The walk back to Jimin’s house was silent. Jimin wanted to ask the elder more questions. He wanted to ask how Yoongi was different from them, he wanted so badly to know what had driven Yoongi to join a gang. But Yoongi wasn’t going to answer so there was no point in asking. Jimin felt guilty knowing that Yoongi was in a gang now, he felt as if he had failed his hyung somehow.

“You should know the way from here right?” Yoongi suddenly asked and Jimin looked around him since he had been blindly following behind Yoongi the whole time.

“Yea…” Jimin answered recognizing his street just up ahead.

“Then I’m gonna go ahead and leave,” Yoongi said turning around and facing Jimin. He looked at Jimin and frowned recognizing the hurt look on Jimin’s face.

“Jimin-ah don’t make that face,” Yoongi said.

“I can’t help it,” Jimin replied.

Yoongi sighed and didn’t say anything for a minute. When he finally did speak up it was only to say goodbye. Jimin didn’t say anything in return, he just watched his hyung leave without another word. It was strange seeing his red-haired hyung walk away from him like this. Yoongi wasn’t one to leave his juniors alone if they were looking upset. While Yoongi wasn’t the greatest at helping them feel better, he was always there for them to lean on and complain to. And if he caused their hurt he was always there to reassure them he didn’t mean it. But Yoongi had been changing and Jimin just hadn’t noticed until it was too late, he supposed.

“Park Jimin!” Jimin heard his grandfather yell from behind him causing him to jump. He slowly turned around to see his grandfather at the end of the street leading to his house. Even though there was some distance separating them, Jimin could see the anger written on his grandfather’s face. ‘I’m definitely in trouble,’ Jimin thought to himself dreading the lecture he was going to receive and the probable punishment.

* * * *

“This isn’t fair, I’m being grounded for week Tae! A week!” Jimin whined to Taehyung at school the next day.

“Well you shouldn’t have forgotten your phone at home,” Taehyung reasoned.

“But I was too mad to think about taking it! It’s Jihyun’s fault and he didn’t get anything but a scolding from our parents! I didn’t yell at him or anything, I just left to cool my head and I get punished! God, I hate being older sometimes!” Jimin whined while Taehyung hummed listening to the elder complain.

“You don’t gotta tell me that, you only have one younger brother, but I’ve got two younger siblings, remember? They drive me crazy! Sometimes I think I should just strangle them,” Taehyung said pretending to strangle someone in midair.

“Don’t kid me, you love them to smitheries and would do practically anything for them, I suspect you’d even hide the body if they murdered someone,” Jimin said with a scoff but was smiling nonetheless.

“Without a second thought no doubt but you’d do the same for Jihyun so what’s your point?” Taehyung asked raising an eyebrow but also smiling.

“Nothing I guess?” Jimin said shrugging. “Just annoyed I got grounded.”

“It’s okay Jiminie, besides you still get to invite your friends over and you’re still allowed to use electronics, so it’s not that bad. It’s just a little bit of house arrest,” Taehyung pointed out trying to cheer Jimin up.

“House arrest?” Jungkook asked as he took his seat in front of Jimin. The younger hadn’t had time for breakfast this morning, so he’d left to grab something from the vending machine before class started. Jungkook had two red bean paste buns and he held one out to Jimin. Jimin took it without a second thought as Taehyung said, “Jiminie has been grounded for a week…. Hey how come I don’t get one and Jiminie does?”

“Cause Jiminie hyung is special,” Jungkook answered with a teasing smile. Jimin looked down at the bun in his hands, just realizing Jungkook had got one for him.

“This is favoritism! How dare you Jungkookie? I thought you loved me!” Taehyung said dramatically.

“I do hyung, but Jiminie looked upset this morning so I got it to cheer him up, besides you don’t like these that much,” Jungkook pointed out as he opened the wrapper and began eating his bun. Taehyung conceded with a pout and a wink at Jimin when they locked eyes. Jimin blushed a little and looked away remembering how he’d talked with Taehyung about how the white string had turned red that one time. Ever since then Taehyung had been convinced it was a blank canvas and that Jungkook had a crush on Jimin.

“Thanks, Kookie,” Jimin said with a smile towards the youngest before peeling away the wrapping and also biting into the snack. Jungkook hummed in acknowledgment of Jimin’s gratitude.

“So if you’re under house arrest can we still meet this weekend to practice our dance?” Jungkook asked looking at Jimin curiously.

“I’m pretty sure I can. Even if I’m grounded, my parents would let me go to the dance studio to practice for the competition, they aren’t so mean as to say no cause they know how important dance is to me,” Jimin answered.

“Oh, that’s nice of them. If I were grounded, my parents wouldn’t even consider letting me go practice for anything that didn’t have to do with my studies directly,” Jungkook said after swallowing the food in his mouth.

“Yea I’m lucky they realize how much dancing means to me,” Jimin said.

“Jimin cried and threw a tantrum when he was younger over dance it was really bad tantrum from what I remember. He wanted to attend this one dance class the elementary school we were in was offering after school, but his parents didn’t think it was necessary and at the time it would have been difficult for them to drop and pick him up every day. But Jimin was adamant about going so he rebelled against them. He refused to eat for an entire day and wouldn’t talk to anyone. On the second day when he still refused to eat or talk, his parents gave in and let him go to the dance class. I think ever since then his parents have never restricted him from dancing so long as he keeps his grades up,” Taehyung decided to add in.

“Really?” Jungkook asked looking at Jimin and the eldest nodded.

“Maybe I should try that,” Jungkook joked and the other two laughed.

“I don’t know how effective that would be now. I was really young at the time and my parents thought I was too skinny to be skipping meals, so the fact I wasn’t eating despite their threats probably really scared them,” Jimin said.

“How young were you?” Jungkook asked.

“Maybe seven or eight?” Jimin answered and Taehyung said, “I think we were actually six at the time.”

“Six then,” Jimin said shrugging, “point is I was super young, barely understood what I was doing. All I knew was I really wanted to be like the dancers I’d seen performing at the winter play that year.”

“Oh, I remember that play. That was one of the most spectacular plays I’d ever seen! It’s what spurred me to join drama. Guess it impacted both of us?” Taehyung said recalling the play Jimin was talking about, Jimin nodded in agreement.

“What play was this?” Jungkook asked curiously.

“It was a special production our elementary school did with the colleges around Seoul. Dance majors came to perform and a play was also done. There was also a gallery featuring budding artists works,” Jimin answered.

“Our principal had this done to encourage us, students who wanted to, to pursue the arts, he was aware many of our parents would push us to pursue traditional jobs when we grew older, so he wanted us exposed to the arts young and to realize it was just as important as the sciences and what not, or so that was the rumor,” Taehyung continued providing more information.

“Oh… that’s nice,” Jungkook said and the other two nodded.

“Though I’m not sure how affective that day was. It made me want to dance and Tae to join drama, but I think overall it didn’t do much for us kids. Our parents are still going to push us into getting what they deem to be proper jobs in the end,” Jimin said with a shrug. He didn’t really talk with his parents about his future, but that was mainly because his parents trusted him to pursue something that would get him a well paying job in college. He remembered saying he’d pursue dance in college one time and his parents had brushed it