Chapter Text
Seoul felt exactly the same as it had when he left the large city thirteen years ago. It still smelt strongly of a variety of wafting scents that assaulted the nose and the busy streets sounded a world away from his parents' quiet private, gated house in Busan. There was a certain energy about Seoul that Busan had never replicated for him. Even when he was ten, he had felt so inexplicably overwhelmed by Seoul that it stuck with him for the entirety of his new life in Busan. There was just something effervescent about Seoul to him. "Hello? Park Jimin-ssi?" A tall man who looked more like a pop idol than a tour guide for his new college was standing beside him holding a clipboard and a pen. A wide smile fell on his plush lips and his fluffy brown hair moved slightly with the early morning breeze. Jimin has to tilt his head to look up at the tall broad-shouldered man.
"Ah, yes that's me."
The man smiles brilliantly and taps his pen on his clipboard. "I'm Kim Seokjin and surprisingly you’re the last arrival on my list for the day! I have you listed as rooming with Taehyung. Kim Taehyung is that correct? Some poor freshman's room assignments got messed up and he was so lost; the poor little bunny boy." Kim Seokjin was incredibly polite and spoke in the cleanest of Seoul dialects. Jimin had to wonder just how large the silver spoon in his mouth was. His features certainly looked the part but the way he dressed did not. Perhaps rich parents but no contact with them? "Jimin-ssi?"
"Ah! Sorry, yes Kim Taehyung is supposed to be my roommate." Seokjin nods and begins to turn another way and begin walking. Jimin follows after the man after realizing that he wasn’t going to wait around for him. "Do- do you know Kim Taehyung-ssi?"
"Oh yes. He's Joonie's little brother. Or well my friend Namjoon's younger brother." Jimin hurried behind the obscenely wide-shouldered man trying desperately to keep up with the other's long strides. Didn't the man realize how short Jimin was? Insoles only did so much dammit. "Taehyung-ah is a bit different, I suppose. He's a good kid though so you don't have to worry about much. Just, don't mind some of the things he does?"
The older male phrased it as more of a question than a word of advice and Jimin had to wonder how off his roommate really was. He didn't seem too crazy when they had been texting all summer. In fact, aside from a few odd phrases and sayings here and there, Kim Taehyung seemed like a pretty nice kid. It was especially nice to be placed with a same-aged person instead of a sunbae or hoobae which would be far more awkward. Taehyung was especially nice when it came to Jimin explaining that he was adopted by an older couple and had stayed home for his first year of college to take care of his mother after his father passed away.
Taehyung was, surprisingly, very understanding of his situation saying that he lived with his older brother since he was eighteen and his brother was nineteen when their parents died in a car crash. This was his first year living in the dorms because he wanted to give his brother and his brother's boyfriend space. He also noted that it would be easier for him to find a suitable boyfriend to bring home. Jimin had been surprised by how open Taehyung was about his brother's sexuality as well as his own and it made him pause momentarily. Jimin found it easy to open up to the other about his own sexuality and his desire to go to Seoul to see if he could reconnect with his birth family despite being happy with his adoptive family.
"You know you look awfully like a kid that's in the class below me, Jimin-ah." Seokjin is opening the door for him and his comment strikes Jimin's interest. Jimin knew of at least one person in this world who looked like him, but it certainly wouldn't be so easy to find the older boy. "I cannot for the life of me remember his name though. He used to hang around with some of my sunbaes so no one from his class or mine knows him too well. I think he's a dancer too. You're a dance major, right?"
Jimin nods quietly at that revelation but keeps his opinions to himself, allowing Seokjin's words to fall into the silence of the dorm hall. Jimin's mother had shipped his heavier things for him a week or so ago so all he really had was his rolling suitcase and duffle. It reminded him slightly of how he left Seoul with his mother and father all those years ago. At the time, all his worldly possessions could fit into one child-size rolling bag and a small school backpack. Both bags had been supplied by his adoptive parents otherwise he would have had to use a trash bag like everyone else. The backpack had only a handful of mismatched socks and one of his brother's recently worn t-shirts so Jimin wouldn't forget how his older brother smelled. Most of his stuff had been replaced and removed after he arrived in Busan. Everything else had been lost to him. He still remembers how he sobbed when his father had thrown away his torn to bits child’s blanket. After that, he has stuffed away his older brother's shirt into the recesses of his closet in hopes his father would never find it and throw it away. It was packed lovingly into his book bag on his shoulder.
They barely reach the door of his dorm on the second floor before a blur of another boy is flinging it open and tackling Jimin in a tight bone-crushing hug. His long limbs practically encage Jimin's entire form, but his body is a lot more spindle-like than what Jimin's is. He can easily keep them upright. "Hiya Chim Chim! I'm so happy you're finally here. Hyung kept saying I probably scared you off but now I get to tell him that he was wrong. Oh hi, Jin-hyung!" Taehyung turns his head to grin brightly up at Seokjin but does not release Jimin from his tight grip. In fact, Jimin thinks his hug might have gotten tighter if that's even possible. He had gotten better at dealing with random people wanting to hug and touch him. Growing up as an orphan no one wanted to get too close to them. Attachment only made things harder when the kids got adopted and never returned or so Jimin’s hyung had once tried to tell him.
"Taehyung-ah, you're going to squish Jimin-ah. Let him go and let him get inside." Seokjin pushes Taehyung slightly away from Jimin and Taehyung releases him a bit unhappily. Jimin kind of likes the child-like wonder in Taehyung's eyes. It was nice to see in others something he hadn’t felt in a very long time. "He's had a long ride here from Busan."
"Ah! That's right! How's your mom? Is she okay? Have you called her yet?"
"Um, yeah. I called when I got off the train. She's excited but a bit sad."
Taehyung bounces into the room with a boxy grin that Jimin had gotten surprisingly used to from Snapchat and skype over the last few months. If Jimin didn't feel like such a shit for saying it, he'd say that Taehyung was close to becoming a very good friend, if not his best friend already. Everyone else had thought he was weird for having such old parents and being so painfully shy. Jimin steps into the room and smiles slightly. It was a fairly large room, perks of going to a prestigious school he supposed. Against the wall by the door was a television with video game consoles already set up and attached to it. A comfortable-looking black leather sofa and two black leather armchairs sat facing the television. A plush white rug sat under it. The television, games and rug were all things Taehyung had brought. The leather sofa and chairs were standard for the rooms. There was a door on each side of the living space and another on the far wall which probably led to their shared bathroom.
"So Chim, does your brother even know you’re here or?"
"Um no." Jimin ruffles his hair nervously because his brother didn't even know where he was before coming to Seoul. He hadn't seen his hyung since he was ten and was torn from the older boy's arms kicking and screaming when they were sent their separate ways. "I haven't- I mean- hyung and I haven't seen each other in a really long time. He doesn't know I’m here. Um, I don't have a number to call him either. I was hoping to find information on him and try to get in contact...that is if he didn’t get adopted too. I’m pretty sure he didn’t though. He was already too old for most potential parents."
Taehyung frowns guiltily and Seokjin watches on a bit awkwardly at Jimin's sadness and nervousness. "I'm sorry Chim, I kind of assumed that when you said you couldn’t wait to meet your hyung again that you two were living together before." Taehyung rubs lightly at the back of his hair with a slight frown on his lips. "Man, I feel like such a little shit now. I'm sorry."
"Ah, no- no worries. I was adopted...hyung wasn't. It happens. A lot more than you'd think but it does." Jimin shrugs softly and wraps a tight hand around Taehyung free one before grinning at him so brightly his eyes turn up into crescents. Taehyung freezes for a second before grinning brightly right back. Jimin had always had that kind of effect on people when he smiled. "Besides, if I see him, I'll know. So, I won't have to search very far. He promised."
Taehyung offers back an encouraging smile and tugs Jimin into the room further. He excitedly explains about what consoles he had and that he would write down the passwords for them so Jimin could use them if he wanted to watch Netflix or something. Taehyung then jabs a finger to the lone door on the far left wall. “That’s the bathroom over there. I put my stuff on the top shelf of the shower already so you can put yours wherever you want. That door over there is my bedroom. I always liked the right bedroom so I hope you don’t mind that I picked that one.” Taehyung points toward the right door on the back wall and Jimin shrugs. He didn’t really care which room was his. He’d slept in a tiny room lined with bunk beds for the first however many years of his life.
“That’s fine with me.”
Taehyung nods and leads him over to his room on the left and opens the door for him. It’s not an overly large room compared to their living room. There is a bed, big enough to comfortably fit him and perhaps one other person if they squeezed a little, pushed up against the far wall by the window. Beside it sat a wooden desk with a single lamp. Two sets of dressers were pushed against the wall just inside the door and a small alcove was built into the wall where he would be able to hang anything he needed up. The boxes containing the meager belongings that he deemed important enough to take from his parents' home in Busan sit at the foot of his bed.
“I took the liberty of moving your boxes into your room. I hope you don’t mind.”
Jimin nods and sets his bag on his desk quietly. He turns toward the set of drawers and a closet with a sigh. The dressers are the long type with side by side drawers that likely still had too much room for Jimin’s small amount of clothing. The hanging closet would also likely look barren aside from his sweaters and winter wear. Long after being in the foster system Jimin still never got over the fact that one day he might have to pack up all his belongings in one backpack and move on. He still remembers moving from house to house for the year and a half that he and his brother had been in and out of the system while living at the orphanage. No one wanted two little boys who only knew how to live in the streets. Especially not the rich upper-crust families of Seoul who thought they were helping the world by taking in wayward orphans.
“You okay Chim?”
“Huh? Oh, yeah. I’m fine.”
“Is this all your stuff or do you want me to show you to the mailroom?” Jimin hadn’t realized Seokjin was still in their dorm room. He had this concerned look on his face that Jimin instantly connected to all of the well-wishing rich elite that came into the orphanage looking to appease their savior complex. His initial reaction is to ice up and become sharp with the older man but he’d learned over his years living in Busan that he needed to tamper down his protective desires or he’d never make any friends. Seokjin was probably just concerned that his things may have gotten lost in the mail or not arrived yet. “More of it might be down there.”
“Ah no. This is it. I left a lot at home.”
It was always better to lie to the rich type to save face. His hyung had taught him that a long time ago. If you told them the truth one of two things happened; they’d either pity you for it and try to make your miserable life better or they’d make fun of you. Both options sucked but Jimin had learned that the first option sucked much more. They’d eventually get tired of helping you and then they’d drop you like scum and you’d be left no better than you started.
“Okay then! Taehyung has my number saved, so if you two need anything just let me or Joonie know.” Seokjin smiles warmly and pats Taehyung’s head lovingly before doing the same to Jimin. It startles Jimin. The action actually seemed genuine. Jimin wasn’t used to that. “Oh, before I forget, Joonie and I have dinner every Sunday night and I fully expect you two to be there every single week, got it!”
“Ah, yes hyung.”
“Alrighty, bye-bye.”
Jimin really hoped Seokjin wouldn’t turn out to be like all those other rich upper-class people who he had known in his youth. He thought he could grow to really like him and Taehyung. His adoptive parents were nice-ish, and they were wealthier. They were also older and a definitive outlier in all Jimin’s experiences growing up. They had always wanted the best for Jimin even if they went about it the wrong way sometimes. Their worlds just clashed a lot. His father especially had never really understood how Jimin’s experiences before being adopted could affect his life so immensely. Maybe here he could make real friends for the first time since being adopted.