Chapter 1

 

"Okay, class, let's give a warm welcome to Park Jimin! He came all the way from Gyeonggi." said Mrs. Kim, the class' kindegarten teacher.

"WELCOME, JIMIN!" they all screamed, the kids smilling at the shy boy in front of the class. He had a small body, chubby cheeks, and soft black hair. He looked down at the floor shyly, his cheeks dusted pink. 

"Uh--uh, um, hi..." he muttered, chancing a quick glance at his new classmates.

"You may sit at Table 5 for today." Mrs. Kim said, smiling down kindly at him, and gently nudged him towards that direction. The boy shuffled to the table, and sat down in the empty seat with 3 other people. To his right, sat a girl with a round face and a short brown bob. Across from him were two boys. The one directly in front of him had slightly tanned skin, and oozed out charisma out of his pores, despite being only in kindegarten. The guy who sat diagonally from him had one of his front teeth missing, and a bright smiling face. In fact, he was beaming directly at him.

Jimin ducked his face in surprise, and fiddled with his fingers.

"Hi," the smiling boy said to him, "My name is Hoseok! This is Namjoon!" He said, pointing to the other boy. Namjoon looked at Jimin, lifted his chin in that reverse nod thing guys do, and then looked back at under the table, where he was....writing something.

"Um, hi, Hoseok, Namjoon," Jimin said hesitantly, recieving a bigger grin from Hoseok, and....nothing from Namjoon.

"Oh, Namjoon... doesn't like to talk," piped up the girl next to him. He turned to look at her, but immediately looked away, Her smile was too blinding. He decided to look at  Hoseok, but then he had to turn away too. Too much happy.

He settled on Namjoon. but to his surprise, he looked up and bored lasers into Jimin's head. He stared down at his hands in his lap, and heard the girl say, "Hello? Jimin? Did you hear me?"

"Oh?" he asked.

"I said my name was Hosook. And how old are you?"

"I'm.... about to turn five."

"Oh! So you're only four?!" she said, much too loudly, causing others to look over at them, "Wow, you look five though!" 

Jimin could feel the stares on him. He felt himself get hot and embarrassed.

"Well, how old are you guys?" he asked self- conciously

"I'm five and a half! And Hoseok and Namjoon are five too!"

"Oh."

Jimin felt out of place being in a class where most everyone was older than him.

He felt uncomfortable and mortified.

He wanted to go home.

~~~~

Ding! Ding! Ding!

The bell rang, and Mrs. Kim called out, "Lunch Time!"

She, and another assistant started handing out the lunches. When everyone had their lunches, they all started eating.

"So, Jimin," said Hoseok, his mouth fulled with rice and his chopsticks pointing at him, "What is Gyeonggi like?"

Jimin, who was chewing a piece of chicken spoke after swallowing the meat about five seconds later, "It's very nice."

"Nice? Like how?"

"It's...like, um," he paused, thinking, "It's my home."

Hoseok nodded, and shoved another chunk of rice in his mouth. 

"Then," spoke up Hosook on his right, her brown eyes glued on mine. She had some rice stuck to the corner of . "how do you like kindegarten here?"

"It's nice," he mumbled.

"Just nice?" she asked again.

"Well, I've only been here for a few hours..." he said defensively.

"Oh well," she said, seemingly to be in deep thought. She finally stared deep into his eyes, her eyes widening sort of scarily.

"Hey..." The rice on her face looked like it was about to fall off.

"Yes?" he squeaked, his eyes glued on the white grain as it slowly peeled off her cheek, and landed on the front of her shirt. She paid it no attention.

Hoseok, who was attacking his food, looked up, also entranced at what she was about to say. His mouth fell open, revealing his one missing front tooth, and a bunch of half-chewn mush. Even Namjoon snook glances at her, while picking at his lunch.

"Can I have the rest of your pork?"

~~~~~

Jimin was getting tired of Hoseok and Hosook. They were both annoying, overly cheery, and overly friendly. 

Another thing was that their names sounded similar too. Hoseok was pronounced "Hosuk", while Hosook was, well, "Hosook".

However, if you said them too fast, it was easy to confuse the too. Were they twins or something?

Not only did he not like those two, he also didn't like Namjoon. Talk about cold. He would only grunt or stare, and if he didn't, he would speak in one word answers.

So when both Hoseok and Hosook invited him to play at the playground with them during recess, he declined.

"What?? Why??" Hoseok (missing tooth boy) asked.

"Yeah, why?" chimed in Hosook (mushroom hair girl).

"I..." he said, feeling even more uncomfortable as not only Namjoon, but some of his other classmates stared at him. "I want to stay in the classroom and color." he stammered. That was a complete lie. He at coloring.

"Oh, then we'll join you," Mushroom replied.

"No!" 

Teeth and Mushroom raised their eyebrows.

"I...think better coloring alone."

"But, you don't even have to think to co--"

"Hey, he just doesn't want to play with you guys," Namjoon cut in from Teeth's protest.

"Jiminnie, is that true?!" cried Mushroom.

"Um..."

"Kids, what's going on?" interuppted Mrs. Kim. Jimin looked up fearfully at her.

"Seonsaengnim, I was just going to....the bathroom," he fibbed, and ran away from the scene as quick as he could.

He didn't dare turn around to see the gloomy faces of Teeth and Mushroom, or even the cold stare of Namjoon.

He went inside the bathroom, and took his time washing his hands, since he really didn't need to go. When he thought he waited long enough, he opened the door, and peeked outside.

Phew.

The cost was clear.

He took one step and immediately froze when he heard a voice.

"You're stupid!"

Jimin's eyes widened and he looked at the boy standing just to his right, his hands on his hips. He had a chubby face, messy black hair, and a mean face directed at him.

"Wha--" Jimin said confusedly. He felt hurt. He was not stupid! He really wasn't!

"Stupid! You're stupid for not playing with Hoseok!"

"I'm not stupid!!" Jimin cried back, angry and upset that he was called such a thing. "I..."

But Jimin didn't know what to say. Maybe he was stupid for not playing with Hoseo-- err, Teeth.

"I'm--not, I'm not!" Jimin said desperately, his eyes stinging. He clenched his fists onto his thick sweater, tugging on it, and looked down at his feet. "I'm not stupid."

"Yeah, Minjoon!" cried a familiar voice. Jimin looked up, his eyes shining. Was that...Teeth? 

"He's not stupid!" Teeth said, and flashed his trademark one-front-tooth-missing smile. 

"Say you're sorry!" added Mushroom, her arms crossed over her chest. "Don't be a meanie Minjoon!"

The boy, or Minjoon looked terrified, and said a quick apology to Jimin before scurrying off to the playground.

Jimin stayed silent, still twisting the bottom of his sweater, and pouting. He tried to hold in his tears, but he was only four after all, and they spilled out onto his cheeks.

"I'm sorry Tee--um, Hoseok. I'm sorry, Hosook. I'm really sorry."

"It's ok!" said Mush--er, Hosook, a wide smile taking over her face. She took out a napkin from her pocket-- it probably has been there for days-- and wiped off the tears off Jimin's face clumsily. Jimin frowned when she rubbed his eyes dry messily. He sniffed and said, "Really?"

"Yeah!" said Hoseok, "Let's just be friends again! It's okay if sometimes you don't want to play with us."

"Really?" Jimin said more hopefully.

Both of them nodded and grinned.

"Okay," he said and twisted his shirt harder. "Let's be friends."

"Yay!" clapped Hosook, and she hugged Jimin around his arms, so he was trapped. Jimin stood completely still, feeling uncomfortable. He never noticed she was taller than him, he thought a little sourly.

"I wanna huggie too!" cried Hoseok and joined in on the hug.

It was a very awkward minute or so, but Jimin didn't completely hate it.

They walked out to the playground again, and Jimin hesitantly spoke up.

"Hoseok....Hosook," he said nervously.

"Yeah?"

"Can I call you guys a different name? It's hard to remember..."

"Hmmm, like think of a name?" Hoseok asked. Hosook thought for a while, looking at a board with a poem.

"Hmm, how about Jay?"

"No way!"

"Then...hope?"

"That's weird."

Jimin was going to suggest Teeth (he had been thinking of that for his nickname anyway), but he got interrupted.

"J-hope!!"

"What?" asked Jimin.

"I give people hope! So, J-hope." 

"Can't I call you Teeth?"

"What?"

"Nevermind....J-hope." Hoseok, no, J-hope beamed.

"Hey Jimin, call me noona." added Hosook.

"But Hoseo--uh, J-hope already changed his name."

"But I want to be called noona! C'mon Jiminnie!!"

"...Hosook noona...." Jimin muttered, his sweater once again.

"Good enough!" she smiled, and placed her hands on her hips. "But say it again!" she commanded.

"Hosook noona."

"Look at me!"

Jimin looked up at her from under his eyelashes and repeated, "Hosook noona..."

She smiled, and then pinched his cheeks hard, pulling out.

"Wow, you're so cute Jiminnie! Right?"

J-hope rolled his eyes and muttered, "I'm cuter."

~~~~~

"We're going to be best friends forever, okay?" said Hosook. J-hope and Jimin nodded solemnly.

"Pinky promise?" she asked, holding out her pinky. She locked pinkies with the both of them.

"Yeah, we'll be best friends forever." promised Jimin.