When Taehyung woke up the next morning, an arm's length away from a sleeping Jungkook who still had his hand buried in the other's hair the way it had been the previous night, he felt ready to take on the world. But now, standing in front of the mirror hanging by the wardrobe, clothed after a shower, Taehyung suddenly wasn't so sure anymore.

"Okay, fold it over."

"...Fold it over."

"Then slip it in."

"Slip it in?"

"Yeah, just like that. Anddddd do it again."

"And... do it again..."

"Wait, Tae—"

The laugh that escaped Jungkook was a hearty outburst, coupled with a clap or two as he watched Taehyung's face crumple into its many different forms of confusion — forehead creasing, endless blinking, lips pulling into pouty frowns — while the latter merely stared back at him through the mirror.

"Does this look right?" Taehyung turned to Jungkook then, hands still fumbling with the tie that was wound around the collar of his shirt, a tie he'd been attempting to fasten on his own for the past ten minutes that Jungkook had been explaining the steps to him — something he basically didn't get.

It was Jungkook's uniform Taehyung was getting dressed in that morning — an old set from the brunette's earlier freshman days (when he'd been significantly smaller without all the muscles from puberty) — loaned temporarily to him for the moment that he couldn't get a set of his own (as he hasn't been officially registered to the school yet). Albeit it was practically in the smallest size possible offered by the school, the clothing seemed to swallow Taehyung's tiny frame, looking pretty oversized, although for some reason out of all things the damn tie seemed to look huge on the boy, which only added on to how funny he looked when he managed to get it tangled in a bunch that Jungkook couldn't hold back a cackle.

A good two minutes had passed before Jungkook finally managed to gather himself together enough to remove Taehyung's hold on the tie, and took over to undo the messy knot the omega had made.

"Here, let me," he said in between his last few chuckles, fingers working skillfully to pull the tie apart. "Sorry I laughed, but honestly it was a good try for your first time."

Taehyung's frown only deepened as he followed Jungkook's movements with his eyes, the pout still latched to his scowl. "I'll never be good at this."

"Nah, don't worry," Jungkook said dismissively. "It took me about a month to do it by myself. My mom got so sick of trying to explain it to me after about a hundred times, but I got it eventually. And you will too."

"Why do we have to wear this to school though?" Taehyung's tone was more of genuine curiosity than complaining, and Jungkook only chuckled in response.

"I don't really know either. It's just part of the uniform." With a final tug to fit the knot securely around the collar, Jungkook leaned back with his hands on Taehyung's shoulders, and inspected his handiwork. "There, all done."

Stepping back to turn Taehyung towards the mirror once more, Jungkook gave the male a good once over through the reflection, about to tell the latter how great he looked despite the big clothes but stopped when he noticed the frown that still lingered on his downturned lips, and how his eyes were glued to the ground.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Jungkook asked, voice a soft whisper as he gave Taehyung a gentle nudge. "Are you sad because I laughed earlier?"

At this, the omega immediately looked up and shook his head fervently. "Nono, I'm not sad because of you!"

Chuckling again, Jungkook mentally breathed a small sigh of relief but the worry in his eyes didn't fade. "Then what are you sad about?"

Taehyung's gaze was back on the floor then, thumbs fiddling with the last button of the blazer as his bottom lip caught between his teeth, the way it always would be whenever he was anxious over something, and that was all it took for Jungkook to know exactly what was on the latter's mind.

Reaching out to lay a hand on Taehyung's wrist, he guessed, "Are you thinking about those things again, the stuff you told me about last night?"

There was a jump in Taehyung's heartbeat at the touch, but when he didn't answer, Jungkook tilted his head to search the other's eyes, hoping the boy would look at him again so that he could see what Taehyung was truly feeling, and when he finally did look up after what seemed like an eternity, Jungkook's heart fell at the amount of fear that clouded his dark orbs — a fear that reminded him of the first time he'd seen those eyes in the clinic.

"I-I can't help it," Taehyung mumbled, hands now clenching into fists over the material of the blazer. "I don't know why I keep thinking about it."

Jungkook managed to ease the fabric out of Taehyung's grip, and smoothed his palms over the crumpled spots. "Oh Tae, didn't I tell you that you don't have to be afraid of being yourself?"

"Yes but— I still feel scared."

Nibbling at his own lips as he pondered about how to approach this, Jungkook gave Taehyung's shoulder a tender squeeze. "Look, I know it's not gonna be easy for you, but I promise, for the whole of today, tomorrow, and the next days after that, I won't ever leave you on your own. I'll always be around Tae, so if you feel scared about anything, just remember that I'm here for you. Always, okay?"

He didn't know how long they stood there in that position, silent and waiting for each other's next move, but after a while, the fragments of anxiety finally began to unwind from Taehyung's expression. "Okay, always," he sighed, and Jungkook smiled back softly.

"Would you feel better if I rub your hair?"

To his surprise, something twinkled in Taehyung's eyes then, and just like that, his quirky box-like smile spread across his face. "Yes!"

"Alright, come here," Jungkook chortled, and brought his hand up into Taehyung's onyx locks, not wasting a moment later to play with the soft strands.

With all trace of negativity seemingly gone from Taehyung, Jungkook deemed them ready to head downstairs and suggested helping Taehyung pick out his socks, but they had barely made it halfway across the room when the door opened, and in came Mrs Jeon.

"Hey boys, are you two read—" She stopped mid-sentence at the sight of Taehyung in his uniform. "Oh my, Jeon, you weren't kidding when you said he probably needed a custom-made size."

"Hey mom," Jungkook greeted from the wardrobe, as he rummaged through Taehyung's side of the drawer. "The uniform's not as bad as I thought though. Tae definitely could grow to fit them. He looked like he gained a little after all that amazing breakfast you made." Settling on the avacado printed socks and strawberry ones, he lifted them towards Taehyung, who chose the second option excitedly.

Mrs Jeon chuckled. "Well he did have like, three rounds of those bacon and pancakes."

"They were really good, Jeon eomma!" Taehyung beamed, giving a thumbs up.

"Why thank you, sweetie." She smiled, before turning back to Jungkook. "Anyway, I came in to say Jimin and his dad are here. They're giving you two a ride to the school in his cop car."

"All right, we'll be down in a few." Jungkook pulled on his own socks before slipping his arms through his backpack, and passed Taehyung his.

"Oh and Jeon, will you be coming home later? It's the full moon tonight."

Jungkook stopped in his tracks. "Really? Already?" He stared at her, to which Mrs Jeon rolled her eyes.

"Seriously, you should start marking those dates down. I'm not even the werewolf here."

Coming over to kiss her on the cheek, he sing-songed, "Not a werewolf but you're the best mom ever~ And I guess we won't be home tonight."

"Alright. Take care then, love you."

"Love you too." With that, she shut the door and left for work.

Jungkook whirled around to check on Taehyung's progress then, and found the boy staring at him from where he sat to pull on his strawberry printed socks.

"Jungkook, what happens during the full moon?"

Now it was Jungkook's turn to gape at him.

"You don't know?"

It's probably been established that Taehyung loved Jungkook's hair rubs. But as he sat outside the principal's office of Shinbi High at half past seven, slumped between Jungkook and Jimin against the uncomfortable seats, not even those hair rubs could rid the icky tension that coiled in his belly.

"Why do people keep staring?" He spoke to no one in particular, unconsciously vocalising the very thought that kept bugging his mind.

It was Jimin's hand that came to rest on his shoulder. "Hard to explain bro, but sometimes people just do it, like when they see a new student in school. They're just curious."

"Really? Do people talk to their friends and point when they're curious too?" Taehyung added nonchalantly, which stumped Jimin for a moment as words failed him.

"It's just because we're outside the principal's office," Jungkook said instead, leaning back to relax in his seat. "Usually, when students sit here it's not for good reasons. Most of the time students only come here when they do bad things."

Taehyung blinked questioningly at him. "But we didn't, right...?"

"No, but they don't know that. And that's why people talk to their friends and point, because they don't know things. Which isn't very nice of them."

"But don't worry, all right?" Jimin added then, gently rubbing Taehyung's arm. "There's a lot of good stuff about this place, like a cool gym, awesome swimming pool, and a whole lot of eye candy. We'll show you around right after my dad's done registering you."

"Okay," was all Taehyung said, complete with a small smile in Jimin's direction before he brought his gaze back to the ground, and resumed his listless act of scraping his nails over the edge of his seat, clearly still unconvinced despite all that'd been said to comfort him.

To start with, Taehyung had no idea why he was feeling this way; gosh, he didn't even know what he truly was anxious about in the first place. Aside from the overbearing worry that fueled his thoughts, there was a part of Taehyung that truly believed in Jimin and Jungkook's words, that things were perfectly fine and normal like they say, so much that he was almost so close to thinking he was okay too, but something was stopping him from doing so.

The churning in Taehyung's stomach never seemed to cease ever since they left Jungkook's home, only growing more and more suffocating by the second. At some point, the discomfort had begun to spread to his chest and was now at the back of his throat, causing the boy to dig his fingers deeper into the seat in a desperate attempt to search for something to channel the negativity away.

God, he felt like something was burning in the pit of his belly, heat, and it made him want to just sink his claws in to rip it right out. He probably would have done just that, he totally would have, if the office door hadn't opened a second later.

All three boys stood when Detective Park, Jimin's dad, stepped out, holding an envelope and a bunch of papers in his hand.

"Hey boys, it's settled," he announced, and passed a colored slip to Jimin. "Here's Taehyung's timetable. Managed to get him in your homeroom. As for electives, they only had a free slot for geography so he's in that class, and biology."

"That's great!" The blonde gave him a grateful smile. "By the way, did Principal Eun ask you anything about Taehyung's family?"

"I didn't see Principal Eun, he wasn't in the office yet. But the counter lady bought the long-distance cousin transferring story, so we're good," assured Detective Park. "Don't worry about them finding out, son. They're not really that particular to double check on family records."

Jimin gave him a nod. "Okay, thanks for being so cool about this, dad. We just couldn't let him get sent to social services."

"I understand, Chim. It'll probably be better for his... condition, that he sticks with you guys. But remember, once he turns 18 this December, he has a right to choose where he wants to go. Social services won't be a problem then, he's free to decide."

"Right, we got it."

Exchanging one more set of smiles and thanks, Detective Park made his leave and the three boys were off towards the main hallway, on the way to the bookstore to get Taehyung his books.

"Okay, back to business," Jungkook said as soon as they parted ways. "If he's in biology, he'll need a lab partner, right?"

"Right, but I'm in chemistry," Jimin pointed out. "Bio'