for harajukutrash: it doesn’t matter who you are, tell me my heart is the same as yours is

[bangtanmod]

Title: It doesn’t matter who you are, tell me my heart is the same as yours is
Recipient: harajukutrash
Pairing: Jimin/Taehyung; kind of very little Seokjin/girl!Yoongi
Rating: PG
Word count: ~17420 words
Warnings very very slight homophobia
Summary: Jimin’s life is kind of upside down.
Author's notes: ((I apologize in advance, this is going to be longer than necessary)) First of all, thanks for the prompts, they gave me a lot of freedom. Second, I'm sorry, look at what all of that freedom made me do, I hope I managed to do justice to what you were expecting and I also apologize for my poor writing, I've been changing my writing style recently (september, i think???) and I haven't posted anything for a while, so I have no idea of how it sounds or if it has a nice flow????? I hope it is enjoyable though. Third, I deeply apologize if you were expecting something spicy......not only is it barely pg-13, it ended up being longer than I ever intended it to be x.x I think that's all I had to say to you, dear recipient, I hope you have fun reading because I surely had fun (and some suffering ngl) while writing this!!! OH and Happy Valentine’s Day!! To whoever decides to read my story: thanks a lot ♡ Special shout out to ONE OK ROCK for making me go through it without losing control AND the title is based on this song by them!! Thank you A.S. for saving my life when I was in need and thank you S, S and T for all the encouragement. (((Beta made by me because I have trust issues when it comes to this)))



The tie around his neck was too tight and Jimin had some trouble breathing, his mother was right by his side, shaking hands with someone he couldn’t remember the name and his father was at the other side of the lounge, talking with someone from work.

He would’ve leaned against a wall if he could, but they were right at the entrance, greeting every single person and he knew that his mother could spend - almost - the whole party standing there, Jimin was waiting for her to get tired of his company to send him away somewhere else.

But instead, she neared him and lowered herself - her heels were just too much in Jimin’s opinion - and she discreetly pointed at someone, a girl with fake blonde hair and a glistening - almost too short - hot pink dress.

“What do you think of her, son?” she asked softly, Jimin who was staring at the white wall in front of him shook his head and tried not to look too startled. “Would you go out with her? Oh, or her, I know her mother, I can go and talk to her and-”

“Mom!” Jimin hissed at her and hid the red that was starting to form on his cheeks. “Stop playing cupid, I’m not doing any of that.”

“Okay, okay,” she replied with a wave of her hands. “I just thought I could be of some help, you never got a girlfriend and I have always expected you to get married sooner.”

“Mom!”

“Where’s the lie?” she winked at him and turned to greet another guest while Jimin looked away and sighed. “You’re going to turn twenty soon and-”

“Can I go somewhere else?” Jimin’s mother turned to look at him with narrowed eyes.

“Where to?”

“Not the entrance,” Jimin replied with an almost snort and his mother stared at him for a few seconds before nodding her head diligently, he eased his rudeness of cutting her in the middle of her talking by keeping his speech going. “I’m not going to leave the place, so don’t worry, I’ll just walk around, eat something, go to the bathroom, do things that people do at parties.”

She nodded once again before Jimin sped towards the mass of people crowding the whole place, they weren’t much, Jimin could freely walk around without bumping or trying to dodge someone, he left his mother behind by herself without a second glance and walked around, he knew that his parents were the ones throwing this meeting slash party, but he didn’t help on organizing anything, he was busy, studying - okay, maybe he wasn’t studying, he was free since his classes would only start the following week, but he didn’t think his parents would care because they’re not fond of people trying to pry when they’re organizing something, he ended up not getting on their way -, so he just decided to take a look around and see what his parents did.

As far as he could see, the chosen color for the decoration was magenta, it looked odd in some way, especially for a night party like this one - all fancy -, but he wasn’t going to complain, he just walked some more instead, eyes fixed on the food at the other side of the room, especially the cocktail shrimp that he knew that his mother might have put there because of him - he could be wrong though.

Effortlessly, he passed through the guests, greeting back who greeted him - even if he didn't know who it was - and, in no time, he had his mouth full, back turned to the majority of the room, eyes only fixed on what he would want to eat next - better enjoy the situation because at home the food looks like it shrinks before getting to him and, during that day, he didn't have his mother breathing on his neck and telling what he was allowed to eat or not, a very rare occasion.

("I'm going to get some popcorn." Jimin told his mother - she asked him if he wanted to go to the movies with her and since she's always out doing something, he said yes -, but before he could even take a step, she held him by the arm.

"You're going to eat carrot sticks with me.")

He spaced out, digging up on his memory the billion times in which he had to eat what his mother told him to and the times in which he escaped her at parties and ate everything he could, he didn't notice the person standing right next to his figure, watching him in amusement.

"So I let you slip out of the host duty for you to eat like a pig," Jimin jumped on the spot at the sound of his mother's voice, he brought a hand to his chest, his heart was beating faster due to the surprise. She patted his head and glanced around. "Now, be a good boy and just don't get your suit dirty, I like the color, I'll go look for your father and hope he's not over drinking. Don't do anything stupid, I'm watching you."

Before Jimin could reply, his mother was marching towards the bar, where his father was enthusiastically chatting with a few friends that he, Jimin, saw once or twice; Jimin consciously looked down at himself to check the state of his suit, it was still looking good and he liked the color as well, it was indigo colored with a dark teal bowtie, he would have said it sounded like a ridiculous combination, but he thought it looked ok on him, plus, it was designed for him and only him, he couldn’t complain, he looked good after all - and his mother said she liked it, so nobody could disagree with it.

The place was starting to get crowded for some reason, ‘fashionable-late-but-actually-later-than-they-should-be’ guests were filling the room and Jimin had a feel that he’d soon be annoyed and probably uncomfortable with it, so he strode off towards the back garden - the place that the party was being held was still his family's property, so he knew the whole territory almost as good as he knew the main house, aimlessly rounding the bushes and following the brick path that led to a place as empty as the kitchen of his house while the party was going on, Jimin sighed as per usual and reached for a tree, leaning against it and closing his eyes, he wasn’t sure of where he was, but the air was cool and it made him felt better, less nervous about how people would look at him and not worrying about keeping up appearances, he didn’t want to make his parents look bad for anything he did, they were too good for him, totally different from the parents from his old classmates back at high school.

He opened his eyes, the silence was great, but after a while it gets thrilling and that’s what was happening, at least that’s how Jimin was feeling, his hearing got sensitive to everything surrounding him and, when he heard a cracking sound from afar, he almost lost his cool, a thin line of sweat running down the side of his face very lightly, Jimin almost dug his nails down on the trunk, but he assumed that it’d be a dumb move, if he had to run for his life, it’d be at least ten times harder if he sunk them nails too deep, not to count him getting hurt.

He decided to just take deep breaths and look around - not so - calmly.

There was the sound of footsteps close by and when he finally got the courage to turn his head to the side - aside from looking only ahead of himself -, Jimin was met by a pair of brown eyes and even browner hair a few meters away from him.

“Excuse m-” he started but was cut by the fact that the boy that was standing in front of him had opened his mouth to speak, no sound came out of it and Jimin was left paying the role of a dumb character that lost his voice, as well as the brown haired boy that still had his mouth hanging open, not in shock or anything, but more like he forgot to close it.

“The bathroom’s not this way,” Jimin heard the boy mumbling under his breath, it wasn’t winter yet, but he could see the smoke leaving the boy’s mouth caused by the cool wind that was blowing slowly, he couldn’t make out how he sounded like though, but he felt incredibly curious to find out, so he unconsciously leaned in and tried to listen to him talking to himself. “I ate too much, my tummy hurts, I think I also ate too fast, my mom is going to yell at me when I get home, I spilled coke on my pants, shit.”

The first thing that Jimin noticed was that the boy had a very deep sounding voice, the second one was that he wasn’t making much sense with his words, he looked adrift and confused with himself, he thought of only one thing he could to at that very moment.

“Hey,” Jimin finally created courage and tapped the boy’s shoulder. “The bathroom is, as far as I remember, inside the saloon around 6 meters to the right after you pass by the long pair of stairs at your left.”

The boy stared at him for what felt like ages, but really, it was only ten seconds and his lips curled upwards, teeth showing.

“Thanks, bro,” boy said and blinked his eyes a few times, like they were unfocused, and looked at Jimin’s face and blinked a few more times. “I’m Taehyung, but I think I can't stay back and chat with you, I gotta run to the bathroom before I pee on my pants.”

With that he really ran away with no more words and Jimin thought to himself that that was a very weird way of meeting someone.

After a few more minutes of chilling alone outside, Jimin felt as if he’d end up catching a bad cold if he stayed there some more, which resulted on him making his way back to the life of the party with slow steps and sighs everywhere - he even made an effort to stumble on something and take a few extra minutes, but then he thought about his mother’s words and he stopped himself.

If it was possible, the place looked even fuller of guests, or the ones that were sat when he was in there are now up and crowding the center of the lounge, regardless, Jimin spotted his mother almost as if something he usually did on automatic as soon as he looked to the entrance, not greeting anyone this time, but rather touching the flower arrangements and looking like she was actually in charge of taking care of that - when she’ was clearly not because she was one of the hosts of the party and should be entertaining some of her guests with small talk like his father was doing at the same place Jimin saw him before.

She located him too and waving, she released her grip on the rose she was smoothing - weirdWimp.” Jimin heard along with a cough that came from his side when his drink was handed to him. With lips pressed together and eyes narrowed, he took sight of that boy, Taehyung.

"What d'ya mean?" Jimin said, from behind his glass and still staring at Taehyung.

"Your drink," the roll of his eyes told him that it was something obvious, what he was talking about. "Sex on the beach, that's like, what teenagers take when they throw their cheap ass parties during high school."

"And what are you trying to tell me?" the glass was soon sitting on top of the counter, different from Jimin, that didn't take a seat yet and was still standing on his feet, but so was Taehyung, so he didn't bother much about it.

"To be honest," Taehyung started and gave it a five seconds dramatic pause. "Nothing."

Jimin was sure that he made a ridiculous face as soon as Taehyung replied him by the way the boy started to laugh with his deep voice. Not used to that kind of reaction, Jimin turned to the front, staring at a few bottles and swallowing down the rest of his drink.

He used the back of his right hand to wipe the corner of his lips and turned on his heels to, perhaps, leave the place that was as lively as before and go somewhere else, as far as he knew, the party would go on for a few more hours and he wasn't much keen on being here for so long, getting drunk was not an option too.

He took dance classes later on the next day during afternoon and his wristwatch told him that it was nearing midnight.

"Wait for me," said Taehyung who soon was trailing after him and trying to catch up with his steps - he was a bit taller than Jimin himself, so it looked like an easy task. "I never got your name, you're one the Park's children, right? You look like your mother."

How Taehyung knew that, Jimin didn't know because he couldn't remember any of his mother's friends having a kid named Taehyung, but again, his mother had so many friends that it was possible.

"Jimin," he said rather reluctantly. "Park Jimin, as you guessed right."

Taehyung clapped his hands, it looked as he had seen something that was just really entertaining, and he almost yelled 'AHA' to Jimin's face, but it looked as he was holding it back, realization falling on him and he decided to not make a fool of himself in front of everyone - there were still lots and lots of people around them.

But before Jimin could take a step further, his mother emerged from a crowd they had just passed and took hold of his arm.

"Hey, son! Remember the girl I spoke of before? Her name is Sunhee and I think she wants to meet you," Jimin gave her a look of exasperation and then looked at Taehyung who was watching them with curiosity. "She's the daughter of Mrs. Kang, remember her? Let's go."

He couldn't fight her, the grip on his forearm was too tight - really, just too tight in his honest opinion - and he sensed that she would murder him if he declined her request of meeting said girl, so he sadly waved at Taehyung, who was getting farther from him.

Taehyung waved at him as eagerly as a kid waves to the animals at the zoo.

That night, Jimin didn’t get the chance to talk to Taehyung again, as he was forced to stay by his mother’s side, along with the Sunhee girl, her mother and the rest of the ladies that were chit chatting and making him nervous about how he looked - some stared at him like there was something nasty stuck to his face, he tried not to care and endure the rest of the party with only his thoughts (and annoying women trying to touch his hair).

It was when Jimin was getting dressed on the next day that he realized that it was Monday, meaning that there were no dance classes as he thought the previous night - how foolish of me, he shook his head to himself - so he just kicked the sneakers he was already shoeing away and threw himself on top of his bed, closing his eyes and muttering ’should’ve known’, ‘i was still sober though, not like i got drunk but-’, something along those lines.

With the usual rolling of his eyes when he realized that he did something dumb, he muttered some more under his breath, complaining about himself and about the party that messed up with his memory, actually, he decided to put the blame on the ladies that kept on asking him the exact same thing the whole night.

(“Do you have a girlfriend?”

“Do you want to date my daughter?”

“Do you want to marry my daughter?”

“What do you take at college?”

“Are you going to inherit your father’s company?”)

Jimin only remembered that he smiled all the way through, no asks were answered as far as he knew and the ladies were probably still wondering and trying to reach the results for those questions - and a few of them were probably annoyed at him at that very moment.

They would never get them if it depended on Jimin - not that he was mean or anything, it just wasn’t something that he’d want to share with someone he would never see again, that applying to at least 90% of the people from yesterday.

His thoughts were abruptly interrupted by the rapping on the door and Jimin faintly heard his mother calling his name from behind it.

“What?” he said, voice muffled due to the fact that he had his mouth stuffed with what he called his pillow.

“I’m coming in,” she said and, without asking further questions, there was the sound of the doorknob being turned and the door opening. “Well, I’m glad you’re already awake and dressed! I’ve got a last minute schedule to attend and I’m bringing you with me.”

“WHAT?” Jimin jumped out of bed and the pillow fell down, his mother didn’t look shaken by his sudden action and loud words, she looked just amused. "Why?" he tried to sound composed, at the very last. "Can't dad just go on my place?"

"He's busy, locked himself up in the library."

"I have an idea to why he did that," he whispered and his mother barely managed to make out a few words - or she understood it completely and pretended that he didn't say anything remotely rude. She coughed, ought to add anything to what she just informed Jimin about, but he beat her to it. "Hmmm, okay, I think I'll make you company to whatever you have to do," she was, after all, his mother and he was, as far as he knew, in very good terms with her, different from a few rebelling teenagers these days. “Where to?”

The smile she sent to Jimin frightened him a bit.

“Mom,” Jimin had hissed at her the time he saw the tea house display come in view from where he was sat in the car, his mother just by his side, looking out of the window - or at her phone, both, really. “I can’t believe, I thought you were going to shopping or something.”

“It’s going to be fun.” she said happily and Jimin only scowled all the way from the time he set his foot out of the car to the time the lady that was always there greeted them and led the way to one of the vacant - or even reserved beforehand, like that case - room. To his surprise - or not -, someone was already there.

He almost groaned, but the burning at the back of his head told him that his mother was glaring - or at least staring - at him from behind him, so he held it back.

While Jimin was still standing at the door, looking rather embarrassed at everything, his mother strode past him and took a seat. The glance she threw at him told sharply, get your ass over here and don’t you dare complain out loud or I’ll skin you alive. Jimin complied with a smile, a fading one, but his mother missed it, deeply engaged in conversation with the lady in front of her. He took a sit right next to her.

“Son,” she gripped his shoulder and pressed where she was holding, almost digging her nails there, Jimin gasped inaudibly, mild surprise on his face. “Mrs. Jang and I will go get some breath and catch up outside, you can stay here and chat with Hyunmi, okay?”

“What? When did I-” he started, the look his mother gave him was daunting and it shut him up, Jimin was anything but comfortable. “Mother.”

The single stomping of Jimin’s foot from under the table and the tone of his voice finally told his mother that he really didn’t want to be here, not against his will, not before further notice. She heaved a deep sigh and got up, she was wearing a pencil skirt and, even if she didn’t have to, she patted the hem as if it was wrinkled.

“I’m sorry, I forgot we had an important business meeting, on a Sunday,” she said the last words while looking into Jimin’s eyes with what looked like almost fury, Jimin hoped that he was only mistaken. “Let me make it up to you next week? Maybe?”

“Well, I think that I am the one that have to say sorry,” Mrs. Jang finally spoke loud enough for Jimin to hear her voice, a reproachful sounding voice and Jimin felt like he was being scolded, she even got up, standing then right in front of his mother. “But I’m not here to play or just get some tea with you, if you can’t be serious now, I don’t think I want to be involved with you like that, not now and not in the future, we’re leaving then. Have a nice rest of weekend.”

Her voice was cold and she urged her daughter to do as her and get up, followed closely by the apprehensive girl. Jimin and his mother were left behind, the atmosphere so thick that Jimin swore that he could cut it with a knife.

“Mother, I-”

His mother’s right hand was up and telling him to cease talking, another sigh left her lips and Jimin was already feeling bad, guilty? Yes. Regretful? Not really, he didn’t really wish to be there at first place.

“But-”

“Stop,” she snapped and Jimin flinched. “That’s enough isn’t it? That’s what you wanted, wasn't it? Just remain quiet and let’s go home.”

He lowered his head and didn’t wait for her, Jimin went out of the room and straight to where the car was when it dropped them. He could imagine her running a hand through her hair in despair - or maybe anger. He was sorry about what happened, but at the same time, he wasn’t.

The car ride was silent, an awkward feeling was still lingering in the air even after they’d entered the house and Jimin went up to his room while his mother threw her body on top of the couch and allowed herself to look wasted and stressed. Jimin almost felt bad, until he remembered the events of a few minutes ago.

“Weak just like your father.” she said the moment they stepped out of the car, he still has his fists closed tight, knuckles white and shaking. Jimin wished he had the courage to say something back to her.

Dinner time was going to suck, a lot.

He wasn’t even the slightest wrong, when he was called to go downstairs because the table was already set and the food was already made, he mournfully left the comfort of his bed, not so ready to face his mother after the episode of this afternoon, but sure that he didn’t do anything wrong, his mother can’t force him to do what he didn’t want to, just like she said, he’s going to be twenty this year, he’s old enough to choose what he wants on his own.

She was already there when he arrived, fork and knife in hands, looking down at her plate and not sparing a glance when he pulled the chair out for himself to sit, his father gave him a nod and proceeded on eating.

He sighed before taking the cutlery that was wrapped up in the napkin.

“So,” his mother started before he could start eating his meal. “Your son, needs to get his common sense and responsibility with the family business and reputation checked. He may not know, but he brought so much disgrace to his future this evening, I could talk about it further, but just the thought of it makes me lose my appetite.”

He munched on his fish while holding back the anger that rose inside his chest because of his mother’s harsh words. She was speaking as if he wasn’t there.

“Don’t speak like he isn’t your son too.” was the only thing his father said before eating a spoonful of rice, not sparing a single glance at his wife, who looked like she could blow the roof up with just one scream.

“That’s why he’s like this, you don’t care, do you?” Jimin almost groaned out loud, was he supposed to watch his parents fight? “He’s weak,” she spat. “Weak.” she repeated and Jimin wasn’t sure if he could just get up and leave the place to go back to his room, but he felt that if he did, he would be killed by his mother, he didn’t even care about dinner at this point anymore. “When I said that he should go to college and take business or anything that could help with the company, remember what you said? Let the kid do what he wants. His brother looks like he enjoys it, let him take it instead. And when he said he wanted to take modern dance, I had to say yes.” Jimin stopped completely. “When I thoroughly told you that he should go study abroad last year, so maybe he would see the so called light that would make him realize that he was wasting his life with that rubbish he likes, remember what you said? Don’t ruin the child’s happiness. His brother looks like he would enjoy it, let him go instead.”

His head was spinning slightly, Jimin really didn’t know what he should do in a situation like this. He thought his mother understood him, he looked at her confused.

“Mom,” his words remembered his mother that he was still there, even if she didn’t acknowledge his existence there since he arrived. “What do you mean-”

“I don’t feel like eating anymore.” she said abruptly, looking as mad as she was earlier and Jimin didn’t dare say anything else. He watched as his mother made her way up the marble staircase, the lonely clicking of her shoes and only him as his father behind.

He looked to the side and watched as his father sulked silently, he looked harassed, Jimin didn’t blame him, his mother was being such a pushover recently.

“Hey, father,” Jimin said after a while. “I think I’m going up to sleep, I have classes tomorrow in the morning,” he then got up and his father nodded, sighing and poking a carrot with his fork. “Goodnight...errrrrr…..really, thanks.”

He didn’t wait for him to look up again and reply to his gratitude towards his silent good deeds towards him for the past years - he really wasn’t aware of any of it, blindly believing that it was his mother that was just understanding about everything regarding him -, Jimin picked himself up the chair and ran to his room.

That night he had a little trouble falling asleep.

The morning came and Jimin quickly left bed and got changed, ready for college.

On his way - he always went by foot -, he then remembered that, at least, he wasn’t going to be alone there, yes, he had friends, not many, but they were friends and they were good ones. College was one of the things he looked up the most during days and weeks - and during weekends he only waited for it to be Monday again, so he could go to college and have classes and see his friends and be away from all the tension that was going on at home, though, it only broke loose last weekend.

Jimin had barely entered the place when he felt a pair of hands holding him by the shoulders and when he turned around he saw Seokjin smiling at him - almost, he had his cheeks full.

"Mornin'," he squeaked excited, he was eating something - it looked like toast - and Jimin slung an arm around his neck. " 'ow 'as the weeken'?"

"Just okay," he lied and shook the subject away from his mind. "Where's your girlfriend?"

"Bath'oom." he pointed to the other side of where they were - around three or four meters away - and Jimin hummed his reply.

"Oh hyung, but how was your weekend?" Jimin started and waited for Seokjin to swallow the remains of his breakfast.

"Cool, nothing much, Yoongi and I had to take care of my sister's cat," he waved at hand in front of his face. "Geez, I need something to drink, let's go to that vending machine."

He didn't wait for Jimin's reply, Seokjin grabbed his arm and pulled him all the way to the end of the hall full of students. Jimin greeted a few classmates - for instance, Yugyeom, Sanghyuk and Hakyeon from his dance and fundamentals of rhythm classes who were chatting -, Seokjin took a few coins out of the pocket of his jacket and got his cola.

"I got a few new classes this semester," Jimin said and made a face, taking a piece of paper out of his pocket and looking at it. “Philosophy and Literature. I mean, I get the point of Literature, I think, but Philosophy, what? Why? Who made this choice.”

“I think they’re trying to get the dance majors to know more than just dance and stuff, you know,” Seokjin pointed out, his can already empty and thrown to the nearest trash can. “We music majors are getting acting classes and I don’t remember if it was part of the program or not, Yoongi said she was excited for it, or was it me? Wait, what was I talking about before? Oh look who’s here.”

“Sup boys,” said Yoongi staring at Seokjin’s happy face and turning to watch Jimin frowning at his piece of paper. “So you got your schedule? Do you have new ridiculous classes this semester too? I mean, why would I take acting classes if I want to work as a producer? Nonsense, I’m not going to be in a musical or something. Did I get the subject of your talk before I got here right? I was at the bathroom fixing my hair, but Jin here was talking so loud that I bet the acting teacher heard him.”

Seokjin let out a nervous laugh before Yoongi slapped his arm and said that she was only joking, the boy had turned pale for a split of seconds and was soon sighing in relief.

“I thought you were serious,” he breathed out. “I almost had a heart attack, imagine, hated for the new teacher on my first day.”

“Well,” Yoongi smiled and winked at Jimin playfully. “It’s not that I wasn’t serious, you just looked scared so I just made it sound less astounding, it worked, see?”

“WHY DID YOU TELL ME YOU WERE LYING RIGHT NOW THEN?” Seokjin tried to whisper, but ended up yelling so loud that everybody around stopped walking to take a look at him. “I mean-”

Jimin didn’t stay to listen further, he bade them a see you later and ran away from the scene, he wasn’t very keen on seeing Seokjin lose his cool in front of the whole student body - believe him, he was too used to that for his own good - so, instead, he just made his way to his first class, Composition with Mr. Lee.

Jimin was used to himself being extremely excited for every class, until Philosophy and Literature came in question, of course he wasn't judging those subjects - he still didn't have them since they were placed right after lunch -, but he just didn't understand why he had to take them, he was going to maybe be part of a dance crew or something, it wasn't like he was going to write books about it and he still didn't know what Philosophy had to do with it.

He moped on his way to the cafeteria, where he found Yoongi and Seokjin pressed together near the door that led to outside the building - garden as far as he remembered -, both trying to not fall on the trash can.

He decided to leave them alone, he didn't want to be a third wheel, he had sneaked a tuna sandwich before leaving the house in the morning, so clutching it with his hands, he turned to leave and maybe have his lunch at the foot of the last pair of stairs at the end of the building next to the one that he currently was - apparently near the class where he'd have Literature and Philosophy.

And so he started to walk and then, he ran, he didn't know why, the thought of going home when the clock showed that it was already four made him nervous, he knew his mother wouldn't be there to glare at him as soon as he arrived, but he was still scared of her after everything that happened.

He acknowledged that running was his way of making things go faster, in that case, him going to where he was supposed to be in thirty minutes now, giving himself more time. Sometimes he thought he made no sense, but that wasn't his main problem.

The problem was that someone was already where he planned to sit.

It was a boy with an ordinary hairstyle, with an ordinary color and even more ordinary clothing - but he had to admit that as ordinary as it was, that outfit was still considered fashionable.

Should I talk to him? thought Jimin, because he wasn't only going to have a class that he was not used to - of course he had it at high school, but it was just basic, like learning the verb 'to be' at English - but he was going to have a class that he was not used to, alone. Not like he didn't have a few acquaintances, but he wasn't sure if any of his usual classmates would be there.

And with his mind set, Jimin took determined steps towards the boy at the staircase, who was distracted with a thick book on his lap - he took notice of that after two minutes.

His shoes made some noise while he was walking, getting said boy to lift his head and met his eyes.

"Taehyung?" Jimin gaped as he realized who it was - how cliche, what the-, he thought to himself.

"Yes? Can I help you?" he stared up at him. Taehyung tilted his head and Jimin soon enough saw recognition in his eyes. "Jimin."

"How long have you been studying here?" Jimin was confused, he was quite sure that the first time he ever saw Taehyung was at the party Saturday. "I don't remember ever meeting you here?"

"Since ever?" the boy replied, sounding even more confused than Jimin. "I mean, not exactly since ever because I'm not here since I was born, but I'm going to assume that you got my point."

Since ever...was Jimin in need of a pair of glasses?

"What's your major?" Taehyung asked and Jimin mumbled his reply. "Makes sense, you're taking performing arts and I take humanities, you were bounded to only step your foot in this building later on, which is now, taking note that you're here in front of me. Just for the record, we have a few music majors and some drama queens and kings running around. So I hope you won't feel displaced."

"Thanks," he mumbled again, still confused but feeling less dumb due to Taehyung's explanation. "Wait, so what do you take?"

Jimin had been wondering what someone like Taehyung would be interested in, not that he got time to actually know more than his name, that his voice was as deep sounding as a truck driver's and that he looked as someone who acted often as a five year old child instead of his own age - which should be around his.

The "I take Philosophy." followed by a grin took Jimin by surprise, he expected the boy to say communication or law, but he soon agreed silently that Philosophy fitted Taehyung.

"How many classes do you have here?"

"I get to be around thrice a week."

"Sweet." Taehyung replied and smiled once again, still sat and book still open, when Jimin remembered that he still had his sandwich to eat, it was too late. He followed Taehyung into class.

He never told Yoongi or Seokjin about Taehyung when he met them later.

The next day he didn't have any of the new classes, instead, he was stuck with Mrs. Yoon at Ballroom dance for nearly three hours, at the end of the day his feet hurt like an elephant had just tap danced on top of them.

But that wasn’t the worst thing that happened that day.

If yesterday Jimin’s mother got home a little before dinner, the very next day she was there, when he opened the door he almost knocked over the flowerpot, her eyes staring directly at him, he felt exposed.

He opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out, he’d been running low with words to speak with her, recently those that weren’t good morning and goodnight Jimin considered as unnecessary.

“I’m going to give you a chance to redeem yourself,” she said, no good afternoon or welcome home like when he was younger. Jimin gulped before nodding, allowing - or just letting his mother know that he was at least listening to what she was trying to tell him - her to speak. “I want you to go to this meeting tomorrow and yes, it’s the same thing from Sunday and you can’t say no unless you give me a reason that I find acceptable.”

His mouth went dry, what would he do? Did he have a reason? Of course he did, Jimin had millions of reasons, but would his mother agree with any of them? Probably not.

“I do,” he spoke, surprised that he had the courage to go against his mother’s words, he was so used at doing whatever she asked him to. “I actually do.”

“What on earth is impeding you from getting married and having kids?” she said, almost hopeless. “I thought you would be happy about it, you’re doing everything you wanted, I never stopped you from taking dance, I never forced you to do anything related to the family business and, as much as I know, I’m quite sure you won’t even want to inherit it.”

“That’s why I have a brother,” Jimin finally said something. “I know he’s younger than me, but he’s already studying abroad, that’s why he’s in London, isn’t it? He told me long ago that he plans on going to college there and just when he’s finished with it, he’ll come back.”

His mother looked as if she was going to burst anytime soon, his words looked as if they were pushed a button that shouldn’t have been pressed.

“That doesn’t mean anything, I always knew he’d be the one going into business, not you,” she spat. “And that is not an acceptable reason for you to not get married or at least be engaged with a lady from a good family.”

“You mean, wealthy.”

“I mean that I want to see you being happy with your own family, just like me and just like your father, even though he looks tired all the time, you do know how he is.” and he did, Jimin didn’t think his mother was putting words in his father’s mouth, he was happy, Jimin could tell and he could also tell that it was hard work to put up with his mother, so if they’re still together, that might mean something.

“I know mother, I really do, but you gotta understand that what you think that will make me happy might not be it,” Jimin said, sounding desperate, his mother’s expression hardening at every passing second. “Maybe, I don’t want to get married to someone chosen by you,” he tried to catch his uneven breath. “Maybe, I don’t actually want to have a family formed like this,” he licked his lips and moved his arms trying to show her his point. “Maybe,” Jimin gulped and noticed that he was blinking way too much, he calmed down before saying anything more, the flailing of arms dying down. “M-maybe-” he stuttered and felt embarrassed for being like that.

“Maybe what?”

“Maybe,” I don’t like girls, he thought, but held himself from saying that out loud. “I’m already in a relationship.”

“You what?!” Jimin almost regretted lying about that.

“I-”

“Who?” his mother asked, coming closer. “How?” she was now a few steps away from him. “When?”

He was being shook by the shoulders, his mother looked as if she had lost control of what she was doing. To his luck, his father always worked at home, locked inside his office - his mother took care of meetings, she was the social one - and his mother was yelling instead of speaking like a normal and sane person, so his father was soon running down the stairs.

“What’s happening here? What’s all this noise? Did something bad happen or…? Is someone hurt?” he looked worriedly from Jimin to Mrs. Park, who had somehow managed to turn a light shade of purple.

“Your son,” Mrs. Park pointed to Jimin, finger trembling. “Apparently goes around dating without telling his parents about it and now,” she poked Jimin in the chest with her index finger. “He won’t tell me anything about it.”

Jimin’s father looked speechless for a moment and Mrs. Park looked pleased with herself for spilling the beans about what was going on.

“Really?” he said, his voice not giving anything away, Jimin didn’t know if he was mad or not. “Who is it?”

He sounded...interested.

Not like his mother, who was aggressively bombarding him with questions that she would never be pleased with the answers - especially because it was a lie, a big fat lie.

Supportive, Jimin told himself while thinking back about that one talk during dinner the other day.

“Yeah, who is she?” his mother cut in when she notices Mr. Park was about to say something. “I swear, if-”

What should I say? Jimin panicked. What the hell do I do?

Trying to not show that he was lying, but being just a nervous wreck, Jimin looked down at his feet and closed his eyes for a split of seconds, the feeling of his mother’s eyes following his every move intensely burning him.

“It’s,” he squeaked, I should at least say one thing that is true, even if the rest is not.. “It’s not exactly a she. Funny thing you see-”

“What do you mean-”

“I’m gay.” Jimin said those words quickly and covered his mouth with both hands.

His father didn’t seem shaken, he actually looked like he was giving it a good thought, while his mother looked on the verge of having a cardiac arrest, he could easily see a vein on her neck throbbing.

“Son,” Mr. Park spoke first, in a soft and calm voice. “Look, I understand-”

It was clear that those words were not what his mother wanted to hear, she stared at her husband with her mouth open, not only purple in the face, but getting an angry shade of red.

“Well, I don’t,” she hissed, at both. “I don’t understand.”

“Mother-”

“Dear,” Mr. Park clasped a reassuring hand on Jimin’s shoulder and looked at his wife. “You don’t understand or you don’t want to understand?”

She fumed at both of them, not saying anymore and turning on her heels to leave the room.

Jimin felt as if he had been punched in the guts.

“It’s okay,” his father told him, breaking the silence. “Give it time, you know how she is.”

He knew those words were supposed to make him feel better, but Jimin could only think that, no, he wasn’t sure if he knew how she was, but he didn’t want to feel upset with himself, so he nodded, repeating inside his head that things are not always the way I want them to be, but hopefully everything will be okay.

It started to get awkward at home.

When he got down to dinner, it was only him - Jimin assumed that his father wasn’t joining in for dinner with him because he was trying to talk things with his mother and he deeply appreciated his effort -, his mother never looked at him and all of that started to affect him, even making him drift off during classes and get the choreo wrong, he even forgot to do his homework.

“Are you okay, buddy?” Seokjin waved a hand in front of Jimin’s face, he was, once again, staring into nothing while eating his fries, he looked down and noticed that they were long gone. “Have you been getting enough sleep lately?”

“I’m good,” Jimin mumbled. “Everything is good.”

“You sure?” it was Yoongi this time, eyes narrowed. “You have been looking lifeless recently, you didn’t even complain about your Philosophy class as I expected you to.”

“I’m sure,” Jimin brushed his thoughts away and sat straight. “Don’t worry, I’m okay and why would I complain about it when I find Philosophy quite a nice class?”

Yoongi widened her eyes and stared at him as if he was an alien.

“Why?” Jimin asked a little confused, looking from Yoongi to Seokjin and to Yoongi again.

“I thought it’d be as bad as acting classes, so you’re not suffering like me, that’s unfair.”

“I like the class.” Seokjin protested and Yoongi rolled her eyes.

“That’s you,” she snorted. “I do not want to take part in some kind of college play that they’re planning and why are the girls in that class so annoying?”

“But it’s an adaptation of Macbeth!” Seokjin exclaimed excited. “And it’s going to be a musical.”

“And that’s just so cliche,” she clicked her tongue and scrunched her nose. “I’m not taking part in it, I’m not going to sing or dance in front of everybody.”

“Guys,” Jimin flailed in front of them on their way to the cafeteria. “Don’t fight,”

“Hey, is that dude waving at you?” Yoongi asked Jimin and pointed at the door.

Jimin nearly facepalmed and the person jogged towards him.

“Hello,” Taehyung greeted all of them, Yoongi and Seokjin were staring at Jimin as if they were waiting for him to introduce his friend. “You’re Jimin’s friends, right?”

Yoongi raised an eyebrow and turned to look at Jimin.

“Sorry guys,” was what Jimin said while rubbing the back of his neck. “I guess I forgot to introduce you to each other.”

“You guess?” Seokjin was the one raising an eyebrow now.

“It’s okay, man,” Taehyung pulled Jimin closer and slung his left arm around his shoulder while Yoongi kind of gaped at him. “We forget stuff,” he then released Jimin and extended his hand. “I’m Taehyung, Kim Taehyung, Jimin’s friend from his Philosophy classes, though I’ve met him before that.”

Seokjin smiled widely and reached out to shake hands with him.

“Your friend’s nice,” Seokjin told Jimin when they met for the last time at the corridors before going home. “Why didn’t you introduce us before?”

Yoongi coughed from beside him.

“He’s a great candidate to taking Seokjin’s airhead position,” she said and Seokjin puffed his cheeks,Yoongi reached out to poke them. “But he’s just a candidate, of course you’re not losing it, that’s what makes you you and that’s why you’re so cute.”

“Thanks?”

“I think,” Jimin stared at both his friends getting dangerously close and, he was sure of something: he didn’t want to stay longer to watch them. “I think I’m going home now. See you guys next week.”

He hurried his steps, distancing himself from them with enough speed for him to not bump into someone and enough for him to not be able to sight the couple anymore. He sighed in relief and started to decrease his speed, not seeing any reason to run, after all, he’ not exactly looking up at getting home and maybe seeing his mother looking at him like he had done something wrong.

He expected to get past the front door and go straight to his room, but lucky was not by his side, Jimin walked past the couch and noticed that his mother had a magazine in hands, she looked as if she was ignoring him, so he didn’t spare a glance at her again and proceeded to reach the stairs, until she called his name.

“Yes, mother?” he replied, bored, with his back still turned to her. “Is there anything that you want from me or want me to do?”

“I have been talking to you father about-” at the mention of those words, Jimin spun so fast to face her that he got half dizzy and had to hold the handrail before nearing her to take a better listen to what she was about to say. “You know what it is about and I decided that I’m okay about it.”

That’s it? Jimin looked at her, puzzled. Easy like this? Something’s fishy, I can fe-

“But,” he held his groan. “I’ll only be 99% satisfied if you tell me the truth.”

“What?” he replied, getting angry that his mother was now suspecting what he told her. “I wasn’t lying,” he gulped. “I wouldn’t make something like that up, I’m not stupid, of course I was speaking the truth.”

He fumed and his mother looked at him, amused.

“I’m not doubting your sexuality, son,” she said and Jimin stared, clearly confused, did he miss a joke? “But I want you to prove to me that you weren’t lying about being in a relationship just to get out of the situation.”

“Isn’t my word enough?” he laughed, trying to get out of yet another mess.

“I hope it is,” she said with a smile, Jimin’s right eye twitched. “I want to make sure if you weren’t trying to fool me though, besides, how great would it be if you could introduce your boyfriend to your mother next week?”

This is odd he thought, wasn’t his mother pissing about it just yesterday and now she just changed her mind and even asked to meet his boyfriend. Jimin would be okay about it, if there was a boyfriend to begin with.

He would have to tell her the truth, Jimin opened his mouth, hands shaking, his mother’s smile was no help - it was creeping him out - and he got himself ready to explain everything.

“So you’re telling me,” Taehyung said, pursuing his lips and looking up at the ceiling, they were, again, sat at the stairs in the empty hall before Philosophy classes and Jimin had both hands clasped tight to each other, it looked as if he was praying. “That you want me to help you?”

“Yes,” he cried. “Pretty please, I don’t usually ask things like this from someone who I’ve known for less than a month,” he had his hands clutching his hair instead as he stared down at the tiled floors. “But since I’m desperate, I feel like I’ve lost my common sense and shame.”

“What did your mother say exactly?” Taehyung tilted his head, still trying to get himself into the situation.

“She said,” Jimin’s hands were shaking. “That I need to bring my date to meet her by the end of the next week,” he pulled at his own hair again. “She already know Seokjin so I can’t ask him, he’s been my friend since grade school because we live close and I’ve known him since ever, we used to play soccer together, I can’t actually date him. Oh my God, I’m going to die.”

“You could try acting,” Taehyung mused, but shook his head when Jimin’s desperate gaze fell on him. “Can you calm yourself down and explain this to me so I can see how I can help you?”

“Yeah, sure.” Jimin straightened up, his back was starting to ache, but he told Taehyung everything that happened without moving.

“So,” Taehyung coughed, looking rather uncomfortable and that was when Jimin got even more distressed. “You’re going to pretend you’re gay?”

“I’m going to pretend I’m in a relationship,“Jimin corrected and looked down at his lap. “You don’t need to do it if you don’t want to, after all, we’re not that close and I’m so sorry for even suggesting this, I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”

“There’s nothing wrong with you,” Taehyung was smiling at him and Jimin felt that he would hopefully see some light soon. “And I don’t mind, it’s okay, I can help you, or at least try to, I don’t know how good I am at pretending.”

“Don’t worry, you can just stand there, I don’t think she’s going to talk much about it or ask too many questions.” I hope he told himself while Taehyung only smiled at him.

“Do you have any plan?” were the last words Taehyung said before Jimin got up abruptly, a rare enlightening moment falling upon him.

“Now I do.” Taehyung had his mouth open, staring up at Jimin, who looked like he found the solution to all of his problems - at least one of them had to be solved.

The bell rang and Jimin ran out of his last class, he wasn’t late for anything, but he had something to take care of. He was so focused on getting out of the building that he didn’t see Seokjin waving and calling his name. His friend looked dejected for a moment, but he had Yoongi to make him company - besides, he didn’t see Jimin looking this excited for a while, he didn’t want to get on his way.

Jimin reached the humanities block in no time, locating Taehyung and catching his breath when he reached him.

“Wow, are you okay?” Taehyung laughed, leaning against the wall, book in hands.

“Did I make you wait for too long?” Jimin was worried that he wasn’t fast enough to leave the class and dodge all the students inside the building, but Taehyung shook his head.

“Just in time.”

“Again, I’m sorry for taking your time,” he panted, still steadying his breathing and fixing the straps of his backpack. “But I thought it’d be better if we at least knew a little more than our majors and names before getting into this mess with my mother.”

Closed book in hands and smile on his lips, Taehyung laughed again at Jimin - like he just told him a joke.

"Aside from the pile of books at home, I don't have anything to do for the rest of the day, or week, really," Taehyung had his shoulder bag open and placed his book into it carefully, Jimin nodded, assuring himself that he wasn't a bother after all. "Shall we get going?"

"Where to?" Jimin finally spoke.

"Just follow." and with a move of his hand, Taehyung walked away and Jimin's only option was to do as he said - even if he was the one that suggested this.

The sound of a bell signalized that the little coffee shop had new customers, Taehyung waved excited at the woman behind the cashier, she looked suspiciously like him, Jimin walked close to him, gazing around and taking a seat when Taehyung did.

"Where are we?" Jimin whispered and picked up the menu in front of him, scanning through it and feeling hungry out of a sudden - he was reading the cakes section.

"At a coffee shop, I suppose," Taehyung stated the obvious. "My mother's coffee shop to be exact."

"I hope I won't sound rude, but how come you were at the party the other day?" Jimin felt Taehyung's eyes falling on him and he knew that he had said enough.

"My dad's the one with," Taehyung made exaggerated quote marks with his fingers. "Power."

"Sorry."

"Why are you always sorry?" asked Taehyung, sounding concerned. "As long as I know, you didn't do anything wrong, so far." he added with a playful grin.

His eyes fell on the table, Jimin knew what Taehyung meant, but saying sorry every time became an habit.

“Nothing.” he whispered and Taehyung dropped the subject, silence filled the air until Jimin heard the sound of paper being flipped, Taehyung was browsing through the menu.

“Are you hungry?” Taehyung asked to a quiet Jimin. “Don’t worry, it’s on me, I chose the place,” he laughed. “Don’t give me that face.”

Jimin was frowning.

“Do you like paninis?” he asked and Jimin still didn’t say anything, but had his mouth slightly ajar. “To be honest, I know the menu by head and I’ve eaten everything they serve here, you know? Just pick something, I bet you’ll like, right?”

Jimin nodded and Taehyung smiled wider.

“Okay, I have a few questions,” Taehyung said, mouth full and crumbs on his lips. “Does your mother only want to meet your boyfriend or does she want him to attend all the family and social events?”

Jimin placed his panini - he took Taehyung’s advice into consideration after all - back into the plate and wiped his lips with a napkin. Jimin’s eyes grew bigger each time he repeated Taehyung’s words inside his head.

“You never thought about it.” Taehyung bursted out laughing and, at that point, Jimin wasn’t sure if Taehyung was incredibly excited about everything or just insane.

“I don’t-” he started, but his words got lost in between Taehyung’s loud laughter, Jimin looked to the sides and noticed a few people starting to turn their heads to stare at them, Taehyung’s mother included, he hid behind his arms.

“Nah, don’t think too much about it, when I agreed to it I had this in mind already, I was just wondering.” he patted the top of Jimin’s head and resumed eating.

“Thanks.” Jimin muttered and sighed before resuming eating as well.

The very next day, Jimin found himself being stared at by Seokjin, Yoongi and Taehyung when all of them ended up sharing the same table.

“Did we miss anything?” Yoongi asked, her eyes travelling from Taehyung and Jimin that were sitting side by side.

“We’re friends!” Taehyung chirped, excited, and shoved a handful of fries into his mouth. “‘e ar rel gret frends.” Yoongi stared at him, mild disgust on her face as she watched him attempting to speak with his mouth full.

“Okay.” Yoongi replied, looking anything but convinced, regardless, not poking her nose further with more questions.

“So, is Philosophy cool?” Seokjin asked, sounding honestly interested.

“It is,” Taehyung was sipping his coke with a grin. “If you like the subject of course. We also have lots of nice books to read. What do you take? Dance?”

“Music.” he replied from behind a napkin and, at this point, Jimin and Yoongi were drifting away from the conversation, both looking bored or just incredibly tired, and instead, Seokjin looked as excited as he is before music theory classes.

“Which day of the week is today?” Yoongi asked as she eyed the boys eagerly gesturing with their hands and eating at the same time.

“Thursday-” Jimin replied and stopped, if it was Thursday it meant that tomorrow would be Friday, leaving Jimin thinking that the meeting with his mother was supposed to take place in less than two days - Saturday - after that. Crap.

“Thank God, tomorrow is Friday,” she cheerfully clapped her hands and punched Jimin’s arm when she noticed the lack of response from her friend. “Which means that Monday and Tuesday are nearing and, I hate to admit, I enjoyed acting classes more than I expected.”

“Cool,” Jimin replied absent minded, already thinking about what could go wrong Saturday. “Did you mention that something was aching?”

“Acting, acting.” Yoongi repeated desperate.

“Riiight,” Jimin said looking up at the clock placed on top of the entrance to the cafeteria. “I’ve got to go, I have that Methods of Teaching Dance class that one of my teachers said would be good for me, so I got to go.”

Jimin got up abruptly, taking his phone out of his pocket and bidding goodbye to everyone.

Meeting with family is this Saturday, just a reminder.

“Sup,” he heard Yugyeom - his usual partner during the theoric classes - saying from his left. “You’ve got that teaching class too, right? Let’s go together.”

He let himself be dragged by the tall boy, pushing his worries to the back of his head for the meantime.

(“Have you ever had this rainbow colored like hair?” Jimin asked on the way, Yugyeom snorted.

“Since last year.”)

"I got your message!" Taehyung exclaimed when Jimin came in sight. "Do you think your mother will be surprised that someone will actually turn up as your boyfriend? Does she think that you're like, joking ?"

"I really don't know," Jimin said, rubbing his eyes and sighing, something that became more than an habit at that point. "But I hope everything goes okay, I'm deeply sorry for dragging you into this."

"I told you before, didn’t I?" Taehyung said with a tap on Jimin's shoulder. "You don't need to feel sorry, I agreed to it, okay?"

Jimin’s smile was weak, but sincere. He had no idea of how his mother would react to him lying to her, being selfish or not, he didn’t want to risk it.

"Thank you then." he said, snickering to himself and asking Taehyung his opinion on a last meeting before the deed had to be done.

"Sounds neat." he replied and Jimin pulled him by the arm before he could say add anything else.

"Can I ask you something if it doesn't make you feel uncomfortable?" Taehyung said with a scoop in between his teeth and waited until Jimin agreed with it. "These feel like dates," he kept on speaking. "Are we like, making it up for the fact that we never went to one and we've got to pretend we're dating?"

The expression on Taehyung's face was serious and Jimin would be lying if he said that he wasn't caught a little off guard by that question - very well put -, nevertheless he tried to answer him coherently.

"I never thought about it," he said and Taehyung nodded, showing that he got what Jimin was trying to say - at least that was what Jimin was hoping it meant. "If you want to think of it as dates, feel free to do so." Because I might do the same.

He didn't get a reply, Taehyung instead of saying anything, ate more of his ice cream and remained quiet, it didn't feel awkward or unsettling, the silence was bearable and even pleasant. Jimin didn't know what to say next, wasn't these 'dates' supposed to make them get to know each other a little better before the meeting? All they did so far was eat and eat and talk about classes and eat (Not that Jimin was going to complain about it).

"What do you like to do when you're not at college?" Jimin asked Taehyung out of the blue, if he was the one that suggested for them to meet and talk, he might as well just be the one to make the first move, try to ease the atmosphere and really get to know Taehyung and prevent a hole in his plan - which included his mother finding out that he wasn't really dating Taehyung and deciding to disinherit him.

"I like reading," Taehyung said. “But that is already obvious. So, I spend most of my time playing video games at the huge tv we have at the living room, bothering my cat and maybe, I don’t know, I like singing? Not that good though, I often have my mom tell me to shut up. Oh and doing my homework.”

“You like doing your homework?” Jimin raised a brow and stared at Taehyung who had ice cream on his nose.

“Yeah, why wouldn’t I like it?”

“Even I don’t like doing homework and I’m doing what I like.” Taehyung looked amused.

“Our homework is probably different.” he said and Jimin felt a little dumb, of course their homework would be different, their majors are very different, aside from the fact that it works with people.

“What kind of homework do you get then?” Jimin asked, honestly curious, most of the times his homework consisted of him making routines for a song and getting all sweaty and exhausted.

“I’ve got to write essays most of the times,” Taehyung replied Jimin and finished his treat. “Based on the readings my teacher recommends to the class.”

Oh, books. Should’ve known.

Taehyung smiled at Jimin, so hard that his eyes smiled with him.

Friday passed so quickly that Jimin only realized that the day had come to an end when he was face flat on his pillow and dozing off.

Saturday came as soon as Friday ended, when Jimin woke up, he had one unread message on his phone.

Mmmm, I forgot to ask you yesterday, at what time am I supposed to be at your house? And can you give me your address just in case? I’m not sure if I have the right one. See ya later.

Jimin chuckled and replied the message and set his phone down on the nightstand. Ruffling his hair and preparing himself mentally to what was about to come as the day passed.

But first things first, it was almost nine in the morning and he wouldn’t want to miss breakfast.

“Morning,” he greeted his mother that was halfway done with her bowl of fruits. “Doesn’t it feel like today will be a good day?”

“Good morning,” she replied looking surprised at Jimin’s cheerful behavior. “Looks like someone had a nice night of sleep.”

“Awesome,” Jimin exclaimed while fetching himself some pancakes and pouring maple syrup on top of them. “’m fo fungry,” he said with half a pancake into his mouth. “By the ‘ay, ‘e foing to ‘et a visit foday.”

“Don’t speak while you’re eating.” his mother scolded him and resumed eating the remains of her melon and papaya.

“We,” he repeated, wiping his lips with a napkin. “We’re going to get a visit today,” he smiled at his mother, who stopped eating the last piece of melon to stare up at his face. “As you should be already be expecting.”

He didn’t say anything else after that and neither did his mother, they ate in silence and when Jimin was done eating, his mother was still sat at the table, looking deep in thought.

“What time?” she finally said before Jimin got up to shower.

“Let’s prepare ourselves for some tea party time.” and with that, he almost skipped his way to his room to grab his clothes.

His mother had an skeptical expression the whole day.

Jimin didn’t know how to feel, he was apprehensive and excited at the same time, he wanted time to go faster but he didn’t, he was counting the minutes on the clock when it was lunch time and his father kept on shooting him a few worried glances, but the smile on Jimin’s face hopefully reassured him that he had everything in place.

“Your mother told me we’re going to have a tea party?” his father asked Jimin from his seat.

“Not exactly a tea party, it’s just that he’s coming at around four.” Jimin said with his fringe covering his eyes and he managed to get a glimpse of his father smoothly covering his mouth and looking at the glass he had in front of him. He must’d been blushing or something, he wasn’t particularly used to this, talking openly about his preferences and having someone - a fake date on top of that - coming to his house to actually meet his parents is finally getting to the best of him, but he can’t get nervous, not now.

Nobody spoke after that.

The intercom beeped at four sharp, it was as if Taehyung was just waiting for the exact time and Jimin had a feeling that it was exactly that.

His mother froze for a few seconds before getting up from the couch and running to the kitchen, Jimin, who had the newspaper in hands - yes, he was reading the newspaper to know what had been happening around - put it aside and got up, answering the intercom himself and opening the gate. Despite the fact that his family lived in a particular large property, the way from the gate to the entrance of the house was a mere kilometer - that couldn’t be much, right?

To Jimin, at first, it was weird not seeing Taehyung wearing a jacket, a graphic tee along with ripped jeans, it was weird because he had his hair down, it wasn’t up like the usual, no, it looked like Taehyung spent a fair amount of time making every strand of his hair stand in place, on top of that, he wasn’t wearing a three-piece suit of course - that’d be too much -, but the white collar shirt, the plaid gray knitted vest and the black dress pants made him into almost another person.

Though, it wasn’t only Jimin who looked surprised at his outfit, Taehyung himself looked at him and nodded - his lips pressed tight to what, in Jimin’s perspective, looked like satisfaction. He wasn’t wearing his plaid black clothes, but a sweater - navy blue with thin red stripes - and some decent pants - not sweatpants.

Just then, he noticed that Taehyung had a violet colored bouquet in hands, he didn’t know which flowers they were, but it looked good, he extended his arms, but Taehyung pulled the bouquet closer to himself.

“These are for your mother,” Taehyung’s stupidly deep voice woke Jimin up with a half snort. Jimin who didn’t know where to hide his face, fumbled with his hands, much to Taehyung’s entertainment, until his mother decided to show up. “Good afternoon, Mrs. Park.”

Taehyung’s words woke Jimin up once again - in such a short space of time, Jimin managed to get lost in his thoughts -, he felt a little desperate, but Taehyung looked confident in what he was doing, so he just remained quiet where he was.

“Good afternoon.” she replied and looked over at Jimin who looked around.

“Taehyung!” he exclaimed and smiled, bringing his hand that was holding the bouquet in front of himself. “I brought this for you. I wasn’t sure of which would be of your liking, so I chose the one that was appealing for my eyes.”

Jimin saw doubt flicker in his mother’s eyes before she accepted the bouquet with a small smile and a whispered thank you.

“Oh,” Taehyung exclaimed again and lifted his other arm. “I’ve brought cake too,” Jimin finally noticed the plastic bag with a medium box inside of it on Taehyung’s grip. “I got you an extra slice.”

He reached out for it and decided that it was best to put them into a refrigerated place.

“You two should talk while I go to the kitchen to find a place for it into the fridge,” Jimin said and his gaze went from Taehyung to his mother. “Hopefully when I get back, you two won’t be chatting right in front of the entrance.”

Right after Jimin left, he heard a few footsteps behind himself, meaning that they’re were moving to the living room and he watched his father coming down the stairs with a wave, he looked...excited.

He came back to where they were in no time, his mother looked impressed, Taehyung was talking and Jimin couldn’t hear what it was until he took a seat right next to Taehyung.

There was even tea in the coffee table already.

“And I don’t really pay attention to what my father does, he knows that I’m not interested in anything that is related to his work ever since I was a little kid, so he had decided to let the family business to my younger sister, because neither my brother wants it,” Taehyung spoke calmly hands on his knees. “And as far as I remember, my sister had always wanted to go with my father to work and she likes what he does, so he just let us be, he said I’d be better the way I am.”

Jimin’s father was nodding to his words, but his mother had her eyes a little narrowed and her mouth started to curl downwards.

“So what does your father do exactly?” his mother finally asked.

“He’s the executive vice president for an automotive company, it’s more of, the production of the car parts,” Taehyung replied. “And my grandmother is the chairwoman.”

“Interesting,” it was the first time Jimin heard his father talk to Taehyung since he arrived - or he missed it when he was at the kitchen -, he had one hand under his chin and a thoughtful expression until he snapped his fingers. “Were you at our-”

“Party?” Taehyung completed and grinned, Mr. Park shook his head and agreement and waited for an answer. “Yes, I was actually there with my mother, since my father and grandmother couldn’t attend.”

“You’re that kid.” Mrs. Park said as a matter of fact, not so surprised, it didn’t sound offensive and Taehyung also didn’t look like he took it that way.

“I assume that that would be me,” Taehyung replied and Jimin thought back about meeting him at said party, when his mother suddenly appeared and snatched him away to have a lovely chit chat with her friends, much to his dislikings. “So I dare say that we’ve met before.”

“Briefly,” she replied and Jimin was quite amazed at how his mother sounded like she was enjoying herself while talking with Taehyung. “Thought, I think I’ve seen you before.”

“That’s possible,” said Taehyung and Mr. Park, still with his thoughtful face, was apparently searching something in between his memories. “I used to follow my grandmother around when I was way younger, my face didn’t change much if you look at old pictures, maybe you’ve been at my family’s company before.”

“Can you give me a name?” she asked.

“Sorry, as much as I’d love to, I mentioned previously about not showing any interest in it,” said Taehyung. “Which means that, as clever as I am, I never asked my father for the name and back to when I frequented the place, I was too young and didn’t know how to read. We don’t talk about it at home, knowingly that only my little sister shows any kind of interest in business and if they ever mentioned it on my presence, I dare say that I never absorbed this specific piece of information.”

“That’s a shame.”

“The surname is Kim though and my father is a broad shouldered man who wears rectangular spectacles and is a little taller than me, he has peculiar choices for suits, but nothing exaggerated,” Mr. Park had an even more thoughtful face, Jimin took a glimpse at him to see if he would say anything, he didn’t. “My grandmother has black hair and is a few inches shorter than me, around 5 feet and 5 inches, she has the appearance of a docile lady, which she is.”

"I think I've possibly seen her once, though, I'm not sure," Mr. Park said breaking the silence after thinking for a good amount of time. "And I'm quite sure that we weren't fortunate enough to cross paths during the party at the beginning of this month."

Jimin watched as his father spoke, his mother was the one with a thoughtful expression this time.

"I have another question" she said.

"Mom," Jimin finally opened his mouth to take part in the conversation. "This is not an interrogatory."

"It's alright," Taehyung said, patting Jimin's arm twice. "I like being questioned, giving answers widens my perspective over things and if I'm lucky enough, it is something I don't have an formulated answer for and need to give the subject some thinking. It's nice, to know that I can broad my knowledge not only with books. Mrs. Park, you were saying?"

"Ah yes," she looked stunned at Taehyung, Jimin imagined if she was wondering if he, Taehyung, would be annoyed at the amount of questions, but much on the contrary, he looked delighted. "I was wondering if you and my son would act more like normal couples, but it feels a little like the air of an old married couple or like you two aren't that close. It's different from teenagers nowadays. Not suspecting anything," she added. "I was just wondering and I concluded that it wouldn't be of harm to ask."

Jimin gulped and glanced over at Taehyung.

"What would the question be?" Taehyung replied to Mrs. Park explanation, looking eager to give her a satisfactory answer.

"Why don't you guys look close?" she finally asked and Jimin was digging his nails into the cushion by his side when he heard her words. He wasn’t taken aback, no he wasn’t, he knew his mother must’ve had a lot of questions inside her head and having Taehyung willingly offer to respond to the majority of them must had been nice, he just hoped she wouldn’t question too much.

If it was him, he wouldn’t know how to reply to that. Jimin stared expectantly at Taehyung.

“It’s not something that easy to explain,” he started and Mrs. Park looked deeply interested in what he had to say, she even sat herself straight and sipped her tea. “So I ask for a little bit of patience with me,” he then rubbed the back of his neck and blushed slightly - was he that good at acting? thought Jimin. “It is very known that a good proportion of the people that are in a relationship like to express their feelings through what we like to call skinship,” he licked his lips and intertwined his fingers - particularly looking as if he was going to present a lecture. “And I can only suppose that you and your husband had and do experience that still. What I’m trying to say is that for me, I’d rather save these particular things as holding hands and kissing,” he coughed. “To myself and the person in question only. I know it sounds selfish, but I also know that sometimes people get uncomfortable with public displays of affection and in most cases I prefer to not get anyone bothered, including Jimin because a few comments are unnecessary and he doesn’t need to hear them from people that are not important.”

“Did you decide that yourself or did anything in particular happen for you to think like that?” she asked, concerned.

“Yes,” Taehyung smiled. “Once when I was sixteen, I dated this girl and she often said how fool of these couples, kissing in the hall and holding hands like they won’t be seeing each other the next day, though it wasn’t the same principle I had in mind, I accepted it and therefore, not long after, I started to think the same way. Even if I broke up with her because I knew we were going nowhere, I don’t have a single memory of holding her hand and I don’t even remember how we started dating in first place.”

The room was silent, JImin’s tea that had been there for a while now was probably cold and untouched.

“Ah,” Taehyung suddenly said. “I think it was because her mother asked me to go out with her, I don’t think I ever felt anything for her, I never liked the way she thought and treated everyone else.”

If Jimin could say how the afternoon meeting went, he would conclude that everything was perfectly well and in place, his mother looked satisfied and accepting of who he had chosen - and Jimin was sure that if it was someone else and not Taehyung, things would’ve been quite different.

“It was a pleasure meeting you,” Taehyung said to both Mr. and Mrs. Park. “I fear that I have to go, night is nearing and even if my mother knows where I am, she’s going to get worried.”

“The pleasure was mine,” Mrs. Park was the first to manifest, getting up and offering a hand, which Taehyung shook and stood up as well. “Come more often, will you?”

“Yes,” Mr. Park agreed. “Do come if we throw more parties or dinners.”

With a nod of a head and a small smile, Taehyung bowed and bade goodbye to them.

“I will walk him out,” Jimin said. “If you doesn’t mind of course.” he added looking at Taehyung and getting a smile in return.

“Thanks for everything,” Jimin whispered to Taehyung once they were out of the house. “I never knew you could talk like that.”

“Yeah,” Taehyung replied. “I usually talk like that with my elders. The books help a lot with my vocabulary, even if it isn’t that great, I could’ve talked more about everything else, but I wasn’t sure if I should.”

“So those were...”

“Real?” he completed Jimin’s phrase and looked up at the sky that was starting to get orange and rosy. “They were, I hope saying that wasn’t too much.”

“Ah no, it was interesting,” Jimin said sincerely, hands in his pockets and eyes following Taehyung’s gaze. “It felt as if you were a different person.”

“I think we just don’t know each other that well,” he said and Jimin looked back to Taehyung and to where they were going, the gates were already in front of him. “It was nice coming, if you ever need my help, just ask me.”

“Right,” Jimin said thinking about how Taehyung will have to help him a few more times during family and social events. “Sorry for the bother.”

“It’s not a bother, really.”

“I never asked you this, but I’ve been wondering why you would accept my request,” Jimin said flustered. “If you don’t mind answering.”

“I said I like questions, didn’t I?” Taehyung winked at him and brought a finger to his lips, showing that he was indeed thinking about it. “Well, to start with it, you were nice to me when I was looking for the restroom, but that’s a stupid reason,” he joked and Jimin suppressed a laugh. “I just thought you were nice and that it’d be cool to be your friend.”

“I legitimately thought it was out of pity,” Jimin said and Taehyung shook his head, patting his arm again. “It isn’t, is it?”

“Of course not!” Taehyung exclaimed and punched Jimin’s arm lightly this time. “I don’t do this kind of charity, I did it because I wanted to.”

“So you really want to be my friend?”

“Do you want me to be your friend? Or do you want,” Taehyung went silent - looking rather embarrassed - and Jimin thought that that moment couldn’t sound more taken out of a stupid romance book than it already was. “Ignore the last part, but hey, do you want to hang out with me tomorrow? Unless you already have plans for your Sunday.”

“That’d actually be nice, yeah,” Jimin spoke and Taehyung’s smile grew wider. “Where to?”

“Surprise,” Taehyung sing songed and started to walk again, nearing the gates and reaching out to open it. “So it’s a date.”

The wind blew Jimin’s hair and Taehyung squeezed his arm reassuringly before he left.

(So this really is taken out of a cheap romance novel. Jimin told himself on his way back into the house and up to his room.)

In the morning, when the rays of light were too much and found their way into the room, Jimin was already awake, staring at his phone, doubtful if he should send Taehyung a text message or call him to ask when they should meet and where.

He decided upon himself that it'd be a good idea to get ready already, he had not even the slightest idea when he would be appearing and he would rather not waste time thinking instead of getting into action - what if Taehyung arrived and he was still on his pajamas? That wouldn’t do.

“Now I’m even over thinking,” he muttered to himself and went through a pile of clothes inside his wardrobe. “Did he really have to mention date in the first place? Wasn’t friendly outing a good term for that? Was he trying to make me nervous?”

A pile of shirts fell on his feet and he ran a nervous hand through his hair.

“I’M OVER THINKING AGAIN.”

The shirts flew before Jimin regretted his choice, both for kicking them and yelling, his mother knocked on the door, telling him to turn down the volume of his voice because it was still before nine on a Sunday morning and his father was still asleep.

He remorsefully picked the clothes from the carpet and started to fold and put them back to place. The biggest problem now was what he was going to wear.

Instead of worrying over that, he made his bed and opened the curtains, almost getting blinded by the sun. He realized that at the time that he decided what to wear, Taehyung would already be here, that could be left for later, he decided to go shower then.

When he got back, hair damp and towel tightly wrapped around his waist, he rummaged through his clothes once again, not worrying like before and just getting whatever matched and he saw in front of him.

That’s how he ended up with a white shirt under a light sky blue collar shirt and black jeans along with a black snapback, and maybe some eyeliner under his eyes.

Jimin couldn’t remember how long he spent trying to look as if the eyeliner never touched his face, before he could be done, he heard a beeping coming from his phone and an incoming message.

I’m ready when you are, just come outside.

He panicked a little before taking deep breaths and fixing his hair one last time before getting out of his room with his wallet safely placed inside one of the pockets of his jeans. His mother was sat in front of the television watching a cooking show by the time he was at the feet of the stairs.

“Going somewhere, son?” she asked, eyes still glued to the screen.

“Out.” he replied vaguely, hoping that she wouldn’t ask further.

“Have fun,” she waved a hand and dismissed him, not before saying. “Tell Taehyung I said hi.”

He groaned and left the house, walking to the gates and being confused that Taehyung wasn’t there. He pressed his face against the metal bars to try to see if there was something - or someone - outside, but all he saw was a car. Until it hit Jimin that it might be Taehyung waiting for him to get past those gates. And so he did.

He pushed it enough to make room for him to go through it and closed it right afterwards, looking around like a lost puppy, scanning the area, the big wheat colored house in front of his looked peaceful - aside from their dog barking - and the door at the driver’s seat side of the car opened - a red Hyundai Sonata, Jimin took notice - making him turn to stare at it.

Taehyung looked different from yesterday, he was back to ‘normal’, normal meaning a long navy blue coat matched with jeans and a random black t-shirt. With light footsteps, Jimin walked up to him and did a silly - in his opinion - waving with one of his hands.

The evening was going to be fun, he was sure of it.

Jimin was lying down in bed after another shower, with a sigh he closed his eyes and brought his hands behind his head.

He was tired after all that they’d done during the day, Jimin got home before it was seven - meaning that he had spent around nine hours out (considering that he left the house past ten in the morning) - so the only thing he wanted to do was sleep.

His mother even asked if he wanted something to eat when he passed through the door, but he rejected the offer - Taehyung and him had eaten enough for the rest of the day.

The sky was already dark and he could hear faint talking coming from downstairs, Jimin pressed his eyes tighter and with the soft clatter of the silverware against porcelain plates, he fell asleep.

”Where will we be going?” Jimin asked when he finally got to the passenger’s seat.

“Just somewhere.” Taehyung said before turning the key and leaving the front of his house.

They were walking at a random part of Hongdae, the car parked somewhere Jimin already forgot. He didn’t know where they were going, so the only thing he could do was follow Taehyung’s steps.

“Where are we going?” he tried asking again.

“We’re almost there,” said Taehyung, looking at him. “Are you already tired?”

“No,” Jimin replied with half a smile. “I’m just curious.”

There were hundreds of boys and girls and kids and families walking past him, Jimin tried to not get lost - that’d have been embarrassing and dumb of him, it wasn’t that packed - and while he was thinking about not getting lost, he saw Taehyung turning to enter a little coffee shop. He followed him closely.

“It’s almost empty.” he whispered when he stepped foot into the place. It was small and cozy, it wasn’t full of people, he assumed that most of them had better places to go or the shop was just small and not easily visible by who were in a rush. He stared around and saw around three tables and a small stair to the left, Taehyung was motioning for him to follow him upstairs.

“You surely like books.” Jimin joked when he reached the last step and took a look at the upper floor. It was full of book shelves and armchairs with coffee tables in front or beside them.

“I do,” Taehyung told him. “And I thought it’d be nice to show you the place I like the most. Their cake is great.”

Jimin woke up startled, someone was shaking him and before his eyes could get used to light, he heard his mother’s voice apologizing for waking him up so abruptly.

“I know you were already asleep, I’m sorry about that,” she said. “But I thought it would be important for me to tell you this before it was too late.”

The air suddenly felt heavy, how did so few words make such great impact? Was she going to say something good or bad? Jimin waited for her to speak further.

“I think I should apologize for the other day,” she said and Jimin’s shoulders felt lighter, he was gripping his hands from under the covers, he thought she was going to scold him for something he did. “Or the other days as well, I’m sorry for being like that. I know that you might think that I hate you or that I want to make you my puppet to do everything perfectly and the way I want. It might have been like this for quite a while, but these past days, I’ve been thinking deeply about everything that has been happening and I concluded that I can’t stay where I was forever.”

“I need to try to be a good mother for you, even if at first you go against my word,” Jimin was staring at his lap as she spoke, not sure if he should make eye contact or not. “Even if it isn’t what I want, I need to get to used to the idea that you won’t do what I expected because that isn’t like you, even if I once wanted you to have the same job as your father, I don’t think I can actually imagine you behind a desk everyday, wearing a suit and taking care of the whole business, that’s unlike you. And I can’t imagine you to get married as soon as I say so because that’s not how things work.”

“And especially after everything that happened,” she kept on talking nonstop and all Jimin did was nod his head at her words. “I don’t want to be the one to ruin your happiness. I might have been harsh with my words and actions these past weeks, but I hope you can forgive me. I realized that I still have a lot to learn, even at this age.”

Silence filled the room, Jimin was still sleepy and he had his eyes closed, letting those words sink in, his mother was apologizing and he didn’t know what to do or say.

“Thanks, mother.” he said and patted her hand that was next to him.

“Why thanks?” she asked surprised, but Jimin didn’t reply, he quietly pulled her in a hug and remained with his mouth shut, lips pressed together and eyes closed tight.

Jimin was surprised at how nice it was to spend some time with Taehyung at the small coffee shop, it was quiet and they could talk as much as they wanted without being interrupted - Jimin learned that Taehyung really likes the cat he once mentioned to him, that he has a lot of pictures of himself on his phone and that he easily gets distracted, with several occasions in which he found Taehyung looking to a fixed point with one blank expression -, occasionally with the waiter coming to ask if they wanted something to eat or drink.

They were currently walking again, apparently, walking back to where Taehyung’s car was.

“Are we going somewhere else?” Jimin asked and Taehyung brought his fingers to his lips. “Secret then?”

“No,” Taehyung laughed. “It’s around lunch time and, even if we got cake and coffee a few minutes ago, we should definitely find a place to eat something.”

With no more words, he kept on walking towards the location of the car.

It was Monday again, Jimin would have his Philosophy and Literature classes at the end of the day - he knew by now that those two subjects were required and not just some random classes someone decided to shove up his schedule (he was glad they were).

The day would had been normal if Seokjin didn’t have shown up to him, huge smile on his face and Yoongi by his side, staring at him with eyes that said something happened, why do you look so happy and lightheaded all of a sudden when you were all stressed out last week?. Seokjin didn’t seem to mind him being like that, he was actually glad that he was feeling better and it looked like Yoongi decided to drop the issue for the sake of whatever she had in mind, Jimin wasn’t sure about it, but he was almost sure that she would ask him something later - he hoped she wouldn’t.

He didn’t avoid her the whole day, they even sat together during lunch, but that was when her eyes would follow his every movement.

“Hey,” she whispered to him while Seokjin went to the restroom because he dropped something on his shirt - probably ketchup. “Did something happen during the weekend?”

“Errr, no. Nothing happened.” Jimin replied, eyes travelling everywhere and nowhere.

“You look nervous,” she simply said and Jimin exhaled. “Are you sure? Where’s Taehyung? Is he going to join us today?”

It looked as if she knew what was going on, but was trying to not sound like a pushover.

“I don’t know,” he wiped his mouth with the back of his right hand and stared back at Yoongi, she shot him a look and then smiled. “I-”

She waved at someone and Jimin turned to look so fast that he almost knocked his juice over his pants.

“Thought you’d never come,” Yoongi said to Taehyung, who had his hair all messed and breathing uneven, he looked like he had just run a marathon. “Busy?”

“Kind of,” he replied and took the free seat next to Jimin. “Hey,” he greeted Jimin. “Did you do your reading of the week?”

“I hope I did.” was Jimin’s reply and they laughed until Seokjin came back with a horrible wet patch on the side of his orange shirt, he looked mopey.

“It’ll be alright.” Yoongi told him with a pat to his back and he looked more cheerful with only that.

The rest of the day went as well and normal as the other ones.

“Welcome back, son.” his mother said when he entered the house.

“Good afternoon,” he replied and shook his head, he was tired - he didn’t even do anything tiresome that day. Sedentarism, he told himself. “I think I’m going to go upstairs and take a short nap, I’ll be down for dinner.”

Mrs. Park nodded and resumed what she was doing.

The bag was dropped to the floor and Jimin let himself fall on his bed with a soft thud, eyes closing automatically and falling asleep almost instantly.

”Thanks for the meal!” Jimin exclaimed, he ate so much chicken that he swore that he could explode at any moment. Taehyung hummed in response.

“What do you think about going to the theater?” Taehyung asked, looking at his wristwatch and Jimin agreed with a cheerful ‘yes’. “Let’s go then.”

Jimin hoped that Taehyung would take him by the wrist and pull him, but he didn’t, he just waited for him to start walking along. he was reluctant to admit to himself that he was disappointed.

“Popcorn and coke.” Taehyung said suddenly with his arms raised and Jimin snickered at him.

The buzzing of the phone startled Jimin, his half closed eyes spotted the device and he grabbed it to take a look.

Do you want to go out Friday? the new message read, it was from Taehyung and Jimin didn’t hesitate before typing would be glad to and pressing send.

He looked at the clock by his side, its number shining in the dark and reading that it was almost dinner time, he got up lazily and pushed his hair back just to have it come back to where it was previously.

The knock on the door told him that he was right. He left his bed and went downstairs.

It was funny to think of how fast the week passed by, soon enough, a month flew by and Jimin was incredibly happy yet sad - he knew why, but he didn’t want to admit it.

Taehyung was a great company, Seokjin and Yoongi thought the same, they got closer as days passed and Jimin was glad that they could all be friends.

Yoongi once asked him if there was something going on, he didn’t know what she meant, but for her to come and ask him, it meant that it probably was something to do with him.

He kept on going out with Taehyung, he didn’t remember ever mentioning their outings to her or Seokjin.

Going out to go bowling with Taehyung was fun, to the Han River, to have dinner, lunch, to talk or buy clothes and simply listen to music, everything was fun, but Jimin soon realized that all of that fun because Taehyung was there.

He also realized that when their hands brushed and Taehyung didn’t take it, he felt disappointed. That when they bade goodbye to each other, he wouldn’t come a little closer or say something more than just see you later.

To cut it short, Jimin realized that he started to develop a crush on him - would Taehyung ever like me back though? he often had that in mind, thinking back about Taehyung’s conversation with his parents.

The insecurity he carried with him was getting heavier and Taehyung seemed more oblivious to it - but he’d have to carry it with him for a little bit longer.

It was true that Taehyung and him spent a fair amount of time together and he was hoping that something would change, but even if it did, he didn’t know what - and with that, time was still running, quite fast.

Jimin never considered himself a coward, he was afraid of saying a few things, yes, but that didn’t mean that he wasn’t willing to say them, it just took a lot of thinking. So when the next time Taehyung asked him if he wanted to go get ice cream at the park - or was it biking? - he was determined to ask him what he was dying to know.

“Would you say that we’re dating?” Jimin said to Taehyung in one breath, they were just walking and Taehyung had his eyes fixed ahead, Jimin thought it was a good time to talk about it. “Like, for real?”

Taehyung didn’t say anything at first, his eyes were somewhere else, biting his lips very lightly.

“I would say so, yes.” he finally said and Jimin blinked his eyes more than necessary, not quite believing that Taehyung was so clear about it.

The smile smile playing on his lips grew wider.

“So you guys are dating?” Yoongi said the next day, finger pointing from Taehyung to Jimin and back to Taehyung, she eyed them suspiciously.

“I think so?”

“Knew something was up,” she said and slapped Seokjin’s arm. “You doubted me, huh? Guess who was right. Since when?”

“Not long ago.” they replied together and Yoongi said ha! so loudly that Yugyeom and Sanghyuk who were at another table turned to stare at her.

“Can we get back to our food now?” Jimin waved at his classmates whose eyes were still lingering at their table. Yoongi looked satisfied.

She teased Jimin until he couldn’t bear with her voice.

They were side by side, Taehyung offered to walk Jimin home because he wanted to and because he didn’t have anything else to do, it meant that he wouldn't get in the way of anything, so Jimin accepted the offer.

His house wasn’t too far - reason to why he went by foot and not by car -, so in no time they were already at his street, though his house was at the end of it.

The back of Taehyung’s hand brushed against Jimin’s, making him to stop walking and staring down at it.

“Is something wrong?” Taehyung asked.

“Will you ever take my hand?” Jimin replied with a question and Taehyung tilted his head.

“I would rather do it-”

“Without anyone looking?” Jimin tried and stared at Taehyung, he nodded. “There’s nobody in the street aside from us.”

Taehyung seemed to take his words, turning his head to look behind and from side to side, it really was empty.

“I suppose it’s-”

“You think too much,” Jimin scoffed and took Taehyung’s hand into his and catching him in almost surprise, he didn’t pull away. “You shouldn’t be bothered by it, there isn’t really anyone looking and if there were, I think that’s their problem.”

“You’re right.”

“I know.” it was Taehyung’s time to scoff, rolling his eyes at Jimin and gripping his hand tighter.

“So full of yourself,” he muttered. “I’ll try to not mind too much, I’m just not used to it, but let’s say that I’m working on it.”

“Thanks.” Jimin said and swung their arms back and forth.

“Why?” said Taehyung amused.

“I don’t know, just thanks.”

Jimin felt himself being pulled and Taehyung placing a small, quick and shy kiss at the corner of his lips, he smiled.

“What if someone saw that?” he whispered playfully to Taehyung when they were back at walking.

“Let them.”