It was five in the afternoon. The school bell had already rung two hours earlier and yet here sat a boy with arms folded across one another in a quiet classroom. The only companion he had was none other than the homeroom teacher, Kwon Jiyong. They had been involved in a glaring contest and no one said even one word since the little argument they had after Yoongi finished his session with the academic advisor.

Jiyong knew he wouldn’t win against this stubborn young boy. He sighed in defeat and leaned on his chair, “I don’t know what to do with you anymore, Yoongi.”

“What do you mean you don’t know, you just have to give me extra assignments, hyung. That’s what Ms. Park said.”

“Yes, a lot of them. But that’s not enough,” Jiyong reached Yoongi’s report card, “Math score, horrifying. History, barely passed. Korean language and P.E, pretty good. Science and literature, total failure. And the rests you passed with low borderline score. Extracurricular activities, none. Do you think this will get you to college?”

Yoongi just stared into Jiyong’s eyes. “We’re not having this discussion anymore,” he gritted his teeth and got up from his seat, harshly grabbing his report card and storming out of the class. Jiyong tried to follow him and grabbed both of his shoulders, “Yoongi-ah.”

He shrugged both of Jiyong’s hands and turned around, “I’m not going to college, and that’s final. Hyung please, just.. help me to graduate. Please.”

“Okay, okay. First, you need to sit down,” Jiyong lead Yoongi back into the class, gesturing him to sit on the front row seat. Jiyong leaned his body on the table in front of him, both palms facing down and arms supporting his weight, “You calm now?”

The younger boy nodded and looked outside of the class, refusing to have any eye contact with Jiyong.

“You hate school, yet you still come every day. You didn’t want to go to college, but here you’re working so hard to graduate. I’ve been your homeroom teacher for three years, Yoongi, I’ve considered you as my own little brother,” Jiyong stood straight and grabbed the chair from teacher’s desk to sit across Yoongi, “I could have just told you to drop out, you know. But I didn’t. You must have a reason for you to get through high school even when you despise it, I understand, and I’m not forcing you if you don’t want to tell me about it.”

Jiyong put his hand on top of Yoongi’s head making the younger turned his head and looked at him, “Of course I’ll help you. What do you think I’ve been doing these past years with your grades, huh?”

Yoongi smiled a little, “Sorry, hyung.”

“Yeah you should be, pain in the ,” they both laughed, “So, I can give you another extra tutorial session and assignments for math.”

Yoongi groaned distastefully at the word tutorial and assignments.

“Yah, don’t complain you asked for it. You should also go meet the other teachers to ask for extra assignments, alright? I’ll help talk to them, do you want me to go with you?”

“No, I’ll go by myself. I’m a senior now, I think I should go talk to them alone. But..“ Yoongi stopped and hesitated a little.

“But?”

“I’m not in a good term with Mrs. Lee. I’ve slept in her class twice and she made me ran hundreds of laps for it. She even made sure I didn’t skip any lap herself,” Yoongi shuddered when he recalled that time Mrs. Lee got furious. He could never forget after he finished running when he threw up and could not walk home alone without the help of Namjoon and Jimin, his comrades.

“Hmm well, I kind of see why Hyori isn’t tolerating any student like you.”

“So what do I do, hyung?”

“You gotta get back on her good side. I have an idea, you do know every year she conducts a school play right? Every senior are highly encouraged to participate.”

Yoongi scorned, “Yeah, no one is auditioning for it. Everybody knows it’s lame and such a waste of time.”

“That’s why! You’ll be auditioning for the lead role, try to get on Mrs. Lee good side, and I’m sure she’ll help you raise your grade in her subject and give you extra credit for participating in the play.”

“What the ? Hyung, there is no way– Ow!” Yoongi touched his forehead, the part where Jiyong just hit him with the corner of his report card, “You do not curse when talking to me, Min Yoongi.”

Jiyong stood up and put the chair he was sitting on back to behind the teacher’s desk, “I’ll talk to Hyori. Now you, just go home, study, get some sleep, and meet her tomorrow after school, alright?”

Yoongi frowned but obliged to do so. He knew he didn’t have any other choice but to do exactly what Jiyong told him for the sake of his grades.

“Take care on your way home, you little punk,” Jiyong playfully ruffled his hair and left with his briefcase in one hand.

The young boy heaved a big sigh and his fist into the silent air, “You can do this, Min Yoongi. Fighting!”

“But auditioning for the school play, aissh really,” he pulled his hair in frustration and with heavy steps walked outside towards the school gate.

Minji sat straight in her chair, nervously waiting for Bom to finish evaluating her files. The ticking sound of the clock behind Bom drove her nervousness up each time.

“Well,” Bom finally looked up to meet Minji’s eyes and smiled in satisfaction, “I must say I’m impressed, Minji-ah. You’re doing great.”

“Thank you, Ms. Park.”

“You’ve made a huge progress since your junior year. And I know it’s not easy, right? You must have been working very hard. When you came last year telling me you decided to aim for med school, well honestly I didn’t think you’ll make it with the high score standards they set up. But I see now you’re catching up to it.”

Minji could not content the smile and happiness she was feeling. She mostly felt relieved that the effort she was putting in was paid off.

“However, there are a lot of kids out there whose grades are just as impressive or much better than yours, Minji-ah.”

The wide smile that was on her face slowly faded, “D-does that mean..”

Bom grabbed her hand, “It doesn’t mean that you’re not good enough. But resume just doesn’t stand out with good grades alone. You didn’t do many extracurricular activities nor participate in state competitions, and you also got none of your essays featured. These, Minji my dear, will set you a couple of steps ahead of your competitions.”

The young girl looked down, “Well Ms. Park, I don’t have the time because I’m already a senior now.”

“Hmm.. I remember there’s an opening spot for the chemistry lab assistant. Seniors can apply too right? You could also try participating in the school play Ms. Hyori conducts. It’ll be the sugar coat for your resume,” Bom smiled excitedly.

Minji thought about the idea. If she were to do all of it, how would she manage her time to study, do her job as the lab assistant, and practice for the school play all at the same time?

“I know that you’re thinking ‘how the hell will I survive through all that?’, right?” Bom laughed a little and Minji followed her, thinking she was quiet right, “Well you should have already known that it’s not going to be easy the moment you decided to apply for med school last year.”

“Yeah,” Minji sighed smiled weakly.

“Minji, I remembered our first meeting when you were a freshman and we had our very first session here. You said you wanted to be a humanitarian actor, travel around the world, and write a book. Can I ask what have changed your decision, my dear?”

She looked into Bom’s eyes and smiled again, this time rather sad, “Ms. Park.. let’s just say I got inspired.”

“Okay, then,” Bom got up from her seat, “I think that’s all for today. I’m looking forward to hearing another progress from you okay. Come here,” she opened her arms and gestured Minji to come and receive her hugs.

The girl sat up and awkwardly walked towards her, arms hesitantly wrapped around her back. “If you are brave enough to dream about it, you have to be brave to fight for it. Okay? Don’t give up, Minji-ah.”

Minji released herself from Bom, “I understand, Ms. Park. Thank you very much for everything. I’ll take my leave for now,” she bowed and took her bags, leaving Bom’s office.

She felt really tired. That day happened very slowly and now the afternoon gleam had grazed the hallway floors and walls with a pretty orange color. Minji stopped for a moment to take a glance outside the window, admiring the beauty of the afternoon sky. She released a heavy sigh, “I’m still not there yet.”

Her phone suddenly vibrated, interrupting her thoughts. She reached inside her blazer pocket and saw she just received one message.

Hey how was the session with Ms. Park?

– Jongin

Minji raised her eyebrows upon reading the message from Kim Jongin, the track and field athlete and her on-and-off boyfriend. “Oh really, you care now?”

She was still upset at the fact that they had an argument that morning about how Minji wasn’t being a supportive girlfriend for not going to his tryout this afternoon because she had a session with the academic advisor. Jongin could be really childish sometimes and she usually could put up with him, but that morning she just had enough of it.

“I can’t deal with you right now, Kim Jongin,” Minji shoved her phone back inside her pocket and walked towards the school gate. She felt extremely exhausted and just wanted to drown herself in a warm bath and sleep.

The sky was getting darker and Minji was afraid she’d miss her bus so she started to run towards the bus stop. She tried to catch her breath when she arrived and looked at her watch. There were still a couple of minutes before her bus get there. She took a seat on the bleacher and looked towards the corner of the street, waiting for her bus to show up.

It was peace and quiet until someone walked towards the bus stop while mumbling incoherent words. Minji faced her right and saw a pale looking boy stood near the other end of the bleacher seat with both hands tucked inside his pocket. It was the same boy in the academic advisor waiting room earlier.

Minji remembered him to be in Mr. Kwon’s class. She often saw him playing in the basketball court, sleeping on the rooftop, picking up garbage on the backyard, or sweeping the hallway in the afternoon. Even though she recognized his face she couldn’t recall who his name was. She was pretty sure he got called into the teacher’s office and scolded in front of everyone a lot.

The pale boy caught Minji staring at him and she immediately looked away. Her bus came just in time for her rescue.

Minji got on the bus first, paid the fare and took a seat near the window at the back of the bus. It was pretty packed with people who just got back from work and there were no seats left at the front. She saw the pale boy got on the bus too and scanned the bus from the back trying to look for a seat. He caught Minji’s eyes and walked towards her. It seemed like the only seat left was the one beside Minji.

She scooted closer towards the window, giving him enough space to sit and also, avoiding an awkward physical contact. Minji stole a quick glance towards his name tag, Min Yoongi.

The bus took off and Minji just kept looking outside the window. The twenty minutes to her home felt super long and she felt her eyes getting heavier every second. Couldn’t hold the sleepiness any longer, slowly, Minji drifted off to sleep.

Hello there lovely readers and fellow Suga-Minzy shippers! Wow it's quiet a lot of subscribers there for a foreword. Thank you for your support guys, I really appreciate em :*