Chapter Text
It’s lunch during the first day of school after summer break, and the first thing you see is Kim Taehyung getting his ass slapped by his best friend Park Jimin.
Which… shouldn’t really surprise you, really. It’s an everyday routine while you try to ignore the noises coming from various areas of the cafeteria and hurry to get a tray of food.
There’s a certain noise that runs through the air when you place your tray a little too loud, and it’s irritating enough to make you want to facepalm yourself to oblivion.
Shit. Suddenly, you want to kill yourself. Your presence has been known to the two. That can't be good. No, that's-
“Ah, hi, [Name]!” Jimin greets, flashing a smile at you as he lets go of Taehyung. The younger male blinks a little, turning to you after the loss of contact, and you hum in acknowledgement, sliding into the seat next to Yoongi, furthest away from the two.
Yoongi does not lift his head up from the bowl of chicken soup in his clutches, and you’re glad that there’s at least one sane person amongst the troop.
Yoongi’s indifference, however, bothers Jimin.
And the commotion begins again.
“Hyung,” Jimin walks in front of you while his glance is set on Yoongi, “Why are you like that?”
“Like what.”
“Hyung, you need to stop being so mean, he wails, "[Name] just sat next to you and you don’t even say hi?”
“Jiminie, it’s fine-”
“See, even she says it’s fine.” Yoongi has to say.
“Just because she says it’s fine doesn’t mean it’s fine!” Jimin whines, sitting on the seat in front of Yoongi’s. You sigh loudly, realising that peace and quiet are simply not available at this college, especially if you’re friends with this bunch.
Perhaps it’s your punishment for the stack of dishes at the sink you’re procrastinating about washing, and karma comes in the form of a loud, cackling Seokjin who is followed like a puppy by Namjoon, your philosophy class’ teaching assistant… and something else which you hope no one finds out.
“So I asked her if she was a vacuum cleaner, you know, cuz she blows me away and-” Seokjin’s sentence is interrupted as he bursts out into a fit of laughter at his own (extremely lame) joke. You catch Namjoon laughing a little until he spots you, and he gives you a smile of acknowledgement before he takes a seat as well.
Ten minutes later, both Hyojin and Hani, your closest friends, join the table as well. It’s loud and chatty and Yoongi finishes his lunch way before you’re even halfway done, leaving both you and Jimin whining, but for different reasons; Jimin, because he probably wants to continue showing off his cute pout paired with his pastel pink hair, and you, because…
When you turn back from looking at Yoongi exiting the cafeteria, Taehyung has already taken the empty seat beside you.
Yoongi... that little betraying piece of shit.
“Are you seriously ignoring me after you lost in the argument with me earlier today during Intro to Psychology class?” He asks, and the innocent smile that shows off his teeth while he says that makes your grip on your pair of chopsticks to tighten hard.
“No,” you say, from between gritted teeth, “I didn’t lose. Because you didn’t understand my point of view in the first place.”
“It’s okay,” Taehyung lets you know, taking a sip of his glass of orange juice, “We don’t always win, at life.”
“Taehyung, I told you, didn’t I? I told you that I tend to believe that prose and poetry can coexist in harmony.”
“‘Coexist’? Did you seriously just use the word ‘coexist’?! What species are you from, [Name]-ah?”
“Why? It’s a perfect word appropriate for my context, Taehyung-ah.”
“Well, I don't believe that poetry and prose can ‘coexist’ in harmony,” Taehyung sighs. “People like you try to squeeze in those little analogies into your speech and low-level minds like us feel like you’ve barfed out a whole new language into existence, when in fact, you’re speaking the same freaking language that we are speaking.”
“In that case,” you state, “Would it hurt you to educate yourself on the beauty of language?”
“Look, poetry should remain solely for entertainment purposes. That’s what music majors,” Taehyung states, pointing a finger at himself, “Like me, are here for.”
“It’s not bad to be educated- wait, where do you think you’re going?” You ask, watching the way he lifts his tray up and begins to make his way to the exit.
“I have octaves to test out, so I’ll educate myself on that instead.” Taehyung’s voice calls, not turning to look back at you again. “Bye bye, [Name].”
“Yah…” You mumble, unable to believe the audacity he has to actually lift up his hand and make a peace sign at you as he walks out of the door.
“Jeez, what was that all about?” Namjoon finally speaks, popping more lettuce into his mouth.
“Didn’t your mom ever teach you that it’s bad manners to talk with your mouth full?” Seokjin asks, making the younger male scoff.
“I didn’t see you stop eating that pudding you bought yesterday even when we talked, why do you always bring out my problems?”
“Yah, is that any way to talk to your elders? Jeez, I don’t get any respect in this diy-family.”
Hyojin chuckles at the way Seokjin bounces around in his seat, his exaggerated motions humorous to see from up close. “But really, Namjoon is right. Why do you always fight with Taehyung whenever you see him?”
“I… We fought? Where?”
Hani looks at you as if you’re insane, and when you turn to look at Namjoon and Jimin, they have similar expressions as well.
“You and Taehyung just fought…?”
“Oh,” you shake your head, taking your cup of frozen yoghurt and picking up a small spoon, “We weren’t fighting. We were just expressing our opinions.”
“You two did what?”
“And as you can see,” you sigh, “We have very opposing opinions.”
“What even is an octave?” Jimin asks, and you nod, joining him instantly.
“I know, right? I’ll never understand music majors.”
“And just what on earth is an analogy?” Hani queries, taking a handful of blueberries and popping them into her mouth.
“Beats me. I would never understand language majors, either.”
Before you can get defensive about Hyojin’s statement about your own major, the bell rings, signalling for the start of the next class.
You’ll deal with the lot later, then.
>
Your heart is pounding like crazy while you wait for Dr. Sung to speak. Why he’d ask you to wait after class, you had no idea, but while you watch him look through his files when you approach him at the end, you kind of want to bury a hole in the ground and die.
What if they were going to expel you because you didn't return that semantics book for over two weeks? You couldn't help it, if you did, then it would have gone to that gnome kid in class who had reserved it, and no way were you giving it to him when you had exams that week.
How did your professor find that out, though? Did the library rat you out? That's kinda low, honestly, you get no respect in this school, and you're slowly starting to understand poor Seokjin's feelings now.
“So, [Name]-ssi. You applied for the scholarship, didn’t you? The one that requests full-paid tuition?”
Oh.
Oh shit.
“Yes, Professor Sung. Is there something wrong with it?”
“Your grades are borderline for it to be verified, though, did you know that?”
What.
“Borderline?”
Professor Sung hands you the sheet, and the amount of numbers and graphs on the sheet make you scrunch your face a little.
Did he seriously make statistics to prove his point?
See, there's like many levels to being a nerd, and you might be one too, but Professor Sung takes the cake.
Now you want to eat some cake.
Great.
“You’re a few points away from getting an ideal GPA, to say the least. And it doesn’t help that you haven’t participated in any sports or extracurricular activities.”
You bite your bottom lip, wondering what you would tell your parents about the situation. They were already doing so much, paying you for an apartment close to the college and other living expenses. You couldn’t ask them to take up your tuition fee, too.
Not when Namjoon was an honours student as well, you didn't need him to join in and brag to make you feel worse (he wouldn't really do that, but seriously, a girl's gotta have some pride, right?). But that's a whole other story.
And no way are you going to take part in any sports. The last time you tried checking out a sport (read: run a few laps with the muscle kid from freshman year), you ended up getting multiple cardiac arrests and three pimples. Who would want another serving of that?
“Is there anything I can do to get some extra credit points? Besides a sport...”
“You have some options.” Professor Sung hands you another sheet, and you take a look at the print.
The first one is 7 weeks of cooking classes, which you skip immediately. There’s a reason why only ramen and instant rice packets fill your kitchen cabinets.
The next one suggests taking part in the Inter-college debate championship. That seems too far-fetched for you since the only person you can see yourself debating with is Taehyung, and it only works because he isn’t open-minded about your opinions in the first place. The people who’d take part in the debate club wouldn’t be dumb, though.
The final option is library duty for the semester during session hours, and you raise your head up and hand the paper back to your professor.
“Library duty.” You state. The male laughs, taking the paper and nodding.
“I knew you would choose that. You can read during that time, right?”
“I feel like I’d enjoy my time there so much that I won’t even realise I’m doing this for extra credit.” You say. The professor smiles, and dismisses you for the day.
When you slide the door and step outside, you relive the feeling of a cardiac arrest again, because Taehyung is leaning against the wall, showing his two front teeth and raising his hands up in a very disturbing manner. Kinda like he's clutching onto someone's boobs.
Just in case, you take a step back for good measure.
The male notices this, and his expression fades: and this is what your dissertation will be about. Like, honestly. Why has a research paper not been made yet about Kim Taehyung's blank face? If you made a blank face you'd look like your pet squirrel started mating or some shit, but he does that, and he looks.... intimidatingly attractive.
If that's a phrase.
That's not a phrase, you're a language major, you know that.
Maybe if you submit the phrase to Oxford along with an attachment of a picture of his face, they might consider adding that to the dictionary.
"What's so funny?"
Oh. You didn't mean to laugh at him (not really).
"Nothing. Why are you here?" You ask, walking out towards the hallway. Taehyung follows, a step behind you with his hands inside his jeans pockets.
"Please tell me you picked option three for extra credit, that would make this entire thing more bearable." He has to say. You look at him with wide eyes, pointing an accusing finger at him, horrified.
"You did not pick option three."
"Oh yes I did, my dearest slice of choco-vanilla cake. I knew you'd choose library duty in a fraction of a note, so I did too."
"Why would you do that? What did I ever do to you?" You wail, punching his arm. Taehyung responds with a chuckle, shrugging.
"It's gonna be fun to continue roasting you, even after school!" He says in a singsong voice, face softening as he grins, all of his teeth showing and eyes turning into small half moons and you want to cry. You would rather drink an entire bottle of hot sauce instead of admitting that he's cute.... even though he is.
Very, very cute.
Why has research not been done about this, either? About how satanically deep Taehyung's voice is, but how he has the face of a 9-year-old who likes riding his little pony?
Maybe you could send in a request to Seokjin, he's a Biology major, maybe he'll know about the shit that Taehyung is made up of so he could make a paper. You'd gladly help him outline and write it out, too.
"Maybe we can roast you enough to make some decent coffee out of you."
"Please keep your kinks for someone else." You sigh dramatically, stomping towards your locker. The extracurricular activity sheet clearly did not mention that you had to spend the rest of the semesters' library duty with Kim Taehyung; if it did, then you'd have picked cooking. Maybe if you bribe Seokjin with baby pictures of Namjoon, he might teach you how to cook some decent food.
That stupid skinny love those two shared is ridiculous. Someone really needs to tell them to just shut the heck up and make Namjin happen for ice-cream's sake.
"Ehe."
Oh.
You'd forgotten that Taehyung was still following you out to the porch. Said one-half of a gross skinny love (read: Kim Namjoon) is waiting at the gate, ready to head outside, and you facepalm as you watch Taehyung run to tell his 'favourite' hyung about how his extra-credit activities would be so much fun now.
But that's a lie. You know for a fact that Taehyung's favourite hyung is Hoseok, he'd said that one night when he got too drunk on strawberry juice, and he was probably just sugaring up to Namjoon to get a ride home.
Apparently, the Kim clique is dumb, because Namjoon totally falls for it and is giving a big nod and asking you to hurry up or he'd leave you under the burning sun and that your skin will peel like that snake he'd seen over breakfast a couple days ago.
What a nerd.
Apparently, the entire Kim clique isn't dumb after all, because Taehyung is grinning and you want to pull out your hair, and you're almost about to. Actually, you are, present tense, but then Namjoon starts to talk about a sketchy Japanese book he's read called Rashomon, and he tells you two that the lady plucks the hair out of corpses for a living.
So you stop pulling your hair and decide that library duty with Taehyung can't so be bad after all.
Maybe.