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Exams week is over, finally.
Suffice it to say Jaeho is a changed man.
As the end of the school year approaches, the weather is just getting more and more gross. Spring is unpredictable, as usual, with scattered rain showers and the sun peeking through the clouds whenever it damn well pleases.
Today is just another one of those spring days. The sun is out, blinding and unforgiving, and the air is thick and humid.
Jaeho thinks the whole damn season should be canceled, but Jimin seems to like it, so he keeps quiet. Jimin can be scary, sometimes.
Everyone looks to the windows at the side of the cafeteria as the sound of rain pattering against the glass begins to be heard through their routine screaming.
The sky clouds over at an abnormal speed, and the lights in the cafeteria flicker on cue.
Jake screams.
Jaeho jumps (anyone would, that kid can hit some high notes) and his eyes go wide as the lights seem to go back to normal.
And then they flicker again.
Jaeho doesn’t miss the way Sunghoon’s hand settles on Jake’s waist.
He raises an eyebrow.
“Not this again.” Sunghoon sighs, glancing up to the ceiling.
“This school is fucking cursed.” Yoonwon remarks.
Jimin is smiling.
That’s never a good sign.
“It’s probably haunted or something.”
Taeyong, arguably the most superstitious of them all, scoffs. “Sure.”
Niki squints at the unfamiliar word. “Sorry, what does ‘haunted’ mean?”
“Ghosts and shit.” Nicholas explains.
Niki furrows his brow.
Jimin jumps onto his chair to that squat thing he does (wh-why can’t he sit normally?) and leans over the table with wide eyes. “What if it is, though? What if there are like ghosts and shit ‘round here?”
Jaeho is sad to say he knows where Jimin’s going with this.
He sometimes wishes he could break off their near-telepathic connection.
Kyungmin slides under the table. “I’m moving away~”
“How did you say that?”
“What?”
Jaebeom blinks. “The this thing~ woah.”
A hush goes around the table.
Heeseung looks between them and claps once. “Anyways—“
“I’m serious about the ghost thing.” Jimin quickly reiterates.
“Who even believes in that stuff?”
“Shut up, Jaebeom.”
The bell rings, and, as per usual, Daniel is the first to stand. “Oh, thank god.”
Jungwon gives him a look. “Son, why is that literally all you say? Why are all the lines the author gives you related in some way to being small or wanting to leave?”
Daniel squints. “Who? What author?”
“Okay.” Youngbin clasps his hands together. “Now I’m actually scared.”
Jaeho quickly forgets about the mess of a conversation at lunch (what can he say, his attention span rivals that of a fly) and instead focuses on stressing over last Friday’s Stats test.
He’s not expecting anything better than a C.
His mother is going to kill him.
Jaeho walks through the hall to his next class with his eyebrows knit, surely looking like he’s having a crisis.
(Which he is, but that’s irrelevant.)
“Boo!”
Someone pops out of an adjacent hallway, and Jaeho jumps at least three feet off the ground.
When he lands, his feet don’t go where he wants them to and Jaeho falls on his ass in the middle of the hall.
Jimin’s standing over him with an expression of victory.
“Real mature.”
“What can I say?”
Jimin offers Jaeho a hand but he swats it away, scrambling off the ground on his own. “What even was the point of that?”
“I have an idea.”
That’s never good. Jaeho’s thoughts are apparently evident in his facial expression, because Jimin rolls his eyes and goes, “Hear me out.”
“I’m hearing, I’m hearing.”
Jimin opens his mouth to say something and sticks up his pointer finger, but quickly deflates, dropping his hand. “Actually, it sounds dumb if I say it out loud.”
Jaeho scoffs. “Everything you say sounds dumb.”
“A valid point.” Jimin grins, his eyes going crescent shaped.
The bell rings, and Jaeho sprints without another word.
Jimin follows close behind.
After that (mess of a) class, Jimin and Jaeho turn a corner and walk directly into Heeseung, who lets out a little yelp before glaring at them.
“We didn’t even need to do anything and you got scared.” Jimin gives him a smug smile.
“You’re annoying.” Heeseung replies, smiling just as sweetly.
“Anyways, wanna join our cult?”
Jaeho squints. “I wasn’t aware we were in a cult.”
“Yeah, that’s ‘cuz I just thought of it.” Jimin says, like it’s obvious.
“I don’t know him,” Jaeho mouths in Heeseung’s direction.
Heeseung looks amused. “Elaborate.”
“We’re walking around scaring people.”
“Actually,” Jaeho corrects, “He’s walking around scaring people. I have the misfortune of being his friend.”
Heeseung raises an eyebrow. “Investing now, while y’all are still... pathetic.” He turns on his heel to walk in the same direction as them.
The other thing about spring days are that nothing really ever happens. Jaeho has little motivation to do anything, and stares at walls for seven hours a day.
(And then he’s surprised when he gets bad grades, but that’s a different problem.)
Only when the bell goes off does he feel even slightly alive, walking and clearing his mind for the 5 minutes of passing time.
Now, he doesn’t even get that much. Jimin and Heeseung (a fucking horrible combination, if you ask Jaeho) are standing there waiting for him.
The school day is over at this point, and Jaeho just wants to go home.
“What is it now?” He asks.
“We’re going home, you dumbass.”
“Oh.”
And that’s what they do.
They can technically all drive, but like, no. Walking through the parking lot like freshmen, 10/10.
Jaeho’s shoe’s unties itself, and he leans against some random person’s car to redo it.
It looks familiar.
“Heeseung, who’s car is this?”
Heeseung turns and looks at it for a second. “Sunghoon’s, I think.”
A slow smile spreads across Jimin’s face.
“Oh, come on.” Jaeho says, quickly backing up from the car. “Can we not?”
Heeseung looks lost.
Jimin steps up, pulling at the handle on the car door.
It opens.
“Come on.” Jaeho says again, desperately. “That’s just weird, man.”
Jimin wordlessly slides into the backseat, holding his arms out to show that nothing has, in fact, happened to him.
Heeseung’s eyebrows shoot upwards. “Uh...”
This is a very, very bad idea.
Jaeho sighs. “He’s not gonna stop until we get in.”
Jimin crosses his arms as if to prove Jaeho’s point.
“I question y’all.” Heeseung says.
Sunghoon doesn’t show up for a little bit.
Jaeho’s regretting his life decisions, tucked into the leg space in the backseat with his back against the passenger seat.
Heeseung, pressed against the driver’s seat with his legs tucked into his chest, gives him a look. Jaeho returns it.
Jimin’s just lying across the backseat, of course he is.
“It was his fault for leaving the thing unlocked—“ He says, cut off as the door opens.
Jaeho chokes back a laugh.
Sunghoon, poor, unassuming dude, gets in the driver’s seat.
The other door opens.
Heeseung’s eyes go wide.
Jaeho doesn’t have to turn around to know it’s Jake in the passenger seat. Something’s going on here.
Jaeho narrows his eyes, and Heeseung looks like he’s stifling happy tears.
Only after (still poor, still unassuming) Sunghoon starts driving does Heeseung relent and let out a little squeak.
Sunghoon freezes. “Did you hear that?”
“Hear what?” Yup, that’s definitely Jake.
Heeseung squeaks again.
Jaeho almost leans over and slaps him, but now Jake’s looking into the backseat, and because of the way they’re sitting, he can only see Jimin.
Jimin offers him a little wave.
Jake’s eyes go wide. “What the fuck?”
“What?” Sunghoon asks.
“There is... A Jimin... In the backseat.”
“A what?”
“Chu Jimin. Hello, Chu Jimin.”
“I-Is he dead?”
“I just said hi to him, you idiot.”
Jake turns around again, and in an attempt to right himself, Jimin kicks Jaeho in the face.
Jaeho lets out a “aangh” sound, pushing Jimin’s foot away.
Jake blinks. “There’s a hand, Sunghoon. There’s just a hand.”
“What?! Is— Is there a body attached to it?”
“Uh...” Jake cranes his head, looking sufficiently traumatized. “J-Jaeho?!”
“How did they even fit in there?” Sunghoon says, bewildered.
“Get out of there, Jaeho. God, you guys are insane.”
Jaeho sheepishly climbs onto the backseat.
Heeseung looks up at them with a frozen smile and fear in his eyes.
“Wh—what the actual fuck?” Jake asks both of them, still unaware of Heeseung right behind him. “Why are you here?”
“It was Sunghoon’s fault for leaving the doors unlocked.” Jimin reasons.
Sunghoon considers this, looking uneasily at the pair of them through the rear view mirror.
Jake, tired of having to crane his neck, tries to turn around completely. In the process, one of his arms dangles over the back of his seat.
Heeseung stares at it for a whole minute before grabbing Jake’s hand.
Jake shrieks and tries to retract it, but Heeseung doesn’t let go. “Ah, there’s another one!”
Sunghoon swerves, startled, and goes back to his default response. “What?!”
“Get out, Heeseung!”
Heeseung grins. “Oh, you mean, like, out the door?”
“Wait! No!”
Sunghoon looks to be having a heart attack in the front seat.
“Anyways,” Jimin starts calmly after Heeseung sits down next to him in the backseat, “Y’all interested in joining our cult?”
Jaeho tears up at the look on Jake’s face.
Sunghoon and Jake are lowkey forced to join them, but not before a lot of screaming and laughing (primarily on Jimin’s part) takes place.
They catch Nicholas and Hanbin turning a corner (Hanbin jumps into Nicholas’s arms, Nicholas doesn’t bat an eye) and Daniel and Euijoo walking through a door (neither has a reaction, except for Daniel raising and eyebrow and going “Wow, I’m so surprised.”).
It’s getting harder for the entire group to hide as it grows in size.
In study hall, Jimin has an idea. He’s set his sights on Jay now, and Jaeho already feels bad for the kid.
Not all of them are together, but the majority of them are. “Does anyone here not have Jay’s number?” Jimin asks.
Hanbin says he doesn’t, and Jimin grabs his phone. “Chances are, he doesn’t have yours either.”
Their group leans over Jimin’s shoulder as he types in Jay’s number and sends a basic, “hi jay”.
He gets a reply quickly. “Who is this??”
It just goes from there. Jimin ignores the question.
“i’m behind you”
Jaeho facepalms. “Please, man.”
Hanbin cackles.
Jay responds with “???”.
“:)”
“Who is this seriously”
“:)”
“Bro”
“turn around”
“Theres no one there stop fucking around man”
“:)”
“???????”
“you can’t see me but i can see you”
“Uhhhh”
“nice hat”
“Bruh??????”
Jimin does not respond, instead letting Jay spam him with messages like “Okay really who is this” and “Yo what the fuck”.
After a good five minutes, Jimin sends, “thank you for your business. join our cult we’re in mr. min’s room”
He gets a “Wait” in response.
“Jimin? Is that you Jimin? I’m gonna murder you istg”
“i’d like to see you try hunny xx”
He shuts off Hanbin’s phone and tosses it back to him. “Who’s next?” Jimin asks.
Jaeho groans.
The next day, they do their routine corner thing (Kyungmin and Jaebeom scream in perfect harmony, getting a round of applause from Jungwon, who happens to be walking by. All three get looped in. Taeyong and Sungcheol have no reaction. Yoonwon goes and starts laughing. Jimin considers the morning quite a success.) and go on.
The group is almost complete, but Niki and Geonu are going to be a challenge.
Actually, Geonu doesn’t even count because he finds all of them walking in a group and asks if they’re a cult. Dug his own grave, that one.
Jungwon takes on Niki, standing behind his locker door (because someone told him he doesn’t notice if you do that). Upon closing his locker, Niki punches Jungwon in the face without a second of hesitation.
The rest of the boys, hidden conveniently behind a nearby wall, collectively wheeze-laugh as Jungwon doubles over and Niki starts apologizing profusely.
The rest of the day goes by quickly. They catch poor little Taki behind yet another corner and the kid looks a second away from tears. Niki hugs that child so tightly Jaeho worries his bones will be crushed.
“Now, Sunoo and Youngbin.” Jimin starts the next morning, when they’re all gathered behind the school before the first bell rings.
Shady shit, in Jaeho’s opinion.
“They scare really easily. Plans, anyone?”
After first period, Kyungmin may or may not notice Sunoo and Youngbin (together, conveniently) heading to the copier in the library. The rest of the group is scattered in the same hallway, and Kyungmin quickly alerts them all.
In one movement, Jimin turns off the light switch in the library and locks the door.
Sunoo screams almost instantly.
“You guys are so mean.” Geonu remarks, but can’t refrain from laughing.
They hear a desperate “Hello?!” from Youngbin and collectively die once more.
Nicholas runs to lock the other door.
“...Guys?” Youngbin says after a second.
“Crap, we’ve been found out.” Says Jay quietly.
“No shit, Sherlock.” Daniel replies.
“Guys!”
Sunoo makes an unnecessarily loud “aignh” sound and Sungcheol doubles over laughing.
The bell rings, and Youngbin yells, “I hate you guys!”
Taking pity, Jimin opens the door. Sunoo slaps him across the face.
Jaeho crumples to the ground and rolls on the floor for a while.
The next day, as they’re walking to the cafeteria (still in a pack, for whatever reason) Jimin remarks, “Well, that was anticlimactic.”
Jaeho has an idea.
It is not a good one.
“It’s not over yet.” He says with an uncharacteristic smirk.
They’re all a little early, and Jaeho pulls each one of them inside and lines them up against the wall next to the door.
Taki realizes what’s going on. “Aren’t you guys tired of this?”
“Mneh, not really.”
It takes about five minutes for the door to open with a loud click. Everyone pops out from their respective hiding places, Yoonwon yelling “Surprise!” with a grin.
Kei wordlessly jumps back, eyes wide. He hits Seon, who falls backwards stiffly.
Seon looks up from his place on the floor, shoving Kei off of him. “I hate children.”
Jaebeom shrugs. “One more quarter, hyung.”
“And then the rest of your life.” Kei adds with a smile.
Seon lets his head hit the floor again.