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[21]

Her stomach churned with a combination of dread and nervous excitement. She wasn’t sure why, but the moment they were alone together had always brought out a nervous energy she couldn’t ignore.

She glanced at her phone, pretending to be absorbed in her messages, when she heard the sound of Jungkook shifting in his seat.

Her heart skipped a beat as he walked toward his laptop, the click of keys echoing in the quiet room.

"Hey, Aeri," Jungkook’s voice was low, almost playful. "What about we actually study something?"

She blinked, confused by his sudden change of topic. "What?" She turned her head towards him, trying to act casual.

Jungkook’s gaze flicked from his laptop screen to her, a small smirk tugging at the corners of his lips.

"Yes, instead of your assignment you emailed me something else."

Aeri froze. Her blood ran cold. Her mind went completely blank, and for a split second, she thought she might collapse.

"Wh-what?" she stammered, her voice sounding high-pitched, almost panicked. "What do you mean?"

Jungkook didn’t respond immediately. He clicked a few times, adjusting the screen in front of him, before turning the laptop towards her.

The light from the screen cast a harsh glow across his face, but Aeri’s attention was entirely fixed on what was displayed before her.

Her heart stopped.

The words on the screen were unmistakable, too clear to deny. It was her work. Her words. And they weren’t the kind of words she’d expected to send him.

She had sent him an email last night with her assignment, but in her tired, half-dazed state, she had mistakenly attached something else—something she’d written purely out of curiosity, something she’d never intended to let anyone see.

Her fiction.

And now Jungkook was staring at it, his expression unreadable as he scrolled through the raw, explicit scenes she had written.

Aeri’s face burned with shame. She felt like she might disappear into the floor. She wanted to run, to hide, but instead, she sat there, frozen in complete horror.

"Aeri," Jungkook’s voice was low, teasing. "This isn’t your assignment."

She opened her mouth to explain, but the words died in her throat. What could she say?

"Interesting choice of words," Jungkook continued, his eyes flicking over the screen again.

"I didn’t know you had this... side to you." He leaned back in his chair, studying her with an almost predatory glint in his eyes.

Aeri’s breath caught in her throat.

She wanted to crawl into a hole and never come out. How had she let this happen? Why had she even written it in the first place?

"Delete it," she managed to choke out. "Jungkook, please, delete it." Her voice was desperate, but Jungkook only chuckled softly.

"You want me to delete it?" His smile widened, and there was a flicker of something darker in his gaze.

"What if I want to keep it?"

Her heart pounded, her mind racing. She could feel her cheeks burning, but it wasn’t just embarrassment—no, there was something else stirring inside her.

Something she didn’t want to acknowledge. She had written those words in a fit of passion, and now they were out in the open, laid bare for Jungkook to see.