"Sorry I'm late!"

Yoongi pulled his attention from the book he was immersed in and watched as golden strands of hair fell over a small, pretty face. He slowly lowered the novel down to the table, shook his head slightly and straightened his shoulders.

"That's alright. Sit."

Jimin plopped his tote bag beside him and took a seat across from the older man, then adjusted his jacket rather than taking it off as he was still cold despite the contrasting warmth inside the vintage establishment.

"I didn't exactly take you for an aesthetic coffee shop kinda guy..." He spoke in a joking tone while reaching to pull out a notebook.

Yoongi's lips curved to a gentle smirk. A sight people didn't see very often.

"Well, I figured it was better than doing work at school. Besides, the iced americano here is fucking insane."

Jimin chuckled quietly, flipped open his notes and listened to the quiet sounds of glass clacking and chatter surrounding them. His lips pursed out, a contemplating look on his face before he settled his gaze towards Yoongi with a suddenly solemn expression.

"Hyung.." he cleared his throat, tongue suddenly dry. "I just... Well, I'm... really sorry for lying to you before."

"Lying?"

"Yeah.." The blond clasped his hands together. "I told you Gguk and I were fighting when we really weren't..."

"Oh. That." Yoongi reached to sip from his cold drink, eyes remaining focused on his open laptop beside him. "You already apologized for that."

"I know, but—"

"It's alright," was his simple reply, then just like that the two were back to working on their English project.

Jimin found that often times working with Yoongi involved a lot of silence. The man wasn't one of many words, after all. And there was a strangely mysterious aura to him, although Jimin figured those were all things he made up in his head because the man was a gang member.

He'd barely had time to process the fact Hoseok, himself, was in the same gang as the very guy sitting across from him now.

Even so, Jimin found the silence around Yoongi quite... comfortable. There were graceful tones to his movements, a gentle expression on his face at all times. Despite sharing a class with him and just now getting to know him, Jimin thought of Yoongi to be not too bad of a person.

Yes, he was involved in gang activity. And no, he wasn't quite sure of all the frightening things the man was probably capable of.

But even so...

"Last time, we went over the words 'stares' and 'stairs'. Did you understand the difference?"

Jimin blinked a few times, taking a second to break from his thoughts in order to direct his attention to the older's words. "Hm? Ah.. yeah. I remember."

"Alright. We decided to find two more affiliated words, so... would you like to go first?"

The blond looked down at his notes and nodded. "I found 'bare' and 'bear'," he began, "The first means to be uncovered, perhaps naked or raw, and the second is the animal. A bear."

Yoongi tapped his pen against the table approvingly, and Jimin continued.

"And then there's 'hair' and 'hare'. The first is the hair on our heads, and the second... Once again, an animal. Like, a rabbit?"

Yoongi grinned. "You sure love animals, don't you?"

"Hey, it was pure coincidence," Jimin giggled. "Alright, your turn."

The older wrote down two words and presented them to the blond.

"I've got 'pear' and 'pair'. First one refers to the fruit, while the other indicates two things, or people."

"Like you and me," Jimin smiled with his eyes. "A pair!"

"That's right," Yoongi chuckled softly at the comment.

"And the other ones?"

"The others are 'deer', and 'dear'."

"Deer means an animal too, right?"

Yoongi nodded. "Right."

The younger giggled a bit, as though excited to have gotten it right. "And... what does the other one mean?"

"Dear, with the different spelling, means someone who is important to you. Someone you care about. If someone is 'dear' to you, they are a special person."

Jimin stared at him with flickering eyes, followed by a quiet whisper. "A special person..."

Yoongi met his eyes.

Jimin shyly looked down.

"So... someone precious?"

"Yeah," Yoongi licked his lips. "Someone precious."

Jimin cracked an endearing smile. One that the older let himself gaze at just a moment longer.

※ ※

Jeongguk was in the middle of adding highlights to his painting, an ocean during sunset, with yellow acrylic when his best friend burst into the busy classroom and made his way towards him in hurried steps.

"Thought you'd be absent today," the boy blinked up at him, watched how Jimin set his stuff down, sat upon a stool, and grabbed hold of a blank canvas.

"And miss this Painting for Serenity class with my bestie?" the blond huffed, "No way. I'm feeling a lot better anyway."

"You sure?"

"Yes, yes! Now, pass me some reds."

Jeongguk stuck his lips out and handed over a crimson colored painting tube before returning to his own work. After a while of hearing his friend shuffling to get his tools together, he spoke up again.

"How's your project coming along, by the way? For English."

"It's alright," Jimin answered nonchalantly, until a teasing tone came over his voice. "What about yours? Is all that sex conjuring up some sort of epic A+ project for you two?"

Jeongguk's eyes nearly bulged from their sockets, and his head quickly snapped to shoot daggers towards the blond boy.

"What? No! Shut up," he hissed. "Taehyung and I get things done, too!"

"Uh-huh... I bet you do..." Jimin wiggled his brows up and licked his lips suggestively.

Jeongguk swung his fist straight towards the boy's shoulder.

"Ow!" Jimin yelped, quickly retaliating by slapping Jeongguk's arm. "Relax! I'm only joking. Truthfully, I'd love to be the one getting dicked down daily."

"Shut up, we don't have sex every day," Jeongguk mumbled, then turned to flick light strokes against the canvas. "And again, you could be having so much sex right now if you just try a little. I mean, men go crazy over cute little subs like you."

Jimin snorted out a laugh. "Says the cute little sub."

"I think I preferred it when you were bed ridden and sick with herpes."

"It was a common fever," Jimin corrected, then finally began to mix red paint with white. "And I don't want to have sex with random men."

"That's because you're clinging onto something unlikely," Jeongguk murmured out, earning silence from the other.

Jimin took a moment longer before sighing softly. "It's unlikely, sure. But it's still how I feel."

"Then tell Hoseok," Jeongguk turned to give him a serious look. "Tell him how you feel, have him reject you so you can finally move on."

"I can't. He'd just... see me differently, and then," another sigh, "Yerin-noona would, too."

"They'll understand."

Jimin bit his lip and dipped a small brush over the freshly mixed pink color. "Let's just... go back to talking about your sugar daddy again."

Jeongguk rolled his eyes. "He's not my sugar daddy."

"Your gang daddy."

Jeongguk narrowed his eyes.

"How hard does he pound you? I mean, wait-... Does he even like being called daddy?"

"I've done it once... Maybe twice..." The younger mumbled. "He hasn't hated it. In fact he's called himself that at times..."

"Oh my god..." Jimin's eyes enlarged. "I know what we should do after class."

"After class we have another class," Jeongguk pointed out, which only made the blond roll his eyes.

"Right, and I mean after that."

※ ※

The class after the class did, in fact, turn out to be another class. English, to be precise. And Jeongguk would be lying if he said he wasn't looking forward to it.

Upon walking in, there was no surprise to see Hoseok was already there seated at the back as usual. But what Jeongguk was surprised to see, was Jimin, who walked quickly to take a seat beside him, where the younger would usually sit.

He rose his brows in bewilderment, and seemingly so did Hoseok.

"Oh? So you're sitting next to me now?" The red haired man commented.

"Nice observation," Jimin teased back.

"Does this mean you're done avoiding me?"

"You mean to tell me you actually noticed I was avoiding you?"

Hoseok shrugged. "It was really obvious. Jeongguk always came before you to ensure he was the one sitting next to me and not you. I'm sure you asked him to do that for you."

Jimin didn't reply, instead settled his bag upon his desk and looked forward. Jeongguk slowly reached the two and sat to the left of Jimin, then watched as Kim Taehyung entered the room with Min Yoongi, per usual.

Their eyes met. Jeongguk gave him a timid smile, to which Taehyung grinned back.

"Gross," Jimin spoke up at the exchange, earning grumbles from his friend. He heard Hoseok laugh beside him, and the blond grinned at the holy sound before his eyes caught hold of Yoongi's gaze.

Then, as he watched the other man turn away and plop down beside Taehyung, Jimin's smile slowly faded.

Class carried on as usual. Though, now that Jimin was the one sitting next to Hoseok, he was the one who had to share his textbook with the red haired man, seeing as he often forgot his own.

It wasn't as bad as Jimin thought, having Hoseok in close proximity, peering over his shoulder to look at the textbook.

Dare he say, it made him feel warm.

Despite avoiding him the past few days, he really did miss him and the trio they had with Jeongguk. After all, these two were his boys.

"Hey, thanks for helping me out," Hoseok said after class had ended, a bright smile on his face as he patted the blond's shoulder. "It was nice sharing with someone other than Jeongguk."

Jimin blushed a little, a shy smile upon his lips while he nodded. "No problem..."

He had expected Jeongguk to whine about the red haired's comment, but when he turned to look for him he saw that the boy had already ran up to talk to Kim Taehyung.

Typical.

"Hey," he gave his bunny smile, bright shining eyes eager to see the man.

Taehyung looked back at him with a sort of amused grin. "Hi."

"Can I come over tonight? We should probably get some real work done this time, no?"

The man held back a laugh as he reached to ruffle the younger's hair gently. "Mm... Sure. I'll order us dinner. That work for you?"

Jeongguk nodded furiously, and a chuckle finally escaped the older's lips. "Awesome, I'll bring the pictures from the garden."

"Good. I could've helped you take photos if only I knew where the fuck I left my camera," Taehyung reached to place his bag over his shoulder. Jeongguk's eyes widened.

"Oh crap... I should've brought your camera with me for the garden visit! Would've made the photos so much higher quality..."

Taehyung's brow rose slowly. "You... have my camera?"

Jeongguk looked up at him in slight confusion. "Yeah. You let me borrow it, remember?"

The man blinked back at him with a sturdy expression, lips pressing to a thin line.

"Oh," was his response, emitting a deep vibration into the air. "Well, what's taking so long? Give it back."

Jeongguk instinctively took a step back. "Uh... Yeah. Sorry, I should've... returned it much quicker."

"Yeah," Taehyung's voice seemed dark. "You should've."

With that the man turned and walked out of the classroom, towards the hall where Yoongi stood waiting for him. Upon seeing him draw near, the older was quick to tease him.

"So what, are you dating him now? What happened to staying away?" He spoke while the two made their way down the narrow hallway.

Taehyung scoffed out a laugh.

"Hyung. You, of all people, should know that I don't fucking date."

※ ※

"This one! This one looks like the place," Jimin hurried forward, dragging Jeongguk alongside him down the street.

"Jim— hey, Jimin, slow down!" The younger wobbled after him, and eventually the two stumbled upon a very pink clothing store. "What are we even doing here?"

"We're making sure you keep getting laid enough for the both of us," the shorter boy grinned, guiding his best friend further inside. "And mostly, to find out if Mr. Kim Taehyung loves men in skirts."

"S-Skirts...?" Jeongguk gulped, looking up to see all the feminine-looking items on display throughout the entire interior. Dresses, skirts, bras, sexy lingerie and underwear. "Are you talking about... me?"

"Who else here is fucking Taehyung? 'Cuz it sure ain't me," Jimin rolled his eyes, then pulled Jeongguk over towards an area full of skirts.

As they browsed through a colorful rack, an older-looking woman appeared wearing the store uniform, a bit of a disgusted look on her face.

"May I help you?" she said in a rather harsh voice, and Jimin grabbed one of the mini skirts.

"Yes, um," he glanced towards Jeongguk, "I was hoping to find a skirt like this for my... girlfriend, but her waist is quite tiny. Do you happen to have a smaller size?"

The woman's eyebrows raised and her entire demeanor changed after having heard the magic word starting with 'girl' and ending with 'friend'.

"Ah, I see! Why, you should've said so sooner! I'll get on it right away, sir," she flashed a friendly smile and quickly headed towards the back of the store.

"Homophobic bitch," Jimin mumbled, and Jeongguk bursted out into loud laughter. He watched his friend grumble a couple more insults while scanning more of the items on sale, and the boy soon quieted down and glanced over at the glass window at the front.

Beside it were mannequins on display wearing all pink items, and through the glass Jeongguk had a view of the outside, where he saw cars roll on by, people walking past, birds soaring the sky.

But something dark caught Jeongguk's eye, at the corner of the large glass window. He looked directly at it, and realized it was perhaps someone, a man, in a black sweater with the hood up to cover him, hands in his pockets.

The boy stared. Until—

"Hey, c'mon Gguk, the nice lady found the skirt!" Jimin broke him from his trance, waving him over towards the register.

Jeongguk flicked his head towards him and called out, "Be right there!" before looking back towards the window to see the hooded figure was gone.

He bit his lip and slowly took a step to the side, deciding he was just imagining things, then rushed over to rejoin Jimin and his antics.

The two didn't stay there much longer. They purchased the light pink pleated skirt, and were then on their way. Jeongguk pushed the fuzzy magenta door handle and stepped out towards concrete before looking to the corner of the street, where...

There it was. The hooded man again, now standing against the building at the corner.

"For fuck's sake..." Jeongguk muttered, causing Jimin to look up at him in confusion.

"What's wrong?"

"I'm pretty sure some fucker's following us," the younger rolled his sleeves up and handed Jimin the pink shopping bag, per courtesy of their recent purchase. "Wait here."

"Jeongguk, what the fuck are you doing—"

Before the boy could finish his sentence, Jeongguk was already sprinting down the street after the hooded figure, who quickly caught glimpse of him and began to run the other way. Though, unfortunately for him Jeongguk was quick on his feet, speeding up efficiently even as he turned the corner. He chased the hooded guy, getting closer, closer, closer.

Until, finally, he reached near proximity, where he made a bold decision to dive forward and practically tackle the guy to the ground.

"You're from Acre, aren't you!" Jeongguk yelled out, pulling the hood down from the squirming man.

"What— agh, fuck!" The man grunted, struggling under Jeongguk before he finally turned his head from the concrete and towards the boy who held him down. "Fine, fine, you got me. Now let me up, Jeongguk!"

The boy blinked in surprise because, not only did this man know his name, but he had a hell of a familiar voice.

And a hell of a familiar face.

He got up from the guy, letting him sit up on the ground and brush dirt from his sweater.

Jeongguk let out an airy breath.

"What are you doing here," his eyes wavered as he spoke, "Seojun...?"

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{ A / N }

so I'm curious to hear whether you're all on team jihope or team yoonmin >:)

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