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Chapter 5: Mirror Image – July 1, 2019

“So…” Tae glanced around Yunseong’s bedroom a few minutes later.  “Where is Jungkook?  He texted that he was coming here to play MIRᴙOR with you.” 

Jungkook had been here every day this week.  With Yunseong.  Honestly, Tae was getting a little jealous.  His brother had stolen the love of his life. And now the girl Tae had kissed had stolen his best friend.  Couldn’t a guy get a break?

He had no one to hang out with now.  And he was starting to feel lonely.

“He went jogging with my sister.”

“He did?”  Tae frowned.  “Why?”

“She likes to jog.  And so does he.”  She shrugged.  “It makes sense.”  She glanced up at Tae.  

And sighed inwardly.  Would he ever notice her?  Her eyes drank in his chiseled countenance.  The way his dark bangs hid his eyes from her view.   She’d missed him this week as she and Jungkook had been playing together.  

Tae reached up and shifted his bangs, drawing the loose hairs away from his eyes.  Suddenly, Tae’s chocolate eyes found hers.  His eyes were always so intense.  She vacillated between the desire to fall into them and the need to avoid their scrutiny.  

Would Tae figure out that she was interested in him?  Would she fail to carry out the plan she and Jungkook had devised?  She wondered if Jungkook was faring any better with her sister.

—

They’d been jogging along silently for twenty minutes.  Unbeknownst to each other, Jungkook and Yunyeong were replaying their encounters of the last week.  Parading them down the hallways of their minds.  He’d sat next to her at dinner that first night.  After her siblings had joined them at the table, Yunyeong hadn’t spoken one more word to him the whole night.  

She hadn’t laughed at any of his jokes either.  He had done everything he knew to do to bring a smile to her face.  Nothing had worked.  Finally, he had given up and simply goofed around with her sister.  He had discovered that he liked their brother too.  They had a lot in common and were the same age.

Jungkook sighed as he remembered the following day.  Yunseong had invited him over in the afternoon to play MIRᴙOR.  They’d been playing for an hour when he had suddenly been overcome by thirst.  Yunseong had told him to help himself to the sodas in the fridge.  He’d followed her directions and headed for the kitchen.  Where he had bumped into Yunyeong.  Literally.

He’d opened the door to the kitchen and run it straight into her hip.  She’d been standing at the island making herself a sandwich.  She’d glanced up in surprise at him before rubbing her hip.

His eyes had widened with concern.  He’d wanted to rush to her side and rub her hip.  Which, of course, he couldn’t have done!  He would have embarrassed her to no end.  And made her think he was after her body.  But if it had been his hip, he would have rubbed it to scatter the pain along his nerves.

Instead, he had cried out, “I’m so sorry!  Are you all right?  Did I hurt you?”

Puzzled, she had furrowed her brow at him.  She had rubbed her hip again and murmured, “I’m fine.  I’m not made of spun glass, you know.”

He had leaned up against the door frame.  Looking absolutely gorgeous.  His head bent back to rest along the top of that frame.  He had been peering at her through the bottom of his eyes.  Through those thick, midnight lashes.  Observing her with those unsettling, obsidian eyes.  She’d shivered under that piercing stare.  The man was a born model.  Did he know?

“Are you sure?” he’d responded doubtfully.

Her eyes had connected with his then.  He had felt the zing.  Had she?

She’d felt it, all right.  It had warmed her all the way down to her core.  And terrified her too.  She had felt it only once before.  With disastrous consequences.  She’d left her sandwich sitting on the counter and crossed the room to get away from him. 

Jungkook had felt her tension ramp up.  He had hurried to the fridge and helped himself to a soda.  Then he had turned to head back to her sister’s room.  But his eyes had traced her profile longingly.  Why did he feel so drawn to this prickly girl?

She had glanced up at him, and the pain he had disturbed in her gaze had undone him.  He’d almost set his soda can on the counter and moved towards her.  But, instinctively, he had known she would repel him.  So instead, he’d murmured something.

“See you around.”  He’d breathed the words before exiting the kitchen.  

She’d sat down in the chair and put her head in her hands and cried.  Jungkook unsettled her.  And she didn’t like it.  She had lived for three years in her glass bubble.  Untouched by the outside world. 

Her life was one big classroom.  She studied around the clock.  Or read books.  When she wasn’t doodling.  But no one knew about that.  That was her little secret.

Until the next day.  Jungkook had ventured out to the kitchen in the afternoon.  Again, for a soda.  This time he had disturbed Yunyeong at the kitchen table.  He’d snuck up behind her and leaned over her bent head to see what she was so enthralled with.  

She hadn’t even noticed when he’d opened the kitchen door and stepped through the doorway.  She’d been so lost in what she was doing.  Her unusual focus had piqued his curiosity.  So he’d tiptoed across the room and stood gazing down in awe at her handiwork.  But he couldn’t stop the gasp from escaping his lips.

Startled, she’d jumped, ruining the sketch she was working on.  Fear and anger dueled for her attention.  They tied up her tongue.  Which gave him the opportunity to speak first.

“You’re brilliant!” he breathed in wonder. 

He stood staring down at the self-portrait.  Or was it supposed to be Yunseong?

“It’s absolutely amazing!  Are you an art student at the college?”

Overwhelmed by more emotions than she could handle, she’d slammed her notebook shut and jumped out of her chair.

“You!  You ruined it!”  Tears flooded her eyes.  “You made me jump, and I ran a pencil through it!”

His face had fallen instantly.  “I’m so sorry!  But…can’t you just erase the mark you made?  It’s still stunning!  You have such a rare talent!”

Clutching her sketchpad against her chest, she’d brushed past him and run out the door towards her bedroom as tears trailed down her cheeks.  Jungkook had stood forlornly watching her.  But as he had looked down at the ground, he had discovered that she had dropped a slip of paper.  He had bent to retrieve it.

He gasped again as he had glanced at the little square of paper.  He was staring down at a sketch of himself.  A brilliant sketch that captured him perfectly.  The question was…why had Yunyeong sketched him?