"Look at what the loser's wearing." 

"Bracelets. Seriously? And they're not even cool." 

"Why does he have to button his shirt up like that? Are you kidding? Who does that?" 

Taehyung swallows as he makes his way down the hallway, keeping to the left to avoid hitting anybody and playing with the hem of his freshly-ironed school polo. And FYI, those string bracelets were given by none other than his boyfriend as an anniversary gift. So them. 

He stops right at his locker and throws the thing open, eager to grab his things and leave as soon as possible and find his loving best friend and boyfriend. 

Just as he's reached into his locker and is pulling out a book from the organised shelf, the locker door slams shut on the part of his arm right before his wrist. His hand spasms and numbs, dropping the book and retracting his now red arm as a reflex. He looks at wide eyes to his right to see Park Chaeyeong, self-crowned 'Princess' and school-acknowledged 'prettiest female'. 

Harbouring the biggest infatuation with Jungkook, she makes it a mission to torment Taehyung until he gives her to him. 

At a slowly deteoriating, run-down public school like RM Senior High School, rules are thin, students mainly druggies and unqualfied teachers, it's not hard to get away with a lot of things. 

So despite the clear targeting of students in the school, no one makes a move to stop it. 

"Hey, loser." she says sweetly, winking sarcastically and leaning against the locker next to Taehyung's with folded arms. 

Taehyung shuts his lips and looks down in front of him, not willing to look her in the eyes. 

"What's wrong, honey? Cat got your tongue?" she says mockingly, an exaggerated sad face on before her best friend Kwon Yuri giggles and shakes her head. Chaeyeong breaks into a smile as well before speaking. 

"Ok, enough talk. I mean, not like you did any talking-" she looks him up and down, "Right, anyway, so. Your job today is, my dear, is to get me a date with Jungkook." 

At this, Taehyung looks up at her in mild surprise, usually her 'jobs' for him consisted of taking over her cleaning duty, completing her homework and being her slave for the day. 

"Why would I do that?" he says, no particular malice in his voice. 

"What do you mean why you would do that? It's my birthday soon, you insufferable prick. And that's what I want. Look, I'll even pay your poor self. How much do you want?" he bites. 

Taehyung looks at her with a slight frown and shakes his head confusingly, "I don't want your money. I also don't want you to ask me to hook you up with someone that I'm dating. That's not particularly normal?" he says. 

Ok, so a common misapprehension. Kim Taehyung is not in the slighestest bit poor. He's in fact, very, very wealthy. The Kim family were well-off. So what is he doing in a school like RM Senior High School? 

When Taehyung and Jungkook got out of middle school, Jungkook had begged Taehyung to come to the high school he was attending because he didn't want Taehyung too far away. 

Though he argues saying that his parents wanted him to attend Big Hit Senior High School(original yes i know) instead, Jungkook practically threw a tantrum saying that they just starting dating and he couldn't handle a long distance relationship. 

Of course, this was absolute bull because heck, they were barely five houses away. And there was also afterschool for hanging out. 

But Jungkook was a bit insecure, he was afraid Taehyung would fall for someone else at the prestigious high school while still dating him. And Jungkook wasn't wealthy. He couldn't afford a school like Big Hit Senior High School let alone a decent high school. But he wasn't going to let Taehyung get snatched away at some stuck-up private school. Especially not by some preppy rich kid. 

After a week- ok fine, the entire mid-term break as well as a good part of the Christmas break, Taehyung managed to convince his parents to enroll him in RM Senior High School. With the promise of doing well in that ty school and taking extra lessons after school. 

Chaeyeong went red in the face, angry. 

"Did you not hear me? It's my seventeenth and I want a date with Jungkook." 

Taehyung looked clueless. 

"Seventeenth? That's not a particularly eventful age, isn't it? It isn't like a sweet sixteenth or an eighteenth, or a twenty-fir-" 

"What the hell is your problem?! Do you realise this is why no one ing likes you?! How you are still dating Jeon Jungkook is beyond me!" she screams, fists clenched and ready to punch him. 

"Listen here, you ing prick, I'm telling you to set up a date for me and him and you'll do it. When you've actually got a time for me then you can talk to me." she hisses out before turning and slapping his face with her long hair. 

Taehyung his lips nervously, rubbing his sore arm and retuning his gaze to his locker, slightly shocked. 

"Taehyung!" 

He sees Jimin flying, short arms flailing and wrapping around his arms while crashing into Taehyung. 

"I heard the witch scream. I was in the clasroom down the back but was held back by Mr Captain Bums and couldn't come soon enough. What'd she say?" he said, cute eyes peering up at his. 

Taehyung grins, "Don't you think you should drop the nicknames?" 

Jimin scrunched his nose, "Nah. Their names don't really roll off my tongue." 

Taehyung shakes his head, grabbing whatever he needed before proceeding to arrange some fallen books. 

Park Jimin, truly an angel for Taehyung. Jimin was Taehyung's primary school friend, having known him longer than he's known Jungkook. Taehyung's personality, somewhat odd but unique captivated the little Jimin's interest and the other has stuck to Taehyung since, following him through to middle school and now high school. Jimin also couldn't afford a better school other than RM Senior High School, and because of Taehyung's wealthy status thought he'd have to go through the last stretch, and most important one, of his school-journey without his best friend. So he was thrilled when Taehyung was going there too, despite finding the request from his boyfriend to be somewhat selfish. 

"So? What'd she say?" Jimin asks again. 

"Hmm, nothing." Taehyung hums. "Except she wanted me to arrange a date for her with Kook." 

"HAHA, LOLZ, OK. What's new?" 

"The fact that she didn't ask me to cover for her cleaning duty." Taehyung answers seriously. 

Jimin eyes him for a moment before breaking out into small laughs. 

"That'll come soon enough." Jimin says, slinging an arm around Taehyung's shoulders once he shut his locker to protect him from any bullies. 

Jimin wasn't hated by fellow classmates. How, you ask? When he's literally besties with the school's outcast? Mainly because of his boyfriend, Jung Hoseok in the school's idolised group as well as Jimin being one of the best dancers alongside Hoseok. Jimin was cool, Taehyung deemed not. 

Jimin didn't get how his gorgeous best friend was hated. Dating the school's most idolised and favoured student Jungkook was one thing, but maybe it was the fact that the bunch of shallow people couldn't tolerate Taehyung's personality judging by a first impression. Or maybe Taehyung was just unlucky enough to be picked out as the school target. 

Jimin knew for a fact that if the school knew of Taehyung's wealth they'd be treating him like a king. 

***

"Yeah, man! Bowling! This Sat all g' guys?" 

"Aye, yeh man. What time, tho?" 

"Can't man, I got work on Saturday." 

"Oh, have fun then!" 

"Wow, you." 

Jungkook laughed, thse guys were hilarious. Looking around, he saw Taehyung with Jimin coming down the hall through the windows. The smile that he previously wore slipped off his face at the glance, but it wasn't hostile. 

With slight disapproval, he shut his lips together and turned back to the group, sitting backwards on the chair, the backrest to his chest and his back to the door. 

When the door slid open, the majority of the class fell silent before resuming their conversations with each other. Jungkook heard Taehyung walking and heard his footsteps come closer to him. Not turning back to look, he willed Taehyung to leave him alone while he was with his group of friends and go sit with Jimin at their usual spot at the top left desks towards the back of the classroom. 

Don't come here, don't come here, don't come he-

"Hey, Kook." 

. 

He turns his head around, taking a glance at Jimin before bringing his gaze back to Taehyung was who was looking to him expectantly. Still not saying anything to him, he just nods in acknowledgement before turning back. 

He could almost feel the drop of his face and the disappointment radiating from behind him. Taehyung's looks down in hurt and humiliation as the group sitting with Jungkook snickers at him, one even having the boldness to wave him away. 

Jimin clenches his teeth and frowns fiercely, he clenches his fists and his eyes narrow. When Taehyung bites his lips and is about to walk away, Jimin glares at Jungkook when he still does nothing. 

"Alright, guys. Want me to come pick you all up? Or we good to just meet there?" they go back to conversing naturally and as Taehyung just walks away, Jimin is left to fume and follow after him. 

"Hey! Tae!" Jimin calls out, "Why aren't you doing anything?!" 

Taehyung his lips and blinks, he turns his gaze to the floor, "I guess he didn't want to speak to me right this time. It's not a big deal." he smiles, though his eyes are sad. 

Jimin runs his toungue over his teeth in frustration, "Ok, more like why didn't he do anything?! Isn't he meant to be your boyfriend?" he sits himself down heavily with an air of anger and annoyance, while Taehyung just sits himself down with the air of nonchalance and a tinge of sadness. 

That only Jimin seemed to be sensing. 

"Why is he treating you like nothing recently?" Jimin questions instead, "I don't get it." 

He eyes the group of boys sitting with him and as Jungkook smiles up at them, making a comment and the groups laughs with him. Jimin narrows his eyes. 

"He's never been interested in associating himself with them before. Since when did he start to want to become one of Hoseok's group?" Jimin says. 

Taehyung glances up at Jimin before taking a quick look to Jungkook and his friends. 

He sighs. 

"Just leave it for a while. Maybe he and I could be like you and Hoseok." he says. "Him being in that popular social group, and me with you." 

"I have left it for a while. This is too much! And someone like Hoseok shouldn't even be associating himself with them! He knows what they do and does nothing to stop it! He might as well be as bad as one of them!" Jimin almost shouts in Taehyung's face. 

"Hoseok's you boyfriend. He won't like if if you run your mouth off like that." Taehyung frowns. 

"It's not like I don't tell him everyday. He's too scared, but there's a ton of other people who would befriend him not just because of his dancing ability and good looks!" 

Taehyung couldn't disagree with that one. 

"That's all they're really after, Jimin, you could join their group if you wanted to." 

Jimin looks at him incredulous, "I mean, I'm not egoistic or anything, but I know. But why would I?" 

He turns back, 

"I don't know why he still sticks with them." he mutters, thinking about Hoseok's smiley face as he hung out with the bunch of wannabes. 

Taehyung's gaze travels back to his boyfriend who has glanced over, must have heard some of the noise. In his eyes, Taehyung saw concealed sadness and slight guilt, and he looks away immediately. 

If Jungkook wanted to ignore him, there must be a reason and Taehyung won't initiate anything until the other wanted to talk to him again. Taehyung thought, slightly blinded and wanting to justify his cold actions with a reason and give him the benefit of the doubt. 

He's not getting tired of me, is he? 

Taehyung thought, worried. 

He didn't have time to dwell on it further when the teacher walked in and the class quieted, the students making their way to their seats. Kang Shu, a classmate who is seated directly in front of Jimin, throws a dirty look to Taehyung beside him, smirking obnoxiously and scoffing before sitting down. 

Taehyung shuts his mouth and lowers his head immediately, and Jimin hates how his friend is always so timid and submissive. He wants to hit him sometimes but if he so much as knocked him accidentally he'll have his older brother Kim Seokjin and adopted older brother Byun Baekhyun come after his head. 

Jimin bites back verbally. 

"Do you have a problem?" he grits out, clearly already pissed off and Kang Shu loses the smirk and sits down like a puppy. 

He clears his throat, "No, sorry." he mumbles out before facing the front. 

Jimin swings his head to face Taehyung next to him, still looking like a scared dog. 

"Tae, you gotta do something." Jimin hisses to him as class had already started. 

"There's not point, I'm not the only being treated like this in this ty, I mean crappy school." he hisses back. 

At this Jimin grins, "I know you don't have the tongue of the innocent. I know you swear." 

"Shh, if Seokjin hyung finds out he'll like, starve me for the rest of the week." 

"Right, the college student still makes you hot chocolate with marshmallows, you child. He wouldn't even tap you on your wrists even fi you asked him to." 

"Shut up. I learn this from Baekhyun hyung." 

"Gosh, I don't know if I love you for being a 5 day old puppy or a person I can actually talk to instead being your protector." 

"You are my protector too." Taehyung winks. 

Jimin just hums and faces the front, thanking the teacher for being preoccupied at the moment to tell them off. He hoped Taehyung had found someone that wouldn't blow him off for losers. He eyed the back of Jungkook's head. 

***

"Tae! Taehyung-AISH." bumping into another student, Jungkook hurriedly chases after Taehyung with his bag flying behind him. 

Jimin and Taehyung both turn around outside the school gates, making a left turn when they hear someone calling. 

"Oh, it's Jungkook." Taehyung says. 

He smiles. 

Jimin looks over at Taehyung smiling and waving happily, he rolls his eyes and looks the other way. 

"Hey." Jungkook leans over to catch his breath. "I almost missed you two, lucky I saw you just before you rounded the corner." 

"Want me to take you home? I'm dropping Jimin off home too." 

Shaking his head, he looks over at Jimin. "I'm fine," he hesitates for a moment, "Namjoon is gonna take-" 

"Again?" Jimin butts in suddenly. "Look, you've promised Tae a million times for the past two weeks you were gonna take him out after his lesson today. Or was it yesterday? It was last week too, wasn't it?" 

"Jimin.." Taehyung sighs, about to warn him. 

Jungkook his lips, "Ok, first of all, Taehyung has a mouth of his own and he doesn't need you yabbering away for him all the time. I'm sure he's sick of your constant chatter right about now." he snaps. "And second of all, I can take him out any day, this time Namjoon offered and I'm not saying no." 

Jimin's anger spikes and he's stiff with rage. 

Taehyung takes a hold of Jimin's arm and looks to his boyfried sadly. 

"Then, we'll see each other tomorrow instead?" he asks hopefully, "We haven't hung out since-" 

"Sorry Tae, I've already planned the weekend with Namjoon and the group. I'm not sure if you'd want to join us so I just said you weren't coming." he gets cut off and Taehyung's mood just drops to the concrete. 

Just then, a sleek black car rolls up beside them. The window rolls down and Taehyung's driver his parents hired for him peers up at him, leaning over the passenger seat. 

"I thought I told you to wait at the-" Taehyung started. 

"I was waiting for about 10 minutes. I got worried." 

Taehyung looks to the students around him, not paying attention much. Taehyung hurriedly throws his bag in through the window and opens the door. 

"Jimin get in, quick." Taehyung shuts the door, "Jungkook, I'll see you later then, have fun!" and then he smiles, wide eyes crinkled at the sides and looking so incredible fake. Jungkook swallows and Jimin looks on stoic,

Winding up the window before his tears could show, Jimin is still left standing on the sidewalk with Jungkook beside him. 

Jimin scoffs in disbelief, turning back to Jungkook. "Like they invited him anyway. You know they don't like him. And I'm starting to wonder if you do too." 

Jungkook blinks in surprise, heart suddenly clenching and a sense of denfesiveness almost suffocating, "Of course I'd like my own boyfriend. The actual ?" he bites out. 

But Jimin has already gone in the backseat and shut the door without another word. And the car slowly drives off. 

"Hey, Kook! You coming?" he turns to Namjoon's voice after clearing the guilt in his chest. 

"Yeah, be there in a sec!" he shouts back, slinging his bag over his shoulder properly and heading over back to the gates. 

---------

Hello

So I hated how the previous chapters turned out and that was why I initially was against continuing this story

This story may contain more angst i think and it'll be easir to incorporate, so this will be another change in my usualy writing style

Sorry to the initial subscribers and if you don't like how this turned out i'll understand if you unsubscribe

Thank you and sorry for the wait

AND HWARANG MY GAWD, TAE, Love. 

Ok enjoy. 

Bye