The room was instantly plunged into religious silence and even Seokjin, Jimin and Taehyung froze on their seat. 

Mr. Ra's authoritarian voice commanded respect and... a certain fear, the first years felt it all the more when seeing their second and third year elders show an almost military respect in front of the man who had not obviously helpful to know that all these teenagers were rich heirs to powerful families.

In addition, the director and the entire educational team seemed to be totally in agreement with hearing him shout authoritarian and degrading words towards them. It was new for all these students who had been used, regardless of their previous school, to being put on a pedestal and to being listened to with a certain deference.

"I like that better," Mr. Ra said, softening before continuing: "as Mr. Kang said, "all the rules of school life laid down last year are renewed this year but I am adding something new in view of the deviant behavior of some last year in the dormitories."

His eyes flashed at some of the final year students and Seokjin wondered what could have happened.

"Probably drug use or some other dangerous game that rich people like to play in high school," Jimin murmured, just as curious. 

He seemed dangerously willing to bend the rules if it would allow him to have fun and Seokjin thought to himself that he should probably watch him to prevent him from doing stupid things that would get him in trouble.

Jimin laughed when he saw Seokjin's worried look and murmured:

"Oh come on Jinnie, don't be scared like that, I promise I won't get caught."

Even if he was joking, it didn't reassure Seokjin who was afraid of seeing him become like Jungkook and of seeing him start using drugs. 

"This year," the head of the dormitories continued, "it was I who decided the distribution of the dormitories and it cannot be changed, no matter how much you come to complain. So don't come and complain because you will only arouse my anger. And if you arouse my anger, you will regret it bitterly, understood?"

Shocked, Taehyung got angry and shouted:

"So we can't choose our roommate?!"

Seokjin widened his eyes in horror as Jimin shook his head in annoyance when they saw Taehyung intervene after what the terrible Mr. Ra had just said about awakening his anger.

"And who are you, young first grader?" Mr. Ra asked instead of answering.

"Kim Taehyung," Taehyung announced proudly, challenging him with his gaze.

"Well, tell me, Kim Taehyung... Are you deaf or are you stupid?" The senior school administrator retorted, annoyed.

Laughter rang out in the room and Namjoon shook his head disapprovingly, cursing at his idiot brother. Taehyung, disturbed by this disrespectful behavior of the man towards him when he had always been able to do and say what he wanted at school, frowned.

"Neither one nor the other, I will not allow you to insult me," he retorted to the man in a contemptuous tone which escaped no one and certainly not Mr. Ra.

"Tae, please stop," Seokjin urged, seeing that Taehyung was unable to put aside his arrogance.

But it was too late because Taehyung had already arouse the anger's man. 

"You won't allow me?" The senior school administrator repeated with an icy smile that was not comforting. "Well, Kim Taehyung, congratulations, you are the first of the students punished this year. A supervisor will come to pick you up from the dormitory this evening to carry out your community service."

He said this while pointing to his team of young supervisors who looked a lot like prison guards with their caps and gray uniforms on which a plaque indicated their name. If this team of school supervisors was Ra's small army, then it was to be expected that they would be inflexible towards the students.

"Community service?! Are you kidding?! Do you even know who I am?!" Taehyung exclaimed, outraged.

"Oh, I know for a fact who you are now and if you continue to answer me back, you will spend your entire first week of high school doing your community services and you'll be banned from taking art workshops."

Shocked, Taehyung was speechless.

"Perfect. I hope this serves as a lesson to you and all the idiots who want to start using their daddy's name against me. Now, everyone follow me, I'm leading you to the dormitory for distribution and we'll start with Kim Taehyung since he can't wait to know who he's going to share his room with."

All the students got up from their comfortable red velvet seats which suddenly folded down and began to leave the aisles and go down to the bottom of the amphitheater to join Mr. Ra, everyone talking excitedly about what had just happened. 

"What a bastard..." Taehyung angrily railed at Mr. Ra who was too far away and surrounded by the noise of the other students to hear him.

"You shouldn't have provoked him before knowing him and what he was capable of, Tae," Seokjin told him wisely.

"But it's funny how Taehyung thought he could come in and be the king of this school right away," Jimin reminded. "Now he is punished like a kid even though his parents never punished him even when he was a kid. This man, no this Rat is really something!"

"Shut up!" Taehyung told him, in a bad mood. "As if I was going to do his punishment. Screw him, I say and do what I want, I will have the roommate I want."

Only then did Seokjin understand the implication of what Mr. Ra said. He and Taehyung probably weren't going to share the same room. Which meant that for the first time since... since forever, his memory told him, he was going to sleep alone, without Taehyung. His eyes seemed to light up with excitement suddenly and he smiled involuntarily, wondering who his roommate was going to be.

"Do not even think about it!" Taehyung warned, "quickly wipe that happy smile off your face because it's not going to happen."

Immediately, Seokjin lost his smile. Obviously Taehyung was not going to accept this change after having planned all summer that he would share his room with him and that they would even have a guest bed since they would have to share a single bed.

Aware of this secret between them even if Taehyung didn't know it, Jimin chuckled to see Taehyung so unhappy. He hoped for his part that he would be the one chosen to share his room with Seokjin and he let it be known by grabbing Seokjin's arm and hugging him affectionately.

"Hopefully, I'll be the one in the same room as Jin."

Seokjin smiled back because it wasn't something that would bother him.

"You'll trade with me if that's the case," Taehyung said immediately.

"Out of the question," Jimin retorted in a serious tone that challenged Taehyung with a look.

"Excuse-me? You're going to do what I say, that's all!"

"Here, the power relations are different, have you forgotten the humiliation that this senior school administrator Rat has just inflicted on you?" Jimin quipped, making Taehyung more angry.

Sensing a sudden tension between them, Seokjin immediately intervened as they reached the bottom of the amphitheater and plunged into the sea of ​​students following the dormitory leader.

"Please calm down both of you, remember you're friends, not enemies!" he reminded them. "Anyway, we don't even know yet how the rooms will be distributed so it's ridiculous to argue like that now."

"Jin is right, you are a bunch of ridiculous kids, have you forgotten that you just entered high school and not kindergarten?" a mocking voice chuckled from behind Taehyung, Seokjin and Jimin and made them turn around. "Hey Jin, how have you been since the last time?"

Seokjin froze as he faced Jungkook. The last time he had seen him, the other had threatened to kill him before making fun of him, threatening to ruin his reputation as an athlete and drugging him. 

He had since understood that Jungkook was not his friend, far from it: he was someone dangerous who hated Taehyung and had no use for someone like him, except maybe using him to destroy the Kims' reputation. He had to stay away from him. 

He gave him a suspicious look instead of answering him, even wondering how Jungkook could have the nerve to talk to him as if nothing had happened.

"Oh, so you hate me now," Jungkook remarked in a light tone and which shook Seokjin and annoyed Taehyung and Jimin. "I guess I deserved it for acting like an asshole to you. Ah, too bad for me, I really liked you, Jin."

"Shut up and get away from him, asshole," Taehyung said to his cousin, glaring at him in disgust. He instinctively pulled Seokjin behind him and let Jimin protect him with his body.

But Jungkook didn't intend to let his cousin go before he had humiliated him enough.

"It's crazy to have enough self-esteem to forget the humiliation you just experienced. 'You don't want to stand out from the first day, do you?' that's what you said to Jin earlier, right?"

"You were listening to us, you bastard, don't you have something else to do?!" Taehyung exclaimed.

"You had to stand out from day one without knowing Eunma yet, moron," Jungkook scoffed. "But that doesn't surprise me. Namjoon wanted to rip your head off but I don't think you saw it."

"I don't care about Namjoon as much as I do about you and that pathetic dorm leader. Now get out, go make friends elsewhere because you won't make friends with us."

"Pfff, finally someone agreed to be your friend for a lifetime and here you are, all pretentious. A friend who literally belongs to you if I'm not mistaken and who is not free of his own will," Jungkook said glancing at Seokjin who frowned to show his disagreement. "As for Jimin, he is not a friend but a profiteer hanging on your shoes. Really, I'd rather stay away from your group of losers," the raven-haired athlete sneered.

"What are you saying?!" Taehyung immediately jumped up.

"Tae, it's okay, just ignore him," Seokjin said urgently from behind Jimin's shoulder. "We know he's mean, he has nothing left to prove."

Jungkook almost choked when he heard Seokjin's childish insult who called him "mean" and despite himself found him adorable and tough to target on the same level as Taehyung.

"Jin is right, let's move on and leave this dirty Junkie," Jimin agreed with a disgusted look. "But if he ever gets too close, I'll punch him without thinking."

He began to crack the knuckles of his hands to prove that he would not hesitate to strike.

"As if you could, midget," Jungkook chuckled, turning away from Seokjin to look at Jimin, who was almost a head shorter than him.

Seeing that Taehyung and Jimin were both ready to pounce on Jungkook, Seokjin hurriedly pulled each of them by an arm and pulled them towards the exit, while other students looked at them curiously. He involuntarily caught Namjoon's gaze as he descended another row of stairs and quickly turned his head away nervously.

They left one building to reach another, higher up in the hills of western Seoul which dominated the city and somewhat isolated the Eunma high school students from the rest of their city. 

The building complex formed a small campus and even if the whole was modern and nicely designed by the architects to be a pleasant and luxurious place to live for the rich heirs, the surrounding walls and the main entrance strictly controlled by security guards much more disturbing that old Choi from Gugbo school gave the school an air of prison.

The students were locked up here for their academic success, far from the influence of their parents and they had only one objective: to live by succeeding in being the one who would dominate others by themselves and not the one who would be dominated. It was a place where power struggles took place, both in terms of academic success but also social success. It was here that the real links would be created for the rest of their lives because they would forever belong to this same caste with these same people with whom they studied here.

It was a crucial moment in the lives of these young heirs, whether they were from the most powerful or the smallest chaebol family. They were the future unofficial leaders of the country, who would rule from the shadows through their economic influence and who would influence the official leaders of South Korea.

For Seokjin, unaware of all this, it was just a school, a place where he would try to study studiously and in the most pleasant way possible with his friends. 

This was his new home, he thought as he stopped in front of the large building on which was soberly written: "Building D – Dormitories"

_______

A/N : I wonder who Seokjin's roommate will be...