimin, Taehyung, and occasionally Jennie.

Jungkook, on the other hand, was doing his best to do better in all of his classes. Plus, he had been extra tired lately due to his training in the evening. He would usually take you home after school, but he was now heading home to do some homework and nap before training while you had your own after school activities.

You soon came to realize that the last time you got to properly hang out with Jungkook was when he came over to your house.

After Jungkook left, you found the confidence to truly call him a friend. He thanked you for breaking out of your comfort zone for the sake of his own selfishness and you became aware of how caring and mindful he was. 

Fake relationship aside, Jungkook was a great friend and as friends, you missed hanging out with him on a daily basis. Sure, you saw him on campus and he was in your third period, but because you had things to do after school, you drove yourself to school for the past week. It couldn’t be helped.

“So, as a girlfriend, don’t you miss spending time with him?”

Your eyebrow twitched and it felt like you could snap your pen into two.

Jennie accompanied you to a coffee shop after school while she waited to pick up her sister from dance practice. You had your laptop open and a notebook laid out in front of you while Jennie had her textbook that remained untouched for the past hour and a half.

“Ugh, Jennie.” You groaned.

“Come on, y/n. It’s just a question. You even said it yourself, it’s been a while since you hung out with Jungkook.” Jennie took a long sip from her drink and fiddled with the zipper of your pencil case.

“Alright, if I was his actual girlfriend, of course I’d miss him. But we’re just friends with an unusual contract so it’s fine.” You explained.

“Just ask him to hang out with you! Friends are allowed to do that.”

“Jennie Kim. Just drop the subject and open your textbook, you said you’d at least try to study.” You reached over and tapped her closed book with your pen. “Plus, we’re both busy these days, so really, it’s fine.” 

Jennie did have a point. Asking Jungkook to hang out with you as a friend shouldn’t be a problem however, it felt like you would be overstepping your boundaries.

An hour flew by of Jennie complaining, studying for five minutes and taking a fifteen minute break. She may not always be the best study buddy, but she was your favorite companion. Eventually she had to take her leave, leaving you in a cold coffee shop with much regret because you left your earphones at home.

I guess I’ll just stay for a while.

Your phone buzzed in your lap.

[4:12] jungkookie♡: How about now? Is it correct?

While studying with Jennie, you were going over Jungkook’s book report corrections via text message. Attached to his text was a photo of a newly put together paragraph with less grammatical errors.

[4:15] You: you can replace one of your commas with a semicolon. guess whereeeeee

[4:17] jungkookie♡: Alaslskslsks hint pls

You chuckled thinking about how Jungkook probably didn’t even try to look for the comma replacement on his own. Before sending him a sarcastic hint, you stared at his contact name.

It was agreed that you were both going to change each other’s contact name to something more couple-esque just in case someone happened to see their texts. The heart beside his name was something you were still getting used to.

“Y/n?”

You looked up from your phone, already recognizing the voice, and forced your face muscles to stop from frowning.

“Hm?”

Sehun stood in front of your table dressed in his varsity jacket over a white t-shirt, sweats, and his wallet and phone in one hand. The tips of his bangs were plastered against his forehead, probably sweaty after working out; you were familiar with the sight.

“Uh, um, may I sit?” He asked nervously.

You pondered over your answer and replied quietly, “sure.”

He sat down and tapped his fingers against the side of the table. You paid no mind to Sehun and continued to work on your math packet. He barely said a word for five minutes which only made you uncomfortable considering he was your ex-boyfriend and you were currently in a “relationship.”

“Hey, can I ask you something?” Sehun finally questioned.

You hummed, not even batting him an eye. 

“I heard something from Jongin today and he said that Jungkook is using you.”

This statement immediately broke your concentration. You scrunched your eyebrows together, giving Sehun a what the fuck type of look.

“And why the hell did he tell you that?” You were irritated. Sehun was poking around in your business and even if you had the intention of making him jealous, using the words “using you” was a bit much.

“I—I don’t know. He heard it from Jeongyeon and Mina. They were talking about it and Jongin just passed it along to me.” Sehun brought his hands down to his lap and averted his eyes.

“So, basically, the cheerleaders were talking about this?” You waited until he nodded. “For your information, Sehun, Jungkook isn’t using me.”

“And how do you know that?” He answered rather quickly.

There was no way you could tell Sehun that you were in a fake relationship with Jungkook and it frustrated you because you knew for sure that he wasn’t using you without consent.

“Why do you even care? My relationship with Jungkook doesn’t concern you.” You had to tone down with the annoyance in your voice before it attracted any attention from other bystanders.

“I—Well,” Sehun gnawed at his bottom lip. “Jungkook and Chaeyoung broke up months ago and maybe he’s just using you to get over her. Maybe he still loves her.”

Maybe. Maybe he was right. Who knows? Jungkook could possibly still love her deep, deep, deep down and was having trouble getting over her. But you remembered that he only misses the good times, that was it.

You let out a rough sigh and rubbed the spot in between your eyebrows.

“Are you having trouble getting over me?” Sehun asked boldly.

“Don’t flatter yourself.” You quipped.

“We also only broke up months ago. After a year of being together, you really have no feelings for me anymore?”

Your jaw dropped a little. Was he serious?

“Well, if you put it that way, since you’re so concerned about Jungkook and I, do you still have feelings for me? Oh, but you did break up with me because you lost feelings.” You held your eye contact with him and waited for an answer. Despite how strong your retort was, your heartbeat was working overtime. You were grateful to be sitting down because if you were standing, you would probably wobble down onto the floor from being so nervous.

“I—”

“Huh, if it isn’t my two favorite people, y/n and Sehun.”

You snapped your attention to Jungkook who had remarkable timing. You were so engrossed in your heated conversation with Sehun that you didn’t even notice Jungkook walk in.

Startled, Sehun harshly stood up from the chair, slightly bumping into Jungkook.

“I was just leaving.” Sehun mumbled and escaped towards the register of the coffee shop.

Jungkook was dressed in an all black tracksuit and had his duffle bag slung over his shoulder. He pulled back the seat and sat down with a cheeky smile on his face.

“Hi.” He proudly greeted you.

“What brings you here?” You moved around some of your supplies to make room for Jungkook’s laptop and the printed copy of his book report.

“First of all, you didn’t reply to my text when I asked for a hint and you mentioned that you were at this coffee shop so I decided to drop by for you to check out my paper face to face.” He answered.

You took the book report and flipped it over page by page. “Mhm, and secondly?”

“Oh, I don’t know, I guess we just haven’t seen each other much besides in school. I figured you were probably suffocating from missing me too much—hey, ah!” You cut him off by reaching over to playfully smack him a couple of times with his report. 

“On a serious note though,” he continued. “We really haven’t seen each other that much. Sorry about that.”

You smiled softly. “Hey, it’s not your fault. We’re both busy.”

Jungkook returned the smile and tapped away at his keyboard. “So, what kind of bullshit was Sehun saying this time?” Jungkook turned his body and captured the sight of Sehun finally leaving the coffee shop.

You blew out a breath of air not wanting to remember the frustrating conversation you had with Sehun. Since it was about your relationship, Jungkook had to know.

You explained to him that the cheerleaders stirred up the idea of Jungkook using you to get over Chaeyoung. It was pretty obvious that Chaeyoung was the starting point of that piece of information. He reacted just as you did, irritation seeping out of every pore. You then added the part where Sehun mentioned that Jungkook probably still loved Chaeyoung.

“Geez…” Jungkook hissed. “With the way she’s behaving, it’s making me feel more relieved that I broke it off with her. Even if we’re not together anymore, she’s still possessive.”

“Sorry you’re going through this.”

“I’m sorry to rope you in this.”

You both snickered, understanding that this was the grave that the two of you had dug and had no other choice but to lie in it.

“I think we should get back to our usual routine.” Jungkook suggested.

Your routine with Jungkook consisted of him picking you up from your house at around 7:15 to go to school together. Jungkook would then take you to your first period and hang out with you outside of the classroom until the first bell would ring. Lunchtime was usually spent with him, his friends, and Jennie, then third period, fourth, and the school day would be over. If you had matters to attend to after school, Jungkook would wait on campus or sit in his car until you were finished and then he would take you home. This routine was put on hold due to both of your busy schedules.

“I think you’re right. Maybe we’re starting to look more like friends than a couple these days.” You lightly chuckled and quickly skimmed through one page of Jungkook’s report. “And I also think the semi colon belongs here.”

“Where?!” He scrambled around to look where you were looking.

“Somewhere—here.” You took one of your red pens and circled the same paragraph he sent you.

Just as you playfully hit him with his papers, Jungkook grabbed your red pen and drew jagged semicolons all over your hand as you struggled to free yourself. In that moment, you felt at ease knowing things were going to go back as normal as possible.

↠↞

“The two of you look disgustingly happy today. I feel like vomiting.” Jennie shuddered and opened her bag of chips.

You turned your gaze over to the lunch line where Jungkook and Jimin were standing. Jimin was shaking Jungkook by the collar, probably begging Jungkook to accompany him to the mall tomorrow; you remembered Jungkook sighing about it at the coffee shop. 

Jennie was right and you refused to vocalize it. When you walked out your front door in the morning and found Jungkook leaning against his car, waiting for you, your heart thumped inside of your chest. He acted like he normally did, teasing you about the dust of sleep that was still settled in your eyes. 

There was a moment in time where you realized that the routine you had with Jungkook was now the norm and you were experiencing that same feeling all over again. It made you feel giddy, almost like a kid waking up on Christmas morning.

“I think you’re imagining it.” You dismissed the topic and pierced your juicebox with a straw.

“And I think I know you too well.” Jennie smirked and stole the first sip of your juice.

Well, she wasn’t wrong.

Third period physically suffocated you.

Your teacher had given the last half of class time to work on the history project and Jungkook sat a lot closer to you than normal. The entire class—pretty much the whole school—knew that you two were a couple, but the cheerleaders in your class constantly shot icy glares at you.

For an entire week, there was some distance between you and Jungkook and the constant stares from any of the cheerleaders began to subside until now. With the way Jungkook was acting, you knew it had to do with your “looking more like friends than a couple” comment from yesterday. Pulling off a couple’s aura was obviously a good thing, but shaking off the glares of Chaeyoung’s posse always proved rather difficult.

“Hey. Could you, I don’t know, maybe scoot over just a teensy bit?” You whispered.

Jungkook looked towards the cheerleaders who quickly turned away and then did the exact opposite of what you requested. 

To sit even closer to you, he pushed his desk aside and grabbed one of the vacant chairs that sat on the outskirts of the classroom. He sat close enough to the point where both your knee and shoulder bumped against Jungkook’s own.

“I like this a bit better.” He chuckled.

Li-Like?!

You retreated further into your seat but this only prompted Jungkook to only get closer.

“Jungkook, I understand that y/n is your girlfriend, but can you please keep the flirting outside of my classroom?” Your history teacher called out from his desk.

“Sorry, teach! Couldn’t help it.” Jungkook replied with ease.

A few of the students snickered and you easily recognized Jennie’s.

“That was fun.” He whispered.

“You’re impossible!” You harshly whispered back, face flushed with embarrassment.

After that, the rest of the school day seemed to have passed by in a blur.

You had a math team meeting after school to prepare for the competition and you tried to convince Jungkook to head home so he could rest before his training, but he refused.

“It’s fine. I have my duffle bag in my trunk, so I can just drop you off home and head off to practice.” Jungkook patted the top of your head.

The two of you stood outside of the practice room and you greeted your teammates as they walked in.

“B-But, aren’t you tired? I don’t know what time I’ll finish.”

You noticed that Jungkook’s eyes were focused inside the classroom before he leaned down and gently tugged at your face towards him. There was a short moment of panic inside of you thinking that he was going to kiss you in front of your teammates.

The first and only time he kissed you was the first day your fake relationship was established and kissing you now, when you definitely weren’t ready, was too much.

“Jung—” you croaked and screwed your eyes shut.

Instead of a kiss, he bumped his forehead against yours and lightly brushed the tip of your nose with his own. He probably did this to create the illusion of you two kissing and you were confused, he never did this before.

“I’ll take a nap in my car. Just call me when you’re done so I get a heads up.” Jungkook took a quick step back before enveloping you in a hug. “Work hard. I’ll see you later.”

He left shortly after the hug, leaving you in a daze. Chanyeol had to go out and collect you because you were too shocked to move.

Did that happen just now?

↠↞

“Okay, this meeting is adjourned until next week Monday. Tomorrow is Friday, so I think we all take a break so that your weekend can start much earlier.” Chanyeol announced.

The math team cheered as if they just won the lottery. Your brain had been overcooked with math problems for the entire week and you couldn’t wait to finally relax after school.

While you were packing your bag, you scrolled through the text messages you received during the meeting.

[4:02] momomom: Thai for dinner tonight? Text me your order! I finish at 7 tonight xo

Yes! Chicken pad thai, my body is ready!

[3:40] jenniekim: Lmk if youre free after school tmrw

[3:40] jenniekim: The mall awaits us!

[3:41] jenniekim: And that outfit I showed u before also awaits u!!!!!!

You smiled to yourself.

Sigh, Jennie. You’re not going to let it go, huh?

The next cluster of messages were from Jungkook who also attached a bunch of pictures to the texts. Majority of the pictures were of the sky, his feet on the dashboard, the ceiling of his car along with his face from the eyes up, and his empty passenger seat.

[2:52] jungkookie♡: It’s the perfect day for a nap

[3:05] jungkookie♡: Okay I’m going to nap forreal this time

[3:26] jungkookie♡: Nvm turns out

[3:26] jungkookie♡: I cant sleeeeeep

He’s gonna regret not napping later.

[3:47] jungkookie♡: When youre done gotta show u a youtube vid lol funny af

[3:56] jungkookie♡: Dont forget to call me when youre on your way

“This kid.” you mumbled to yourself.

“Good work today, y/n.” Chanyeol’s voice startled you. “Oh, s-sorry!”

You brushed it off with a laugh and slipped on your backpack.

“It’s fine, Chan. I’ll see you on Monday!”

“Wa-Wait, y/n! This isn’t homework or anything, but I compiled some problems and formulas that you can study and practice with to help prepare you for the final part of the competition.” Chanyeol held out a thin packet.

You smile softly at him. “Thank you so much! I really appreciate this, Chan. I owe you one.”

Chanyeol opened his mouth and a squeak of some sort of syllable left his lips, but he shook his head. “You’re welcome. I’ll see you, y/n.”

He turned his back to you to clean up the classroom and you raised an eyebrow.

Weird.

You didn’t want to dwell on the moment any second longer. It was still a bit awkward around Chanyeol, especially because Jennie always made side comments whenever they would run into him in the hallways.

Since the meeting ended earlier than you expected, this gave Jungkook a bit more time to rest after taking you home. Knowing that he would have the time to relax made you feel satisfied. The quicker you arrived at his car, the quicker he could nap.

“Tsk. He told me to call and yet he’s not answering.” You mumbled to yourself as you picked up your pace in your steps.

Jungkook parked near the second entrance in the student parking lot and you took a shortcut behind the locker rooms and the football field to get there faster.

The sun beat down on you, but the autumn air made it much easier to bear. You noticed it on the way to school, but the weather seemed more beautiful than normal.

“—fuck did you say?!”

You didn’t realize how deep in thought you were until you heard a voice dripping in anger coming up near the boys locker room. The voice was recognizable, but you refused to believe it until you saw the owner with your own eyes.

You ran, almost tripping over your own feet as you turned the corner and found Jungkook in an altercation with none other than Sehun.

Jungkook had the collar of Sehun’s shirt balled up in his fists with Sehun’s back pressed against the wire fence. Your feet felt glued to the ground, but you knew you had to do something before things got out of hand.

“Jeon Jungkook!” Your voice pierced through the air and the two boys whipped their heads to find you trudging towards them.

You ripped Jungkook away from Sehun, dropping your phone to hold his wrists in your hands.

“What the hell are you two doing?!” You first looked to Jungkook for an answer, but his eyes weren’t meeting yours. So, you turned to Sehun and he was reacting the same way.

“Hello?!” You questioned loudly.

“We were just—” Sehun began.

“Talking. Just talking.” Jungkook completed the sentence still avoiding your eyes.

You screwed your eyes shut, blood boiling with anger.

“I’m gonna take a stab in the dark here, but since my ex boyfriend and current boyfriend were in that situation, I’m going to assume that you two were talking about me?” Neither of the boys answered you and you sighed roughly. “I’m going to take the silence as a yes.”

It had only been a day and here was Jungkook and Sehun, once again, sharing the same breathing space. Not only that, the scene you stumbled upon would have probably turned violent if you arrived a minute later.

“Oh Sehun, Jeon Jungkook, you two realize that you both are student athletes, right?” Neither of them dared to look at you. “If a teacher walked in instead of me, who knows what would’ve happened! Sehun, coach would have probably kicked you off the team and you have a match at the end of this month, Jungkook. Your coach probably wouldn’t let you compete!”

You felt as if you were scolding two kindergarteners who refused to share a toy. Unlike an elementary school teacher, you didn’t make them hug and apologize. Instead, you gave Jungkook a light push to keep them at distance. You scooped up your phone and tightened your hand around Jungkook’s.

“I don’t ever want to see the two of you making any sort of contact again and I mean it.” You threatened. “Let’s go, Jungkook. You have practice.”

You couldn’t be bothered to check on Sehun. If you showed an ounce of concern, Jungkook’s mood would probably worsen. So, the two of you marched to his car in a heavy silence.

“I’ll drive. You can cool off in the passenger seat.” You stuck your hand out for the keys, but Jungkook beat you to it and held open the passenger side door for you to get in.

“It’s fine. I’ll cool off at practice.” Jungkook said plainly.

It was weird. You were pissed off about how he would have got into a fight and if you could, you would much rather not talk to him at the moment. But you never saw Jungkook this angry before and it terrified you.

He was always so easy going; anger never seemed to be a part of his vocabulary. It made you wonder what the hell were those two idiots specifically talking about. You made an inference that the topic was you; it seemed to be the likely candidate because they were never friends to begin with. The only thing they had in common was having a relationship with you.

Maybe they talked about what Mina and Jeongyeon said?

The car ride was deafening and what made it even worse was that Jungkook had the air conditioning on and no music playing. You could feel a streak of cold sweat fall at the back of your neck.

Something. I have to say something!

“I—I understand that we’re pretending to be a couple, but you really didn’t have to take it that far.” You blurted out. “You’ve been training hard for this fight, you can’t risk it because of me, you know.”

While you spoke, it took a lot of courage for you to take a peek at Jungkook. You could see his jaw clench and his eyes remained focused on the road. His left hand held the steering wheel and his right hand gripped tightly around the gear shift.

You sighed. Ugh, no. I’m just making him feel even worse.

You almost made yourself dizzy by thinking about what to say to Jungkook. In your eyes, you didn’t seem to do anything wrong back at the school but at the moment, you were nagging at him. The last thing you wanted was for Jungkook to be angry or upset with you.

The suffocating atmosphere wasn’t getting any better. Before slumping lower into the seat, you noticed how tight Jungkook was holding the gear shift. His knuckles ghosted white from how hard he was squeezing the handle.

This made you nervous. What if Jungkook continued to stay angry and ended up hurting himself during practice from trying to “cool off”? What if he couldn’t compete?

No. No. I need to do something. Ah—um—

With trembling fingers, you reached out and peeled Jungkook’s hand off the shift. His entire arm flinched as you gently interlaced your fingers between his own and rested your held hands in your lap.

“If Sehun said something bad about me that made you angry, thank you for defending me. But I don’t want you using violence to solve anything.” Your voice was much softer and much more composed this time. “I don’t want you getting hurt because I’m going to start worrying and I can get pretty annoying when I start worrying!”

You looked over at Jungkook whose facial expression still hasn’t changed.

“Jungkook.” You sighed. “Please don’t be angry.”

Just when you thought things were going to take another wrong turn because you couldn’t stop spewing nonsense, you felt Jungkook’s hand relax in yours. He still kept his eyes on the road, but he used his thumb to gently graze your skin as you held on. Before you could ruin the mood by running your mouth, you smiled to yourself thinking you succeeded in making him relax. You used your free hand to softly draw mindless patterns on the back of his hand.

Not another word was said, but the heavy fog in the car seemed to have been lifted.

Before you knew it, Jungkook was pulling up to the curb in front of your house. You were still holding hands with him, so he had no way of putting the car in park. But he didn’t move an inch to do so.

“Jungkook?” You called out, but there was no reaction. “Jeon Jungkook!” This time, you shook your hand and it woke him up out of his daze.

“Huh?”

“I’m home.”

“O—Oh! Sorry.” He retracted his hand back and finally put his car in park. 

“It’s fine.” You snickered. “Um, get some rest okay? Don’t get hurt during practice.”

You shuffled around and gathered your things to exit as quickly as possible.

“Y—Y/n..!” Jungkook tugged at your sleeve just before you could open the door. “Uh, I—I—I’ll...do my best tonight. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

The crack in his voice startled you. It wasn’t like Jungkook to sound or look this flustered. It was quite the sight to see, but you were getting nervous all over again.

“Yeah. Drive safe.” You replied and finally made your escape. You wanted to run into your house right away, but your compulsion to turn back around weighed heavier. So, when you reached your front door, you did just that.

You saw Jungkook already looking at you, so you waved. For the first time since he dropped you off at your math team meeting, he smiled at you. He then waved back and drove out of your street.

It seemed to take forever to get your front door open and once you did, you plopped yourself down on your couch. You shut your eyes and your head spun as you looked back on the events that took place.

The angered expression Jungkook had when he was with Sehun continued to pop into your head. As well as the way Jungkook held your hand and affectionately grazed your skin with his thumb.

Your cheeks flared up.

Geez, what a day.

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♡ rae jagi