“Park Jimin to the principal’s office!”

The shrill voice of the school’s secretary screeched through the intercom drawing everyone’s attention away from the class assignment. I jumped in my seat and dropped my pencil in shock at the sudden noise and slowly lifted my eyes to view the rest of my classmates staring at me, wondering for what on earth the principal needed me. I cleared my throat and hesitantly bent down to retrieve my writing utensil and when I came back up, they were all still staring. I got goosebumps at the creepiness.

“Uhmm… teacher, may I go?” the lady at the front of the room with her black hair in a tight knot nodded and gestured me out the door with a quick flick of her wrist as a dismissal. I gathered my belongings and scuffled out the door, still feeling my classmates’ gazes affixed on my back.

As I made my way down the hall I heard the scuffing of sneakers on my trail and snapped my head around to see who was following me. As soon as I caught sight of the sandy-brown hair and stupid smirk I groaned and sped up my steps, completely aware of the scuffing shoes behind me doing the same.

When an entire minute passed and the sound didn’t stop, indicating that I really was being stalked I halted right in my tracks and spun around to glare at him.

“What do you want now, Taehyung?” I spoke through my teeth. I felt like wringing his neck when he chuckled and smirked at me, not showing any sign of being intimidated.

Not that he ever was anyway.

“Relax, Chim Chim. We just happen to be going in the same direction,” he sounded like a snake to me, all sneaky and untrustworthy like he had a secret agenda (which he probably did). And did I mention that I absolutely hate it when he calls me that cursed nickname?! It’s solely to degrade me, as if I need any more of that from him.

“Well then walk some other route, I can’t stand your putrid existence anywhere near me,” I huffed and turned back around, keeping my pace as fast as before.

“Tch, what’s your problem? Did they finally figure out that you belong in the primary class with that baby face of yours? Not to mention my two-year-old nephew can probably count higher than you. Hey Jimin, look, can you count how many fingers I’m holding up?”

“YAH! Shut up, ! I don’t need this today!!” And I stormed off around the corner before he could humiliate me some more. Every single day I have to go through this torment from him: insulting my intelligence, insulting my athleticism, insulting my entire being! And no one ever bats an eye at it because he’s Kim Taehyung, the school’s angel. I’m the only one who he chose to bless with showing off his true, demonic side.

Thankfully I arrived at the principal’s office before the jerk could catch up to me. I knocked on the door’s window and waited momentarily for the man’s word to enter. I could vaguely hear him on the phone from my side of the door and internally complained because I knew that any second now Taehyung would be right on my back again. Tapping my foot, I tried to distract myself from the imminent danger as I continued waiting for his phone call to end.

Soon enough the door opened and Principal Kim smiled at me from the other side of the threshold, “Ah, Jimin-ssi, thank you for coming so quickly. However I’m afraid I’ve made a slight mistake—”

“Excuse me, Principal Kim, you wanted to see me?” I bristled at the voice behind me. Damn it Taehyung!

The older man’s smile faltered a bit and he gave me what seemed like an apologetic look before inviting the both of us inside his office. Taehyung sat on my left as we both took one of the two seats in front of the principal’s desk. He cleared his throat and wrung his fingers together. Why would he be nervous?

“Well, as you both know, in your final year of high school, we choose the top-ranking student to hold the title of Class Valedictorian.” My eyes widened as Taehyung’s narrowed. Why would he call me here for that? Am I possibly—

“And this is where the mistake was made…  you see,” he looked directly as me and I felt my face drop in shame, already knowing of what he would tell me, “As I was looking through your class’s scores I neglected to scroll all the way to the top of the list. As it turns out, Jimin-ssi, you are ranked second, my apologies for the mix up.” He frowned at me shortly but I barely saw it since I was too busy glaring at my shoes. I looked up when he loudly rolled his chair to perch right across from a grinning Taehyung.

“Congratulations, Taehyung-ssi! You have by far the most impressive grades of your entire class and it is my pleasure to give you the name of the valedictorian!” He reached over and firmly shook Taehyung’s hand as the boy bowed in his seat in thanks. I clenched my fists in my lap at the fact that the old man just spoke to him like I wasn’t sitting right here. And here I thought adults were supposed to be wise.

Walking back to my classroom I could feel Taehyung’s smugness practically radiating off his body as he walked alongside me, spewing out insults as per usual. When I failed to pay him any attention, he appeared to become a bit aggravated and I smirked a bit to myself. That was until I felt him flick the back of my neck with his finger.

“Ow! What the hell, Taehyung?!” He just snickered and kept his eyes fixated in front of him, as if he hadn’t just done that. He may be a genius but he has the maturity level of a toddler sometimes. I shot a glare at him and marched ahead, completely over his teasing.

“Hey Jimin, watch out!” I suddenly felt him tug me back by my wrist. I looked at him incredulously and he smirked once again and pointed in front of us at the yellow ‘wet floor’ sign. “I wouldn’t want to risk you slipping,” he turned me to face him, grip still tight on my wrist. What’s this, actual concern?

I was about to thank him before he opened his dumb mouth again, “You could fall on your head and knock your brain out,” he placed a hand on my jaw and harshly turned my head to the side, resting his palm on my cheek as he leaned to whisper something else, “I’m sure it could easily slip through your ear.”

Automatically I felt shivers run up my spine against my will as his breath ghosted over me ear, and my face warmed uncontrollably, and I was sure he could feel it on his hand from where it was positioned on my face. For a second I couldn’t move, but when my limbs decided to respond again I shook his hand from off my arm and pushed him as far away as I could, which was actually a good distance with the fact that I was considerably more muscular than he was.

Before he could get another word in, I darted back to the door of my classroom and collected myself right before I stepped in. I walked back to my desk and held my head in my hands, hoping for the lesson to resume soon to take my mind off Taehyung’s weird antics.

I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned around to see my friend Hoseok passing a note to me. Snatching it immediately since Lee seon-saeng-nim has a hawk eye, I unfolded it silently, keeping it buried from her view within the pages of my textbook as I read over the message he'd written sloppily with a red pen.

I could hear him chuckle at me as he undoubtedly saw my eyes widen and my hand fly up to cover my face. I gave him a warning look as I hurriedly scribbled down a response and accidently snapped my pencil lead writing in such a hurry. I practically tossed it back in his direction once finished.

Hoseok visibly held in a guffaw at what I wrote and crumpled up the note, right on time for the bell to ring, signaling the end of last period. I shook my head clear and stuffed my notebook into my bag, dropping my pens and stuff inside absently before hooking the strap over my shoulder and habitually waiting for Hoseok to join me.

He stood up from his seat, grabbing up the book bag he always toted to school but hardly ever opened and patted me twice on my back before walking out the door through the teeming other students.

“Jimin-ah, you know you can’t lie to me~” he sang. And I knew he was right, Hoseok may be a slacker in school but he’s extremely perceptive. I sighed and ignored him for the time being  and walked to my locker. He was grinning the entire way there.

“Hoseok-hyung, I keep telling you, it’s nothing,” he tutted and shook his head like a parent would do to a child trying to reach food off a counter that was taller than they were. I hated that all-knowing look he always had.

“I think it something,” he put a finger to his chin and looked to the ceiling like he was seriously thinking about it, “It starts with a ‘Tae’… now what could it be?” I groaned and fisted my hands in my hair in complete frustration.

“Hyung please—”

“Tae-hyuk?” Nah that’s not it.”

“Hoseok—”

“Now hush, Jimin, hyung is thinking! Tae-hyun? Hmm…” There was no use in fighting him at this point, when Hoseok though he was right there was no one to prove him otherwise, not even me in my insistence that Tae-something doesn’t get to me at all! Even worse, Hoseok-hyung thought I… that I li— ugh. I can’t even bring myself to perceive the thought of liking—

“Taehyung!”

“, where?!” I turned over my shoulder frantically to be met with Hoseok laughing so hard he'd reached the point of tears. Hoseok dramatically wiped his eyes only to laugh some more when he caught me glowering at him. I stomped away to my locker as he composed himself and eventually followed.

“Jimin-ah, why won’t you just admit that he gets to you, hmm?”

“Because he doesn’t! He’s a complete jerk who exists solely to relish in my misery!”

“But you think he’s cute, right?” I stared at my hyung in disbelief that he just said that.

“Of course not! His ego is so incomprehensively high and his hair is dyed such an outrageous color—”

“Brown is outrageous?”

“—and every time he sees me he feels obligated to boast the fact that his stupid class rank is one higher than mine! I’m just as smart as he is for crying out loud, but at least I’m not a douche about it.” I was seething at this point, and I could feel my face heat again out of pure anger at just the thought of Taehyung. Hoseok wasn’t helping at all; he just stood there looking amused.

“You’re getting awfully fired up to not hold some sort of admiration for the guy. Hell, maybe you even find all that confidence he has attractive—”

“There is a slim line between confidence and vanity and he’s crossed it long ago,” I dismissed the conversation and finally turned to the door of my locker, fiddling with the combination lock without really trying to put in the right numbers. I can never think clearly when Taehyung’s involved, it’s like my brain decides it wants to stop functioning giving him all the reason in the world to make fun of it.

“Jimin, just try being a bit lighter on him, alright? Who knows, maybe the two of you will get somewhere?” I ignored my hyung even though he didn’t appear to be done proving his point anytime soon. He kept poking me in my cheek when I wouldn’t address him, but luckily for me, along came a decent distraction.

“Hobi-ah!” We both looked up when Yoongi’s voice rang through the air. Hoseok beamed before disregarding me completely in favor of his boyfriend whom he promptly glomped in a hug. I rolled my eyes at the shorter’s ‘I missed you, too’ and forced myself to look away when Hoseok immediately attempted to swallow Yoongi’s lips in a kiss. No, I’m not at all jealous, it’s just annoying to watch them do that all the time and then I’m just here being that awkward third wheel .

“Hi Jimin,” Yoongi waved politely to me and I gave a tight-lipped smile in return. It looked like he wanted to come over to talk to me, but he had a very clingy Hoseok leaching onto his back. And quite literally, might I add.

“Jimin!” Hoseok harshly whispered out my name from where he stood a couple meters away and jerked his head to the left, indicating I should look there. When I did so, from behind my two friends I could see the devil himself strolling over, his eyes firmly affixed on me. I stiffened and prepared for more torment just as Hoseok spewed out one more thing, not even bothering to continue whispering.

“Here he comes, Min! You should ask him out so we can all double-date!” I choked on my spit and hurt my finger when my hand jerked from fumbling with the lock. Taehyung had obviously been within earshot and he stopped momentarily to look at the two attached weirdos with a skeptical gaze and then continued back on his way to me, not giving them a second thought.

Hoseok detached himself from Yoongi’s back only to wrap an arm around the latter’s shoulder and walk in the direction Taehyung had just come from, waving me goodbye with his fingers and loudly singing, “Toodle-loo!” Ew, who does that anymore anyway? I grimaced at my retreating friends and had almost forgotten about the ever-bothersome boy who approached me until said boy was standing not even a foot away. I gulped and put on my most ferocious face as he spoke with his head tilting downward to make eye contact.

“Wow, Jimin, there’s someone actually interested in you?” he scoffed and I felt my face redden in embarrassment as I stood helplessly beneath his gaze, “Wonder what he sees in you? He obviously can’t like you for your intelligence—”

“Oh can it, would you? Why couldn’t he like me for that, huh?”  I jabbed a finger to his chest and he raised his stupidly thick eyebrows in amusement as I yelled again, “At least I have a soul, unlike you!” Taehyung didn’t even appear to have heard what I said as he quickly dismissed me, mockingly patting my head as if I were a small child.

“It’s okay Jimin, don’t worry. Having brains isn’t everything, y’know? And in your case, it isn’t anything!” He smirked and ruffled my hair before walking on past me.

I grumbled and turned to sneer at him over my shoulder.

I really can’t stand you, Kim Taehyung.

A/N: I'm sorry. So sorry. This is purely just me being a lazy , I just wanted to give you guys what I had so far before the day was up since I promised you an update by then (it's seriously 23:40 right now, lol)! I know this is incredibly mediocre, but don't worry, THERE IS MORE TO THIS FIC.

This is the beginning of a request from kcassandraG, I hope I finish it well~

So yeah, about another chapter or two for "Just You Wait", please anticipate!

In the meantime, I have moved "Conflicted" from this collection to a new fic altogether, and don't worry! An epilogue will come!! Here is the link to the separate story, and I will alert you guys here when I've updated the epilogue.

Thanks guys! Peace!