It's a Monday night, and Jimin and Taehyung are out having actual lives. Jungkook decides to go out for ice cream again. Again, meaning he's been doing this every day for the past week and a half.

He tells himself that it's not weird to go hang out with the cashier at your local department store, not weird at all.

He texts Jimin where he's going (and wonders not for the first time why he does this, and then remembers that if he's not in his room when either of them check they think he's been kidnapped/buried/sold), peeks out the door of his room, declares it safe and empty, and dashes up the corridor, down the stairs, out onto the streets.

Hoseok's shop, as Jungkook has started calling it, is about twenty minutes away from his dorm. Hoseok himself lives in Dorm B, forty minute walk away, and comes to work on a bicycle.

"Jungkook!" Hoseok beams, brightening up the moment he enters. "I've been waiting for you!"

Because you've been coming here practically every day, he doesn't say, and Jungkook is glad.

The vanilla ice cream calls to his soul and he picks it with no hesitation. He starts to ask if Hoseok wants something, but the older boy shakes his head.

"I'm too old to have eating habits as terrible as you," he says, and plops some candy into his mouth, which doesn't make any sense at all.

Hoseok takes his money and prints his bill. Then he stands, stretching, and gestures outside.

"Why do you never have any customers?" Jungkook has asked him more than once.

"Because as unlikely as it seems, most of this university is made of normal people," Hoseok had confessed solemnly. "And normal people are not awake at 3AM."

"It's two," Jungkook had said defensively, and Hoseok had only snorted.

They settle on the front steps, eating silently. The stars are out but there's no moon today, and that makes the place seem a little darker. Hoseok's shop is like a happy blob in the middle of nowhere.

"My birthday is next week," Hoseok says abruptly.

"Oh," Jungkook says, at a lack of anything better to say. "Happy birthday in advance?"

"Yeah, no. The thing is, my friends are throwing a party? And I thought you should come."

Jungkook blinks. "I'm a first year."

"There'll be other first years."

"That's even worse."

Hoseok looks half amused, half confused. "You can bring a friend," he says. "More than one, if you want. Just, try to make it, alright? It'll be fun."

He can't say no to Hoseok when he looks like that, genuine and earnest, so Jungkook nods yes and says no in his head instead.

"Jungkookie!" A familiar voice calls, and Jungkook looks up to see Jimin waving at him from across the street.

Honestly, he isn't even surprised. This was bound to happen someday.

"Hyung, I thought you were busy," he says, resigned.

"I was," Jimin says proudly, like it was a rare feat in itself, "But I needed to make sure you weren't hanging out with someone fictional or dead."

Jungkook makes a face.

"You must be Jimin," Hoseok says, holding out a hand for Jimin to shake.

Jimin grins at him. "And you must be..."

He stops. Blinks.

Blinks some more.

Then he turns to Jungkook with furious accusation - "Your friend is freaking J-Hope?"

Jimin, as it turns out, does know Hoseok. Like any self respecting dancer would, he adds.

It seems Hoseok is a bit of a legend in the dance department.

"I wouldn't say legend," Hoseok says, but he's smiling anyway.

"Literally everyone else would say legend," Jimin insists. He seems to be sparkling a bit, too excited. "Your choreography for the fundraiser last month, that was like god coming down to earth and bursting into...confetti, or something."

Hoseok takes praise pretty well, with a laugh and a "Yeah, that one was pretty good."

The two of them are completely engrossed in their conversation, and Jungkook is almost as engrossed in his ice cream, and it's a good day.

"Have I seen you in anything?" Hoseok asks Jimin.

"The prince," Jungkook blurts, offering no context whatsoever. "He was the prince."

Jimin sighs. Hoseok looks appropriately confused, because freaking which prince.

"The prince in last semester's Cinderella musical," Jimin says, and he sounds a bit defeated because that was not one of his proudest moments.

"Oh!" Hoseok says, realization dawning on his face. "I remember now! Wait, so you're a singer too! You were incredible, I remember, you were - "

He trails off, probably to keep things polite, but Jungkook finishes it for him. "Shorter than Cinderella."

Jimin's smile turns more strained and he pinches Jungkook in the side without even looking. Jungkook yelps a bit and scootches away to safety.

"Well, yeah," Hoseok agrees. "I mean...no offense?"

"Complete offense taken regardless," Jimin says. "Short guys can't marry the princess?"

"You married a commoner," Jungkook reminds him.

"Short guys can't marry commoners?" Jimin doesn't lose a breath. "That's even worse. Where the heck will I find a princess?"

"Kiss frogs," Hoseok says wisely.

Jimin looks around, as if searching for a frog. Jungkook is almost scared that he'll find one, because Jimin is known for taking jokes too far and the poor frog will be traumatized.

"Taehyung will find me one," he says. To Hoseok, he adds, "Do you know him? Zoology department, second year?" He snatches Jungkook's ice cream without permission and helps himself to a good deal of it before handing it back. Jungkook scowls and scootches even further.

Hoseok shakes his head. "I don't know many people outside arts," he admits.

Jungkook reaches the end of his cup. His fingers are sticky, and he wonders a bit about what to do with them. Wipe them on his shirt? That's what he usually does, but he's not sure if Hoseok will tell him off for it or not.

Hoseok either sees him flexing his fingers, or reads his mind, because he says, "There are tissues inside. Near the bubble gum on the counter."

Hoseok would have told him off, he concludes. Jimin had always just said, what do you think your clothes are for?

He goes inside to get the tissues.

"My birthday is next week," he hears Hoseok saying again, and he thinks, no. No. You don't know who you're talking to you don't know what he'll do to me.

"You're holding a party?" Jimin asks hopefully.

"Sort of," Hoseok says. "Not too many people, just some friends. Jungkook said he'll come, would you come too? I get the feeling he's a bit awkward about it." He stops suddenly. "I mean! I don't mean you should come just to keep Jungkook company. I mean, you're invited? You could come?"

No, Jungkook thinks. He presses his face against the glass of the door to look at Jimin. Jimin looks back at him. They have a two hour worth of arguments in less than two seconds with zero words said, with Jungkook shooting him, please, don't dare looks and Jimin returning them with I will freaking dare if I want to looks.

"Of course," Jimin says.

Jungkook has to think about at least fifty different excuses to get out of this without Park Jimin realizing when the time comes.

When they leave that day (with another cup of ice cream for Taehyung that Jungkook doesn't trust will make it all the way to him, what with the sparkly eyes Jimin is giving it), he's come up with about sixty ideas that can be scrapped, ten that maaay have a chance of working, and two that are pretty solid. Jimin rants about Hoseok's supposed legendariness all the way back to the dorms, and Jungkook is distracted enough to forget to check the light in room 513.

"He said just some friends," Jimin says, for the third time. "Which means that we're on his some friends list. The some friends list of J-Hope himself." J-Hope, he's learned today, is Hoseok's stage name. Jimin doesn't have a stage name - doesn't want one, it seems, even though Taehyung has been badgering him forever to call himself Blizzard or T-Rex or V. Maybe that's why he doesn't want one.

His phone pings, and he pulls it out. It's a message from Taehyung.

Lab on fire ill be late, it says.

"Tae hyung's lab is on fire and he'll be late," he relays dutifully.

"Good," Jimin says, reaching into the bag for the ice cream.

The thing is, Jungkook doesn't know when to stop doing things.

This isn't so bad when he's doing something productive, like say, actually studying for the test he has tomorrow. It's horrible when he's just discovered a complex drawing of a bird some senior of his has left on his wall, and feels the need to add to it.

He isn't even supposed to be drawing on his walls - if he gets caught he could be thrown out - but he knows people who have done...unmentionable things to the walls, and they're still around.

He'll erase his work tomorrow. Just to be safe.

He adds every kind of bird he can think of, so there's one big happy unrelated family, and now he's contemplating moving on to another family. There's another eight hours till his first class, and in an ideal world at least half that time would be spent sleeping. This isn't an ideal world, or even a sane one, so he decides to draw some butterflies.

Then he adds some beetles.

His art isn't making him any sleepier - if anything it's making him ten times more alert. If this goes on he's going to end up adding dogs and snakes and the whole blasted planet.

"Did you see the guy from 513 again?" Taehyung asks, and Jungkook starts, because Taehyung was here?

He's half under the bed, on his front, arms stretched out in front of him as he plays a game on his phone that involves dramatic series of crashes and burns. Jungkook had forgotten about him.

"No," Jungkook says.

He hasn't seen the owner of room 513 in weeks. Which isn't surprising, because before that Jungkook hadn't seen him ever. But the part of him that had watched too many movies growing up sort of expected to see the guy everywhere after their first meeting. He seemed the kind of person to make an excellent supervillain, or a grudging hero. The kind of person who gave everyone bad vibes but got a story written about him anyway.

But he's as non-existent as he was before, save for the light in his room, and Jungkook can almost convince himself that he'd hallucinated their entire meeting.

"Maybe he's been murdered," Taehyung says. He's fascinated by the mystery of room 513, more so than Jungkook himself. He thinks the owner is a member of some foreign mafia or something. "And the government switches his lights on and off every day so that we all think he exists."

"But I saw him," Jungkook reminds him.

"Moments before his death."

"Ah." That makes sense. And then, "Dogs or snakes?" because with 513 dead there's no point in talking about him.

"That's not even a question," Taehyung says.

Dogs it is, then.

When the day of the party comes, Jungkook makes a run for it. The problem with Park Jimin is that he always catches him.

"I have a project due tomorrow," Jungkook whines, as Jimin actually physically drags him out of the library and back to their dorms.

Jimin doesn't waste time arguing. He's having a frankly terrifying conversation on the phone with somebody ("No, of course they're not the same thing! You eat one and the other one grows up and pays taxes!") that Jungkook is scared to disturb.

He doesn't go to parties. He won't know what to do with himself, who to smile at, how to say his freaking hellos...

He tugs experimentally on Jimin's grasp around his wrist, but it's impossible.

Jimin pauses his phone conversation. "I'll be there with you the entire time, okay? And Tae is coming, too." He looks so sincere that Jungkook feels guilty for no reason. "Come on, don't make me threaten you."

And that's how the three of them end up at Dorm B, home of the party and possible entrance to hell.

It's not too far off from their own building. But it's a good deal larger, and much cleaner, like the kids there don't feel the need to throw everything they own out of the window at some point or the other.

Luckily, Jungkook had already bought a present - he'd meant to give it to Hoseok the next time he met him. It's a rap album, one of Jungkook's favourites. Wrapped up in paper that he'd actually made, with a crafted flower on top. The flower is slightly asymmetrical, due to the horrors of sleep deprivation, but it's still presentable. Besides, the music counts more.

When they reach the floor Hoseok lives on, it's a complete disaster zone. He gives Jimin a betrayed look.

"What?" Jimin is incredulous. "You think this is bad?"

There are people running up and down the corridor, streamers plastered everywhere with zero style, and cake all over the floor. Jungkook feels his stomach drop, and he must have stopped walking, because Jimin places a hand on his back and steers him forward.

No one seems to care about their presence. Or even notice. They head to room 211 and don't have to knock because the door is wide open.

The inside of the room is an even bigger disaster than the corridor, and Jungkook really, really wants to go home. He refuses to enter first, stepping behind Taehyung, who wanders in like he doesn't really know where or who he is. He sort of zones out sometimes and they've learned not to question it. He also has a feather in his hair, and they've learned not to question that either.

They get some strange glances - Hoseok is waaay out of their friend's circle, or friend's triangle, for that matter, so they don't expect any mutuals here. Not even Jimin - Jimin knows most of his seniors, but his seniors don't know him.

"Jungkook!" Hoseok calls at last. He emerges from the kitchen with his hair sticking in every direction and chocolate icing on his face. (In other news, the room has a kitchen. And more rooms. It's freaking huge and Jungkook is jealous and wants to be rich.) "Jimin! And..." He offers Taehyung an awkward smile, who doesn't seem to realize he's being talked to.

"Taehyung," Jimin offers.

"And Taehyung!" Hoseok finishes. "Good to see you three!"

"Happy birthday!" they say in a chorus that doesn't quite synchronize. Jungkook holds out his present, and Hoseok brightens even more. "You got me a present?"

"Um. Yeah."

"...is this handmade?"

"...yeah."

He makes a sort of awed noise as he cradles the paper flower, and Jungkook is half pleased, half embarrassed. He places the flower carefully in his pocket and unwraps the present.

"A rap album," he announces, for any stray viewers. Surprisingly there is one, a tall guy who grins at Hoseok, looking strangely familiar to Jungkook.

"No," he corrects. "A wrapped album."

Hoseok sighs and seems to regret being born.

More people arrive, and Hoseok hurries off to meet them. Jungkook, Jimin, and Taehyung huddle together on a couple of bean bag chairs placed by the wall, surveying the mess of people.

Jimin finally finds some dancers he's worked with before. He doesn't want to leave at first, probably remembering his promise that he'd stick by Jungkook's side all night, but Jungkook tells him that it's fine, he's fine, and to go live his life, in those words exactly, so Jimin leaves and tells him to text him if he wants to go home. Taehyung almost falls asleep on the bean bag next to him, but he suddenly springs awake because one of Jimin's new friends is cute and he has to join them.

He's left alone, and alone on a bean bag seems the perfect metaphor for life, really, so Jungkook is content as he downs his third cup of soda and watches everyone have fun around him. He's only interrupted when Taehyung randomly materializes and points urgently across the room. "You see that?" He says. "See him? That's Kim Namjoon. That's the guy who keeps nearly burning down our lab." And then he disappears again.

At one point everyone starts dancing. He isn't sure who started it, or when the music switched from subtle background music to EDM, but suddenly everyone is dancing and, alone on his bean bag, Jungkook is on a different dimension. He watches with fascination, how people who have never met before are suddenly moving in coordination, laughing together, not caring who is touching who or who looks like a fool. He watches a girl stroke the feather sticking out of Taehyung's head, and him offer her a smile in return. He watches the legendary J-Hope live up to his name. He watches Jimin fangirl over Hoseok, pointing and exclaiming, and finally joining him to dance to old Big Bang songs.

He watches, and at one point he stops feeling real.

He catches Hoseok's eye, and Hoseok waves at him to come over and join them. Jungkook shakes his head no, holds up a cup of soda as some kind of metaphor for I'm good, and downs it for good measure.

Hoseok looks unconvinced. To Jungkook's horror, he starts to make his way towards Jungkook's bean bag haven. He looks for Jimin to save him, but Jimin is facing the wrong direction, as always a traitor when he needs him most.

Without really thinking, Jungkook gestures something in sign language to Hoseok that he doesn't think means anything, slips between a couple of dancers with mutters of excuse me, sorry, ouch, and flees to the other end of the room. There's a hallway of sorts, and Jungkook slips in, sliding against the wall to the floor. Safe for a while.

"Didn't think I'd see you here," a voice says, from somewhere above him.

Jungkook starts. Then he goes into mild shock.

"Room 513," he says in astonishment.

The boy looks amused. "Kid who isn't an art student."

It's him for sure, the dark haired, pale boy, with a stare that says he sort of wouldn't mind if everyone burned down but is too lazy to actively set them ablaze.

"You looked like you might drop dead," 513 tells him.

You're supposed to be dead, Jungkook doesn't reply. "Um," he says instead. "Who are you?"

"Min Yoongi."

It sounds familiar, but Jungkook can't place it. At least it's a name to go with the murder mysteries. "Jeon Jungkook," he says.

"You don't seem the kind of person who comes to parties," Yoongi says. He has a cup of something in his hands that Jungkook suspects is alcohol, simply because it would fit with the kind of person he's assumed Yoongi to be. Which is a depressed, drunk, wreck of a person who possibly dissolves in sunlight.

"Neither do you," Jungkook points out.

The edge of Yoongi's mouth twitches. "Neither do I," he agrees. "But it's Hoseok's birthday and he'd have killed me if I didn't show up."

He doesn't like the hallway. Or rather, he doesn't like the fact that it has this other person in it. Yoongi seems to at ease for someone he'd expected to be a mess, and it's giving him a mild crisis. The only thing Jungkook hates more than social interaction is interaction with people who are always so at ease.

It's nearing twelve o'clock, and Jungkook is running out of steam. The satisfaction of being alone and quiet is starting to turn into frustration that he can't go up to anyone and be himself, and that means it's time for him to go.

He braces a hand on the wall and pushes himself up, and is debating whether or not Yoongi will expect a good bye, and whether he'll want a bye, or a goodbye, or a see you, or a what, when Yoongi cuts him off.

"You're going to dance?" He sounds surprised.

Jungkook shakes his head. "Going back home."

"Ah," Yoongi says. He checks his watch. "I'll come too. I don't want to have to help these guys clean up."

"Um," Jungkook says, as articulate as ever. His head reels. A lie, a lie, quicker, quick. "I'm not actually going to our dorms. I'm going to...a friend's place. Yeah."

Yoongi looks even more amused, and Jungkook wants to slap himself.

"Don't run away on my account," he says, and it's the same thing he said the last time they met. "Stay safe."

It's more of a drawl than an honest well-wish, but it's what any good senior would say, so normal, so completely wrong coming from this social vampire. Jungkook nods and turns to leave.

"Also, there's a feather in your hair," Yoongi adds.

Jungkook's hand snaps up reflexively. It's there, sure enough, sticking out at an odd angle. Damn Taehyung. Or Jimin. One of them or both.

It's only after he's safely out the door, in the middle of the disaster of the corridor, that he remembers why he knows the name Min Yoongi.

"Oh," he says to the corridor, and the corridor doesn't say anything back.

He remembers Min Yoongi from a free for all concert. The dark, dark, rapper who said things no one wanted to hear, things that people wanted to forget, things that people sort of hated him for putting into words because it meant they had to confront them. The rapper who'd received pin drop silence after his performance because no one knew how to react.

He remembers Min Yoongi, who told the truth too harshly, too honestly, for anyone in the audience to be able to bear it.

He remembers listening in, from outside the auditorium, entranced but horribly so, never having a face to put to the music and hoping he never did.