Lundi 28 octobre

Lundi 28 octobre is a Monday in Ellensburg, Washington, that traces Jungkook’s first deliberate steps toward knowing Shelby Anderson. At 15:30, he brings her up in conversation with Sunmi; later, after considering Sunmi’s advice, he encounters Kayla Brown at the university and withdraws from her touch. That evening, he goes outside to sit beside Shelby in the rain-darkened campus quiet. The day’s significance lies in this contrast: Jungkook does not yet know how to be gentle, but he begins to choose presence over withdrawal.

Place in the chronology

The date is anchored by a scene at Sunmi’s psychology office in Ellensburg at 15:30, followed by a campus episode marked 17:00 and then an encounter after nightfall. The time markers organize a compact progression rather than a single dramatic confrontation: disclosure in conversation, reflection while walking, and an unspoken gesture of company. Shelby’s name enters Jungkook’s conversation with Sunmi before he sees Kayla, and the final scene returns his attention to Shelby.

The events also sit within a broader pattern in which distress makes ordinary contact difficult and care must be negotiated through action. In an earlier panic episode, Cassiopée Smith finds Shelby distressed and recoiling from touch. In another scene, Jungkook discovers Shelby crying in a university boxing-gym shower and, uncertain how to help, stays nearby until she calms. These episodes are not dated to Lundi 28 octobre, but they give context to the evening’s quiet approach: sitting beside Shelby matters in a story where closeness can be frightening as well as comforting.

The afternoon conversation with Sunmi

Sunmi greets Jungkook warmly at the beginning of the 15:30 session. He says that he is still glad to see her, but that this visit feels different. Sunmi recognizes the difference and reminds him that she has already asked him to address her informally. Jungkook apologizes, then explains that he has met a girl at university—though he immediately qualifies the word, since she ran into him rather than being formally introduced. When Sunmi asks her name, he identifies Shelby Anderson.

Sunmi’s response is practical: Jungkook should get to know Shelby, move at her pace, and, above all, avoid being brusque. He listens with surprise. The advice touches a limit he already recognizes in himself: he laughs nervously and says that he does not know tenderness. The exchange does not resolve his uncertainty, but it gives it a direction. Rather than treating his habitual roughness as the only possible way to relate, Sunmi asks him to make room for Shelby’s pace and for a gentler manner.

Campus, Kayla, and the evening with Shelby

At 17:00, Jungkook walks across campus thinking over Sunmi’s words. He questions whether he truly wants to know Shelby or can become less brusque with her, then dismisses the possibility with a knowing, almost mocking smile. He believes life has made him incapable of acting otherwise than roughly and violently. Namjoon, by contrast, would disagree: Jungkook knows that his friend sees a deep kindness beneath the anger that Jungkook cannot quiet. The scene places his self-image beside another person’s more hopeful view of him.

A frisbee interrupts his thoughts. Jungkook picks it up, returns it to the students who signal for it, and continues on. At the university entrance he sees Kayla beside a black luxury car, which indicates that she is returning to Washington, D.C. She says she dislikes goodbyes and moves close, stroking his chest. Jungkook immediately pulls away because her caresses feel unpleasant to him; Kayla coughs, embarrassed. His response is a clear physical boundary, contrasting with the uncertain tenderness he has just discussed with Sunmi.

Later, after waking sometime past eight in the evening, Shelby goes outside in her jacket and shoes. Light rain keeps her under shelter, where she takes a cigarette from her packet and lights it. Jungkook sees her from his room while smoking at an open window despite the cold. He hesitates over whether to join her or leave her alone, then closes the window, puts on a gray hoodie and shoes, and goes outside. Shelby recognizes him by the spring-like scent associated with him, despite the autumn weather. They sit together without speaking for a while. Jungkook notices her sadness and the dried tears on her cheeks, then asks if she is all right. Her surprise at the question closes the day’s sequence without resolving what she will say.

Significance within the relationship

The evening’s gesture is modest and deliberately unforced. Jungkook does not insist that Shelby explain herself or immediately try to solve her sadness; after hesitating, he comes outside and shares the silence. That choice gives concrete form to Sunmi’s counsel to proceed gently, even though the session has left him doubtful that gentleness is within his nature. The scene’s movement is from advice to attempted practice, not from uncertainty to mastery.

Later scenes develop related forms of support beyond this date. After Jungkook is injured, Shelby seeks comfort when he rests a hand on her knees. Much later, when Madison Jefferson tells him that Shelby is having a panic attack, he runs to her, draws her close, and comforts her; she recognizes his scent, puts her arms around his neck, and rests against his shoulder. Those later moments should not be confused with the events of Lundi 28 octobre, but they sharpen the significance of its quiet beginning: sitting beside Shelby is an early instance of a response that will become more active and mutually trusted.