Taehyung stared in horror at the scene before him. It was clearly not the scenario he had in mind before he entered the bus.

One boy was standing on one of the seats of the bus with another boy on the ground, hair pink, and black hoodie tight around his chin, passionately attached to his leg. He was pointing angrily at a young boy who Taeyhung knew as Jungkook in school, a golden, 'shy' good-at-everything lad (secretly a flirt) who was now holding a fresh can of sprite soda with one leg sticking out the window as if he has about to jump out of the bus. All the way in the back seats of the bus, underneath a pile of old sweaters, there was some movement and a snore.

"THAT'S MY SPRITE," the boy standing on one of the seats said loudly.

"Not anymore." Jungkook grinned boyishly as he clutched the Sprite tightly.

Jin quickly hopped into the bus to see what was going on.

"Now, what in the world are those ugly, little whippersnappers—" his eyes snapped into anger when he saw Jungkook, "GET YOUR FOOT AND BLESSED THIGH BACK INTO THE BUS, YOUNG MAN BEFORE I—"

"Hyung," the boy on the seat interrupted poutingly. "Jungkook isn't giving me my sprite back."

Jin rolled his eyes and sat onto the driver's seat. After Namjoon entered, the bus doors shut close.

"Jimin, please make them stop arguing," Jin ordered without looking back.

Jimin appeared to be the soft-looking boy with crescent eyes, hugging the angry boy's leg.

"Please guys, just share the sprite," Jimin pleaded, hugging his leg tighter and preventing him from attacking Jungkook. "You know I love you, Hoseok. Don't you?"

Hoseok and Jimin, thought Taeyhung. Those were their names.

The boy named Hoseok blinked down at him with teary puppy eyes. "Forgive me Jimin, It's just that—" seeing Junghook holding the sprite closer to his lips— "NO I SWEAR IF YOU EVEN BREATHE ONTO MY SPRITE—"

Instantly, he jumped out of Jimin's arms as if born an acrobat, and lunged towards Jungkook, who quickly pulled his leg out of the open window and jumped into another row.

"Everyone, sit down!" Jin yelled. "I'm about to start driving again!"

The two boys were not ready to sit down. They began fighting in one row, making the bus shake.

The lump in the back of the bus suddenly stirred and a voice yelled out, "You woke me UP."

Hoseok and Jungkook froze. They looked at each other, fear in their eyes, and ducked down fighting their way under the seats to hide.

Out from the lump of clothing emerged another boy, an older student from the school. Half asleep, yawning, rubbing the back of his jet black hair, he slowly stomped to the front of the bus.

"Where are they?" he growled. "Those two trouble makers?"

At this point, all seven of the human beings standing in the stolen school bus were qualified troublemakers (except, perhaps, Jimin who looked like an angel reluctantly dragged down from his heaven bubble), but Taehyung shrugged away the thought. 

The woken sleeper was about to look under the seats, but saw Namjoon and froze.

"Joon?" he said, blinking.

"Yoongi?" Namjoon smiled. "Nice to see you."

He turned to Taeyhyung. "We take some classes together in school."

Yoongi smiled wryly at Taehyung. He had small eyes and pale skin and looked quite like someone who dreamed of being reincarnated as a rock in the next life.

Taehyung waved awkwardly, trying to grin.

"Why are you here?" Namjoon asked Yoongi.

Yoongi shrugged. "Got tired of going to school, day in and day out. Woke up this morning thinking, school? Not today. How about you two?" He rubbed his cheek, where a bit of drool was left behind.

Taehyung grimaced, while Namjoon answered. "Just taking a pleasant stroll— no actually... to be honest, we came to steal this bus, but you guys stole it before us, so here we are now." Namjoon gave a dimpled grin and brisk nod. "All seven of us."

By now, Jungkook and Hoseok had crept out of their hiding spots and were looking curiously at Namjoon and Taehyung. Jimin was peeking at them from behind one of the seats a few rows back.

Yoongi suddenly noticed the noisy pair, the instigators of chaos, the two devils that woke him up: Hoseok and Jungkook. His facial expression changed from tired to deadly. He lunged after them. Taehyung winced. Although they had just met, the sleepy uncle even scared him.

They jumped over seats and used the best of their baleful acrobatic skills to launch away, while Yoongi, less spry, dived after them with all his might. A wild chase ensued and the bus started shaking again as it drove on, through an empty street, and into a haunted-looking alleyway. And then suddenly—

"GUYS STOB IT!" Jin screamed, his hands controlling the wheel like how a noob would play a video game— which did not promise good consequences.

"AAAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHH." The bus swerved trying to avoid a trash can and instead hit a puny brick wall surrounded by deformed cardboard boxes with a great BOOM. The bus's backside flew up from the impact.

Everyone inside the bus launched into the air. Jungkook fell on top of Hoseok, and Jimin hugged the seat dramatically, preventing himself from flying in the air like everyone else.

Namjoon, Taehyung, and Yoongi held onto the front seats comically, their feet barely touching the ground, while Jin flew up in his seat, still holding the wheel.

"Whoops," Jin said plopping down back onto the driver's seat with a loud smack, holding the dismembered steering wheel.

There was a moment of silence. Everyone slowly stood up to examine the wreckage, and looked around to see if everyone was in one piece and alive. Then Jungkook's voice came-

"A driver's license, he said. A DRIVER'S LICENSE. Look what you did now, hyung! You broke the entire bus," Jungkook yelled at Jin, after disentangling himself from Hoseok.

"Respect your hyungs, kookie," Yoongi growled, flashing Jungkook a life-threatening glare. Jungkook sunk behind the seat again.

"And who are these new guys?" Hoseok asked, standing up and brushing himself off while looking curiously at Namjoon and Taehyung, as if nothing had happened and as if he had just realized that they were there.

Jin stood up. "They are students like us: thieves, schemers, good-for-nothing. Therefore, they shall join our humble alliance. Don't bully them too much."

"I'm Namjoon, and this is Taehyung." Namjoon said gesturing at Taehyung. "Is everyone alright?"

Taehyung smiled up at Namjoon proudly. He was being a caring, affectionate friend as always.

"Guys!" Jimin's soft voice came from the back of the bus. His waved his phone in the air. "I got a missed call from my mom." He gulped, still hugging the seats.

"Wait— does the school suspect us?" Jungkook asked.

"I mean, seven teenage boys broke out of school at the same time, seventy cans of sprite have been stolen from the teacher's lounge, and the old school bus went missing, all in consecutive order, so of course not," Yoongi snorted sarcastically.

"So what are we gonna do now?" Taehyung asked. It was his first time speaking up amongst them.

Jin crossed his arms. "I mean, I think the bus still works, just uh, without a steering wheel. I'm sure I can drive it more..." 

"NO," everyone said at the same time.

"Now we're stuck in this gangster alleyway, in a bus you broke," Jungkook said haughtily. Yoongi's cold stare made him slip back under the seats.

"It's okay. We're too cool for school," said Hoseok, sipping what little of sprite was left in the can.

"Excuse moia. You guys kept fighting and getting me distracted," Jin snapped.

"I should go back to school. My mom is gonna be so disappointed and angry at me." Jimin said in a small voice, from the back of the bus. "She hates me already because I'm not good at anything. When she finds out I skipped school and stole a school bus, she'll starve me."

A black cloud seemed to be raining on Jimin in that moment.

"Awe don't say that mochi," said Hoseok, patting his shoulder gently. "She won't get mad." Though everyone knew it was a lie. "And never should you ever starve."

"We're all nobodies anyway," muttered Jungkook while looking outside a window, elbow against the window ledge. For a split second, an image of the young boy sitting in a train flickered through Taehyung's mind. 

Namjoon stepped up. "Yes— I think uh, what's your name— Jimin? Yes, Jimin is right. I know ya'll might find it hard to agree to, but the best idea is to return to school. We will get in trouble for coming late to school, but that's okay. It shouldn't get worse than this."

Surprisingly, everyone nodded in agreement.

Jin tried to push the steering wheel back into its place with a click, but it did not work. He gave up and dropped it on the floor with a bang.

As they packed their belongings and made sure to leave no suspicious traces on the bus (like Sprite, for example), they talked about their team name— as if they were about to form some sort of gang.

"I like the 'nameless sleepers,'" said Yoongi, yawning. "Or maybe Seokjin. We always name our team after Seokjin. Or Seokbaek or something."

"We are not naming another team after my name," spluttered Jin, red in the face.

"I like 'Sprite Lovers,' or 'Boyscouts,'" chirped Hoseok, grinning brightly. Yoongi facepalmed. 

"I have an idea." Namjoon stepped forward. "What about 'Bulletproof Boy Scouts?'"

"Sounds like something we'll regret later on," said Jungkook. He looked up at Namjoon in awe, wide, round eyes gleaming.

"Bulletproof Boy Scouts it is!" yelled Jin quickly, fist in the air, before Yoongi persuaded them into naming it after him. 

In the corner of the bus, while picking up his fallen bag, Taeyhung smiled to himself. He never thought it would happen, but he suddenly loved the idea of being part of their team. The six boys were such fun to be around and they had accepted him so easily. They made him feel at home— or at least, the 'home' he had always dreamed about and never had.

"Let's get back to school and pray the teachers don't punish us too much," said Jimin hopefully.

One by one, as the team named "Bulletproof Boy Scouts" stepped out of the dysfunctional school bus and into the dark alleyway, Namjoon as their leader, Jin as their friendly elder, they held no more dreams in their minds and hearts other than fulfilling a promising friendship, ready to face the punishment the horrible teachers at their school had in store for them. Despite that, in those moments together, they felt a little fearless and confident.

Perhaps they had no armor yet, but at least it was something like feeling bulletproof.

(1816 words)