Chapter Text
The most fantastic magical things can happen, and it all starts with a wish
– Pinocchio
Jimin was thinking about how miserable he felt, when he was brought back to reality by Kim Namjoon’s voice.
"I have already told you, if you do not concentrate and focus on the equation only, and think about the formula piece by piece, you won’t be able to solve the problem"
He blinked, trying to decide if it was better to play the part of the innocent, admit he had completely zoned out not to freak over the equation, or just scream right into his tutor’s face that math was not fair. He settled for somewhere in between.
"I don’t understand the formula… I just don’t know how to apply it" maybe it came out more desperate than he had intended to.
"Okay, so, it’s okay if you don’t get it, but I have explained it twice, right? And you said you had understood it? So have you understood it or not?" Namjoon asked plainly, raising his eyebrows.
"I… I…" Jimin tried to find the right words. Truth was, he had not understood it in the slightest.
Namjoon was the best peer tutor in the school, the only one who was able to explain a mathematic formula better than the professors themselves: Jimin did not want to admit that he failed to grasp the connections between the numbers after the third time Namjoon had pointed them out. But that was just how it was. He had nodded all the way through the older boy’s careful explanations, thinking that if he could remember bits and pieces he would be able to solve a simple exercise without worrying to much about why and how the formula was the way it was in the first place. But he had been wrong. And now all the frustration came back to him.
"I didn’t understand it" he let out in a small breath. Namjoon’s eye-roll would have been visible from the other room.
"Why did you say you had, then? We can’t move forward if you’re not honest with me" he inquired, keeping his composure, but Jimin could feel he was getting annoyed at him. And he knew he had all the reasons to.
Namjoon had helped countless other struggling students in the past few years, and he had always succeeded in his job. Or, well, almost all the times, if you don’t consider a few desperate cases who ended up dropping out of school altogether. Everyone knew it: if not even the best peer tutor the school had ever had could help you, it meant nobody could help you. It meant you were going to fail.
Jimin could feel tears starting to pool at the edge of his eyes, but he fought them back. The past few months were starting to get the best of him: it had been almost a full trimester since Namjoon had started tutoring him, and close to no progress had been achieved. It was just a matter of days till the older boy told him he could no longer be his tutor because of the scarce results, that was certain, and what was Jimin going to do next?
He needed to pass, and with somewhat good grades at least, first of all to be able to leave this school year behind him for good (not that he really knew what he was going to do a couple years from now, but that’s beyond the point), and second of all but not less important, to stop hearing his dad’s whining and stop seeing his mum’s pitiful glances.
His parents were not that bad, actually. He knew that. They were not overly-commanding or imposing, they worried but could be convinced and persuaded most of the times, and Jimin knew they loved him. But. But he felt like although they loved him, maybe they didn’t really like him.
His father, on one hand, would often complain about his bad school grades, his lack of close friends to hang out with (even if, was he really supposed to hang out with friends when his school track was that mediocre, according to the same man?), and his other lack – of purpose in life. Maybe he thought that by complaining and scolding him, Jimin would be truly motivated to achieve what he hadn’t been able to, up to that point. Jimin doubted that.
His mother, on the other hand, was completely resigned. She probably thought that this person was who Jimin was, all he could ever be, so she loved him and reassured him when he got a bad grade or felt lonely, but it was an empty reassurance, that Jimin felt like an invitation to accept that he should just settle for the scraps and make peace with that. And Jimin didn’t want that either. In truth, he didn’t lack purpose, he didn’t lack affection and love or will to live his last teenage years fully, but he knew his parents couldn’t really understand him.
And here’s where Jimin’s third and fourth problems came in, hand in hand: his apparent lack of close friends and confidants, and his visceral love for dance.
In the friendship department, all had gone well up to two years prior, when his best friends, Jongin and Sungwoon, had gotten a prestigious scholarship for young talents from the Australian ballet company, and left to pursue their dream abroad. Jimin hadn’t even tried. Deep down, he knew that if his friends could make it, he probably could make it too – they often reminded him of just how extraordinary he was on the stage – but he had grown up thinking that dancing was just not an option for his future.
He had never had a serious talk about it with his parents, but every time the idea or thought had come up, they had smiled and laughed and dismissed it – can you imagine? Basing your whole future on a dance career? Pursuing a job in the artistic field, and in one that is so competitive and where a broken ligament can leave you on the streets for good?
Of course, honey, it is a good after-school activity, and we are glad that it makes you happy, you should totally keep doing it, and maybe in the future, after you get a stable job, you can try to pursue a career as a dancer in your free time.
In your free time, after you get a stable job. They put it so lightly that Jimin never had the heart to bring up the subject again. Ever. He loved his parents too much, and maybe the bare idea of going through the discussion again hurt too deeply as well. But Jimin had not really considered what was bound to happen if he did not bring it up again.
So, Jongin and Sungwoon had left. Jimin still texted them, video-called them sometimes – lately less than usual, they were starting to get pretty busy, Jongin even got a stage name – and he had even seen them once, the summer before, but that was it. They could not come back more often than that; this is just how serious the scholarship was. And Jimin, who had always relied on them so much, like they relied on him too, had been left with no close friends.
Sure, there were the other kids from the dance school, if you take the unbearable ones out, but they were there to chat before class, to get a pizza before Christmas or at the end of the school year, maybe to throw a fundraising party once in a while. The bond did not go deeper than that, and everyone seemed fine with it, because everyone had friends outside the dance classroom.
Sure, there were also some kids from school, whom Jimin talked to if they sat at the same table during class or said hello to when they met in the corridors. But just as for the dance kids, everyone already had their group of friends, and as easy and outgoing Jimin was, getting a secure spot in one of the already tight circles was hard.
So, there he was, lying in the sun in the back-garden or practicing step after step whenever he had free time on the weekends. Going to the movies alone was not that bad, actually. No one stole your popcorn.
Jimin had grown accustomed to this and it usually did not bother him too much, but there was something bothering him. Or better, someone. Someone whose circle he was desperate to break through, even if it probably was the most impenetrable of the school. Even if none of its members knew who he was. Well, one member knew who he was. He didn’t know Jimin’s name, sure, he must have forgotten it, but they had interacted once and that had been enough for Jimin to fall deep in love with him.
Jimin suddenly realized he had been staring into a blank point somewhere between the living room couch and the kitchen door. He shook his head, mouth forming a thin line. He was too tired, and there was no point arguing. Namjoon wouldn’t understand anyway, this all came too naturally to him to be able to understand Jimin. He heard him sigh.
"Alright then, that’s enough for tonight. Please go through my notes referring to the last two weeks of classes, re-do the exercises we saw together on your own, plus the rest of the last page. Noted?" he ended with a rhetorical question. Jimin nodded.
"If you don’t mind I think I will have a couple of words with your parents… just to check with them on your progress. I don’t do this often, but you know they want to hear from me as well-"
"Yeah sure, they’re in the kitchen" Jimin cut him off, staring at the kitchen’s door, ushered noises of his parents preparing dinner coming from behind it. He was feeling extremely tired all of a sudden. He wasn’t sure he wanted to have dinner with mom and dad after Namjoon had reminded them just how desperate his scholastic situation was.
Jimin got up, collected his pens and notebooks scattered around the living room table, and made for the stairs going up to the first floor, where his room was. He was going to put on some music, do his skin-care routine accurately and then maybe watch some Netflix or read a book. He had just moved on the first step when he heard his mother’s voice calling him from the kitchen’s door.
"Jimin, honey! - the boy turned around – are you not hungry?" she asked cheerfully.
"No, well, actually… I think I may have a bit of a headache. I will just sleep it off"
His mother continued on with glee: "Oh well, in that case… we wanted to tell you over dinner but now will have to do. You definitely need to know it before you get upstairs!"
"What do I need to know?" did he need to worry about something? What had happened while he was studying?
"It’s just… - she looked for her husband inside the kitchen - darling, come here a second to tell Jimin! Anyway, as I was saying… your dad and I saw you struggle a bit with school and all, you know, lately, so we thought to give you a nice surprise to cheer you up and… and all, you know?" she was struggling for words but barely holding her excitement at the same time.
"Okay – Jimin smiled warmly – Thank you, I am sure I will love it" he really was grateful for the thought, even if he would have never expected what he found in his room just a couple of minutes later, while Namjoon joined his parents in the kitchen to brief them on his pupil’s progress (or lack of).
---
Jimin thought he had heard a weird noise as he was walking down the bare corridor, and he wondered what that could come from, but opening the door to his room, his heart still skipped a couple of beats.
Lying on his bed, there were two figures. Two quite noticeable and different figures.
One was a dog, with golden long fur, green eyes and fluffy ears, his tongue flapping out of his mouth as his head turned with barely-contained excitement towards the new person in the room. The other figure was a cat, a black cat with medium-short hair, pointed ears and deep-pink eyes, whose head turned lazily but attentively in the direction of Jimin.
But the weirdest thing about the two was that the cat was curled against the dog’s belly, purring and resting peacefully as if the other animal was his best friend. Well, not the weirdest thing, considering that Jimin had never seen the two animals before in his whole life.
The boy realized his left hand was still on the door’s knob, and that all his papers and plans and notes had slid from his right one and were now lying on the ground. He had so many questions. Why did his parents get him a pet? Why did they get him two, and a dog and a cat? Why now, when he had only ever expressed his wish for a dog a couple of years back and then kind-of changed his mind and ever asked again?
Who on earth was down in the living room and where were his real parents?
He thought of turning back to ask for an explanation, but he did not want to walk in on Namjoon’s review or even worse on mom and dad talking about him after his tutor had left. So, slowly and carefully, he bent to pick up his papers, walked in the room, turned around and closed the door. He then placed his notes neatly on his desk, and walked to the bed nearby, looking around him.
No prank cameras. No cards or notes. Nothing else, just an extra-large and fluffy pet bed lying on the floor next to his wardrobe – one that the two animals had clearly not appreciated.
He stood, hands on his hips, unsure of what to do.
Maybe he was supposed to pet them. Yes, he would pet the cute animals for a while and then he would collect the courage to go ask his parents just what had gone through their minds exactly. Petting an adorable animal could do no harm, right?
He sat on the bed lightly, not to scare the two newbies with a sudden drop in the mattress. As dogs are usually friendlier with strangers, he slowly reached for the gold expanse of the pet’s fur and started brushing it with the back of his hand, between the animal’s back and stomach. The dog’s tail started wiggling happily, and then the animal gently rolled away from the cat so that Jimin’s hand would stroke his tummy.
It was then that he heard it.
"Oh yes, yes please, on my tummy, it feels so nice!"
Jimin’s hand froze in place for a second, and the next one the boy literally jumped away from the dog, with the result that he collapsed on his bedroom floor, bottom first.
"WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?" he was pretty sure his neighbors had heard him, but he could not care less.
He was fairly certain that the dog had just spoken to him. It must be a prank. Or he must be hallucinating. Was it a too-realistic dream? He wanted to pinch his cheeks but he could not move, frozen on the ground in the same position he had fallen into, propped on his elbows with one leg still halfway on the bed, scared for his own life.
"Wait, I didn’t say stop? Did I?" the dog’s face leaned above him from the bed.
"Of course, you didn’t, but animals don’t talk" the cat came up right beside him.
"Oh right… you’re right… you know, we’ve been with the last kid so long I forgot how the first meeting goes most of the times" the dog’s mouth was actually moving, curving to shape the letters and sounds. Jimin made up his mind: he was definitely dreaming.
"Shall we, then?" the cat asked.
"Say no more: one, two, three…" the dog counted and then the animals jumped, together, from the edge of the bed. But instead of falling on top of Jimin, they dissolved in a puff of light-purple smoke.
Two distinctively human figures came out instead. Or, well, they were human-sized and human-looking if not for the definitely inhuman wings sprouting from their backs. And for the fact they were floating in the middle of his room.
"Hey, Jimin!" the one on the left shouted, his hair the color of a forest in fool bloom.
"I’m Yoongi…" the one on the right smiled warmly, his slender fingers pointing to his chest.
"… and I’m Hoseok – but you can call me Hobi" the green-haired one added.
"And we’re…" they locked arms, moving towards the opposite end of the room, something waving in their free hand – wait, were those wands?
"… your fairy godparents!" in the span of a second, a big stage with massive lights somehow appeared in Jimin’s room, lighting up a majestic, golden, Broadway-style sign spelling F A I R Y G O D P A R E N T S. It disappeared right away. Jimin scurried to get closer to the bed, his back hitting the mattress.
"What do you think, Jimin?" the one called Yoongi came closer, his arms open wide. He had deep pink hair, exactly the same color as the cat’s eyes.
"I think I fell and hurt my head real hard, but just in case, I think I am getting the hell out of here" Jimin was quick on his feet, going for the door.
"Hold it, tiger!" Yoongi hurried after him. He turned around, his hand a few inches from the door knob.
"You can’t tell anyone about us… if you do, we’ll just go away forever!" Hoseok added.
"What? Why?" Jimin’s hand got to the tender skin in his inner arm and he pinched.
Ouch.
He definitely wasn’t dreaming, and the two boys in his room were definitely flying. They also had something on their heads, something resembling a small golden crown, which was floating as well, on top of their hair. Yoongi waved his wand, a black stick with a shiny golden star on top, and suddenly an enormous book appeared right above Jimin.
"That’s what the rule book says! – and the volume fell on top of Jimin’s head, who barely managed to put his arms up and catch it before it tumbled on the ground, bringing him along – Oops! Sorry!"
"Trust me Jimin, there’s lots of rules! Sooooo many rules! We’ll need to introduce you to all of them at some point…" Hoseok did a somersault mid-air, his feet never touching the floor.
"Wait wait wait just wait. What are you, who are you, why are you here?" the boy asked in a crescendo.
"We want to help you! – Hoseok came forward, a cloud of shiny purple dust whirling in his hand – We have magic! Poof… magic!"
"We are fairy godparents, a bit like godparents but well… we actually do grant wishes! And we were assigned to you, so we are here to grant yours" Yoongi explained.
"How can I know you are real?" Jimin asked, now slightly more curious than scared. He had always been a bit superstitious, after all.
"Try us, ask us for anything – well, anything permitted by the rules, of course. And remember to always say “I wish…” before you express your wish"
Jimin thought about it for a moment, then he heard the front entrance door shutting and he suddenly had an idea. He climbed onto his bed and looked into the window facing the front garden. He felt Hoseok and Yoongi coming up beside him, one on each side.
"Do you see that boy?" he asked, his chin pointing towards his adored tutor Namjoon.
"Yes…" Yoongi conceded.
"Can you make him trip and fall? Nothing to hurt him too bad, I just wish for a good and loud trip and fall. Oh, and I wish you make his papers fall all over the garden. Also tie his shoelaces together so that I know you did it and he just did not fall on his own, which is more likely than you would think" Yoongi and Hoseok exchanged a quick glance behind him.
"Alright, well, he is part of the reasons we were assigned to you so… let’s go" Hoseok’s wand touched the window, and with a flick of his wrist, the tip sparkled.
Jimin’s gaze followed the imaginary trail of magic to Namjoon, who somehow tripped into a low step and fell sideways into the grass. As he was falling, the notes carefully pinned together and secured under his arm fell to the ground and got scattered all around him because of a sudden rush of wind – or something like that.
"Motherf-" Namjoon’s imprecations were canceled out by Jimin’s soft laugh. Even from up there, he could see that now his shoelaces were tightly knotted together. As soon as the older boy realized it, he looked around himself in shock, and Jimin fell onto his bed not to be noticed, an earthly laugh shaking his chest.
As soon as the laughter died, his stare turned into the direction of the two fairies, who were still fluctuating in the air in the center of his room, their mouths turned into soft smiles.
"You said he is part of the reasons why you were assigned to me?" Jimin asked, an eyebrow raised.
"Yes, well, there are many fairies, and they are assigned to kids who need them. Kids who struggle or are unhappy for some reasons or simple deserve them – of course, we were briefed on your situation, so we know you do not particularly like that boy, and as always, remember we are on your side" Yoongi explained, his arms crossed in front of his chest, but his composure friendly.
He was wearing a large cream sweater and black fitted jeans, his ears a collection of silver rings, while Hoseok’s jeans were of a denim color, with rips in them, and his graphic tee was partially covered by a light blue cardigan with wild flowers sewn all across it.
"Yeah, I mean, it is pretty unusual for teenagers to get a fairy godparent, but there is an abundance of good people looking for a position in fairy land right now – and many kids of all ages who need us, so it is happening more frequently lately" Hoseok shrugged.
"I have so many questions. So many" Jimin sat on the edge of his bed, barely able to contain his excitement.
"Oh, we’re sure you do, honey, but first of all, what about you just tell us a bit more about yourself? Oh, and does the dog and cat form work for you? I mean, we can turn into anything to move around with you, we can even stay human-looking but shrink in size, that’s just our preferred form" Yoongi came to sit on the bed too, propped against the pillows and the window, while Hoseok chose to lie mid-air, floating on his belly.
"I… I…" Jimin smiled, and tried to find something interesting to share. He would tell them a nice bit of his life that night, but throughout the entire conversation, he always had one thought in the forefront of his mind.
One thought that he did not mention, not once, maybe scared about jinxing it if he spoke about it, maybe jealous of how much it meant to him, or maybe simply because he needed to lay down a well-defined plan before he could speak about it with the two fairies.
The thought was the following: with the help of Yoongi and Hoseok, I’m finally going to be able to make Kim Taehyung fall in love with me.