Archive of Our Own

Eden Academy is a prestigious school that has a passing rate of 25%. Its reputation and incredible academic training programs made it a place for those in power to enroll their children, where several generations of those families are alumni. One of those families is Yoongi's.

Min Yoongi is the second-born of Min Yoonjae, the third-generation chairman of Min Corporation. His family's business is, well, big to say the least, so his father is always away at work and barely has time for them. That's what Yoongi's bodyguards always said. He knows it's partly true, though, having heard from his maids that his father used to be inseparable from Yoonjung, the firstborn.

Min Yoonjung is an exemplary student—he is actually an Imperial Scholar at Eden Academy, a title that very few students get the honor of holding. That title is very hard to achieve, and it takes a lot of patience and hard work to earn it. And Yoongi wants it—no, needs it.

It's because of Yoonjung's status and academic performance that their father acknowledges his presence, and Yoongi wants that. He thinks that if he were to be noticed by his father, he would have to be on the same level as Yoonjung, perhaps even better than him. And so it's with that motivation that Yoongi decided to be extra studious, studying even after his tutors left and before his bedtime (he’s not being dramatic).

Yoongi has a clear vision of his goal, and if he wants to get there, he'll have to reach for it.

The Interview

Yoongi is in an office, sitting on an armchair at the end of a coffee table. His parents are sitting on a sofa across from the interviewers, and it's overall a comfortable setting for an interview to be held in.

The interviewers are three prominent figures at Eden Academy: Lee Seonwoo, the principal; Kim Seokjin, the head coordinator, who is also his father’s former classmate; and Lee Kyungtaek, one of the board directors.

Days before the interview, Seo Byungwoo, one of his bodyguards, gave him a profile list of all the important figures at the academy. Studying their personalities makes it easier for Yoongi to come up with answers better suited for all three. His father didn't tell him to do such a thing, but Yoongi wanted to be prepared and perhaps get a compliment from his father for the initiative (which he doesn't get in the end).

After a few questions directed towards his parents, they finally move on to Yoongi. He straightens up, stiff as he prepares himself for the worst (he’s being dramatic).

“Mr. Yoongi, can you please state your full name, age, and address?” Lee Seonwoo asks.

“Yes, my name is Min Yoongi, I am six years old, and I currently live at 0339 Trinity Street.”

“Good. Now, Yoongi, what do you think about your parents?”

“I admire them. My father is hardworking, and it motivates me to work hard. My mother is caring, and it makes me feel good.”

“What would you like to be when you grow up?”

“To be like my father.”

“Do you think I’ll be accepted, Father?” Yoongi looks up at his father, making sure to seem casual and cold from his worries.

“You’re a Min, if you don't get accepted, then I don’t know who you are.” His father’s voice is a warning enough, and his words make Yoongi’s stomach churn.

The last thing he wants is to be disowned.

“W-well, I scored 95% on my entrance exam, and I answered their questions with enough grace, didn't I?” All he really wants to hear is a small compliment, just once. He silently begs.

“If you know you did well, then I don't see the point in doubting your acceptance.” Yoongi’s eyes widen at that, hope fluttering in his chest at the indirect compliment. “I have to go, I still have a meeting to attend.”

“I also have a place to be,” his mother says.

Both parents walk ahead and separate with their own bodyguards in tow, leaving Yoongi with his bodyguards behind. He's used to this, always being left alone, but he thinks he's starting to prefer it this way; otherwise, he wouldn't have missed his parents as much as he does.

The First Day

“On this day, Eden Academy welcomes you to its 200th opening ceremony for a new academic year.”

Yoongi's first day at Eden Academy has finally come! He’s been waiting for this moment for three whole months, taking summer classes and studying during the weekends as his preparation for the new school year. During those classes, he was also able to meet new comrades, boys who respect his father just as much as he does.

“Min Yoongi, Class A, Section A.”

Claps erupt in the hall, and Yoongi confidently walks up to the front with his parents in tow. The three bow before he falls in line with his classmates.

“Boss Yoongi, we’re in the same class!” Comrade Namjoon celebrates, pulling him into a hug—one that he quickly pulls away from.

“Comrade Namjoon, we can't do that in public! We must appear manly before our subordinates.”

His comrade’s eyes go wide. “I’m sorry, Boss Yoongi! It won’t happen again!” Namjoon salutes, and Yoongi mirrors him.

“Boss Yoongi! Comrade Namjoon! We’re classmates!” The last member of the group finally arrives.

“Comrade Taehyung, pleased to see you in our class,” says Yoongi with his deep, bossy voice, and all three of them salute each other.

Over their summer class, the trio’s favorite subject had been history class—the topic of wars, to be exact. They naturally fell into a roleplay of three boys on a mission to conquer the world. Or to be more realistic: three boys on a mission to have Yoongi be the youngest imperial scholar in the history of Eden Academy.

[Which is impossible, because the student must be at least 11 years old—and it’s already been done before. Yoongi can dream, though.]

Their roles had been naturally appointed as well. Yoongi is the goal here, so of course, he gets to be the boss! Namjoon and Taehyung will be his supporters, and everyone else will be their subordinates.

“Park Jimin, Class A, Section A.”

The trio pays attention to the program, and just as Yoongi looks to the front, his eyes meet a pair of another's.

Park Jimin.

Said boy is wearing their school uniform, but he looks to be drowning in it. His eyes are huge, like big pebbles, and his hands, drowning in his blazer, look tiny, like the hands of Yoongi’s favorite soldier figurines.

He looks…

Jimin notices their eye contact, and his face splits into a huge grin. What is astonishing about it is the fact that his huge eyes managed to become invisible from his smile alone.

Cute.

“He looks dumb.”

Yoongi’s head snaps toward Namjoon’s direction, then at Taehyung, who is nodding in agreement.

“He is, and he looks like trouble. We must eliminate him before he gets close to us.”

Boss Yoongi stays quiet as his two comrades discuss their strategies to keep people away from them. It all sounds very fun, but Yoongi cannot find it in him to pipe in or even agree to what they're planning to do.

Park Jimin is a threat.

Those stupid, cute eyes, stupid tiny hands, stupid cute smile, stupid tiny height, and stupid cute uniform.

Yes, he is indeed dangerous. But does Yoongi want him eliminated?

…No, I want him alive.

⌣⊹୨୧⊹⌣

After the opening ceremony, all of the first graders are separated from their parents and gathered in the food hall. This is the part where they are all supposed to get to know their classmates and determine their best friends. Yoongi doesn’t need to do all of that anymore, as he is quite content with his comrades already. However, being a Min, it’s inevitable that a lot of kids would want to try being his friend.

“Wow, it’s Min Yoongi, let’s be friends!”

“My father said the Mins are the most influential people in the world!”

“What is it like being Senior Yoonjung’s brother?”

“Let’s be friends!”

“I wanna be friends with you!”

How annoying.

As expected, everyone is as dull as he’s told they were. When he meets new people, they only ever talk about his father and brother. Don’t get him wrong, he is proud to be their family, but that’s all people ever talk about. Unlike his comrades, those people never talk about wars or adventures. Everything is superficial, boring.

“Leave Boss Yoongi alone, he doesn’t want to be friends with any of you!”

With his hands in his pockets and a face showing disinterest, Yoongi watches as his comrades shoo the other kids away. He doesn’t have time or interest in interacting with those kids anyway.

“You!”

Yoongi glances to the side and sees Jimin pointing at him with a determined look on his face. This rude act sets the alarms off in Yoongi’s head. Does he want to fight me? He thinks, his hands forming into fists in his pockets.

Jimin marches up to Yoongi, and as the latter prepares for the unpleasant contact, the boy suddenly stops in his tracks and stares at him in wonder. His stupid (cute) expression flusters Yoongi to bits, and he has to physically and angrily look away to contain himself. If he doesn’t, then Jimin would have to suffer the consequences. What kind of consequences, Yoongi doesn’t want to say, but he assures that there will be consequences.

“Don’t worry, Boss, we’ll eliminate him for you—”

“You’re now my friend!” Jimin loudly declares.

Huh?

They all fall quiet at the announcement. Yoongi blinks, then again, and after his third blink, he bursts into laughter. His comrades follow right after, and Yoongi watches in satisfaction as Jimin’s face twists in confusion, as if he can’t wrap his tiny head around the reason why they’re all laughing.

“Not everyone can just be Boss Yoongi’s friend,” says Comrade Taehyung.

“Exactly. We must know your background first,” Comrade Namjoon Joins. “Who are your parents? What do they do?”

“My papa is Jeon Jungkook, the best psachatrist in the world!”

The trio looks at each other, then bursts out laughing again. Yoongi must admit, Jimin is a funny kid. He is so stupid (cute)! How did he get into Eden Academy if he can’t even pronounce ‘psychiatrist’ correctly?

“You’re dumb!”

“He’s not a threat after all!”

“It’s pronounced as psychiatrist, dumb dumb,” Yoongi tells him, a smirk plastering his face at the stupid (cute) mistake Jimin made. “If you can’t even say it right, then you’re not welcome to be my friend.” He high-fives with his comrades.

“Well, that’s too bad, because Papa said that we must become friends!” Jimin crosses his arms and huffs. “So that means we are friends. He said you are invited to come to my house anytime for a playdate.”

Just like that, Yoongi’s most loyal comrades betrayed him by laughing at him! They are so dead to him!

“Oooh, Boss Yoongi on a playdate with Park Jimin!” Namjoon and Taehyung tease him.

“First day and you already have a date!”

“Don’t be stupid! He’s just making stuff up! I would never go on a playdate with him!” Yoongi spits out, his chest heaving in anger.

How dare they?!

He faces Jimin and gives him the best angry face he could muster. “You’ll never be my friend, you’re too ugly to be my friend, you’re too stupid to be my friend. Ugly, dummy, stupid!”

“Um, maybe we should watch our words, Boss Yoongi.”

But that doesn’t matter, because what Jimin does next effectively shuts all of them up; his face splits into a huge, creepy smirk. WHY IS HE SMIRKING SO SMUGLY?! It's definitely not Jimin’s best look, but it's idiotic enough to be more annoying (endearing) than his normal face.

“W-why do you look like that?”

“Stop that, it’s creepy!”

“Boss Yoongi, you’re right, he is ugly.”

⌣⊹୨୧⊹⌣

When their class takes on the campus tour, the trio stays at the very back, setting a decent distance away from everyone. They explore the halls by themselves, walking mightily with their chins up and chests puffed. Nothing could ever get in the way of the Genius Boys—

“Ow!” Yoongi yelps in chorus with another as he bumps into something.

He angrily looks down at the obstacle, ready to yell at them, only for his words to die in his throat when he sees the sight in front of him. Down on the floor sits Park Jimin, stupidly (cutely) rubbing his head while wearing a stupid (cute) pout.

“Ouchie,” mumbles Jimin.

OUCHIE?! WHO SAYS THAT?! THAT’S SO CHILDISH (cute)

“G-get up! Look where you’re going, s-s-stupid!”

His outburst makes his comrades celebrate, pumping their fists in the air while hyping him up. “Yeah! Yell at him, Boss Yoongi!”

But Yoongi can’t find it in himself to celebrate with them, because he sees it in dramatic slow motion the way Jimin’s stupid (cute) huge eyes water, and his stupid (cute) lips wobbling.

Another boy is immediately by Jimin’s side, and Yoongi recognizes him to be Hoseok, Jung Industries’ youngest heir. “Hey, it was an accident, you didn't have to go that far, Yoongi.” The boy seethes.

“Well, he should’ve looked where he was going!” His retort seems weak enough because his comrades look at him with expectation, as if waiting for him to drop the bomb.

And so, forcing himself to face Jimin’s stupid (cute) face again, he bends down and forces a mocking voice. “Stupid, stupid, stupid!” (Cute, cute, cute)

While his comrades are laughing, Yoongi narrows his eyes when he notices the change in Jimin’s stare. Gone is the crybaby face as it's now blank, and if he doesn't know any better, it seems like the boy is trying to read his mind.

After what feels like forever, Yoongi looks in horror when Jimin’s blank face morphs into that smirk again.

“W-what’s with that ugly face again? Didn’t we tell you to stop that?” Yoongi forces out, stepping back when Jimin doesn't drop the expression. His comrades see it as well, and they both cringe in horror while stepping back.

“Stop that!”

“Don’t remind us of that face!”

“Stop bullying Jimin, would you?! You're all being unreasonably mean!” Hoseok pulls Jimin up with him and glares at the trio. “You could've just walked away; making fun of Jimin was very unnecessary.”

Comrade Namjoon scoffs, crossing his arms as he says, “Don't butt in, Hoseok—or do you want us to bully you as well?”

The boy’s face turns red, and his hands clench into fists. “WHY WOULD I WANT THAT?!”

This begins an argument between the two, with Comrade Taehyung piping in to help his comrade in the battle. Yoongi would’ve stopped the crisis and just told them that they were too mature for this, but his words die in his throat once again when Jimin steps closer into his space.

The short boy is looking up at Yoongi with that same smirking expression, but the latter is stuck in place. Jimin is very strange, and Yoongi finds himself curious about the boy.

Is he trying to intimidate me?

Jimin looks around the hallway before he raises his hand.

Yoongi tilts his head, confused.

Jimin pulls back his hand, now formed into a fist.

Yoongi's eyes widened.

Jimin punches Yoongi in the face, the force so powerful it sends him flying into the wall.

It takes a second, but when the shock fades, the pain finally registers.

“Owwww! Yah, that hurt! Why did you have to punch me?!” War cries (wails) come out of Yoongi's mouth nonstop, and his comrades are immediately by his side, comforting him.

He cups the side of his face, putting more effort into stopping the tears streaming down his face than dealing with the situation.

Jimin is a very tiny boy with a very tiny hand, but, boy, does he know how to punch! Yoongi is not sure if that deserves his respect or if that deserves a lifetime's worth of grudge.

“Hmph! Serves you right, dummy!” Hoseok sticks out his tongue, then begins praising Jimin.

“My, what is happening here?”

They all look up and see Mr. Seokjin with a worried face. However, seeing Yoongi on the floor and Jimin’s smug expression, his worried face is quickly replaced with a stern, strict one. He most likely has interpreted the situation already.

“Boys, fighting is not elegant.” Mr. Seokjin sighs. “Mr. Jimin, did you punch Mr. Yoongi?”

The boy points at Yoongi and says, “I was just stretching my arms, and he was in my way.”

Yoongi’s eyes widened at the audacity. Tiny Jimin turns out to be capable of a lot of surprising things.

“That's impossible, you literally stood in front of Boss Yoongi on purpose!” Says Comrade Taehyung.

“You're lying, you were looking around to see if any teachers were around, and there's literally a print of your fist here!” Comrade Namjoon also says, and he pulls Boss Yoongi into his chest. While the latter tries his best to wiggle out of the embrace, his comrade remains holding him.

“Lying is a shameful act that deserves its own special punishment, Mr. Jimin.”

“But Professor Seokjin, Jimin was patient with them the whole time! They keep teasing and bullying him—” Hoseok tries to defend his friend, but the teacher doesn't wait to listen to more.

“And responding with violence is not just shameful, but also immature, Mr. Jimin. That was not elegant of you.”

Jimin points again, but this time to Hoseok, and he says, “They were calling him names and shouting at him, so I avenged him.”

“Losing your composure when your friend was getting hurt. Sacrificing your image to protect your friend. Now that is elegance.”

Yoongi looks between the teacher and Jimin in disbelief. He’s injured here, and his enemy is getting the praise!

⌣⊹୨୧⊹⌣

By the end of the day, Jimin walks up to Yoongi before he gets inside the boys’ dormitory. He lets go of the door handle and heaves a sigh as he faces the tiny boy. After the commotion earlier, Yoongi decided that Jimin was too interesting to hold a grudge against. He doesn’t forgive him, but he wouldn’t think it’s too bad if Jimin stuck around to entertain him some more—like his very own jester, yes.

“I’m sorry” are the first words that come out of Jimin’s mouth before he dips into a bow.

He looks even tinier when he bows.

“For what?” He crosses his arms, huffs, and looks away.

“For punching you. Jimin couldn’t help it; you were bullying him, and Detective Agust said self-defense is very important.”

When Yoongi glances at the boy, he sees him sporting a huge pout and a genuine regret in his face. Perhaps his comrades were right; he should’ve watched his words earlier. But it wasn’t entirely his fault! They pressured him into bullying tiny Jimin!

“Fine, whatever, forgiven.” He turns away and ignores the excited gasp he hears. “That doesn’t mean we’re friends, though! Now, shoo!” And he doesn’t look back when he finally enters the dormitory building.

He’ll just have to endure the boy for the entire school year, then maybe when they move up a grade, Jimin will be demoted to Section B. With how dumb he is, Yoongi doesn’t doubt he’ll be dropped from the class.

⌣⊹୨୧⊹⌣

The phone line connects, and their butler’s voice comes through the call. “Min residence, Butler Wu speaking. How may I help you?” The man greets.

“Butler Wu, it’s me, Yoongi,” He greets.

“Young Master Min, how may I help you?”

“May I… speak with my mother?”

“Hold for a moment.”

“Thank you.”

“Yoongi?”

“Mother, someone hit me earlier.”

Please be worried. Please be worried. Please be worried.

“I see. Did you manage?”

Oh…

“Um, yes.”

“Good. Would that be all?

“Yes, mother,” he sighs quietly.

“Alright then. Goodbye.”

“Bye—”

The line disconnects.

The Project

The past few weeks at Eden Academy have been fun. Everything Yoongi studied during the summer made the lessons at school pass in a breeze, but the only downside to it was how boring it got. He already knew everything to cover a whole semester's worth of lessons, so he took it upon himself to make classes interesting by observing the eccentric Jimin.

The tiny boy somehow thought that what had transpired on the first day was a confirmation of their friendship. All Yoongi did was forgive him! And now he’s out here saying good morning when he arrives in the classroom, sitting with them during lunch, and basically following him around campus.

His comrades wouldn't stop teasing him about it, even Hoseok would join in on the teasing, but it eventually got boring for them when Yoongi would just stay quiet and avoid eye contact.

Sitting in class right now while the professor goes on about maps, Yoongi continues staring down at the back of Jimin’s head. He's been observing for a few minutes now, and one annoying (endearing) habit he noticed is the way Jimin sways his head side to side, like there’s a song in his head he’s dancing to.

“Seems like Mr. Min has chosen his partner.”

Hearing his name from the professor, he scrambles to sit up and pretend like he was listening the whole time. He side-eyes his comrades for help, and Namjoon is the first to take notice, so he leans in to whisper, but their teacher beats him to it.

“Mr. Park, you will be paired with Mr. Min.”

WHAT

“WHAT?!”

⌣⊹୨୧⊹⌣

It turns out that the project required making a map of both partners’ neighborhoods and creatively connecting the roads to make a big neighborhood out of the two. The plan is simple: tell Jimin to draw his neighborhood, take the drawing, and then handle the rest himself. Easy. That way, he wouldn't have too much Jimin exposure.

Evidently, Yoongi expected too much.

HOW HARD IS IT TO DRAW AN ACCURATE MAP?!

Everything is pink, the lines aren't straight, the buildings are in the shape of kid-drawn houses, and the geography is very inaccurate. Not to mention the spellings as well—it’s truly a wonder how Jimin got into the academy; such a low IQ is not a characteristic of an Eden student.

“You can’t be that near to the school!” Exclaims Yoongi as he holds Jimin’s poorly-made drawing.

Well, for his age, he thinks it’s neat enough, and it adds to Jimin’s annoying (endearing) charm. But that is not the point here because his grades are on the line!

“That is far!” Jimin points out with a tiny finger, tracing the pink road in his drawing.

“Then why is it so close here in the drawing?!” He makes a show of pressing the paper to his face, emphasizing the inaccurate distance displayed in the drawing.

His silly act pulls an annoying (cute) giggly sound out of Jimin. “It’s not!”

Flustered at the sound, Yoongi pulls the paper away and scoffs, quickly changing the topic. “Also, school is spelled with a C H, not a K!” He scolds while waving the paper in front of Jimin’s face.

“Oh, I didn't know.”

Yoongi rolls his eyes. “And neighbor is spelled as N E I G H B O R, not like this!” Yoongi scoffs and groans. “I’m surprised you even got ‘house’ right.”

He looks at Jimin straight in the eyes and notices the glaze in them. However, contrary to Yoongi's expectations, the tiny boy just huffs and crosses his arms. “W-well show me yours, then!” He says.

“Mine?” Yoongi points at himself.

“Yes!”

That's the problem: Yoongi hasn't done his part yet. To his credit, he was waiting for Jimin’s map so that he could have a basis for where his map would start, for their works to be connected. So, really, there's nothing to blame Yoongi for in this situation. Except maybe overestimating Jimin’s capabilities.

“No, but one thing you should know is that it's better than this trash you made!” He lies—though not entirely, because the drawing he has in his head is neater and cooler.

“That was mean.” Jimin pouts.

Yoongi smirks and leans down to Jimin’s eye level. “It's not mean if it’s facts.”

The tiny boy narrows his eyes and stubbornly huffs into Yoongi’s face—to which Yoongi could only sputter in disbelief. “I did my part; it’s your turn.”

Rolling his eyes, Yoongi leans away and holds up Jimin’s drawing. “No, do yours again, it’s stupid.” (cute)

“It’s not stupid, it’s acu-ate.”

The cute—stupid mistake makes Yoongi snort, but instead of making fun of Jimin about it, he simply corrects him. “It’s pronounced as ‘accurate’, and no, yours isn't.”

Tiny Jimin tilts his head innocently, but Yoongi can see the teasing behind it. “Then what is Yoongi gonna do about it?”

Huffing tiredly, Yoongi waves the paper in Jimin’s face again as he exclaims, “Have you redo it!”

“Jimin did his part.” Jimin pouts, but it’s an angry one.

Another annoying (endearing) habit Yoongi noticed about Jimin is the random usage of third-person narration. He used to think maybe it was how his parents talked to him growing up, but after weeks of Jimin-exposure, he figured it was because of his favorite show: Detective Agust. The show has a narrator, and Jimin seemed to have picked up on it.

It’s very annoying (cute, endearing, adorable, precious). But even if it is, he still likes to play along sometimes —well, it's not like he enjoys it, he's just mocking the boy!

“Jimin failed his part.” Yoongi sticks his tongue out. After a quick decision, he messily folds the paper and pushes it into his pocket. “You know what, fine, I’ll do everything myself.”

“How?”

Yoongi blinks, then looks away to avoid eye contact. “I will go to your neighborhood, wherever that is,” he mumbles, scratching his nose as a distraction.

“Boss Yoongi's gonna visit Jimin’s house?”

The question flusters Yoongi, and he forces out a cold, deadpan, “Um, not exactly, no. Just your neighborhood.”

There is no way Yoongi is visiting annoying (endearing) Jimin’s house. It would only solidify the boy's assumption that they are both friends, which they are absolutely not! Jimin is just his jester—a weird boy who is very annoying (adorable) but very funny to bully.

“Boss Yoongi is visiting Jimin’s house!” Jimin announces to the world (they’re in the garden, and no one is around).

Heat pools in Yoongi’s face. “I am not!”

“Is it true, is it true?” Out of nowhere, Hoseok pops up from behind Jimin, and this only makes Yoongi more irritated.

“No!” Yells Yoongi just as Jimin exclaims, “Yes!”

“I can't believe Yoongi gets to visit Jimin’s house first. I’m his best friend, I should get to see his house first.”

“Hoseok has already visited before,” Jimin mumbles, and Yoongi is going to act like that didn't make him mad (jealous).

“Hey, hey, hey, what’s all this commotion about?” Suddenly, his comrades pop up from behind him in the same fashion as Hoseok and begin fussing around them.

“Boss Yoongi is visiting my house!”

“Yeah, a playdate! Finally!” Taehyung pumps a fist in the air.

“We are not having a playdate, and I am not visiting Jimin’s house! Just his neighborhood!”

At this point, Yoongi is wasting his energy and voice. Whenever he tries to defend himself, none of these kids ever listens to him! It's pointless and rude and annoying.

“That's technically visiting him,” Namjoon helpfully butts in.

Finally, having none of it, Yoongi bursts: “Shut up, all of you, shut up! I’m not visiting stupid Jimin’s stupid home!”

⌣⊹୨୧⊹⌣

Yoongi was right, Jimin doesn't live a walking distance away from the academy.

“It’s a pleasure to finally meet you, Mr. Min Yoongi, my name’s Jeon Jungkook, Jimin’s father.”

And Yoongi does end up visiting Jimin’s home, but that is only because the boy saw him and Byungwoo walking around the neighborhood, and invited both of them inside. He hadn't intended for this to happen! It's not like he told his bodyguard he wanted to walk so that he’d accidentally bump into Jimin, no, that would be very stupid.

“Papa, it’s Boss Yoongi,” Jimin proudly corrects his father. Which was completely unnecessary. He didn't want his first impression to be an arrogant, superior kid!

Not like his impression of me matters…

“Ah, right, my apologies—Boss Yoongi.”

He feels his face warm up, and he shyly buries himself in the collar of his coat. “Likewise, sir.”

“So what are you two up to, again?”

“School project!” Jimin excitedly says.

“Oh, and you two are partners.”

“Yes, yes!”

Yoongi looks up and quietly observes the father and son duo’s interaction. Jimin seems to be even more carefree around his father; louder and hyper than usual, jumping around Mr. Jeon’s seat on the sofa. It's a very odd sight—oddly… domestic and envious.

He’ll never have the courage to act the same way in front of his family. He’d only be shut down and punished for being childish and immature.

“Would you be doing the same at Boss Yoongi’s house?”

The hopeful look on Jimin’s face flusters Yoongi, but as tempting as it is to say ‘sure,’ he knows he shouldn't. Aside from the fact that the Min residence is far away from the city, he wouldn't want Jimin to be exposed to his family. He knows the tiny eccentric boy will only be judged by everyone.

“No, I can do it myself,” Yoongi politely says.

The negative answer has Jimin pouting. “But Jimin wants to help…”

His words make Yoongi snort, and he mumbles under his breath, “You’d be no help either way…” Mr. Jeon perks up, and Yoongi scrambles to say something else. “It’s alright, I can handle it.”

Crap, did he hear me?

“I apologize on behalf of Jimin; he’s very messy, isn’t he?” Yoongi’s eyes bulge in horror at Mr. Jeon’s words. What should he even say to that? Agree that his son is a messy boy? Well, it may be true, but Yoongi doesn’t want to offend the old man, especially when he’s Jimin’s father!

“I’ll take that as a yes,” Mr. Jeon says in the end, and Yoongi looks away guiltily.

“Papa!”

Mr. Jeon laughs at Jimin’s indignant scream, fondly patting the tiny boy’s head.

Patting his head…

“I'll go with you two outside, okay? I may trust your Mr. Byungwoo for your safety, Boss Yoongi, but I also want to make sure my little boy is safe.” The man’s kind tone and smile flustered Yoongi to a certain level.

Jimin definitely takes after his father’s charm.

“O-okay,” stammers Yoongi while Jimin simply yells, “Okay!”

“Ooh, Papa, Papa—I wanna show Boss Yoongi my room!”

“You two go ahead, I’ll clean up and change before we go out.”

“Yay!” Jimin jumps down from the sofa and pulls Yoongi up from his seat. “Boss Yoongi, follow me!” But, really, his words are useless if he is just going to drag him anyway.

They walk down the short hallway and enter a room with the door already wide open. The first thing Yoongi notices upon entering is the bright, baby blue walls with a carnival pattern. Next is the twin-sized bed on the side that’s occupied with multiple stuffed toys. He also notices a bookshelf, but it’s only filled with children's tales and action figures of Detective Agust.

To put it simply, Jimin’s room looks like a typical boy’s room… and Yoongi is jealous of that. Don’t get him wrong, he has everything he needs and wants in his bedroom at the Min residence, but the walls lack his favorite color, his shelves are only filled with textbooks, and his bed lacks imaginary friends. Yoongi wants that kind of freedom to express as well.

“Welcome to my humble abod!”

Yoongi snorts. “It’s ‘abode,’ and this whole apartment is the abode, not your room.” He rolls his eyes, then makes his way over to the desk chair.

“Then… welcome to Jimin’s secret hideout!”

“Um, sure,” He deadpans, not really feeling like arguing with Jimin at the moment, especially not when the tiny boy looks genuinely excited to show him around.

Jimin jumps into his bed and takes an octopus plushie with what looks like a homemade top hat sewn onto its head. “This is Mrs. Octy, she’s the top secret agent.” That explains the hat.

He puts the stuffed toy down and takes another one. This time, it’s a teddy bear—one that’s wearing a hat as well, but with a silly addition of a sewn-on beard. “This is Mr. Ted, he's the guy who sends me out on missions. He loves making disguises for himself and me.”

Putting down the toy, Jimin suddenly perks up as he grabs another. “Oh! And this is Ms. Frost, she is afraid of the heat!” It’s a bunny, and it’s wearing a homemade set of winter clothes.’

“Right, these are…” Is this what playdates are like? Yoongi’s never been to one, finding the concept of a playdate very odd and childish. But if it’s just like this, Jimin showing off his cute stuffed animals, then Yoongi guesses it’s alright to have one now and then. Only with Jimin, though—because calling his hangouts with his comrades as ‘playdates’ is weird!

“Alright, I guess,” Yoongi decides to say, looking away in embarrassment afterwards.

What the hell am I thinking?

“Cool!” Jimin corrects him.

“Yeah,” Yoongi mumbles. He looks at the stuffed toys now messily lying on Jimin’s bed and decides to say, “They’re very cute.”

Jimin’s eyes widened, but he fortunately didn't get to say anything because Mr. Jeon came in just in time. “Kids, let’s go?” He asks while putting on his coat.

“Let’s go!”

There really isn’t much they had to do outside except walking around the neighborhood—or at least, the perimeter around Jimin’s apartment building. So that’s exactly what they do. Yoongi doesn’t know what’s going on in Jimin’s mind (as if he always knew what was going on inside that weird kid’s mind), but he knows it’s absent enough to not even notice what the purpose of this walk is.

Knowing as such, Yoongi takes the initiative to memorize the areas they walk into, the layout of the roads, and the important landmarks (for Jimin’s possible favorite spots)... Okay, well, not exactly memorizing because he’s making Byungwoo note down the stuff he just pointed out. But the initiative is still there.

“Jimin, don’t wander off.”

Just as he expected, Jimin is definitely absent-minded at the moment. The tiny boy wouldn’t stop walking off by himself or staying behind, just to watch or check out whatever caught his attention. This prompts a varied series of Mr. Jeon calling out to Jimin, or reminding the boy—all with a fond exasperated tone.

“Jimin, stay close.”

“Jimin, not too far.”

“Jimin,” Mr. Jeon sighs, completely done with his son at this point.

Yoongi wants to help Mr. Jeon out, so, taking initiative again, he walks up to Jimin, who’s currently pressed against the glass windows of a toy store, and takes his hand.

“Listen to your papa, Jimin,” he gently scolds.

Stop being so cute.

He expected the tiny boy to yell and make a big deal out of them holding hands, but what he got instead was a look of wonder and shock. Jimin’s eyes are huge, bigger than the first time he’s seen them, and he’s sporting that look again—like he’s trying to read Yoongi’s mind. The boy is being weird again, but Yoongi is practically used to it already, so he simply rolls his eyes and drags Jimin back to their walk.

For the rest of the walk, their hands remain entwined. Yoongi tries to think of anything to take his mind off the tiny hand, but it’s fruitless; his mind stays blank except for the recurring images of their hands together.

When Yoongi returns to the dormitory that afternoon, his hand moves on its own, connecting and drawing his and Jimin’s neighborhoods. And when he looks at the finished product, he feels proud and ecstatic that they actually look good together. The neighborhoods—they look good together. Although middle-class, Jimin’s neighborhood was actually decent… Yoongi wouldn’t mind visiting again, but he won’t say that, of course!

⌣⊹୨୧⊹⌣

“How was the date?”

Yoongi sighs loudly and puts down his book. The conversation hasn’t even progressed yet, but he’s already tired of Hoseok’s question—one that wasn’t directed at him—and his voice alone. Why can’t the class start sooner? But of course, the world wants him to suffer first.

From his seat, he can imagine Jimin’s excited face split into a grin as he flails his arms around. “Boss Yoongi held my hand!” He loudly announces.

The whole classroom falls silent at Jimin’s words, and Yoongi could only look down at his book with a horrified expression. How does one defend oneself from the truth? Everyone’s eyes are on him, and when it becomes too much, he quietly picks up his book again and ducks under it, pretending to read.

“Right, like we believe you.” Finally, his comrades have come to his rescue.

Namjoon’s words effectively stop everyone from staring at them and go back to their business, because if there’s one thing their classmates know about Jimin, it’s that he’s weird. Fortunately, that’s all they know about him, and that’s all they say about him, because if Yoongi finds out otherwise—there’ll be consequences!

Jimin whines and turns in his seat to pout at Yoongi. “Boss Yoongi, tell them!”

Yoongi peeks over his book, but immediately avoids eye contact when he sees those hopeful eyes of Jimin. “Y-yeah, stop lying, Jimin,” he weakly says, then ducks back down to his book.

“But I’m not lying!”

“Don’t worry, Jimin, I believe you!” Hoseok’s annoying voice joins again, and Yoongi rolls his eyes. “Yoongi is just too shy to admit he held his crush’s hand!”

This time, Yoongi does react. He slams down his book and stands up from his seat, angrily looking down at the two. “I don't have a crush on Jimin!”

“Yeah, Boss Yoongi would never have a crush on someone like Jimin!”

Yoongi looks in Taehyung’s direction, and instead of feeling grateful that his comrade has his back, he only feels even more frustrated and annoyed. Someone like Jimin who is c-cute? Yoongi doesn’t have a crush on him, not because he is the way he is, but because he simply does not!

“Argh! Just shut up!”

“He so has a crush on you—”

“Sleep with one eye open tonight, Hoseok!”

⌣⊹୨୧⊹⌣

The phone line connects, and their butler’s voice comes through the call. “Min residence, Butler Wu speaking. How may I help you?” The man greets.

“B-butler Wu, it’s me, Yoongi,” he nervously says, his fingers twirling the cord.

“Young Master Min, how may I help you?”

“May I… speak with my father?”

“Is it an urgent matter?”

Oh… of course. “Well, no.”

“Then tell me what it is you want to say, so that I can relay it to him.”

“Right.” Yoongi closes his eyes in disappointment, his free hand dropping to his side as all feelings of nerves vanish. “I got a perfect score on my project today. I made a detailed drawing of our neighborhood; it's very nice.”

“Is that all?”

“A-and I’ve been top of my class for a month straight now, I’ll surely get a stella in no time.”

“Is that all?”

“...Yes.”

“Have a good afternoon, Young Master Min.”

The line disconnects.

The First Stella

The semester is coming to an end, and Yoongi is becoming impatient. For the past few months, he’s been trying to do all sorts of things to become the fastest and youngest imperial scholar this academy’s ever had, but he’s only gotten one stella so far. His first Stella was for being the top of his class on every single subject for three consecutive months, including their midterm exams.

However, that was it. His efforts at holding charity events and volunteering every now and then are turned a blind eye to. Why? Because everyone at school is doing it for the same goal as him—to become an imperial scholar. This only frustrates Yoongi further, because how else are they going to get Stellas now if everyone is doing the same thing?

With that question in mind, Yoongi took his time in the library to search through every imperial scholar this school’s ever had and read up on their great deeds that gave them such a title. Surprisingly, Yoongi actually got his answer, and his options are: continuously be at the top of his class; save someone’s life; get a national award; become recognized nationwide or globally; bring significant change to the world (or the school, either works); and bring world peace.

Discovering these raises a new question: How in the world can I, a six-year-old, do all of these? If that is what it takes to get a Stella, then he might as well just sign up for the military at his ripe age.

[There are actually plenty more ways to get a stella, but the records Yoongi was reading were all from almost a century ago, when nations were in a constant state of war and distress.]

Despite this new challenge facing him, he won’t let this deter him. So he discussed his next course of action with his comrades by holding a formal meeting with them (a meeting at the gardens behind the bush of roses, with each of them eating a packed strawberry-jam sandwich that Taehyung’s mother kindly made for them for that occasion). They considered his findings and structured a strategic plan for his next Stella.

In the end, the trio came to a common conclusion: stage a near-death experience on Namjoon so that Yoongi can come to the rescue and get that second Stella.

“I’m beginning to think that I’m not sure about this, Boss Yoongi,” Namjoon whispers to Yoongi.

The three of them are currently in the food hall eating brunch. It’s actually a weekend, but the two Kims have come to visit Yoongi to set their plan in motion. There’s no one else in the hall at the moment, but they still decide to talk in whispers in case anyone overhears.

“And why is that, Comrade Joon?”

“I’m scared—what if we fail?”

Yoongi looks at Namjoon and furrows his eyebrows. “Don’t you trust us? There are two of us who’ll save you.”

“I know, but it’s still scary. A near-death experience! It’s an actual fear, I could be traumatized for life—staged and saved or not.” There’s a wild look in Namjoon’s eyes, and Yoongi begins doubting their decision as well.

It’s Taehyung’s turn to lean in and whisper. “It won’t be too bad, Comrade Joon, it’s a small street.”

Namjoon makes a show of slowly turning his head to face Taehyung, emphasizing his disbelief at the boy’s words. “Small? Taehyung, the road we’re talking about is a literal highway.”

“He dropped the comrade,” Yoongi mumbles. Dropping their roleplay terms means they’re being serious.

“So, what, we’re gonna back out?” Taehyung asks.

“As the incoming victim, yes, we’re backing out from this.” Namjoon shivers in his seat. “Things could go wrong—why did we decide to risk my life?”

“Good question.” Yoongi and Taehyung nod in agreement.

“Wait—” Taehyung perks up in his seat. A new idea must have flashed in his mind. “They said to save a life, but they didn’t say what kind of life.” Both Yoongi and Namjoon gasp, looking at each other in a why-haven’t-we-thought-of-this-before way.

“Let’s save an animal’s life!”

⌣⊹୨୧⊹⌣

“Tiger V, No animals in sight, over.” Comrade Taehyung’s static voice cuts with a beep over the radio.

“Axolotl RM, No animals in sight as well, over.”

A moment of silence covers the mood before the radio beeps and a line connects. “We talked about this, Comrade Joon,” comes Comrade Taehyung's deadpan.

“I love axolotls.”

“Yes, but it doesn't sound right with your name.”

Yoongi rolls his eyes at his friends’ argument and decides to just pocket his radio and find a dying animal himself.

After deciding to save an animal’s life instead of risking Namjoon’s precious one, they immediately scarfed down their brunch and then made their way to the park. Yoongi remembers how Jimin said he and his family loved going there for some quality time.

Yoongi's embarrassed to admit, but he was kind of expecting to see Jimin and Mr. Jeon around the park when they arrived. However, after basically circling the whole park, he concluded that they just weren't visiting that day.

Speaking of Jimin, Yoongi wonders what the tiny boy is doing right now. Probably watching Detective Agust—no, it’s a weekend, so it’s not showing right now. Maybe he’s on a mission that Mr. Ted assigned him.

How silly.

“Axolotl RM, Injured cat spotted, DYING CAT SPOTTED!”

Yoongi perks up. Finally! He drops all thoughts of Tiny Jimin and runs in the direction of Namjoon’s post.

“OVER!”

“How do we nurse it back to health?” Comrade Taehyung asks as they stare at the cat. It’s lying on the grass, twitching and trying its hardest to breathe.

“We bring it to the professionals,” Yoongi dutifully says. He bends down and picks the poor cat up, cradling it to his chest. “Don’t worry, cat, you’ll be able to live your second life.”

“How did you find her, Comrade Joon?” Yoongi asks as they all run their way out of the park.

“She fell from a tree! But she screamed before she did, so she must have been in the middle of a battle!”

“Oh, poor kitty! These are battle wounds!” Comrade Taehyung moans in distress.

“Don’t worry, she’s a strong soldier! She’ll survive this!” Yoongi determinedly says, clutching the cat closer to his chest.

He soon spots a veterinary clinic not too far away, and he resolutely picks up his speed. The two comrades get left behind, and they both can be heard grunting and screaming tiredly.

Yoongi will not back down and wait for them, though, because he’s very close! And the poor cat is just as close to its last breath.

Finally arriving in front of the clinic, Yoongi rushes in and loudly calls out for a doctor.

“Hello, kiddo, what can I do for you?” A lady in a white coat appears from the back door, and Yoongi rushes up to the counter where she stands from behind.

“Not for me, for her,” he stressed out, lifting the cat onto the counter with as much strength as he could muster. First of all, he’s six and short. Second of all, he’s six and small, and the cat is very heavy.

“We were in the park, and we saw her fall, and we heard her scream in pain, so she must've been in a fight, and now she's having a hard time breathing!”

“Oh, no—let me check on her, alright? She will be back.” The doctor leans over the counter and takes the cat into her arms. She goes through the back door again, now together with the cat.

His comrades arrive just in time, and Yoongi fills them in on the small update. The two sigh in relief, and they all decide to sit and wait for the doctor to come back.

“Who's going to keep her when she’s okay?” Comrade Namjoon asks.

“I would love to keep her, but unfortunately, the dormitory doesn't allow pets.” Yoongi frowns and looks down at his lap. He already has a pet dog at home, Holly, and he misses him badly. This cat, though, he really wants to keep her.

“So it's either Comrade Joon or me!” Comrade Taehyung perks up, excitedly swinging his legs under his seat.

“Comrade Taehyung, you keep her. I already have plenty of pets at home—my mother will yell at me if I bring home one more.” Comrade Namjoon sheepishly scratches his head.

“Yay, alright!” Comrade Taehyung happily claps his hands, and Yoongi is happy that the cat will at least have an owner who will love her and is happy to have her.

They don't know how much time passes, but the doctor finally comes out and she's wearing a smile! So Yoongi doesn't get the chance to be worried.

“She is now breathing properly as of the moment, and she’s beginning to feel well,” The Doctor announces, and all three boys celebrate.

“Good job bringing her here on time, kids,” She says to them, and their chests puff up in pride at the praise. “What school do you kids go to? You all deserve an award for your heroic work.”

“Eden Academy!”

⌣⊹୨୧⊹⌣

It turns out that the doctor, Doctor Mina, is an alumna of Eden Academy and thinks that their heroic deed deserves a Stella. With that, she went to the school’s alumni association and brought up the three boys she met, which ultimately brought the school board’s attention (thanks to her dramatic storytelling and exaggerated descriptions).

However, it also turns out that the good deed they did was not a qualification for receiving a Stella. Thus, instead of getting a Stella, all they received was a certificate of recognition for their heroic act.

To top it all off, another student is to be awarded a Stella, and it’s neither of the three.

Because of that, they are now at the event hall where a small ceremony is held to formally give that student his or her Stella. What they didn't expect, though, was that the student was none other than—

“Park Jimin from Class A, Section A. His participation in the rescue of a young boy from drowning represents an admirable feat that justly qualifies for a Stella. Congratulations.”

Yoongi looks up, shocked. Dumb Tiny Jimin got a Stella?

His comrades huff at this, saying that their spotlight was stolen from them, but Yoongi feels nothing but amazement for the boy. Who would’ve known that Jimin, Tiny Dumb Jimin, would be able to get a Stella after all? And saving a boy from drowning?

“Congratulations, Jimin—” Yoongi says and pats the boy’s head as soon as he stands before them, but he gets rudely cut off by Jimin himself.

“It’s Star Jimin, now.”

Yoongi's mood immediately sours. HOW DARE HE ACT SO ARROGANTLY WHEN I’M BEING NICE?!

The Cookies

The fresh new air of fourth grade brings a new sense of purpose and determination for nine-year-old Yoongi. For four years straight, he’s managed to accumulate four stellas for his continuous outstanding grades, for always being at the top of his class. It seems like a no-brainer, but Yoongi is more surprised than anyone is about his achievements, because he wonders how he managed to maintain his grades with a certain tiny boy always annoying him.

From first grade to the fourth, Jimin didn’t change one bit; he’s still the annoying, weird boy to Yoongi. One thing he noticed about the tiny boy, though, is how he dropped his third-person speaking habit during third grade. It was relieving (a shame) when Yoongi found out about this, because he was starting to go crazy from it (get fondly used to it).

“Yoongiiiii!” Screams Jimin, running towards him with arms open wide and up in the air.

Perhaps there is another change about him, and it’s that he’s more bold now. Oh, and he also dropped the ‘Boss’ before his name—well, everyone did; they were over the roleplay by the end of second grade.

Now, back to Jimin being bold, this tiny boy isn’t scared of pushing Yoongi’s limits anymore. He was never scared in the first place, but he seems to have figured out that beneath all the yelling and anger Yoongi displays, he actually tolerates Jimin’s antics quite a lot… All, actually.

A good example of this was the time in second grade when Jimin accidentally broke Yoongi’s brand-new, very expensive, limited edition Detective Agust figurine that he brought to school because he wanted to show off. Yoongi cried a lot that day, but when Jimin apologized, he just angrily yelled, ‘Whatever,’ then started the next day like nothing happened. Maybe that was the moment Jimin realized he could get away with anything…

“How was your summer break?!” Jimin basically yells in his ear as he lies on the ground, engulfed by the tiny boy.

Better (lonely) without you.

Yoongi, and everyone else passing by who knows them, is already used to Jimin being Jimin, so he just sighs and pushes the boy off of him to stand up.

“The usual; I studied,” He simply says as he watches Jimin stand up.

“You seem to have grown colder over the break, Yoongi,” Tiny Jimin teases, elbowing him.

“I was always this way. You don’t know me at all.”

They make their way back to school, and Yoongi’s quietly praying for his best friends to finally arrive and save him.

“Hmmm, no, I clearly remember you being a very vocal boy—screaming and yelling at me any chance you get.”

“That’s because you’re annoying and you piss me off.”

“Awww, and you also loved calling me names!”

Alright, now that’s a new one. Jimin has always been a tease, but in his own, weird way, like acting innocent when he actually has devil horns poking out of his head. However, a direct call-out is definitely new. And that teasing voice?!

“You’re more weird than usual.” Yoongi cringes and narrows his eyes.

“Because I’m three Stellas away from becoming an imperial scholar,” Jimin sing-songs, annoyingly elbowing Yoongi again.

Right. Another thing about Jimin is that he somehow managed to get five Stellas within three years. FIVE. This boy must live such a wild life because all of those Stellas he received were from bringing service to the community by legitimately saving people’s lives. He even saved a whole group of people riding a bus! How does this tiny boy do it?!

For how crazy and dumb Jimin is at school, Yoongi is genuinely surprised that he never once got a Tonitrus Bolt. With the way Jimin behaves around him, and if only he had the power, he would’ve given the boy eight Tonitrus Bolts since the first day of first grade. Heck, that dumb punch he did on the first day was literally grounds for getting a Tonitrus Bolt!

“Yeah, right, like there could be any more saving you can do,” Yoongi bitterly says with a huff, then picks up his speed.

⌣⊹୨୧⊹⌣

“Good morning. My name is Kang Sooyeon, and I will be your adviser for this school year.”

Whispers fill the classroom after the new teacher introduces herself. She looks and sounds strict, even more than Professor Seokjin was for the past three years. Which, speaking of him, Yoongi wonders why their favorite teacher isn't their adviser anymore, and everyone is curious as well.

“Silence!” Ms. Sooyeon scolds, slamming a stick down on the podium.

The whole class immediately quiets down. Evidently, she’s stricter than Professor Seokjin. The only difference between them, though, is that he is likable while she is not.

“You are students of Eden Academy, the greatest school this country has ever seen. It holds a high image and reputation, and I want to see this reflected in my students.” She starts walking up the rows of seats, her clicking heels echoing loudly amidst the pin-drop silence in the room.

“By tomorrow, I want to see neat hair buns from the girls, and neat slick backs from the boys. Uniforms must be ironed, socks must be exactly one inch below the knees, shoes must be shiny, your whole body must be free from any form of jewelry…”

Yoongi quietly sighs and rolls his eyes, averting his attention to the boy in front of him. He notices Jimin’s hair poking in all directions, and he scoffs at the sight of it. Mess, as usual. He leans forward and pats down the boy’s hair—

Thwack!

“Ow!” Yoongi pulls his hand back and cradles it to his chest. He looks up and tries not to glare at Sooyeon. She’s holding that stupid stick she smacked him with, and she’s tutting condescendingly.

“That is your first warning, Mr. Min.” She turns around and addresses the whole class. “Three warnings call for a Tonitrus Bolt. I do not want to see any misconduct within my sight. And the same goes for the things I’ve mentioned.”

When Sooyeon walks back down to the front, Jimin turns around in his seat and gives Yoongi a small pout, one that he responds to with a frown. He looks at his best friends then, and they both shake their heads, as if silently agreeing that they do not like this new teacher as well.

“Remember, children. These rules will apply starting tomorrow, so you'd better start fixing yourselves up.”

⌣⊹୨୧⊹⌣

The next day, the trio decides to simply hide during free periods and permanently zip their mouths during lessons with Sooyeon.

“I don’t like her,” says Namjoon after receiving his first warning for simply showing enthusiasm that lunch break has begun.

They are currently sitting under a huge tree in the school gardens. Under a shade, behind the bushes, and away from passersby. It's the perfect spot that the trio have been frequenting for years, it's the place where they freely talk about everything and anything, and act as crazy as they want to be.

“No one at this school likes her,” Taehyung says with a mouthful of chicken, a sight that would instantly get him a Tonitrus Bolt from Sooyeon.

“I wasn't even doing anything wrong, I just stood up!” Namjoon groans and punches the grass.

“And I just touched Jimin’s hair. How are these misconducts?” Yoongi huffs and angrily munches his sponge cake.

“I'm surprised Dumb Jimin hasn't gotten any warning yet,” Taehyung notes out in disbelief.

Yes, they all still call him Dumb Jimin, but it's simply an inside joke slash nickname at this point. If anyone else dared to call him that, Yoongi will—

“Jimin just got his second warning!”

The three of them flinch at Hoseok’s loud, recognizable voice. Yoongi looks up and sees the boy standing behind the bushes with Jimin by his side, looking sad. They don't get to say anything yet when Hoseok invites himself and his friend to the trio’s circle.

“Ms. Sooyeon is a bitc—”

“Hoseok!” Namjoon scolds him before he finishes his statement.

“Oh, whatever.” Hosoek rolls his eyes.

“What did you even do to get two warnings?” Yoongi asks as soon as Jimin sits down beside him.

“The blueberry jam on my cheesecake fell on the table—”

“It was, like, a droplet!” Hoseok angrily cuts in.

“And then I apparently made the mistake of wiping it with my finger and licking it off my finger.” Jimin whines and pouts at his hand.

Yoongi snorts, and it soon turns into chuckles that Taehyung and Namjoon join in—until the three of them fall into a fit of laughter.

“You are dumb—you don't wipe it with your finger!” Namjoon cackles.

“And most importantly, not lick it off!” Taehyung wipes the tears in his eyes.

“But Papa and I do it at home all the time,” Jimin whines again, and he looks at Hoseok for help.

“W-well, I must admit that it's not exactly elegant to do that in public.” Hoseok avoids eye contact.

“What's important is that you are one more warning away from getting a Tonitrus Bolt,” Yoongi says, gleaming with excitement at the thought.

“You’re such a meanie, and that meaniness of yours will get you another warning.” Jimin sticks his tongue out teasingly, and Yoongi reciprocates it.

At the end of the day, Yoongi does end up getting his second warning, simply for breathing too loudly in Sooyeon’s class (he sighed a little too loudly when she announced a surprise quiz). Jimin didn’t waste time using that opportunity to tease Yoongi about his ‘meaniness’ after class.

⌣⊹୨୧⊹⌣

The phone line connects, and their butler’s voice comes through the call. “Min residence, Butler Wu speaking. How may I help you?” The man greets.

“Butler Wu, it’s me, Yoongi,” He greets, his feet shuffling nervously.

“Young Master Min, how may I help you?”

“I-I…” He hesitates. “May I speak with Yoonjung?”

“Mr. Yoonjung is not present at the moment.”

“Then… mother?”

“She is also not present at the moment.”

“Oh…”

No one is ever home.

“What is troubling you, Young Master Min?”

“I just… What will happen to me if I get a Tonitrus Bolt? Would they hate me?”

“Your family will never hate you, Young Master Min. They will only be disappointed.”

In other words: yes, they will hate me.

“Right,” he sighs. If he gets that bolt, he’d be the first in his bloodline to ever receive one, and he’d never forgive himself—they would never forgive him.

“Would you like me to relay that you received a—”

“No! No, I haven't received one, I was just wondering.”

There is a pause of silence, then, “Is that all?”

Yoongi sighs again. “...Yes.”

“Have a good night, Young Master Min.”

The line disconnects.

⌣⊹୨୧⊹⌣

Yoongi did not have a good night last night. He spent most of his time staring blankly at his textbooks, thinking about that stupid Bolt and that stupid teacher. Whenever he imagines that Bolt badge, his heart would pick up its rate, and his vision would get blurry. It’s that bad! He even had a nightmare about it!

As a result, Yoongi wakes up the next morning grumpily—his mood extremely sour and his head buried in dark thoughts about getting expelled and permanently disowned.

And so he sits there in class like that: absent-minded, moody, eerily quiet. His best friends, fortunately, took the hint when they arrived in class and decided to give him his needed space. There are a few people, however, who don’t seem to get it.

“Mr. Min?” Yoongi looks up at Sooyeon. “What’s the answer?”

He stands up and almost shrugs. He wasn’t really paying any attention. Still, staying quiet would only get him a warning, so he simply guesses.

“Wrong, take your seat.”

Yoongi bows before sitting down.

The moment Sooyeon turns her back to the class, Jimin quickly faces Yoongi and whispers teasingly, “I thought you always studied.”

Any other day, Yoongi would participate in the banter, especially with Jimin. “I do, just not in the mood,” he answers truthfully.

“But the answer is right there.”

“Wasn’t paying attention.”

“But—”

Having had enough of it, Yoongi snaps, “Just leave me alone.” It wasn’t loud, but moderately enough to catch everyone’s attention in a dead-silent classroom.

“Mr. Min,” Sooyeon calls him out while wearing an angry face. “Rudely disrupting my class. One Bolt for you.”

He immediately feels everyone’s eyes on him, including his best friends’ worried ones, but he avoids all of it by glaring up at the ceiling. Sooyeon proceeds to her lesson like nothing happened, which only infuriates Yoongi further.

When they are dismissed and Sooyeon is out of the room, Yoongi quickly gets up and rushes out of the room, pushing everyone who tries getting close to him.

“Yoongi—”

He hears Jimin’s voice calling for him, but he doesn’t turn back.

I guess I’ll have to miss today’s classes.

⌣⊹୨୧⊹⌣

The next day, Yoongi is drowning in guilt. Just because he wasn’t in the mood yesterday, it didn’t give him the excuse to act the way he did. Aside from guilt, he’s embarrassed—that was so childish of him to burst out like that!

He couldn’t sleep well at all; the image of Jimin’s eyes bulging the way they did—like the time they bumped into each other the first day in first grade—wouldn’t stop replaying in his head.

To make things worse, everyone at school avoided him like the plague when he stepped into the classroom, including Jimin. It might have been the worst feeling ever, to have the person who’s been pestering you for years suddenly avoiding you like everyone else is doing.

So, during recess, Yoongi wrote a small note and gave it to Jimin while he was peacefully eating with Hoseok. This note simply read: ‘Meet me at the gardens during lunch.’ There’s no other intention behind that note, but he did end up getting mercilessly teased by his best friends about it.

He isn’t really planning on anything spontaneous. He is just going to give Jimin a pack of his personal favorite brand of cookies—they’re the best in the world, Jimin would love it—and apologize. A sincere apology, of course. Yoongi wouldn’t just buy his favorite cookies and not eat them just to give them as a peace offering.

When lunchtime finally rolls around, Yoongi sits on one of the benches in the garden, his leg bouncing nonstop as he waits for Jimin to arrive. He’s also sure he heard Namjoon’s cough nearby earlier, but he doesn’t focus on it. What matters right now is his apology.

“Yoongi?”

His head snaps in the direction of Jimin’s voice, and he scrambles to stand up and hide the cookies behind him as the other boy walks closer.

“Jimin,” Yoongi greets back.

“Why did you want to meet me here?” Jimin seems shy today, his head ducked down, hands behind his back, and bouncing up and down on his toes.

“Jimin, I would like to—”

“Shhh! Keep it down!”

“You’re being so loud!”

“Seriously, you guys are blowing our covers!”

Their friends’ voices mix behind the bushes beside them, and Yoongi could only close his eyes and take a deep breath. Jimin notices this, since he laughs a little awkwardly.

When their eyes meet, they quietly decide to just leave the three be.

“Anyway, um, I just wanted to apologize for yesterday,” Yoongi says, stepping closer to Jimin. “That was uncalled for. I shouldn’t have snapped like that.”

He brings out the pack of cookies and stretches it towards Jimin. “I’m sorry. Forgive me?”

The boy seems genuinely taken aback, his eyes wide and mouth hanging as he stares down at the cookies in Yoongi’s hand.

“You didn’t have to,” Jimin starts, and when Yoongi opens his mouth to interject, he gets stopped. “No, I mean it. I’m always annoying you, and you always snap back. I’m used to it.”

It’s supposed to be assuring, but Yoongi frowns at it. Bickering is their thing, but moments of actual disrespect shouldn’t be normal. He says as such to Jimin.

“But that wasn’t right. I was being mean to you—like, serious kind of mean.” Yoongi shakes his head with a sigh. “I should never take out my real anger on you—I-I mean, anyone at all. It’s just wrong.”

Jimin slowly takes the cookies, then presses them against his chest. “Why were you mad? What happened?”

Seeing the genuine concern in Jimin’s eyes makes it easy for him to be honest.

“Just my family. They’re not really that fond of me, and I don’t know why.” Yoongi looks down, embarrassed at his moment of weakness.

He expects Jimin to simply shrug it off, but when he sees a pair of shoes pressing against the front of his, he looks up, startled.

“I’m sorry to hear that. And I’m also sorry for pushing you yesterday. I should’ve been more mindful.”

Yoongi looks off to the side. Jimin is pulling that face again—that look where he’s pouting deeply and his eyes are wide and glazy. It’s an awfully (adorably) distracting look.

“It’s alright.” He clears his throat. “Truce?” He asks, still not looking at the boy.

“Truce!” And Jimin’s cheerful voice is finally back. Yoongi could only sigh in mock-annoyance (relief).

“Wow, you really do consider me as a friend if you put all this effort into apologizing!”

“Don’t get your hopes up, Jimin,” Yoongi says, smirking.

He walks away without another word while Jimin rushes to follow him, loudly protesting about the ‘friend-rejection.’

Yeah, I prefer this to the quiet.

⌣⊹୨୧⊹⌣

For the first time, the telephone rings on Yoongi’s end. When he picks it up, he hears his brother’s voice on the line.

“Yoongi, you got a Tonitrus Bolt,” was his cold greeting.

“Yes, brother, but it was unjust—”

“You rudely disrupted Ms. Sooyeon’s class. I read the report.”

“I-It was a one-time mistake. It won’t happen again.”

“But you’ll never be able to take back that Bolt, Yoongi.”

“I know.”

“I will be the one to report this to Father.”

“Okay, tell Father I said—”

The line disconnects.

The Confession

Eden Academy is one of the safest institutions in the country. But how they ended up in this situation makes Yoongi doubt everything he trusts about this school.

It’s the last day of seventh grade, and everyone is busy with their exams. The Genius Boys decided that they’d meet at the gardens extra early to review for the tests. Since Yoongi is living on campus, he arrived there first.

He sat in the garden waiting for his best friends, when suddenly, his vision was blocked and he was dragged away from his seat. He tried to fight and wiggle his way out, but the kidnapper was just too strong for him.

And when he gets his vision back, he notices he’s inside a janitor’s closet—Eden Academy’s janitor’s closet. What’s even weirder is the sight of Park Jimin dozing across him.

In a situation like this, it’s normal to feel panic. But how could he feel that way, knowing he’s still within school grounds, and he’s just inside a room located in an Eden Academy building? So, really, it’s only a matter of time until a cleaner comes over to get some supplies, and then they’re free.

Yoongi’s only problem, though, is how Jimin’s going to take this situation, and exactly why he’s imprisoned in the janitor’s closet. His exams can wait for him. And given his valid reason for missing them, he can take them later.

He doesn’t know how much time passes until Jimin finally wakes up. The boy looks disoriented, and Yoongi’s worried that the kidnapper did something to knock the boy out. His hands clench into fists at the thought.

“Where are we?” Jimin asks.

“In a janitor’s closet,” Yoongi calmly says. As long as he maintains an air of calm, Jimin surely won’t panic.

“Why are we in a janitor’s closet…?” Jimin looks around with a weird expression. “What about the exams?”

“Oh, just…” Yoongi shrugs. “The exams can wait.”

This time, Jimin narrows his eyes at him. “Min Yoongi would never say that about an exam. Your life literally depends on it.”

“Well, at the moment, it doesn’t.” Yoongi looks away, keeping a bored face, even though deep inside he’s starting to feel anxious about Jimin’s suspicions.

Damn Jimin and his Detective Agust influence.

“Yoongi, what’s going on?”

“Jimin, it’s nothing.”

“This is not nothing. Tell me what’s going on.”

And Yoongi can see it—the moment panic slowly starts to infiltrate Jimin’s system.

“Someone may or may not have kidnapped us and locked us in the school’s janitor’s closet.”

“WHAT?!” Jimin scrambles to stand up and immediately goes to the door, banging and yelling for help.

“Assuming the kidnapper isn’t dumb enough, they most likely put us in a secluded building where barely anyone passes by. So, screaming and banging won’t help.”

Jimin stops and stays facing the door. Yoongi doesn’t know what’s going on, but before he can ask what’s wrong, Jimin turns around and looks at him wildly. Oh, no.

“HOW ARE YOU SO CALM ABOUT THIS?”

“Because it’s Eden Academy. They’ll notice we’re not present at the exam, especially me, and it’ll be very odd, so they will hold an investigation, and then they’ll eventually find us,” Yoongi says simply, shrugging his shoulders in the end.

He and Jimin stare at each other, the latter looking at him in utter disbelief.

“What—?”

“Shh, shh!” Jimin cuts him off, holding up a finger in his direction while the other presses against his own lips in a shushing gesture.

Yoongi looks at him confusedly, but decides to cooperate. It’s silent for a few moments, and Yoongi grows worried when he sees the way Jimin shuts his eyes tightly. It looks like the boy is putting a lot of effort into doing something, but is straining himself in the process.

Finally, Jimin sighs after a minute and disappointedly says, “I got nothing.” He sits beside Yoongi, heaving a deep breath as he does.

“What were you trying to do?”

“Tried to see if I could hear anyone, but I got nothing.”

“Of course you won’t, we’re in a deserted area at Eden.”

“There are other ways to hear people, Yoongi.”

Out of all the times Jimin decides to act weird, it had to be now.

“I won’t even ask,” Yoongi mumbles.

The two of them fall quiet, and they don’t know how much time has passed, but it’s been long enough for them to eventually get up and pace around the room to move their legs, and even get into a deep talk about their personal lives.

For the first time, Yoongi gets the privilege to see a new side of Jimin that he never knew existed. This Jimin is far from the one he knows. This Jimin is lonely and vulnerable.

“I’m used to being called a lot of names… But I prefer it over the name I was born with.”

Yoongi doesn’t look at Jimin, scared that the moment would break. But he’s dying to see him—to see if he’s okay now, to see if there’s anything he can do to comfort him.

He finds this Jimin hard to bear, to witness, but he finds it harder not to care.

“What… was your name?” Yoongi timidly asks.

“Subject Thirteen.”

Time seemed to have stopped the moment those words came out of Jimin’s mouth. Any other time, Yoongi would shut it down and tell him to quit joking around, but considering the heavy atmosphere in the room and Jimin’s tiny voice…

“Jimin…”

“Papa isn’t my real papa by blood. He adopted me.” A small breath of chuckle. “He feels like my real papa, though.”

“How… What…” Yoongi doesn’t even know where to begin.

“I am a product of an experiment. The moment I opened my eyes and gained consciousness, everything around me was just the laboratory they created me in. Ever since I was a child, I could read minds.”

It all sounds bizarre, but Jimin sounds too serious for this to be some kind of prank he’s pulling. He can’t be that good of an actor, right?! But if he can read minds, then he can hear what Yoongi’s currently thinking.

With an idea, he looks at Jimin and thinks hard.

Are you alright?

Do you need a hug?

“You must be worried that I’ve been reading your mind all this time, but you don’t have to worry about that.” Jimin looks at him and gives a small smile. “For some reason, I can’t hear yours. You must have a block or something. Some powerful mind you have,” he snorts.

“Oh…” That’s a shame.

“Oh! But there are random times I could hear you, but only when we’re making physical contact, though.”

Yoongi quickly takes Jimin’s hand, surprising the boy, and he looks him straight in the eyes. He really wants to know if the boy is giving him bull right now during a very serious situation.

“How about now?”

Tiny Jimin, Dumb Jimin, Ugly Jimin, Cute Jimin.

“All I heard was Dumb, and then Ugly Jimin,” He pouts, shoulders sagging.

With a jolt, Yoongi lets go of his hand and stares at him, dumbfounded. Is that just a wild guess? Still not satisfied, he wordlessly takes Jimin’s hand again.

Detective Agust, Mr. Ted, Mrs. Octi, Ms. Frost, Stupid, Stupid, Stupid.

“Yoongi, are you trying to hurt my feelings now? Detective Agust is not stupid,” Jimin whines, his pout deepening.

He lets go with a huff, still in disbelief that Jimin might actually be able to read minds. It’s crazy!

“How is this even real?” Yoongi asks himself, breathless.

“I question the same thing every day.”

“This is some valuable secret right here. Why did you share this with me?”

Jimin shrugs and avoids eye contact by looking down at the ground. “Enclosed, unfamiliar spaces remind me of my past. Plus, I know I can trust you. Secret for a secret, I guess.”

Yoongi blinks. “I haven’t told you some mind-blowing secret, Jimin.” He tries wracking his brain for a time he's ever opened up to Jimin, a piece of himself that might change another person’s life and view of him. But his mind comes empty-handed.

“In fourth grade, you told me about your family. You looked very sad when you said it.” Jimin’s voice lowered with his next words, “I thought you were living the bestest life, being rich and all.”

Oh. He gets that a lot—it’s mostly the first thing people say about him. ‘He must be having a blast being rich’; ‘he must have everything he wants’; ‘he must be spoiled rotten’.

Yoongi won't deny having everything he needs and being able to splurge. But does he really have everything he wants if all he really wants is a happy, loving family?

“I wish that were the case, but it’s not. Nothing changed, either. Things only seem to worsen the older I get.”

His mother practically moved to another house and only visits their residence when she has to. His brother is always away for work, and when he calls Yoongi on very rare occasions, it's to confront him about misconduct reports. His father, on very rare occasions, makes an appearance at school, but only for membership meetings.

Yoongi used to get frustrated at this setup, but he learns at one point that perhaps he just got unlucky with his family. And there's nothing he can do about it, except accept and move on with his life.

It's sad to think that he used to look up to and idolize his father and brother. He would've been living a sadder life now if he had followed their footsteps to the T.

“How?” Jimin asks.

“It gets quieter, and quieter, and lonelier, and lonelier.” Yoongi laughs at his own pitiness. “I now get why Yoonjung is the way he is. Must be draining living with such a family. I get why he’s cold, distant… a living dead.”

Jimin huffs a small chuckle, but there's no humor to it. “That seems a bit much to describe one’s brother,” he says.

“Because it’s true. He’s the eldest, the heir, so he’s basically living under our father’s every word. Yoonjung is my father's main puppet; I’m just the failing backup.”

It's true. He always used to wonder why his father favored Yoonjung more, but it turns out that he's always been a failure to him since he learned how to walk. That's a bit of a stretch—maybe the time he entered daycare.

“You’re neither.”

“I got a Tonitrus Bolt, Jimin. That’s basically failure.”

He was so close to removing the ‘failure’ in his name, but that stupid Sooyeon from fourth grade had to ruin everything. Okay—it was actually his fault, but had that woman not stressed everyone, none of everything would've happened.

“And I have three Bolts, but am I failing at life so far?”

Yoongi opens his mouth to retort, but he finds himself actually speechless. He has a point. “I hate it when you’re smarter than me,” he grumbles.

“Because it proves that a guy with three Tonitrus Bolts can be smarter than you?” Jimin wiggles his eyebrows teasingly, and it makes Yoongi laugh.

“Shut up,” he rolls his eyes.

“You’re neither, Yoongi. I would even say that you’re the true living being in your family. If that’s how they are, then you must be the most human to ever human in their lives.”

“Okay,” Yoongi accepts Jimin’s words. He doesn't know if he should feel superior over his family for that, but he’ll have to look into his feelings later. “And you’re neither dumb nor ugly. It’s just a nickname I used to call you in elementary,” he says, shrugging.

“I know.” Jimin smiles weirdly, and Yoongi narrows his eyes at him.

“Right.”

After a moment, Jimin looks away and releases a quick breath. “Since we’re opening up to each other…” he purses his lips as if considering his next words. Then, he turns to Yoongi and says seriously, “It was actually my mission to befriend you this whole time.”

“...What?” Is he trying to prank me for real this time?

Jimin blinks, then starts getting up from. “So I think that’s where I draw the line—” However, Yoongi is quick to grab the back of the boy’s collar and pull him down.

“No, you can’t get away with this, Park Jimin. You literally just told me you are a product of an experiment, and now you’re telling me you’re sent to be my spy?!”

Because that could be the only explanation, right?! If Jimin came from labs, then this mission of his to befriend me must mean that the boy was sent to Eden to spy on Yoongi for some unknown reason. Are they gonna experiment on me, too?!

“Well, technically, I wasn’t ordered to do so; it’s more of an initiative situation.”

Yoongi narrows his eyes and gestures to Jimin to elaborate.

This starts a whole telling of Jimin’s crazy life story. He shares that he escaped from the laboratory, and a stranger brought him to an adoption center. Then, how he met his Papa—a young man who entered the adoption center with a very loud mind. Mr. Jeon was looking for a smart kid, so Jimin lied, and that's how he got adopted.

“So how old are you, really?”

“Fourteen.”

“So a year younger.”

The interesting part of his life story is that Mr. Jeon is a secret agent. Jimin didn't go into detail about his mission, but just that it involves having a family, putting his kid into Eden Academy, and waiting for his kid to become an Imperial Scholar. However, his other option is for Jimin to become friends with Yoongi. And because he didn't want to be unadopted, he took the initiative of trying to befriend Yoonfi.

“I’m guessing so that he could have access to elite gatherings?” Yoongi asks, and Jimin smiles sheepishly.

“Yes.”

“I see,” Yoongi hums.

“That’s all you have to say?” Jimin asks in disbelief.

Yoongi shrugs. “Well, what else are you gonna do about it? You’re already one Stella away from becoming an imperial scholar, so your option of befriending me is turning out to be useless.”

“But we’re already friends.”

“Acquaintances,” Yoongi corrects him, ignoring how his heart suddenly jumped in his chest.

“Sure, for eight years long,” Jimin deadpans.

“To put it simply.”

“So you’re not mad? Confused? Hurt? Used?”

Yoongi sighs, then chuckles. “Jimin, I’m way too tired to feel any of those things. So, no, I am completely fine with everything. Plus, your befriending operation is kind of pointless since my very own father doesn’t even like me. So, really, you picked the wrong guy to befriend.”

And Yoongi means it. Well, not entirely the last part, he was just joking, but he meant the others. He will admit that he felt his chest tighten a little, but it went away as quickly as it appeared. The thought of that same, tiny, six-year-old Jimin trying his best just so he wouldn't be returned to the adoption center is bittersweet.

Painfully cute.

“How can a six-year-old befriend a cold, distant, living dead fourteen-year-old?” Jimin asks, snorting loudly.

“You can’t, it’s highly impossible. Yoonjung doesn’t even have any friends.”

“That’s actually a very sad life. I feel sorry for your brother.”

Yoongi agrees, but he wouldn't admit that out loud. “Forget it,” he says instead, rolling his eyes.

Just in time, a jingle of keys comes from outside, and the doorknob wiggles. The two boys immediately sit up and scurry to the door.

“Is anyone out there?!” Jimin excitedly asks.

Right at that moment, the door finally opens, and there reveals a middle-aged janitor is revealed. The man looks at them in shock, asking why the hell they were in here. Yoongi does all the talking, though, because Jimin is weirdly quiet, staring at the man with a small smile.

They both later take their tests, just the two of them in the exam hall. Jimin managed to be very convincing of the truth, and the janitor kindly vouched for them as well.

It's after the test and while they head to separate their ways that Yoongi finds out that the janitor had been Mr. Jeon.

“Are you sure? He looked… smaller, and Mr. Jeon is a big man.”

“I could hear his thoughts.” Jimin smiles. “He was very happy that I was safe, and it turns out that he went through a lot just to find us.”

So maybe Yoongi isn't fully convinced that Mr. Jeon is a secret agent or that Jimin is a telepath. But he wants to believe it's real, so he doesn't say anything and decides to blindly trust Jimin.

“I also heard him thinking about the kidnapper.” Jimin snorts. “He found out that a student hired a spy to kidnap and hide you in the janitor’s closet, but I was apparently in the way, so I got roped in.”

The thought of being alone in that room for hours horrifies Yoongi, and he silently thanks the higher beings for including Jimin in it. If he were alone, he doesn't think he’ll come out of there as the same guy he is. He’d probably be out here like a madman.

“But why?”

“Probably so you’d miss and fail the test.”

“That kid must be stupid as hell.”

⌣⊹୨୧⊹⌣

“So what was it like?” Namjoon asks, then annoyingly sips his tea loudly.

The Genius Boys decided to meet at a café after the exams and talk about what happened with Yoongi. The Kims basically ran up to him and engulfed him in a hug while crying and sobbing loudly.

“What was what like?” Yoongi glares at the cup, showing his annoyance that Namjoon eventually notices and smiles sheepishly at him.

“You know… Two hours alone with Jimin.” Taehyung leans in, wearing a smirk.

Namjoon hums delightedly. “Must’ve been suffocating,” he exaggerates.

“And boring,” Taehyung groans dramatically.

“I actually had fun.” Yoongi turns them all down before going back to eating his sponge cake.

“Did you, now?” They both lean closer.

“Yeah, we got to know each other on a deep level.” Yoongi almost smiles, but he manages to cover it up by stuffing his mouth with cake.

“Really?” They gasp dramatically.

“Yes… Jimin’s a cool guy.”

The two immediately start teasing him, but Yoongi doesn't pay them any attention. He's just glad that they don't see Jimin as a threat anymore, like they did in first grade, because it’d be a shame if they didn't accept him. Since, you know, he and Jimin are acquainted now.

⌣⊹୨୧⊹⌣

The telephone rings on Yoongi’s end. When he picks it up, he hears his brother’s voice on the line.

“Yoongi, you almost missed the exam,” was his cold greeting.

“Yes, brother. Some kid hired someone to kidnap me and hide me in a closet so I could miss the exam.”

“I see.”

“I’ll be an Imperial Scholar next year, you have my word.”

“Would it erase the fact that you have a Bolt?”

“...No.”

“I expect to hear the news by the end of the first semester.”

“You will. Don’t worry.”

The line disconnects.

The Gift

Ninth Grade turns out to be just like the other grades he’s been through, something he didn't quite expect when it started. In his defense, he’s heard a lot of stories, both good and bad, about being a ninth grader. There's the automated reputation where you are automatically labeled as a rebel, and there is also the automated label that you are cool because you are a year from being a high schooler.

However, the only reason it wasn't what he expected is that he also heard that ninth grade is the time when one starts dating. The word itself is horrifying enough, but the act of dating? It truly scared Yoongi when the first day of class came.

Fortunately, seven months have passed, and not once has he gotten to face the problem. Well, several girls have tried, but he politely turned them all down, but that's not the point. What matters to him is that he has never had the urge to date anyone. It's important he stray away from such activities and interests, especially when he's now an imperial scholar!

That's the good news. The bad news is that it's February, and February means Valentine's Day. For ninth graders, the age of the dating sprees, it's a huge day. Supposedly. Not for Yoongi, of course.

With a sour mood, he walks around the halls, his imperial cape flowing behind him dramatically with each grumpy step he takes, while everyone passes each other flowers and chocolates. And Yoongi's even more annoyed when he enters the classroom and sees the same things, with additions of huge boxes of whatever, stacked on top of his desk.

“Ugh.” He rolls his eyes and sits on what’s supposed to be Taehyung’s spot. “Did you get anything, Jimin?” He asks the boy quietly sitting in front of him.

Not-so-tiny-anymore Jimin turns around and gives him a bitter look.

Ever since Yoongi became an imperial scholar, Jimin would sometimes give him an attitude for no reason. Yoongi would later find out that it's because the boy feels like he’d been left behind, as he’s yet to receive his last Stella.

Yoongi would always tease, “As if you got any more saving you could do.”

Or maybe it’s just puberty.

“You should be more grateful you get anything at all with that attitude of yours,” Jimin scoffs.

“Yah, did you forget you were trying to befriend me? I’m now an Imperial Scholar. Papa must really want you to be my best friend.”

Jimin’s eyes grow huge, and he quickly turns back around.

Gotcha.

Yoongi smirks and sits back comfortably. Ever since Jimin confessed to trying to befriend Yoongi for his father’s mission, he hasn't stopped bringing it up. Now and then, whenever Jimin puts on an attitude, Yoongi would teasingly bring it up.

Actually, it’s very cute how Jimin always gets embarrassed whenever the topic gets brought up. The boy clearly hadn't intended for that to happen, and it's evident in the way his cheeks would turn crimson. If Yoongi doesn't know any better, he’d say that Jimin is both embarrassed and guilty for outing his father like that.

Cute, Dumb Jimin, as always.

His mind has been thinking more freely than ever, as well, when he found out Jimin could read minds—except his. He's been bolder in his thoughts, and whenever he and Jimin make physical contact, he wouldn't hold back and run his mind wildly. The two of them would argue afterwards about what he was really thinking, because Jimin still could only hear fragments of his thoughts.

It's still pretty cool, though. Jimin’s pretty (and) cool.

“Friendly Jimin,” Yoongi singsongs. “What did you get for Valentine’s Day?”

Jimin turns around to glare at him again, but he still replies, “Nothing.”

“Too bad,” Yoongi teases.

The other boy is just about to turn back around, but Yoongi quickly leans over the table and grabs Jimin’s shoulder. Cute grumpy boy. “You can get anything from mine—or just take everything, I don’t care.”

He kind of expected Jimin to decline, but surprisingly, the boy accepted his offer.

“Really?!” Jimin exclaims, his eyes gleaming with excitement.

“U-um, yeah, sure.” Yoongi pulls away, shocked and confused. What’s up with the mood swings? It's the only thing he’s not getting used to.

“I never get anything for V-day. Thank you for sharing your grace, Boss Yoongi.”

Yoongi’s head snaps up. The nickname caught him off guard—it’s been nine years since he last heard of that. Jimin notices his reaction and winks at him before he falls into a fit of laughter, bending over as he does.

How can he sit there and laugh, and look so…

Yoongi shakes his head and decides to avert the attention from him. He takes a crocheted rose from his stack and throws it at Jimin’s head.

“Don’t ever call me that again, Stupid.”

Jimin finally calms down, and he rolls his eyes with a smile. “Funny, so creative,” he mocks.

“Whatever, just take everything, I don’t want them.” Yoongi crosses his arms with a huff, then looks away, grumbling.

“Papa would freak out. He’d think I have a lot of suitors.” Jimin giggles.

“Well, they all have my name in it, so he’d just think you’re a thief.” Yoongi sticks out his tongue playfully.

Jimin cringes. “You're so childish,” he gags. “Anyway, I will remove every single tag. You know what, I’ll tell Papa that you got these for me.”

Yoongi watches as Jimin takes his time taking and inspecting every little thing on his gift stack, but he remains silent. Because his heart just stopped at those words. Should he go and actually get Jimin something? But why should he? They’re just friends.

“Happy Valentine’s Day, Yoongi!”

He snaps out of his thoughts and looks up, only to see Taehyung holding a rose made of gemstones. Now, Yoongi's confused. Why is Taehyung giving me a Valentine’s gift?

“What, are you gonna reject my gift?” Taehyung pouts.

“Um,” Yoongi uselessly says, but he eventually takes the rose. “Thanks?”

“You’re welcome!” Taehyung beams widely. “Now, get out of my seat.”

“That’s Imperial Min for you, dumb dumb.” Yoongi rolls his eyes.

What does this rose mean?

“Okay, get out of my seat, Imperial Min, dumb dumb.”

Jimin laughs loudly, and Yoongi could only glare at Taehyung as he got up and went back to his seat. His desk is finally cleared up, the stack of gifts now hiding under Jimin’s desk.

“Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone!” Namjoon greets loudly as he walks up to their desks. “For you, Taehyung. And for you, Imperial Min,” he says while handing out a box for each of them. He gets Taehyung’s rose in return.

Okay, I’m very confused now.

“Why are you guys handing out Valentine gifts to… your friends?” Yoongi frowns confusedly.

Hoseok butts in when he arrives, saying, “Because we’re all single and lonely, and we only have each other.” Then, he turns to Jimin and gives him a box. “For you, my BFF.”

“Hoseok, you didn't have to!” Jimin gasps, then stands to hug his friend tight. “I now have thirty-seven gifts!”

“Oh, wow, you received a lot of gifts?” Hoseok asks, chuckling as he sits down beside Jimin.

“Park Jimin must be famous,” Taehyung comments.

“Nah, they’re all from Yoongi.”

The group falls quiet, and their heads slowly turn to Yoongi, who’s looking down at his empty desk, busily fighting the pattering in his chest. Jimin just betrayed him—he said he was only going to say that to his Papa, not their friends.

Oh, God, and it had to be the worst people ever. The endless teasing is already knocking on the door, waiting for Yoongi to accept his fate and open the door because he has no other choice anyway.

With nothing left to do, Yoongi opens that door. He slowly looks up and meets Namjoon’s eyes first, the only one who teases at a moderate level. Yes, Namjoon’s the safer choice.

“Oh!” They all exclaim in unison.

Maybe looking at Jimin is safer. So he does, and he’s right. The moment their eyes meet, his entwining guts unfurl and calm. Jimin’s eyes are safer—the buttons he pushes are more tolerable, comfortable. It's better this way.

“Wow, that's very impressive work, Yoongi. Thirty-six gifts?” Taehyung lets out an exaggerated noise of shock and claps his hands.

“For Jimin?” Namjoon whistles.

“Didn't take you for a romantic guy.” Hoseok smirks, then pats Jimin’s back as if to say 'congratulations’.

“Yeah, friends—I mean, acquaintances wouldn't do that for each other,” Taehyung says, leaning into Yoongi’s space with a huge smirk, but still, the latter doesn't look his way.

“Does that mean they’re friends, now?” Hoseok asks, high-pitched.

“Yeah, like boyfriend—”

Having had enough, Yoongi abruptly stands up and avoids all of their eyes by looking up at the ceiling. “Shut up,” he forces out, even if it's hard to speak with how warm his face feels.

Then, out of spite, he throws his cape over their faces as he walks away. He hears them sputtering, but he ignores it in favor of getting out of there as soon as possible—even though classes will start very soon.

“Yoongi, don't leave your boyfriend behind!”

Yoongi just huffs and rolls his eyes.

⌣⊹୨୧⊹⌣

The whole time in class, Yoongi’s preoccupied with everything that transpired earlier. There's a lot to it that's bugging him, but the one thing his mind can’t stop drifting off to is Jimin’s words, “I never get anything for V-day.” It just seems impossible—isn't Jimin popular?

Jimin must be popular, right? He saved a lot of lives over the past nine years—which, mentioning it now, makes sense that the boy lives a wild life if he’s a telepath and his father’s a secret agent. Yoongi digresses. Aside from saving lives, he's also very friendly. And cute, and handsome. Objectively speaking, of course.

It's not like people still see Jimin as the weird kid, right? It's been literal years, and they’re all grown up now, too mature for things like that. Or maybe it’s just Yoongi who’s matured? Either way, he just can't wrap his head around the thought of no one (else) admiring Jimin, because he’s a very likable guy.

Saves lives, friendly, eccentric, handsome, cute, adorable— yeah, all of those. Objectively speaking, of course.

Finally, after careful consideration, Yoongi decides to give Jimin a Valentine's gift that actually comes from him, and not some rejected presents. However, the problem is that he hates all the teasing—so he’ll have to force himself to also buy gifts for his friends.

But what would Jimin like?

He looks at the back of Jimin’s head as he ponders.

If only I could read his mind as well.

Yoongi quietly sighs and leans forward. Then, subtly, he reaches his hand over and gently puts it atop Jimin’s head. The boy flinches at the contact, but doesn't say or do anything to stop Yoongi.

What do you want for Valentine’s? Bouquet? Card? Jewelry? Bags? Books? Stuffed toys? Detective Agust merch?

Then, jokingly, he adds: Me?

Jimin flinches again, and this time, he moves his head away from Yoongi’s hand. This intrigues Yoongi, and he leans back in his seat to wonder about it.

He hears fragments of my thoughts. What could he have heard from those?

Pushing that aside, his first question still hasn't been answered, so he decides to just get everything.

Would they tease me if I gave him seven gifts, but for them, only one for each?

Either way, he will still get teased, so he might as well go all out for it.

⌣⊹୨୧⊹⌣

“Thank you for the Valentine’s date, Yoongi,” Taehyung says as he dabs a napkin around his mouth.

After school, Yoongi invited his best friends out for a 3 PM meal as his Valentine’s present for them. He couldn't really think of anything he could give them for the occasion, and treating them to food was the safest option he could think of.

“Yes, thank you, Yoongi, the meal was delish.” Namjoon grins.

“You’re both welcome. I just didn't know what to really give you guys for Valentine's, but I know you both wanted to try out this restaurant for a while now.”

“What did you get for Jimin?” Taehyung asks bluntly, and Yoongi's shoulders sag.

His reaction makes the two Kims gasp. “I knew it, you didn't treat us to dinner simply because.”

Namjoon sighs and clicks his tongue, “Ever since Jimin came into the picture, our brotherhood has become all about impressing him.”

Taehyung hums in agreement and shakes his head. “You are one lost boy for him, Yoongi.”

“Shut up, whatever, I just wanna be nice for once.” Yoongi rolls his eyes.

“For once, he says, but he’s always nice to Jimin.” The two boys laugh, and Yoongi could only sigh tiredly.

“Look, are you two going to help me or not?”

“Let’s go to the mall!”

The trio decides to split up and gather different items Jimin might like, but also screams ‘Yoongi chose this present specifically for you’ and not ‘Namjoon chose this present and Yoongi approved it’. He already gave the two a run-down on what Jimin likes: Detective Agust merch, weird-cute stuffed toys, diabetes-inducing treats, and anything that dangles.

Keychains are some of Jimin’s new obsessions—well, it’s not exactly new, considering Yoongi noticed how this started in sixth grade. But keychains are one of Jimin’s constants. In fact, the boy has a keychain for his bag, his pencil case, his wallet, and, weirdly, some of his pens.

Another fun fact: Jimin switches the charms out every other week. This makes Yoongi wonder what the boy’s room looks like with his whole collection of keychains.

All of the stores have very great gift options, but despite the extravagance and flashiness of them all, Yoongi just can’t find it in himself to get one for Jimin. He can basically see the boy’s face receiving such an item, and what he imagines is a grateful but ‘You clearly don’t know what I like’ way.

Yes, it matters. Yes, Yoongi cares. No, this is just how friends show appreciation for each other.

This is the first gift he’ll ever give to Jimin, so it has to be perfect. It has to be memorable. It has to be something that Jimin can look at and think, ‘My good friend, Imperial Min, gave this to me as a token of our friendship.’

Yoongi searches around the mall for another hour, but after that, he decidedly gives up.

He sighs loudly as he sits on a bench outside a craft store. He gets a perfect view of the items inside, and he mindlessly scans them.

Does Jimin like crafting? Remembering the homemade hat, clothes, and beard his stuffed toys had, the answer is obvious.

OH!

Finally, an idea pops into Yoongi’s head.

He enters the craft store and buys a box of beads, a roll of elastic cord, and a few cute charms that remind him of the tiny things Jimin likes.

If I can’t find the perfect gift, then I will make the perfect gift.

He later meets with the other two, and after telling them his plan, they excitedly jump in to help him. For over two hours, the trio ends up making five different bracelets, and only one of them looks a lot like Jimin’s personality.

“I think we accidentally made one for each of us five,” Namjoon chuckles while looking at the pieces they made.

Indeed, each one represents them. Jimin’s is bright baby blue with a teddy bear charm, Yoongi’s is dark blue with a star charm, Namjoon’s is dark green with a leaf charm, Taehyung’s is burgundy with a sunglasses charm, and Hoseok’s is yellow with a sunflower charm.

“Let’s all wear it, then! Friendship bracelets.” Taehyung beams, taking his piece and immediately wearing it. Namjoon follows his move, then they both put up their wrists proudly.

“I can’t believe we’re only doing this now when we’re older. We should’ve done this when we were, like, six or seven.”

“We were busy being manly boys,” Yoongi points out, snorting at the memory of them trying hard to be masculine as young boys.

“Anyway, let’s pack everything up. Yoongi, you should wrap Jimin’s and prepare to give it to him tomorrow.” The two tease and laugh at him, but Yoongi only shakes his head.

“Nope, I’m going to give it today,” he says as he stands up, wears his bracelet, then grabs Jimin’s.

“But it’s late.”

“And I know where he lives.” Yoongi shrugs. “Plus, this is a Valentine's gift, not a February Fifteenth gift.”

The two laugh at him, but fortunately, don’t tease him further.

“You really do like him, don’t you?” Namjoon’s question makes Yoongi freeze.

Like… Him?

“Yeah, he’s a great friend. Should’ve befriended him a long time ago,” Yoongi casually says, hoping it is what they meant.

“What? No, like, like like him. As in, I wanna date him, I have a crush on him, I wanna kiss him, I want him as my boyfriend—kind of like.”

Yoongi looks up at them blankly, and the two only give him concerned faces.

“You… haven’t evaluated your feelings, have you?” Taehyung asks, then puts a hand on Yoongi’s shoulder. “You should look into it, Yoongi, because—” he whistles, then continues, “This is not normal friendly behavior.”

Jimin…

“Anyway, let’s go.”

⌣⊹୨୧⊹⌣

When the three part ways, Yoongi finds himself deep in thought while he makes his way to Jimin’s apartment.

He’s always found Jimin cute, and handsome, and charming, and weird…ly adorable. But does that mean he likes him? There have been young-adult articles that talk about ‘how to find out if you like someone,’ and they’ve listed a lot of things.

Does he like Jimin’s smile? His voice? His humor? His fashion? His attitude? His behavior? His personality? His intelligence? Does he know his interests? His dislikes? His life story? His fears? His dreams? Can he imagine a life without Jimin?

Yoongi’s answer to all of that is yes. Except for the last question.

Can I imagine a life without Jimin?

He tries. He thinks of how his childhood would’ve been if he hadn’t had Jimin in it. But he always comes up with the same answer.

Boring. Life would be very boring and sad. Sad like father’s. Sad like Yoonjung’s. Sad like mother’s.

Does he have an answer to his question now?

“Hey, Yoongi, what brings you here?”

Yoongi looks up in surprise, not realizing that he’d already arrived and knocked on the door.

“Um—”

And somehow, realizing his feelings suddenly makes it hard to act normally around Jimin.

“Yoongi—?”

Since he’d run out of words, Yoongi just takes Jimin’s wrist and puts on the bracelet for him. The boy looks down at it in shock, and they’re both quiet as Yoongi doesn’t let go. It’s his full intention not to do so.

Happy Valentine’s Day, Stupid. You’re stupid for being stupidly cute, stupidly handsome, stupidly kind, stupidly adorable, stupidly endearing, stupidly perfect… And you’re stupid for making me like you. I stupidly like you.

Yoongi lets go then, and he watches as Jimin’s hand drops limply to his side. The boy remains quiet, and it starts to make him worry. And then, he looks up to find that Jimin is still staring at where his hand was supposed to be, his eyes wide and his mouth slack.

It’s a very silly sight. A silly, but cute sight. Wow, Yoongi really is fond of this boy.

“Jimin?”

When Jimin snaps out of it, his eyes are now glazed, and he looks at Yoongi with an unreadable expression for once.

“It’s Valentine’s Day, and you still manage to call me stupid.”

Yoongi snorts and shrugs his shoulders. He’s not entirely sure, but he has a feeling that Jimin still heard everything. Judging by the way his face his red, and his smile doesn’t drop even for a second—yeah, he definitely knows.

“You’ll always be stupid in my eyes.”

Jimin just shakes his head with a laugh. “Come in, Imperial Min. Join us for dinner,” he says as he grabs Yoongi’s arm and pulls him inside.

“Wait, are you sure? I just dropped by to give you the—”

“Yes, I’m sure. I told Papa you’re the one responsible for all those gifts, by the way.” Jimin lowers his voice to a whisper. “He doesn’t approve of you, but for the sake of his mission, he’s delighted anyway.”

Is that his way of saying he likes me back?

“Shut up, Yoongi.”

Oh, so he definitely heard. Little shi—

⌣⊹୨୧⊹⌣

The next day at school, Jimin proudly showed off his new bracelet to Hoseok. However, he’s met with surprise when his friend pulled up his wrist and showed off his own.

“Yoongi gave you one, too?” Asks Jimin.

His question makes the other boys turn their heads to Yoongi, who only rolls his eyes at their faces.

“No, Namjoon gave it to me. I’m assuming the three made the bracelets together.”

At this, Jimin looks at Yoongi with another unreadable expression. Yoongi dislikes when that happens because he can't figure out what’s going on inside the boy’s head. And so, with a sigh, he reaches forward and presses his hand atop Jimin’s head.

I personally made that for you while thinking of you. I still very much like you, Stupid.

Then, he ruffles Jimin’s hair.

“Are you jealous, Jimin?”

“I’m not!”

The Disguise

“Hey, wanna come over to my residence?” Yoongi whispers, but Jimin hears him just fine, because the boy bolts up from his bed and gets all over Yoongi’s space.

They’re currently hanging out in Jimin’s room, busy with their individual activities. While Yoongi studies, Jimin reads Detective Agust’s manga. Which, speaking of, Yoongi wonders if Jimin’s the only reason the series is kept alive.

Ever since that confession he pulled, the two have been hanging out more than usual—just the two of them. Maybe they're called dates, but they haven't really talked about it yet, so Yoongi’s just been calling them ‘hangouts.’

They just seem to have this silent, mutual understanding that they know how the other feels, but they won't get to the next stage yet, and are content with their current setup.

“Min Yoongi is inviting me to the Min residence?”

Yoongi turns to look at Jimin, only to freeze at the distance—the lack thereof. He easily gets distracted then, his eyes scanning every inch of Jimin’s face like he’s memorizing it for keeps. Because he actually is memorizing it for keeps.

“Hello? Is anyone there?” Jimin whispers. And when Yoongi remains unresponsive, he cups his cheek.

You’re so handsome.

“Ugh, you’re so cheesy,” but his complaints are nonsense and only for show because he still smiles widely and doesn't let go.

You like me, Stupid.

“No comment, stupid.” Jimin rolls his eyes. “Now, stop thinking and answer me properly, Min Yoongi.”

“Wanna come over?” Yoongi whispers, staring straight into Jimin’s eyes.

“I would love to.” Jimin squeezes his cheek before he moves back.

Lately, it’s been getting harder to control his feelings for Jimin. Some days, he would get the sudden urge to just pull the boy into a hug. Some days, he would feel like kissing him senseless. Some days, he wants to simply hold hands and do nothing else.

Park Jimin, what are you doing to me?

He clears his throat and turns around to face Jimin, who’s now rummaging through his closet, finding a change of clothes.

Oh, so he wants to go now.

“Mr. Jeon will have a field day,” Yoongi says, watching as Jimin starts stripping. The boy is really shameless… they both are. “Do you think he’ll put on a disguise and sneak in?”

“Isn't your home tightly secured?”

“Yup,” Yoongi pops the P. He jumps into the bed from the chair and settles down comfortably, like he’s watching his favorite show, but it’s just Jimin changing his clothes. “What if he’ll take your place instead, without me knowing, and I end up kissing him?”

Jimin freezes, then slowly he turns around with a grimace. With him being shirtless, the ugly expression only looks attractive. But maybe Yoongi's just biased.

“You're so weird and gross for even considering that.”

“It's a real worry. Now that I know Mr. Jeon can create realistic disguises and that he’s after my father, I don't doubt he’ll pull something like that just to enter my house.” Yoongi takes Mr. Ted and starts playing with him.

I really hope he won’t. My lips are only for Jimin… and maybe you. He thinks as he presses a quick one on the tip of Mr. Ted’s head.

“Maybe he’ll suddenly visit the house one day disguised as you, but because I’m very into you, I’d just let him-you in and boom, I end up kissing him-you.”

Jimin falls silent, and when Yoongi looks up, he sees the boy covering his mouth and trying his hardest to contain his laughter. The cute sight has him grinning widely.

“Good luck on that. Papa is a Casanova, a natural—or so he’d always literally think he is.”

“Oh, God, and you don't care or mind the possibility?!”

“Keep your voice down, drama queen.” Jimin rolls his eyes and sits down in front of Yoongi. “I do care and mind, but what else can I do about it? I’d be in enemy territory—main enemy territory, of course, he’d want to enter and inspect.”

Jimin leans down to hover over Yoongi’s face, then smiles reassuringly. “I like to think you know me well enough to know if it’s an imposter or not.”

Yoongi bumps their noses together. “Fine, I’ll just put my hand on him-you’s head and see if he-you reacts to what I have to think.”

“Problem solved,” Jimin says, then gets up.

“He’d probably think, ‘Why couldn't you have wooed him sooner?’ When we tell him where we’re going.”

“It only took nine years.”

Yoongi whistles. “I don't know how I’d feel if my dumb adopted son made me wait nine years to complete my mission.” His comment gets him a smack on his head. “Ow!”

“You're stupidly annoying and rude. Shut up, and let’s go.”

“You’re going… where?” Mr. Jeon asks, completely stunned. He’s standing by the hall, wearing an apron and holding a spatula. He looks very domestic, and Yoongi never would’ve guessed that this man was a secret agent currently on a mission.

With a telepathic son who just exposed his whole operation to the son of his enemy.

Jimin sure is lucky that Yoongi’s too down bad for him. Otherwise, things would’ve gone wrong by now.

“The Min residence. Yoongi just invited me, and I’m too excited to wait for next time! So we’re going today!” Jimin giddily says as he puts on his coat. They were just about to exit the apartment when Mr. Jeon overheard their scripted conversation.

“Where are we going again, Yoongi?”

“To my house, where my father lives, and where he has his own home office that he puts a lot of his files, but rarely stays to work in.”

Yes, Jimin wrote the script.

Yoongi gently holds Jimin’s wrist afterwards and thinks, I bet he’s plotting right now.

“Why?” Mr. Jeon asks, looking confused, but knowing their situation, Yoongi can easily guess that the man must be delighted deep inside.

Jimin pouts and leans against Yoongi. “What do you mean, ‘why’?”

“It means what it means. Why?”

“Just like how he always visits here. So that we could hang out.” Jimin shrugs his shoulders, but he’s secretly elbowing Yoongi.

“What time will you be getting back?” Mr. Jeon has a strict tone to it, and even if Yoongi assumes it has to do with what he’s plotting, it also has to do with his genuine concern for his son.

“He’ll be home by ten, Mr. Jeon. Our home is quite far away, it’ll be a while to drive.”

He’s definitely considering the travel time. Jimin elbows him again.

“I see. Alright, have fun, kids.” Mr. Jeon waves a free hand at them, and they both return it as they walk out the door.

“Bye, Papa!”

“Bye, Mr. Jeon!”

When Jimin closes the door, he stays there for a moment, probably listening in on his father’s thoughts. It takes a while before he finally turns around and flashes Yoongi a grin.

Yoongi doesn’t waste time and hurries to ask him, “What did his mind say?”

“For the years I’ve been listening to him, that was the fastest plotting I’ve ever heard.” Jimin lets out an amused chuckle, shaking his head with his grin only getting wider.

“He’s definitely been dreaming of this day for ages.” Yoongi snorts, then says, “I’m excited.”

“That's literally your home he’s trespassing.”

“So? The dormitory is basically my new home now. That place doesn't mean anything to me anymore.”

Jimin only sighs in response.

⌣⊹୨୧⊹⌣

“Wow, this place is huge,” Jimin immediately comments as soon as they get out of the car.

They make their way inside, and Yoongi takes Jimin’s hand to tour him around the house. It’s quiet for a while as he lets Jimin take everything in, enjoying the small gasps of awe and the moments his jaw slacks. Jimin is very cute.

When they arrive in his room, he watches fondly as Jimin excitedly roams around, picking up and inspecting trinkets, flipping through some books, opening drawers, and even bouncing on the bed. The wonder in Jimin’s eyes makes Yoongi smile, because like this, he gets to see that cute, tiny, six-year-old Jimin again.

“It looked a lot bigger when I was a kid,” Yoongi says as he leans against his desk, referring to Jimin’s comment earlier.

“Obviously, you were tiny back then.” Jimin gets up from the bed and opens the bathroom door, letting out an amazed sound when he realizes what room it is.

“You were tinier,” Yoongi playfully retorts, picking up a picture frame on his desk and cringing when he sees his four-year-old self posing with his family. They look regal, but dull—one could see through this photo alone that they are not happy in all their relationships.

“We were the same height!” Exclaims Jimin from the bathroom.

He sets down the photo and hums. “Um, no, we really weren't. My nickname for you used to be Tiny Jimin—and it's said fondly.” Yoongi proudly smiles.

Jimin comes out of the bathroom wearing Yoongi’s robe, and the sight makes him laugh. “That’s a cute nickname…”

Yoongi pushes himself away from the desk and makes his way over to Jimin. He takes the strings from the robe and drags the boy closer to him. “I would call you that again, but you’re a little shit now, so it wouldn't be fitting.”

“I hate you.” Jimin pouts.

“You like me, stupid.”

“No comment, stupid.”

They smile at each other, but Jimin’s drops quickly as it comes. Yoongi cups the boy’s face as concern washes over him. “You okay?” He asks.

Jimin leans into Yoongi’s ear and whispers, “I hear Papa.”

He glances at his door for a moment before leaning into Jimin’s ear to whisper back, “Already? How? Is he outside my room?”

Jimin chuckles, but he nods. “I’ll tell you later, but yes, he is. He’s listening in on us, wondering what we, hormonal teenagers in love, are doing. Those are his exact words.”

His words make Yoongi choke, and his reaction sends Jimin into a fit of laughter.

“Let's hang out in the gardens,” He decides to say as he pulls away from the boy, feeling awkward now that Mr. Jeon is right outside his door trying to eavesdrop on their conversation.

Out in the garden, the two lie down beside one another on a blanket they laid on the grass. The atmosphere and mood are wonderful, and Yoongi finds himself enjoying the place he’s come to loathe. The gardens were once his favorite area in the whole estate, but he stopped liking anything about the manor in general when he grew up.

Something about his childhood getting tainted with his matured realizations makes the place ugly.

However, lying there with Jimin right beside him, the only person he finds comfort and safety in, makes the suffocating estate bearable, nice. And he likes it. He likes it a lot. Everywhere Jimin goes, the place just lights up a little brighter, and everything wrong about it fades away.

“I could lie here all day.” Jimin sighs contentedly.

“Yeah, it’s beautiful here,” Yoongi easily agrees.

“Wanna guess what he’s disguised as?”

Yoongi subtly turns his head to the side for any staff lingering nearby, and he sees Butler Wu standing off to the side, a good distance away from them. He furrows his eyebrows, then turns to Jimin and whispers, “A maid would be my best guess. They can easily access every room.”

“Hmmm, makes sense.”

He props up onto his elbow and looks down at Jimin. “What is he really disguised as?” He whispers impatiently.

Jimin makes eye contact with him, then whispers in a serious tone, “I don’t know.”

“You’re annoying.” Yoongi rolls his eyes, then pushes himself up into a seated position.

“You’re worse,” comes Jimin’s weak reply.

Yoongi doesn’t respond and instead looks in Butler Wu’s direction. He raises his hand, catching the old man’s attention. The butler walks up to them and bows his head.

“Butler Wu, bring us some sponge cake, please,” he politely requests.

“I will, Young Master Min.”

When the man turns around and leaves, Jimin drapes himself over Yoongi’s shoulder and asks, “How long has he been working for the Mins?”

Yoongi turns his head slightly to the side. “I heard it’s been thirty years now.”

Butler Wu only served his grandfather for fifteen years, and the rest with his father. He’s one of the most loyal people serving the Min family, and his loyalty only ever truly lies with his father. When it comes to Yoongi, Yoonjung, and their mother, Butler Wu keeps a certain distance and boundary in serving them.

This explains Yoongi’s odd feelings toward the old man. He’s tried opening up and getting closer with him by sharing his feelings, especially that time in fourth grade when he was on the brink of getting a Bolt. However, the butler’s indifferent tone and attitude towards him always made it hard for him to understand.

It took him until sixth grade to realize that their ‘family’ butler is actually just Min Yoonjae’s Butler.

“Thirty years,” Jimin muses.

“Yeah, not really close with him, though. With anyone in this place, really.” Yoongi considers for a moment before he adds, “Except Byungwoo, but we don't often see each other anymore, ever since I started living in Eden. Only when I’m going out.”

Jimin hums and nods. “I’m actually surprised Mr. Byungwoo’s still your personal bodyguard.”

“We like each other. And I bet his pay is good.” And he hopes it remains high enough for the man to stay until his retirement.

Byungwoo was his only friend before he met the Kims at summer school. In fact, he was the only person Yoongi could actually hold long conversations with, because the other staff just weren’t interested in befriending him. Just like with Butler Wu, he tried getting close to everyone, but he always got cold-shouldered.

This made him reach the conclusion that either his Father was behind all of it, or the staff simply hates the Mins. I wouldn’t doubt that. I’d hate this family if I worked for them, too.

Jimin, hearing his thoughts, wraps his arms around Yoongi’s waist and squeezes him tight.

“I wonder what your Papa’s doing,” Yoongi changes the topic.

“Probably checking every room.” Jimin loosens his hold, and Yoongi takes the opportunity to turn around and properly face the boy. He prefers this position anyway, getting to see that cute face.

“That's what he’s doing right now?”

“Not sure. I can't really hear from far away, only when I strain myself to, but that’s really painful to do and I’d end up passing out.” Jimin pouts.

Yoongi smiles at the sight. “Let's just rest your mind today, hm?” He says as he gently pats Jimin’s head.

“I like that your residence is big and far from the city. I hear absolutely nothing right now—except you.” Jimin looks up at the sky, then mumbles, “Too many voices can be overwhelming sometimes.”

“Want me to shut mine off?”

“No, it’s okay, it’s comforting to hear your voice. It assures me that I haven't lost my ability.”

Yoongi grins, and he takes Jimin’s hand into his, intertwining their fingers. You look so cuddly right now, he thinks.

“And cute.”

Fine, that, too. He rolls his eyes fondly.

“Young Master Min, your sponge cake.”

They both look up at the voice, and Yoongi carefully takes the tray from the butler’s hands. “Thanks, Butler Wu,” he says, but then pauses when he sees something missing, “Oh, you forgot the chocolate sauce.”

“I will be right back.”

“Whenever I see you eating something sweet, it’s always sponge cake,” Jimin says as soon as Butler Wu turns around.

“I love the simplicity of it, and pair it with strawberry and chocolate,” Yoongi moans in exaggeration, “The best.”

Jimin just snorts and mumbles, “Adorable.”

“Young Master Min, your chocolate sauce.”

“Thank you, Butler Wu. You may tend to your other responsibilities now. I can take it from here.” Yoongi dismissively says without looking at the man, simply stuffing his face afterwards.

When the butler is out of earshot, Jimin quickly leans in and says, “You should’ve dismissed him a long time ago and gotten your sponge cake yourself.”

Yoongi puts down his plate and looks at Jimin wildly. “That was so your Papa.”

The boy laughs loudly in response, then asks in shock, “How’d you know?!”

Yoongi scoffs and shakes his head. “Butler Wu never sticks by anyone else’s side except for father’s. The only one who should tend to me is Byungwoo.”

“Wow!” Jimin gasps, impressed at the small detail his father missed. “See? You wouldn't end up kissing imposter me!” He excitedly teases.

“But he’s your father. He knows you more than he does Butler Wu.”

“He doesn't know how I actually act around you.”

“You’re quite predictable, though.”

Jimin sighs irritably and smacks Yoongi’s shoulder. “Yoongi, do you want to kiss him or something?”

Yoongi cackles, falling back into the blanket as he laughs. “Sorry, sorry, I’ll drop it.”

When he calms down, he sits back up and says seriously, “I think your father chose the wrong guy to disguise as.”

“He’s been doing this for years, let’s just trust him. He’ll be fine.”

“No, I don’t think you realize just how crazy Butler Wu is. That’s why he and my father get along well—they’re both batshit crazy.” Yoongi shakes his head. “When he wakes up, assuming your father knocked him out, he won’t waste time getting to the bottom of this.”

“Well, what else can we do?” Jimin frowns, now concerned.

“I don’t know, but I’m worried for Mr. Jeon. Father and Butler Wu can suck up whatever’s going their way after this, but I’m worried for your Papa.”

Seeing the growing concern on Jimin’s face, Yoongi leans in and pinches the boy’s cheek.

“But your Papa’s been doing this for years now, right?”

“Yeah,” Jimin mumbles with a pout.

“If you trust him and his judgment, then I will, too.”

A smile finally makes its way back onto Jimin’s face, and to further lighten up the mood, Yoongi excitedly suggests, “Wanna spy on him?”

This instantly lights up Jimin’s face, and he immediately rushes to stand up. “Let’s go!”

⌣⊹୨୧⊹⌣

The mansion has a lot of hallways, and the two can’t risk disrupting Mr. Jeon’s operation by bumping into him and putting him in a tight spot. Decidedly, they make his room a starting point and move from there.

Another issue they considered is communication—they cannot risk even whispering, so they figured that Yoongi speaks through his mind, and Jimin writes on a notepad.

Finally, the last thing they do is take off their shoes before they are finally set.

As the only one familiar with the house’s layout, Yoongi takes the front and leads them both to his father’s home office. There are two routes to get there, and Yoongi goes to the one that is rarely used, because if Mr. Jeon found a way to figure out the map and routines, then he would know to go through the commonly used route to avoid suspicion.

They both run into roaming security guards from time to time, but no one pays them any attention or is even curious about what they’re doing. It’s one of the good things that comes from having indifferent staff, I guess.

When they’re finally in the hallways where the office is located, Yoongi leads them into a room that’s two rooms down from it. He carefully shuts the door, then quietly celebrates with Jimin.

I can actually hear him from here! Jimin’s note says.

Yoongi nods and takes hold of his hand before he thinks, What is his current finding?

Jimin takes his time between writing and listening. His facial expressions reacting to Mr. Jeon’s thoughts only make Yoongi more curious and impatient to find out what’s going on. By the looks of it, the agent’s findings must be serious, critical, and it makes Yoongi wonder just what his father is really up to.

After a while, Jimin decides he’s done and gives Yoongi the notepad.

These are a summary of his thoughts!

- Min Corp has contracts with foreign governments, aiding them with nuclear bombs

- Contract drafts about experiment stuff

- Building permits for laboratories

- Written scientific and mathematical equations

- Human anatomy notes, mostly brain stuff

Yoongi’s eyebrows get closer with every bullet point he reads, and when he looks up to share Jimin his thoughts, he freezes at the pained look on the boy’s face. His concern only grows when a tear slips down the boy’s face. This sets off all the alarms in Yoongi’s head, and he quickly grabs Jimin’s shoulders, thinking hard and clumsily in a panic.

Jimin, what did you hear? Why are you crying? What’s going on?

But the boy only looks at him sadly as more tears fall.

When Jimin couldn't hold in his sobs any longer, Yoongi led him back to his bedroom. There, the boy finally let out a heart-wrenching sob. The sight and sounds scared Yoongi, but all he could do was hold him close to his chest, whispering reassuring words—that he was there, that they were okay. And in his mind, he thinks of happy thoughts, happy memories they both share.

The sobs die down after a while, and what remains are small sniffs. Yoongi waits until Jimin is ready to pull away, and when they’re apart, he whispers, “Jimin, what happened, hm?”

“Y-your father, he—” a sob breaks out, and Yoongi softly caresses Jimin’s back.

“Take your time, Jimin. It’s okay.”

“It's not okay.” Jimin takes a deep breath, then looks Yoongi in the eyes. “He conducted experiments on you two. On me. On lots of children.”

“...what?”

“Yoongi,” Jimin sighs, pulling away from the embrace to hold Yoongi’s hands. “He's the reason I can read minds. He's the reason I can’t read your mind. He’s the reason your brother’s a living dead. He’s the reason you’re all unhappy.”

“He—he made your brother a telepath like me, and he made you a psychic shield to block telepathy. It's why I couldn't read your mind back then, Yoongi.”

“Yoonjung was his first subject, and he experimented on him for five years to finally make it work, but he wasn't satisfied with the result, so he took orphaned babies into the lab to create the perfect one. I was one of them.”

So when the maids said he was inseparable from Yoonjung, this was the reason why…

“Subject One has distance complications; can only hear within a two-foot radius, his journal said. And I was almost perfect, but I always faint when I strain to hear farther, so they dropped me when my body rejected further tweaks.”

“You were subject one for operation defense.” Jimin squeezes his hands. “He got it right on his first try. His journal says that you can control this shield, whether you want to turn it on or not.”

With that idea, that must mean that Yoongi turned off his ‘shield’ whenever he was talking to Jimin through his mind. His only question is why it only fully turned off after a long time, because the first time he tried it out, the boy could only hear fragments.

“You were probably second-guessing everything, so your abilities were confused if you should keep it on or off,” Jimin theorizes, and it makes complete sense, so Yoongi settles for it

“This is so messed up…” Yoongi mutters, his head beginning to ache at the revelations, the new questions. Everything is a mess in his head. “I don't know what to feel.”

“Yoongi,” Jimin frowns. He cups Yoongi’s face and caresses his cheeks with his thumbs.

“I’m so sorry, Jimin,” is the only thing Yoongi can say.

Jimin shakes his head. “You did nothing wrong, Yoongi.”

“But he’s my father—”

“Your father, whom you didn't choose. It's alright. You knew nothing; you didn't participate in anything. This is all on him. Don’t carry his burden, Yoongi.”

“Jimin—”

“You were a victim, too.”

That shuts Yoongi up. And, finally, as if the dam had broken, the tears he hadn’t noticed welling in his eyes freed themselves. Jimin coos as he pulls Yoongi into a tight hug.

Plenty of questions remain in Yoongi’s head about his father’s work. How did his brother go through all of that pain? Does he know? Why doesn’t Yoongi recall anything about being in a laboratory? How old was he? Where was their mother through all of this? Does everyone working for them know?

Each question only brings more weight of betrayal in Yoongi’s heart. For years, he’s been chasing everyone’s love, chasing greatness for their love—but to find out that he’s already been crushed since the beginning, that there wasn’t any hope to begin with, is ultimately soul-shattering. Everything suddenly feels like a lie, a script that he’s been improvising from the beginning.

Yoongi's only anchor right now is the hope that he, his brother, Jimin, and every other child scarred by his father's experiments can somehow find a way to move beyond the trauma and heal. But before anything else, Mr. Jeon and his agency must bring this nightmare to an end.

“So that's what Mr. Jeon’s been after the whole time,” Yoongi chuckles humorlessly as he pockets his hands.

They're on their way back to Jimin's apartment. Byungwoo actually drove them, but Yoongi requested to be dropped off two blocks away, just so he and Jimin could have more time together. As well as to talk freely about their discovery.

“Yes. His agency found that he’s somehow involved in this war.”

Yoongi looks down, his voice lowering when he says, “I’m scared for your Papa. Things are about to go down now.”

Jimin wraps a hand around Yoongi’s arm, then quietly hums, sharing his fear. “I’ll have to tell him everything. I mean, he basically knows about me now—and you.”

“He must be a telepath, too,” Yoongi says, referring to his father. “And a shield. I don't want to believe that he achieved something like this, and wouldn't do it to himself.”

“Most likely.”

Yoongi looks at Jimin, saying, “Let's talk to your Papa.”

“You’ll be there with me?” The boy is surprised.

“Of course. I know how nervous you are. And I need to be there, too. This is my father we’ll be discussing.”

“Alright. Thank you, Yoongi.” Jimin leans his head against Yoongi’s shoulder as they walk, and for the rest of the time, they stay like that.

The moment Jimin opens the door, Mr. Jeon comes rushing to them from the kitchen.

“Papa,” Jimin greets, his lips wobbling.

“Jimin,” Mr. Jeon greets back, his eyebrows furrowing. Probably at Jimin’s bloodshot eyes

“You found out,” the boy simply says.

“You already knew,” Mr. Jeon nods his head. It looks like he’d already expected this conversation. “You do understand that this is against—woah—!” However, his breath gets knocked out when Jimin tackles him into a koala hug.

“Please don’t leave me, Papa,” he wails into his Papa’s shoulder.

The man scoffs, saying, “You’re an adult now. You can live without me.”

“I really, really can’t.” Jimin seems only to squeeze him tighter as he continues to beg. “Please, Papa.”

His cries are starting to get to Mr. Jeon and Yoongi, their eyes tearing up at the desperation and heartbreak in Jimin’s voice. It gets too much that Yoongi has to look away.

The scene reminds Yoongi of the time they both got locked in the janitor's closet. Jimin sounded very bittersweet when he said Mr. Jeon felt like his real Papa, and this must've been why. All this time, Jimin was scared of losing his Papa once the mission was done, once he eventually found out Jimin’s telepathy.

“Yoongi,” Mr. Jeon calls out.

“Sir,” Yoongi straightens up, facing the other man.

“Take good care of Jimin—”

The boy cuts him off again, yelling, “Papa, shut up, you’re not leaving me! Your mind says you don’t wanna!”

“Jimin,” Mr. Jeon tries again, but Jimin only shakes his head and holds on tighter.

“No!”

They're quiet for a while as Mr. Jeon thinks. In the midst of this, Jimin's cries soon die down, and his legs unwrap from around his Papa's hips. The father and son duo look at each other, and Yoongi's heart clenches at the sight.

They might’ve been roped into this relationship for secret operation purposes, but the love they have for one another is real. They’re a family.

“Then, I guess I’ll have to retire early,” Mr. Jeon finally says, but Jimin still opposes. “Don’t!” He exclaims.

“I can’t have a family in this line of work, Jimin.”

“But you were able to pull off those side-missions! Please don’t retire, and please don’t leave me as well.”

“It’s either you or my career, Jimin.” The man sighs, then pats Jimin’s head. “I’m retiring, okay? That’s final.”

Jimin looks like he still wants to protest, but decides to go against it. He buries his face into his father’s neck and cuddles closer to him. Mr. Jeon lets out a fond laugh, rubbing his son’s back comfortingly.

Mr. Jeon’s attention then moves to Yoongi, and the man smiles kindly at him. “And I’m assuming you already know,” he says, and Yoongi nods. “Good. Thank you for being there for Jimin, Yoongi.”

“It is my pleasure, Sir.” Yoongi bows and stays in that position for a few seconds longer before getting back up. Mr. Jeon seems to have understood his sentiment, and the man nods at him, accepting his silent apology.

When they all settle in at the dining table, eating dinner and talking in low voices about everything that happened over the past nine years, Yoongi finally asks what’s been in the back of his mind the whole day: “So what were you plotting earlier?”

⌣⊹୨୧⊹⌣

The telephone rings on Yoongi’s end. When he picks it up, he hears his brother’s voice on the line.

“Yoongi, you were there,” was his cold greeting.

“Whatever do you mean, brother?”

“Butler Wu went through father’s office, but he testified to having done nothing. What do you know, Yoongi?”

“What do you know, brother?”

“...You’re too naive to understand, Yoongi.”

“No, tell me.”

“You sound like you already know.”

“And you sound like you knew all along.”

“I was designed to know everything.”

“You're making it sound like we’re nothing but his robots.”

“...Tell me the truth about Wu, Yoongi.”

“If I don’t?”

“You’d be a disgrace to everything this family worked for.”

“And you’d all be a disgrace to humanity.”

“...”

“You’re out.”

The line disconnects.

The Last Day

Life at Eden Academy hadn’t been the same ever since his father’s crimes were broadcast—well, not exactly the creation of superhumans, but that he was responsible for illegally distributing deadly weapons and experimenting on children, including his own sons. The articles were censored, but they summarized every crime he committed.

The day he went to school after the news dropped, everyone suddenly switched their view of him. People who used to look up to him and kissed the ground he walked on have begun either avoiding him or looking at him with pity. Rumors were quick to spread that he’s defected from his father’s experiments—and, yeah, maybe he is, but just the fact that he can stop telepaths from reading into his mind.

After he was disowned by his family—which was pointless because the government confiscated all assets under the Min name—Byungwoo took him in. It was awkward living in the man’s one-bedroom apartment for a while, but it also didn’t take him long to get used to it. And, no, he wasn’t kicked out of Eden’s Dormitory; he just didn’t have the money to keep living there.

Which, speaking of, the academy actually took his situation quite well. The board deemed him a valuable student at Eden, and he’s proven to be innocent of everything his father had done, so they retained his place at the school by giving him a full scholarship. However, all records that show his father’s influence at the school have been rewritten, and his alumni hall portraits honoring him have been taken down.

Namjoon and Taehyung became softer to him—including Hoseok, the new addition to the Genius Boys, apparently—and he absolutely hated it. Luckily, their special treatment only lasted for a week before they were back to teasing him mercilessly about Jimin.

Ah, yes, Jimin.

Jimin admitted that he had a hard time sharing his feelings with Yoongi, simply because he was still stuck with his situation with Mr. Jeon. He said that the burden was too heavy for him to completely allow himself to fall in love. But, yes, he did eventually agree to go on a real, romantic date with Yoongi. With Mr. Jeon’s approval, of course.

Oh, and Mr. Jeon did retire right after he submitted all the evidence and the report. Jimin was not happy that his Papa wasn’t a cool spy agent anymore, but Mr. Jeon basically just told him to suck it up for the rest of his life. The father-son duo also made the time to go on lots of father-son dates to make up for all the time they spent hiding their true selves from one another.

Jimin finally got his closure about his situation with his father, but Yoongi? No, he didn’t.

That call he had with his brother was his last form of connection to his family, and after that, Byungwoo picked him up from the dorm the next day and brought him to his apartment. How his chapter ended was quite disappointing—there were no apologies, rekindling, or even one last glance at that part of his life. However, Jimin told him that maybe it was for the better, because Yoongi knew the truth, and the truth was that his family had no remorse. And he thinks Jimin is right.

And now, it’s their last day of school at Eden Academy. They’ll finally be graduating tomorrow.

It’s been very long, and Yoongi’s actually relieved that his time at Eden is finally coming to an end. The academy has brought so much into Yoongi’s life, both the good and the bad. And even though he’s very grateful for his life there, he’s also very excited to finally be free. Freer than he’s ever felt—heck, freer than when he had unlimited financial freedom.

“What’chu doing?”

Journaling my last day at school.

Yes, he and Jimin also figured out how Yoongi could communicate with him without physical contact.

“Use your words, Stupid.”

Yoongi sighs loudly, intentionally sounding irritated. “I’m journaling, Dumb Dumb.”

Jimin wraps his arms around Yoongi’s shoulders and rests his chin on top of his head. “That’s weird. Why are you only journaling your last day at school?”

“Because it signifies a fresh start. Begin from the last chapter, and then write the new one.”

“That… doesn’t make sense at all—are you sure you’re the valedictorian?”

Yoongi drops his pen and pinches the bridge of his nose. “What do you want, Dumb Dumb?”

“For you to stop writing so that we can finally go!”

Right. Taehyung is hosting a graduation party at his house, and everyone at school is invited. Jimin’s very excited about it because he likes to dress fancy, but Yoongi dislikes it because he dislikes dressing fancy. Opposites do indeed attract.

“But I’m not done yet,” Yoongi finally breaks and whines.

“You’re not done yet because your day hasn’t ended yet. You still have a party to journal, Stupid!” Jimin picks up Yoongi’s things, stuffs them into his bag, wears it on his free shoulder, then pulls on his arm to get him to stand up.

“Jimin, I don’t wanna go!” He whines louder.

“I know—you don’t wanna go because you’re scared you’ll get emotional and cry!”

“I’m not!”

And yet, in the middle of the ‘last speech’ program of the party, Jimin’s the one drenched in tears and dripping snot. Yoongi had to wipe the boy’s face and help him blow his nose multiple times. Yes, multiple times, because he cried at every speech.

“You’re such a crybaby,” Yoongi teases, and when Jimin pouts, he leans in and kisses it away. “I’ll always be there to wipe those tears, though, so cry away.”

“You’re so annoying.” Jimin huffs, but he still leans in to rest his head against Yoongi’s shoulder.

“I won’t lie… I’m gonna miss Eden,” Yoongi whispers.

“Me, too.”

He takes Jimin’s hand and intertwines their fingers over his lap.

I love you, Stupid.

Jimin hums in response.

Say it back, Stupid.

Jimin hums again.

“Say it back, Jimin.”

Another hum.

“Say it back!”

Jimin rarely says those three words back, saying that it makes him feel too mushy inside. That’s what Yoongi has been working on for months: to make the boy comfortable enough to say it whenever he feels like it. And Yoongi knows he’ll achieve it because he has a clear vision of his goal, and if he wants to get there, he'll have to reach for it.