Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Jimin is nervous.

He’s sitting in the back of his mother’s car, clutching the backpack sitting in his lap as his leg bounces up and down. His eyes are staring out the window as his mother’s car pulls into the parking lot of his new school: HYBE Academy. He runs a hand through his black hair and lets out a deep breath through his mouth; oh God, he really is so nervous.

The car comes to a stop and Jimin’s mother turns her body around to look at her son from the driver’s seat. “Are you sure you have all your stuff with you?” She asks him. Her son nods his head to reply even though he didn’t hear her words. He’s not really paying attention to what’s happening right now - he’s too busy thinking.

Overthinking. He’s too nervous, just as anyone in his position would be - attending a new school halfway through the school year is terrifying. If Jimin’s being honest, he’s not worried about catching up on the content he had missed because he had arrived later, or whether he’d find classes difficult. He’s sure classes would be a breeze because of the hours and hours of prep work his mother had made him complete over the past few weeks so there wouldn’t be even a small, minuscule chance that he wouldn’t understand something happening in class.

“And I’ll pick you up at four, okay? Don’t be late,” His mother then says sternly. Jimin doesn’t know why she needs to remind him of that every time. She always took him to and from school every day at the same time.

“Mhm,” Jimin mumbles absentmindedly, still not listening to the words coming out of her mouth, his focus on staring at the students entering the school.

What Jimin is really worried about is making friends. At the school he had attended last, he had a few people he would call his friends but they weren’t actual, for real friends. He’d only really ever seen them in his classes or at lunch because his mother was strict and she made it practically impossible for Jimin to hang out with people outside of school. ‘Getting a good job with your good grades will last longer than those friendships, Jimin,’ he can hear her say. It’s hard to keep a friendship alive when you don’t hang out often. He just hopes the same thing won’t happen in this school too.

“Do you want me to walk with you to the office, Jimin?” She then asks and that finally seems to pull the young boy away from his thoughts.

“No!” Jimin suddenly speaks out quite loudly. It would be embarrassing for his mom to walk him to the office through the halls on the first day in front of all the students there. His mother gives him a stern look after hearing her son raise his voice and he smiles sheepishly - he didn’t mean to reply so loudly. The boy lowers his voice slightly: “No, I’ll be fine. I can go by myself.”

And with that, Jimin says goodbye to his mother and exits her car. As she drives off, he stares at the entrance of his school before tugging on the end of his tie anxiously. The uniform he’s wearing suddenly feels quite a bit tighter around his neck while he swallows thickly.

New things have never been fun to Jimin - his life is very routine and organised, and that’s how he likes it.

Well, actually, that’s how his parents like it and so, Jimin lives under their roof so he has to stick to what they want. His days are mostly identical; his routine is always the same. If he isn’t going to school, his mother wakes him up at nine in the morning and then the rest of his day consists of studying, eating, a small break, studying again, eating again, more studying, maybe reading a book, and then finally, heading off to sleep just to wake up the next day and repeat the same cycle again.

School, grades, they’re important - mainly to his parents and so, studying is what Jimin does.

He stares at the entrance of his new school and takes another deep breath before he walks in. He had come to see the building a few days ago for a small tour and he made sure to memorise where the school office was so he wouldn't get lost on his first day. He makes his way to the office and as he walks in, he spots a smiley lady sitting behind a desk.

The new student briefly introduces himself before asking the lady if he could get his schedule. She quickly hands Jimin his schedule and as the boy is about to turn around and exit the school office, someone suddenly comes up to him.

“Hi!” An energetic voice says to him. Jimin looks up from his schedule to see a wide-smiled, bright, blue-haired boy staring right at him.

“Hi?” Jimin replies, tilting his head at the stranger. His eyes immediately travel to the boy’s hair - it’s blue and he can’t help but think how cool that is. He’d definitely have dyed hair by now if his parents weren’t so stern on things like that.

“My name’s Taehyung,” The boy - Taehyung - introduces himself. “Uh, the principal told me to show you around again when you got here just in case you don’t know where some of your classes are,” Taehyung smiles as he explains. His boxy smile seems to be contagious because Jimin begins smiling a moment later.

Jimin is grateful that the principal had thought to do that, not only because he wasn’t sure where some of his classes were, but also because this is an easy way to make a friend at his new school.

He then nods as he smiles widely. “My name’s Jimin,” He then introduces himself.

“Yeah, I know. The principal told me,” Taehyung smiles politely. “By the way, we have a lot of classes together - that’s why I’m the one showing you around - so if you need any help with anything, you can always ask me!” He explains. Jimin’s smile widens - that’s even better. Taehyung seems cool and hopefully, he likes Jimin enough to want to be friends.

The first class of the day hasn’t started yet and so, Taehyung begins showing Jimin where places like the lunch hall and the teachers’ offices were but soon, the bell rings, indicating that the two boys have to get to class.

The two boys walk to their shared class together. Jimin’s new-found friend shows him where the other classes he has today are while on the way to their classroom.

“So we have History next, right?” Jimin asks and Taehyung nods in response. “It’s in room five. Where is tha-”

His sentence is swiftly cut off when someone bumps into his shoulder hard. He stumbles slightly, the schedule in his hand falling straight to the floor of the hallways.

“Ah! I’m sorry…” Jimin begins apologising as he rushes to pick up the piece of paper off of the ground but he stops talking when he hears someone laugh.

Jimin looks up from his position on the floor to see the boy who had bumped into him, a smug smile on the boy’s face. His mint-coloured hair is falling against his forehead, covering his eyes slightly as he continues to snicker at Jimin with his hands tucked away into his pockets. His blazer is unbuttoned and his white button-up is untucked. On his feet are a pair of black Converse rather than a usual school uniform pair of shoes.

Jimin furrows his eyebrows at the boy’s reaction. From behind the boy, he spots a taller boy, who he assumes is the boy’s friend, sighing and shaking his head.

With his schedule now back in his hands, Jimin stands up, smoothing out his blazer as he does so before the boy who had bumped into him speaks up, “You should really watch where you’re going,” He comments as he walks closer to Jimin, whispering the words into his ear before walking off.

Jimin’s mouth drops open slightly at the boy’s rudeness. “You should watch where you’re going - you bumped into me!” He retaliates as he turns on his heel to look at the boy that was now walking away. At the sound of Jimin’s voice, the boy turns around, a small smirk on his face.

“Yeah, sure. Whatever you say,” The boy laughs as he turns back around and walks off for good. Jimin scoffs and rolls his eyes before turning back to face Taehyung.

“Sorry about him,” The boy’s friend apologises, scrunching his nose. “See you at lunch, hyung,” He comments with a smile, looking over to Taehyung before he jogs away to catch up to his friend.

“See you, Jungkook,” Taehyung waves with a smile as the boy, who Jimin now knows is Jungkook, runs off.

“Who was that?” Jimin questions, the tone in his voice slightly off, clearly still a little irritated from what had just happened.

“Yoongi is the guy with green hair, the one who bumped into you,” The blue-haired boy explains as the two continue walking to their class again. “He can be a bit, uh-”

“Rude?” Jimin finishes Taehyung’s sentence. The other boy nods his head slightly, a sheepish smile on his face.

“Not all the time though,” Taehyung quickly defends Yoongi but Jimin shrugs - he finds that hard to believe after what had just happened. “He’s nicer once you get to know him, I swear. Hopefully, he won’t act that way during lunch.”

“You sit with him at lunch?” Jimin questions with raised eyebrows, quite surprised. Taehyung seems absolutely lovely but Yoongi, on the other hand, seems like he was the opposite.

As the two boys continue talking, Jungkook finally manages to catch up to Yoongi.

“Did you really have to act that way?” Jungkook questions, clearly unimpressed with Yoongi’s actions as he bumps his elbow into his friend’s.

“I didn’t even do anything,” Yoongi rolls his eyes. “Is the guy with Tae new?” He then asks, suddenly curious. He hadn’t seen that guy around before and he thinks he would’ve remembered someone with a face like that.

“Yeah,” Jungkook nods. “Remember when he told us he had to show the new student around today yesterday?”

Yoongi shrugs in response. “Not really. I don’t pay as much attention to Taehyung as you do - you’re like in love with him or something,” He teases, knowing he’ll get a reaction out of Jungkook. “Do you know his name, by the way?” He then asks. “The new kid’s?”

Jungkook’s mouth falls open slightly after hearing Yoongi’s words. “I am not in love with Taehyungie hyung,” He scoffs, hitting Yoongi’s arm. He sighs before he speaks again. “His name’s Jimin, I think? That’s what Tae told me,” He answers. Yoongi nods, repeating Jimin’s name under his breath a few times. “Who cares about his name? I need to get to class. I’m gonna be late,” Jungkook then says, moving his hand to grab Yoongi’s arm so he can drag his friend with him as he walks since their classes are in classrooms next to each other.

The mint-haired boy moves his friend’s hand away from his arm. “I’m not going,” Yoongi comments. “I have maths and it is the worst.”

Now, Yoongi doesn’t always skip class. He’ll go to his English class, or his Biology class, or even his Chemistry class; he doesn’t like them but they’re tolerable. He’ll always attend music class too - they’re alright. But Yoongi will always skip Maths class whenever he can because, as he just said, maths is the worst.

“Are you being serious?” Jungkook sighs, unimpressed with his friend’s antics.

All Yoongi could do was nod and smile as he jogs away from Jungkook, leaving his friend standing alone in the middle of the school hallway.

The students’ lunch break rolls around quickly and Jimin is walking with Taehyung over to the lunch hall. During the day, he spent most of his time with Taehyung since they had most of their classes together. His new friend told him that he was excited for Jimin to meet his friends because they were nice, and because he was sure they’d all get along very well.

Jimin hopes that’s the case but after meeting Yoongi, he’s sort of afraid they might be similar to the awful boy that had bumped into him earlier. Hopefully, Taehyung’s other friends are different. Since Taehyung is nice, they probably will be too.

As they walk into the lunch hall, Jimin’s eyes immediately spot a certain mint-haired boy in the crowd - it’s easy to see him since his hair stands out. He’s sitting at a table with Jungkook and three other boys, who Jimin assumes are the friends of Taehyung.

The two boys walk over to the lunch table and Taehyung takes a seat next to Jungkook. Jimin hesitantly takes a seat beside Taehyung and across from Yoongi, nervous to be meeting all of Taehyung’s friends. He hopes they’ll like him.

Jimin is quickly introduced to the other boys sitting at the table. He makes sure to give each of them a smile while also taking a mental note of each of their names - he didn’t want to accidentally forget someone’s name. When Taehyung introduces Yoongi to Jimin, Jimin doesn’t bother smiling at him, simply looking down rather than at Yoongi’s face.

And that’s when Jimin feels a hard kick to his knee.

His head shoots up and he furrows his eyebrows when his eye meets Yoongi’s. The boy sitting across from him gives him a sly smile, laughing under his breath at Jimin’s reaction.

“You’re not gonna give me a smile, Jimin?” Yoongi teases, which makes Jimin roll his eyes, looking over to Taehyung and listening in to what the other boys were talking about, ignoring Yoongi and the smirk that was present on his lips.

“There’s a party tonight?” Jimin hears Taehyung ask his friends. “You wanna come with us?” He then asks Jimin, tilting his head as he looks over to the new boy.

“Um,” Jimin hesitates for a moment. He wants to go, really. It’ll be a good way for him to get closer to this group of friends and maybe even make some more but his parents were the issue. They would never let him go to a party - ever. “I don’t know,” He ends up saying, shrugging his shoulders.

“Aw, come on!” Taehyung whines from beside him as he bumps his elbow into Jimin’s.

“You’ll have fun, I promise!” A boy, who he now knows is Hoseok from Taehyung’s little introductions, from the far end of the table spoke, trying to reassure Jimin.

“It’s not that,” Jimin begins explaining awkwardly. “My parents are just kinda strict so I don’t know if they’d let me go.”

“Oh,” Hoseok nods in realisation and Jimin nods too until he hears Yoongi laugh from across from him. Jimin turns to look at him, glaring over at the boy who was giggling to himself, finding it absolutely hilarious that Jimin had strict parents.

“Just lie about where you’re going,” Yoongi says with a shrug as if it was the most obvious thing in the world to do but Jimin shakes his head. He’s done that before, of course, but lying to his parents always makes him feel guilty - they trust him a lot and he just feels wrong when he lies. It eats him up on the inside whenever he does. Also, getting caught is a big, big fear of Jimin’s. He doesn’t know what will happen if they ever find out he had lied and gone to a party, and he does not want to find out. “Why not? Just sneak out,” Yoongi then suggests and Jimin widens his eyes. Sneaking out was something he hadn’t even thought about doing.

“Well,” Taehyung begins speaking, breaking up the conversation between the two boys. “If you can go, just text me,” He smiles. The two traded phone numbers and social media accounts in the first hour that they had met. Jimin nods even though he’s almost certain he won’t be able to go.

Their lunch break continues and Jimin also ends up getting the rest of the boys’ social media accounts and phone numbers (but when it came to Yoongi, he didn’t really want to) - they promise to add him to their group chat and Jimin couldn’t help but smile. He’s glad they liked him enough for him to be included.

The day continues on and at the end of his school day, Jimin walks out of his school and sees his mother’s car parked right outside. He runs off towards the car, climbing into the backseat.

“How was school?” She questions as she starts up the car and begins driving home.

“It was good,” Jimin responds with a smile, thinking about what had happened during the day. He liked Taehyung and his friends - well, most of his friends; Yoongi was the exception. “I made a couple of frie-”

His mother cuts him off. “I don’t care about that. How were your classes?”

Oh. Jimin sighs.

“They were fine since I did all the catch-up work before,” Jimin nods awkwardly as he talks.

“Aren’t you glad I made you complete the catch-up work even though it was optional? You would’ve been struggling already if I didn’t make you do it,” His mother comments and Jimin begins to tune her out as he looks out the window, mumbling an ‘mhm’ so she thinks he’s listening.

Jimin begins thinking, contemplating in his mind about whether or not he should ask his mother to go to the party that Taehyung was talking about. He knows she would say no and there was no harm in trying, right? But he also doesn’t want her to get mad at him for asking something stupid. But still, what was the worst that could happen?

Jimin turns his head away from the window and is now looking at his mother. “Uh,” He speaks up and his mother looks at him through the rear-view mirror. “So, these guys I met at school today said there’s a party going on tonight,” He continues and his mother gives him a look. “I was wondering if I could go?”

“No,” She replies bluntly, looking back at the road and Jimin sighs. He doesn’t know why he’s feeling so disappointed when he knew she was going to say no. He was just hoping that he could’ve been able to become better friends with Taehyung and his friends since he liked them. But then again, he has more chances to become properly a part of their group at school, he supposes.

When Jimin gets home, he does what he did almost every night: study. He actually does have to finish a lot of the optional catch-up work from the school that his mother was making him do so maybe it was for the better that he didn’t go along to the party with the boys from school.

Half an hour into studying, Jimin gets a text from Taehyung and he immediately puts the History textbook in his hands down on the desk in front of him before quickly picking up his phone, seeing that Taehyung had added him to a group chat.

From Taehyung:
Okay, guys. I’ve added Jimin.

From Yoongi:
You shouldn’t have.

Jimin immediately rolls his eyes from behind his screen at Yoongi’s response, his happy mood dropping and now all he feels is irritation. He’s about to reply to Yoongi but he stops when he sees Jin tell him to be nice.

From Taehyung:
So, Jimin, did you ask your parents if you can go to the party with us?

From Jungkook:
Taehyung hyung and I are going to go together and I could pick you up on the way, if you want?

Jimin frowns slightly. He wants to but there is no way his mom is going to let him. He slowly types up his reply, hoping he doesn’t sound stupid.

To Group Chat:
I still can’t come tonight.

From Yoongi:
I’m glad.

Jimin scoffs at his reply

To Group Chat:
Shut up.
Maybe I’ll be able to go to the next one or something.

Jimin sends his message even though he knows he probably won’t be able to go to the next one either.

From Yoongi:
You shut up.

From Namjoon:
Yes! I hope you can come along next time.

From Taehyung:
Yeah, you definitely have to come next time.
Jungkook and I are gonna get going in a minute so I’ll see you later, Jimin.

Jimin smiles before he types up a quick message to Taehyung, telling him to have fun, and another to reply to Namjoon. However, he then frowns at the memory of Yoongi’s text messages. Jimin doesn’t understand why he’s being so annoying for no reason. Jimin hasn’t even done anything to him - it was Yoongi who had bumped into him this morning.

He scoffs again at the thought of the idiot, rolling his eyes before he goes back to the textbook sitting on his desk.

The night soon ends and it’s around midnight when Jimin finally snuggles into his bed. His mother had told him to go to sleep around two hours ago, telling her son that a good night’s sleep is important and right now, she thinks Jimin is doing as told, but the boy’s just scrolling aimlessly on his phone.

He’s on social media, looking at people’s posts and then, his eye catches onto Taehyung’s recent post. It’s a picture of him and Jungkook at the party that is tonight - Jungkook is pouting and winking while Taehyung smiles widely at the camera, the two of them throwing up a peace sign. Jimin notices someone in the background of the photo.

It’s Yoongi, his lips locked with a boy who Jimin thinks he had seen around school earlier today. Jimin scrunches his nose up, cringing. Why would anyone want to kiss him? He couldn’t think of a single justifiable reason.

Yoongi is annoying and mean, and unfunny, and arrogant, and rude, and overall just so, so irritating.

Although, Jimin does suppose he is kind of good looking and by ‘kind of’ he means very - but he isn’t going to admit that. Maybe the boy in the picture isn’t totally crazy for kissing Yoongi.

But his looks don’t make up for his horrible personality. Yoongi sucks. Jimin has only known him for a day and he already thinks Yoongi is the most annoying person he’s ever met. Jimin would never like someone like him.

Ever.

Chapter Text

The next day, Jimin walks into his Mathematics class - one of the few classes he has without Taehyung and he has to admit, he is feeling pretty nervous. He hopes he’s able to make at least one friend in this class so he won't be completely alone in every lesson from now on.

He is also slightly worried that he might find this class somewhat difficult. Mathematics is definitely not one of his strong suits but he has spent the past couple of nights doing the optional catch-up work, so he hopes everything works out to be okay. If it doesn’t work out, and this class is hard, his grades aren’t going to be great, and then he’ll get home and hear a huge lecture from his mother - he doesn’t want that.

Jimin takes a seat in the first free seat he sees. Although, he makes sure he isn’t sitting too close to the front; he doesn’t want to seem too eager. He also makes sure he isn’t too far towards the back - he wants to make sure he can hear and see everything happening in the class properly so he can take good notes.

Soon, the class starts and Jimin is glad his mother had made him complete all of the optional catch-up work - he thinks he’d be completely lost if he hadn’t done it. The questions are difficult but he manages and after a few moments, his teacher comes over to check up on him and his work every so often, knowing he hadn’t done this content yet at his old school.

Around halfway through the lesson, the door of the classroom swings open and Jimin lifts his head up from his Maths textbook and looks towards the door.

Yoongi walks in, his uniform looking just as messy as it did yesterday. Once again, his shirt is untucked and his blazer is unbuttoned. He looks pretty tired too.

“Nice of you to finally join us, Yoongi,” The teacher comments sarcastically and Yoongi completely ignores her, walking past her and Jimin before sitting in the seat directly behind him. “Why are you so late?” She then enquires. “Overslept?” Yoongi doesn’t reply. He just merely nods his head at the teacher, who shakes her head at his lack of response. “You know that’s another detention, right?” She asks and once again, Yoongi just nods, clearly not fazed over the idea of detention and the teacher doesn’t comment any further.

Jimin notices that the teacher didn’t care much about Yoongi being late. It sounds like this is a usual occurrence.

The lesson continues and Jimin finds himself working on a difficult question. He has a frown on his face and his eyebrows are furrowed because he’s concentrating so hard.

Suddenly, he feels something hit the back of his head.

The thing that hit him falls to the floor, right in front of his desk. Jimin looks down to the floor and sees a piece of paper bunched up into a little ball. He presses his lips together - it didn’t hurt since it's just paper but it is very annoying nonetheless. Jimin turns around and his eyes meet Yoongi’s, the mint-haired boy’s smirk on show.

“Did you throw that at me?” Jimin asks, even though the answer is obvious. Yoongi just shrugs, laughing to himself a little when Jimin turns back around, rolling his eyes as he decides to get back to his work.

But then, he feels another paper ball hit his head. Jimin lets out a sigh, shuts his eyes, and chooses to ignore Yoongi. If Jimin doesn’t react, Yoongi will eventually stop.

But he doesn’t.

“Jimin,” Yoongi whispers, leaning forward. “Hey… Jimin,” He repeats and Jimin continues to ignore him, trying to focus on the question written down on the paper in front of him.

Despite all his efforts to ignore Yoongi, the mint-haired boy continues throwing paper at Jimin’s head and keeps whispering his name, and at some point, Jimin’s finally had enough.

“Can you stop?” Jimin turns around, raising his voice slightly, clearly agitated but that just makes Yoongi chuckle. “Seriously,” He then frowns.

“I didn’t do anything,” Yoongi shrugs. “I have no idea what you’re even talking about.” He leans back in his seat, a cocky look on his face, making Jimin even more annoyed.

“You’re not funny,” Jimin retorts, rolling his eyes.

“I’m very funny,” Yoongi laughs. He finds himself hilarious. Jimin just can’t take a joke.

“Shut u-,” Jimin says, but he’s quickly cut off.

“Jimin, since it’s your second day here I would’ve expected you to be on your best behaviour but here you are, talking to Yoongi instead of doing your work,” The teacher scolds him and Jimin winces, before facing the front of the classroom.

“I’m sor-,” Jimin is quick to apologise, genuinely feeling sorry - he should’ve just ignored Yoongi - but once again, the teacher cuts him off.

“Since you like talking to Yoongi so much, you can spend some more time with him after school in detention,” She says harshly and as soon as the words left her mouth, Jimin feels the colour drain from his face.

Detention?

His mother is going to kill him.

When Jimin’s class is over and he walks out of the classroom, slightly stressed out over the detention he has to attend, Yoongi follows him.

“See you in detention,” He snickers and Jimin sighs, clearly still annoyed with the boy.

“Shut up,” Jimin grumbles as he walks towards the lunch hall, knowing that’s where the rest of the boys will be. “My parents are literally going to kill me and it’s your fault.”

“Poor you,” Yoongi teases, his voice dripping with fake sympathy as he juts out his bottom lip. When Jimin doesn’t reply, the mint-haired boy rolls his eyes, hits Jimin’s elbow with his own and continues speaking. “Just say you’re staying after school to study or something,” He offers a solution.

He doesn’t know why he’s trying to help Jimin. Jimin’s very annoying in his eyes - he tries too hard in class, he can’t take a joke; he’s just so annoying - and that’s why Yoongi likes teasing him so much. It’s funny to see Jimin annoyed.

But, Yoongi didn’t mean to be malicious with his teasing - he didn’t want to get Jimin into trouble - the least he can do is offer some kind of solution.

Jimin raises his eyebrows at Yoongi’s words as he walks into the lunch hall. Even though he hates lying, that is a good idea because he really doesn’t want to get an hour-long lecture about behaving in class when he gets home - but he isn’t going to let Yoongi know that.

“They won’t believe me,” He replies as he sits down beside Taehyung at the lunch table. Yoongi sits down too, beside Jungkook.

And Jimin’s words make Yoongi roll his eyes. This is why he shouldn’t have even tried to help Jimin - he acts like such a know-it-all when he doesn’t even know if Yoongi’s idea will work!

“At least fucking try it,” Yoongi retorts. It’s a detention that Jimin can easily lie about - he doesn’t know why the other boy was being so difficult about it.

“Whatever,” Jimin grumbles. Taehyung asks what had happened and Jimin quickly explains, all while texting his mother and telling her that he’d be staying after school to study for a Maths exam. She replies quickly, telling him to work hard. Jimin looks up from his phone, a small surprised look on his face and Yoongi seems to notice.

“Did you tell her?” He asks and Jimin nods, sighing at the fact that Yoongi noticed. He doesn’t want to give him the satisfaction of being right. “Well?”

“Everything’s fine,” Jimin admits.

“I told you so,” Yoongi smirks. “I’m always right.”

“Shut up.”

The day passes by quickly and Jimin is now walking to the room where his detention is taking place. He walks into the classroom to see Yoongi already sitting down at a desk and a teacher standing at the front.

Jimin takes a seat a couple of rows in front of Yoongi, not wanting to sit near the boy. He unzips his backpack and takes out a book - he would be reading a book for his English class for the duration of the detention.

A couple of minutes pass and the teacher suddenly speaks up. Jimin looks up from his book. “I have a meeting soon. I’ll be leaving you two here and expect you to stay for the rest of the detention. I’ll come back at the end to see if you’re both still here,” He says, and Jimin nods as the teacher leaves the classroom before he quickly gets back to reading his book.

He hears Yoongi shuffling about behind him and then, he sees the boy going towards the classroom door. As he’s about to exit, he turns back to look at Jimin.

“You’re not going to leave?” The boy asks, raising an eyebrow. Jimin shakes his head, causing Yoongi to chuckle but Jimin doesn’t know why that was funny. The teacher’s going to come back at the end of the detention and he doesn’t want to get into more trouble. “I’ll keep you company,” He then speaks as he walks back into the classroom and towards Jimin, taking a seat on the desk right beside him.

Yoongi doesn't know why he’s staying, if he’s being honest. Usually, he doesn’t even show up to detentions in the first place but he decided to today, just because he thought it’d be funny to see Jimin in detention. He acts like such a good boy, like a know-it-all, and Yoongi finds it absolutely hilarious that Jimin’s sitting in detention because of him, and he’ll definitely say that to Jimin’s face - it's so fun to tease him.

Maybe that’s why he’s not leaving now. It’s just too fun to tease Jimin, to see him huff, and pout, and get angry.

Jimin sighs. He would much rather have Yoongi leave him alone. Even with Yoongi sitting down beside him, he continues reading his book.

“You’re gonna read for the rest of the detention?” Yoongi asks and Jimin nods without looking up from his book.

As Jimin continues reading, Yoongi begins fidgeting. He starts drumming his fingers against his desk while he whistles a random tune. It’s irritating Jimin and it’s getting harder and harder to ignore Yoongi but he doesn’t speak to the mint-haired boy nonetheless.

“Let’s play a game,” Yoongi says. He unzips his bag and takes out a sheet of paper and a pen. When Jimin doesn’t reply, Yoongi huffs and pokes at the other boy’s arm. “Jimin. Let’s play a game.”

Jimin locks eyes with Yoongi, glaring at the annoying boy before letting out an exasperated sigh and closing his book. “Fine,” He mumbles. “What is it?” He gives in, knowing if he doesn’t, Yoongi won’t stop trying to annoy him for the remainder of the detention.

“Noughts and crosses,” Yoongi replies with a grin, happy he was able to get his way. “I’m going first.”

Jimin doesn't care who goes first - he doesn’t want to play anyway. Yoongi quickly picks up a pen and begins scribbling on his piece of paper. Once he is done, Jimin looks down at the paper and sees a grid.

Yoongi draws his ‘X’ in the middle box of the middle row before handing the pen to Jimin.

Jimin takes a pen and picks a random space to place his ‘O’, not bothered with the game at all. He just wants Yoongi to shut up so he agreed to play.

This goes back and forth for a while, Jimin just randomly placing his ‘O’, not really paying attention, and the first game ends with a tie.

“Ugh,” Yoongi groans as he drops the pen in his hand down onto his desk. “This is boring. You’re not even trying,” He huffs and Jimin ignores him and picks up his book again, opening it up and continuing to read from where he left off. “You’re boring, Jimin,” Yoongi then says after seeing Jimin had gone back to ignoring him.

Jimin continues to ignore him.

“You’re bad at noughts and crosses,” Yoongi then says. “You’re a loser,” He continue, poking Jimin’s cheek, trying to rile him up.

Jimin sighs and places his book back down, looking at Yoongi. “Do you want to play again?” He asks Yoongi. Playing this stupid game with Yoongi is the only way to make the mint-haired boy shut up.

Yoongi nods and draws another grid before handing the pen to Jimin and saying, “You can go first because I’m nice.”

Nice? Yoongi has got to be delusional if he thinks he’s nice.

“Sure,” Jimin replies sarcastically, taking the pen and staring down at the grid. He places his ‘O’ in the left box of the top row and hands Yoongi the pen afterwards.

“You’re stupid,” Yoongi insults him suddenly and Jimin raises an eyebrow. “You should always go for the middle one - that’s the best one. You’re going to lose now,” He explains smugly before he places his ‘X’ in the middle box of the middle row again.

The black-haired boy rolls his eyes before snatching the pen out of Yoongi’s hand and drawing his ‘O’ in the right box of the bottom row. Yoongi stares at the paper in confusion.

“What are you doing?” He asks and he takes the pen from Jimin, drawing his ‘X’ in the left box of the bottom row, trying to make three X’s diagonally.

“Winning,” Jimin responds, taking the pen and drawing his ‘O’ in the right box of the top row. smiling to himself and he hands Yoongi the pen.

“What?” The other boy responds, eyebrows furrowed as he looks down at the paper. He stares for a moment before a quiet ‘oh’ escapes past his lips.

No matter where Yoongi places his ‘X’, Jimin is going to win. Jimin can win in two different ways - by placing his ‘O’ in the middle box of the top row, or the right box of the middle row - and Yoongi can’t stop him from getting three in a row now.

The mint-haired boy sighs and randomly places his ‘X’ down, giving up on the game since there’s no way he can win before he drops the pen down onto the desk.

Jimin smugly picks up the pen, giggling as he places his ‘O’ in the middle box of the top row, before crossing through the three ‘O’ in a row.

“You lost,” He grins, pointing at Yoongi with the pen in his hand. “You lost,” He repeats with a laugh, sitting up straight in his seat, “I won,” He then adds proudly, smiling to himself.

“Yeah, I heard you the first time,” Yoongi rolls his eyes and sits back in his chair. “You only won because I went easy on you,” He shrugs.

“No, I won because you’re bad at the game,” Jimin replies with a roll of his eyes.

“Shut up,” Yoongi retorts and Jimin doesn’t reply, still smiling to himself, happy that he had won their little game.

Soon, silence falls between the two and Jimin picks up his book again once again and this time, Yoongi stays quiet.

But that quietness only lasts so long - after a few minutes, Yoongi becomes bored once again.

“You wanna play another game?”

When Jimin is done with his detention, he walks out of the classroom and out towards the front entrance of the school, Yoongi close behind him. Jimin has to walk home today. Usually, his mother takes him to and from school but today, since he had detention, she didn’t.

But when Jimin exits the school, he curses under his breath at the sight of the heavy pouring rain. How was he supposed to walk home in weather like this? He doesn’t have an umbrella or a hoodie. He’s definitely going to catch a cold after.

“Why are you just standing there?” Yoongi asks, an eyebrow raising upwards as he wonders why Jimin wasn’t moving.

“The rain,” Jimin replies simply, using a finger to point up at the sky.

“What about it?”

“I have to walk home,” He begins explaining. “I don’t have an umbrella.” After Jimin finishes speaking, Yoongi laughs.

“Have fun with that,” He teases, a cheeky smile on his face. Jimin huffs and rolls his eyes as Yoongi runs over to his car, rushing to avoid the rain as much as possible.

And as Yoongi gets into his car and starts it up, his eyes wander over to Jimin. He’s still standing right by the school’s exit, making no move to begin walking - he just stares up at the rain with a pout on his lips.

And even though Yoongi doesn’t like him, he feels bad. Yoongi’s a tease - he likes to annoy Jimin - but he’s not mean. He doesn’t want Jimin to get soaked on his way home and potentially get sick, even though he does thinks it’d be hilarious to see Jimin drenched.

And that thought alone makes Yoongi want to not be nice, simply because a drenched Jimin would be so funny, but he ignores that thought, drives, and stops right where Jimin is, rolling down his window and calling out to the black-haired boy.

“Don’t be so stupid and carry an umbrella next time,” Yoongi can’t help but tease first and Jimin glares at him. “I’m kidding, Jeez. You’re so moody,” Yoongi mumbles rolling his eyes - he was just joking. “You want a ride?” He asks and Jimin’s a little shocked. He didn’t think Yoongi liked him enough to offer. “I’m not offering because I like you. I’m offering because I’m a decent person who wouldn’t let anyone walk home in the rain.” Yoongi says as if he has just read Jimin’s mind.

“Decent person? Yeah, sure,” Jimin laughs. He still thinks that Yoongi sucks, even if he is being weirdly nice all of a sudden.

“Say goodbye to your ride home then,” Yoongi shrugs as looks away from Jimin, who then quickly shouts an ‘I’m joking,’ and Yoongi looks back at him before he tells Jimin to get in the car.

Jimin arrives home safe and completely dry, thanks to Yoongi. The car ride was pretty uneventful except for the fact that Jimin continuously insulted Yoongi’s ability to drive and each time he did so, Yoongi threatened to make him walk the rest of the way home.

When Jimin walks into his house, he’s immediately greeted by his mother, asking him how studying for his Maths test went. Jimin quickly makes up a few lies on the spot, telling her that he studied hard. He does feel a little bad for lying since she trusts him so much but he doesn’t want to get into trouble with her for getting detention on his second day.

After Jimin talks to his mother, he makes his way up to his room and actually begins studying for Maths. Around an hour into studying, he hears his phone vibrate. He takes a look and sees the boys in the group chat talking.

From: Hobi
Is everyone down to hang out tomorrow?

From: Taehyung
No, I have work tomorrow after school.

Jimin didn’t know Taehyung had a job. He’s sort of jealous. It would be nice to be able to make money for yourself but Jimin isn’t allowed a job. His mother tells him it might distract him from his studies and she doesn’t want his grades to drop.

From: Namjoon
I’m down. I have nothing to do tomorrow.

Jimin is about to reply, saying that he’ll ask his parents if he can go hang out with all the boys tomorrow but stops himself when Hobi sends another message.

From: Hobi
Let’s all just hang out on a day Taehyung doesn’t have work instead.

After that conversation is over, Jimin continues studying. After an hour of Maths, he moves on to English and he studies that for an hour too until his mother calls him down for dinner. The day ends with more studying and then some sleep.

The same old routine as always.

Sometimes Jimin really is sick of it.

The next day Jimin walks into his Maths class and is greeted with a surprise quiz. He generally does well in tests due to the number of hours he studies because of his mother but he still feels anxious about this exam. The stuff they learnt at this school hadn’t been taught to him at his previous school yet so everything he knew was completely self-taught and he knows that if he does badly on this quiz, his mother is going to be really, really, really upset with him.

When Jimin takes his seat at his desk, his Maths teacher walks over to him. He doesn’t really like her since she’s the one who had given him detention for, in his opinion, nothing. Well, he supposes he was being disruptive but it wasn’t his fault! Yoongi was just being so annoying.

“Jimin, I was just wondering if you did the optional catch-up work the school gave you?” She asks and Jimin quickly nods politely. “Well, since you did it, you can do the quiz if you’d like because after looking at your classwork, you have the potential to do really well - but you don’t have to. If you want to complete it and your grade isn’t great, I won’t put it towards your final grade since you weren’t here when I taught the material.” She smiles at Jimin and Jimin can’t help but smile back. The praise makes him feel all giddy. He likes knowing he’s doing good. Maybe this teacher isn’t as bad as he thought.

“I’ll do it. If I don’t do well, at least I’ll get some practice,” He responds with a smile. The teacher nods and walks back to her desk. She’s about to hand the quizzes out when Yoongi walks in, late again. Instead of sitting behind Jimin this time, he sits beside Jimin and the black-haired boy has to admit, it annoys him a little. Out of all the seats in this classroom, Yoongi just has to sit in the chair beside him?

The teacher hands out the quizzes and Jimin gets to work fast. The questions at the start seem okay but towards the end, he starts to struggle. He tries his hardest and he’s pretty proud of himself for completing the quiz but he’s still afraid of doing badly and what his mother will say if he comes home with a grade lower than an A.

Meanwhile, from beside him, Yoongi is really, really struggling. He can’t even answer the first question. He has no idea what he’s doing and he’s starting to regret skipping classes so much and being late for almost every lesson. His grades are already pretty bad and he knows that this is just going to make them worse.

Yoongi has never been one to care too much about school but his grades last year were decent - he had gotten C’s in most subjects, and an occasional B in some - but this year, they were dropping a lot. He’s already failing Chemistry; he doesn’t want to add Maths to that list too, and in his other subjects, he was barely scraping D’s.

From his peripheral vision, he sees Jimin scribbling down the answers to the questions quickly. He sees him furrowing his eyebrows and biting his lip in concentration, trying to focus on the equations in front of him. Yoongi stares back down at his own paper and sighs before he leans back in his chair and drops his pen down onto his desk. He gives up.

Lunch break rolls around quickly and Jimin finds himself sitting at the boys’ usual lunch table, Taehyung by his side, and the other boys sitting around too. They’re talking about another party that’s happening this weekend and Jimin is desperate to go. They had talked about the party that Jimin was unable to go to last time and he had definitely been a little jealous because it seemed like they had a good time. He really wants to go this time but he knows his mother won’t let him.

“Can you come with us this time, Jimin?” Namjoon asks, showing off his dimpled smile.

“Yeah! Can you go this time?” Taehyung suddenly says and Jimin quickly turns his head to look at the blue-haired boy.

“Uh, probably not,” He sighs bluntly.

“Just lie,” Yoongi offers a solution but Jimin rolls his eyes. Yoongi then scoffs at the way Jimin had reacted.

God, Jimin’s so annoying. Yoongi’s trying to help him and here he is rolling his eyes like Yoongi just said something stupid! He told him to lie last time when Jimin had gotten detention and it worked but now he doesn’t want to lie this time? Yoongi’s sure Jimin isn’t listening to him because his stupid, know-it-all ass just doesn’t want to admit that Yoongi’s solutions are good ideas. How dumb.

“I’m serious. Just say you’re coming over to my house to study or something and then I’ll take you there,” Yoongi then says and once the words leave his mouth, he regrets them. Giving Jimin a ride again - why would he say that?

He just feels a little bad. Jimin’s parents seem like they suck and Jimin didn’t get to go to the party last time. But he doesn’t like Jimin at all - definitely not. Yoongi just hates strict parents more than he hates Jimin.

Jimin thinks about it for a moment. He can lie and the likelihood of him getting away with it was probably quite high since his parents trusted him a lot but he doesn’t like lying, especially to his parents.

“Come on, Jimin!” Taehyung bumps their elbows together. “Just do it. I really want you to come.”

Jimin easily succumbs to the peer pressure and quickly gives in. Well, Taehyung wasn’t really pressuring him. Jimin really, really does want to go anyway. He just needs a small push to do it.

“Fine,” He mumbles and he hears Taehyung cheer from beside him, which makes him grin. “But you’ll take me home too, right?” He asks as he looks up at Yoongi.

“No, I never said I’d take you home,” Yoongi rolls his eyes and Jimin huffs before protesting and telling the mint-haired boy that it’s unfair and makes absolutely no sense that Yoongi can take him to the party but can’t take him home too. “Okay! Fine, fine! Your voice is giving me a headache,” Yoongi then agrees and Jimin completely ignores the boy’s insult, too happy that he’s actually going to a party to let Yoongi’s stupid words damper his mood.

“Okay! I have to go to the library to finish some homework I was supposed to do after school today but I’ll text my mom and ask her about studying,” Jimin says as he stands up. “Thanks, Yoongi,” The boy smiles as he walks out of the lunch hall, and Yoongi ignores him.

As Jimin leaves, Jungkook elbows Yoongi, trying to get his attention. Yoongi looks over at the younger boy, raising an eyebrow in question.

“I thought you didn’t like Jimin,” Jungkook asks, tilting his head.

“I don’t,” Yoongi scoffs.

“Then why are you taking him to the party?” Jungkook questions once again, causing Yoongi to roll his eyes.

“Because I feel bad. His parents seem shitty,” Yoongi explains and Jungkook just raises his eyebrow at the boy’s words. It didn’t seem like Yoongi didn't like Jimin. “Shut up. I’m not a sociopath. I can feel sympathy, alright?” Yoongi rolls his eyes.

Chapter Text

Yoongi thinks he’s stupid.

He’s parked outside Jimin’s house, waiting for the boy to come outside so they can head to the party together. He’s already texted Jimin to hurry up and told him if he doesn’t come out soon, Yoongi will leave without him, but Jimin’s still not here, and it feels like Yoongi has been waiting for forever.

He regrets his decision now that he’s here. He doesn’t know why he had decided to be nice. It’s not like he likes Jimin - Jimin’s not like Namjoon or Hobi or Jungkook; Jimin’s not his friend - so why did Yoongi offer the idiot a ride? He doesn’t know. Now he’s here, wasting his time waiting for Jimin.

Finally, a few minutes later Jimin exits his house, his mother standing right behind him. The boy’s mother gives her son a hug before waving goodbye and letting him walk to Yoongi’s car.

Jimin enters Yoongi’s car and the first thing he notices is the warm yet subtle scent of sandalwood, along with the tiniest amount of sweet jasmine. Does Yoongi normally smell like this? Jimin didn’t notice - maybe Yoongi decided to put extra cologne on today or something, Jimin doesn’t know - but he likes it. He takes a breath through his nose, taking in the mellow scents before greeting Yoongi with a small ‘hello’, buckling up his seatbelt as he does so. He doesn’t notice Yoongi’s glare on him until he looks up, which then causes him to tilt his head in confusion while the mint-haired boy stares angrily.

“Took you long enough,” Yoongi snaps, agitated from waiting so long. He reminds himself to never, ever be nice to Jimin again.

“Okay, well, you glaring at me isn’t going to make us get to the party any faster. Just drive,” Jimin responds with a frown, crossing his hands over his chest and Yoongi rolls his eyes. The audacity of Jimin to act like this when Yoongi’s doing him a favour. He wouldn’t even be able to go to this dumb party if it weren’t for Yoongi!

Yoongi ignores the boy’s comment and starts up the car. As he does so, he decides to make a small, harmless joke about Jimin’s outfit. He looks good but Yoongi asks him if he’s ever been to a party before because his outfit looks stupid. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Jimin look down at his outfit and huff, a pout on his lips, which makes Yoongi follow his joke up with an ‘I’m kidding’ and a roll of his eyes. He really can’t take a joke.

“You look alright, I guess,” Yoongi shrugs as begins driving, stealing glances at Jimin every so often. Now, ‘you look alright’ isn’t exactly a compliment but Jimin grins anyway because ‘alright’ is so much better than an insult.

Not that Jimin needs Yoongi to compliment him. He knows he looks good and if Yoongi thought differently, Yoongi would be stupid. But it’s still nice to hear, especially from someone who seems to not like him much.

As Yoongi continues to drive, Jimin feels the need to insult his driving yet again. “Did your driving get worse?” He complains and Yoongi takes a breath in, ignoring the boy while he keeps his eyes on the road. “Seriously, how did you get your licence? You’ve hit the curb, like, twice already!” He continues and then he jolts forward when Yoongi suddenly stops the car.

“Shut up,” Yoongi says bluntly.

“What the hell,” Jimin mumbles as he looks at the other boy with wide eyes.

“I’m doing you a favour by picking you up but you show up late and now you’re insulting me so shut up or get out and walk to the party. You’re pissing me off,” The mint-haired boy bites back, and Jimin rolls his eyes and sits back in his seat but still mumbles out an ‘okay, sorry’ because he supposes he does deserve Yoongi blowing up on him like that.

It’s silent for the rest of the ride and even though Yoongi thinks Jimin deserved to be shouted at because, God, he was being so annoying, there’s a little guilty feeling in his stomach. He doesn’t usually get angry. Yeah, Jimin gets him annoyed but never angry, and he can’t help but feel bad about reacting that way.

Jimin deserved it. Jimin was being annoying and out of line so he deserved it.

But Yoongi still feels bad.

“Hey, you’ll take me home, right?” Jimin asks gently once they get to the party, watching his tone, and the quietness of his voice makes Yoongi feel worse - Jimin’s voice is softer because he knows Yoongi is angry.

“Yeah, whatever.”

Even though Yoongi is in a bad mood, Jimin sticks by his side for the first few moments of their arrival at the party, much to the mint-haired boy’s annoyance. He already had to spend time with Jimin in the car, why can’t he just leave him alone now? But Jimin doesn’t particularly want to stay with Yoongi either - the other boys just haven’t arrived yet and Yoongi is the only person Jimin knows.

But soon, a boy Jimin thinks goes to his school walks up to Yoongi, giggles at the mint-haired boy’s words, touches his arm softly and Yoongi eats it up, smirking as he talks to the boy, his mood quickly changing. Jimin quickly feels like a third wheel and he can’t help but feel an ounce of irritation towards the boy talking to Yoongi. Jimin is literally standing right next to Yoongi when the guy came up to him - he couldn’t be a decent person and at least greet Jimin before he began flirting with Yoongi?

Soon, he walks away - he would rather be alone than be around Yoongi and what’s-his-face, so he leaves.

The party is loud, has a bunch of people, and plenty of alcohol. Even though Jimin’s decided against drinking because if he got home drunk, he’d definitely be caught in his lie by his mother and he doesn’t want that to happen, he still feels buzzed, excited from everything going on around him.

He makes his way towards the kitchen, looking for something to drink. Most of the beverages around him were alcoholic but he ignores them, sticking to a simple can of Diet Coke.

A few minutes later, Yoongi walks in - without the irritating boy - and reaches for a can of some carbonated drinking himself. “You’re not drinking?” He then asks, nodding to the drink in Jimin’s hand. He thought Jimin would be - he’s not driving home so he has no reason not to.

Jimin doesn’t have to drink if he doesn’t want to, but Yoongi would bet that he has something against people their age who decide to drink because he’s a killjoy who always tries too hard to be good.

“No, my parents would kill me,” Jimin replies.

Right. Weird, killjoy Jimin has weird, killjoy parents.

Now, Yoongi gets it if Jimin’s parents don’t want him to drink - that’s normal - but not letting him step out of his house for a party - that’s weird. And Yoongi can’t help but snicker at the fact, and obviously, that leaves Jimin rolling his eyes. He doesn’t get why his parents make Yoongi laugh so much; it’s so annoying.

Jimin leaves after that, not wanting to deal with Yoongi anymore, and Yoongi’s left in the kitchen alone. Soon after though, Namjoon walks in and starts talking to him.

“You want a drink?” He asks and Yoongi shakes his head.

“I have to take Jimin home later,” He answers. Yoongi may be irresponsible when it comes to school work and he might be a little immature when he teases Jimin but he isn’t stupid - he’s not going to drink and drive.

But he wishes he could drink right now. Again, feelings of regret for offering Jimin a ride kick in. If he hadn’t offered to pick the idiot up, he wouldn’t be in this situation.

Yoongi can see Jimin in the other room with Taehyung and Jungkook, who had probably arrived with Namjoon. He’s hugging them both, giggling and smiling widely, eyes in the shape of crescents because his cheeks squish his eyes when he smiles.

’At least he’s having fun,’ Yoongi thinks.

The night goes by fast and Jimin has the time of his life. This is the first party he’s ever been to and it went better than he had imagined. It was nice to actually be able to spend time with his friends outside of school for once. Earlier on he had felt a little guilty for lying to his parents but all that guilt quickly washed away after he got to the party. Lying was definitely worth it.

Yoongi’s now driving Jimin home. They had to leave the party earlier because Jimin told his mother he wouldn’t stay out ‘studying’ too late, and that definitely left Yoongi even more annoyed but he guesses he can only really blame himself for offering Jimin a ride in the first place.

“God, why is it so hot in your car?” Jimin complains, taking off his jacket. He places it by his side.

“Why do you always have to complain? Can’t you just shut up?” Yoongi responds, annoyance clear in his voice, but he doesn’t raise his voice like before. He rolls his eyes but opens the windows slightly so that Jimin can cool down.

They drive in silence for a while and Jimin looks out the window while he thinks about the party. Tonight was a good night.

“I had fun,” Jimin suddenly speaks, and Yoongi looks over at him, wondering why Jimin is talking to him right now. “It was the first party I’ve ever been to and-“

“Jimin, I really don’t care.”

Jimin sighs. “Whatever,” He grumbles. He doesn’t know why he had tried to converse with Yoongi - the guy’s just a complete asshole.

They pull up to Jimin’s house soon and Yoongi is glad Jimin’s finally out of his car.

Even though Yoongi sucks, Jimin doesn’t forget his manners. He thanks the mint-haired boy before he walks to his front door, a bounce in his step, clearing in a good mood from the party despite Yoongi being rude to him a second ago.

Yoongi waits for Jimin to enter his house before he drives himself home. Once he parks his car and is about to leave to head inside his house, he notices Jimin’s jacket left in his car and he sighs before he pulls out his phone to get annoyed at Jimin for leaving his stuff.

From Jimin:
Sorry. Keep it safe for me, please?.
Thanks for the ride, by the way.

Jimin’s trying to be nice. He doesn’t like Yoongi but Yoongi is friends with the people he’s becoming friends with so Jimin has to try to be civil with him.

Yoongi replies with a simple, one-word reply - ‘whatever’ - and Jimin turns his phone off in annoyance. He shouldn’t have even tried. God, Yoongi is so rude.

After Yoongi sends his text off to Jimin, he grabs the black-haired boy’s jacket, taking it up to his room and hanging it up on a hanger so it doesn’t get creased.

He’s keeping it safe for Jimin.

The weekend is over and it’s now a bright Monday afternoon. Jimin’s sitting in his Mathematics class, waiting for his teacher to hand out their graded tests from the quiz they had done a few days back. He’s a little nervous. He studied hard though so he hopes his grade is good.

When his teacher hands him his test, he breaks into a huge smile at the sight of an ‘A’ and a smiley face, along with the words ‘good job!’ written on the top of his paper in his teacher’s handwriting. He’s happy. His mother will be happy too.

Meanwhile, Yoongi, on the other hand, is extremely frustrated with himself and the huge ‘F’ printed on the top of his paper, plus the words ‘see me after class’ written next to it. He sighs. He knows he could do better if he tried. He knows he’s smart - well, his grade says different but he knows he’s not dumb! Last year his grades were okay.

The bell rings soon after, indicating that class is over and lunch is beginning. Yoongi rapidly packs up his things to get ready to leave, ignoring the words his teacher had written on his paper. He thinks he gets away with it but as he’s about to walk out of the door, his teacher calls out his name.

“Yoongi, didn’t I tell you I wanted to talk to you after class?” She asks, voice stern and Yoongi winces before he turns around to walk over to her. “Jimin, can I talk to you for a moment too?” She then says. Jimin replies with a bright smile and a polite nod, walking over to her desk and standing beside Yoongi. “So, Jimin, you did really well on the quiz - well done,” She praises him.

Jimin’s grin gets even wider, politely saying a ‘thank you’ while Yoongi just rolls his eyes. What a try-hard.

“Yoongi, you on the other hand, didn’t do too well,” She sounds disappointed and Yoongi doesn’t want to hear it. “Didn’t do too well’ is an understatement; Yoongi did embarrassingly bad on that test. “You’ll need to be tutored if you want to pass, and since Jimin did so well, I was hoping he wouldn’t mind helping you out,” She continues, looking at Yoongi with hard eyes, which flicker over to Jimin and become soft, a smile on her face when she looks at the black-haired boy.

Jimin and Yoongi share a sideward glance at each other, the both of them cringing and groaning on the inside at the thought of having to spend time together. This sounds so awful.

“Uh, I’m sorry. I don’t want to be tutored by him,” Yoongi protests. He doesn’t care how bad his grades are. Spending hours with Jimin sounds like hell. He’d rather redo this year of high school than go through with that.

“Well, I’m sorry, you’re currently failing my class and don’t have a choice,” The teacher responds, and Jimin wants to giggle at Yoongi getting scolded.

But, Jimin does agree with Yoongi. He also doesn’t want to tutor him but the teacher seems a little intimidating so he's a tiny bit scared to say no.

“Now, Jimin, I’d appreciate it if you take out about an hour or two from your week to tutor Yoongi either at school or at one of your houses,” She looks between the two boys. “Would that be okay?”

“Uh, sure,” Jimin nods with a smile. Maybe tutoring Yoongi won’t be that bad? It’d help him study since he’d need to know the information really well before teaching it to Yoongi.

Who is he kidding? This is going to be awful. Two hours with Yoongi a week? Jimin must’ve died and gone to hell because why is this happening to him? He’d be happy to tutor literally anyone else but out of all people it had to be Yoongi.

“Perfect!” She smiles, clapping her hands together. “I’ll be checking in with you each week to make sure you have been having these tutoring lessons. That’s all - you two can go now.”

The two boys left the classroom and began walking over to the lunch hall. Yoongi was already pretty annoyed after getting his grade and his Maths teacher had made his mood worse.

The two boys leave the classroom and begin walking over to the lunch hall together. Yoongi was already pretty annoyed with himself for getting a bad grade but now his Maths teacher had just made his mood so much worse.

“Let me come over tonight, I guess,” Yoongi speaks, shoving his hands into his hoodie pockets, and Jimin quickly shakes his head.

“You can’t,” He replies. His mother wouldn’t be happy if he invited someone over to the house without her permission. He has to ask her first.

“I have to ask my parents,” Yoongi mocks Jimin, making his voice a few pitches higher, making Jimin sigh.

“I don’t sound like that,” Jimin huffs, crossing his arms over his chest. “But yes. The earliest I can tutor you will probably be tomorrow.,” He then says and Yoongi can’t help but laugh.

“Yeah, whatever. Just text me when you find out,” Yoongi replies and Jimin nods. It goes silent for a while after that but as they continue walking, Yoongi speaks up again: “Don’t you get annoyed when they don’t let you do anything?”

Yoongi has never met Jimin’s parents but he knows he doesn’t like them. He doesn’t like Jimin either but he has to admit that he feels bad for the guy - he can’t do anything without permission. If Yoongi’s parents were like that, he thinks he’d go crazy. He gets why parents might be protective over their children but Jimin’s parents just seem like too much.

Jimin shrugs. Sometimes - well, a lot of time - he does get annoyed but it’s not like he can do anything about it.

“You should be allowed to have fun sometimes, you know that, right?” Yoongi asks softly. He can’t help but feel bad for Jimin. It’s unfair that he’s not allowed to do literally anything.

He was having so much fun at the party the other night. Yoongi remembers seeing him giggle and laugh at people’s jokes, seeing him dance with Jungkook and Taehyung, seeing him smile brightly in every picture taken. It was nice to see. Yoongi thinks that Jimin should be allowed to be like that more often.

Jimin’s taken aback by the gentleness of the mint-haired boy’s tone of voice, eyes a little wide as makes eye contact with Yoongi. It’s weird not to be getting teased by him.

Yoongi looks away. “You’re a boring try-hard who doesn’t do anything bad so I don’t know why they don’t let you,” He continues and Jimin sighs. There’s the teasing.

But Jimin does know why they don’t let him. Grades. That’s all they care about.

When the day ends and Yoongi’s in his final class of the day, he’s packing up his bag and gets up to leave the classroom but stops himself from exiting the room when he sees Jimin sitting still in his seat, making no move to pack up and leave to go home.

“What’re you doing?” He asks, looking down at Jimin.

He looks up at Yoongi and sighs before he speaks, “I don’t wanna go home.”

He’ll have to go home and ask his mother about tutoring Yoongi and he’ll probably get a big lecture over it and Jimin’s really not in the mood for that. He’s already a little displeased after hearing that he needs to tutor Yoongi for two hours a week and he doesn’t want to go home and hear a never-ending monologue from his mother, which he knows will just make him feel worse.

He just wants to go home and watch a movie or something, or just lay in his bed and play stupid games on his phone. He wants to take a break for a bit But that’s not what’s going to happen. He’ll go home, ask his mother, receive a long lecture, and then go study for the rest of the day.

“Why not?” Yoongi asks, although he can sort of guess why. He wouldn’t want to go home to parents like that either.

Jimin stares at Yoongi for a moment, contemplating whether or not he should tell him because he had asked. But Yoongi would just laugh at him, wouldn't he? He’d make fun of Jimin for his strict parents and then would chuckle as he teases him.

Jimin sighs, stands up, and walks out of the classroom. His mother is probably waiting for him outside.

“That’s ridiculous, Jimin. You need to focus on yourself and your own grades!” Jimin’s mother raises her voice as she shakes his head and Jimin winces at her loud voice.

Jimin and his mother are sitting at their dinner table and Jimin thought now would be a good time to talk to her about tutoring Yoongi. He had thought wrong - it isn’t going well so far.

“I know! I’m sorry,” He apologises even though it’s not his fault. “But my teacher told me to tutor him. I don’t think I really have a choice.” He looks down at his fingers nervously and hopes she doesn’t raise her voice again.

His mother sighs. “Fine. Tutor him. But if your grades slip, I want you to stop immediately,” She orders and Jimin quickly nods. “Will you be tutoring him here?”

“Uh,” Jimin hesitates. He doesn’t want Yoongi to come over to his house. He doesn’t want Yoongi to meet his mother. It’d be embarrassing and he knows he would get made fun of. “No. It’ll probably be after school in the library or at his house.”

His mother nods. “That’s fine. But only two hours of tutoring a week. I don’t want your gra-,” She begins talking again and Jimin begins tuning her voice out, nodding his head every few seconds so she’d think he was listening. He does this often - most of the time the things she said weren’t even important.

It’s always the same things over and over again. Jimin, make sure you study for your classes. Jimin, make sure you do well in all your exams. Jimin, make sure you do all of your homework. Jimin, don’t let your grades drop.

It is tiring.

Once his mother is done with her lecture, Jimin goes up to his room and quickly texts Yoongi, telling him that he can tutor him tomorrow.

From: Yoongi
Cool. Mine or yours?

Jimin replies, asking if they could have their tutoring session at his house. Yoongi responded with ‘yeah, sure’.

To: Yoongi
That’s all. I’ll see you tomorrow.

From: Yoongi
Okay. Goodnight, Jimin.

Jimin tilts his head slightly at the ‘goodnight’, finding it a little odd, but sends a goodnight text back before he heads to bed.

He’s not excited for tomorrow.

The next day, Jimin goes over to Yoongi’s house. Neither of them are particularly excited or pleased that they have to spend at least an hour a week with each other but there wasn’t much they could do about the situation.

When Jimin knocks on Yoongi’s door, and it opens a few moments later, Yoongi standing there with a bored look on his face, the atmosphere becomes awkward. The two don’t talk much anyway but now they’re both silent as they walk up to Yoongi’s room/

Jimin never imagined himself coming over to Yoongi’s house - they’re not friends so he never saw it happening - so he doesn’t know what to say. He doesn’t even want to be here. Yoongi never imagined it either so when Jimin enters his room, he stares at him strangely. It’s weird to see Jimin in his room.

Jimin stands awkwardly at the entrance of Yoongi’s room. Even though he hates when Yoongi teases him, he wishes the mint-haired boy would insult him right now just so it wouldn’t be silent. He takes a look around, eyes trying to find something he can talk about so the awkward silence goes away and when his eyes spot a guitar in the corner of Yoongi’s room, he asks “Do you play?” pointing to the guitar, trying to make small conversation, which he isn’t sure is even going to work because last time Jimin tried to make small talk, back when the two were on their way home from the party a few days ago, Yoongi had just told him to shut up.

Yoongi turns to look at what Jimin is looking at. “I’m learning,” He comments quickly.

Jimin nods. ‘That’s cool’, he thinks. He didn’t know that about Yoongi. Well, it’s not like Jimin knows a lot about Yoongi anyway. They’re not friends. But he wonders if Yoongi can play any songs yet.

The two sit at Yoongi’s desk and Jimin pulls out a few Maths worksheets from his backpack that he had taken the time to print out this morning for their tutoring session, and Yoongi immediately complains at the sight of them.

“Do we have to do those?” He asks and Jimin nods quietly while he pulls out his pencil case. “Come on! Let's just do something else,” He pauses for a moment to think of something to do. “We could watch a movie or something. Then we don’t have to talk to each other at all. We can just watch. Isn’t that better than this?”

“No,” Jimin says simply, even though he does agree - just sitting and watching something, completely ignoring each other and not talking sounds much better than working together on these stupid maths problems, but he won’t tell Yoongi that because they have work to do. Jimin doesn’t want to get into trouble with their slightly intimidating teacher just because Yoongi didn’t want to do the work she wanted them to do.

“You don’t want to do this either so why do we have to-,”

“Do you want to fail again?” Jimin asks bluntly, staring at Yoongi. When the mint-haired boy doesn’t reply he then says, “No? That’s what I thought.” Jimin unzips his pencil case and pulls out two pencils and as he does so he swears he hears Yoongi mutter ‘so fucking annoying’ under his breath but he ignores it, not wanting to cause an argument while they’re supposed to be in a tutoring session.

“What about half an hour of these worksheets and then half an hour of a movie?” Yoongi bargains after a few moments and Jimin shakes his head. “Come on. Half an hour is enough for us to finish two of these worksheets. I feel like that’s a good amount of work.”

Jimin sighs and shuts his eyes. He gets flashbacks to the detention they shared together where Yoongi did not shut up until he got his way and got to play his dumb game with Jimin, and Jimin feels like this situation is about to be very similar. If Jimin doesn’t agree to watch a movie in half an hour, he’s sure Yoongi will not do any work at all, and will keep complaining.

“Fine,” He mumbles, rolling his eyes once he opens them. Yoongi smiles, happy he had been able to persuade Jimin as he settles down his seat and looks down at the worksheets.

Yoongi is surprised when he realises he can actually do some of the questions. Jimin explains the questions, and what methods they need to use to get to the solutions in a way that is easy to follow and grasp. He shows the workings for each method clearly and Yoongi finds it simple to follow. Jimin’s smart, he thinks.

Jimin is also pleasantly surprised to see how much Yoongi is trying. At the start, he seemed to find the questions really difficult but slowly, he seemed to do the questions pretty easily with some help from Jimin. He listened carefully whenever Jimin explained something and made quite a few notes.

Jimin knows that Yoongi’s only trying hard because he knows that the studying will only last for half an hour before they can watch a movie together. If Jimin hadn’t agreed and hadn’t let Yoongi get his way, he’s sure the mint-haired boy would’ve been complaining the whole time, putting very minimal effort into the work in front of him.

“Okay, it’s movie time,” Yoongi smiles as he gets up to grab his laptop once the half an hour slot of studying was done. He sits back down and places his laptop in front of both him and Jimin, clicking onto ‘Netflix’. “This is my favourite movie,” He comments.

“It probably sucks,” Jimin retorts and Yoongi immediately responds, calling him a loser. As Yoongi types up the name of his favourite movie, Jimin bumps his elbow into Yoongi’s before mumbling, “Hey.” Yoongi pauses what he’s doing to look at Jimin. “Can you play any songs on the guitar?” He questions curiously, head tilting to the side, deciding to ask the question he had been thinking of when he had first entered Yoongi’s room.

Yoongi looks back to his laptop screen and continues typing, “Yeah,” He mumbles and Jimin’s eyes glance over at the guitar. ‘That’s cool’, he thinks again. “Now shut up, and watch,” Yoongi orders as the movie begins playing and he leans back in his seat to watch.

Around ten minutes into the movie, Jimin reaches over and clicks the space bar on Yoongi’s laptop, pausing the movie. The other boy groans and looks over to Jimin with a look of annoyance, wondering why he had randomly paused the movie.

“Fifteen minutes of watching the movie and five minutes of you on the guitar,” Jimin says. He’s curious to see how well Yoongi plays. He wants to see it just because he finds guitars interesting - not because he thinks it’s cool that Yoongi can play, and definitely not because he’d like to see the mint-haired boy actually play - but Yoongi is quick to reply with a blunt ‘no’ as he plays the movie again. “Whatever. You suck,” Jimin huffs as he sits back in his seat and continues watching the movie again.

But after fifteen minutes pass, Yoongi pauses the movie. and Jimin looks at him expectantly. The mint-haired boy gets out of his seat and grabs his guitar. Jimin grins.

“I only know two songs and I can’t play that well so don’t say anything bad,” Yoongi explains before he sits down and begins playing. He looks down at his guitar, pretty, mint-coloured hair flopping downwards as his finger plays with the strings.

Yoongi is a liar, Jimin thinks, because he plays beautifully. He would never say that to him, of course. When Yoongi finishes up his song, Jimin tells him that a five-year-old could play better than him and Yoongi rolls his eyes at the insult, telling the black-haired boy to shut up.

Jimin has to leave after that, their hour of studying up. As he gets up to leave Yoongi’s room, mumbling an ‘I’ll get going now, bye’, Yoongi gets up and grabs his shoulder. “Wait a sec,” He mutters and Jimin stops in his tracks, turning around to face the other boy. Yoongi quickly lets go of him, moving his hand away so fast as if Jimin was an open fire and Yoongi had just burned himself. He mumbles, “Your jacket,” as he walks to his wardrobe, grabs Jimin’s jacket and hands it to him.

“Oh,” Jimin says, taking his jacket out of Yoongi’s hands. “Thanks.”

With that, Jimin leaves Yoongi’s house, putting his jacket on while he begins to walk back to his neighbourhood. When the jacket is snug on him, he’s greeted with that familiar scent of warm sandalwood, sweet jasmine, and there’s a tiny smile playing on his lips. His jacket doesn’t smell like him anymore. It smells like Yoongi. But Jimin doesn’t like Yoongi, don’t get him wrong, but he’d be lying if he didn’t admit that his jacket smells really good just because it was in Yoongi’s wardrobe for a few days, soaking up the scent from the mint-haired boy’s clothes.

When Jimin gets back home, there’s still a faint smile on his lips, and his parents seem to notice.

“What’re you so happy about?” His father asked. Both his parents stared at him expectantly. His smile quickly drops once their words make him realise he was. His face morphs into a straight one, smile wiped off of his lips once their words make him realise he was smiling.

“Nothing. The tutoring session just went well,” Jimin answers with a nod. It wasn’t a lie - the tutoring session did go well. Yoongi seemed to understand the things they were going through after Jimin explained them.

Yeah. That’s why Jimin’s smiling.

No other reason.

Chapter Text

From: Taehyung
My day off’s tomorrow
We’re doing the usual, right?

To: Group Chat
What’s the usual?

Jimin stares down at his phone, waiting for someone to reply and tell him what ‘the usual’ was. He hopes his question doesn’t sound stupid.

From: Yoongi
You’re not invited so you don’t need to know

Jimin furrows his brow in annoyance at Yoongi's reply, his thumbs hovering above the keys as he types up a snarky response. Why does Yoongi have to be so irritating? Just as Jimin is about to hit send, more messages come through and he pauses.

From: Jungkook
Hyung, stop teasing him

From: Taehyung
We have movie nights at my house on my days off!
That’s the usual. And you better be there, Jimin

Movie night - Jimin is already psyched for it. He can picture it: the seven of them lounging around in Taehyung's living room, watching a funny movie, armed with snacks as they all laugh. He knows it’s going to be fun.

He wants to go, but there’s one problem - his mother.

Jimin sighs as he sends a text back saying that he wants to go, but quickly has to ask his parents.

He practically runs downstairs after he sends that message to go and ask for permission to hang out with his friends tomorrow. He really wants to go. He’s never usually allowed to go out much but he hopes his mother lets him this time. He likes his new friends so much (minus Yoongi, of course) and he wants to spend more time with them outside of school.

He walks into his living room to see both his parents watching something on the television together - the two of them look up at their son when he walks in.

“Um, I was just wondering if I could go over to one of my friend’s houses after school tomorrow?” Jimin asks, looking between the two. He doesn’t mention why he wants to go over to his friend’s house, hoping his mother would just assume it was for studying because that would make her more likely to say yes.

“Why do you need to go over to a friend’s house?” His mother asks immediately and Jimin mentally curses in his head. Now he’s going to tell her it’s to watch movies and she’ll definitely say no.

“They, uh, asked me to come over so we could watch movies,” He explains. She’s going to say no. He should’ve lied and said they were going to study together.

“Sure,” Jimin’s dad ends up saying simply and Jimin’s mother turns to him, a look of annoyance on her face - it seems like she didn’t want him to go, probably because she thinks he needs to study more, but Jimin’s dad has always been a little more relaxed when it came to letting him go out.

Jimin smiles wide and thanks his dad with a hug before running back upstairs and telling the boys that he could come.

He’s excited.

After school the next day, Jimin is over at Taehyung’s house with the rest of the boys. When everyone enters Taehyung’s house they immediately sit down in his living room and it seems like they all have designated seats because they’ve had so many of these movie nights.

Namjoon, Jin and Hobi are on one couch, and Taehyung and Yoongi are on the other, while Jungkook sits on the floor in front of the two, his head leaning against Taehyung’s thigh.

Jimin scans the room for a place to sit, and his eyes come to rest on the only spot available: squeezed between Taehyung and Yoongi. He could sit on the floor, which he doesn’t really want to do, but maybe he should - then he won’t have to suffer through hours of sitting beside Yoongi. Why is he always put in these kinds of situations?

Taehyung puts on a random movie. No one had read the description or had even paid too much attention to the title so they had no idea what the movie was about but began watching it anyway.

Two minutes into the movie, Yoongi starts whispering. “Jimin, move up, you’re all in my space,” He complains, shoving Jimin to the side with his shoulder, and already, Jimin wishes he had taken the seat on the floor.

“I can't move up, you dummy, there’s not enough space,” Jimin snaps back, shoving Yoongi back, causing the mint-haired boy to shove him back. This goes on for a while until Taehyung turns to the both of them and tells them to stop bickering because they’re ruining the movie.

Jimin apologises and turns his focus to the movie again, hoping to end the little argument with Yoongi but it seems the other boy has different plans. Yoongi shoves Jimin again, which Jimin tries to ignore.

And that only makes Yoongi want to tease Jimin more - he wants a reaction.

Yoongi shoves Jimin again before he moves closer to Jimin’s ear and whispers, “I wish you didn’t come. You ruin things.”

Jimin turns to look at him and glares, arms crossed over his chest and a pout on his lips. “Shut up! I want to watch the movie!” He whisper-shouts in annoyance and Yoongi grins, pleased with the reaction he had received. He sits back and stops annoying Jimin for now, focusing on the movie.

The movie turns out to be really, really sad - one of the funny, cute side characters gets into an accident halfway through the film - and Jimin finds himself easily moved to tears, no matter how hard he tries to hold them back. His body instinctively draws into itself as the sniffles escape him and his shoulders shake with emotion. He does his best to stay quiet, but he can't keep the tears from spilling down his face.

Subconsciously, Jimin moves and finds himself curling up to Yoongi’s side. It isn’t intentional on his part at all - he’s just feeling a little overwhelmed and Yoongi’s body is giving off an inviting warmth, and that mixed with the warm, familiar scent of Yoongi’s cologne that he had liked so much just makes him feel comforted. Plus, the couch they’re sitting on is rather small. The crying boy hadn’t even realised that he was moving closer to Yoongi.

Yoongi, on the other hand, does notice Jimin edging closer to him. Jimin has a hand over his mouth in an attempt to conceal his little cries as his head starts to lean against Yoongi’s shoulder, and he's utterly oblivious to their proximity because his eyes are glued onto Taehyung’s television screen. Yoongi, however, is fully aware of how close they are - he can’t help but trace Jimin’s every move with his eyes, his gaze rarely leaving the crying boy's face.

Jimin's irritating, so Yoongi should be pushing him away and telling him to move up because he's too close.

But he doesn't.

He just lets Jimin cry, letting his head rest on his shoulder.

Yoongi can't understand why he's being nice to Jimin by not pushing him away when the other usually does nothing but annoy him. It’s not like he’s particularly fond of Jimin, so why isn’t he pushing him away? It would make sense for Yoongi to shove him away, then tease and mock him, making fun of him for getting emotional over a silly movie. That's what he should do: tease Jimin instead.

But he’s not.

It’s just because Jimin’s crying. Yoongi is just letting Jimin lay on his shoulder because he’s crying. No other reason. Yoongi’s not heartless. Jimin is clearly upset so Yoongi shouldn’t be too mean when the idiot is crying. That would just be cruel.

By the end of the movie, Jimin is practically using Yoongi as a pillow and Jimin still hadn’t even realised, much too focused on the movie and how sad it was.

‘He’s so annoying,’ Yoongi thinks. Throughout the whole movie, he could feel Jimin’s hair tickling his neck and his cheek and he’s pretty sure his t-shirt is now wet with tears but even though he was annoyed, he didn’t tell Jimin to move.

When the movie is over, Jimin wipes away his tears and sits up straight. Yoongi’s shoulder feels cold, empty, all of a sudden but it’s not like he wants Jimin to lay on his shoulder again - definitely not - he just doesn’t like the way it feels empty either.

“Why would you pick that?” Jimin asks, his voice a little whiny after all the crying he had just done, while he hits Taehyung’s shoulder with a pout on his lips. “It was so sad.”

“I didn’t know it was going to be sad!” Taehyung retorts as he turns to face Jimin. The two continue to bicker harmlessly.

While the two argue, Jungkook shuffles from his space on the floor in front of Taehyung to the empty space on the floor in front of Yoongi. He turns around to face the elder and smirks.

“You don’t like Jimin, huh, hyung?” Yoongi suddenly hears Jungkook whisper sarcastically. He furrows his eyebrows at the odd question.

“What?” Yoongi whispers back. “Yeah, I don’t like him.”

Jungkook gives him an unimpressed look before he says, “You were cuddling him.”

The mint-haired boy’s mouth drops open. “I was not,” He then says, almost sounding offended as he rolls his eyes. He didn't know anyone had even noticed how close Jimin was to him - the room was pretty dark. The younger boy gives him another look, raising an eyebrow. “I wasn’t. He was crying and was all over me. That’s not my fault. I didn’t want him near me,” Yoongi shakes his head.

“Uh huh,” Jungkook nods, although it’s obvious he doesn’t believe a word coming out of Yoongi’s mouth, which leaves the older boy huffing in annoyance.

“Seriously. I don’t like him. At the beginning of the movie, I was telling him to move away from me, remember?” Yoongi says, trying to convince Jungkook while he uses his hand to push the younger boy’s shoulder. He really doesn’t like Jimin. Jungkook has this all wrong.

“Sure, whatever you say, hyung.”

“But it's so dark outside,” Jimin whines as he looks out of Taehyung's living room window. They had just finished watching another movie and most of the boys decided to head home - except for Jungkook, who chose to stay over at Taehyung's house. “I don't want to walk back alone," He pouts.

Jimin doesn't come home late often but when he does, his mother usually picks him up from wherever he is and drives him home. His mother is busy tonight and so she can't, leaving Jimin to walk home alone but he doesn't want to. Walking home alone at night is scary.

“Why not?” Namjoon asks, sitting beside Yoongi on the couch. Jimin, Taehyung and Jungkook are on the other. Hobi and Jin had already gone home.

“I’m scared,” Jimin admits and he hears Yoongi chuckle, which makes Jimin roll his eyes. He had asked earlier if anyone (besides Yoongi) could give him a ride home but Yoongi was the only one who had brought his car - the rest of the boys had walked to Taehyung’s house since they didn’t live too far. Despite his predicament, Jimin is unwilling to ask Yoongi for a ride home; he doesn’t want to experience the older boy’s questionable driving skills or any mean teasing.

Yoongi stands up from his seat on the couch, a smirk on his lips. “If you want me to give you a ride since you like me so much, all you have to do is ask," he says teasingly as he moves to Taehyung’s front door, ready to go home.

Jimin pouts, arms crossed defensively in front of his chest. “Shut up,” He mutters in response.

“Are you coming or not?” Yoongi then asks, eyeing Jimin after he sees the boy make no move to follow him. Although, he doesn’t know why he’s asking, why he cares. Jimin’s always ungrateful when Yoongi gives him a ride anyway, so Yoongi should just leave him here. “I'm leaving now so I guess you can walk home by yourself.”

Jimin sighs and gets up, deciding that suffering through a fair few minutes with Yoongi is a much better option when compared to walking home in the dark. He quickly says his goodbyes to the rest of the boys and leaves Taehyung's house with Yoongi.

The two get into the car and for a while, the only sound is the engine humming. As he drives, Yoongi's gaze falls upon a McDonald's and he softly murmurs, "I'm hungry," more to himself than to Jimin.

“Okay?”

“We’re stopping at McDonald’s,” He continues as he pulls into the drive-through, prompting a sigh from Jimin - he just wants to go home. As Yoongi’s eyes scan the menu, they occasionally glance over at Jimin. He wonders if Jimin is hungry - he didn't eat much since he was too busy crying over that stupid movie. “Do you want anything?” He turns to ask him nonchalantly.

A chocolate milkshake is on Jimin’s mind, or maybe an Oreo McFlurry? Even though he would like something, he ends up saying, “I don’t have any money on me.” He didn't think to bring any money with him since he was just going over to Taehyung's house. He didn’t think he’d need any.

“I didn’t ask. Do you want food or not?” Yoongi asks, his words seemingly growing more impatient.

His tone makes it sound like he’s irritated but his actual words sound kind, don’t they? He’s offering to buy Jimin food because Jimin has no money - why is Yoongi being considerate? It leaves Jimin furrowing his eyebrows - it’s so weird when Yoongi acts this way, and he’s somewhat sceptical over Yoongi’s offer to buy him food.

When Yoongi sees Jimin thinking, he sighs. “You can pay me back later.” He then mumbles, turning back to the menu.

“Okay,” Jimin says slowly, nodding his head. “Uh, can I just get a milkshake? A chocolate one?”

“That’s all you want?” Yoongi questions as he turns back to look at Jimin. Isn’t Jimin hungry? He didn’t eat at Taehyung’s house so Yoongi had expected him to at least get some fries or something.

‘Who cares if Jimin’s hungry or not?’, He then thinks. That’s Jimin’s problem, not his, so he shouldn’t worry.

“Yeah,” Jimin answers and Yoongi nods in response, quickly ordering Jimin’s milkshake and a meal for himself. For the rest of the journey, Jimin smiles as he sips his milkshake.

Jimin gets home and quickly texts Yoongi, asking the older boy if he can send his details so Jimin can send him the money for his milkshake.

From: Yoongi
You don’t have to pay me back. It didn’t cost that much anyway.

The response makes Jimin smile gently, yet it still leaves him a little confused at the same time. Jimin knows Yoongi probably just said that because he doesn’t care about the money too much and doesn’t want to go through the hassle of giving his details and making Jimin pay him back, not because he actually wants to pay for Jimin - but the gesture is kind, nonetheless. It’s so strange when Yoongi seems nice.

Jimin thinks he likes it though.

“I have to re-do that Maths test on Monday,” Yoongi informs Jimin when he walks into his room. It’s their second tutoring session of the week already and to Jimin’s surprise, he wasn’t completely dreading it like he thought he was going to.

Yoongi wasn’t dreading it either. As much as Yoongi hates to admit it, their last tutoring wasn’t bad (he actually found himself enjoying it a little, but he’d never say that out loud). He understood what Jimin was trying to teach him, and he had an okay time watching the movie with Jimin, even if he does find him extremely annoying.

“We have to study hard today then, don’t we?” Jimin asks as he sits down by Yoongi’s desk, unzipping his backpack and pulling out the worksheets he planned for them to do today, along with his pencil case.

“Do we have to?” Yoongi says and Jimin can anticipate what’s going to happen next. Yoongi’s going to complain about the tutoring before he continuously asks Jimin to watch a movie instead of studying until he gets what he wants. “We can just watch a movie like we did last time,” He suggests.

“Yes, we have to,” Jimin shakes his head. “You just said you have to re-do the test on Monday. Do you want to fail again?”

Yoongi grumbles at Jimin’s words even though he supposes the try-hard is right. Yoongi doesn’t really want to fail. He knows he can do well if he tries, but trying is so hard. He just can’t be bothered.

“Let’s just do half an hour of studying and then half an hour of watching the movie. It’s not a big deal if I do bad again,” The mint-haired boy shrugs.

“It’s a big deal if it ends up making me look bad,” Jimin frowns. If Yoongi does badly on this test, their teacher will think Jimin isn’t tutoring him properly and he doesn’t want to get into trouble for that. Now, even though Jimin thinks it’d be better to spend the whole hour studying because that’s what their teacher wants them to do, he finds himself saying, “We should study for forty-five minutes and then watch the movie for fifteen minutes instead.” He knows Yoongi won’t try at all if he ends up not getting what he wants, so Jimin compromises. Also, he’d really be lying if he said he didn’t want to continue the movie they had begun watching last time too. It was pretty entertaining.

“How about forty minutes of studying and twenty minutes of movie-watching?” Yoongi tries to compromise and Jimin gives him an unimpressed look. “Don’t be so annoying. Just say yes.”

“Fine,” Jimin mutters. “But you have to actually put effort into doing these worksheets or we’re studying for the whole hour.”

“Deal,” Yoongi grins.

Jimin moves his hand to reach into his pencil case and grab a pencil, only to find Yoongi reaching for a pencil at precisely the same moment too. Their fingers touch and Jimin finds that Yoongi’s hands are surprisingly soft to the touch, but at the same time, a subtle roughness grazes over Jimin’s hands too, causing a gentle friction as the skin of their hands meet. It’s an unexpected sensation - one that makes him pause.

Yoongi can feel the warmth of Jimin’s soft hands against his own and for a brief moment, they are both still. He looks down at where they’re connecting and it seems like their hands are an unlikely pair - his large and Jimin’s small - but maybe it’s good that they’re different. It looks like Jimin’s small hand could fit perfectly within the grasp of his larger one.

What is Yoongi talking about? He suddenly snaps out of his thoughts and quickly moves his hand away like he had just been electrocuted by Jimin’s little fingers. He glances in Jimin’s direction for a moment, only to rapidly look away, feeling awkward when he notices that Jimin is already looking over at him.

“Here you go,” Jimin mumbles, grabbing two pencils and handing one to Yoongi.

“Thanks,” Yoongi nods, taking a pencil from Jimin. He coughs awkwardly while his fingers move to bring one of the worksheets closer to him.

“Do you remember what we did together last time?” Jimin questions, moving in his seat and leaning closer to Yoongi so that he can get a better look at the worksheet that was below the mint-haired boy.

Yoongi’s skin tingles as their arms brush against each other. He doesn’t want to be an awkward mess again if he attempts to move away like he was just a second ago, when he practically jumped away from Jimin as their fingers brushed against each other, so this time, he stays put. He feels that same warmth radiating off of Jimin again while a budding realisation crosses his mind that maybe it isn’t just the awkward consequences of moving away that is actually keeping him from moving away. Maybe it’s something else.

He ignores his thoughts - they’re not making any sense - and looks over at Jimin, maintaining a facade of disinterest as he says, “Do you think I’m so stupid that I’ve already forgotten what we did last time?”

Jimin rolls his eyes. “I’m just asking,” He huffs.

Yoongi ignores him after that and looks down, eyes on the worksheet as he begins answering the first question. He can feel Jimin’s gaze on him, watching to see if he’s doing the method correctly.

“I can’t see. Your arm’s in the way,” Jimin complains but before Yoongi can move his arm into a different position so that Jimin can see, the black-haired boy decides to solve the problem himself and shuffles even closer to Yoongi. This time, their legs touch, almost tangled together from beneath Yoongi’s desk.

The sudden warmth against Yoongi’s calf catches him off guard. They’re so close now that Yoongi can feel Jimin’s breath against his cheek. His gaze flicks to Jimin to see if he’s noticed the proximity between them, but Jimin’s eyes are staring straight down at the worksheet below them with a look of concentration, seemingly unaware of how close they’re getting.

“How fucking close do you want to get?” Yoongi asks, the tone of his voice now annoyed. He doesn't think he can handle them being this close any longer.

Jimin gives Yoongi a look, eyes narrowed, before he sighs and says, “Just deal with it. I can’t see if I move back.”

Yoongi shuts his eyes, irritated and needing to take a breath. “Whatever,” He grumbles out once he opens them. He looks back down at his worksheet, trying to get his work done.

But it’s practically impossible to concentrate when Jimin is so close, when their legs lightly graze over each other under Yoongi’s desk, when Jimin’s arm is pressed against his own. Each and every breath Jimin seems to whisper out ghosts against the skin of Yoongi’s cheek, making the nerves in his body stand on end. He needs Jimin to move away. He doesn’t like Jimin so Jimin shouldn’t be this close to him. All of this is only making it harder to complete this worksheet. All Yoongi can think about is their proximity, and how much he doesn’t like Jimin, how much he needs Jimin to move right now. He can’t pay attention to anything else.

His thoughts drift back to the movie night a few days back, this moment feeling similar. He wanted Jimin to move away from him then, and he wants Jimin to move away from him now. The image of Jimin curled up by his side, snuggled up comfortably to him replays in his mind. He remembers the slight weight on his shoulder from Jimin’s head being nestled into him. He remembers the faint ticklish sensation when Jimin’s soft hair lightly grazed his cheek. It stirs a strange feeling in him, one he can’t quite understand, but he brushes it off as a feeling of dislike, or one of annoyance, not wanting to look too deep into his feelings. He doesn’t like Jimin so these must be feelings of distaste.

When Jimin sees Yoongi make no move to answer the question below, he tilts his head at the mint-haired boy. “Do you want me to help you answer this one?” He asks. Yoongi just nods dumbly, not even hearing Jimin’s words properly. Jimin nods after that, picking up his pencil and showing the method to Yoongi again. “Okay, so, for this one you have to…”

As Jimin talks, Yoongi tries his hardest to ignore the feeling of Jimin’s body right next to him. He tries not to be aware of how close they were, instead trying his best to listen to Jimin’s soft voice.

It’s actually quite easy to pay attention to Jimin's pretty voice, gentle, yet clear, easily explaining how to work out the maths problem at hand while he demonstrates it on the worksheet below. Jimin’s shoulders shift slightly with each motion of the pencil in his hand, which Yoongi watches intently, trying to focus on how to solve the question. Every so often, Jimin’s bright, brown eyes will glance up to meet Yoongi’s, looking for confirmation that he understands what is being taught. The mint-haired boy knows Jimin’s looking but he wouldn’t dare meet his eye.

As Jimin reaches the end of the equation, he quickly takes a few moments to ensure all of his workings are correct before his gaze flickers to Yoongi once again, asking, “Do you see how this works now?”

“Yeah,” Yoongi nods. He begins trying to answer the next question with Jimin’s explanations in his mind. Their tutoring session continues and Yoongi finds himself growing used to the closeness between them. When the forty minutes are over, it doesn’t distract him anymore.

When Monday arrives and Yoongi’s walking to his teacher’s classrooms during one of his free periods, he feels strangely confident for his test. He doesn’t think he’ll get anything above a B, but that doesn’t matter because his goal is to just pass. As long as he doesn’t fail again, he’ll truly be proud of himself and because of Jimin, he really thinks that’s possible.

But when he’s sitting down and the test paper is laying on his desk in front of him, his mind goes completely blank. He doesn’t know if it’s because he’s nervous or if he actually just can’t remember how to do these questions all of a sudden but either way, he can’t remember how to solve anything on the paper.

He shuts his eyes for a second, racking through his brain for the method Jimin had taught him a few days ago. He tries to remember their tutoring session and his mind is filled with memories of Jimin.

He remembers the warmth coming off of Jimin’s body as their legs almost tangle together under his desk, as their arms brush against each other. He remembers Jimin leaning forward to help him answer one of the questions on the worksheet, his breath fanning over his cheek delicately.

He smiles gently when he remembers the sound of Jimin’s voice explaining the equations, when he remembers Jimin’s handwriting on his paper, showing Yoongi how to work out the answer,

Yoongi nods to himself when he finally remembers how to answer the questions and picks up his pen to start the test below him, Jimin’s voice in the back of his head.

When he’s finished with his test, his teacher tells him that she can mark it and tell him his grade right now. Yoongi waits patiently and she looks through his work, an anxious feeling washing over him. He doesn’t usually care much about his grades but for some reason, he hopes he has passed this time.

When she’s done marking his test, she hands it to him with a smile. “Well done,” She praises and Yoongi looks down at the paper and grins.

Why is his first thought ‘I can’t wait to tell Jimin’?

He walks out of his teacher’s classroom and towards the lunch hall with a little pep in his step. When he gets there, he takes a seat beside his friends and doesn’t tell Jimin about his test even though that’s what was on his mind. Why would he tell Jimin first? Yoongi doesn’t like Jimin so he shouldn’t care about what Jimin thinks about his grade, and he shouldn’t feel the need to tell Jimin about his grade before anyone else.

His friends notice his smug smile and when Jin asks him why he’s so happy, he says, “I got a C in my maths test.”

As he receives a few praises from his friends, his eyes flicker over to look at Jimin, whose eyes are now wide. “Really?” Jimin asks, tilting his head, a smile on his face. When Yoongi nods, Jimin says “That’s so good! Well done.” He grins and lifts his hand up for a high-five.

The mint-haired boy stares at Jimin’s palm for a moment. A part of him wants to ignore Jimin because he thinks seeing him pout and huff would be funny, but he doesn’t do that. Instead, he brings his hand closer to Jimin’s and high-fives him, feeling his soft hand against his own for just a moment. With that, Jimin grins at Yoongi, who then looks away.

Yoongi’s eyes meet Jungkook’s, who’s staring at him with a raised eyebrow. “You don’t act like you hate him, hyung,” He says and his words make the older boy roll his eyes.

Why does Jungkook keep getting that from? Yoongi doesn’t like Jimin. He hates Jimin. Yoongi hates Jimin.

Well, maybe he doesn’t hate Jimin. Hate is quite a strong word, he thinks. He dislikes Jimin. He dislikes Jimin but can tolerate him - that’s why Yoongi didn’t mind high-fiving him.

Yeah, he just tolerates Jimin. Nothing more.

Yoongi doesn’t like Jimin.

Definitely not.

Chapter Text

Yoongi’s on his way to another party and his car is silent.

It’s quite strange, if he’s being honest.

The last few times he was driving in his car, Jimin was there too - when he was taking Jimin home on that rainy day, when he was taking Jimin to that party, when he was driving Jimin home after the movie night - and he’s noisy. He’d complain all the time - ‘God, why is it so hot in your car?’ - or he’d insult Yoongi’s driving - ‘Did your driving get worse?’ - or he’d just be talking about the most random things - ‘I had fun. It was the first party I’ve been to’ - and Yoongi would tell him to shut up every time, wanting Jimin to just be quiet.

But now that it is quiet - there’s no Jimin chatting aimlessly - it feels weird. He isn’t sure why.

It’s not like he wants Jimin here, like he misses Jimin’s voice, or anything - definitely not. It’s just the silence that’s making him feel restless.

Yoongi’s hand reaches to fiddle with the radio, trying to find a song that might fill the silence, that might distract him from the lack of noise, but all the songs that play don’t sound quite right. None of them fill the silence like he wants them to. Even with the music on, something still feels off.

Okay, maybe, he does want Jimin here. But not because he likes Jimin or something. It’s just that if Jimin was here, then the silence wouldn’t be so loud. And maybe if Jimin was here, Yoongi could tease him, make fun of him, so he can see that pout on his lips, so he can make him huff and cross his arms over his chest. That’s always funny. Seeing Jimin annoyed is quite entertaining.

But Jimin’s not here and the silence in his car stretches on until he reaches the party.

When Yoongi arrives at the party, he steps through the front door and is immediately greeted with loud music bouncing off of the walls, ten different conversations echoing in his ears as he passes all the people at the party. He pauses to take a look around - he sees people laughing, dancing to music he doesn’t recognise, he sees couples having conversations on the couches, small crowds around tables where drinking games take place - and he searches for any sign of his friends amongst these people he doesn’t really care for.

He finally sees his friends a few seconds later huddling around a table, spotting Taehyung’s intense mop of blue hair amongst the crowd. As he approaches them, he feels their gazes on him and notices their bright smiles and it’s then that Yoongi notices only five stares on him. Not six.

Jimin’s not here.

He takes another quick scan around the party as he makes his way to his friends, looking around for the idiot’s familiar face with a hint of anticipation - why is he hoping Jimin’s here? - before he eventually gives up because he’s nowhere to be seen. Did Jimin not come along?

Maybe he’ll show up later in the night, or something. Either way, Yoongi definitely doesn’t care that Jimin’s not here and he doesn’t care if Jimin is planning on coming later or not. He doesn’t care. Or at least that’s what he’s telling himself.

Yoongi doesn’t comment on the fact that Jimin isn’t here when his friends greet him and the thought definitely isn’t in the back of his mind. He isn’t thinking about Jimin at all. When they all start laughing and making jokes, Yoongi doesn’t think about Jimin at the last party and the way he covered his mouth when he giggled at Jungkook’s stupid jokes. When Hobi starts taking pictures, Yoongi doesn’t think about Jimin smiling brightly in Taehyung’s selfies at the last party and the way his eyes were in the shape of crescents because his cheeks squish them when he smiles so wide. He doesn’t think about those things. Not at all.

His friends fall into an easy-going conversation. Yoongi pays attention but doesn't contribute. He just listens.

Is it bad that he’s bored? He loves his friends, of course, but he can’t help but feel fidgety, like he should be doing something else.

It’d be so fun if he could tease Jimin right now, if he could make fun of him until Jimin responds with a huff and a pout and until he crosses his arms over his chest in annoyance. And Yoongi would keep going, waiting and looking forward to the exact moment when Jimin’s temper finally snaps and he just blows up - he’d whine and demand that Yoongi stop, telling him to shut up, which would then leave Yoongi satisfied. Jimin’s reactions are always so funny.

But Jimin’s not here, and Yoongi can’t do that. So, while his friends chat aimlessly in the background, his eyes look around out of boredom.

When his gaze catches on to Taehyung’s phone, he sees the boy typing away to send texts to Jimin and Yoongi ends up asking, “He didn’t come, right?”

But it’s not like he actually cares. He’s just curious, that’s all.

“Yeah, he’s at home. He didn’t want to lie to his parents to come again,” Taehyung explains, all while keeping his eyes on his phone.

“Why’re you so interested, hyung?” Jungkook then asks, a teasing tone to his voice and it makes Yoongi roll his eyes.

Instead of explaining why (because Yoongi doesn’t know why he’s so interested either. But he chooses to ignore that) he says, “I’m glad he’s not here. He would’ve ruined the night.”

But as the night goes on, it feels ruined anyway. It’s only been around fifteen minutes since Yoongi’s gotten to the party but he feels such an intense feeling of boredom that he really can’t take. He doesn’t know why he’s feeling like this.

It must just be an off day for him. He’s not enjoying himself so he turns to his friends and mumbles something along the lines of ‘I’m gonna head out now’. Jungkook teasingly asks if he’s leaving because Jimin’s not here, and Yoongi flat out ignores the question, pretending not to hear it because he doesn’t know why he wants to leave (maybe it is because of Jimin, but he’d never admit that to anyone because he can’t even admit it to himself). The other asks him if he’s feeling okay because he doesn’t usually leave so early.

He tells them he’s fine before he makes his way home, a certain someone on his mind the whole journey. The silence is still there, and everything still feels off.

When he gets home, he flops down onto his bed with a sigh of boredom. With very little enthusiasm, he drags his laptop towards him, opens it up, and clicks through a bunch of different websites in search of something to do.

But his interest in his laptop quickly fades, and he slams it shut with a dull groan before finding himself with his phone in his hand, typing up a message to that certain someone who had been on his mind for most of the night.

To Jimin:
Are you at the party?
If you’re not, send me a pic of the homework sheet for Maths. I lost mine.

Yoongi doesn’t understand why he’s decided to text Jimin. Jimin’s annoying and he has a way of getting on Yoongi’s nerves and driving him insane, so shouldn’t Yoongi do the sensible thing and try to avoid him at all costs? Yet here he is, lying in his texts just to get a conversation between them started. He knows full well that Jimin isn’t at the party and he has no care whatsoever for the stupid Maths homework - he never does his homework anyway. Why is he acting so weird?

He places his phone down after he sends the text because Jimin doesn’t respond immediately, even though the brat should be replying quickly as he probably has nothing better to do. Yoongi goes back to his laptop, playing a random video of some kittens that popped up on his YouTube home page while he waits for a reply, his gaze alternating between the two screens, hoping the next glance at his phone will show a notification from Jimin. As he waits, the minutes seem to drag on and Yoongi waits impatiently, wondering why Jimin is taking so long to respond.

When his phone screen finally lights up, he quickly snatches it and there’s an unfamiliar, odd warmth bubbling away in his chest. It’s a nice feeling, Yoongi thinks, but he doesn’t understand the feeling and so, chooses to ignore it. When Jimin’s name is displayed in his notifications, the trace of a gentle smile tugs at the corner of his lips. When he catches himself doing so, his smile drops, shaking his head as he unlocks his device.

From Jimin:
No, I didn’t go. Gotta study
Give me a sec. I’ll grab it real quick

To Jimin:
Loser

Yoongi smiles fondly as he reads his message, knowing it’ll bring a pout onto Jimin’s lips. He can almost see the roll of Jimin's eyes as he reads it, and then the exasperated huff he’ll let out afterwards. He knows he probably shouldn’t enjoy teasing so much, but it always makes him laugh - he enjoys Jimin’s reactions far too much.

From Jimin:
Shut up. You shouldn’t be so mean when you’re asking me for a favour

Jimin’s reply only makes Yoongi’s grin grow.

To Jimin
Alright, alright. No need to get so angry

From Jimin:
-Image Attached-

Yoongi thinks the conversation is about to end here, but he doesn’t want it to. He racks his brain for a text he can send to keep their conversation going but he stops when he sees Jimin had beaten him to it. He pauses for a moment, a small smile subconsciously makes its way to his face, before he reads Jimin’s text.

From Jimin:
Why didn't you go to the party?

To Jimin:
Left early, got bored

From Jimin:
Loser

The response makes a chuckle leave Yoongi and he shakes his head. Even though the brat’s annoying, Yoongi guesses he can be funny too.

To Jimin:
Didn’t laugh. You’re boring me.
I’m bored. Let’s do something.

Yoongi doesn’t know why he suggesting they do something. He’s telling himself it’s just because he’s bored and he has the desire to hang out with someone, anyone. But after he hits send, he immediately regrets it. He doesn’t like Jimin and Jimin doesn’t like him, so obviously Jimin’s going to say no, and God, that is so embarrassing.

He puts his phone down and goes back to his laptop, pretending to be busy as he waits for a reply, his fingers tapping against the side of the screen. He doesn’t know why he’s nervous. Who cares if Jimin says no? He’s an annoying brat and so his opinion doesn’t matter to Yoongi.

But the moment his screen flashes again, Yoongi practically grabs his phone in a split second.

From Jimin:
Are you an idiot?
You think my parents would let me?

‘That’s not a ‘no’,’ Yoongi thinks and for some reason, he feels relieved. There’s a small smile on his face that he doesn’t catch himself doing as he reads Jimin’s message. The idea Yoongi had for them to do together doesn’t need Jimin’s parents’ permission.

To Jimin:
We never finished that movie
Pull it up on your laptop. We’ll press play at the same time.

Yoongi is pleased when Jimin sends a text back agreeing - but don’t get him wrong, it’s not because he wants to hang out with Jimin, he’s just happy that there’s now something to do so he won’t be bored anymore. That’s all.

They both bring up the movie on their respective laptops and press ‘play’ at the same time, but it takes them a few attempts to get it perfectly in sync. Yoongi uses this as an excuse to tease Jimin more, jokingly calling Jimin stupid because he can’t press ‘play’ at the same time Yoongi does. Soon, they finally get their movies playing at the same time, and as they watch it in their own homes, they text each other.

To Jimin:
My favourite part is coming up

From Jimin:
This whole movie is awful. I don’t know how you even have a favourite part

Jimin sends that text, knowing full well he’s lying. The movie is indeed good and he really is enjoying himself, but more than anything else he wanted to get back at Yoongi for all his teasing, so he uses this as a chance to get back at the mint-haired boy and as he types, he feels a grin on his face, excited to see Yoongi’s response.

To Jimim:
Shut up and watch the movie, loser.

The response makes Jimin giggle softly. Yoongi called him a loser but it’s making him smile - how strange. He can feel a warmth growing in his stomach as he smiles, an unfamiliar sensation that he can quite fathom. He isn’t sure why he’s responding this way, why he’s giggling into his hand and why biting his lip to stop his grin from growing, but he doesn’t want to fully acknowledge it. Much like Yoongi, he chooses the thought and pretends it isn’t there.

By the time the movie is finished, both Yoongi and Jimin can barely contain the soft smile on their faces. There’s a warmth within both of them, fluttery feelings in their stomachs too, that just seems to grow with each passing moment. It’s a pleasant feeling, one that they’re both enjoying way too much but neither of them would dare talk about it, or even acknowledge it. For the past hour they’d been watching the movie, the world around them had completely faded away - Jimin’s mind had completely forgotten about the Biology textbook he had abandoned on his desk when Yoongi had texted him, and Yoongi’s mind was entirely devoid of that party and that bored, off feeling he couldn’t quite shake off - right now, they’re only thinking of each other.

To Jimin:
Now, you can’t tell me you didn’t like the movie.
You can’t

From Jimin:
No, it was boring.

To Jimin:
Shut up. Don’t lie.

From Jimin:
Okay, fine. It wasn’t that bad.
I had fun

Yoongi bites his lip, struggling to hold back the grin that threatened to spread across his face, and the warm feeling continues to grow.

To Jimin:
I knew it.

Yoongi has to admit, he had fun too.

The next day, Jimin is over at Jungkook’s house, the rest of the boys there too. He had to lie to be able to come along today, telling his mother he’s having a study session with his friends when they are all certainly not studying.

Taehyung is dying his hair. He and Jungkook are in the bathroom attached to Jungkook’s bedroom, Taehyung sitting on the edge of the bathtub as Jungkook stands in front of him, in between Taehyung’s thighs, his hands in the elder’s hair, making sure he hadn’t missed any spots. Jimin can see them from his seat on Jungkook’s bed and he sighs.

“I’ve always wanted to dye my hair,” He says, running a hand through his black, untouched hair. He doesn’t say his sentence to anyone in particular, but it does catch the attention of Yoongi, who is only sitting a few feet away from him, on the other side of Jungkook’s bed.

"Do it," the mint-haired boy says simply, his shoulders lifting in a shrug of nonchalance.

“You know I can’t. My parents would kill me,” Jimin mumbles back.

“You only live once,” Yoongi says with a shrug, and Jimin internally cringes slightly at the cliche saying, but he supposed it is true. “Let’s go,” He then says suddenly, standing up from his seat on Jungkook’s bed. Jimin stares up at him in confusion, his eyebrows knitted together as his head tilts to the left. Is Yoongi talking to him? When their eyes then meet, Yoongi says his next words more insistently, “Come on,” and it only puzzles Jimin further.

“Go where?” Jimin questions.

“To get you some hair dye,” Yoongi says simply, like the answer is obvious. Jimin mutters out a small ‘what?’, utterly confused. “You heard what I said. Come with me to the store before I change my mind,” Yoongi then says as he walks out of Jungkook’s bedroom with Jimin following after him dumbly like a lost puppy.

Yoongi drives, of course, and the entire journey is spent with Jimin blabbering on and on and on about how he shouldn’t dye his hair, and how the consequences of it would all just be horrible. He kept talking about how he had always wanted to dye his hair a cool colour, but he was sure that his mother would literally kill him if he did. Usually, Yoongi would find himself getting irritated the more and more Jimin talks but after the awful experience of silence yesterday while he was in the car alone, he finds himself actually enjoying Jimin’s inability to shut up.

“I don’t know if I should do this. My parents won’t want me to,” Jimin mumbles as he walks into the store with Yoongi, following the mint-haired boy into the aisle with all the hair products.

“There’s nothing they can do once it’s done,” Yoongi shrugs and Jimin mumbles something along the lines of, ‘but they’ll still be mad at me,’ a pout set on his lips. Yoongi sighs and meets his gaze, “Yeah, maybe, but they’ll get over it eventually and your hair will look cool. Just do it.”

“Yeah, but I don’t want them to be upset with me,” Jimin mumbles as his eyes begin wandering around the aisle they’re standing in. “And I should li- Oh! Look at that pretty orange!”

Yoongi has to fight the urge to smile as Jimin begins excitedly looking around at all the different colours of hair dye. But when it’s been around ten or fifteen minutes of Jimin being incredibly indecisive, Yoongi starts getting frustrated. “Hurry up, please,” He mumbles, rolling his eyes.

“No, I have to pick a good one so I’ll look pretty,” He mumbles, a pout on his lips as he juggles four different boxes of hair dye in his arms, all of them different colours, struggling to pick between a pastel pink, a navy blue, an ashy blond colour, and the pretty orange that had first caught his eye.

“Jesus, my legs are hurting. Just hurry up and pick. Any colour will look pretty,” He says in a slightly impatient tone, but he’s not lying - he really does think any colour will look pretty.

“Stop complaining - you brought me here,” Jimin huffs, looking down at the boxes in his arms, unable to choose.

“I regret it. I will literally leave you if you don’t pick in the next two minutes.”

Jimin lets out an impatient huff, turning to Yoongi. “You pick,” He says to the other boy. Yoongi eyes the colours and does understand why Jimin is having such a difficult time; all of these colours would look good in their own ways. He wasn’t exaggerating when he said that any colour would look pretty because he can imagine Jimin in any one of these shades, and he knows they’d all look lovely.

“This one,” Yoongi says after a moment, picking up the box of orange hair dye.

Out of all of the colours in Jimin’s arms, Yoongi is sure this pretty orange, like the colour of sunset on a clear summer’s day, would look the nicest on Jimin. It's not too light or too dark, just the perfect balance of brightness and warmth, and he’s sure this specific shade of orange will complement Jimin’s already glowing complexion beautifully. He can imagine Jimin after he dyes his hair, his locks, soft and silky, falling in messy waves around his hair, over his eyes, bringing out the warm shade of brown his eyes are and the delicate features of his face and, oh, how Yoongi would love to inch his hand closer to the pretty boy’s face, using his fingers to gently push those strands away from Jimin’s face and-

“Yeah, this one,” Yoongi mutters again, interrupting his thoughts and trying to forcibly push away the strange thoughts that had crept into his mind. What is going on with him? Why is he thinking about Jimin like that? The fact that something as simple and insignificant as hair colour is making him think like this is making him feel… weird? There's a strange, fluttering feeling in his chest, one that he tries to ignore but it keeps coming back every time he imagines pushing back Jimin’s orange locks.

“Okay!” Jimin grins and puts all the other colours back in their respective places before running off to go pay for his box of orange hair dye, a pep in his step, with Yoongi following closely behind him.

When they get back to Jungkook’s house, Jimin immediately bolts towards the bathroom, while he enthusiastically babbles to their friends what he's going to do. There’s a giddy smile on his face as he plops himself down on the edge of Jungkook’s bathtub and gets to work.

Yoongi comes to check on him after a while, a fond smile on his face as he takes in the sight of Jimin. His hair is sectioned off and he’s wearing different clothes - it looks like he has one of Jungkook’s old t-shirts on - probably to avoid staining his clothes. The mint-haired boy feels a tug of something inside him as he finds himself almost mesmerised by all the little details of Jimin: the way Jimin pokes his tongue out of the cover of his lips in concentration, the way the orange hue tints his fingers and the way the colours spreads through his hair, the way his eyebrows are knitted together because he focusing so hard.

“You need any help?” Yoongi asks, trying to act all nonchalant even though the image of him standing in between Jimin’s thighs, helping him dye his hair like Jungkook had helped Taehyung flashes in his mind. When Jimin shakes his head, Yoongi sees the back of his head, which is still dry, meaning he had somehow managed to completely miss it. “You missed the whole back of your head, you know?” Yoongi teases as he laughs.

“Oh, really?” Jimin says as he lets out a small gasp when he turns to see the back of his head in the mirror.

“Give it to me, you idiot,” Yoongi mumbles, walking over to Jimin and taking the hair-dying brush out of his hands.

Jimin is sitting in front of the mirror, Yoongi standing behind him. Jimin’s gaze lingers on their reflections, taking in the details of the other’s face. It’s pretty quiet, only the sounds being heard are the extremely faint soft rustle of his hair and the sound of chatter from the rest of the boys talking in Jungkook’s bedroom.

Yoongi struggles to concentrate on the task at hand, his eyes drifting from Jimin's hair to the mirror, catching glimpses of the boy in front of him every other second, and back. His touch is light as he carefully applies the orange hair dye to Jimin’s hair, his fingertips brushing gently against Jimin’s scalp as he works, causing the boy’s eyes to flutter shut and eliciting a soft, muted sigh from his lips.

The noise, so quiet yet so loud at the same time, makes Yoongi stare into the mirror, drinking in the pretty sight of Jimin sitting there, eyes closed and lips slightly parted. He doesn’t know why, but the need to come closer washes over him, and Yoongi’s not very good at ignoring his urges so he does what his head tells him to do; he inches closer, his breath hot on the nape of Jimin’s neck.

Yoongi’s warm breath dances over his neck, making Jimin’s skin tingle and his eyes blink open. His gaze catches Yoongi’s in the mirror and suddenly, an unfamiliar, but pleasant, warmth spreads through his tummy as he stares at their reflections.

“Done,” Yoongi suddenly says, pulling away from Jimin. He doesn't even give Jimin the chance to say anything back because he quickly leaves the bathroom, a million different thoughts running through his head.

What was that? Why did he do that?

Yoongi sits himself down on Jungkook’s bed, next to the boy himself, and he tries to ignore all his thoughts to do with Jimin but his eyes keep wandering over to the bathroom to see the boy he just cannot stop thinking about.

“That was cute,” Jungkook comments, his elbow moving to poke Yoongi’s rib. The elder shoves his elbow away before looking at him, eyebrows furrowed.

“What was?” Yoongi asks very obviously.

“You and Jimin.”

Jungkook’s words make Yoongi pause, his eyes flicker back to the bathroom, where Jimin still is, before they flicker back to Jungkook. “Shut up,” He grumbles, arms crossed over his chest. Despite what Yoongi had just said, Jungkook continues talking - ’When are you going to stop pretending to dislike him? It’s so obvious you have a thing for him, hyung.’ - and Yoongi continues to ignore every word.

It’s not true. None of it is true. Yoongi does not like Jimin. He simply doesn’t.

Yoongi is watching some stupid video on Hobi’s phone, the two giggling, when Jimin steps out of the bathroom, hair wet and now a pretty orange.

Honestly, Yoongi couldn’t really believe his eyes. He had never thought Jimin was unattractive - he’s quite pretty (but Yoongi would never say that out loud) - but the orange suits him more than Yoongi had thought it would.

Jimin stands in Jungkook’s room, freshly emerging from the bathroom, his damp hair curling around his face as a small smile plays on his lips - he seems to know he looks good. The orange does bring out the warm undertones of his skin and the brown depths of his eyes, just like Yoongi thought it was going to.

For a second, Jimin turns to look at Yoongi and Yoongi feels speechless. Why is his heart beating faster? Why is there this weird, funny feeling in his tummy? Yoongi wants to speak, he wants to tell Jimin how incredibly pretty he looks, he wants to tell Jimin he loves the orange so, so much, but as he opens his mouth, he stops himself. He tries to keep his thoughts in check, not wanting to give away just how much he was loving the new look, so he looks away, avoiding eye contact. But it’s hard. All he wants to do is look back and just admire Jimin.

Jimin looks away too, facing the rest of his friends. “What do you think?” He asks, twirling a strand of hair around his finger.

Yoongi hears Taehyung jump up from his seat and run over to Jimin, screaming 'It looks so good, Jiminie!’ and he can hear the rest of the boys flood Jimin with compliments too. But Yoongi stays silent.

He eventually looks back and as he watches Jimin fiddle with his hair, he can’t help but feel a little weak at the knees.

“I’m going home,” Yoongi suddenly says, standing up. He says goodbye to his friends, and that’s when he makes eye contact with Jimin again.

“Can you take me home?”

’Yes,’ Yoongi immediately thinks. But what he actually says is nothing. He only rolls his eyes even though he’s not really annoyed.

“Please?” Jimin adds on, and Yoongi sighs.

“Fine,” He says simply, heading out of Jungkook’s room, expecting Jimin to follow him, but then he hears:

“Can you wait for me to blow-dry my hair?”

Jimin’s words make a frustrated sigh escape past Yoongi’s lips even though he doesn’t mind waiting. Jimin should blow-dry his hair - Yoongi doesn’t want him to catch a cold - but there’s no way he’s admitting that.

“Whatever. Just hurry. I’ll be in the car,” Yoongi mumbles as he leaves.

When he gets into his car, he thinks.

What is up with his thoughts lately? Why does he keep thinking of Jimin like that? He doesn’t like Jimin so the thoughts in his head are just making no sense.

Actually, just because he thinks Jimin is pretty doesn’t mean he likes Jimin, does it? No. It doesn't. If he said Jimin was ugly, that he wasn’t so incredibly gorgeous, he would be lying. It’s not about whether or not Yoongi likes Jimin or not - it’s about facts. Jimin is pretty, and even if Yoongi doesn’t like Jimin, he can still think Jimin is pretty because it’s true. Just because he thinks Jimin is attractive doesn’t mean Yoongi has any sort of positive feelings towards him. Not at all. He doesn’t like Jimin.

His thoughts are interrupted when the passenger’s side door of his car opens and Jimin sits himself down, hair now dry. Yoongi doesn’t say anything to him. He just starts up his car and starts driving.

It’s silent.

Jimin hasn’t said a single word. He hasn't insulted Yoongi’s driving. He hasn’t started talking non-stop about how excited he is now that he’s dyed his hair. He hasn’t said anything.

At a red light, Yoongi looks over at him and all he can see is the back of Jimin’s head. The now orange-haired boy is staring out of the window silently.

He doesn’t like Jimin so he shouldn’t be concerned or anything, right?

But he is.

“Um,” Yoongi begins talking. “Are you okay?”

At his words, Jimin turns around to look at Yoongi, a frown on his face before he says, “My parents are literally going to kill me.” When he had washed the hair dye out and was left with the prettiest colour ever, he was excited. He’s so pleased with his appearance. He loves it.

Then after he left Jungkook’s room and started walking to Yoongi’s car, the regret started kicking in. He does love his new hair, don’t get him wrong. It’s just that his parents are most definitely not going to love it, and he’s scared to go home because he knows it won’t end well.

“It’ll be fine,” Yoongi mumbles in response. God, he’s not very good at comforting people, is he? When his words seem to not affect Jimin, a frown still on his face, Yoongi opens his mouth to speak again. “Hey, it made you happy, didn’t it?” He asks.

“Yeah,” Jimin replies, breathing out softly.

“Well then, that’s what matters. They’ll be mad but they’ll get over it, Jimin,” Yoongi continues. “And the colour suits you a lot, alright? So don’t care too much what they say. You’re happy and it looks good - that’s what’s important,” Yoongi compliments Jimin, despite telling himself to not do exactly that at Jungkook’s house not too long ago. He looks over at Jimin to see if his words had made the worried boy feel any better.

It seems he’s succeeded because Jimin sitting there, a soft smile on his face as he plays with strands of his hair with his fingers. Yoongi smiles too, and ignores the voice in his head that’s screaming about how much he just wants to run his hands through Jimin’s hair.

“We’re here,” Yoongi says a few moments later when he’s parked outside Jimin’s house.

Jimin doesn’t get out of his car immediately though. He’s sitting quietly, eyes shut. He takes a deep breath and Yoongi feels bad. He wishes Jimin wasn’t so nervous. He wishes Jimin’s parents were more understanding. Yoongi doesn’t understand them at all. Jimin seems like the perfect kid. He tries so hard in school, he listens to his parents as much as he can, and he hates lying so he tries not to do it. He doesn’t understand why they’re so overly strict when Jimin is so good.

“Thanks,” Jimin smiles softly as he takes another breath before he opens the car door and steps outside.

Before Jimin closes the door, Yoongi feels compelled to say something. “Hey, Jimin?” He says, making Jimin stop in his tracks and look at the mint-haired boy. “Text me about how it goes with your parents, alright?”

Jimin finds his words so weird. It’s always so weird when Yoongi is nice. He didn’t think Yoongi would care. He honestly thought that Yoongi was going to laugh at him for being so worried about his parents’ reaction. But that’s not what he did. He complimented Jimin, and even comforted him. He hadn't done anything mean whatsoever.

Jimin likes it. He really does. He likes how Yoongi can go from teasing him, which he used to hate but he’s almost fond of now, to being kind like this.

“Okay,” Jimin nods, a smile on his face.

Jimin stands outside his house, mentally preparing himself before he has to head inside. His eyes are shut and he’s breathing in and out nervously.

They’ll be mad but they’ll get over it, Jimin.

You’re happy and it looks good - that’s what’s important.

He can hear Yoongi’s voice in his head, and for a moment, he feels all warm; he feels better. Then, with that, he unlocks his front door and steps foot into his house.

And that’s when the shouting starts.

They ask him what he was thinking. They tell him his friends are a bad influence, and that he can’t ever hang out with them again. They tell him he was acting stupid. They tell him he’s never allowed to step foot out of the house ever again for doing something so dumb. His father tells him it looks horrible. His mother asks him why he decided to ruin his appearance before she screams at him to go to his room.

He’s crying when he shuts his bedroom door and dives under the covers of his bed. He sniffles when he turns on his phone to distract himself.

But a smile somehow makes its way to his lips, even though tears, when he sees the first notification on his phone.

From Yoongi:
How’d it go?

To Yoongi:
Not well
They got pretty mad. They said they wouldn’t let me hang out with you guys anymore

From Yoongi:
Are you okay?

Jimin frowns, his mind wandering back to what they said - that the orange hair looks horrible, that he ruined his appearance. He stares down at Yoongi’s text and doesn't answer it, but he does type up something else instead.

To Yoongi:
Do you think it looks bad?

From Yoongi:
No
It suits you so much

Jimin feels better once Yoongi tells him that the orange suits him. Jimin did like the colour a lot, but after what his parents had said, it made him doubt how good it looked. There’s a small, gentle smile on his face after reading Yoongi’s message. He’s about to reply, typing up a ‘thank you’, but then another message comes in.

From Yoongi:
You looked so pretty

And Jimin is rendered speechless, staring at his phone with wide eyes, mouth slightly agape. Pretty. Yoongi thinks the orange makes him look pretty.

The other boys had complimented him too, back at Jungkook’s house, but it didn’t feel like this. This compliment from Yoongi is making him feel different.

There’s a warm feeling that takes over Jimin when he finally comprehends what Yoongi’s said, and there’s a smile on his face. The tears that were pouring down his cheeks just a moment ago are now long gone and the argument he just had with his parents is long forgotten too.

Pretty.

Yoongi thinks he looks pretty. Jimin feels so warm, and there’s a fluttery feeling in his tummy, and it feels like his heart is beating just a little faster.

Yoongi thinks he’s pretty.

Chapter Text

Jimin had begun to regret dying his hair. It’s not because he thinks he looks bad or the colour doesn’t suit him - he loves the way the orange looks on him - but because his parents have tightened their restrictions on how much he can leave the house to see his friends - they’re convinced these friends are a horrible influence on him. So, the next time Jimin’s friends decide to have a movie night, the poor boy has to completely lie through his teeth. He makes something up on the spot; ‘Can I meet a classmate to study and go over some notes for my Biology class?’, pretending his plans are entirely innocent and sincere. Luckily, as soon as the words ‘to study’ leave his mouth, his parents are quick to agree.

So now, here Jimin is, sitting on the couch in Taehyung’s room. On one couch are Namjoon, Jin and Hobi, while Jimin and Taehyung sit on the other, waiting for Yoongi and Jungkook to return from the store with some snacks before they begin the movie.

When the two finally do return, arms filled with snacks, Jimin eyes follow Yoongi around. He doesn’t know why but he is really anticipating the moment Yoongi sits down next to him.

He can’t explain the eagerness he feels as he waits for the mint-haired boy to take a seat beside him. Ever since that moment in the bathroom yesterday - Yoongi’s soft fingers combing through his hair, his half-lidded eyes settling on the mesmerising vision of Yoongi caught in the reflection of the mirror, the thrilling sensation of Yoongi’s breath gently dancing on his neck - Jimin has been left with an unspoken desire for more. There’s want - a craving almost - in him for that again. He doesn’t know why, or what it means, but he chooses not to dwell on it because he doesn’t understand it. It’s easier to ignore his thoughts on his feelings rather than face them.

Jimin’s waiting and waiting and waiting and then both Jungkook and Yoongi finally start coming towards the couch he’s sitting on and he tries to hide the subtle smile playing on his lips.

And then Jimin’s smile drops.

Yoongi doesn’t sit beside him.

Jungkook plops down onto the floor in front of Taehyung as usual, and for some inexplicable, stupid reason, Yoongi decides to follow suit and sit on the floor, right next to Jungkook and directly in front of Jimin. Jimin is left sitting on the couch, practically alone since Taehyung is already chatting away with Jungkook, his hands playing with the boy’s black locks. He brings his knees to his chest and sits there, his eyes fixed on the back of Yoongi’s head.

Jimin doesn’t say a word about it, silent. He wavers between wondering why Yoongi decided to sit on the floor tonight and pushing the thought away, not dwelling on it. After all, it could just have been an unintentional decision.

But it isn’t, and Yoongi’s sitting on the floor thinking about his reasoning and wondering if Jimin had noticed. Wait, why is he wondering if Jimin had noticed? Why does he care? See, this is exactly why Yoongi had chosen to sit on the floor, further away from Jimin, because his thoughts about the boy have been a bit too much lately and he needs to keep them in check.

Like yesterday, with the whole hair-dying situation, for example, his thoughts were going crazy. In the bathroom when he was helping Jimin. They kept tempting him to lean closer and closer to him, to breathe softly against Jimin’s neck again so he can hear that beautiful, gentle, muted sigh one more time. He kept thinking about the way Jimin was staring at him through half-lidded eyes in the mirror. And after all of that, his mind went completely insane when he saw Jimin with his freshly-dyed orange hair; all he could think about was how utterly gorgeous he was. He couldn’t shake the image of the ginger-haired boy from his mind for the rest of the night.

Not only that, but when they had study sessions together, or when all the boys had the last movie night, and Jimin is sitting dangerously close to him - when they are practically cuddled up against each other - against his judgement he ends up finding himself enjoying the feeling, wanting more of it. But all of that makes no sense! All of this evokes such a strange mix of emotions inside him, both desire and confusion, because he doesn’t like Jimin - he really doesn’t - but then why does he feel this way?

His mind can’t even stop thinking about Jimin when Jimin’s not even around! If anything, he thinks about Jimin more when he’s not here. Like at that party the other day, Yoongi couldn’t enjoy it and he didn’t even want to be there once he realised Jimin didn’t go. Why are his thoughts so weird? He doesn’t like Jimin so he shouldn’t be thinking all these things.

So, to keep his mind in check, he sits away from the boy who lives in his mind rent-free for tonight.

And all goes well for a while. The movie begins and Yoongi mostly focuses on the movie (one part of his brain is still lingering on Jimin, but he truly does his best to not pay attention to it). His attention is briefly pulled away, however, when he notices Taehyung tying Jungkook’s hair into a pretty, dainty, little bun, making him smile fondly at his friend for a second before turning his gaze back to the screen.

And then he hears a lovely, little giggle and feels a pair of hands in his hair.

Yoongi’s breath hitches at the unexpected sensation and freezes for a second, stiff, as the cogs in his brain realise what’s happening. Once they catch up to the current situation, his head snaps back to look at Jimin, who’s staring at him with an innocent smile.

“What’re you doing?” Yoongi asks bluntly in a quiet whisper, careful not to distract the others from watching the movie.

“What they’re doing,” Jimin answers easily, pointing to Taehyung and Jungkook with a simple shrug.

“Why?”

Jimin shrugs. “Felt like it,” He mutters simply again.

Yoongi pauses for a second, wondering if he should tell Jimin he’s being annoying and that he should stop, even though feeling those small hands in his hair is one of the nicest feelings he thinks he’s ever felt. He wants Jimin to continue; his mind is telling him he should let Jimin continue, that feeling Jimin on him feels nice, feels right, but then he tells himself that none of what he’s thinking makes sense and that he dislikes Jimin.

Before Yoongi can open his mouth to tell Jimin to stop, the boy is speaking again: “Now turn back around and watch the movie so I can play with your hair again.”

Yoongi should say no, he should tell Jimin he’s being annoying but the feeling of Jimin’s hand running in his hair gently just feels too good, and he’s a weak man, so he listens and turns back around, letting himself indulge in the wonderful feeling.

Jimin’s touch is so soft, his fingers weaving through Yoongi’s hair with a careful tenderness. Yoongi has to fight to keep his composure, his heart skipping a few beats as Jimin’s fingers play with his hair. Each stroke in his hair sent a tingling sensation down his spine, making him want more - more touches, more of Jimin - but he holds back, of course, hiding his desires behind a mask of nonchalance.

Yoongi forces himself to maintain a calm, unbothered facade, even as his heart races beneath his chest. He resists the urge to completely forget the movie so he can just close his eyes and savour this moment, but he reminds himself that his feelings are not making sense right now and that he needs to keep his stupid thoughts in check. Yet, despite all his efforts, a faint smile tugs at the corner of his lips, a subtle hint of the pleasure he feels from Jimin’s gentle touches.

But the movie is soon over and Jimin’s hands leave Yoongi’s hair as he stands up to join Taehyung in the kitchen to grab a soda. Yoongi’s senses can still feel the lingering warmth of Jimin’s fingers, he can still feel the ghostly sensation of their small, fleeting connection. He tries to steady the beat of his racing heart and compose the expression on his face, hoping that Jimin, or any of the other guys, hadn’t noticed the way Jimin had just affected him.

His feelings don’t make sense. He shouldn’t be feeling like this, not over Jimin. Deep down, he knows exactly why he’s feeling what he’s feeling, but again, he chooses not to dwell on it and instead tries to hide the blissed-out expression that lies on his face.

“Admit it,” Yoongi suddenly hears Jungkook say. He looks at him, one eyebrow raised as he silently asks what the boy means. “Admit that you like Jimin.”

And finally, for once, Yoongi doesn’t immediately protest. Instead, he stays silent and thinks for a moment. He thinks back to yesterday, when he helped Jimin dye his hair. He remembers how close they were, how good it felt. He remembers how unbelievably beautiful Jimin looked with that freshly dyed hair. He thinks about how much he liked it all.

He thinks about comforting Jimin when he was dropping him off yesterday, and then that makes him remember the time he was cuddling Jimin during the other movie night so that he'd feel better. He thinks about how he didn’t mind doing that - he actually liked being able to make Jimin feel better.

He thinks of their tutoring sessions. He remembers the feeling of Jimin right beside him, the warmth, the funny feeling in his stomach when their arms or legs brushed against each other. He remembers how excited he was when he did well and how badly he wanted to tell Jimin about it because he knew him doing well would make Jimin happy and he liked seeing Jimin happy.

He thinks back to just a few moments ago, when Jimin’s fingers were running through his hair, how good it all felt, how he wanted this to happen every day. He wants to be close like that to Jimin every day. He liked being like that with Jimin.

And then it all hits Yoongi so fast. His feelings do make sense. All these nice, positive feelings towards Jimin do make sense because he likes Jimin. He likes Jimin. He never hated him in the first place.

“Fuck,” Yoongi responds through a breath. He stares at Jungkook with a small, shocked expression, eyes a little wide as he runs a hand through his hair. “I like Jimin,” He finally admits in words, very, very quietly.

“Finally,” Jungkook grins. “Are you going to tell him?”

Yoongi immediately shakes his head, no hesitation. There is no way in hell he’s telling Jimin about the way he feels because there is no way in hell that Jimin likes him back. He’s been nothing but a complete asshole to Jimin. He wouldn’t be surprised if Jimin is repelled by the thought of Yoongi having a crush on him after the way Yoongi’s been treating him.

But he wants to tell him. When he’s driving Jimin back home the same night, his eyes look over at the boy, who’s babbling away about how much fun he had and the words are on the tip of his tongue. His mouth opens and closes multiple times with the urge to confess. He can’t help but wonder what if Jimin somehow miraculously does like him back? What if they start dating and he can finally do all those things that creep into his mind whenever he’s around Jimin?

But the words never escape past his lips because the possibility of Jimin being horrified by the idea of Yoongi liking him seems far too high when compared to the idea of Jimin liking him back.

To Jimin:
Come over.
Help me study for the test.

It’s a few days later when Yoongi texts Jimin. He hopes Jimin says yes. He doesn’t necessarily want to just study. He just wants Jimin to come over.

From Jimin:
Will we actually study or are you going to end up persuading me to do something else with you.
Because I need to study for this Maths test too. I need an A.

Yoongi starts grinning as soon as Jimin responds, his thumbs quick to type up a response.

To Jimin:
We will study the whole time.

He lies.

To Jimin:
Now go ask your parents.

It takes Jimin a while to respond, presumably because he’s asking his parents, and Yoongi waits patiently. When his phone lights up, he can’t help but feel a strange feeling in his tummy, which seems to always happen when Jimin’s around, and he desperately hopes that Jimin’s parents said yes.

From Jimin:
I can come over.
Will you pick me up though? It’s raining.

To Jimin:
I can’t be bothered. Walk.

Yoongi mischievously smiles as he sends his text even though he has every intention to go pick Jimin up. He knows he probably shouldn’t tease him this much since he does have a massive crush on the boy but he can’t help it! Teasing Jimin is just way too much fun.

From Jimin:
I literally hate you. You asked me to help you and you can’t even come pick me up?

The mint-haired boy finds it hard to hold back his chuckle from seeing Jimin’s response. But for a second, his chest hurts - I literally hate you - he wonders if Jimin means it. He hopes he doesn’t.

To Jimin:
Damn, calm down, Jiminie. I’m getting into my car right now. I’ll be there in a bit

Jimin furrows his eyebrows but then smiles a beat later when he receives Yoongi’s text. He thought there would be more teasing which is why he was slightly confused, but then he spots ’Jiminie’ and his lips can’t help themselves from turning upwards and now there’s a fuzzy feeling in his chest.

He says he hates the teasing; he acts like it’s the most annoying inconvenience ever, but in reality, he doesn’t care too much. Yoongi’s sort of grown on him recently, and he’s been saying nice things these days too.

It’s nice when Yoongi’s nice, Jimin thinks. Really nice.

At Yoongi’s house, the two are sitting at the mint-haired boy’s desk. They study for a while and the small subtle touches - their arms pressed up on each other as they work, their legs brushing against each other from under the desk, being only inches away from Jimin - are enough to keep Yoongi feeling content. But after they study for around an hour, Yoongi wants more; he wants to be closer, and that’s when his complaints begin: “Come on, Jimin, let’s just do something else.”

And Jimin knew this was going to happen. He even voices that aloud, “I knew you were going to start doing this,” with a sigh. “We can’t do something else. I really have to study.”

“Okay well…” Yoongi suddenly stands up from his desk and tries to ignore both the coldness on his arm from not being pressed up against Jimin anymore and the longing he feels to go back, the longing he feels for touch, because he has a plan. “How about we study the guitar?”

Yoongi knows Jimin has some interest in music - he could tell from the first time he had Jimin over. He remembers the small spark in Jimin’s eyes when he asked Yoongi if he played the guitar, he remembers the little deal Jimin gave him when Yoongi said he wanted to stop studying - ’Fifteen minutes of watching the movie and five minutes of you on the guitar,’ He had said - and Yoongi thinks about that day with a small, fond smile.

Jimin gasps, his pretty, plump lips parting into an ‘o’ shape and his gorgeous, brown eyes slightly wide. ’He’s adorable,’ Yoongi thinks to himself. “Really? You’ll teach me?” The ginger boy questions eagerly.

“Really,” Yoongi confirms with a grin as he moves to walk over to his guitar, picking up and then taking a seat on his bed. He pats the space in front of him before saying, “Come here. Sit in front of me.”

Jimin is up and out of his seat at Yoongi’s desk and sits in front of the other boy at an insanely rapid pace, giddy and eager to learn how to play the guitar.

As Yoongi places the guitar in Jimin’s lap, he watches his hands move quickly to hold it, fingers delicately skimming against the strings. He can’t deny the flutter of excitement in his heart as he prepares to teach Jimin how to play. They’re so close right now and he loves it. Jimin’s eyes are focused on the instrument in his hands, his eyebrows already furrowed in concentration and Yoongi finds himself almost captivated by the image, his heart skipping a beat at the mere sight of Jimin’s intent expression. He looks adorable.

“Okay, Jimin, let’s start with the basics,” Yoongi says, his voice soft and encouraging once he stops himself from staring at Jimin, who nods and smiles softly. For some reason, his heart sort of flutters at the thought of Yoongi teaching him.

With that, Yoongi begins to instruct Jimin. He adjusts the younger boy’s fingers on the frets, his touch lingering slightly longer than necessary because he just can’t help himself. He can’t help but notice how Jimin’s skin felt against his own, warm and soft. Each touch sends a jolt of electricity through Yoongi, a silent affirmation of the emotions he had been suppressing. He moves away to watch Jimin attempt to mimic his movements and instructions and watching him only intensifies the feelings swirling inside Yoongi.

When Jimin messes up, Yoongi moves to help him again and the younger boy can’t help but find himself acutely aware of their proximity, of the way their knees touched, of the way Yoongi's large hands covered his own and when they do - when their fingers brush against one another - Jimin’s breath seems to catch in his throat. For some reason, he hopes Yoongi doesn’t notice. He doesn’t understand why he’s reacting like this - it’s just Yoongi - but he chooses not to dwell on it. Instead, he just enjoys the moment and tries to learn what Yoongi is teaching.

Jimin messes up again and Yoongi chuckles lightly. “Don’t worry. It takes time to get the hang of it,” He reassures Jimin and now there’s a funny feeling in the ginger boy’s tummy. Jimin loves when Yoongi’s like this, when Yoongi’s nice. “Here, I’ll show you again,” Yoongi says, and as he does so, he leans closer to Jimin, his breath dancing on his neck and the feeling sends shivers down Jimin’s spine. He really hopes Yoongi' doesn’t notice.

But Yoongi does notice and it makes him pause for a split second before he continues showing Jimin again and pretending he hadn’t noticed. As he does so, he can’t help but wonder what that had meant. Why did Jimin react like that? Did he like the feeling of Yoongi being so close? Does Jimin like him back?

No, no, no. That can’t be the case. There’s no way Jimin would like Yoongi when Yoongi has treated him so horribly. No way. He shakes off those thoughts and tries to focus on teaching Jimin.

“Like this?” Jimin asks, once again attempting to mimic what Yoongi had taught him while turning around to look at the mint-haired boy.

Yoongi smiles, his eyes locked with Jimin’s. “Yeah, that’s it. You’re a quick learner,” Yoongi praises him, and Jimin grins happily.

They continue to practise, Yoongi’s fingers brushing against Jimin’s as he guides him through the chords. Jimin doesn’t know why but his heart beats slightly faster, and a warm, pleasant feeling sits in his stomach as Yoongi’s fingers linger a little longer than necessary, his touch leaving an electrifying trail in its wake. He can’t help but turn his head to the side a little, stealing a glance at the boy sitting right behind him. When he looks back, his breath catches in his throat. He had never thought Yoongi was bad looking. He is really good-looking, but being this close up only shows Jimin how truly handsome he is.

“See, Jimin, you’re getting the hang of it,” Yoongi breaks the silence, his voice low and tinged with a mixture of encouragement and praise. Jimin’s head snaps back down to look at his fingers and the guitar, his cheeks flushing a pretty pink.

“Thanks to your amazing teaching,” He replies, his voice barely above a whisper.

His words of gratitude only deepen the immense feelings Yoongi has for Jimin. Yoongi chuckles softly at the compliment as he leans forward again, his hand moving down as his fingers grazing over Jimin’s as they returned to their previous position on the guitar for no particular reason.

The gesture makes Jimin turn around to look at the min-haired boy again and now, their eyes meet. Yoongi feels a rush of warmth spreading through him as he stares at Jimin. He can’t ignore the way his heart was pounding, the way his thoughts seem to only revolve around the boy in front of him.

At that moment, previously surrounded by the soft melodies of the guitar and the warmth of the connection, once again, Yoongi wonders if Jimin feels the same as he does. This feels like so much more than just a simple music lesson. Jimin’s right here, right in front of him, and all he wants to do is lean in, to kiss him, to have a chance to allow his feelings to finally break free.

But he snaps out of it. “It’s all you, Jimin. Just keep practising,” Yoongi smiles as he moves his hands away and moves back.

Jimin nods and smiles at the nice words, looking back down at the guitar in his arms. Even though he’s smiling, there’s a feeling he has that he doesn’t quite understand - a small ounce of disappointment sits in his heart.

Chapter Text

Yoongi lets Jimin mess around on his guitar after their little lesson is over. The mint-haired boy is more than happy to just watch Jimin, watch his tiny fingers play with the strings, watch his pretty orange hair flop against his forehead as he looks down at the guitar, watch just how insanely and utterly beautiful he is.

But around ten minutes later, Jimin grabs his phone and when he looks at it, his eyes immediately widen. “Oh, I have to get home soon!” He exclaims, jumping up and handing the guitar to Yoongi. “You’ll take me home, right?”

Yoongi doesn’t reply and instead watches Jimin frantically grab his belongings and shove them into the bag he had brought. Then, without thinking, the word, “Stay,” escapes past his lips.

The frantic boy suddenly pauses before he turns to Yoongi. “What?” He asks, tilting his head. Stay? Does Yoongi want him to stay longer? The thought makes Jimin’s tummy feel warm but he doesn’t understand why.

Jimin questioning him suddenly makes Yoongi realise what he had just said. “Um…” He begins speaking, at a loss for words for a second. “Stay over?” He then says slowly. A wave of embarrassment hits him as soon as the words leave his mouth. He wants Jimin to stay over - he’d love it - but there’s no way that Jimin would want to stay over. He’s unsure whether or not the ginger boy even likes him.

A quiet chuckle can be heard from Jimin as he continues packing up his things, and for a second, Yoongi is disheartened. He was right. Jimin’s laughing at the idea. Why would he ever want to stay over? But then, Jimin says, “My parents would never let me,” quietly, and Yoongi smiles small. So the reason Jimin wouldn’t stay is because of his parents, not because he hates Yoongi. That’s nice to know.

“Can’t you at least ask? What’s the worst that could happen?” Yoongi asks, trying to persuade Jimin. He wants Jimin to stay. He’s had such a good time and he just wants it to last longer. He wants to be around Jimin for longer.

“They’ll get mad,” Jimin answers back simply, shrugging his shoulders.

“If they say yes then you get to practise on the guitar for longer.”

And that sentence has Jimin begging his mother over the phone to stay the night to, apparently, ‘study for longer’, which is obviously the biggest lie ever. But, alas, it manages to work, and both Jimin and Yoongi are giddy. Jimin is happy to be staying over. Yoongi’s been nice recently and spending time with him isn’t so bad anymore, and being able to practise the guitar is just a bonus. Meanwhile, Yoongi is over the moon. He can spend more time with Jimin, just like he wanted to, and it’s hard to hide his happiness and his gummy smile behind a mask of nonchalance when he genuinely is so giddy.

But once it gets late and it’s time for bed, sleeping arrangements are their topic for discussion. “I’ll sleep on the floor,” Jimin immediately offers.

Yoongi’s getting into bed when Jimin says this and he hesitates for a moment, his mind racing. He wants to say something, do something, because he wants Jimin close to him. And before he knows it, the words are out of his mouth. “Just get in,” He says.

Jimin’s eyes widen momentarily, surprise flickering across his features and suddenly, Yoongi feels a rush of panic, realising what he had just said. He hadn’t meant for it to come out like that, so candidly, but now there’s no taking back his words. He just hopes it works in his favour.

“Oh, um, I mean,” Yoongi stumbles over his words, trying to recover. “If you want to. You’ve basically been sitting on my bed right beside me this whole time so it’s not much different, and it’ll be more comfortable than the floor, and there’s enough space,” He says, listing off a bunch of reasons so Jimin doesn’t think he’s insane for telling him to just get into his bed. He tries to sound casual despite the underlying nervousness running through his veins.

Jimin’s lips curve into a soft smile. “Okay, sounds good,” He replies and as soon as Yoongi hears that, his heart races. “Just stay on your side,” Jimin mumbles teasingly as he slips into Yoongi’s bed.

“Didn’t wanna be near you anyway,” Yoongi teases back, lying, and Jimin giggles. He giggles. Yoongi has to look away for a minute, hiding the bright grin on his face because Jimin’s giggling. He didn’t find the teasing annoying. He didn’t find Yoongi absolutely insufferable. He giggled. He liked it, right? That’s what that means. Does that mean there’s a tiny, minuscule possibility of him liking Yoongi back?

Yoongi shakes his head. He’s got to stop thinking about that possibility. It’s not going to happen and thinking of it is only going to lead to disappointment. Jimin won’t like him back. He needs to understand that.

As they settle into bed, they lay side by side, close yet careful not to touch. The proximity felt both nerve-wracking and electrifying. “Goodnight, Jimin,” Yoongi says, his tummy doing somersaults as he fights the urge to reach out and brush his fingers against Jimin, to hold him.

“Goodnight,” Jimin replies softly, his voice carrying a warmth that Yoongi can’t ignore. “Stay on your side!” He exclaims right before the room becomes silent. In the stillness of the room, their unspoken feelings seem to hang in the air, and the words Yoongi wants to say won’t leave his mind as he drifts off to sleep.

But ‘Stay on your side’ doesn’t seem to work out too well.

The moon casts a soft glow through the curtains and the light makes Jimin stir in his sleep, his eyes fluttering open to the dimly lit surroundings. He blinks for a moment, forgetting where he was for a second, and then it hits him. He’s in Yoongi’s bed and he can hear his friend’s soft breathing in the quiet room.

But it isn’t just that. Jimin’s heart races as he realises that he’s wrapped around Yoongi, Yoongi’s arm draped around his waist and his head resting against Yoongi’s shoulder. Their bodies are pressed close together, the warmth of Yoongi’s presence seeping into his skin.

Panic shoots through Jimin, his mind racing to process what had happened. He did fall asleep on his side of the bed, right? He can’t remember moving closer to Yoongi during the night. He tries to untangle himself, to get back to his side of the bed, but as he moves, Yoongi lets out a gentle sigh and shifts in his sleep, unconsciously pulling Jimin closer.

Jimin’s breath catches in his throat as he finds himself pressed even closer to Yoongi’s warmth. His heart hammers away in his chest, a mixture of panic and something else, something he chooses not to acknowledge, swirl within him. This wasn’t supposed to happen. He and Yoongi weren’t supposed to be this close. They were both supposed to stay on their sides of the bed.

But as Jimin lays there, his body moulded to Yoongi’s, he can’t deny the flutter of contentment that settles in his chest. Yoongi’s steady heartbeat is a soothing rhythm underneath his ear, and their breaths mingle in the stillness. It’s like the whole world had fallen away, leaving just the two of them wrapped in each other’s arms.

Jimin’s fingers twitch, his feelings at war with his rational thoughts. He knows he should probably pull away and put some distance between them. He doesn’t even like Yoongi that much so they really shouldn’t be in this position, but Yoongi’s just so warm and it feels so good. He hesitates for a moment before his fingers finally curl themselves against Yoongi’s shirt and he allows himself to settle into the embrace.

Closing his eyes, Jimin lets himself drift back into a slumber, the softness of Yoongi is a comfort he just couldn’t deny. In the hushed darkness, his heart whispers something he hasn’t even come to terms with yet in his head - maybe, just maybe, Jimin enjoys being around Yoongi.

Maybe he likes it, a lot more than he can admit right now.

The morning sun shines through Yoongi’s curtains, casting a warm glow across his room. He stirs, slowly waking up from his deep slumber, and as he opens his eyes, he immediately looks over to his right, expecting to find Jimin still there beside him. However, the space beside him is empty, and a pang of disappointment washes over him.

Sitting up in bed, Yoongi can’t help but feel a sense of longing. The memory of the night before has him wanting to spend more time with Jimin already. He reaches out subconsciously, his hand brushing against the cool sheets where Jimin had been.

With a sigh, Yoongi reluctantly climbs out of bed and reaches out for his phone, wanting to text Jimin to see if he got home safely. But as soon as he checks his phone, he already sees the boy’s name in his notifications.

Yoongi’s heart skips a beat as he opens the message, and a small smile tugs at his lips when he reads Jimin’s words.

From Jimin:
Hey Yoongi. I had to head home early because my parents kept annoying me about it
But I wanted to say thanks for yesterday. I had fun.

He had fun. Jimin had fun with him. Oh, that’s so nice to hear. Jimin doesn’t completely and utterly hate his guts. He had fun with him. Jimin doesn’t hate him. He doesn’t hate Yoongi.

Yoongi’s smile widens as he reads the message over and over again. The disappointment of Jimin’s absence is gone, replaced by a warm feeling of happiness. He quickly types out a reply.

To Jimin:
I had a great time too
We can do it again next tutoring session

As he hits send, Yoongi can’t help but relive the memories of the night before. He hopes there are more chances in his future to create more moments like it with Jimin.

“You have got to ask him out!” Jungkook exclaims, playfully jabbing Yoongi’s shoulders. His voice is filled with excitement as he urges his friend to make the first move.

“There is no way in hell that I am asking Jimin out,” Yoongi mumbles, rolling his eyes as he lounges against the lockers behind him. He had just told Jungkook about staying over the other night and now his friend is trying to convince him to take Jimin out on a date, or at least to confess his feelings, which is something Yoongi is never going to do. Ever.

“Why not? I am, like, ninety-nine per cent sure he likes you too,” Jungkook responds as he too presses his back against the metal of the lockers.

“And what if it’s the one per cent?”

“What’s the worst that’s going to happen?”

Yoongi sighs and stands up straight, locking gazes with Jungkook. “Um, I don’t know…” He begins, even though he does very well know what the worst that could happen is. “He rejects me because I haven’t been the nicest, then I embarrass myself and can never show my face to Jimin ever again,” He concludes after listing off a few of the endless negative possibilities before leaning against the lockers once more with a resigned sigh, feeling slightly defeated.

“Yeah, but it’s Jimin, and you like him a lot. Isn’t it worth a try at least? And I don’t think he’s the type of guy to embarrass you over it,” Jungkook attempts to persuade him again. “Come on, imagine if he says yes.”

Yoongi doesn’t even need to imagine it right now because he’s already done that so many times. He can’t count the number of times his brain’s gone haywire, how many times his thoughts have become all jumbled when he thinks of the boy. He imagines being Jimin’s boyfriend and doing cute, couple-y things - buying him flowers, giving him kisses, making sure he’s content, staying over at each other’s houses, cuddling in bed, and having cute, intimate moments together. He yearns for it deeply, he wants it oh-so-badly, and maybe Jungkook’s right. Maybe it is worth a try. He wants Jimin so badly, doesn’t he? So, why doesn't he just grow a pair and ask him?

“Okay,” Yoongi suddenly says, and Jungkook’s eyes widen.

“Really? You’ll do it?” Jungkook exclaims, punching Yoongi's arm repeatedly in excitement. He’s ready to see them together - he has been their number-one shipper this whole time, after all.

“Yes, yes, I’ll do it. Stop punching me.”

“Do it now! Otherwise, you’ll never do it. He’s with Tae, I think, in the lunch hall. Go, go, go!” Jungkook hurriedly pushes the mint-haired boy in the direction of the lunch hall and Yoongi is on his way.

Fuck, he’s nervous.

“Yeah, then Jungkook went to the mall with me, and that’s kinda it. What did you do this week?” Taehyung asks, placing his head in his hands as he looks at Jimin, who’s sitting across from him at their lunch table.

“Um, I didn't really do much either. I stayed over at Yoongi’s house but that’s all,” Jimin answers, unfazed as he picks at his nails.

“You stayed over at his house? Are you guys together yet?” His friend asks with a gasp, and the question has Jimin’s head shooting upwards, staring at Taehyung with a shocked expression on his face.

“What did you say?” Jimin asks, taken aback.

Yoongi walks into the lunch hall, his eyes scanning the busy room, searching for one specific ginger boy. His heart’s beating like crazy and his palms are sweaty. God, he really is so nervous. He tries not to think about negative outcomes and only thinks about what will happen if Jimin says yes.

When Yoongi finally spots him, he can’t help but grin despite his nervousness. Jimin just has that effect on him. He walks over and once he is close enough, he hears Jimin say something that makes his heart shatter.

“Are Yoongi and I together?” Jimin asks, scoffing slightly, and that leaves Yoongi still in his tracks, waiting for the boy to continue. “No way! He’s always messing with me and he’s annoying. We’re not together.”

Yoongi does a one-hundred and eighty degrees turn on his heel immediately, face unemotional. He leaves the lunch hall in silence and makes his way back to the lockers where he had left Jungkook.

God, he’s so stupid. What was he thinking - Jimin liking him back? He was right - it was never going to happen.

Back at the lunch hall, Taehyung asks, “But you stayed over at his house, even though he’s always messing with you and is annoying, huh?” Hoping his question will make Jimin realise how utterly stupid he sounds. “Did you guys share his bed? Did you cuddle?” He questions, and when Jimin hesitates, he knows the answer is yes. “So you’re telling me you don’t like Yoongi even though you stayed over at his house and cuddled all night?”

Jimin doesn’t reply instantly. Instead images of the night he stayed over - his head nuzzled in Yoongi’s chest, Yoongi’s arms around his waist, Yoongi’s warm body pressed against his - flash in his mind. He can almost feel the warm presence of Yoongi beside him and there’s some sort of feeling inside him - a longing - he wants that moment back, yet he doesn’t voice his thoughts.

“I don’t like him,” He eventually answers after a minute of silence. Taehyung doesn’t believe him.

“Really?” His friend asks, an eyebrow raised. “You don’t like him at all? Not when he cuddled you during movie nights and when you cried into his shoulder? Not when he helped you dye your hair? Or when he picks you up and takes you home? Or when you stayed over at his house and cuddled all night?”

Silence.

“Fuck, maybe I do like him.”

“I have a really strong feeling that he likes you too,” Taehyung replies with a boxy smile and a glint in his eyes. Jimin rolls his eyes at his friend’s teasing. There’s no way Yoongi likes him. “I’m serious!” His friend continues on once seeing his reaction. “Yoongi told Jungkook he likes you,” He then explains.

Jimin is frozen for a second, face full of pure shock, before the news settles in and his face breaks into the world’s biggest smile. He has to cover his face because the idea of Yoongi liking him back has him feeling shy.

He has to say something to Yoongi now, doesn’t he? He has to. He will. He’ll confess and everything will be perfect. Jimin grins, a giddy feeling bubbling inside of him at the thought.

Meanwhile, Yoongi is walking down the school halls and when he catches Jungkook’s eye, the boy runs up to him, pestering him with all sorts of questions - ‘Did you ask him?’, ‘What did he say?’, ‘Is he happy?’, ‘Are you happy?’ - but Yoongi doesn’t say a word. His face is blank as he walks past Jungkook.

“Hey?” Jungkook says, eyebrows furrowed, now worried as he runs to walk beside Yoongi again. “What happened? Are you okay? Did you ask him?” He asks, genuinely concerned for his friend.

“No,” Yoongi answers simply.

“Why not? Don’t you like him?”

“No,” He says again, firmly. Jungkook’s questions continue but Yoongi ignores them and walks out of school.

He should’ve never let himself hope for something more.

Chapter Text

It’s been a while since Jimin’s seen Yoongi. He isn’t sure why. It just seems like their days haven’t been compatible recently.

After school, if their whole friendship group is hanging out, Yoongi doesn’t show up, apparently being busy with other things, and he asked for their last tutoring session to be cancelled for the same reason - he is busy. Jimin wonders what he’s so busy with, and he hopes whatever it is will be over soon since he misses seeing the mint-haired boy around all the time. He makes a mental note to ask Yoongi what’s been happening recently since he’s curious.

The only times Jimin’s seen Yoongi recently is during their Maths classes, but they don’t talk much even then. Usually, Yoongi’s annoying him during class in one way or another but recently, he’s actually been paying attention and isn’t talking to Jimin as much. Jimin supposes that’s a good thing. He’s happy Yoongi’s taking school more seriously, but he can’t help but miss the old times too.

But Jimin’s going to see him tonight! He’s sure of it. There’s some party going on tonight and Jimin knows Yoongi’s going because Jungkook told him so. So, Jimin spends at least an hour begging his mother to go out with his friends, just so he can speak to Yoongi tonight because he feels like it’s been forever.

Even though he knows Yoongi is going to the party tonight, Jimin picks up his phone and sends a text to the boy anyway, asking if he’s coming, and asking for a ride. That way, he can spend even more time with Yoongi.

Yoongi doesn’t reply for a good hour and a half, which Jimin finds strange since his replies aren’t usually very long, but he doesn’t dwell on the long reply time, and instead reads the text with a bright smile on his face because Yoongi’s finally replied!

And then his smile drops because after reading the text, Jimin is now left disappointed.

From Yoongi:
Hobi’s taking me
Drinking tonight

Jimin supposes that’s fine. Yoongi’s being responsible because, obviously, he should most definitely not drink and drive, but there’s a pang in his chest that he tries to ignore. He just wanted to spend some time with him before the party, without everyone else around.

But it’s fine. It is fine. Jimin’s going to see him at the party and they’ll talk after what feels like one million, billion years, and it will be good.

Jimin decides to respond to Yoongi’s text, hoping to continue the conversation somehow.

To Yoongi:
Oh, okay
I’ll probably ask Taehyung for a ride then. I’ll see you there?

It doesn’t take Yoongi as long to view the messages. Jimin sees the read receipt go from ‘delivered’ to ‘read’ right after he sends the text. Then there’s the typing bubbles and Jimin grins. Then, the bubbles are gone, and Jimin is left waiting. A minute passes, and then another, and another, and the word ‘read’ is staring at him in the face mockingly. He turns his phone off and he can’t help but frown.

Read. He was left on read.

Despite the earlier disappointment of being left on read, Jimin’s spirits are lifted a little by the time Taehyung pulls up to his house with Jungkook. While he’s genuinely happy to be in the company of his friends, there’s a lingering unease at the thought of the unanswered messages to Yoongi which is stuck in the background of his head. As Taehyung and Jungkook engage in a lively conversation in the front, jokes being thrown around, Jimin is seated in the back, finding himself preoccupied with the thoughts of Yoongi, a sense of unease mixing with genuine excitement at the idea of seeing him again.

As they arrive at the party, Jimin springs out of the car, his eagerness evident in the skip of his step. His heart races with anticipation at the thought of finally reuniting with Yoongi. Entering the house alongside his friends, Jimin's gaze eagerly scans the room, searching for a sight of the mint-haired boy so he can rush over and talk to him after what feels like so long.

Jimin can see the rest of his friends, but the one he is looking for seems nowhere to be found. Why isn’t Yoongi with the rest of the guys?

Joining the rest of their friends, Jimin exchanges greetings before turning to Namjoon with a puzzled expression. “Have you seen Yoongi around?” He questions, his eyes still roaming around the place trying to find a glimpse of the mint-haired boy somewhere.

“Uh, he was here a second ago…” Namjoon mumbles in response as his eyes also begin darting around the place. “Check the kitchen?” He suggests as he tilts his head to the side. Jimin nods and makes his way through the small crowds of people, beginning his journey to the kitchen in hopes of finding the familiar mint-haired figure.

There’s a pep in his step as Jimin gets closer to the kitchen, a huge smile on his face as he imagines walking up to Yoongi and actually talking to the boy after what feels like so long. As Jimin enters the kitchen, his hopes come true because there Yoongi is, drink in hand as he talks to some guy Jimin is pretty sure he has seen at school before. he doorway, drink in hand as he talks to some guy Jimin thinks he’s seen at school before. A new friend, perhaps? Maybe Yoongi can introduce the two. It would always be nice to have another friend, Jimin thinks. As he walks up to Yoongi though, the smile on his face drops because he sees something that changes his mood entirely.

Yoongi leans in for a kiss.

Jimin stands in the kitchen for a moment, still. His body has sort of deflated, the pep in his step from moments before nowhere to be seen and the smile on his face completely disappeared.

Why is Yoongi kissing someone else? Someone that’s not Jimin?

He shuts his eyes and shakes his head. What is he thinking? Yoongi isn’t his. They’re not dating. It doesn’t matter who Yoongi kisses because he is not Jimin’s boyfriend. Feeling foolish, Jimin stands there, his eyes beginning to water. He should have known that Yoongi didn’t like him back. Why did he ever catch feelings for someone like him? Jimin’s dumb. He’s stupid. So stupid.

As he exits the kitchen he quickly wipes away his tears hoping no one had seen. He joins the rest of his friends, who seem to be having the time of their lives - oblivious to the subtle look of sadness across Jimin’s face; all except one.

“What’s up?” Taehyung asks, bumping his shoulder against Jimin’s. He’s a little concerned; he doesn’t like seeing Jimin sad but when Jimin is completely silent, his worry deepens. “Jimin, you okay?” He asks again, this time standing in front of Jimin.

"Yoongi doesn’t like me," Jimin mumbles, his voice heavy with disappointment, eyes fixed on the floor.

"What?" Taehyung asks, frowning in confusion as he shifts closer. "Why would you say that? Of course he does."

Jimin shakes his head slowly. "Not in the way you told me he does," he replies flatly, an emptiness in his tone.

"But Jungkook said—" Taehyung begins, his voice tinged with uncertainty, but Jimin cuts him off swiftly.

“Well, he obviously doesn’t, Tae! He’s literally in the kitchen eating another guy’s face off,” Jimin snaps, his frustration boiling over. Taehyung is silent and Jimin just lets out another sigh. “I don’t want to be here anymore. I think I’m gonna walk home,” He mutters, turning on his heel and heading for the door.

As the cold air of the night hits Jimin, the events of tonight are swirling around all over his head. He feels stupid. He is stupid. Yoongi is not his boyfriend and they are not together - they’ve actually been hating each other for the past few months, for God’s sake! So why does Jimin feel so upset? He knows he shouldn’t but the image of Yoongi kissing someone else keeps replaying in his head over, and over again and each time he visions it, it feels like a slap to the face. He tries to make the feelings stop, telling himself that they were never anymore more than just reluctant study partners, but the ache in his chest continues to persist.

Jimin shivers as a cold gust of air hits him. He sighs as he runs a hand through his hair while he thinks about his friendship with Yoongi. They are friends, right? Jimin thinks so - good friends, even. He thinks they’ve had a good friendship so far so Jimin shouldn’t let his feelings for Yoongi jeopardise that just because Yoongi doesn't reciprocate those feelings.

‘I shouldn’t be mad at him,’ Jimin thinks to himself as he trudges home. After all, Yoongi had no idea how Jimin felt about him so how could Jimin justify his anger? The best course of action is to try and maintain their friendship as it is, without letting his unrequited feelings interfere. After all, Yoongi's friendship is valuable to him, and he doesn't want to lose that over a crush.

As Jimin walks into his house and makes his way up to his room he thinks - ‘I’ll act how I usually do the next time I see him’. While preparing for bed, he reaffirms his decision. ‘Because our friendship is important to me,’ He continues thinking, sliding under the covers.

‘Yoongi is important to me.’

But his plan doesn’t exactly… go to plan.

The next time Jimin sees Yoongi is a few days later. He sitting at the group’s usual lunch table on his phone with Taehyung close by. Despite his lingering hurt feelings, Jimin tries to greet the mint-haired boy as casually as possible.

“Hey, guys,” Jimin smiles as he sits down opposite the mint-haired boy. Taehyung smiles and greets him back with a simple ‘hey’, while Yoongi says nothing, his eyes fixed on his phone as he taps away at it. Jimin pauses and stares at him for a moment - maybe Yoongi hadn’t heard him. “Hey, Yoongi,” He tries again, addressing the boy sitting across from him directly.

Yoongi’s eyes flicker upwards to look at Jimin, but he doesn't utter a word in response. Why isn’t he saying anything?

Jimin feels a pang of hurt at Yoongi's cold demeanour. He tries to maintain his smile, but it falters slightly as the silence stretches on. Determined not to let the awkwardness linger, Jimin decides to press forward, smile again and try to continue with his attempt at conversation. He clears his throat. “Um,” He begins speaking with Yoongi’s stare on him. “Do you wanna study together after school today - it’s been a while?” He asks in an attempt to spark up a conversation and plan a hangout with Yoongi. He has to admit, he’s been missing their study sessions.

Yoongi's expression remains impassive as he looks at Jimin. After what feels like an eternity, he finally speaks, his voice flat and devoid of emotion. "Can't. Busy,” He mumbles and with that, he returns his attention back to texting on his phone, effectively dismissing Jimin's attempt at conversation. The abrupt response leaves Jimin feeling even more confused and hurt than before.

‘Maybe today’s just not been a good day for him,’ Jimin thinks to himself, trying to rationalise Yoongi’s actions. So, determined, he attempts to continue the conversation once again.

“Oh, well, the test is next week, remember? So maybe we could do another day if that works better for you?” Jimin asks, hoping to plan something. He misses the study sessions. He misses Yoongi. “I think we study well together, right?” He asks with a hopeful smile as he leans forward slightly to get closer to Yoongi.

Yoongi doesn’t look up to answer Jimin. “Uh, I don’t know. I said I’m busy,” He mumbles, eyes glued to his phone, continuously texting away. Jimin wonders who he’s talking to. Could it be the boy from the party? He hopes not.

The reply leaves a sinking feeling in Jimin’s stomach. Why has Yoongi’s demeanour completely changed from their usual teasing? The cold shoulder treatment is making him feel increasingly more uncomfortable, and a little worried - he’s not sure how to respond to this sudden shift in their dynamic.

“All week?” Is all he asks, his tone wavers as his voice is tinged with a quiet desperation. For a moment, Yoongi glances up briefly and meets Jimin’s hopeless eyes - the ones usually so bright now suddenly seem clouded and dejected, pleading silently for an explanation for his actions that Yoongi does not want to give. The mint-haired boy swallows hard, his gaze shifting to Taehyung.

“I should go,” He murmurs, his tone distant. “I’ve got some stuff to do before class.” He directs his words at Taehyung, avoiding Jimin’s gaze as if the boy isn’t even there, and quickly stands up to leave.

As Yoongi walks away, the silence left behind is defeating. Jimin watches him go, his heart sinking further with each and every step Yoongi takes. Taehyung sighs softly, glancing between his two friends, sensing the tension but unsure of how to bridge the gap between them and what even happened between them in the first place.

“Are you okay?” Taehyung asks, facing Jimin, who’s still watching Yoongi leave.

All he can do is sigh. “Yeah,” Jimin mumbles, placing his head in his hands. “Fine.”

He lies.

Jimin has been staring at his phone for what feels like hours. He wants to text Yoongi.

The message he sent to Yoongi last time before the party is blinking back at him like it’s mocking his hesitation. He was left on read that night so can you blame him for being reluctant now?

He wants to - actually, he needs to - arrange a study session with Yoongi. They’re supposed to be having them every week like their Math teacher wanted but that hasn’t been happening lately since Jimin’s relationship with Yoongi has been… cold lately.

It needs to be done but the thought of reaching out makes Jimin’s stomach twist in knots. His fingers hover over the keyboard, unsure of what to type. A hundred different messages race through his mind, each one discarded as quickly as it comes. What if Yoongi brushes him off again like that day in the cafeteria? What if he gets left on read again?

Jimin sighs, running a hand through his hair in frustration. He knows he can’t keep avoiding this. They need to have a study session or else Jimin will get into trouble with his teacher and he does not want to explain a detention to his mother.

But that’s not the only reason Jimin wants this tutoring session to happen so bad. He just misses Yoongi. They used to be close even if both of them said they hated each other. He misses going over to Yoongi’s house, sharing notes, watching movies, playing the guitar together. He even misses the teasing. He wants it back.

Jimin takes a deep breath and finally types out a simple message:

To Yoongi:
Hey

Jimin lets out a huge breath he didn’t even realise he had been holding once he pressed send. There’s a little bit of relief now that he’s sent the first message but he needs to send the rest.

To Yoongi:
We need to have a tutoring session this week
Should we have it on Saturday at yours like usual?

His heart is racing a little, his chest tight with anxiety as he sends the last text. He just feels this way because he hates the idea of getting the cold shoulder, or worse, getting completely ignored again. Jimin breathes out again and places his phone down since Yoongi hasn’t replied yet before he tries focusing on something else. His eyes keep drifting back to his phone though, waiting for a reply that might never even come.

Part of him feels relieved for finally sending those texts, for taking the first step, but as the seconds tick by without a response, his relief fades. It’s replaced by a familiar knot of worry in his stomach.

Jimin swallows thickly and blinks a few times, trying to focus on the History textbook in front of him but he can’t. His whole mind is just Yoongi, Yoongi, Yoongi, wondering what he’s doing and whether he’s even seen the message yet.

But then, thankfully, Jimin’s phone dings. The boy’s head snaps towards it and a hopeful smile spreads across his face as he stands up quickly to grab his phone so he can read Yoongi’s response

But when he does, his smile falters.

From Yoongi:
Let’s do it at the school’s library. Tuesday.

Oh.

Jimin is taken aback. His heart sinks to his stomach. He’d been hoping to visit Yoongi’s house like usual, where they could study in the comfort of familiar surroundings. He was hoping for that because maybe that would’ve helped them get out of this weird, cold dynamic they have going on, which Jimin has no idea why they’re even being like this. Why is Yoongi acting like this?

He wants to meet at school - his suggestion just feels so distant, so formal and it’s a fat reminder to Jimin of the coldness that has suddenly crept its way into their friendship.

Jimin sits down heavily in his desk chair, staring down at his screen with a mix of disappointment and confusion. Yoongi’s choice of location just feels like a barrier, a wall that Yoongi has put up, something that just separates them further rather than bridging the gap, which is what Jimin has been trying to do. But, clearly, Yoongi wants nothing to do with that; while Jimin wanted the warmth of Yoongi’s home - the warmth of Yoongi - Yoongi wanted the sterile environment of the school’s library.

To Yoongi:
Sure. See you there.

Jimin places his phone down and leans back in his chair, feeling a pang of sadness. He had hoped for a chance to reconnect personally, to break through these walls that seemed to have been built up between them out of nowhere. But now, he’s been forced to settle for the cold, impersonal setting of the school library.

He groans and places his head in his hands. Why have things shifted between them? What happened? He wonders if their friendship will ever return back to what it once was.

He really hopes it does but that hope is starting to fade.

It’s a Tuesday afternoon and Jimin walks through the school’s hallways after finishing his last class of the day. His footsteps echo softly in the quiet as he makes his way towards the library for the tutoring session with Yoongi. Half of him is swirling with nerves while the other half still remains hopeful. The tension between them has still been lingering and Jimin is unsure if today will bring any change but he is sure going to try.

As he nears the library, Jimin takes a deep breath, trying to calm his nerves. He imagines the study session as a chance to bring back the ease and the warmth they once had, to mend what has suddenly been strained. Jimin still doesn’t understand why their relationship has become like this but he wants to fix it. He just doesn’t want to get the cold shoulder again.

Jimin enters the library and scans for a suitable spot for the two of them to study. His eyes light up when he spots a quiet corner adorned with some sofas, beanbags, armchairs. It’s a cosy nook, not as cold and impersonal as he feared the library could have been - this is going well so far. With a relieved smile, he makes his way over to one of the sofas and settles down, arranging his books, worksheets, notes and pens on a low coffee table.

He takes his phone out to check the time and then sends Yoongi a quick text, just to confirm that the mint-haired boy is on his way. Then, he tries to focus on his notes, hoping that Yoongi will arrive soon.

When ten minutes pass, Jimin glances at the entrance and scans around the library but Yoongi is nowhere to be seen. A flicker of unease crosses his face but he tries to distract himself by reading through one of his textbooks but his eyes keep darting to the library’s entrance doors.

By twenty minutes, Jimin just feels more uneasy. He tells himself that Yoongi could just be running late. He checks his phone but Yoongi hasn’t texted him anything. Jimin sighs and sends a quick message to Yoongi to see if everything is okay, but of course, there’s no reply.

At thirty minutes, frustration begins to bubble up. Jimin checks his phone for what feels like the fiftieth time this half hour, sending yet another text, hoping for a response, This time, Yoongi finally replies back.

From Yoongi:
Sorry. I’m not coming.

A rush of irritation hits Jimin like a ton of bricks as he reads the message, anger flares up as it mixes with his disappointment. He’s waited. He’s hoped. He’s even tried to make the best of the situation just to be left alone. He clenches his jaw, feeling the sting of resentment and frustration, as his fingers tap furiously against his screen.

To Yoongi:
Why didn’t you let me know earlier?
I’ve been waiting here for you for ages.

Jimin slams his phone down on the table, forgetting he should be quiet in a setting like this. He’s gathering up his things with sharp, jerky movement while a mix of sadness and irritation rushes through him when his phone dings.

From Yoongi:
Sorry

His anger flares up even more at the insincerity of the response. The nerve Yoongi has to send a one-word apology! It feels dismissive and hollow, like a mere formality rather than an actual apology. Does he really not care that he left Jimin here waiting? Jimin stares at the screen, frustration boiling over and he turns his phone off and shoves it into his pocket. Yoongi doesn’t deserve a response.

As he stands up to leave, he glances at the empty corner of the library. The cosy nook had seemed like a hopeful, promising spot now just feels like a cruel reminder of Yoongi’s coldness. Jimin heads for the exit, feeling a mix of resentment and sadness while the lingering feeling of Yoongi’s casual apology gnaws at him.

Outside the library, Jimin finds a quiet spot to sit for a moment. He slumps against the wall, pulling his knees to his chest as he sits down. The weight of the day’s events feels heavy, pressing down against him.

He pulls out his phone one last time, hoping for a more meaningful reply from Yoongi but his lock screen remains empty, void of any additional messages or explanations. His chest tightens at the sight and suddenly, he feels a lump in his throat that he just can’t get rid of.

Unable to hold back any longer, Jimin’s eyes well up with tears. They slip down his cheeks as he struggles to suppress the cries that shake his body. The frustration, the hurt, the feeling of now being unimportant to Yoongi all come crashing down at once. The tears fall freely, each one releasing the pent-up emotions he’s been trying to control while he’s been attempting to fix their friendship.

Jimin buries his face into his hands, letting his tears flow as he quietly cries. His breaths come in uneven gasps as he thinks about how much he just misses Yoongi. He misses the closeness they had. He misses the teasing, even though he pretends to hate it. He misses the nice moments when Yoongi was sweet to him. He just misses Yoongi. He wants Yoongi. But now it just feels like all the warmth that their relationship was full of has been replaced by a cold distance.

After a few minutes, the tears start to slow and Jimin takes a shaky breath before wiping his face with the back of his hand. He tries to compose himself, standing up and smoothing down his clothes while taking a few more deep breaths to steady his emotions.

Once calm. Jimin makes his way towards the exit of the school with a heavy heart. Each step feels like an effort, the weight of disappointment and sadness dragging him down.

As he walks home he can’t help but think that if things were how they were before, Yoongi would be driving him home. Jimin would’ve teased the mint-haired boy about his driving and Yoongi would’ve threatened to make Jimin walk home.

Jimin misses it. He can’t shake the feeling of being brushed aside, of being left alone.

How have things come to this?

Chapter Text

Jimin is rushing.

The first time he had gone to Taehyung’s house for movie night, he had been rushing too. It doesn’t feel like there’s enough time for him to go home after school, come up with a convincing lie about a ‘study session’ to his mother, and then walk all the way to Taehyung’s place. It always feels like a race against the clock.

The next couple of times after that, Yoongi had picked him up. They would drive together, chatting easily with hints of teasing in between. But tonight, things are different. Jimin knows Yoongi won’t be coming. Not this time. He didn’t even bother texting the boy to ask, knowing he wouldn’t get a reply. Ever since he was left alone at the library, waiting for a tutoring session that never happened, Jimin hasn’t uttered a word to him.

When in their group of friends, the silence between them is strong; it’s an uncomfortable tension that everyone notices. Their friends have been questioning them both about what happened, concerned over the sudden distance between them, but they get no answers. Yoongi remains tight-lipped, giving nothing away, while Jimin can only shake his head and say he doesn’t know, a mix of annoyance and hurt lingering every time Yoongi crosses his mind. He won’t be trying to fix anything between them anytime soon, not while he’s still nursing the sting of Yoongi’s rejection.

His footsteps quicken on the pavement as he tries to push his frustrations away. He can’t do anything about the situation anymore so he guesses he shouldn’t let it bother him so much - but it does. He can’t help but feel upset, thinking about how easily Yoongi has just brushed him aside.

Suddenly, his phone buzzes in his pocket. He pulls it out and reads the notification on his screen.

From Taehyung:

We’re gonna start the movie without you! Hurry up!

He speeds up after reading the text, a mixture of frustration and sadness simmering beneath his hurried pace. The memory of sitting alone in the library, waiting for Yoongi, still stings. He tries to push it out of his mind, focusing on the path ahead but the thoughts are like stubborn shadows, following him no matter how fast he walks.

He runs a hand through his hair and lets out a breath, trying to get away from his thoughts and just focusing on hurrying up to movie night, determined to make it to Taehyung’s house before he misses too much, shoving down his feelings for now. There will be time to deal with them later, but tonight isn’t the night. He just wants to have fun with his friends.

Jimin finally reaches Taehyung’s house, slightly out of breath. He can hear the muffled sounds of laughter and the movie starting from the inside. He quickly wipes his sweaty palms against his jeans and opens the front door, knowing Taehyung leaves it unlocked for them, stepping inside with a sheepish smile.

His gaze briefly meets Yoongi’s, but Yoongi looks away in a split-second, his mint-coloured hair falling over his eyes. Jimin’s smile falters for a moment at the quick dismissal, but he swallows down his disappointment, determined not to let it show. “Sorry, I’m late. I had to walk, and it took forever.”

Taehyung glances over from his space on the floor next to Jungkook with Yoongi on the couch behind him, a reassuring smile on his face. “Oh, it’s fine, Jimin! Come sit down. We’re just getting started,” He smiles.

Jimin looks around the room and sees Namjoon, Hobi and Jin settled down on the only other couch in Taehyung’s living room - the only other seat is next to Yoongi. He bites his lip in nervousness at the sight. Ever since the tutoring session incident, things haven’t been the same, and the thought of sitting so close to Yoongi makes Jimin’s stomach twist with anxiety. He doesn’t want to make things awkward, but it seems unavoidable.

With hesitance, Jimin moves towards the empty spot and sits down just as the movie begins. He tries to keep his distance but the couch is small, and as everyone watches the movie, Jimin’s knee accidentally brushes against Yoongi’s.

The contact is brief - their knees hadn’t even touched for more than a split second but Yoongi shifts away almost instantly, as if the touch burned. Jimin’s chest tightens and his heart feels a pang of hurt, wondering if Yoongi dislikes him so much now that even accidental contact is unbearable. He swallows the lump forming in his throat at the thought and tries to focus on the movie, but his mind keeps drifting back to Yoongi’s reaction.

As the movie plays, Taehyung passes a big bowl of popcorn to Yoongi. Without a word, the boy places the bowl directly in between himself and Jimin, creating a physical barrier between them. Jimin’s eyes shift from the screen to the bowl, before he glances at Yoongi with a small frown.

’Did he do that on purpose?’, Jimin thinks to himself. His chest tightens and the knot of anxiety in his stomach grows tightens while he thinks about how Yoongi wants to be as far away from him as possible.

Jimin tries to ignore the thoughts in his head; he tries to immerse himself in the movie but every small movement from Yoongi beside him is magnified in his mind. Jimin can’t help but feel like he’s the problem, like he’s the one doing something wrong, like his presence is a burden. His thoughts eat away at him, making it hard to concentrate on anything else.

It takes a while but eventually, Jimin is paying attention to the movie. With his eyes glued to the screen, his hand moves towards the bowl of popcorn to grab a handful. Coincidentally, Yoongi is doing the same - as his hand inches closer to the popcorn bowl, his fingers brush against Jimin’s. The orange-haired boy flinches at the contact and he turns to look at the other boy, who has already pulled his hand out of the bowl, so quickly as if it was a reflex.

“Sorry,” Jimin whispers but he isn’t even sure why he’s apologising. As he expected, Yoongi doesn’t even reply, staring at the television in silence. Jimin’s cheeks burn with embarrassment and he pulls his hand back, placing it in his lap. The sting of Yoongi’s dismissal cuts deep, and he keeps wondering what he did to deserve such treatment.

The movie continues and Jimin starts to focus on it again. Then, when a particularly emotional scene unfolds, his eyes start to tear up. The sadness of the scene pulls him in and a few tears start to slip out. Instinctively, he shifts over to Yoongi, seeking comfort without even realising what he’s doing, subconsciously maybe even hoping for the warmth that they once shared.

But, once again, Yoongi inches away, creating even more distance between them. It’s subtle, almost unnoticeable, but Jimin does notice, and that’s when he realises what he’s doing. He sits up straight before he then leans towards the other side of the couch, away from Yoongi. What the mint-haired boy did just feels like a slap to the face. He quickly wipes his tears with the back of his hand, trying to compose himself, but the feeling of rejection is sharp and painful.

Jimin’s mind spirals with thoughts - ’Why does he hate me so much now? What did I do to make him act like this?’ He tries to push the thoughts away but they only grow louder. ‘I miss him. I just miss how we used to be.’

For the rest of the movie, he forces himself to stay in place, not wanting to make Yoongi feel any more uncomfortable than he probably already does. The rest of the movie blurs together as Jimin fights to keep both his thoughts and emotions in check. He doesn’t dare to move closer again, afraid of being pushed away once more.

Jimin’s mind drifts back to all the moments they’ve shared, and he wonders if they’re all just memories now. The more he thinks about it, the more and more he misses Yoongi. He doesn’t want things to stay like this. He doesn’t like the tension, the coldness, the distance. He misses the warmth, the sweet moments, even the teasing. He hates how things have become. Yoongi is sitting right next to him but he feels so far away, like they’re worlds apart.

As the movie ends and the credits begin to roll, Jimin is the first to stand up, almost too quickly, like he’s been waiting for a chance to escape. His heart is heavy with the weight of the events of the evening - the coldness, the distance, and Yoongi’s constant withdrawal gnawing at him more than he wants to admit. He really just wants to get home so he can take a moment alone to just breathe - standing here any longer, in this uncomfortable situation, feels unbearable.

“I’m, um, gonna head out,” Jimin announces abruptly, his voice more shaky than he’d like, as he starts to move towards the door of Taehyung’s living room.

Taehyung glances up in confusion, sitting up straight from his spot on the floor. “You’re walking home?” He asks. “I thought you didn’t like walking home alone, especially at night.”

Jimin hesitates for a second as he turns around to face everyone. Out of the corner of his eye, he can see Yoongi’s eyes staring straight at him from across the room, but when he turns to look, Yoongi quickly averts his gaze, pretending to focus on something else. The gesture stings.

“Yeah, but it’s fine. I need the fresh air,” Jimin forces a smile, though it doesn’t reach his eyes.

“But it’s raining too,” Taehyung says, his eyebrows furrowing in concern as he glances towards the window where small droplets patter softly against the glass. Jimin swallows, trying to keep his emotions in check. The rain might as well match how he feels inside - heavy and cold. “I’m sure someone can give you a ride home,” His friend suggests.

Jimin pauses at the suggestion. He watches Taehyung look at their friends before stopping when his eyes land on Yoongi. There’s a moment of silence, the air suddenly feeling thick with tension and Jimin’s heart sinks. He knows what Taehyung is trying to do. There’s no denying that all their friends have noticed what’s been happening between Jimin and Yoongi, and it’s very clear what they’re trying to do: fix what’s broken between the two, nudging them back together. It’s so obvious that it hurts.

Jimin feels anxiety swelling in his chest at the thought of being in a car with Yoongi, the silence between them as cold as it’s been all night. He imagines the awkwardness, the crushing weight of everything they aren’t saying and it makes him nervous. The idea of sitting in that tense, suffocating quiet makes his heart ache even more. He’s already sad - why make it worse?

“No, it’s fine,” Jimin blurts out a little too quickly, trying to keep his tone light. “Really, I’m okay with walking.”

With that, he says his goodbyes quickly, offering small waves to everyone but Yoongi, who stays silent from the couch, watching him leave from the corner of his eye. Jimin can still feel Yoongi’s gaze burning into his back as he walks to the door, but he doesn’t look back. He can’t. The distance between them feels too wide to bridge right now, and the thought of Yoongi turning away again is too painful.

Without another word, Jimin steps out into the rain, a mix of both relief and sadness washes over him. The night air feels heavier than it should, but at least now, no one can see the tears slipping down his face.

As Jimin begins walking, he pulls up the hood of his jacket and stuffs his hands into his pockets, raindrops hitting him lightly - but no amount of rain or cold air can distract him from the thoughts swirling in his mind - thoughts of Yoongi.

Jimin misses him. He misses everything about him. How they’d sit together for hours during their tutoring sessions, and how the tutoring would turn into watching movies or playing the guitar. He misses the teasing - how he’d make fun of Yoongi’s driving and how he’d pretend to be annoyed when Yoongi would tease him back. He thinks about how they’d grown closer, how Yoongi’s once cool, mean demeanour had softened over time.

But now, it’s like all of that has just disappeared.

With each step Jimin takes, he replays the past few weeks in his head, trying to figure out when everything had changed. He wonders if he had done something wrong, if he had done something to push Yoongi away. His mind raves as he desperately tries to pinpoint a moment, something that would explain why Yoongi has become so distant because Jimin just doesn’t understand.

But no matter how hard he tries, nothing stands out. There’s no argument that they had, no single event that could’ve caused such a shift in Yoongi’s attitude. Jimin bites his lip, frustrated with himself. He just doesn’t understand. How can someone who once seemed like they enjoyed spending time with him, who had grown so close to him, suddenly act like Jimin barely existed?

Then a thought pops into his head that makes his chest tighten painfully. ‘Maybe Yoongi just decided he doesn’t like me anymore’, He thinks to himself. He wonders if all this time Yoongi was only simply putting up with him because they had to do those tutoring sessions. The idea gnaws at Jimin’s heart, sinking deeper with every step he takes through the rain.

That’s what scares him the most - that maybe Yoongi just decided to cut him off. What if all the teasing was real? What if all this time, Yoongi really did find him annoying? Jimin’s throat tightens as the realisation settles in. What if Yoongi really, truly does hate him?

He lowers his head as the rain drops down his face, unsure if it’s the rain or tears clinging to his skin. The more he thinks about it, the more his sadness deepens. He misses Yoongi so much but the closeness they once had is slipping away - no matter how hard Jimin has tried to hold onto it, Yoongi just keeps pulling further and further away.

As Jimin trudges through the rain, still lost in thought, a pair of headlights suddenly cut through the dark of the night, startling him a little. His heart skips a beat and he instinctively tenses up, his mind briefly coming up with worst-case scenarios. He hates walking around at night.

The car slows down beside him and he freezes for a moment, unsure of what to do. But then when the window rolls down, to his surprise, he sees Yoongi sitting behind the wheel.

“Get in,” Yoongi orders, his voice steady and firm, cutting through the sound of the rain.

Jimin hesitates, the pounding of his heart louder than the rain pattering against his jacket. Why is his heart beating more now than when he thought a total stranger was following him? “It’s fine,” He mumbles, his voice small. The last thing he wants is to sit in silence next to Yoongi and feel the weight of all the unsaid words between them. “I’m already walking. It’s fine,” He repeats.

Yoongi’s brows furrow, his expression hardening slightly. “Jimin, I’m not letting you walk home at night in the rain. Are you stupid?”

The sentence catches Jimin off guard. For a small, fleeting moment, despite the insult, a small warmth blooms in his chest - Yoongi has actually spoken to him, finally. He had shown some kind of care, and even if it came in the form of calling him stupid, it was more than the cold shoulder he’d been getting for days. For just a second, Jimin allows himself to feel the tiniest spark of happiness.

But as he opens the car door and slides into the passenger seat, that small spark is extinguished almost instantly. The warmth he felt in his chest vanishes as quickly as it came, replaced by a crushing silence that fills the car. The sound of the rain is deafening as it pelts against the roof of the car but inside, the silence between him and Yoongi is practically suffocating. He knew it was going to be like this.

The ginger boy shifts in his seat, stealing quick glances at Yoongi, whose eyes are fixated on the road ahead and whose face is unreadable. There are so many different things Jimin wants to say, all types of questions he’d like to ask, but the tension in the air makes his throat close up. The happiness he felt just a few moments ago, from Yoongi showing that little sliver of concern, is gone now, buried underneath the heavy, unspoken distance between them.

The silence is unbearable. He’s been sitting here for what feels like an eternity, his mind racing. Every passing second is filled with thoughts of what could’ve gone wrong, why Yoongi is acting this way. His chest tightens with every glance he steals at Yoongi’s stoic face and before he can stop himself, a few words just stumble out of his mouth.

“Are you mad at me?”

Jimin doesn’t even realise what he’s said until they come out of his mouth. His heart beats a little faster as he looks over at Yoongi, whose expression remains unreadable. The silence stretches on painfully as Jimin nervously awaits an answer.

Yoongi is quiet for a moment too long. Then, in a low voice, he finally responds, "Why would I come get you if I was mad?"

Those words make sense logically, but Jimin can’t shake the feeling gnawing at him that what Yoongi said is simply just not true. The answer doesn’t feel right - it feels easy, too dismissive.

“I remember you saying you wouldn’t let anybody walk home in the rain,” Jimin mumbles, his voice barely above a whisper. He doesn’t want to bring it up but that memory stings, and right now, it’s the only thing he can think of.

Yoongi sighs, a heavy, tired sound that makes Jimin’s heart sink further. The sound fills the car, louder than the rain. The tension is suffocating, and Jimin can’t take it anymore.

"Are you?" Jimin asks again, his voice shaky. "Did I do something wrong?" He questions quietly.

The silence that follows is painful. Jimin can feel his stomach twisting into knots, his heart hammering in his chest as he waits. He watches Yoongi’s face, hoping for some kind of answer, some kind of explanation for why things feel so wrong between them.

"No," Yoongi says quietly, but his voice sounds distant, like he’s answering without really meaning it.

Jimin swallows hard, a lump forming in his throat. "You’re lying," Jimin whispers, his voice trembling. "I did something, didn’t I? Did I do something?" He repeats as he feels the panic rising in his chest - has all this been his fault all along?

His mind is spiralling, running through every interaction, every word they’ve shared over the past few weeks. He keeps thinking things over and over, trying to find the moment when everything changed.

"What did I do? Was it something I said?" Jimin’s voice breaks, his chest tight with emotion as he forces the question out, needing an answer, any answer. He feels vulnerable, exposed, and it’s terrifying to confront the possibility that he might be the reason for the distance between them.

Yoongi says nothing, his eyes fixed on the road, lips pressed into a thin line. The longer he stays quiet, the more certain Jimin becomes.

"I did say something, didn’t I?" Jimin’s voice is small now, almost pleading. He can’t stop the flood of self-blame from crashing over him. His mind is racing, going over every conversation they’ve had, trying to figure out when he crossed a line, when he said something that hurt Yoongi. They always tease each other but did Jimin go too far one time? What did Jimin say that was so terrible that all this had been the outcome?

But Yoongi stays silent, and that silence is the loudest answer of all.

"Yoongi, please just tell me," Jimin pleads, his voice trembling slightly. "I really don’t like this. I don’t like it when you’re mad at me,” He says, his heart racing in his chest, his breath shallow as he waits in the silence. He’s on the verge of tears, his eyes glassy with unshed tears.

For a second, Yoongi glances over at him. Jimin looks so sad, so vulnerable and it makes Yoongi’s face fall, the stoic expression replaced with the faintest shadow of guilt crossing his features.

With a deep sigh, Yoongi’s gaze flickers back to the road before he finally speaks, his voice low and tired. “Jimin… it’s not that big of a deal.”

“If it’s not that big of a deal, why have things been like this?” His voice cracks, and he hates how vulnerable he sounds, but he can’t help it. “If it’s not a big deal, why won’t you just tell me?”

After a very long silence, Yoongi sighs again, his fingers tapping against the steering wheel, like he’s buying time. "You were with Tae," Yoongi starts after another minute of silence, his tone hesitant. “And you told him I was annoying… and that I make you mad because I mess with you all the time and…” He pauses, the silence dragging on until it feels almost unbearable. Then, in a quieter voice, he adds, “...and yeah.”

Jimin blinks, the words sinking in. His lips part, but nothing comes out at first. “Oh.” It’s all he ends up saying, his voice barely above a whisper.

The car falls into another thick silence, but Jimin’s thoughts are loud, racing. He’s glad, in a way, that Yoongi hadn’t heard the rest of what he said that day to Taehyung. Because if Yoongi knew the truth - that Jimin had also admitted to liking him, in a way that went beyond just friendship - he’s sure things would be even worse.

Jimin thinks it would have ruined their friendship; the tension between them would be worse than it is now. He knew Yoongi didn’t return the feelings Jimin had, especially after what happened at that party not too long ago. Watching Yoongi kiss that random guy felt like a slap in the face, a painful reminder that Yoongi didn’t see him the same way.

And now, sitting in the car, Jimin can’t help but feel a twisted sense of relief that Yoongi didn’t hear that part of the conversation.

But at the same time, something doesn’t make sense.

“I don’t get it,” Jimin says after a long pause, his voice small. “We used to say stuff like that about each other all the time. Why is this different?”

Yoongi shifts in his seat, his hands tightening on the wheel. “Yeah,” he murmurs. “But it’s different when…” He pauses, his jaw tightening as if he’s struggling to find the right words. “It’s different when you’re saying it, and I’m not there.”

Jimin feels his heart clench. There’s a vulnerability in Yoongi’s voice that he hasn’t heard before and Jimin feels awful. He is about to apologise, the words forming on his lips, but before he can even speak, Yoongi cuts him off, his voice breaking through the tension like a sharp knife.

"I don’t know," Yoongi mutters, his voice tight, like he’s forcing the words out. His eyes stay glued to the road, his grip on the steering wheel tightening. "It just… kinda hurts when someone you like acts like being in a relationship with you is the worst thing in the world."

Jimin freezes.

What did Yoongi just say?

For a second, Jimin wonders if he had heard Yoongi right. His heart stutters, skips a beat, and his breath catches in his throat. Yoongi couldn’t have just said that, right?

Jimin's mouth opens, but no words come out. His brain short-circuits, his mind too busy processing what Yoongi just said, too shocked to form any coherent thought. He just stares at Yoongi, eyes wide, stunned into silence.

The silence between them stretches on, heavy and suffocating. Yoongi shifts uncomfortably in his seat, his knuckles white on the wheel as he stares ahead, the tension in the air thick enough to choke on. He sighs quietly, like he’s regretting speaking at all, but there’s a hint of relief there too - like now that it’s out, he doesn’t have to be thinking about it twenty-four-seven. He only said it because he was sick of it weighing him down, sick of having it on his mind all the time, and now that he’s said it, at least Yoongi can finally stop thinking about it.

"What?" Jimin finally whispers, his voice barely above the sound of the rain hitting the windshield. His heart is racing, pounding so loud in his chest that he’s sure Yoongi can hear it. Did Yoongi really just say that he likes him?

Yoongi glances at him quickly, then away, his lips pressing into a thin line before he speaks again, this time quieter, more vulnerable. “I like you, Jimin.”

Jimin’s head is spinning, the words echoing in his mind, bouncing around the walls in his head. A mixture of confusion, hope, and disbelief swirling together in a tangled mess around his mind. He shakes his head slightly, trying to make sense of what’s happening. "Yoongi…" Jimin’s voice trembles. "Don’t joke around with me right now. Please."

Yoongi finally looks at him, his expression dead serious, a softness in his eyes that makes Jimin’s heart ache. "I’m not," he says, his voice low but steady. "I promise, Jimin."

Jimin blinks, his breath catching at the sincerity in Yoongi’s voice, the raw honesty that makes his chest feel tight. But before he can say anything, Yoongi sighs again, leaning back into his seat, running a hand through his hair like he’s frustrated with himself.

"But," Yoongi continues, his voice quieter now, more resigned, "Just forget I said that. I know you don’t like me back. When Tae asked if we were together… you sounded insulted by the idea." He gives a small, humourless laugh, like he’s trying to brush it off, but Jimin can hear the hurt beneath it, thick and real.

Jimin’s throat tightens at Yoongi’s words, feeling so guilty. He had no idea what he said would’ve hurt Yoongi this much.

Yoongi swallows, the tension in his shoulders visible as he adds, "Yeah, just… pretend it didn’t happen. We’re at your house now."

But before Yoongi can even finish the sentence, Jimin blurts out, "No."

Yoongi’s brows furrow in confusion, turning his head to look at Jimin properly for the first time since they’d been in the car. "What?"

Jimin’s face suddenly breaks into the widest smile. His eyes light up with something close to relief, like a wave of joy crashing over him, replacing all the confusion and tension from before. "Oh my god, Yoongi," Jimin laughs, the sound bubbling up from his chest. "If you had stayed for literally one more minute, you would’ve heard me tell Tae how much I like you."

Yoongi’s mouth falls open slightly, his confusion deepening. "What?" He blinks, staring at Jimin like he’s trying to figure out if this is some kind of joke.

"Yes," Jimin says, his laughter softening, but the happiness doesn’t leave his voice. His heart is pounding, but for a completely different reason now. "I had no idea you liked me back. I like you too. So much." As he says it, he reaches out gently, cupping Yoongi’s cheek with his hand, his thumb brushing softly against the warm skin, and Yoongi freezes at the touch. The moment feels tender, intimate, and Jimin can see Yoongi’s breath hitch in surprise.

Yoongi’s eyes widen at the contact, his expression a mixture of disbelief and something else - something soft, almost shy. Slowly, as if he can’t quite believe it, Yoongi lifts his own hand and places it over Jimin’s, holding it gently against his cheek. His thumb runs over the back of Jimin’s hand in slow, soothing circles, like he’s grounding himself in the moment, making sure this is real.

"You…" Yoongi’s voice is barely above a whisper, shaky, his gaze locked on Jimin’s. "You’re being serious?” He questions, genuinely unable to believe what Jimin had said.

The other boy nods, his smile softening as he leans in closer, his hand still cradling Yoongi’s cheek, feeling the warmth of the mint-haired boy’s skin beneath his fingertips. "I really like you," he says, his voice tender and full of warmth.

Yoongi stays quiet for a moment, his thumb still tracing delicate patterns on Jimin’s hand, his eyes flickering with emotion. Then, without another word, Yoongi closes the distance between them, leaning in slowly and carefully, giving Jimin plenty of time to pull away if he wants to.

But Jimin doesn’t. Instead, he leans in too, his heart pounding in his chest, and their lips meet in a kiss that feels soft and electric all at once. It’s slow, tentative, like they’re both savouring the feeling of finally being close in this way. Yoongi’s other hand comes up to cup Jimin’s cheek gently, mirroring the way Jimin’s hand still rests against his own.

Jimin’s breath hitches, and he presses closer, his fingers lightly caressing Yoongi’s jaw as the kiss deepens just slightly, still tender, but filled with so much warmth and affection. It’s like all the confusion and tension from before melts away, replaced by something simple and pure - just the two of them, together, finally on the same page.

When they finally pull apart, both of them are a little breathless, their foreheads resting together as they catch their breath. Yoongi’s eyes are still closed, his lips slightly parted, and there’s a small, shy smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. Jimin’s heart feels light, like it’s floating, and the warmth between them lingers in the air, the warmth that he had missed so much.

"You really like me?" Yoongi whispers again, this time with a small, almost disbelieving smile.

Jimin laughs softly, brushing his thumb over Yoongi’s cheek one more time. "Yes, Yoongi," he says, his voice full of affection. "I really like you."

Yoongi opens his eyes slowly, his smile widening just a little as he leans in again, pressing one more soft, lingering kiss to Jimin’s lips before whispering, "I really like you too, Jimin."