Chapter Text
The alarm clock goes off at 5AM sharp blaring TVXQ’s Mirotic so loud the neighbors can practically hear it. Josephine stirs in bed trying to prolong the inevitable. She reaches her arm over to her nightstand and searches blindly for her phone. She finds it and brings it up to her face trying and failing to slide her finger across the screen to turn off the alarm. The blinding light coming from her cell phone is too much and she misses 3 times while squinting before finally shutting off the alarm. Josephine had wanted to go back to sleep but now her mind is too alert to be able to do so. So she curses TVXQ for their extremely catchy song and its ability to get stuck in her head as she flings the comforter off her body.
She sighs loudly before thinking to herself, I don't want to go to school today. Why did winter break have to end? I barely even slept last night trying to finish all of the homework.
The longer she lay there the more her eyes adjusted to the lack of light. She can barely make out the outline of all her room's furniture. Which is a bad thing considering how clumsy she is. If she tried to leave her room now to get ready the chances that she would trip and hurt herself were very high. Outside the room she could hear shuffling sounds in the hallway. Most likely her brother who’s already awake and about to hog up the bathroom for an eternity, which makes no sense because he’s younger than her and a boy. Why does he take like an hour when it takes her like 20 minutes max to get ready? She sighs again feeling the length of the day even though it had just begun, then mumbled, "And so begins another boring day."
- - -
"Mom! Seriously! I told you to give me at least a 5 minute warning before the bus gets here! I'm gonna be late!" Josephine yells as she grabs her bag with her only free hand nearly dropping all of its contents and begins to head out the door.
"Don't forget your lunch!" her mother calls just as Josephine was about to close the door.
Fuck! Really? I'm already gonna miss the bus! she thinks to herself. Outside she catches a glimpse of her neighbor running to the end of the sidewalk. A for sure sign that the bus had arrived and that she is moments away from having to run to school. Josephine decides to opt out on lunch today and calls out, “Sorry! It’s too late!” as she bolts out the door. She runs as fast as her clumsy awkward legs allow and has to bang on the window of the bus door so the driver can open it up and let her on. She apologizes before paying with her metro card and then makes her way towards the back of the bus where it is less crowded. She looks around the seats in the back of the bus searching for that familiar head of her neighbor. Once she spots it she starts to maneuver her way towards it, almost bumping into 3 people before reaching her destination.
”Hey, thanks, once again" she mumbles while trying to sit down and place her bag on the floor and the report in her hand on her lap.
"No problem, I'm used to it anyways" Namjoon says as he grins his big toothy smile, his dimples immediately appearing.
"Don't get cocky with me boy" Josephine growls while ruffling his hair.
"I'm not the one who makes a mad dash for the bus every morning," He begins to cover his head with his textbooks to defend himself as Josephine raises her clenched fist to hit him, "Hey, Hey! At least I save you a seat!”
Josephine lowers her hand and grumbles, "True, but next time you're getting it because you deserve it” and shoots Namjoon a sinister smile.
Namjoon lets out a huge sigh of relief and settles his textbook onto his lap grateful to have escaped yet another beating from Josephine.
Josephine had been quite the tomboy growing up. But she couldn't help it seeing as she had grown up with 2 younger brothers and with Namjoon as a childhood friend. Nobody had expected Josephine to become stronger than Namjoon but she was, or so everyone thought. And Namjoon too often for his own good said things that provoked Josephine into punching him.
"Oh hey Jo did you finish Mr. Daniel's HW? You've always struggled with math and he seemed determined to kill everyone over break with that 15 page packet.”
Jo scrunches up her nose and begins to rant, ”Ugh don't remind me. I need to finish it later, so I'm skipping lunch. I already was up pretty late and had to wake up early because of my brother’s need to practically live in the bathroom. So I’d rather not think of that monster of a packet. I mean really, who assigns a 15 page packet over winter break? Winter break is a time for family not dying from trying to figure out a useless math problem.”
"But you've gotta eat Jo. You can just copy my HW if you want," Namjoon offers. Namjoon is the number 1 student in their grade and doesn't often allow others to copy off of him. Josephine appreciates the offer, but feels guilty. He was usually stern against other students who came to him bothering him to ask for his work. Typical to ask the nerd for their work. She knew he had a soft spot for her because they were old friends and looked out for one another. But she had spent most of winter break lazing around and didn’t exactly deserve his kindness at the moment. So she declines.
"It's not like I brought lunch anyway, so I have time. Thanks though," She says humbly.
The bus comes to a gradual stop and the two stand up to get off. They exit through the back doors and as they walk towards the school gate Josephine feels dread beginning to creep into her bones. "UGH! Namjoon we are wasting our lives in there! I just want to live my life, follow my dreams, fall in love, and NOT go to school!"
Namjoon just laughs and shakes his head, his short blonde hair moving slightly and then falling back into place, not surprised at all by her sudden outburst. He was used to hearing remarks like these from Jo on a weekly basis and the fact that they had just come back from a long break meant he was overdue on hearing her complain.
- - -
The first 2 classes pass by in a blur, because everyone was excited to talk about their winter break activities. It was the 3rd period that managed to catch most of Jo's attention. In the middle of English class a boy with dark red hair interrupted the lesson looking confused. Immediately the entire class was filled with energy, wondering who the handsome new person was.
"Excuse me, is this English 2?" the mystery boy asked.
"Yes, who are you?" the teacher responded, placing the notes in her hand down onto her desk and gravitating towards the intruder.
"My name is J-Hope, I'm a transfer student and I am supposed to be in this class" the boy declared.
The teacher looks tremendously confused and walks back to her desk to shuffle through some papers until she finds what she is looking for. After glancing over the paper she says, ”J-Hope? B-But the student I'm supposed to get is called Hoseok Jung.”
"Ahhh it feels so weird to be hearing my name called in that order. I am used to Jung Hoseok. Doesn't matter anyways, because I go by J-Hope! I am here to bring some hope into your lives hahahahaha" he states as he made funny faces at the class.
The class begins to laugh because he looked ridiculous and his laugh definitely on the interesting side. Jo, however, was just studying his features quietly. He was kind of good looking in a peculiar way. His long face was kind of unusual but very attractive. Didn’t help that Jo had a thing for asian boys.
“Soooo,” Hoseok starts, "am I just gonna stand here all day, or do I have a seat?" J-hope jokes. Once again the class bursts into laughter. It’s very easy to entertain a class of teenagers who are bored out of their minds. A sense of humor is very much appreciated.
"There is a seat right there behind Josephine" the teacher states pointing at Jo as she returns to her desk in order to resume the lesson.
Josephine's heart begins to pick up out of excitement while Hoseok makes his way down the aisle of desks. As he approached his desk Namjoon asks him, "Are you Korean?”
"Yeah, how'd you know?" Hoseok inquires.
"Jeoneun Kim Namjoon ibnida. Mannaseo bangabseubnida. Jeoneun hanguk saram-ieyo (I'm Kim Namjoon. Nice to meet you. I'm Korean)" Namjoon says in Korean as he awkwardly bows the best he can in the cramped space between his desk and his chair.
"Ah, Bangabseubnida" Hoseok responds while bowing back. "It so cool to meet another Korean. I didn't think there would be one in my class. Now I can relax more, I was kind of nervous,” he says while chuckling and settling himself down into his desk.
"Really? It didn't seem like it. You seemed pretty confident,” Jo refutes while turning around in her seat to face Hoseok. Her heartbeat starting to beat even faster, which she didn’t know was possible. “Oh, I'm Josephine by the way, but-“
"Just call her Jo.”
"-You can call me Jo," Jo finishes saying at the same time as Namjoon. "Hey! I can speak for myself you know," Jo scolds Namjoon while scrunching up her face.
"Yeah, yeah. But it's so much fun watching you get mad. “ Namjoon jokes and then in a high voice says, “You’re cute when you're mad,” while reaching over to pinch her cheeks in the most cheesy way possible.
"You guys seem kinda close. Are you dating?" Hoseok questions.
"NO!" Jo screams immediately.
Her sudden outburst has several people in the class turning around and giving her weird looks. Suddenly the people around them are curious about their conversation. What could possibly have Jo talking so animately about with the new kid?
Namjoon also stares at Jo weirdly for 3 seconds before telling Hoseok, "Nah, we're just childhood friends. Jo's like a brother to me, you know?”
"Don't you mean sister?" Hoseok tries to correct Namjoon.
"Hey! you freaking jerk!" Jo exclaims as she punches Namjoon in the arm for the first time that day.
"Nope. Brother. Definitely Brother," Namjoon laughs and begins to rub his arm in circular motions to get the blood flowing and prevent bruising.
Hoseok just shakes his head, laughs and then agrees, "Yeah I can see what you mean.”
- - -
By lunch Jo is a bumbling fumbling mess. Well more of a mess than she usually is and that is saying something. It basically takes all of her willpower (she has no willpower when it comes to cute boys) to not turn back and just stare at Hoseok's face while he and Namjoon get acquainted.
She feels exhausted from the constant rapid beating of her heart and she knows the blush on her cheeks is not going away anytime soon. She just feels so hot from the blood rushing to her cheeks and staying there for the better part of an hour. She is parched and done with school. She was done with school the moment she had opened her eyes this morning but now she is beyond that point.
She knew she had a preference for asian boys but this was ridiculous. She didn’t even know the guy yet and she was completely gone for him. She needed to get fresh air and relax for like maybe 3 seconds without worrying about how she looks.
Jo finds herself close to the staircase that leads to the roof. The roof is open to the students since her school is pretty lenient. It’s the perfect escape and thats what she desperately needs right now. So she begins to clamber up the stairs because really she needed to take a nap and going up the stairs was taking too much effort. When she reaches the top (after what seems like 5 years) she finds the door open and could tell that there were several students already there and all sitting around eating their lunch and conversing. She begins to notice some of the students from her English class and was about to take a step out the door to join them when she heard his voice-
"Ahhh come on guys stop with the 20 questions. You'll learn more about me as the days pass. I mean I know I'm irresistible as fuck but damn I need a break." For what seems like the 10th time today the sound of laughter fills the air.
"So what do you guys do for fun here? I mean this obviously isn't Korea where the nightlife is insane, so what do you do?”
Jo didn't particularly care what her classmates had to say since she lived here and knew what was around the neighborhood, but she couldn't bring herself to leave as she was more interested in watching Hoseok interact with their classmates. Just as she was admiring his face again she felt a presence behind her.
Jo's heart skipped a beat, and really it was a surprise her heart was even still working at this point, she then turned to her side to see that Namjoon had walked up the stairs and was on her right side watching her.
"Oh, hey Namjoon. Wh-what's up?" she stutters.
Namjoon was quiet for a mili-second and then asks Jo, "You going to join us or what? Plan on creepily watching from the shadows?”
"Join you?”
"Yeah we're all having lunch with Hoseok. He's filling us in on life in Korea. Not like I don't know already, but it's been a while. since I’ve been home.”
"Umm, you know what? I'm not feeling so great. I was coming up for some fresh air. Didn't know there was a bunch of people up here. So I'm think I’m just gonna go. I'm not exactly looking forward to them seeing me sick, but thanks. Plus I have that monster packet to attack" Jo begins to walk down the steps.
"Not like that would be the worst condition they've ever seen you in, right?" Namjoon calls out while laughing and covering his face as he expected Jo to come right back up the stairs to smack him. When too much time passes and he feels no pain, Namjoon slowly peeks from between his fingers and catches Jo looking out the door towards Hoseok. He lowers his hands to his side.
Jo hesitates before replying, ”Yeah, you're right. Well see you later in math" Jo says quietly and then continues down the stairs before beginning to turn around the corner.
Namjoon could tell something was up as Jo never missed an opportunity to knock Namjoon around.
"Jo-" Namjoon called out, "Do you need me to take you to the infirmary? I already finished eating, and I can just catch up with Hoseok later.”
"Nah, I'm alright. I just need some air. Don't worry about me. Bye Joonie,” she rounds the corner and disappears from Namjoon’s sight.
After Jo was gone Namjoon sat down at the top of the stairs thinking about Jo's actions for the past couple of hours. She hadn't acted out like this since she had a crush on Chris Edwards in the 3rd grade. But she acted out even more then due to her being an awkward pre-teen who didn’t quite know how to deal with feelings for boys. She was used to beating them up. Jo wasn't normally quiet and submissive. It was weird. Namjoon was used to her being so full of energy and ready to punch anyone whether they deserved it or not, and Namjoon never deserved it of course. Okay, maybe he did. I mean he did always provoke her on purpose just to get a reaction out of her.
"Ahhhh Josephine, what am I gonna do with you?”
- - -