Bid Day

"I still can't believe you're wearing a turtleneck." Taehyung said, "I mean of course I respect it but I'm just impressed you didn't go for your standard fitted dress pants and tight button up."

Jimin shrugged, acting all innocent as he fixed the collar of his suit jacket. He walked side to side with Taehyung towards SADA's front lawn which was surrounded by cracking statues of Greek Gods and rose bushes. When all the pledges were gathered they'd start to hand out the bids and only those with an invitation to join SADA would walk through the house door.

"I have a good feeling Jimin." Taehyung said, grabbing Jimin's hand and holding it tight. He swung it between them and Jimin gave a small smile as the sound of Jungkook's voice pleading him to reject the bid bounced in the back of his mind.

Jimin ignored the heat that rushed to his cheeks.

"What if we don't join?" Jimin said, tossing the idea out. "What if we run away now, you and me. We can start our own organization or become street buskers-"

Taehyung laughed, shaking his dark hair. "Come on." He said, taking Jimin's words as nerves. "You'll have a bid, don't stress over it. Then you and me will get to perform every year together. Maybe even in America some day or on Seoul's national stages! We'll be an unstoppable duo - and when things get tough in there I'll always have your back, okay?"

Taehyung smiled his box smile and warmth flooded in his kind eyes. His hand tightened around Jimin's own almost as if to add one more word Taehyung couldn't say out loud. Not while they were only a block from the lawn and pledges dressed in their best suits and silks flooded around them. That one hold said more than enough: please.

Jimin felt his neck burn where Jungkook had sucked, marking his skin with his lips and tongue and teeth. Almost like an alarm setting his body into a jolt. He didn't want to hear "please" from anybody any time soon.

Jimin gently pulled his hand out of Taehyung's and rubbed the back of his covered neck to make the motion look more natural. He did his best to ignore the small flash of hurt that clouded the bright eyed boy's face. He watched as Taehyung's jaw tensed and his temple twitched the smallest bit.

When they turned the last corner of rose bushes and walked up the stone steps to the SADA house's front lawn, both boys couldn't help but gasp. There were golden lights strung up between tree branches and the house rooftops. Colorful leaves scattered the floor and gold ones were thrown in for decoration. Even parts of tree bark were painted with gold.

In front of the house stood the entire exec board. They were unmasked - this was the only official SADA event in the entire year where the entire exec board wouldn't wear one. Bid day was sacred, they were inviting new members into their community, into their family, and so for this hour alone each brother was equal to one another.

Jimin swallowed when he saw the president of SADA standing behind the board, Jung Hoseok to his right. Kim Seokjin wore a silver suit with pink accents inside the jacket and on his button up shirt. It was tailored perfectly to his broad shoulders and thin waist - and Jimin blinked at Seokjin's face. He'd seen him before on campus but never up close without a mask. Jimin gaped. God certainly played favorites with the prince-like features that graced the president's appearance. He was beautiful, in the way roses were before their thorns pricked your finger and drew blood.

Seokjin's copper eyes landed on Jimin, catching sight of him entering the lawn. He held the stare, locking Jimin in place as he caused the world to blur like a drug in Jimin's system from the weight of it. Seokjin tilted his head and Jimin noticed Hoseok catch sight of him too. The boy waved with a smile so bright Jimin felt like it's blind the sun. Taehyung waved back equally as excited.

But Jimin couldn't move.

Not as Seokjin's gaze landed on Jimin's turtle-neck covering the hickeys and bites that decorated Jimin's pale skin underneath. He felt naked, then. Like he shouldn't have even bothered covering them up in the first place. He watched the President look back up at Jimin and the corner of his lips twitched down before breaking the stare to nod towards Hoseok who stepped forward and started speaking with the exec board in front of him.

"It's starting." Taehyung said, nearly bouncing on the balls of his feet. Jimin felt his blood rush back into his face as his audition music started to play throughout the lawn. The execs brought out silver cases. They slid on black gloves before popping the case open and taking out stacks of envelops the size of Jimin's hand.

They were wrapped in a red ribbon and filled with a thick paper that would either invite or reject them from the organization.

Jung Hoseok started calling out names and students started to slowly go up and grab their envelopes. Jimin felt his heart start to race and the back of his neck sweat. The open space of the lawn was still too small - the trees and rose bushes like cages pressing in. He watched as students opened their envelopes and their faces fell over and over again. A boy even fell to his knees, sobbing. A girl went as pale as if she'd learned a loved one had died.

He could see Taehyung getting antsy next to him, waiting for his name to be called. How much of his soul had Taehyung staked for his bid? Was it as much as the crying kids around them? There was a comfort in the order of the organization, Jimin understood that, but the reactions of the people around him were unnerving. And they hadn't even been involved with SADA for more than a couple weeks.

Imagine a month. A year. Four.

You don't leave once you're in. They don't let you.

The rose bushes were too close. The trees suffocating him. The SADA house looming over so tall Jimin felt blocked from the world around him.

"Park Jimin." Jimin heard Hoseok call his name and slowly he split off from Taehyung who clung to his sleeve. Jimin smiled and Taehyung chewed his cheek as he let go - allowing Jimin to make the steps up to Hoseok to grab his letter.

Hoseok pulled him in for a small hug and smiled, but the envelope felt like a boulder in Jimin's hands.

He turned around slowly, every step like thunder in his pounding head. He could feel his lungs expand and collapse inside of him. Could feel the blood rushing through his veins and hear his heart beating to keep up. There were eyes on him, he realized. Of pledges that hadn't gotten in, of those that were still waiting, of the upperclassmen curious in the windows of the house and the exec board at the front of it.

Jimin's neck burned from it all and his hands shook as he pulled at the red bow. It fell to the floor like a streak of blood leaving his finger tips. He dug under the envelope flap until the wax seal broke. The shaking in his fingers was getting bad enough that he wasn't positive he could pull out the card without dropping it.

His fate was sealed in there. A life of service in exchange for a career or a written reject, a way out with no consequences.

Jimin looked up, seeing the people who were already in too deep and those who had barely dipped their toes in the organization facing Jimin's back. He thought of Jungkook, those wide golden eyes and the safety that followed them. He thought of the boy's cold hands covering his own, caging the shaking motion until Jimin was calm enough to stop - and he pulled out his card.

But as his eyes read over the words, something like a switch flipped inside of his head and the world blackened - flickering out around him into nothing.

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A/N:

500 READS?? HOW DID I NOT NOTICE WE PASSED THIS! HOW ARE WE EVEN HERE?? YOU GUYS ARE AMAZING - I HOPE YOU LIKE IT SO FAR!!
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EDIT: bwhahaha angel**

~ Violette