Episode 2: Awkward (Pt.1)

Pairing: Jimin X J-Hope

Word count: 1,4K

"Jimin! Go out with J-Hope!"

First week of high school was a big step in Jimin's life. He had to adapt a new school, meet new people, become friends with them, but more importantly, he was entering the "grown up's playground."

The first impression he had of his new school was that it was huge. Huge and never silent. The night before the first day, Jimin barely slept: what if they found he was odd? Or fat? Or ugly? The only thing he wanted was to make friends quickly so he wouldn't be stuck with the 'loser' label all his high school.

In a corner of his head, the one he didn't let out often, he also wanted to have a romantic 'love at first sight' experience, but obviously, all the boys in his class were boringly normal and uninteresting. Though, he was lucky to have one or two of his friends from the previous years in the same classes as him. In the end, he was happy with his situation: the classroom in general was friendly and that's the only thing that mattered.

What he was not expecting though, was what Namjoon almost screamed at him in the corridor while they were waiting for the gym teacher to arrive the gymnasium for the first class of the year. It was the second or third day, so the request was rather impromptu.

"Jimin! Go out with J-Hope!" Nomjoon arrived out of nowhere, alone. J-Hope was only a nickname the boys liked to call their friends. His real name was Hoseok.

"Heh, what? No!" Jimin answered automatically. Because let's be honest, he didn't know the guy at all.

"Yes please!" Namjoon begged. He clearly was an emissary sent by J-Hope's group of friends in order to match him with someone.

"Why would I!?" Jimin raised a suspicious eyebrow.

"Because you're the first guy he ever admits to find of his taste! Come on, give him a chance!"

"No."

"But please! He would be so happy!" Namjoon almost used 'puppy eyes' on jimin.

"I said no. I don't even know him. Now leave me alone."

"Fine" Namjoon said before he went back to his group of friends.

As soon as he left, Jimin and his best friend Jungkook looked at each other, wondering what in the world just happened.

"Did he just ask you to go out with J-Hope?" Jungkook asked, flabbergasted.

"I think he did." Jimin answered on the same tone.

Days passed, weeks, even. Namjoon came back a few times with always the same question. :"Why don't you want to go out with J-Hope!?"

To which Jimin simply answered: "he's not my type." Because truly, he wasn't really.

Hoseok was a rather timid guy. He was brilliant, really, one of the fastest students. Being a cadet gave him a good discipline and good physical abilities. He was friendly, fun to hang out with, but a little on the geeky side. Jimin, in his great 13 years old innocence didn't want that. He was looking for the physique more than the personality, for an artificial relationship he understood was bad only a few years later.

So for the two years following that day, Jimin and J-Hope never had a proper conversation. Jimin knew J-Hope found him attractive and that fact only made him feel like he was walking on eggs (which wasn't, really. It was only in his head, as usual.) Of course they exchanged words, because their classroom was like a big group of friends and everybody talks with everybody in those cases. With time, Jimin came to forget everything and overcame the culpability he felt whenever he was in J-Hope's presence.

Culpability. Jimin knew he shouldn't feel it, because it was his right to refuse to go out with someone. But he was the kind of person that always wants to please the others, to make them happy. Such a rejection put him in a delicate situation (at least, that's how he pictured it ^^)

During the summer of between the second and third year of high school, something unimaginable happened. Everybody was shocked and a little excited, because would that mean that school would be delayed that year and the summer holiday would last longer? Maintenance was being done on the school's rooftop during the break. Due to some bad moves, a part of the school, half of it maybe, ended up on fire.

So the school burnt, but that didn't mean they wouldn't go back to school on time. The educational authorities worked really hard in order to send them back and they came with a really interesting setting. Two schools would use the building of one: the school that burnt 'borrowed' the building of another school nearby. The 'original' occupants would go in the morning, from 7 to 13 and the 'burnt' ones would go from 13 to 19. It was emergency measures, but it worked.

That year was a strange one. First, they weren't in their own school, meaning they had to learn new locations, new rooms, new material. The schedule was okay for some, and not for others. Moreover, they decided to change the groups. This was probably one of the stupidest ideas they got. With all the groups mixed up, Jimin ended up in a different class as Jungkook. At least he was with Taehyung and Yoongi, and obviously J-Hope was also in the same group as him.

With all the groups mixed up and the tight schedule, Jimin barely had time to talk with Jingkook. Instead, he became closer to Yoongi. They would often talk and have insides during the classes, making it a little difficult to follow the rhythm. That situation also brought Jimin to pay more attention to J-hope.

It was barely nothing at first, but because they were almost the only remaining members of the '- - 4' group (you know how they always gave numbers to the groups. They were part of the music one and their number always ended with 4) with a few exception. That pushed them to interact more. And since started to know him more, he was less afraid to talk to him, and snowball effect, that year is the year they became friends.

It's a little ironic, people may think, that it took a radical changing to bring them closer. It is. But that year was also one of Jimin's favourite of all his high school, because it was the one he remembered the most. All the unexpected events entered his memory forever. That and the frozen Spanish class. Jimin wished he could do like Baekhyun and borrow a friend's metal band hoodie.

Without him realising it, the final exams came, along with the nice weather and sun. It was time for them to get out of school: they were starting to wiggle on their chair at the first occasion. The lessons were becoming repetitive. Then, finally, those freaking exams came. They had a precise time to do the exam, then they could leave whenever they finished.

The last exam was rather easy, so Jimin left rather early. In the locker room, he met Taehyung, Yoongi, Namjoon, Jungkook, Seokjin and of course Hoseok. All of them bid goodbye with a little emotion. Summer was long and of course they wouldn't see each other before the end of august.

Jimin did his hug distribution: one for Taehyung (since they were good friends now) one for Yoongi too (because that guy was so sweet), none for Jungkook, since they would go back home together and, well, they lived 5 minutes apart by foot, so that didn't count as goodbye worthy.

Jimin was about to leave when J-Hope made a move to hum him too. Jimin smiled a little.

"Have a good summer, J-Hope" he wished.

"Thank you, you too, Jiminie" J-Hope returned the good words, but it didn't feel weird for Jimin. It was just friendly. He wondered if they would still be friends the next year when they would have to go back to their own building. Somewhere inside him, he was happy to finally have crossed the 'awkward' zone.

To be continued...