Chapter Text
It’s cold.
It’s always cold near the beach, no matter the season.
But Taehyung doesn’t mind. He doesn’t mind spending as much time as he can here, even if the sun has already set, leaving space for the moon, the stars, and the night sky to come through. Even if it keeps getting colder and darker around him. Even if his mom keeps spamming his phone with messages and calls, probably desperate for him to come back home.
But he doesn’t want to.
He doesn’t want to come back home only for it to be the very last time he will.
He doesn’t want to go back home only for him to leave it in the morning and never come back again.
He doesn’t want to say goodbye to his safe place. The place that has helped him so much for such a long time.
He refuses to say his goodbyes to this place. Because here, at this abandoned waiting bus stop near the beach shore, he can always come to feel human again. It had become such a special part of him, his own little spot where no one goes; his runaway.
Growing up watching movies and reading books, he always thought he would end up finding an abandoned tree house or maybe a hidden river in a park, or even a small cave by the forest. Taehyung always yearned to find a place that he could call home outside his actual home; somewhere only he could know. He never thought that this place would be an abandoned waiting bus stop near the beach but oh, how happy he was when he found it. It became part of him about 4 years now, and now he is just supposed to say goodbye to move 3 hours away from it.
Maybe if he really thought about it, it wasn’t that far away. But for a highschooler completely dependent on his mother, without a driver’s license or a car, it seemed nearly impossible to run away here whenever he needed to.
Sadly, when he noticed that darkness was all that surrounded him and the only company he had were the sound of the waves crashing on the shore, he decided that maybe it was time for him to leave.
Walking back to his house always took him about 20 minutes or so, but today it took him nearly 40 minutes. He wanted to take as long as he wanted, trying to breathe in all the memories he had in this town. Trying to engrave in his memory the smell of the ocean blending in with the smell of the little street food tents. Trying to remember all the happy, sad, and angry moments, times of hopelessness and peace, moments where he felt nothing like himself, as well as the ones where he felt the most like himself. Everything that will go with him to this new place, so he doesn’t forget all these moments that eventually made him who he is today; a little broken and left behind, but still holding on to a pinch of essence of who he used to be. Just like that abandoned waiting bus stop.
At some point, as he approached his home, he even started thinking that moving away could be something good in the long run. Maybe not now, but who knows, maybe he could start anew, pretending to be his old self or someone completely new. Anyway, no one would know. Maybe he could finally make true friends, and not just simply classmates who hang out with him out of the habit of simply knowing him.
He shook his head; he will try his best to start anew. He still had things he wanted to do. Maybe he could try-out for the soccer club and that way, a part of him would still be with him at this new place.
Wait, does his new school even has a soccer club?
He doesn’t know.
But he will deal with that later. For now, he just wanted to rest. Sleeping is the only way for him to relax, sliding into this non-conscious state in where he can live adventures, as many as he would like, sometimes he can even relive some old memories, he can see his dad and he can forget about anything that troubles his conscious mind. Until he wakes up of course and ends up forgetting a big portion of what happened.
But still, it was one of his favorite ways of escaping.
At his home, his mom is standing at the front door, arms crossed on her chest and eyes worried. Was she crying?
“Kim Taehyung!”
Of course she was. “I know, I know, but I’m here now, don’t worry.” He says giving her a quick look and walking past her to enter the house. “I just wanted some space, okay?” He tries to go upstairs but his mom’s voice stops him. Here we go.
“And I understand that, I do! But you can at least tell me so I wouldn’t be here worried!” Taehyung scoffs as he turns around to face her. She is still at the front of the door, looking at him with the same look she has been giving him for the last few months. It sickens him.
“No, you don’t understand. You just want to keep track of me because you are scared I might disappear just like dad did!” He regrets it as soon as he watches the look on his mom’s eyes. But he doesn’t stop. He is angry “I am not a little kid anymore, and you can’t expect to control every aspect of my life forever. Yes, I didn’t tell you I was going to go out, but why does it bother you now? It has never bothered you where I go or who I meet up with before, so why don’t you go back to not giving a shit with what I do with my life?” He almost cries, but he doesn’t. Instead, he watches how the woman in front of him breaks down in tears and goes to hide in her room; as always.
He is disappointed. He didn’t expect much from her anyways, but it still hurts him.
Ever since his dad went away and left him with his mom without any explanation, his mom has not been able to handle it. She was always emotionally dependent on her husband, to the point where Taehyung thought it wouldn’t make a difference to her if he was the one to disappear. And because of that, his mom developed this fear that Taehyung might do the same; leave her alone. It has been like that for a few months now, suffocating Taehyung with calls and texts every 10 minutes whenever he goes out, even to school.
He lets out a bitter laugh as he locks himself into his bedroom, watching all the boxes with basically his entire life in them.
What a joke.
His dad abandoned them, and now he is the one that must deal with the consequences, moving away to his grandmother’s house with his mom just because she feared Taehyung might run away and leave her on her own.
It was so selfish.
It wasn’t fair.
What about his life? What about his own pain?
She didn’t seem to care.
And that wasn’t changing anytime soon. So what could he do? He couldn’t run away, he was too afraid to do so, and he didn’t even know where his father was at. It’s not like he wanted to know either. So, he just went along with what his mom wanted. And without realizing it, she was changing his entire life suddenly.
As he closed his eyes to try to escape his consciousness, he just thought about what he could do for himself, holding on to the little bit of hope he had left, for things to change for the better.
≪•◦ ❀ ◦•≫
Jimin wakes up and he kind of wish he didn’t. It was the first day of Junior year, which meant it was going to be yet another school year worrying and planning about the future he didn’t even knew if he was going to live or not. Because seriously, what’s up with expecting 17-18 years old plan and decide how they are going to spend the rest of their lives when they can’t even figure out the gas stove? But that was his opinion anyway. He wasn’t a big fan of destiny or pre-destined actions anyways.
And of course, it was going to be another year not only worrying about his math grades, but also Jeongguk’s.
“Seriously Jimin, I don’t understand why you’re worrying so much. I made it through last year, didn’t I?” Jeongguk says sitting in front of Jimin’s desk, with a smug smile on his face.
He scoffs, almost offended “And with whose help?”
Hoseok, who had just entered the classroom, stands behind Jimin, “Mine, and what about it?” With a big smile on his face, Jeongguk gets up and goes to Hoseok. “This is why you’re my favorite hyung. Save me please” He clings onto his side and looks at Jimin with a triumph face.
Jimin looks away, focusing his vision on his phone “Will we ever live long enough to see you not defending this brat?”
Even if he is not looking at him, Hoseok knows he means him, which makes him laugh softly. Cute.
He leaves Jeongguk’s side, who looked offended with what Jimin stated, to take the latter’s previous spot in front of Jimin. “Aw, jealous much?”
Jimin looks up “Don’t you have something better to do?” Hoseok smiles brightly “Don’t worry sweetheart, you are still the love of my life. Jeongguk just happens to be my literal child. I basically raised him.”
Yoongi, who was listening to the whole conversation since the start, finally speaks. “We are all the same age, dumbass. And for the record, you did a terrible job.”
Hoseok gasps and just as he is about to respond, Namjoon who was sitting this entire time besides Jimin interrupts.
“That’s true, he barely made it. Jeongguk, you really need to get serious this year. It’s your future what’s in stake.” He spoke without taking his eyes out of this new Manga he was reading. That was until Jeongguk approached him to take it out of his hands to make him look him in the eye.
“You know what I want for my future, Joonie. I don’t need this!”
Namjoon frowns. Oh, how he hates when Jeongguk does that. He starts to get up so he can get his Manga back but Jeongguk, with a grin on his face, starts backing away with the book behind his back.
“Jeongguk for heaven’s sake, it’s too early for this, give it back! And can you please stop calling me Joonie?” As if Jeongguk were to listen to him. Jimin can’t help but to let a giggle escape as he watched Jeongguk stick his tongue out.
“Why can’t I? Yoongi calls you that. Why is he special?” As he stops talking, Yoongi appears behind his back and without Jeongguk realizing it, he yanks the Manga out of his hand and gives it back to Namjoon.
As Jeongguk starts whining, Namjoon sits back with his beloved Manga back in his hands. “And that’s exactly why he is allowed to call me that and you’re not. Sit back down, the class is about to start.”
As Jeongguk is about to answer, the teacher comes into the classroom. Everyone takes their sit and the teacher starts taking attendance. As soon as she says Jimin’s name, he says ‘present’ and spaces out.
He always drained first days, he is always too anxious and that makes him have a horrible night’s sleep, which leads to him being sleepy and with zero energy the entire day. Oh, he can’t wait for the day to be over.
He spends the entire day taking little naps in class, which led to most of his teachers to scold him during class. He usually would feel bad and embarrassed, but he seriously didn’t have enough energy to give a shit.
But just as the teacher left the classroom and he thought he was finally free, Hoseok stands in front of his desk, leaning in. He has the biggest smile he can offer on his face as he looks down on Jimin. Jimin, confused furrowed his eyes until he remembers. Oh no.
“My dear Jimin, you remember our plans for today, right?” He flutters his eyelashes.
Shit.
≪•◦ ❀ ◦•≫
“Seriously, I can’t believe he gets away with it every damn time.” Jimin states while looking almost offended at Hoseok, who was at the field fulfilling his duty as the Soccer team’s captain.
“More like you let him get away with it every single time. Seriously, you’ve been best friends for how long now?” Yoongi doesn’t even look at Jimin while speaking. He is too busy trying to get Namjoon’s unused towel from his backpack to cover his eyes and face from the sun. He seriously didn’t like how bright it was today.
“I don’t let him. He just knows how to manipulate me; well, all of us.” He looks at Namjoon who was beside him, still reading the new Manga series he’s into and Jeongguk, who’s beside him happily eating ice cream while looking at the field with a smile on his face. It was beyond Jimin how Jeongguk was enjoying that ice cream with how cold it was. It's only the beginning of March, cherry blossom's haven't even began to bloom, he could practically taste the winter still.
“Speak for yourself, I only came for the food and ice cream” Jungkook giggles while still looking at Hoseok, who was now walking towards them. Finally, practice was over.
“Oh my god, guys! You didn’t have to, you guys are the best” He says once he reaches them, looking through the groceries bag in front of them filled with snacks and ice cream.
“You literally made me do it, what are you saying?” Jimin says while standing up and going down the bleachers to stretch his legs and the rest of his body. It was a long hour and a half of practice. Once he gets down, he looks up at Hoseok, who had a stupid smirk on his face.
“Hey that’s not true! I only said it would be nice for you to come with me to my first’s day practice and then walk home together. There’s nothing wrong with that.” Oh, he is insane.
“Coming to your practices is code for ‘I want you to bring me snacks and I know you will because you get hungry while waiting and you are not going to leave me without snacks as well’. Don’t play dumb.” Jimin answers while following Hoseok’s eyes while he also gets down the bleachers to stand in front of Jimin. Hoseok bends a little to be at his eye’s level.
“And yet you never refuse, sweetheart.” He winks.
He fucking winks.
Oh, Jimin was going to kick his ass.
And he does, while Hoseok bursts out laughing, his eyes disappearing while getting away from a very flustered Jimin who kept trying to kick him.
“It’s honestly funny how they know each other so well and still fall for each other’s tricks.” Jeongguk says while picking up his things and the forgotten snack bag.
“If there’s something I’ve learned this past year is that Jimin might act all tough, but he actually loves how sneaky Hoseok gets and would actually do anything for the guy, even if he always denies it.” Yoongi can’t help but reply with a smile on his face lending Namjoon his hand to help him get off the bleachers. Once they are all down, they look over to Hoseok’s and Jimin’s direction.
And oh.
Jimin had stopped kicking Hoseok, or at least stopped trying to do so. He had already passed him and was walking in front of him only carrying Hoseok’s clothes bag, which contained his school clothes. Hoseok was behind carrying both of their backpacks smiling at Jimin looking at his back. His eyes were filled with a feeling that he had been trying to hide from all of them, even from himself, but that Yoongi had noticed a long time ago. His eyes were filled with such warm and love. Jeongguk and Namjoon stared at them as Hoseok picked up his pace a little to catch up to Jimin while still laughing slowly and looking at him. They then looked at each other with a hint of complicity and an understanding gaze. They realized what Yoongi had done a long time ago.
“Guys! Are you coming or what? Let’s go before it gets darker” Hoseok shouts at them, making Namjoon and Jeongguk to end their eye contact.
Jeongguk, Yoongi and Namjoon then start heading their way, catching up and starting a conversation. You could hear Jeongguk whining and bothering Namjoon to lend him his new precious manga series, while Namjoon just kept on refusing. You could hear how Yoongi would tell Jeongguk to stop being so annoying with a smile on his face. And you could also hear Hoseok and Jimin’s little giggles and laughs at how adorable the trio were.
And just like that, the day went by, just like the days before them, filled with calm, familiarity, complicity, and laughter.
≪•◦ ❀ ◦•≫
Shit.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
Jimin jumps out of bed cursing himself and the world.
It’s so late.
He must’ve snoozed his alarm a few times without realizing it.
He must be crazy.
He takes a quick shower; he thinks he takes like a minute and a half or so, which is a new record he just accomplished. He grabs his clothes and gets dressed quick, almost falling flat on his face while trying to put on his pants. He curses the universe for hating him this much until he is ready to go. He keeps running and almost forgets his phone.
He has never been late to school and his homeroom teacher it’s not so forgiving. He isn’t the top student, he thinks of himself as an average student, but he had already given a not so good first impression falling asleep every once in a while the day before, he didn’t want to add up to her perception of him.
He also hated being late.
It doesn’t matter if it’s to school, an appointment, a hangout with his friends, a family gathering, etc. He can’t be late. He gets extremely annoyed when he’s late somewhere.
Just like right now.
He runs through the kitchen to the front door. When he opens it, he tries to get out of the house but a pile of what it looks like letters blocks his way out.
He thanks the heavens he saw it. If not, he would’ve been face first on the floor right now.
He stops for a moment, the mailman doesn’t go to his house until 10:00am and yesterday when he came back from school, there was nothing here.
Confused, Jimin shouts his parents name, but apparently no one is there. Great. He gets down fast to check if they got the right address. And it is the right one. That confuses Jimin even more to the point where he forgets he is late to school.
He quickly tries to get one letter out of the pile to check who’s sending them. Who could’ve gone to his house in the middle of the night and leave a pile of letters, that look dirty and musty by the way, in front of the door? And why neither of his parents had seen them and get them inside? He finally takes one letter out, the first one on the pile, and checks who’s sending them.
He freezes.
His own name was written in what it seemed to be his handwriting.
What the fuck.
If he was confused before, now he is just out of it. He doesn’t remember writing and sending himself letters. First of all, that’s insane.
But he suddenly remembers that he doesn’t have time to figure this now. He quickly shoves the letter with the rest of the pile into his backpack. He can question this later, now he needs to get to school. He would normally walk there, since it’s only a 15-minute walk, but today he takes his bike, it’s faster this way.
He just hopes to gets there before the teacher calls out his name.
In a couple of minutes, he is rushing through the gates of the school. He checks what time it is. Only five minutes to the bell to sound.
He made it.
He thinks maybe almost getting hit by a car is worth it. He made it!
Once he secures his bike, he starts running to get into the school building and flies through the stairs. He only relaxes once he sits on his chair –more like throws himself into the chair.
“Jimin baby oh my god, I was so close to go and get you myself if you didn’t show any signs of life, what happened?” Hoseok quickly gets to him, watching him worried while he was trying to catch his breath.
“I can’t believe you made it, my respects” Jeongguk says from his chair, kind of impressed. He honestly thought Jimin was going to be absent today, even if Namjoon tried to convince him that that was not going to happen. The only time he missed school, he let them know with 3 hours of advance, when they were all sleeping. It wasn’t like him to just not go to school without letting them know. It also wasn’t like him to oversleep. Which is why he now has all his friend surrounding him and waiting for him to catch his breath so he can tell them what exactly happened.
“I told you he was only late” Jeongguk says, this time to Namjoon, who rolls his eyes before responding.
“He is never late.”
“There’s a first time for everything, am I right?”
Yoongi stays silent and calm, just waiting for him to speak. Unlike Hoseok who looks like his puppy got lost and spent the last hour looking for him.
“I don’t know what happened. I must’ve snoozed my alarm unconsciously a few times.” Jimin finally speaks, patting Hoseok’s head who had been kneeling down in front of Jimin waiting for him to speak.
“I mean, you looked pretty exhausted yesterday on the way home. It’s only natural that you overslept. Happens to me all the time” Jeongguk is the first to answer, now relaxing into his chair behind Jimin.
“First of all, Jimin is not lazy as you. Don’t take this as a way to excuse yourself” As expected, Namjoon replies to Jeongguk while taking his sit on Jimin’s left side.
As Jeongguk and Namjoon start their daily morning banter, Hoseok who is still kneeling in front of Jimin, places his hand on Jimin’s thigh, grabbing his attention.
“Hey, are you sure you’re okay sweetheart? Did something else happened?” He almost whispers, only for Jimin to hear amongst their friend’s voices.
Jimin places his hand on top of Hoseok’s and smiles lightly to comfort him.
“Yeah, no worries. I guess I’m just still sleepy and confused with all the commotion, that’s all.”
As Hoseok was about to respond, the teacher comes in, which is a sign for everyone to take their sits. Before getting up, Hoseok lightly squeezes Jimin’s thigh as a way of understanding and to comfort him. He gets up and takes his sit in Jimin’s right side.
After hearing his name and saying present, Jimin allows himself to finally adjust to his surroundings and as he does, his thoughts take him immediately to this morning and the letters.
The letters. He remembers.
He waits for the teacher to start the lecture to take out his notebook and the letter that was out of the pile. He was so confused but also curious. He was kind of scared too. What if someone was pranking him? People do all sorts of things to scare others.
One he has the letter on his hands he doubts whether he should read it or not. Honestly speaking, there was a high probability that this was some stupid prank, and he couldn’t bother less to spend his time over something like this. But at the same time, curiosity was killing him, especially since he saw that it was directed to him from him, and it was in his handwriting.
So seriously, what could he loose?
He hears a knock on the classroom door, so he looks over to see the principal calling out the teacher. The teacher excuses herself and gets out of the classroom. That’s his opportunity.
He opens it and starts to read it.
"Park Jimin
To my high school Junior self, how are you? You might not believe any of this, but I’m writing you from 10 years in the future. You are probably thinking this is some sort of sick prank and maybe you are wondering, why would someone do such a thing? Well, let me start by telling you this is not a prank. The person writing this is you, 10 years from the future, and I would like you to do something for me.”
He stops reading.
“What the fuck” He whispers, thinking someone must’ve gotten really creative to pull such a prank. Even so, he keeps reading.
“I don’t want you to make the same mistakes as I did. So, I’ve decided to write this without even knowing if you will believe or if you’ll even receive these letters, but I really want you to do better than I did when I was your age. So first, let me tell you a couple of things that will probably make you believe that all of this is real.
I’ll tell you some things that happened that day, I believe it’s March 5th, almost Yoongi’s 17thbirthday! Well, as of that day, or today for you, it was the first time you overslept and woke up late for school. Thankfully, you made it five minutes before the bell, so you got there on time.”
He sits there in shock. There’s no way someone would’ve known in advance what happened to him this morning. But then again, it also wasn’t possible that a letter like this would’ve ended in his hands, right?
“Also, there’s going to be a special someone transferring to your class today from Daegu. His name is Kim Taehyung.”
“How-
“Okay students quiet down!” He got interrupted by the teacher who had entered the classroom again and directed his attention to her and, some guy?
“From now on, there’s going to be a new student joining us. He is transferring from Daegu, so everyone, make sure to be nice to him" As she spoke, Jimin could only stare at the boy next to the teacher.
He was the most beautiful person Jimin had ever seen. He looked shy and scared and that made Jimin feel even more intrigued. But then he remembered what the letter said
It said his name was Kim Taehyung.
"Hi, everyone. My name is Kim Taehyung and I'm from Daegu. Nice to meet you all, I hope we get along" he stuttered a little at the beginning and bowed when he finished speaking. There were different reactions around the classroom. Some were whispering how cute he was or how cool his accent was, some were clapping happy to have a new classmate and some were just intrigued to have someone from Daegu in class.
But Jimin was in shock.
He said his name was Kim Taehyung, right? He didn't mishear, right?
There's no way this was actually happening.
His thoughts were an absolute mess.
"Welcome, Taehyung. You can seat in front of Kim Namjoon, right next to the window. We are happy you are joining us."
"Oh, and one more thing. He will be sitting in front of Namjoon, almost by your side."
Jimin felt like he was going to pass out.
There was just no fucking way.
≪•◦ ❀ ◦•≫