Suneung was indeed over but their punishment wasn't. Turned out that Mrs. Oh relieved them of their detention only for their suneung's preparation. With the said exam finally over, they still got yet a few weeks left of detention to go through. After much debate, Mrs. Oh decided that a week would sufficed, considering they had done indeed one hell of a good job at their first month. That was pretty much the story of how they found themselves on cleaning duty yet again, this time having to clean the gym's dusty storeroom.

It were rows of dusty mattresses and thick dust that greeted them. It wasn't until Jimin let out a loud 'ew' did Yoongi turn his attention towards the younger who was leaping backwards as if he just encountered something entirely disgusting.

“What? You found some dead animal or something?” Yoongi asked, walking towards the boy who was cleaning the edge of the storeroom just minutes ago.

'Worse' was what Jimin answered him with, a nd 'worse' turned out to be a used lying on the dusty floor, clearly being forgotten by the perpetrator after a quick .

“Hey, I do think it's natural for you to come across such thing on the school ground, hyung,” Namjoon said as they ended up gossiping about their discovery on recess. “I mean, I would actually be confused if I hadn't found one.”

“Oh please, Namjoon. No one's such a ert like you,” Seokjin said.

“Hey, please watch your tongue. We got a fetus over here,” Hoseok then said, covering Jungkook's ear in a joking manner, in which their youngest quickly answered with a shove and a protest of 'I'm sixteen already.'

“So what? Someone in school was having in the gym storeroom. No big deal,” Namjoon said.

Yoongi had to agree on that. He wasn't really surprised to find a used lying on some random places at school. It would be the fact that he had to clean something that was once smeared with someone 's bodily fluid that he found disgusting (he flipped a coin with Jimin to determine who had to get rid of it. Jimin lost at the end, of course ).

“That was as hell. Couldn't they do stuff like that privately in their bedroom or something?” this time Jungkook chimed in.

“That's exactly why you're a fetus, Jungkookie,” Hoseok said, slinging his arm across Jungkook's back. “You wouldn't be a true adult if you didn't find the appeal on that.”

Jungkook answered it with a scoff. “That would only make me a ert.”

+.-.+

The thing about suneung being over was how the students practically didn't have any strength left to drag their butts to school, though somehow it was still obligatory for them to sit in front of the blackboard each day, even though there was very little material left for them to study with. They still got the interview waiting, at least for those who was aiming to enter a high-ranking university of such like Namjoon. But for those like Yoongi, school had become something that he attended only to spend his time with his friends in. Every recess spent on the stairs had somehow become more valuable. Even now he could find something that he would miss from the wooden seat that he had placed his butts on for the last year. Yoongi had slowly found himself being more melancholic, each lyrics that he scribbled down his notebook becoming more and more sentimental. Each day started to feel like an invisible countdown.

And then there was Jimin.

Something changed since that day they spent stargazing on the field late at night. Yoongi couldn't really put a word into it. It was the same feeling as how he realized that Jimin had changed from the depressing weird boy into a member of the Bulletproof Boys. Only this time, he couldn't tell what had changed. He had been sleeping at Jimin's place for almost a consecutive week without no apparent reason. One time he had already bathed at Namjoon's only to leave his friend's house for Jimin's randomly in the middle of the night simply because his gut instinct told him to.

And each time he didn't regret it, as he was about to close his eyes, looking back to the boy who reminded him of the sky with wide smile, whispering him a small 'good night'. Nothing didn't really change but at the same time everything did.

It was a Monday night with very little thing to do at school and a somber sky above their head the entire day when Yoongi woke up around five in the morning, almost an hour earlier than he should have. It wasn't a bad dream that woke him up. It was just his body being ty to itself, his eyes opened up to a ceiling foreign to his own.

He turned around and the face of Park Jimin reminded himself that he hadn't been sleeping on his own room for the last few weeks indeed. The boy was still fast asleep, face looking peaceful like always. Smiling, Yoongi decided not to bother him and walked down towards the kitchen instead to fix himself something to eat. What greeted him afterward was the sight of the old Park, sitting on the table with a freshly brewed tea.

“Oh, Yoongi-ah, you're awake,” she said, cracking a smile.

He ended up sitting there with the nice old Park, chatting away as the sun rose with a cup of warm tea on his hand . Her stories were always the most interesting. She had been living in this town for almost her whole life, her children leaving her as soon as they were old enough to have a life of their own. Her husband had left her a few years back and she told him how lonely of a life it was.

“Don't you think this town is suffocating?” he asked.

She gave him a weird look. “Suffocating? No, not at all. Yoongi-ah, I have indeed lived my whole life here, but that doesn't mean I haven't seen the world. I have seen Seoul, Busan and Jeju. I have been to Tokyo and Hokkaido. But believe me, after everything, nothing would compare to your own home.”

She was raising her finger towards Yoongi in a lecturing manner and he found himself enthralled with the imagination of the once young and adventurous Park in her twenties, seeing the world.

“You're always bound to go home,” she said, her words echoing through his bones.

She took a sip of her tea and Yoongi was left thinking about how Seoul was going to be. At the start of the year he was certain that Seoul would be magnificent. He was certain that he would leave Yeoryang-myeon for good. Almost a year had passed and a lot had changed indeed.

“I have to thank you, though, Min Yoongi,” she suddenly said, placing her cup of tea at the same time.

Yoongi furrowed his brows, noticing that the topic of conversation had changed. He didn't need to ask for an explanation because the old Park had quickly caught on his confusion, smiling softly much like her grandson did as she spoke to him again.

“For what you did for Jimin.”

“What do you mean?” Yoongi asked cautiously.

Did she know, Yoongi thought. Did she know about what happened in Seoul? About why Jimin was here in the first place? He would bet that she did know, considering how closed Jimin was with her. But the question was, did she know about Jimin's feeling for him? At the same time Yoongi couldn't help but to guess what she was trying to imply.

But somehow he understood that the old Park wasn't speaking in puzzles. She was nothing but a grandmother who loved her grandson dearly.

“Thank you, Yoongi-ah, for giving Jimin a home,” she said again.

Yoongi couldn't help but to feel warm. It was the sun rising slowly through the window and the hot cup of sweet tea that warmed his inside. Or probably this was indeed a special trait of the Parks, the ability to share their warmth with others.

“You're welcome,” he said again before he somehow found himself returning the words. “He had done the same for me as well.”

The old Park nodded slowly before she made him promise upon something that he couldn't forget for the rest of his life.

“Would you take care of him?”

Yoongi smiled. This moment would be something that he would oddly remember for a long time.

“Of course.”

+.-.+

November got the sky gr a y and somber. Even without the blue, Yoongi was still inexplicably in love. The sky could be everything and he would still fall in love with it. It could one day be mint green and he would still have his eyes fixed upon them. School was a blur to him. He was still getting teased for that little sleepover on the school field but nothing was too serious for him not to handle . Even Mrs. Oh was starting to be tolerable. He could only hope that he wouldn't be too sentimental and finding himself missing her some time later in Seoul.

He slept at Jimin's place almost every day during November. They still spent their detention together, cleaning up certain places at school. Yoongi didn't know why but he didn't find himself hating it. Afterward he would walk back from the school together with the boy, having yet another cheerful dinner with the old Park and fell asleep to Jimin's whisper of a good night, before his good morning greeted him as soon as the sun rose.

It was their last day on detention on yet another Thursday did Yoongi look at Jimin and a small piece of epiphany hit him like a train. The sky was dark outside, the first hints of rain had been falling way before the last bell rang. Mrs. Oh had lectured them once again about consequences and respecting elderly, just to make sure that they had indeed learned their lesson, before ordering them to spend the last hour of their detention cleaning up the classroom. They ended up cleaning the blackboard before finding themselves to lazy to do anything else, since by now, almost all of the seats and tables in the classroom was shining because of their months long hard work.

“It's raining outside,” Jimin said, stating the obvious as he stood by the edge of the window.

There was actually very little thing to do, but somehow Yoongi didn't find the urge to leave the room, even when the others had said something about a basketball practice on recess. Yoongi was sitting on his usual seat, feet on top of his table like a delinquent with hands behind head. He turned his head towards the window, seeing the dark sky waiting outside. Autumn rain wasn't as hard as its summer relative , but it was still a rain nonetheless, the soft music filling the universe with each beat of its drum against the ground.

“You don't want to join the others for the game?” Jimin asked him.

Once again, he wasn't called motionless Min without a reason. After all, he found lounging in the classroom with t he rain playing its music against the window pretty relaxing. This was indeed his very last detention with Jimin. Maybe in the future he would find himself oddly missing this moment as well.

“I said to them I'll catch up later. Or Jungkook could come and get me when Namjoon finally wanted a break,” he said with his eyes closed.

“Hey hyung, do you remember the first time we met?” Jimin asked suddenly.

“When you're introduced to the whole class? You keep looking on the ground I even had a hard time remembering your face.”

“No,” the younger protested. “When we really met each other.”

Yoongi cracked his eyes open, only to have Jimin looking back at him.

“When we talk for the first time,” he said softly.

He kept on thinking that something had changed. That moment he realized that a lot had indeed changed, but nothing did at the same time.

“It was raining that day as well,” the younger said, smiling softly.

Yoongi slowly got up from his seat and walked towards Jimin who was standing by the window. He remembered that day, forgetting his notebook only to find a strange boy crying in the classroom. Ever since then, his cries had been the one he remembered the most. The same went to standing in front of the classroom and strings of detention and misfortune that he received on history lesson.

“I always thought that you were weird,” Yoongi said, chuckling.

“Hey, that's mean, hyung,” Jimin said, elbowing him.

It was odd but he found himself in the same situation as the first time he actually got to speak to Park Jimin. Inside of the classroom when the sun was slowly setting and not a living soul nearby. Everything felt like a broken record on repeat. How he found himself sleeping on Jimin's place after a feud with his family, how they found themselves walking to the Auraji Train Tunnel, or how that one sleepless night felt like Gangneung all over again. Or maybe it was indeed a broken record on repeat with each sunset he had spent with Park Jimin beside him.

“I don't know, I used to hate seeing you cry,” he found himself speaking the words, eyes fixed on the window once again.

“Don't you still do?”

“Half the time all I wanted to do was to smack your face so you would stop crying.”

Jimin cringed at that before protesting, “You're horrible on comforting people, hyung.”

He had witnessed it countless time and it grew from him hating it to him feeling like he was suffocating. From the very first moment he had thought that Jimin was simply weird. He was really weird that he couldn't stop paying attention to a boy that stood out like a sore thumb.

“But I never knew why,” he said again before he turned his head towards Jimin next to him. “I never knew why you always stood up the most.”

It was probably the most sincere that Yoongi could ever be. He didn't know why he said those words, but something did change in Jimin's eyes as he heard it . The boy looked-, surprised.

Yoongi let out a chuckle before he ruffled the boy's hair.

“Hey, don't be too cocky. Maybe I've been hating you all along,” he said, letting out his tongue in a joking manner.

His hand stayed on top of Jimin's head. Park Jimin who was one centimeter shorter than him. A year had passed and he felt like that one centimeter was gone now.

“I mean, with all those stupid expressions.”

“I didn't make stupid expressions! It's Taehyung who did stuff like that.”

“Or your cries. No one cries as much as you.”

“It's perfectly natural to let your emotion out, hyung.” Jimin answered, pouting.

“Not in public places, I have to remind you.”

“Hey, at least I waited until the others left. I should have been alone. You were the one who came barging in the first time.”

Yoongi smirked.

“There are tons of things I could hate from you anyway.”

That was true. He could claim that he hated Jimin. He could say how he hated seeing Jimin cry. Or how he had practically broke his leg for his terrible bike-riding. Or how he kept on bugging him during his random private moment in the middle of a sleepless night. Or how he was being stubborn about sitting in the middle of a road with him. Or how he got him into a two months long detention. Or how he decided to randomly stargaze in the middle of school week, only to get teased by the whole school for it.

He could claim that he hated Jimin as much as the boy claimed to hate him.

“Hyung?”

And something ticked. Yoongi blinked and it felt as if the whole universe did the same. The rain had suddenly stopped, its droplets of water being suspended on the air. The sky was suddenly blue, only to have it scarlet at the next moment before the stars intercepted its transition. They were reflected from the two irises in front of him, gazing deep into him the way he did to them.

He kept on thinking that something had changed. It could be the weather, his friends or Jimin. Mostly it was Jimin. Because normally it was always him, the boy who had changed so much in the course of one year. But maybe this time it was him. Maybe it was Min Yoongi who changed this time.

“Maybe that's right,” he whispered, his eyes fixed on the scarlet sky in front of him. He didn't know since when did the sky become that close to him, standing right in front of him with longing eyes. Since when did the sky look back at him?

“Maybe I hated you.”

The sun was surprised and the moon was bewildered. The blue took a step forward and the Libra took his fingers gently, the scarlet exchanging its breath with him. The stars were wrapping him in their embrace and all he wanted to do was to drown in them, letting himself melt away. Because for once they were only a mere grasp away.

“Maybe I really really hated you.”

He blinked and the rain fell again this time, its droplets of water thrumming against the ground. He blinked and it was Park Jimin looking back at him with wide eyes. It was his Park Jimin. It was his Park Jimin whose gaze Yoongi somehow couldn't withstand anymore, it made his heart clenched and heart beat faster.

“You love me?” Jimin whispered back.

Did I just say that?

“I-,”

But Jimin leaned towards him before he could finish his sentence. It was a soft press of lips against his, with Yoongi still having his eyes wide opened and his hands feeling stiff.

Push him aside.

But he didn’t.

This is not normal.

But this was Jimin. This was his Park Jimin. His Park Jimin who had been there for him for the entire year. His Park Jimin who said that he loved him. His Park Jimin who said that nothing needed to change and yet-,

You don’t want this.

Did he?

He closed his eyes and it was just as simple as that. He closed his eyes and just as simple as that, his Park Jimin brought him the sky that he loved the most once again. It was the moon kissing him gently whilst the sun having his hand s wrapped around him tightly. It was the blue summer sky breathing against his mouth before the scarlet sky planted a harder kiss upon his lips. He melted into the sky and found himself floating amongst them.

Min Yoongi was kissing the sky. He was kissing the sky and he loved it.

Min Yoongi was kissing Park Jimin and he loved it.

It was awkward at first but as he started to move his own lips against the younger boy's everything became more natural, it even started to feel good. The hands encircling his wrist had moved towards his neck and his own were on Jimin’s shoulder, gripping the shirt tightly. He had never done this with a boy before but in the end it was the same as kissing those younger girls back in 1st grade. No, scratch that. It didn’t feel the same. Everything didn’t feel the same when there was a Park Jimin in it.

Jimin pushed him slowly, knees between his own legs until he felt the sharp edge of the school desk behind him. He just simply knew what to do, sitting on the desk and letting Jimin planted an even harder kiss on his lips. He could feel the desperation in the younger boy’s touch, the hand that ventured towards his thigh, his own tiny sigh that echoed against the white wall.

And suddenly everything snapped. Everything that he’d rammed against the box pushed the lid open on force. As easy as that, all his worries came rushing back. The sky cracked and lightning . Yoongi opened his eyes wide, his hand pushing Jimin back hard. He quickly got off the table, taking two steps back, trying to create as much space as he could from the boy whose lips were on his just seconds ago. Jimin didn’t hide his confusion, looking back at Yoongi with brows furrowed. He looked-, hurt.

What did he just do? He just kissed Park Jimin. He just kissed his best friend.

He just kissed a boy.

“No, this is wrong,” Yoongi whispered. He didn’t even realize his voice was shaking. His knees felt weak at the same time and without his hand supporting his own weight on the wooden desk, Yoongi thought that he would simply fall right there and then on the floor.

Jimin was still there in front of him, looking back at him. Yoongi couldn't dare to do the same, couldn't dare to see his eyes nor those pair of lips that he had just-,

“Hyung, it's-,”

Yoongi looked at the younger boy, taking a deep breath. All he could think about right now what how moments ago, the boy’s lips was on top of his. This was wrong. Everything was wrong, even when all that he wanted to do was taking a step forward and had his lips once again on-

“No!” Yoongi said. “Don’t come near me.”

“Hyung, no, please, I just want to-,”

“Go away!” he said, almost screaming, before he found his feet turning towards the door.

Why? Why did he run away? He could stay, explained to Jimin how wrong of an action it was. That or at least apologized. Jimin wasn’t a girl who he accidentally kissed and owed an apology to. Of course he wasn’t. He was a boy for sake. Park Jimin was his best friend.

His best friend who loved him sincerely.

His best friend whom he just kissed.

But running away was the only thing that he could do, all the while thinking about how wrong it was. Sure, he just kissed Jimin. But that didn't mean that he was gay. No, Min Yoongi didn’t like boy. He liked girls. Like Minju or Yujin. Yes, who didn’t like Yujin?

But Yujin wasn’t Jimin. She was never Jimin. Nobody could ever be him.

It was girls like Yujin he should have kissed inside the classroom after school. It shouldn’t be Park Jimin.

The pouring rain greeted him as his feet brought him out of the school gate, running further and further away without stopping. Even in the midst of his pants and breath, there was only one sentence that mattered most, one that he kept on repeating as if it would justify his action.

“It was wrong. You’re wrong, Min Yoongi.”

Yet if it was so wrong, why did it feel really good? He couldn't deny that excitement that was building in his stomach, the heat that sent every fiber in his body tingling. His body shivered to the memory and he even hated himself for doing that, for shivering, a tint of pleasure ran its way through his spine.

“It was wrong.”