Jimin angrily ripped his headset off of his head. His friends still hadn't connected to play, and he was bored.

With no other distractions, he thought back over his day. He grimaced as he remembered the most popular girl in school, and his greatest academic rival, approaching him.

'Hey, Park! What's up with you and the loser?'

Jimin furrowed his brow. 'What?'

'Besties now? I gotta admit, I'm shocked.'

'What the fuck are you talking about, Myeong?'

'You haven't heard? Everyone's talking about it.'

'Just spit it out, bitch!'

Myeong laughed. 'Rumor has it Yoongi called you his friend today. So, when did that happen? When did you decide to become a schlub?'

Jimin grit his teeth. 'I have no idea what you're talking about. I have plenty of friends already. Friends who aren't gay pussy boys.'

'See that's the thing,' Myeong said, a smirk sliding across her face. 'What, are you gay now, too?'

Jimin scoffed in disbelief. 'Excuse me?!'

Myeong laughed again. 'Be careful, Park. I'd hate to see your reputation tarnished.'

Then, with a flip of her hair, she turned and walked away. Jimin's hands curled into fists as he stomped away, determined to find Yoongi.

Jimin whipped his headset across the room in frustration. What the fuck was Yoongi thinking? He was definitely going to work even harder to make Yoongi's life hell now.

With nothing else to do to get his mind off of things, Jimin decided to study. He needed to go over Yoongi's notes from Biology before going back to that class again.

He opened his backpack and pulled out his folder of homework and notes. As he tugged Yoongi's notes out, a few other papers came with it and fell onto his bed. He picked them up, but then stopped short as his eyes fell on the last piece of paper.

He'd seen it on the school bulletin board the day before. He'd waited until all the other students had disappeared from passing period before he snatched the paper and shoved it into his folder.

Curious, he read over it again. Then, he noticed a phone number at the bottom and contemplated whether or not to call it. Eventually he reached out for his phone and dialed the number.

"Hello?"

"Yeah, uh, I think I wanna join the support group."

-

Three days later, Jimin was struggling to get past his parents to leave the house. They were in a questioning mood, and he was getting annoyed.

"I told you, I agreed to tutor a friend. We're working at his house."

"I had no idea any of your friends were struggling academically that bad," his father said.

"It's Hwang."

His parents exchanged a look. "Oh," his mother said. "Right."

"Can I go now, please? I'm going to be late."

"Fine," his mother agreed. "But be back by eight."

Jimin nodded, then headed out of the house without another word. He hopped in his car quickly, then looked at the time when it started.

"Fuck." He was already running about ten minutes behind.

By the time he made it to the building, Jimin had shaved down his tardiness to five minutes. Sometimes it's worth it to risk speeding, he reasoned with himself.

The office waiting room was empty when he ran in. He stood there, unsure of what to do. Eventually, he heard muffled voices from down the hall, and he hurried toward them. He came to a door and heard a woman's voice on the other side of it explaining what the support group was all about. He pushed the door open.

"I'm sorry I'm late," he said, trying to catch his breath.

"It's alright," the leader said, smiling at him. "We hadn't even quite got started yet."

All of the seats nearest Jimin were full, and he began scanning the room. He had just noticed an empty seat, when he glanced at the person in the seat beside it. He gasped internally.

Yoongi was sitting there, watching him with slightly widened eyes. Jimin didn't know what to do. He quickly did another glance around to see if there were any other empty chairs. There weren't.

He made his way over toward the chair next to Yoongi and awkwardly lowered himself into it. Suddenly, a loud scraping noise broke the silence of the room as Yoongi moved his chair as far away from Jimin as possible. Jimin winced.

"So, as I was saying," the leader resumed. "My name is Mrs. Choi," she told Jimin. "This is a support group for..."

But Jimin didn't hear the rest of what she said. His mind was racing. His emotions were torn between curiosity and worry.

Why was Yoongi here? And, what if he told people he saw Jimin here? Jimin's reputation would be officially gone. He couldn't imagine what people would think.

Jimin chanced a glance at Yoongi, but Yoongi wouldn't look at him. 'What's even the point of staying here?' Jimin asked himself. 'I can't share anything about myself.' That would only give Yoongi fuel to out his business to the entire school. And honestly, Jimin couldn't blame him if he did.

He'd given Yoongi plenty of reasons to want to.

-

The next day at school, Jimin decided it best to stay away from Yoongi. He even told his friends to do so. He could tell they were all suspicious, but he didn't even try to make up an excuse as to why. His mind was racing, worrying about Yoongi telling people he'd seen Jimin at the group.

He did happen to cross paths with him every once in a while, however, but Jimin refused to acknowledge him. Yoongi seemed to be doing the exact same thing. Maybe Yoongi was worried about Jimin telling everyone he'd seen Yoongi there, too. Jimin felt his spirits lift a bit. Maybe Yoongi would simply leave it alone, hoping Jimin wouldn't say anything, either.

Jimin didn't stay positive for long, however. What could everyone finding out Yoongi went to a support group do to tarnish his reputation? Yoongi didn't even have a reputation to tarnish. No, it was Jimin who was at a disadvantage here. And his entire position and prominence at school depended on Yoongi keeping his mouth shut.

"Hey, Jimin, look what we found," Junho said at lunch later that day.

He pulled a shoe out of his backpack. "It's Yoongi's," Hwang snickered. "He lost it when we were chasing him the other day."

The three boys laughed, but Jimin simply watched them in disgust. "You're carrying a shoe around in your backpack?" he asked Junho. "A shoe that doesn't even belong to you?"

Junho's laughter faded. "Well, yeah. I just figured – "

"That's disgusting," Jimin interrupted. "Just give the damn thing back to him."

Junho, Hwang and Garam all exchanged confused looks.

"You really want us to?" Garam asked.

Jimin sighed in annoyance. "Do whatever you want, just get it out of my face," he snapped.

"Sorry," Junho said, tossing the shoe back into his backpack.

"Are you okay, Jimin?" Hwang suddenly asked. "You seem to be...upset today. What's going on?"

Jimin turned to him with fire in his eyes. "Nothing," he said shortly. "Just leave me alone."

The other three exchanged another look. The entirety of the rest of the lunch period passed silently. Just before the bell rang, however, Jimin eventually sighed.

"I'm...sorry," he said carefully. "I'm just stressed."

"It's okay," Junho said quickly. "We're sorry if we're upsetting you."

"You're not," Jimin insisted. "Just, maybe it would be best if you left me alone for the rest of the day. No offense, but I just don't really want to be around anyone today."

Garam's brow furrowed in concern. "You sure?"

"Yeah."

"Okay," Hwang agreed reluctantly. Then he stood. "We'll see you around."

He began to walk away and the other two followed suit. Jimin sighed again once they were gone. He finished his lunch just as the bell rang, then hurried off to class.