Jimin approached his classroom nervously, gingerly walking in. He felt better with the rest of the class being there, as the group of bullies probably wouldn’t in front of everyone, or so he hoped. He sat down at his desk, organising his books neatly, not daring to look behind him. He could feel the eyes of them piercing into the back of his head, he knew they were looking at him. He took a deep breath and just looked down at his desk, pretending he was busy and had no idea they were watching him. Relief washed over him when the teacher strode into the room and redirected everyone’s attention to her. 

“Good morning,” she chirped, signalling the start of the lesson. The lesson which literally felt like hours. The lesson was an hour, and Jimin looked up at the clock at least every 5 minutes. He didn’t know whether the bullies were looking at him or not, and he knew he couldn’t look behind him to check. He just wanted to get out of there, but every minute felt like an hour. He checked the clock for the last time to see there was only 1 minute left of the lesson, he watched the second hand do a full circle round the clock, each second feeling like a minute, until it finally struck the hour. As soon as the teacher began to dismiss the class, Jimin shot up and left the room without daring to look back. Once he was out of the classroom and far away, he breathed out slowly, it felt like he’d just let out a breath he’d been holding for the whole lesson. As he made his way down the corridors of the school, he recalled the events of the past hour and a half, clenching his side when he remembered how much he hurt. Should he tell someone? Should he tell Hobi or Jungkook? Maybe he should tell Namjoon, after all, Namjoon told him that he could talk to him whenever he wanted, this was the best person to tell- but he couldn’t. He didn’t like to worry people. He felt bad talking about his own problems, he was going to tell Namjoon about the previous encounters of bullying in his old school- but now this has arose. He didn’t want to worry Namjoon with this, who was already looking out for Jungkook anyway. 

“Jimin!” a voice called, pulling him out of his reverie. 

“Ah, Yoongi,” he smiled as much as he could.

“It’s almost break time, shall we head outside together and meet the others?” Yoongi offered. 

“Sure. Hey what class do you have next?” Jimin asked. 

“I have maths at 11 o’clock,” Yoongi replied. Jimin nodded. 

“I have science, but we’ll see each other at lunch,” he said sadly, wishing he had some company after the events of the morning. 

“Jimin, are you okay?” Taehyung asked rather quickly and straight forwardly as Jimin and Yoongi approached the rest of the group sitting on the grass. 

“Yes,” Jimin said quickly. Taehyung jumped a little, taken aback by Jimin’s speedy response. The rest of the group looked around awkwardly, bar Namjoon- who was watching Jimin intently. If emotions were literally written on your face, Namjoon would have the word ‘worry’ on every inch. 

“Jimin, do you want to talk?” he offered. 

“No! I said I’m fine!” Jimin snapped, turning in the other direction and storming off. 

“Should someone go after him?” Hobi asked worriedly. 

“I don’t think he wants to talk to anyone right now, we should leave him alone. I know that feeling better than anyone,” Jungkook commented. The others nodded in understanding, and stayed right where they were. By this point, a metaphorical cloud rained tension. 

“Jimin’s probably just having a bad day today, a one off, right?” Jin suggested. 

“Yeah,” Hobi sighed, “come to think of it he was up late last night finishing an essay so he must be tired,” he recalled. The others nodded again, apart from Namjoon who didn’t look convinced at all. 

“ what time is it?” Yoongi asked quickly, standing up. 

“Uh,” Jimin pulled out his phone from his pocket, “10:45.”

“Damn it, I have to go sorry, uh, I have class now, see you guys at lunch!” he called, running off already. The group sat there stunned for a second. 

“So, who’s going to run off next?” Taehyung teased, the others laughed quietly, feeling like it was one of those moments when you don’t know whether you should laugh or not. 

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“Damn it,” Jimin muttered, splashing cold water on his face. He grabbed a tissue from one of the stalls and dabbed it on his face.
“Why am I breaking down like this?” he asked himself in the mirror. He couldn’t seem to answer his own question, because there was no answer. His friends were just asking if he was alright, that’s what he wanted. He wanted friends that would ask him if he’s alright, that would comfort him when he’s not, and he just pushed them away out of anger and bitterness from the day’s events. It’s not like he did it on purpose, in fact looking back he wished he could go back in time just a little bit and re-do that scene. What if they hated him now? No, that’s just overthinking things. He finally left the bathroom and decided on going back to apologise, it was only the right thing to do. He quickly went back outside of the building and approached his friends slowly, who all looked up at him and smiled. Namjoon began to stand up when he saw him but sat back down, figuring he was being too straight forward. 

“I’m sorry,” Jimin mumbled, “I was up so late last night working I don’t know what got into me,” he lied. 

“It’s fine,” Hobi chuckled, “I told the others it was probably because you’re tired. We all have those days, right?” he chuckled again. Jimin smiled at him, feeling somewhat envious that Hobi was always so chipper and jolly, wishing he was more like that. 

“Come and sit down with us, let’s forget earlier, okay?” Namjoon wavered for Jimin to sit down. 

“Where’s Yoongi?” Jimin asked, scanning the area. 

“He rushed off really fast a little while ago, he said he had class,” Jin informed. Jimin frowned. Class? He thought. Recalling the conversation he and Yoongi had before break time about class. So Yoongi lied? But why? Jimin thought to himself. He almost told the others that Yoongi didn’t in fact have class until 11, but suddenly decided it would be unfair to spill that to them. If Yoongi had lied about where he was going, it meant that he didn’t want them all to know where he was going, so it shouldn’t be any of his business. 

“Oh, okay,” he smiled, leaving it at that. 

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Yoongi rushed down the corridors, knowing full well he’d simply forgot. He’d let time slip away. 

“I’m so sorry I’m late,” he apologised as he reached a very small lake ground behind the school. 

“It’s fine, I was a little late too,” a slightly shorter, yet attractive boy replied. He patted the grass next to him, motioning Yoongi to sit down. 

“So Seojun, this is our first time hanging out since the party?” Yoongi chuckled. Seojun sighed happily, leaning back a little. 

“Yeah, it’s nice being with you when we’re both sober,” he said.
“Do you think we’ll still feel the same?” Yoongi asked. Seojun shrugged. 

“I don’t know,” he said honestly, “but that’s what we’re trying to find out, right?” 

“Yeah,” Yoongi agreed. The two of them sat in a comfortable silence, enjoying the surprisingly warm weather. 

“Yoongi?” Seojun began, turning to face Yoongi. 

“Yeah,” the latter asked, also turning a little to face Seojun. 

“Do you regret it?” Seojun asked. 

“Regret what?” Yoongi questioned, tilting his head a little. 

“What happened after the party,” Seojun said quietly, despite the fact that there was no one around. 

“N-no!” Yoongi confirmed quickly, “of course not!” 

“Okay, good,” Seojun laughed, “did you tel your roommates where you disappeared to that night?” Yoongi looked down, guilt washing over his face. 

“No,” he muttered, “not yet anyway. I will, in good time. I just don’t know what they’ll think. So I just lied for now. I feel like I’m lying to them a lot. I want them to know me and know who I am but I just have to wait for the right moments to speak up about these kind of things,” he admitted truthfully. Seojun was the kind of person that you felt like you could tell him anything. It didn’t matter what it was, how weird it was, or how bad it was, you could tell him; and no matter what you tell him he always understands. Seojun never seemed to judge anyone, he was just- in Yoongi’s eyes- perfect. 

“I understand,” Seojun smiled. “It’s never easy talking about this kind of thing. My advice would be to just talk to them when you’re ready. It’s not like there’s any rush. They’re not pressing the topic, right? They haven’t brought it up again have they? The party I mean.”

“No, they haven’t asked,” Yoongi said, “they’re the kind of friends that know when to push something and when to sit back and let it happen.” 

“Good,” Seojun beamed, “as long as they don’t pressure you to tell them anything, just talk when you’re ready. It’s not like you have to go into detail about that night anyway, in fact they probably wouldn’t want you to go into detail,” he laughed. Yoongi kept a poker face, looking serious about the topic. 

“That’s what I’m worried about,” he admitted. 

“What do you mean?” 

“I mean,” Yoongi began, “I know no one would want to hear those kind of details because it’s common decency- but what if they don’t want to hear them; because they’re homophobic?”