“Taehyung, you’ll be transferring to a new school this Monday”

Transfer. Kim Taehyung was transferring to a new school and he only knew about it that Saturday. He left his old school without a goodbye and now moving to a new area where nobody knows a thing about him makes his heart heavier to let go of the past. However, he still needs to. Whatever happen then, must stay there. He needs to move on.

“Yes, eomma.” Taehyung nodded to his mother’s order and went straight into his room. He took out a notebook and starts to write a thousand regrets and reasons why he won’t laugh or even smile ever again. He was truly heartbroken. He felt like there’s not even a slightest happiness left in his heart. “If only I knew.”

Monday came and Taehyung’s mom was driving him to school. “Remember, be nice on your first day of school. Nobody knows your past here; so let’s start a new, fresh, clean one” Of course nobody would knew. He didn’t move from an area to another area. He moved to a new city, and that is just what Taehyung’s mom wants. To start all over again.

……

“Hello everyone. I’m Kim Taehyung.” Taehyung stood there in front of his new class, bowed down to 90 degrees. He didn’t even make an effort to smile. He stared at the back of the class, not making any eye contact with his new classmates. He just stood there, as stiff as a statue.

“Thank you for the introduction, Mr.Kim. I hope everyone here treat him nice as he is new to our school. Is there any empty seat here?” The young, pretty teacher spoke while her eyes wandered around the classroom to look for an empty seat. “Oh! There’s an empty seat there. Why don’t you seat there, for now?” There was indeed an empty seat but it was way back of the class. The empty seat looks like it’s been left out of the class. It looks lonely.

“Perfect,” Taehyung whispered to himself. He bowed down to the teacher and slightly curved his lips a bit. He walked through the classroom thoughtlessly as he secretly eavesdropping on his classmates. The girls were giggling and googling him while the boys commented on every single detail of him. Even so, that didn’t bother him. ‘The only reason why I’m here is to learn and learn only. I can leave this place forever once I graduate’

Taehyung sat quietly at the back, catching every single word the teacher spoke. It was a bit tricky for him to listen when the teacher is teaching since he was sitting way at the back. To make things harder, some of the students who sit in front of Taehyung were chatterbox. Taehyung found it’s hard to concentrate. Out of bore, he started to countdown to recess.

The bell rang and everyone left the classroom. All except Taehyung and a group of boys. One of them approached him and asked “Hi! I’m Jongsuk. I’m the class monitor.”

“Oh. Hello” Taehyung slow bowed and curved his lips a bit. “We’re heading to the cafeteria. Wanna join us?” The class monitor smiled earnestly and even use a polite tone. “It’s ok. Maybe next time.” Taehyung politely declined his offer. Even if he hates to be here, there is no reason for him to be rude to his new classmates. “Well alright. If you need anything, just look for us or me,” The boys backed from Taehyung and smiled at him, except for one. He smiled, but Taehyung knew there is no sincere in that smile. ‘He hates me’

School ended and Taehyung’s mom was waiting for him. His mom did promised to pick him up for his first day for school before she can let Tahyung go out of the house alone again. “Did you have fun?” Taehyung didn’t look at his mom. He only looked down and said “It was okay”. ‘It was hell’

Weeks passed by and there was still no change in Taehyung’s social life. He avoided contact with any of the students. Most of the time either he would spend his time in class writing in his private journal or wandering around the school.

One day, he decided to skip school. He was not feeling well and asked his mom’s permission to stay home. He rested well that day and ready to go back to ‘hell’ the next day.

He came to school late, as usual. But when he walked to his classroom, he was in it for a surprise. The usual face he would see every morning was not that. His classroom was now filled with older students. He was confused so he just stood at the door like a fool. The classroom was not busy though. There was no teacher and all of the students seems to be busy playing around rather than studying. A girl spotted Taehyung and figured that he must be lost.

“You’re in Class 2-D right?” The girl spoke with a delicate voice. Taehyung nodded in agreement. He didn’t even look at the girl’s face. The girl was slightly shorter than him. Small body, long, wavy hair and big eyes. In other words, the girl was cute.

“I bet you didn’t come to school yesterday. The school swapped our class with your class. Your class was relocated to Block D, second floor, the last one from right”

“Thank you very much,” Taehyung bowed and gave a small smile as a token of gratitude before he ran to his classroom. He was really, REALLY late now.

He knocked on the classroom door and bowed to the teacher. Luckily it was his homeroom teacher, kind Ms. Lee. “I’m sorry I’m late, Ms. Lee. I didn’t know the class was relocated,”  The teacher smiled, seeing how innocent Taehyung look and then said, “It’s ok. I understand. Although, we have a new arrangement of desks here. Everyone is all paired up. Oh look! Jimin! You can’t seat beside a girl. Daerin, go seat beside Minji.”

“Yes, Ms. Lee” the young girl stood up and walked to her original seat. She managed to whisper  “I’m sorry” to Jimin. Jimin faced at the pair on his right, talking something.

“Taehyung, you can seat beside Jimin,” Taehyung looked at Jimin and slowly walked to his sest.

‘Oh God! Why must it be him?’

‘Can’t he be replace with someone else?’

‘I rather seat alone!’

‘He hates me! I know it! Just look at the way he looks at me’

“Um.. Hi. Can I seat here?” Taehyung crooked a weak smile and observed Jimin.

“Well, I suppose we both don’t have a choice now, do we?”

“Sorry, what?”

“Nothing. Just sit,” Jimin didn’t look at him. He only faced the pair on his right, while Taehyung sat on his left.

The time passed by very slowly. Taehyung was having bad thoughts in his head, while Jimin was busy ‘talking’ with his friends. In any way, they didn’t enjoy having each other’s company. Day by day, the hatred continues. Sometimes Jimin would scold over Taehyung’s little mistakes like when he accidently dropped his pencil, or the time when his elbow was in Jimin’s ‘side’ or when Taehyung replied “I dunno” to Jimin’s questions.

One fine day, when Taehyung was hanging out at the library during recess, he saw Jimin walked in rushed to the back of the library, where there is a little privacy from the student’s attention. He swore he wanted to be no part of it but as he neared the hidden area, he saw Jimin sitting on floor, leaning his back on one of the bookcase and his face buried in his palms.

“Hey,” Taehyung finally let out a word. He was feeling sympathy for the boy. “What’s wrong?”

Jimin looked at him in surprise. His eyes were teary and swollen. He ran away from Taehyung without giving any replies. When they were back in the class, Jimin’s eyes looked a lot better. Of course, Jimin would ignore Taehyung’s presence. But somehow, this time Taehyung felt like he really wants to talk to that boy. The boy that he swore hates him.

After school, Taehyung was waiting at the bus stop for his mother. His mom promised to pick him up that day but didn’t mention about being 2 hours late.

“Hey,” Taehyung turned around, surprised to see the boy was behind him. “why are you still here?”

“I’m waiting for my mom” Taehyung replied. Jimin smirked at him “Mama’s boy, huh?” For the first time, Jimin was smiling sincerely to Taehyung.

“No, I’m not. My mom said she was taking me to somewhere else later. How ‘bout you? Why are you still here?”

“Oh me? I was studying..in the library”

“Or crying..” Taehyung mumbled.

“What did you say?” Jimin’s surprise reaction was a bit funny. It made Taehyung laughed a little in the inside. “Nothing.. I said nothing.” Taehyung gave a teasing smile. Jimin scoffed. Actually, he wanted to laugh too. He felt it was funny about him crying earlier. “You’re funny.”

“Thank you,” Taehyung smiled. He could not contain any longer. He let out a small giggle.

“Hey, if I ask you..would you be mad?” Out of curiosity, Taehyung tried to ask again.

“About what? Why I cried?”

“Yeah.”

“Hmm.. I can’t tell you.”

“Why not?”

“Because you have not treat me ice cream yet” Jimin laughed childishly. Hoping Taehyung would buy it.

“Yah! Why would I treat you ice cream? You’re the one who should treat me!” Taehyung laughed too. Before they know it, they were starting to get along just fine.

The next day in class, instead of talking to his friends, Jimin was happily chatting with Taehyung. Some of the students were shocked too. They have never seen Taehyung laughed or even smiled but suddenly all of that changed. Taehyung jokes around Jimin a lot. He even began to open up to the other students too. Soon, Taehyung became like an ordinary student in that class. No more being alone or being a stranger. And all of that was possible because of Jimin.

The year ended nicely and it was the last day of school. Taehyung was hanging out with Jimin at the school bus.

“Hey, how did we became good friends?” Jimin suddenly popped that question from his mouth.

“I dunno. I saw you were crying so I asked why. But you ran away”

“Oh yeah. And then we start to joke around a lot~”

“And even hunt for pretty girls together too” Taehyung and Jimin laughed. They knew what Taehyung meant when he said ‘hunt’.

“If I know you would be a good friend, I would have treat you better.”

“Yeah, why did you were so mean to me anyway?” Taehyung raised an eyebrow. Curios for the answer.

“I dunno. Maybe because I just don’t like new kids. HAHAHAHA” Jimin laughed freely as Taehyung stared at him, judging.

“Hey, don’t judge me. And you? Why were you so snobby when you first came here?”

“I wasn’t snobby!” Taehyung whined.

“Yeah you were. You didn’t smile and you look at everyone like you’re gonna eat them”

“Probably because of you,” They both shared a big laugh together. Continuing making outrageous stories.

“Hey, Taehyung. Thanks.”

“For what?”

“For being my friend”

Taehyung smiled. He felt his heart warm. That heart that he felt pain long time ago, was now healed. He never thought he would laugh again. He never thought he would live another day where he can be happy again. And he would have never guessed that Jimin was the one that healed him. He’s enjoying his life again. He was bright again. He was smiling again.

“Thank you too, Jimin”