“The season started in another month. I want us to be extremely prepared for it,” Namjoon briefed to them. Up to this point, Namjoon had acted more like a manager than a captain. Given his ability and poor skills, taking care of the administration soon enough will be another job of his. Hoseok had joked that it would only take another week before he reduced to bringing water bottles and giving towels instead. The evil youngest had even actually made a bet on that.

“This year’s goal is 1^st place!” exclaimed Namjoon, waiting for a rupture of ovation from the other members who was sitting on the floor of the gym (and definitely didn’t give him the reply he was hoping for) with face flat and certainly unamused. They were huddling up in their exclusively reserved gym for Thursday game like usual. Their session of warm up turned into a series of prep talk from their so-called captain.

“We have Jimin this year so we’ll definitely get it,” said Hoseok, patting the said boy’s shoulder. The other just gave a little nod and a small smile, mumbling a “I’m not that good” and a little bit of “I’m sorry if we lost.”

“Don’t say that. It’s as if you’re admitting defeat already,” the kind Seokjin answered.

“I’ll do my best, then,” their newest member exclaimed with voice more confident, looking at all the other members before ending on Yoongi and lingering on his gaze a few seconds longer.

“Rather than relying entirely on Jimin, aren’t we supposed to train you properly, Namjoon-hyung?” asked Jungkook nonchalantly.

“Yah Jeon Jungkook, learn to respect the elderly, will you?” said the elder, pulling out the act by being serious but met only by the younger’s sticking tongue.

“He won’t even call me hyung the first time,” squeaked Jimin.

The other laughed to that and Yoongi still had that weird feeling, that churning in his stomach whenever Jimin initiated a conversation. It still sounded weird to his ear.

“Hey don’t blame me. Jimin’s shorter than me. The first time he always kept his head down he even looked shorter,” said Jungkook.

“That doesn’t mean you can call him without the hyung,” this time Yoongi said and ruffled the youngest’s hair.

“Stop doing that, hyung. I’m not a kid. One year age difference is nothing,” the younger protested.

“But you’re still our baby nonetheless, Jungkookie,” said Taehyung, this time coming up from behind Jungkook’s and pinched his cheek. “But I agree. Even Jiminie’s cheek is more pinch-able than our Jungkookie here,” their weirdest member added on before this time leaping towards Jimin and pinched the said boy’s cheek.

“See, babyfat,” commented Taehyung while Jimin did his best to grab Taehyung’s hands and telling the latter to stop.

The small argument turned into a series of cat and mouse game for the both of them. The two landed on the floor and wrestled each other, Taehyung on top of Jimin, trying to tickle him. Hoseok ran towards the two, exclaiming a “Don’t leave me out” and practically dive in towards them.

“Kids,” muttered Yoongi.

“That made you sound so old,” said Seokjin. Amongst the other, Seokjin was actually the oldest, having been held back a year because his mother was very ill last year. Good thing his mother succumbed from whatever ailment that was, though it cost her son a year of school. It was that experience probably that turned Seokjin into the loving mother himself that he was right now. He was almost like their mother, though Yoongi thought that Seokjin was turning more and more into a grandmother instead these days. “Anyway have you made up with Jimin?”

Yoongi groaned. “I’m not even fighting with the kid.” Up to this point he forgot that his friends thought that he held some sort of a grudge towards the newest member of their group.

Seokjin answered with a string of laugh. “He’s afraid of you, you know.”

“Everybody did,” the younger scoffed. Just today he had another 1^st grader looking like he was about to cry for bumping into Yoongi on the corridor. “Don’t worry. I’ve straightened it up. We’re not fighting. Don’t worry about it,” he sighed, eyeing the three figures that were now wrestling on the ground, flailing their hands and kicking the air with a loud noise. “I sometimes forgot how nosy you all are.”

“Nosy?”

“That time when I had a fight,” he mumbled.

Once Yoongi had gotten himself into this big fight with his father. It was the first time he ever said that he wanted to go to Seoul and be something else. His father didn’t welcome the idea. The fight had turned itself from a series of curses into flipping table and ended with Yoongi running away from home for almost three days before his mother turned worried. Soon enough his mother told his friends and they turned into this huge party of search and rescue, trying to find Yoongi who had simply disappeared into the midnight’s air. 

“That time was serious, Yoongi. Your mother was crying. We didn’t even know where you left. You didn’t even bring any money as much as we know. And somehow you just came back like nothing happened.”

“Cause nothing really happened.”

“I doubt it.”

“See? Nosy.”

“Honestly, where do you even go?”

Yoongi let out a smirk, knowing that that only made his friends even more curious. This time his eyes darted towards the gym’s door, noticing some movement behind it. He was right. He saw some figures, long-haired, walking towards them.

“It’s a secret,” he said. “Anyway, it’s Minju and the girls.”

Seokjin turned his head, raised a smile and waved towards the girl. Jeon Minju, the prettiest girl in their class and the entire three years combined. Jeon Minju, whom everyone always wanted to date. But not Min Yoongi. He knew his boundaries. That girl was way out of his league. Instead of fighting his ways almost too bloodily across rows and rows of fellow contenders, he chose to watch the brutal fight safely as a spectator. In short, Yoongi was just too damn lazy to fight over a girl.

“Hello boys, basketball as usual?” the girl said. She got the most perfect eyes and lips as someone could ever have or so Yoongi thought. “Or wrestling?” she said, looking over towards Hoseok, Taehyung and Jimin who were still embarrassing themselves, rolling on the floor.

“Don’t mind them. They were kids entirely numb to the norm of society,” Yoongi said. “What are you doing here?”

“What? Just visiting my favorite little cousin, that’s all,” Minju said, glancing towards Jungkook at the other end of the gym, surprisingly teaching Namjoon some moves (and who just protested earlier about respecting the elderly now, huh?)

Jeon Minju, the prettiest girl in their entire class was the older cousin of Jeon Jungkook. Their family was so close sometimes you could say that she was more like an older sister as well. That was pretty much the other reason why she hung around them sometimes and visited them on their Thursdays. To bring her little cousin some food to eat, of course. Or simply-

“Just Jungkookie? Not our favorite Seokjin-hyung here?” teased Yoongi.

He enjoyed seeing the flushed look on Minju’s face and a slight blush from Seokjin’s.

“Come on Minju-ah. We all know that you like Seokjin-hyung. Just confess your love right here right now.”

-because Minju liked Seokjin, which everybody in their group already knew.

“Not in front of you, at least,” she said, sticking a tongue to him. “What about you yourself? I hear that you like Yujin, huh?”

Yoongi scoffed. That was definitely Namjoon’s doing.

“She’s outside the gym with Suji, Jaein and Yuna. Want to say hi?” she said with a flirtatious smile. He knew that she was expecting a blush of some sort but Yoongi kept his flat demeanor. Having Yoongi not answering, she turned her face towards the three idiots who were still doing god-knows-what.

“Isn’t that Jimin, the new kid?”

“Yeah, odd seeing him like this, huh?” answered Seokjin.

“I was about to say that. Even in classes I barely remember him being there. He’s so-, gloomy.”

“And here he is looking completely like a different person,” added Seokjin.

Yoongi left after that, not wanting to interrupt two lovebirds making evident hints in front of each other. He had secretly made a bet with Namjoon about when would they finally be together. Minju left not long after that and as she ran back towards the door, he could see four other heads peeking inside. Girls. They were indeed troublesome.

The real practice finally started and they practiced until around 7 in the evening, the sky already dark outside. That day Yoongi polished up his three pointers and the other finally cheered when Namjoon managed to shoot the ball through the hoop for three times in a row. A stop at the nearest mini market was something that Hoseok recommended, so the seven of them trotted along their town’s path slowly with laughter filling the air as they took a detour and ended up sitting in front of the mini market, eating ice creams.

Not missing the night sky he loved the most, Yoongi lifted his head, resting his back on the wall behind him. His other friends were arguing over something stupid (last time he paid attention it was about whether borrowing underwear a thing deemed as acceptable or not) and his own mind went astray, floating somewhere between Leo’s tail and Cancer’s claw (he pretended, of course, for Min Yoongi wasn’t gifted with the ability to differ the real constellation of the stars). He thought about learning astronomy for real one day and before he even realized it, his fingers were making a slow beat, tapping on the wooden bench.

He thought about another series of lines he definitely had to write as soon as he got home. He thought about stars, and basketball, and what winning their first trophy would feel like. He thought about the days he spent in the gym. He thought about how he despised getting home, only to see his father who represented the cage that he hated the most. Somehow those strings of thoughts ended in the face of Park Jimin.

Yoongi turned his head towards a distinct sound that woke him from his thoughts. Park Jimin was laughing out loud, seeing Taehyung beside him (the latter had apparently taken the bet of biting an ice cream just like that he developed a brain freeze, thus resulted in a very, laughable and weird facial expression).

He thought about what Minju had said. It was definitely weird to see the boy laughing like this now after a first few weeks of pouts. His friends did wonder, no mistake in that.

Seeing the laughing boy like that, he thought about a cocoon, opening up itself, spreading its wing to make a butterfly.

No, he thought about the stars.

He definitely thought about the stars again.

My friends did wonders. The brat was a different person now.

+.-.+

It was weird to say that Jimin was doing better, because he was not doing worse before, nor that the boy was sick or anything around that. But at least there was indeed something wrong with the boy before, whatever that was, and as if it was a sickness, he was slowly getting better. He smiled more, taking his head off of the ground slowly (if it was a perfect 90 degrees before, now it had turned into 45 degrees, maybe). The change was even cringe-worthy to Yoongi, partly because he realized himself noticing.

With the competition coming in June, they practiced thrice a week until it slowly turned into almost everyday. There was something about playing for two years together and adding a certain someone that bothered the harmony, philosopher Kim said one day (which Yoongi treated as bull). A Jimin amongst them was like a new beat to the sound that needed to be re-polished, their captain said. To that metaphor Yoongi could probably understand.

That day they finished at around six, the sky outside was scarlet and perfectly just how Yoongi loved it the most. They were talking about going around for a bit of the mountain’s fresh air with their bikes when Jimin excused himself about something of his being left behind in the classroom and went to get it, telling the others to leave him. The words itched Yoongi somehow.

“Want us to wait for you?” said Taehyung.

“No, I’ll be okay. Just go on without me,” Jimin said, running back towards the classroom.

Yoongi brought his bicycle today. Seokjin had a bike, Taehyung had one too and he usually let Hoseok rode behind him since the latter didn’t have one. Jungkook was fine with a skateboard and the kid was indeed good at it. Namjoon, almost too comically, had brought his scooter instead, muttering something about a flattened tire underneath the laugh and mockery of his friends. The original idea was having Jimin rode behind Seokjin’s because the boy didn’t have a bike, but now-

“Well, if he’s not going then-,” said Taehyung, shrugging his shoulder.

The others walked towards the gate, Seokjin said about meeting Minju and the girls at the mini market later. Yoongi just walked in silence, his eyes lingering towards the window of their class, furrowing his brows to the thought of Park Jimin, taking whatever of his that he had left behind. Knowing the brat, somehow Yoongi didn’t believe his words just as easily as that.

“You guys just go on without me,” Yoongi said, stopping on his track.

“Why, hyung? You’re feeling off,” asked Jungkook.

“Nah, I left my notebook again,” he said, lying, not wanting to be mocked about the others that he ‘cared’ about Jimin and wanting to check on the boy.

The others, fortunately, didn’t bet an eye and waved their hands as Yoongi turned his heels and ran towards the series of staircase, reaching for their classroom. He bolted along the corridor, thinking and at the same time feeling how annoyed he would be, finding the brat sobbing again alone in the classroom like some freak in this ungodly hour. He was pretty much convinced that that scene would greet him as soon as he reached the classroom. And here he was thinking that Jimin was finally getting better.

He was too preoccupied in his mind that he bumped into something (or rather-, someone) at the nearest turn, losing his balance but managed to regain it in matter of second.

“Hyung, you’re scaring me!” the voice said.

Yoongi blinked and realized it to be Park Jimin himself (and here he was thinking that what he bumped was not something from this earth, given to the dark alleyway and haunting surrounding during this hour in the deserted school building).

“Jimin?”

“What are you doing here, hyung?” he asked.

What am I doing here? He thought that he was about to see the boy crying like he had seen countless time before in the classroom. But here he was without face wet and red rims underneath his eyes.

“Do you forget something too?”

“No, I-,”

-was thinking about checking whether you’re crying or not. Because if you are, I’m definitely going to scold you again. Or punch you in the face finally for real.

“Nothing, forget it. You already get what you’ve forgotten?” asked Yoongi.

Jimin nodded.

Yoongi looked at the boy in front of him again, realizing how stupid he really was for thinking that he would burst into tears again. Here he was being completely fine. Yoongi worried for nothing. Wait, why did he worry in the first place? That was ridiculous.

“Let’s get going then,” Yoongi said, turning his back and walked straight towards his bicycle outside, feeling like punching his own face if possible.

Jimin complied, following him without uttering another words.

Somehow this felt as embarrassing as when he - without realizing - started the supposedly conversation to Jimin with nothingness instead. He groaned, his hand in his pocket and kept on walking.

They had walked passed the school, the scary building stood behind them and Yoongi quickly went towards his parked bicycle. It was when Jimin turned the other way and headed straight towards the school gate instead did Yoongi called out to him, riding his bicycle already and absentmindedly asked.

"Where are you going?"

The younger gave him a surprised look.

"Home?"

"The others are meeting Minju at the mini market. We're going for a ride today, remember?" he said, stopping his bicycle next to Jimin.

The younger just stood there looking a bit confused, not giving him another word whatsoever and somehow it pissed Yoongi easily, just standing there with his bike, waiting for Jimin's words.

"So come on," he said, looking a little bit annoyed. He just wanted to get going and catch up with the others.

Jimin flushed, taking the annoyance like he always did as if he had done something wrong but looking a little embarrassed at the same time as well.

"You're waiting for me?" Jimin asked with a slight blush on his face.

And Yoongi didn't know whether he hate that blush or himself more for being completely stupid. Somehow that made Yoongi regret asking the boy. No, no, he already did something stupid by 'actually' waiting for Jimin. Or checking on him, whatever the word was. Either way Min Yoongi was an idiot. Here Jimin was now, making things felt and looked so blunt.

"No, I-,"

He groaned again.

"Well if you don't want to go then-," and a little bit of Yoongi hoped that the boy did, though he knew how cruel it was. At least it would help him be the usual cold and mean Min Yoongi that he was and most of all, saved him from this embarrassment.

"No, no, hyung. I would like to," he said, waving his hand in front of Yoongi as if it could correct the misunderstanding.

"All right then," Yoongi sighed.

There was no backseat on Yoongi's bike. The backseat was broken years ago in a not so fortunate accident that got Namjoon getting a stitch on his left arm and Yoongi with a twisted ankle. Instead, there were now these two metal rod attached to the base of the back side's tire, the ones where you should supposedly put your two feet on when you were sitting on the backseat.

Jimin stood still again, eyeing the bicycle before turning his eyes towards him and Yoongi rolled his eyes.

"What are you waiting for, seriously?"

"You're giving me a ride?"

Somehow Yoongi hoped that Jimin couldn't be more literal and reminded him of the embarrassing thing that he did today (which was more than he could count already). Yes, Min Yoongi being nice was the last thing that this earth would witness for tomorrow would certainly be the apocalypse.

"You want me to wait for you as you slowly walk too?" he said, emphasizing the slow part. That was his way of saying 'i mean, i got a bike. Why do we have to be so stupid and waste so much time?' Why did he have to be so stupid and give Jimin a ride now? Why couldn't the boy just shut up and ride the bike with him before he realized that he indeed had offer him a ride. Verbalizing his action made everything seemed awkward and way too nice. And nice didn't even exist in his dictionary.

Jimin nodded, looking at bis bike before grabbing his shoulder with fingers trembling and hopped on. Making sure that he got the balance right, Yoongi pedaled the bike after the boy had found his own balance, feeling it slightly heavier than usual. Jimin grabbed both his shoulder by the hands, trying to keep himself for falling.

Yoongi sighed for the hundreth time that day, contemplating about the situation that he got himself into. He didn't want to look nice, especially towards Jimin and here he was being everything that he shouldn't be. Min Yoongi was supposed to be mean and cold and frightening. Min Yoongi wasn't supposed to give bicycle ride to crying toddler and console them with pretty words.

They rode in silence and the air certainly felt heavier than usual. Brushing that off, Yoongi just pedaled faster so he could reach the mini market sooner.

Empty benches greeted them as they got to the mini market, indicating that the boys were nowhere to be seen. They were supposed to meet there with the girls. The boys had probably taken off somewhere else and by now guessing where they went would be a game fun enough if Yoongi didn't pity his own feet for pedaling up and down the hill of their town with Jimin on his back.

He said something about buying something to drink and told Jimin to call on the others because he had left his phone at home. As Yoongi got out of the mini market with a can of soda, he felt like crushing it in his palm instead as Jimin said that the battery of his phone went dead before he got to call Taehyung.

"Oh Park Jimin, can't you be anymore useful," he said, muttering under his breath before he sat on the bench.

"I'm so-,"

"Don't say that, please. Geez, you know how much i hate that."

Jimin gulped.

"If you're going to say i'm sorry again to answer that i would certainly punch you in the face," he threatened.

Today was horrible. Everything happened because he had to be an idiot for another idiot none other than Park Jimin.

He let out a huge sigh before he leaned his head behind the wall, looking up at the sky above him. It was completely dark now and the stars had come out to view. He let his eyes wander from one star to next and before he knew it, he wasn't so pissed off anymore. The sky always had that effect on him, something that he could never explain.

Finishing up his bottle of soda in one gulp, Yoongi let his gaze turned towards Jimin again, who was still standing awkwardly there.

"Let's just go home," he said.

"You don't want to find the others?"

Yoongi snorted. "They would already be in god knows where and I'm not very keen on touring the whole town to find them with you on my back," he said.

He walked towards the bike and waited for Jimin who followed him in silence.

"If you wanted to find the others it would be fine. I can get back on my own," Jimin said softly.

It was exactly the part of Park Jimin that he hated the most. Being scared and such a whim, no different from those 1st graders who was scared easily by him. That exact part of Park Jimin that always thought himself as this small ant, invisible to people's eyes. Thing was the boy turned out to be a big ing elephant to his eyes and he couldn't even pretend him to be non-existent because these days, Park Jimin seemed to be the only thing that he saw. Yoongi found that to be annoying at so many level.

"Don't be ridiculous," Yoongi just answered. He got on his bike again, waiting for Jimin who just stood there and seemed to think whether it was the right decision or not.

In the end the younger climbed behind him again and Yoongi took off.

The night's wind carressed his cheeks and he lifted his head on the ride, trying to steal a glimpse of the stars and the night sky. He was pedaling down the rocky roads when Jimin chose that opportunity to ask about something that made him lose his balance.

"Are you checking whether I cry again back at school when I said I left something behind?" Jimin asked shyly, his voice stuttered a bit. But the boy did ask, almost bluntly even.

So blunt it only needed a yes or no answer for Yoongi, one that actually should be answer by a yes and was true in every way possible. Thank god he managed to keep his balance for the question nearly cost them a few scratches and bruises, or maybe even more.

"No," he said immediately, trying to keep his calm demeanor and the balance at the same time. Though somehow, it sounded so much like a lie to him. Well, it was indeed a lie, something that he hoped Jimin wouldn't be able to realize.

The silence that followed afterwards were the heaviest that he ever felt and he was at least relieved that Jimin couldn't see his expression. After a long and uncomfortable silence Yoongi raised his voice again, trying to keep the dignity that he got left.

"I don't care about you if that's what you're wondering about," he said.

The grip on his shoulder was starting to itch.

"You hear me? This is me not caring about you, okay?" he repeated.

Jimin laughed upon that, and somehow it didn't take Yoongi to lift his head and see the star to make him mile.

"Got it, hyung."

The brat's not that heavy.