Chapter 24 – I know

The next morning, Jimin and Jungkook stood in the hallway, chatting as throngs of students walked by in all directions. Well, Jungkook was doing most of the talking since Jimin was kneeling in front of his open locker, taking books from his backpack and shoving them unceremoniously inside the locker one by one.

“I really hope we can start soon” was saying the youngest.

“Huh-huh” replied Jimin, staring inside his locker in concentration, as he tried to remember what he needed for his morning classes. He took one of the slimmer textbooks and put it inside his bag.

“I can’t wait to do a real performance like you did! It would be so cool!!”

“It’ll happen, Kookie, no need to be in such a rush” replied the brown-haired boy, not looking at him as he put another book in his bag.

“I know… it’s just that… oh! Hyung!!” Jungkook cut himself out midsentence to shout out at J-Hope and Rapmnonster who had just entered the school building.

Jimin turned to see them look up and wave, and hid his head even deeper inside his locker, in pretend concentration.

“Hey kid!” greeted Rapmon in a friendly manner, and the younger boy beamed.

“Hobi-hyung, we were just talking about you!” exclaimed the black haired boy.

“You were?” laughed the elder, and he cast a quick glance down at Jimin who was fussing inside his locker, making a lot of unnecessary noise.

“Yeah! You said we could do a dance unit!” pouted the youngest.

“Ah, that’s right!” J-Hope smiled and slapped the back of his head as he remembered.

“When can we start?” asked Jungkook eagerly.

“Whenever you want!” replied the elder, in a similarly enthusiastic manner. “How about after school today?”

At that point, Jimin, finally closed his locker, shouldered his backpack, and got up to join the rest of them. “Ah, I can’t…” said Jimin, with an awkward apologetic smile.

“How about lunchtime then?” suggested J-Hope.

“I can’t at lunch either… I have a group project… In fact, I’m supposed to meet them now… so I’ll catch you guys later… see you!” he said, and then before anyone could say anything, he was already gone.

They all stood there, watching him run off with a perplexed expression.

“That was weird…” Jungkook muttered.

Rapmon turned to look at him, and then glanced at Hosoek, who seemed rather disconcerted, and back at the kid, a strange expression on his face.

***

“Sooooo….” asked Daeyoung, sliding in the seat in front of Insook and bending over his tray to look her in the eye as she looked up from her book, “dish.”

“What?” she asked, genuinely confused as to what he was talking about.

“Suga’s party. I heard only about 10 people from this school were invited and you were one of them.”

“Ahh…”

“All benefits of your newfound friendship with Rapmonster, I suppose?”

“I suppose…”

“Don’t just echo me, little one,” tisked the pretty boy.

“What are we talking about?” asked Yaerin, sitting down next to him with her lunch.

“Insook’s newfound social life” sneered Daeyoung, breaking open his wooden chopsticks.

“Oh?”  asked the nerdy girl, interestedly.

“It wasn’t that big a deal…” Insook squirmed in her seat at the unwanted attention, “it wasn’t even a big party… just a couple of people drinking and talking and playing games…”

“Ah but that makes it even more of a big deal!”  Daeyoung pointed at her with his chopsticks, before using them to stir his noodles.

“Why?”

“Cuz it’s exclusive.” he said, with his mouth full. “If it had been a big open-house thing, you could’ve just shown up, but you were actually invited, so…”

Everyone was so immersed in the conversation that they hadn’t noticed V walking up to their table until he was standing right next to them.

“Insookie, did you finish lunch?” he called out brightly, smiling at her, and they all perked up to stare at him. V’s eye-smile just beamed back at them, unaware of the awkwardness he had caused by just showing up.

“Insookie?” mouthed Daeyoung, right eyebrow raising up to the sky as he looked at Insook questioningly.

“Aaah… not quite yet…” answered the teenage girl, “why?”

“Oh, I just thought that we should start working on our project, you know. We only have two weeks… and I don’t really do much during lunchtime so…”

“Oh right, that’s a good idea. We should go” she said, hastily packing up her things.

“But you’re not done…” mumbled the ashen-haired boy.

“It’s ok, let’s go.” argued, Insook, getting up from her seat and pushing him along.

She heard Daeyoung repeat “Insookie, huh?” as they walked away, but didn’t turn around to look back at him. She knew he was smirking.

***

After school, the original BTS boys had all headed over to Suga’s apartment together and started practicing right away. After repeating their 3 main songs twice, Suga had showed them a new track he’d been working on and he and Rapmon were arguing about how to arrange the second part.

“Hobi, what do you think?” asked the red-haired boy, looking over at his friend.

J-Hope, who’d just been scrolling through old texts absentmindedly on his phone looked up and asked “huh?”

“Do you think it’s too long?”

“Um… it sounds fine…” replied the dark-haired boy, shrugging.

Rapmon and Suga exchanged a look, and the eldest got up from his seat and declared, “Why don’t we take a break?” before heading into the kitchen to get some drinks.

“Hobi, are you ok?” asked Rapmon, looking over at his friend in concern, but Hoseok just smiled back at him and said “of course! I’m just tired…”

The blonde boy eyed him suspiciously but didn’t add anything. Soon, Suga returned with 3 bottles of water, which he tossed at them, and after a bit of pointless chit-chat, they resumed their practice.

They rehearsed for another hour, and though no one could have said he wasn’t on point for all his lines, J-Hope definitely wasn’t his usual cheerful self, and it seemed to affect everybody’s mood, so after a while, they just decided to call it a day.

Rapmon and J-Hope exited together again, climbing the stairs in silence, but at the top, instead of turning left towards the station, Rapmon grabbed J-Hope’s arm and dragged him to the right.

“Come on,” he said, “I’m treating you to dinner.”

“Man, I don’t really feel like it today…” protested his friend.

“Did you hear me? I said I’m paying!”

“You are?” J-Hope raised an eyebrow, and Rapmonster nodded.

“You gonna turn down free food?”

The boy seemed to think about it for a minute and then flashed his first genuine smile of the day.

“Ok, let’s go!”

Rapmon chuckled and wrapped his arm around his shorter friend’s neck, pulling him into a choke-hold, which had him squirming all the way to the restaurant.

The bell tinkled as they walked in and Soonja greeted them with a cheerful “Welcome!”

“Oh, it’s you” she said, recognizing the pair. Hoseok found the lack of bitterness in her voice rather surprising, but he didn’t comment on it. Even more, it held a little bit of humor as she added “and there’s two of you today.”

J-Hope turned to look at Rapmon curiously, but the blonde boy was busy grinning at the tall girl, so he didn’t notice his reaction.

“Right this way then,” she said, leading them to a corner table in her section, and handing them menus as they sat down.

“Well, she’s friendlier…” said the dark-haired boy, matter-of-factly, and Rapmon laughed.

“Told you no one could resist my charms!”

J-Hope clucked in disgust, which only caused Rapmon to laugh more.

They ordered some meat to grill, and once Soonja had come back with it, they started packing it on the hot plate. For a while, the only thing to be heard was the sound of  the meat sizzling between them.

“Hobi… actually I brought you here cuz I wanted to talk about something…” Rapmon engaged the conversation as he grabbed the first piece of meat.

“Oh? I thought it was because you didn’t wanna look like a stalker by coming here alone every day.” joked his friend.

“What?! I don’t come every day!!” protested the blonde one, which just made J-Hope laugh more.

“Please. Spare me. Suga and I have long figured out where you vanish off to every night…”

Rapmon looked embarrassed for a moment, but then straightened up and carried on, “Well nevermind that… anyhow, you’re not the only one with master detective skills.”

“Oh?”

“I know you don’t wanna talk about it, but…”

J-Hope could see where this was going so he interrupted him, “I’m fine I told you. I’m just tired.”

“Hobi please. I’m not stupid,” Rapmon said, seriously, looking his friend in the eye.

“I wanted to let you tell me but… Since it doesn’t look like it’s gonna happen…” he paused and looked at his friend before continuing, “I know what’s going on.”

“And just what’s that exactly?” replied J-Hope, flatly.

“Jimin.”

J-Hope’s face fell for an instant, but before anyone could notice,  his grin was back in place.

“What about him?” he asked, nonchalantly, except Rapmon wasn’t fooled.

“You really wanna play that game?”

“What game?”

Rapmonster sighed.

“Fine.” he said, shaking his head. “If you must know, I walked in on you two at the party the other day.” He paused to assess his friend’s expression, and indeed he smirk had vanished from his face. “You guys looked rather busy though, so I didn’t think it wise to interrupt.”

J-Hope put the meat he’d been holding in his chopsticks back in his plate and looked away.

“I know you’re in love with him.”

At that J-Hope’s head snapped up, and he looked at his friend intensely – accusingly –  eyes full of hurt. Then he looked down again, sadly.

“Hobi…” said the blonde boy, reaching out to hold his friend’s hand. “I don’t care that you’re gay.”

The frail boy looked up, still silent, then looked back down.

“We’re friends. Who you decide to love doesn’t change that. I’ll support you no matter what.”

At that J-Hope looked up again, looking as if he was about to cry.

“Rapmonie…” he whimpered, and his blonde friend just smiled and rubbed his hand in a comforting manner. Hoseok looked down and his shoulders shook quietly.

“…Thank you.”