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on a sunny day in mid-june, park jimin is introduced to his class. taehyung lives in a small town where families have lived in the same place for generations and he’s known all of his classmates since childhood. his town isn’t one where people come to settle in. which is why everyone is interested, curious about the boy who decided to move into a relatively unknown town.
park jimin is pretty, taehyung notes silently. glossy, black hair gently falls over jimin’s intense eyes, chubby cheeks that give a rosy glow with his plump lips. his entire demeanor is cherubic, radiating with grace. the boy looks like something akin to an idol but more. someone who definitely doesn’t belong in a town like taehyung’s.
when the teacher steps out for a moment, girls rush forward to jimin and the boys lean in to listen.
taehyung, who sits alone and all the way in the back, hears snippets of the conversation. he learns that jimin is from busan and moved to seoul at a young age. when he’s asked about why he moved, jimin simply smiles and tells them it was his parents’ decision.
their teacher returns and class is back in session until lunch.
taehyung eats his lunch in the back of the school, outside. it’s hot but he’s become accustomed to the sweltering heat of the sun from the farm work he does at home and besides, he’s under the cool shade provided by the building.
when he hears footsteps, he instinctively freezes and waits. he’s surprised when it’s park jimin that comes around the corner holding his own lunch.
“oh, hello,” jimin greets. “can i sit here?”
taehyung nods and wonders why the boy from seoul would sit here. surely his classmates didn’t start bullying jimin? that wouldn’t make sense.
jimin sits a meter from taehyung against the wall, sighing when finally poops down and digs into his meal. taehyung tries not to stare.
“why... why are you sitting here?” taehyung carefully asks.
“why are you sitting here?” jimin fires back with a smile. a smile that taehyung can’t tell is supposed to be joking or menacing. he glances down.
“oh. um.” how does he explain that he used to get bullied by his classmates? the bullying was more severe in middle school, now they choose to ignore him and he’s fine with that. doesn’t make him less scared of them, though. “i like the quiet.”
“i also like the quiet,” jimin agrees. “and the outside. sometimes i feel a little trapped when i’m inside for too long.”
taehyung doesn’t reply, doesn’t know how to, and the two return to eating. then jimin gasps, covering his mouth with his hand and looks at taehyung.
“i’m so sorry, i forgot to introduce myself,” jimin says, sounding ashamed. “my name is park jimin. yours?”
“um, my name is kim taehyung,” taehyung answers shyly. he plays with the cuff of his uniform.
“kim taehyung,” jimin repeats and taehyung blushes. “what a pretty name.”
“it’s not that pretty—“ he mumbles, trying to ignore the bundle of butterflies in his stomach.
“nonsense!” jimin scoots closed to him. “your name is very pretty. don’t deny it.”
“o-okay,” taehyung stutters. jimin is pretty like a doll yet he’s bold. full of charisma and energy.
taehyung and jimin become close friends after that day. jimin moves his seat to the back, right next to taehyung and ignores all the confused gazes at the two when they talk. taehyung almost cries when jimin defends him when his classmates decide to throw insults at him.
“you all are truly disgusting,” jimin hisses, gripping onto taehyung’s hand. “how are you able to treat another human like this?”
taehyung believes that jimin is a blessing from above. he always thought he would be alone for the rest of his life, only having his grandparents by his side. but jimin gives him hope. jimin is taehyung’s hope.
jimin lives in the biggest house in town, clearly indicating that jimin’s father have money. jimin’s father dresses neatly, with a nice button-up and and formal pants. the man reminds him of those ceos in k-dramas, but he’s extremely nice when taehyung meets him, just like jimin.
one day, jimin asks taehyung if he could visit taehyung’s home, taehyung feels embarrassed. taehyung is poor. it didn’t help that his grandparents also owned a farm. the smell of the farm sometimes stuck too strongly to his skin so he’s surprised that jimin never asked about the smell on days where taehyung couldn’t get rid of it.
when taehyung shows him his little home, introduces him to his grandparents, jimin agrees to help with the farm work when his grandfather offers, taehyung almost cries again. he’s astounded at how nonjudgmental and kind jimin is. and when he cries, jimin holds him and gently brushes out the knots in his hair with his fingers.
summer becomes autumn and autumn becomes winter and taehyung’s friendship with jimin becomes closer and tighter. when they aren’t at taehyung’s, they’re at jimin’s and when they’re not at jimin’s, they’re at taehyung.
and sometimes, after a long night of just studying intensely, taehyung and jimin cuddle. and taehyung’s heartbeat fails to calm down and butterflies swirl around in his stomach. he comes to a conclusion.
taehyung has fallen in love with jimin.
for months, he stays quiet about his feelings but those feelings only get worse. he turns red when jimin holds his hand, brushes his hair, and hugs him. he begins to stutter around jimin and starts to avoid him.
worse of all, taehyung imagines how it would be like to kiss jimin on the lips. call him taehyung’s boyfriend.
it’s jimin who confronts taehyung by barging into taehyung’s room without knocking. taehyung squeaks and hides the sketch of jimin by closing his sketchbook, the one jimin gifted him for his birthday.
“taehyung!” jimin yells, eyebrows furrowed together. even angry, jimin looks cute. “why are you avoiding me!”
“i’m not,” taehyung says, gnawing on the inside of his cheek.
“yes you are!” jimin climbs onto taehyung’s bed and sits across from him. “did i do something wrong? do you not want to friends anymore?”
the idea that jimin had actually thought about the two not being friends anymore hurts taehyung and makes his chest squeeze. he didn’t know he affected jimin this much. taehyung tears up.
“no! w-why would you think that?” taehyung says, rubbing at his eyes. “of course i want to be friends with you.” i want to be more than friends with you.
“then why?” jimin insisted. his eyes are also teary and his shoulders are tense.
taehyung looks down, fiddling with his bedsheets. he didn’t know if he would ever confess to jimin, if he even could confess. jimin is a boy who used to live in seoul. taehyung is just a farm boy. he could never see himself in a big city like that and being successful and rich. jimin deserves someone more than that.
“park jimin,” taehyung says with a tight throat, “i love you.”
the silence is tense and taehyung swallows.
“i love when you smile and laugh and make me laugh,” he continues off of the top of his head, “you make my day brighter and fun. i-i love you. a lot.”
taehyung glances back up and jimin is shocked. his eyes wide and lips parted. taehyung bites his top lip.
“i—“
“i love you too,” jimin whispers. “i love you so much, taehyung”
taehyung’s heart soars.
“can i kiss you?” taehyung asks and jimin nods slowly.
the kiss is a simple press of taehyung’s lips against jimin’s. their noses bump into each other, they giggle and kiss again. the world seems to have stopped and taehyung closes his eyes momentarily. he feels jimin’s hand hold the side of his head, thumb caressing his cheek, just like in the movies. there’s no firework, just tingles. he feels comfort. any thought evaporates and all taehyung can think is jimin, jimin, jimin.
taehyung pulls away and opens his eyes. he tapes at the sight in front of him. jimin’s black hair, has growing streaks of bright pink in it until the pink completely takes over. a soft glow envelops the now pink haired boy and even sparkles emit from him. jimin opens his eyes and they’re glowing a blue with a streak of gold surrounding the pupil.
“what—?”
“jimin, you’re-you’re glowing! and your hair!” taehyung gasps. jimin, blue eyes wide, looks at his glowing arms and grabs at his hair to pull it down.
“oh my god—“ jimin stutters out, scrambling out of taehyung’s bed. the glow from his skin dims and his hair darkens. “i’m so sorry, taehyung. you weren’t supposed to find out. i didn’t-i—“
“jimin.” taehyung grabs at jimin’s hand. from his expression, jimin looks ready to flee. he pleads, “just tell me what’s going on.”
“i’m not human,” jimin rushes out, now crying. seeing jimin cry makes taehyung cry. “im an angel. i’m so sorry i lied to you. i just couldn’t...”
“why are you sorry?” taehyung questions. “you don’t have to be. just please sit down.”
taehyung gently pulls jimin to the edge of his bed where jimin plops down with a dejected look on his face and taehyung wraps his around him from behind. taehyung lays his chin on jimin’s shoulder and smells something sweet, like candy and roses. he wonders if it’s an angel thing or a jimin thing.
“my mom is an angel. my father is a human. they fell in love and they had me,” jimin explains carefully after a long moment of silence. “i moved here with my dad after hunters were found looking for me in seoul.”
“...what would happen if they find you?” taehyung implored.
“i don’t know, kill me, probably.” the nonchalant tone jimin holds in his voice makes taehyung’s blood run cold. it sounds like jimin has had the scenario go through his head many times already. taehyung tightens his hold on jimin.
“but they won’t,” jimin quickly says, looking back at taehyung. “they won’t ever find me.”
“i’ll be really sad,” taehyung comments and jimin smiles gently.
they lay down together on taehyung’s bed, facing each other. taehyung takes a closer look at jimin’s face, in awe at how pretty jimin’s eyes are, how the pink hair perfectly frames his face. jimin giggles.
“you like what you see?” he teases and taehyung blushes.
“oh!” jimin suddenly sits up and taehyung’s gaze follows. “i have something to show you.”
“okay.”
jimin rubs behind himself and pulls at his shirt. taehyung quickly sits right up, confused. jimin slips off his shirt over his head and taehyung’s jaw drops.
right on jimin’s shoulder blades are two, tiny, white wings. they twitch and slowly grow in size until they’re larger than the entirety of jimin’s back. taehyung can’t believe it.
“you have wings too?”
“of course i do,” jimin confirms with a laugh, looking over his shoulder, “i’m an angel.”
“can i touch them?” taehyung asks and jimin nods, dropping his head.
taehyung reaches his fingers forward, extremely careful. his fingertips lightly brushes against the white feathers and it’s so, so soft. like a pillow. he runs his fingers through and jimin visibly shivers, causing taehyung to yank his hand back.
“i’m fine,” jimin reassures at taehyung’s scared expression. then he shyly states, “nobody’s... never touched my wings before. in fact, nobody’s seen them expect for my family.”
taehyung’s heart swells. does jimin trust him that much?
“your wings are really pretty,” taehyung says. “like you.” jimin giggles, hiding his smile with his hand.
“you’re so silly.” taehyung grins and hugs jimin.
“are we together-together now?” taehyung asks. “like... boyfriends? are you my angel-friend now?”
“i’ll be whatever you want me to be,” jimin says softly. “as long as we’re together.”