He spots the head of orange in the middle of a bustling crowd and makes an attempt to swim through it. “Tae!” he calls, but his voice is immediately drowned out by the noise of afterschool events. “Tae!” He dives past a group of giggling girls and latches onto Taehyung’s sleeve, finally getting his attention. “Tae!”

                  Taehyung blinks at him in surprise before breaking out into a grin. “What’s up, man?”

                  Jimin breathes, hanging onto his shoulder. They shouldn’t be blocking traffic in the middle of the hall, and yet here they are, standing as human pylons. “I just wanted to let you know I have th-things to do, so you can go home without me.”

                  “Oh.” Taehyung frowns. He adjusts his backpack strap. “You could’ve just texted me.”

                  “Your phone is dead.”

                  “What?” He pulls it out of his pocket and tries turning it on. The screen remains dark. “Well, damn. How’d you know my phone was dead?”

                  Jimin rolls his eyes. “It’s Monday. Every Sunday night, a new episode of One Punch Man airs and you stay up late on your phone until it gets subbed. Then you fall asleep without charging it.”

                  The guy starts laughing. “, man. You could kill me anytime you want.”

                  “True…” He pats his arm. “I-I’ll see you later?”

                  “Hey, wait a second.” Taehyung grabs his elbow before he turns to leave. “You seemed a little restless today. Is something up?”

                  “… Uh…” Jimin darts his eyes. There’s no point in lying. “Yeah, I guess. B-But don’t worry about it, I’ll figure it out myself and tell you how it goes.”

                  He stares at him. “You sure?”

                  “Y-Yeah.” He starts pulling away. “Well, uh… just tell me I can do it. Support. Back-up.”

                  Taehyung smiles again and shouts, “YOU CAN DO ANYTHING YOU SET YOUR MIND TO AS LONG AS IT’S NOTHING CRIMINAL! GO BEST FRIEND, GO BEST FRIEND!”

                  Jimin shrinks into himself, embarrassed. He throws his friend a wave before slipping towards the other direction. He heads into the art wing, maneuvering around people who are still loitering in the halls. He stands in front of the dance studio door. He doesn’t move.

                 The other students gradually depart for home, leaving Jimin with the silence of the empty halls. When he confirms that he’s completely alone, he begins to panic.

                 There is no other point in Jimin’s life where he’s ever felt such anxiety to the point he felt like his stomach is going to turn inside out and implode. He can actually feel sweat fostering on the back of his neck. His hands are shaking so much; he can’t hold his phone without potentially dropping it onto the floor below him. He wants to puke.

                 Jimin strides down the hall again, reciting several different mantras to calm down (‘peanut butter peanut butter peanut butter’). He remembers what Taehyung told him a mere ten minutes ago; he can do anything. He will do anything, because his best friend said he could. He remembers what Yoongi told him last week; he called him brave.

                 I’m brave, I’m brave, I’m brave, he repeats endlessly, turning around and making his way back to the door. By now, music is pouring from the room in loud, hypnotic beats. Their practice should be over soon. That’s when he’ll walk in, chest out and head held high. Or perhaps he’ll just slip in and disappear on the spot, leaving no time for anyone else to judge. He doesn’t want more eyes on him.

                 The music stops and Jimin can feel his heart squeezing into itself. He leans against a locker and breathes, clutching his chest for dear life. The door swings open and he stands there inconspicuously while a group of people walk out and pass by. He shifts his gaze to the floor, but he knows they’ve given him odd glances by the time they disappear down the hall.

                 He stalls until he musters the courage to peek into the room, spotting Seokjin speaking to female student. He doesn’t know if he should walk in and potentially ruin their conversation, but the senior notices him and waves him inside almost immediately. Jimin meekly steps into the studio; he feels like a peasant answering to his majesty’s beckon.

                 “If it isn’t little Jimin,” Seokjin greets, a smile plastered onto his face. “How may I help you?”

                 “U-Uh, I…” He swallows hard. It’s now or never. “I-I want to t-take up your offer o-on auditioning for the d-dance team.”

                 The girl standing next to Seokjin looks him over. Her hair is cut into a spunky bob, giving Jimin the distant impression of a badass motorcyclist (for some reason). “Is this the kid you’ve been talking about?” she asks, walking over to him. She lifts one of Jimin’s arms and s it. “He’s pretty lean, I think he could do well.”

                 “And so do I,” Seokjin replies, clasping his hands together. “Do you have your music, Jimin?”

                 Jimin shies away before the girl has the chance to lift up his shirt. “Y-Yes, I do…”

                 “Excellent. Plug it in those speakers over there. We’re ready when you are.”

                 He inhales when they both retreat toward the wall, giving him the entire expanse of the studio. It takes a moment of hesitation before he scrambles to the speakers, clumsily plugging his phone in. He scrolls to the song and tests it. He tries not to break down here; it’s a song he’s been practicing for ages, there is no way he can it up.

                 He toddles to the middle of the room and faces the mirror. He glances at Seokjin and the girl, noting how well they were observing him. He glances at himself, trusting his body to do whatever the music pleases. I’m brave, he practically shouts inside his head. I’m so ing brave.

                 He gulps and lets the first beat take him away.

--

                 The first thing he does upon getting home is collapse into his bed. As if on cue, his phone vibrates and he lazily pulls it from his pocket to answer. Hoseok sent him a simple message reading, ‘skype, mofo’.

                 Jimin sits up, picking his laptop off the floor and loads Skype once it’s on. The other three are online and have since invited him to a video chat. He glances at his bedroom mirror and fixes his hair before turning on his camera.

                 Everyone’s camera feed appears on his screen and he waves. “HEY, IT’S PARK JIMIN!” Taehyung screams, causing distortion over the speakers. He looks like he’s in the middle of eating a cup of instant noodles. “WHERE’VE YOU BEEN AT, MAN?!”

                 “You just saw me an hour ago,” he replies warily. “Hi, Namjoon.”

                 Namjoon looks up from a different computer screen and grins into the camera. “Hey.”

                 “Where’s Hoseok?” Jimin asks, glancing at Hoseok’s empty room.

                 “His sister made him make food for her,” says Taehyung, chopsticks hanging between his lips. “By the way, did he tell you about his accidental in class—?”

                 “SHUT THE UP, YOU ORANGE SHOWER CURTAIN!” Hoseok suddenly appears in his feed, middle finger sticking up. “I told you about that in confidence!”

                 Taehyung raises his hands in defeat and rolls out of the frame, snickering.

                 Jimin laughs while pulling a blanket over himself. “So why are we skyping again?”

                 “I just thought,” Namjoon pauses to close his other screen. “We should celebrate ending the first semester with a skype session. We’re not going to see each other as much when the second semester starts, anyway…”

                 Hoseok snorts. “Yeah, we’re just going to see each other every day in freakin’ gym class. How lovely.”

                 Namjoon starts inspecting one of his biceps. He mutters, “I might break this arm again.”

                 “Doing what, pushing paperclips?”

                 He stares at the camera. “Inserting fifty-two and a half kilograms of raw locomotive power into a modern day, life-sized omnibot using nothing but my bare hands and a screwdriver.”

                 “Okay, ing chill, mate.” Hoseok makes a face. “You still can’t catch a ball.”

                 Taehyung peeks into his camera feed. “How’d you guys do on your exams?”

                 “I did okay,” Namjoon says, slowly rising from his seat. “Be right back, my sister is calling me.”

                 Jimin blinks. “I didn’t know he had a sister.”

                 “It’s not the same one as Hoseok’s,” Taehyung says. “I already made sure.”

                 “… I didn’t ask.”

                 Hoseok shakes his head. “The math exam was a total .”

                 “Math was easy,” Jimin replies, cleaning the dirt from his nails. “I aced it.”

                 “Nice. you.”

                 Namjoon returns to his webcam with a cat sticker stuck to his cheek. “I did well on the math exam too.”

                 “ you too,” Hoseok gripes, rubbing his forehead.

                 Taehyung starts giggling. “Hey, it’s not your fault you’re dumb.”

                 “ you three!”

                 Jimin spares a soft chortle before putting his hands down. “A-Actually, since we’re all here… I have an announcement to make.”

                 “Did the president beckon you to her call?” Taehyung asks, slurping up the rest of his noodles. “Or did the holy manatee of the Pacific Ocean designate you as the next hero, adhering to the prophecy of legend?”

                 Hoseok snaps his fingers. “Oh, I know. You accidentally grew a third and now you need help finding a cancer patient who’s looking for a willing donor.” He and Taehyung snort and spam the chat with bad memes.

                 Jimin glances at Namjoon’s feed, and nods at his look of sympathy. “Sh-Shut up, guys. I, um, auditioned for the dance team.”

                 Taehyung starts outright choking. Hoseok uploads another meme onto the chat while he coughs dramatically. He looks up at his camera after gulping down some water. “… A-And?”

                 “… And…” Jimin breathes. “I made it in.”

                 The orange-haired boy doesn’t wait for another word. He stands up and sprints out of his room, leaving the other three to stare at his empty feed. They remain silent until what sounds like a door opening and closing. “… He left,” Namjoon utters. “Where is he going?”

                  “M-Maybe he remembered he had something to do,” says Jimin, while scratching his neck. “Like, really suddenly.”

                 “If he’s got a thing, he’s got a thing.” Hoseok shrugs. “So is this dance thing super significant or what?”

                  “I-It’s significant,” he replies. “I’ve been wanting to try out since we were freshmen, b-but I never did. I was too nervous.”

                  “Why the change in attitude?”

                  He stares at his keyboard. “Well… I-I’ve met someone who’s instilled more confidence in me than ever before, and… I just thought I shouldn’t let Taehyung down anymore.”

                  Hoseok coos. “You’re such a romantic.”

                  Namjoon laughs and offers him a thumbs-up. “Good job.”

                  Jimin blinks and smiles. “Th-Thanks.”

                  As soon as Hoseok starts to mention something about a new video game, he hears the familiar tapping on his bedroom window and whips his head in its direction. Sure enough, Taehyung is perched on the ledge, face pressed onto the glass. Jimin nearly has a heart attack because he looks akin to horror movie character.

                  “What the hell,” he cries after letting him inside. “Why are you here and how did you get here so fast? And why aren’t you wearing a jacket?!”

                  “I forgot,” Taehyung sniffles. He wraps his arms around the other male. “Hug me, I’m cold.”

                  “He ing teleported,” Hoseok can be heard saying. “Why are y’there, though?”

                  He looks at Jimin and grins brightly. “I’m going to quit the school band.”

                  The latter hangs his mouth open in surprise. “W-Wait, what?! Why? What about your mom? And her sax prodigy?”

                  Hoseok retorts, “her what prodigy?” Namjoon quietly chides him over the internet.

                 “Well, Park Jimin,” Taehyung starts with both hands on his hips. “We made a promise back in September. If you auditioned for dance team, then I would quit band and join something I wanted to join. You’re in the ing dance team now, man! I have the freedom to join anything I want now, because you went ahead and grew yourself a pair. You made me proud.”

                  Jimin stares at him as his eyes start watering. Eventually, he breaks down and pulls Taehyung into a tight embrace. He silently sheds tears while rocking them side-to-side, muttering “I love you, bro.”

                  Taehyung laughs and tousles his hair. “I love you too, bro.”

                  After a moment, Namjoon interrupts. “S-Sorry. I’d hate to ruin the moment, but… I’ll be right back. My sister is calling me.”

                  “Hey, don’t leave me alone with them!” Hoseok cries. “I feel like I’m watching gay .”

I'm just going to say this now, but from here on out
the chapters are going to fluctuate between yoonmin and vmin (best of both worlds!)
and eventually we'll start getting some taegi
and eventually something with namjoon
and eventually yoonjin probably (I have to confirm with my brain)
and some next thing with jungkook
and then vmin again
it's a full circle! c:
but yES vmin is platonic for the entirety of this story.
they're cut e