In case you didn't realise, my chapter titles are lyrics from one of the boys' songs

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Taehyung slips on a tie, one that didn't exist when he was still attending RM High School. He also pulls on the school blazer, one that also didn't exist before, and for a moment he just stares. 

It's the first day of school at Big Hit in the middle of the year, and already he feels a change. 

He feels lighter. Relieved. 

Because he wouldn't have to hide behind the back of his friend, or seek the protection from his ex-boyfriend who wasn't willing to watch him anymore. Because he could start fresh and make proper friends. People who wouldn't befriend him for money because, not to sound pretentious, if you were attending that school everyone had their own fair amount of green bills. 

Scholarships? The standards too high and probably about 2 people every 2 years. 

And also because, he had a chance to change himself. His cowardly demeaner, his shy attitude and submissive habits. 

It was time to be able to stand up for himself if he was ever picked on. Hell, he'll even sign up for a TAEKWONDO class. That's where he'll start. 

He had voiced all of this to Jimin the night before, and Jimin was over the moon. He wanted nothing more than to leave the horrid school behind too and join Taehyung, but no way would he be able to survive if he did, he didn't have the money and definitely not the brains to be one of those '2 people every 2 years'. The last scholarship student was last year. 

Jimin couldn't wait until Taehyung managed to get over his heartbreak and finally become a strong individual. He knew he could do it.

But he also knew how broken Taehyung was at that moment.

Past the strong words and the determined attitude and newly set goals, Jimin knew more than anyone how much Taehyung is still hurting, still crying at night for being abandoned by a lover he thought loved him and would stay with him. A lover who he thought would never leave him for something as stupid as popularity status in high school, who would leave a love so precious behind for nothing more than adoration and fabricated attitudes for the remaining year and a half of the high school journey. 

But Jimin knew Taehyung needed to become a stronger person. Jimin knew Taehyung would be capable for opening his heart entirely once again even after a terrible heartbreak of a previous relationship. Because Taehyung may become strong, but Taehyung was still soft. And Jimin doesn't doubt Taehyung will remain a soft-hearted gem even if he gained all the muscles in the world. 

Taehyung's phone rings and he pulls his eyes away from his reflection and walks over to his nightstand. 

Caller ID : Jimin

He picks it up immediately. 

"Hey Jims!" He greets cheerfully. 

He hears Jimin chuckle over the line. 

"How are you? Ready for the big campus, you big boy?" was Jimin's reply. 

Taehyung himself laughs, "I'm ready, little boy." 

"Hey!" 

They both share a laugh, until it goes quiet and Jimin dares to ask, 

"How are you dealing?" 

Taehyung breathes in deep, feeling the heartache that never fully left him since the breakup. 

"Honestly, it still hurts a lot. But, I'm more excited about what kind of people I'll meet at Big Hit." He pauses, "Will it be full of pretentious rich kids? Or maybe normal kids? I hope there are nice and kind ones too." 

"Of course they will be, Tae. Big Hit wouldn't have such a prestigious reputation if it had records of bullying or talk of delinquent kids. You may get that one or two es, but the majority you meet will treat you just fine. I can gurantee it. And if there's not, the teachers there will surely be of more help than the ones here." Jimin supplies. 

"Just remember, be yourself. Your gorgeous, teddybear-like self-" 

"Tae!" his mother calls. 

"Coming!" he shouts back, before turning back to the phone. 

"Thanks, Jims. I will." he says before ending the call. 

After one last look in the mirror, he straightens his blazer before taking a deep breath and walking out of his room to greet his mother downstairs before he's off. 

***

It was too much. 

With eyes unbelievably swollen and red, wet cheeks and a heart so heavy with emotional wounds inflicted on it. Jungkook had been crying. 

After putting off his heartbroken feelings after breaking up with Taehyung, he had hardly been able to eat anything, and the amount of heartache and sadness that loomed over him when he wasn't at school drained his body so much that he was mentally tired and fell asleep at 8:00pm, very out of character for someone who deemed his bedtime anytime after 11:00pm. 

At school he had managed to keep up with the facade of all the fake smiles, forced laughter and indefinite amount of friends. 

Friends. 

Something he hadn't had thought of so highly before with his relationship with Taehyung. He could barely stomach the thought that Taehyung was no longer his. 

No longer his to cuddle. 

No longer his to walk home. 

No longer his to kiss. 

It was killing him. He wanted nothing more than to wrap him up in his arms and kiss him while they lay innocently on Taehyung's large bed. He wanted to tell him how much he meant to him and how beautiful he was. 

But with every new person he had wrapped up in his arms at school, every new pair of lips to ever cover his own and with every new set of hands that he let roam across his body he truly became the school playboy. And he buried the pain of the heartbreak in every pair of lips that wasn't Taehyung's, in the cold touch of the hands that wasn't Taehyung's. 

He became the one every guy or girl wanted for the one night, or the period of time they could call Jungkook as their 'boyfriend', but he knew that that word would hold no deeper meaning if the word 'boyfriend' did apply to him as Taehyung's. He didn't want to be anyone else's. He may be their 'partner' or 'fling', but he would never be 'theirs'. 

He wouldn't allow himself to be labelled as someone's boyfriend if they weren't Taehyung. 

He kept telling himself this. 

Even if he didn't make the effort to deny that his new 'fling' that they were indeed an 'item'.  

***

"I'm a new student, Kim Taehyung." he introduced himself in front of the class. 

Was he a gorgeous sight. 

Dressed up in the sharp, prim uniform of the prestigious school, with chocolate brown bangs hanging low above his eyes, there was only one word. 

Gorgeous

That was what was running through the mind of all the students in his new homeroom. Incuding the mind of the reserved junior Min Yoongi, who was seated a few rows from the back close to the window. With an open-seat next to him. 

"Please, take a seat in any of the free seats available." his teacher said after a welcome-applause. 

Taehyung eyed the big classroom.

There was two seats, one beside a very eager looking boy with short dark hair who's name Taehyung learned later nicknamed as a 'Bambam', a Thai immigrant, and one beside a relatively reserved-looking junior who he learned as Min Yoongi. 

It was the seat next to the reserved boy. Taehyung wasn't about to answer the million questions that seemed to be running in Bambam's mind when he glanced over nervously. Though he felt a bit bad when he slipped into the seat next to him and saw the face of the Thai boy slightly drop in mild disappointment. 

Determined to make at least one new friend, Taehyung's heart was beating wildly in his chest in nervousness. When was the last time he put in genuine effort to try to make a friend? 

He turned to the boy beside him, who was suspiciously slightly stiff in his seat. Overlooking it, he took a breath and opened his mouth, 

"I'm Taehyung, I hope you don't mind me sitting here with you. W-what's your name?" he cursed inwardly at having stumbled over a word. 

The boy turned to him, and though he wasn't smiling his eyes weren't unkind. 

"Yoongi. Min Yoongi, the junior representative of the photography club." 

***

Yoongi was struck. With his hand nonchalantly supporting his chin and a resting- face on, as he eyed the new student at the front of the classroom and he couldn't find it in himself to look away. Maybe it was his looks, or maybe it was the way his eyes sparkled with something more than just slight fear and interest of a new surrounding. 

There was an underlying sparkle of determination and very evidently hope. Hope for what, he wasn't too sure. 

Wow..

"Please, take a seat in any of the free seats available." his teacher said. 

And for unknown reasons Yoongi straightened up a very small fraction as his heartbeat picked up ever so slightly. 

Will he sit next to me? He can, I won't complain- he's coming here oh ity fuc-

When Taehyung placed his books and sationary on the desk and slid into the seat next to him, Yoongi forced his eyes forward and felt an unknown force keeping him very still, as if the slightest move would scare the boy away to the seat next to the Bambam on the other side of the room close to the front of the class nearest to the door. 

Seeing Taehyung turn to him from his peripheral, his heartbeat kept up a slightly faster-than-normal pace. And when he spoke, hearing his deep voice so close to him sent an unfamiliar feeling through his body. 

"I'm Taehyung, I hope you don't mind me sitting here with you. W-what's your name?"

He heard him speak at the front of the class, but hearing him speak to him so directly and so close.. Yoongi swallowed before responding. 

"Yoongi. Min Yoongi, the junior representative of the photography club." 

He immediately stilled and chastised himself, 

Representative of the photography club? Who says a label of theirs in an introduction? Now what's he going to do with this irrelevent piece of information- he's going to think I'm some cocky, badge-wearing superiority complex little -

So caught up in thoughts he almost missed Taehyung's reply and responded a beat late. 

"Photography club? That's so cool!" 

Yoongi flushed a very light pink, 

"I mean.. I guess." he mutters. 

Say thank you. His mind tell him. 

"Thank you." Yoongi adds quickly. 

There was a pause, one Yoongi felt that the boy was going to say something else but was hesitant on saying. He waited patiently, and if it was one of his friends he would have just told them to spit it out already. 

"I-If you don't mind.." Taehyung blinks, bringing a shy hand to his neck, "I'd really like it if I could, uhm.. how to put this-" he laughs nervously, "Would you mind if I joined you for lunch?" he asked expectantly. 

Yoongi blinked. 

That was it? He was nervous about not having someone to sit with for lunch? Where did this kid come from? 

Yoongi's silence was unnerving and Taehyung's heart dropped. His eyes dimmed and he spat out sentences before Yoongi could respond with an embarassing 'no' to his timid request. 

"I mean, of course if you don't want to that's fine! If you sit with others and don't want me intruding it's ok, I understand if you don't want me to. I was just asking, since I don't know anyone around here- so I just thought I'd- I mean, I just- maybe if I-" 

Ah , I'm making a fool of myself. 

Taehyung thought, quickly becoming flushed in embarassment. 

"That's fine." Yoongi cuts through his nonsense. 

Taehyung blinks at him. 

God, his eyes are huge. 

"It's fine, you can sit with me. I just, I wasn't expecting you to ask if you could sit with me, I mean- yeah.." he finished lamely. 

It was Yoongi's turn to flush and he turned to the front again, grabbing his books in front of him when he saw there was still 5 minutes left of homeroom, he let his arms fall around his books that lay flat on the desk. 

Taehyung's eyes lit up, and his heart soared. 

"Thank you." he said sincerely. 

And when they elapsed into a silence, Yoongi was happy to let it be as any moment of him not speaking was a chance he didn't have to embarass himself. 

Taehyung on the other hand, was fidgeting for a topic to discuss. And when he saw his own books in front of him, he ignored his homeroom teacher reading out coming events and notices of the school in turn for talking with Yoongi. 

"What's your first subject?" he queries. 

Yoongi almost jumps at the suddent question, and he has to take a moment to think with Taehyung suddenly leaning over. 

"Uhm, I've got music class first up." he says. 

Taehyung's eyes widen, "Really? You have music class?" 

Yoongi frowns, "Yeah? It's an elective, I chose the subject-" 

"No, I mean, I have it too." 

Yoongi blinks, and Taehyung continues. 

"I mean, do you have Mr Bang?" 

"Yeah, that means.." 

Taehyung nods, "Yeah, I guess it means we're in the same class?" 

Taehyung's ecstatic about the fact that he won't be late to his first class since he can follow Yoongi and because he doesn't know where the everything is. 

Yoongi's mood, though not drastically different, has improved a little bit when finding out Taehyung had been placed in his music class. Though it's a while before he recognises the emotion as happiness. 

***

"God, you're so hot." 

Jungkook responds with harsher kisses to the girl's lips before attaching his own to her jaw. He lifts the girl off his lap before standing up from the chair, her legs still wrapped around his hips, he pushes her onto the desk next to him. 

They're in an empty classroom during their lunch break and he's somehow gotten hooked up with a Japanese girl named Sana, the girl who he had been told had the hots for him and he should 'go for it' after a bowling date and a few hotter make-out sessions in the back of restaurants with Minggyu. 

When Sana's hands are dangerously close to his hip and his own hand is under her shirt, Jungkook is hovering over Sana lying flat on a desk about to go in for a deep kiss when the door to the classroom slides open. He lifts his gaze to the entryway to see, 

. 

He thinks, recoiling. 

It's Jimin. He's got a few books tucked under his arm and, oh , Hoseok's there too. 

He pulls his hand from under Sana's shirt and hurriedly takes a step back from the desk, shirt untucked and messy hair from Sana pulling at his soft locks. Sana herself sits up quickly and tries to button up her shirt quickly and stuffing the ends back in her skirt in an attempt to look modest. 

But the sight has been seen by Jimin and he was nothing short of angry. 

"This is you showing me how much you truly cared about Taehyung." Jimin says, looking straight at him. 

Taehyung, the memory of him he tried to hard to bury in the kisses of Sana floods back to him and his heart squeezes. 

"You don't know anything." he says quickly, as he had indeed loved Taehyung with everything he had. 

Sana hightails it out of the classroom, bypassing Jimin and Hoseok, in which the latter gives her a dirty look. 

"What don't I know?" Jimin sneers, and Jungkook is aware of Hoseok's hand gripping Jimin's forearm. 

Meaning that whatever he says, he's somewhat safe from Jimin's punches. 

But Jungkook couldn't find it in himself to tell Jimin that he loved Taehyung. Because wasn't what he did to him show him how much he didn't care? 

"Oh, let me guess." Jimin says, though there's not an ounce of humour in his voice. 

"You're gonna say 'you loved him', he was 'your everything'-" 

Before Jimin would finish he's suddenly blurting, 

"He is! Taehyung-Taehyung is- he's-" he stumbles over his words. 

"Don't say his name! I don't to hear you talk about him! Someone so low who would throw away the love of his life for popularity in such a ty school. You're not gaining anything but attention- and," he pauses, giving a fleeting glance behind him where Sana disappeared, "actual who only want to bed you so that they can say that they hooked up with a hot boy!" Jimin yells. (please note ; i like sana, this is only for the story) 

All of a sudden Jungkook's eyes feel wet, his vision blurs with tears and suddenly his cheeks are the ones wet.

He's crying. 

He's crying because there's nothing in those harsh words of Jimin's that he can refuse. The painful stab of each word inflicting a new emotional wound one on top of the other. It hurts more because it's true. And hearing it being said outright like that has him in tears. 

He's lost Taehyung. Because of something so stupid. 

He had all the love he needed from Taehyung, yet he shoved it all away for a craving of being wanted, by who? People who won't even remember his name a few years after high school. People who only wanted him for his good looks and his body. When Taehyung saw past the braces and lopsided jagged haircut in grade 6, the huge teeth and bowl-cut in grade 7, the overgrown hair and horrible fashion in grade 8, and the year they started dating with his pimpled face and awkward body phase in the last year of middle school. He had seen past his less-than attractive appearances previously and loved him. 

Taehyung loved him with everything he had. 

Taehyung himself was a looker. Always had huge, expressive eyes. A styled haircut and naturally straight teeth, the unique "box smile" that had everyone running over in grade 7, the consecutive growth spurts in grade 8 and nice clothes, and perfect body proportions even in their last middle school years. When people ran to him and wanted to play, Taehyung went to Jungkook. When they told Taehyung false rumours about Jungkook so he would hang out with them instead, Taehyung refused and told it to Jungkook before going back to the same group and calling them out for being "liars". He did that throughout all of middle school because he loved him. 

When Jungkook's parents couldn't afford to buy him the newest games, expensive clothes or the latest sneakers, Taehyung would share his games and play it with him the entire weekend, letting him even take the entire console home for a day or two. He would lend him some of his denim jackets, even give him one of his identical jeans and gifting Jungkook new sneakers for his birthday. All throughout the years of middle school and their first year in high school. He did that because he loved him.

And Jungkook had thrown away all that unconditional love not even half a year of being a junior when puberty did its job as a freshman, all for the attention and shallow affection from other people who didn't give him even a quarter of Taehyung's love for him. 

He didn't know what was running through Jimin's mind as he cried harder in the middlle of the classroom, too overwhelmed by the sweet memories of Taehyung consoling him and the weight of his mistake. 

It wasn't like he hadn't given Taehyung anything in return. He'd surprise Taehyung with kisses and hugs. Pluck him roses from his neighbours garden to come to Taehyung's doorstep intending to be romantic, hoping Taehyung will overlook past the small thorn wounds in his fingers. (He didn't.) He'd buy him ice cream and boba tea with the small allowance he'd been given in order to see Taehyung's grin so loved by so many, but it was his to love and his cherish. Taehyung knew he couldn't give him new shoes or anything considered luxury for a middle schooler, but he didn't care. Because he wasn't materialistic. 

Despite being incredibly rich Taehyung was so humble that at times Jungkook even forgot he had a house multiple times larger, the access to every object in the world. 

He couldn't see at this point, tears not ceasing to cascade down his face. He had held a love so innocent, so pure and so precious and had in turn Taehyung's affections which was just as crystal clear and gem-like precious. It was scary how something as trivial as popularity could suddenly pull him away from that so quickly, and he never regretted anything so badly than throwing Taehyung away and expecting him to be there when he had come around. Even more pathetic getting hurt when Taehyung wasn't where he thrown him, expecting him to still be waiting for him. 

He felt a tug on his hand. Looking up and focusing through his tears and hiccups, he sees Jimin's face. 

His expression held no more malice. But even worse, pity and disappointment. 

Jimin had now known that Jungkook had realised what he had mistaken as silver, and threw it away for false gold. 

When in fact the mistaken silver was the most precious gold, and the false gold was nothing short of a piece of bronze. 

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Hello

Thank you all for 3 subscribers! And sorry i don't reply to comments, but i do read every one of them on all my stories! DM me if you'd like a chat i might get back to you

Hope you enjoyed the chapter! A bit heavy isnt it

I won't be updating anytime soon tbh be getting busy

Spent quite a bit of time on this chapter so i hope you enjoyed it

Yoongi appears! yayay

Leave a comment to let me know what you think!

Bye