"Too bad you didn't show up yesterday ," mocked Namjoon. "Yujin was sad. She was hoping that you come, you know."

"Damn it Namjoon. Don't start making rumors already," Yoongi said, elbowing Namjoon beside him.

It was another recess and the seven of them were lounging at their usual spot in front of the door that led directly to the roof. Turned out the others rode their bikes around the town with the girls yesterday, thinking that Yoongi and Jimin would simply pass on the occasion and head home. That or as Taehyung had comically and almost too seriously explained, how he hoped that the telepathic connection that he had with Jimin would serve as a guidance for the latter to find him.

“Somehow I kind of envy you for not being there, hyung,” commented Jungkook. “We all got to feel like crap, having to see Seokjin-hyung flirting with Minju-noona the entire evening.”

“I believe it’s the other way around,” Seokjin protested with face blushing.

“Either way she rode on behind him and wrapped her hands on so lovey dovey-ish around this hyung’s waist.”

“Anyway, it’s not fair that there’s only one cute couple riding their bike yesterday. So Hoseok and I decided then to come out and show the other how much of a sweet couple we really are,” Taehyung barged in, making ugly faces and pinching on Hoseok’s cheek at the same time. Hoseok, being the stupid person that he was, played along, puffing his own cheek and used his finger to nudge on Taehyung’s nose almost too repulsively.

Yoongi felt like puking. Out of the corner of his eyes he saw Jimin looking somehow a little bit more restless than usual.

“I don’t know which one I detest the most. Seokjin and Minju being completely oblivious towards each other or Hoseok and Taehyung being disgusting,” said Namjoon. He took a glance towards the two idiots who were now holding a book to cover their faces and pretended to make out behind it. “I guess it’s you guys.”

“They’re always like this, don’t mind them,” said Seokjin to Jimin. The younger just nodded, being silent. Seokjin realized the restlessness too, Yoongi reckoned.

But indeed Taehyung and Hoseok had always been the most-, touchy, amongst them. They liked to hug each other during bicycle’s ride or wrestling and even went as far as cuddling during their sleepovers. Of course it wouldn’t mean more than it should be, since Yoongi was there when Hoseok talked to him, Namjoon and Seokjin, with face flushed and panic written in everything that he did about going on second base with this particular girl back in 1^st grade. He remembered the almost too embarrassing ‘It’s okay if I squeezed the s? I mean, that’s what they’re for, right? Squeezing?’

As for Taehyung, Yoongi didn’t know much and wasn't too keen on figuring it out either. If he could even get to third base, he could imagine the boy conversing with the instead. It wouldn’t be surprising, raelly, when it was Kim Taehyung who did.

“If one day the girls really think that you two are gay with each other, I won’t be surprised,” commented Namjoon.

“Even if you are now, I won’t be,” joked Yoongi.

The others laughed.

Or so Yoongi thought.

(Because Jimin didn’t)

+.-.+

Yoongi was that lazy to the point that he didn’t even bother to remember their opponent’s teams name and the school they came from. What more important that he beat their asses off and win the competition. Everybody was giving their best, training hard passed around 8. Even Namjoon who was the worst amongst them managed to get better. As their trainings grew more intense, Yoongi found himself spending time more and more often with Park Jimin, walking down the path towards their home together.

Sometimes they walked in silence, both being too exhausted to erect a conversation after such training. Other times Yoongi found himself conversing with the boy too. Something as simple as a “you need to do better on that last rebound” or “homework from page 15, right? Damn, I’m going to forget that" (and Yoongi did three steps later).

Their relationship stayed like that until spring turned into summer and he found it easier to deal with Park Jimin when the brat was not being the solemn, pathetic-looking new kid that he was for the first entire month in this town.

He didn’t know when did the ‘solemn pathetic brat’ turned into a ‘Park Jimin’ but Yoongi reckoned it was that one day on their first match.

The seven of them sat on the Auraji train station with feet fidgeting, waiting for the train that would bring them to Jeongseon-eup. Taehyung had been constantly rubbing his palm together and making comments of everything that he saw. The others were quieter than they usually were. Yoongi and Jungkook were probably the most laid back ones. Later did Yoongi realize, that the fact that this was their last chance to win the competition was gnawing at them. With that followed the realization that graduation and suneung was upon them just around the corner.

He glanced towards Jimin, looking at the ground like usual. The boy was biting his lips and squeezing his fingers. Taehyung had gone from annoying to completely non-tolerable, spitting out words as fast as Busta Rhymes Yoongi had to actually tell him to shut up.

“Don’t be nervous,” Yoongi said to Jimin who only nodded in approval.

The latter held up his head and took a good look at each of their friends, coping in with the nervousness with ways of their own. Jungkook was leaning on his seat, sitting slump with hands crossed across his chest and earphones plugged on his ears, closing his eyes. Taehyung was bothering Hoseok, remembering to keep his mouth shut as Yoongi glared at him again. Namjoon and Seokjin were both quiet.

“Is it always this quiet?” asked Jimin.

Yoongi shrugged. He rather had silence than Taehyung’s unbearable nagging.

“Probably because we realized that this is going to be our last chance.”

Jimin fumbled on with his fingers, biting his lips again. He turned his head, looking at Yoongi and gulped before asking.

“What if we don’t even win this one?”

Yoongi scoffed at that. Actually you could say that he was underestimating, but for the preliminary round and fighting against this one high school (which name he’d forgotten, of course), at least victory would be easy to accomplish or so he thought.

“Don’t worry about that, Park Jimin. You won’t screw up.”

The younger’s face lighted up to the words. It occurred to Yoongi how easily Jimin turned from a scowl towards a smile these last days with nothing but mere words. Seeing that somehow made him as annoyed as seeing the boy cried. That came out really weird because he sure as hell knew he hated seeing the boy cried. Now he hated seeing him smiled. Maybe Yoongi did hate the boy.

“Just think of something else instead,” he said, crossing his arm and laid his back against the wall, looking at the blue sky in front of him. Today was a good day. A good day for an excursion trip or so. But instead of it the seven of them were going to (as Namjoon had hyperbolically said) war. Their leader had even come up with a speech earlier and it wouldn’t surprise him if he even managed to come up with a war cry when they reached the so-called battlefield.

“Something else," he heard the boy mumbled, repeating his words. He heard the boy shuffled with his bag before adding. "By the way, why's it Bulletproof, hyung?"

Yoongi turned his head to see Jimin taking out the folded uniform from his bag and sneered. He hated that name, finding it tacky beyond imagination.

"It was Hoseok's idea-," screw the boy. "He thought that we are bulletproof, immune to whatever words or negative . Something like that. Fluffy idealist ery and stuff."

He recalled the day when they thought about a name. It was their first regional basketball competition, back when they were all still a first grader. Instead of Jungkook there was Donghyuk, Ikje and Hunchul with them, all being a year older. The name itself was impromptu, them being handed a sheet of paper by the school to list all of their names and Hoseok just went ahead with the tacky group title.

"That's pretty nice," Jimin said, taking out the folded uniform and observing it very much like the first time he got it on initiation night.

Yoongi scoffed. "It's tacky as hell."

"Hey it's not!" Hoseok suddenly screamed, realizing their conversation.

"Please hyung, it is," Jungkook said.

"Oh come on. It's upbeat, positive and hopeful. It's awesome and cool," Hoseok tried to defend himself.

"Well, at least it's better than our opponent teams' name," Namjoon commented, fishing out a sheet of paper that read about today's competition information. "Bulletproof boys versus Topp Dogg. Topp dogg with a double p and g. Who the hell name their basketball team Topp Dogg."

"Who the hell name theirs Bulletproof boys," Yoongi sneered again.

"Who the hell find something as awesome as this as weird?!"

The six of them with the exception of Hoseok raised their hands. Naturally.

+.-.+

“And who the hell’s nervous about not going to win the first match, huh?!” screamed Taehyung, standing on his seat, raising his glass to the air.

Half of them were drunk, both on alcohol and victory. Seokjin’s mom had cooked them an extra something for the winning team. Namjoon brought some soju from his house. That and they purchased some beer from old-man Jung’s store. He was not that strict about selling them alcohol as long as it was Seokjin who bought them with smile across his face and this very kind voice that the other had nicknamed : Seokjin’s mom mode.

“72-34. We slay them, folks!” Taehyung screamed again, face red and flushed from the mix of beer and soju.

“Seriously, hyung. This is only the first match and you’re already this hyped and drunk from winning,” commented Jungkook. He purposely refused to drink and Seokjin had prohibited him from doing so as well.

“Loosen up a bit you old man,” said Taehyung, coming towards their youngest and wrapped his hand around his shoulder. “It’s okay, that means we’ll have more and more party!”

“No it’s not okay, Taehyung. We won’t be doing this again until we win the trophy for real, okay? Damn, who got me to bring the soju anyway,” said Namjoon.

Their initial plan was opening the bottle when they got to win the trophy. Somehow it had turned out into winning the first match instead. It was an easy win for Yoongi since their opponent wasn’t that difficult to handle.

“It’s you yourself, ,” commented Yoongi.

Namjoon mouthed a small ‘oh’ before slumping back on the chair. Their captain had drunk too much, it seemed. He didn’t do so badly today, managing to spend almost ten solid minutes on the court and even managed to score once. Either Namjoon was getting good or their opponent was indeed that horrible. Everybody patted their captain on the back and told him the latter.

“Hey, at least I got to score once!”

“And Jimin here saved us countless time with his rebound,” said Taehyung, this time coming from Jimin’s back and hugged him.

The boy was startled with the sudden touch but he raised his smile and answered. “Y-yeah, of course I did,” he said, with face red and beaming with happiness.

“Yoongi-hyung won’t even be the MVP if I don’t pass him half the shot he scored,” he continued, looking back at Yoongi with a ridiculous huge grin across his face. The boy was clearly drunk as well.

“Who made Yoongi the MVP?” asked Seokjin.

“Yoongi? I thought the MVP is Namjoon,” added Hoseok before they all erupted in laughter.

+.-.+

Tomorrow would be Saturday and Seokjin had actually proposed the idea of a sleepover. The other agreed but Yoongi declined. He just felt like being alone that night. It was nearing 1 am when he finally walked back towards his house, hands in his pocket and heads tilting upwards to see the night sky. He liked the breeze and the solitude that his town could offer as night fell.

“Wait a sec, hyung.”

Yoongi turned around, seeing Jimin catching up to him, making small jog from Seokjin’s door. Jungkook was waving at them from behind before shutting the door. Faintly Yoongi could hear Taehyung's scream and Hoseok's notorious shriek. He was glad he chose to leave those dimwits behind.

“I thought that you were going to stay the night with the other as well.”

Jimin let out a small laugh. “I don’t want to see Hoseok and Taehyung being all lovey-dovey tonight.”

Yoongi scoffed to that and he kept on walking, heads tilted up. Maybe he was an astronomer in the past life. Or maybe an astronaut, Yoongi didn’t know. He couldn’t even give a reason why he fell in love with the sky. Sometimes he thought he didn’t need one. To fall in love with something so beautiful, he realized that someone didn’t need a reason at all.

“Seoul doesn’t have this sky,” Jimin trailed on suddenly, mimicking Yoongi who’d been having his eyes on the sky. “You couldn’t see the star in Seoul.”

Yoongi realized that this was the first time Jimin had brought the topic of Seoul into the conversation.

“Sometimes you got to see a dot of light but then you realize that it’s only the airplane or a helicopter."

The older shrugged. "It's sad."

"Yeah, it is."

They stayed like that for a few minutes and that was exactly how their conversation went for days. Small talk about insignificant matters. But this time Jimin took a deep breath before continuing softly.

"Everything's sad back at Seoul."

He turned his face towards Jimin, raising an eyebrow, intrigued by the words. Jimin was next to him, face looking straight ahead with blank expression, as if he was seeing something far beyond the roads and the hills, recalling memories long forgotten. And Jimin was walking next to him, right beside him. Funny how Yoongi realized that and wondered, since when did Park Jimin start walking beside him rather than behind him or at other circumstances, with him staring at the boy's back.

"I-," Jimin trailed off and stopped midsentence. The boy shook his head, probably remembering how the words wouldn't even get to leave his lips if it wasn't for the alcohol. The younger had indeed chunk down a glass or two that would explain where the words he was spitting out right now came from.

The silence that followed wasn't an uncomfortable one. They just kept on walking and Yoongi didn't find the need to pry.

"Hey," Yoongi called out to him again in the end.

Jimin hummed in response, turning his face towards the elder.

"If everything's sad back at Seoul-,"

The younger raised his eyebrow, tilting his head slightly in curiosity.

"-then everything that will be left for you here is happiness."

Jimin blinked twice to that. Yoongi thought that the brat would smile like always, soft and shy, but instead this time he laughed. The elder rolled his eyes and regretted for ever saying those words.

"Oh my god, hyung, you do care about me," he said.

"What? No I don't. Just because I said a few nice things, doesn't mean I care about you," Yoongi said with face starting to somehow blush.

"I thought you were scary and mean at first."

"I am mean and scary."

"No you're not, hyung," Jimin said, smiling.

"Yes I am. Want me to prove it to you?" he returned the word, smirking.

"What are you even going to do, hyung?"

"Strap you to a chair and force you to watch Taehyung and Hoseok giving you a ."

Jimin laughed even louder.

"That would be a torture."

"Told you I'm mean," Yoongi said with a scoff.

"No, you're nice, hyung. You just don't want to accept that."

For once he wondered whether that was true. He clicked his tongue. No, Yoongi always said that he was mean and lived up to the name because being nice was simply too overwhelming and troublesome. That and also by saying that he was mean, people wouldn’t expect him to do nice for them.

"Like you know anything about me," he said. That sounded rude, but oddly right, since it was a very Min Yoongi thing to say.

The words probably got to Jimin since the boy became quiet. Maybe he got back to being scared of him again. Yoongi thought about correcting his words again, trying to avoid the misunderstanding that Jimin probably had always fallen into, but he was wrong because Jimin returned his words.

"I know enough," he replied.

The brat was grinning, looking at Yoongi as if he’d known everything that there was to know about him. At some point it pissed him off, and it should be, especially now. But instead he felt more amazed by the words. Amazed wasn’t even the right word to describe it. He simply never had someone saying something as cheesy as that to his face, and even as it sound as disgusting as it was, Yoongi couldn’t bring himself to hate it right now.

“You’re so cheesy it’s disgusting,” he said, raising his head and placed a playful smack to the younger’s head.

“Okay, I take that back, you are mean.”

“I’m more than just mean. I’m your worst nightmare, Park Jimin.”

(And without him knowing, he was indeed going to be one)

+.-.+

Their conversation continued to the point that Jimin forgot to take the turn towards his own house and ended up in front of Yoongi’s instead. It got to the point where they just continued talking, without Jimin intending to go back towards his own house and Yoongi not wanting to open the door behind him and stepped in. It got to the point where they feet went sore from standing and they sat on the verandah’s steps of Yoongi’s house, talking about stuff Yoongi couldn’t even recall anymore.

But he remembered them talking, something alongside Namjoon and his hideous sunglass collection to the scary story of their small town. At one point Jimin talked about doing dance performances in Seoul. He didn’t even know Jimin dance before. At others it was him who said that he’d been writing rap lyrics and making beats. This time it was Jimin’s part to be amazed.

He didn’t know what exactly they talk about, but in the end they did. It was weird, knowing that Yoongi never talked this much with someone other than Namjoon before. Maybe he was drunk too. He remembered drinking only one shot of soju so it would be weird if he was indeed drunk. He could take his alcohol well after all.

In the end he couldn’t come up with a logical explanation, even when he found himself still conversing with the brat as the red slowly crept back upon the night sky, telling them that it was close to sun rise. It was finally a que for Jimin to realize that he’d been spending god knows how much hour in front of a friend’s house. He went into a stuttering sorry and mumbling about his grandmother worrying about him before he dazed off towards his own house, not letting Yoongi to even retort the ‘sorry’ he hated the most.

Finally stepping inside his own house, Yoongi found himself seated in front of his desk with his notebook sprawled open instead of collapsing on top of the bed. Writing had been a habit of his he couldn’t go to sleep without doing it before.

That morning he wrote about lyrics just like he always did. About winning the first match, the nervousness that haunted them on the train ride, the drunken victory, and somehow he ended it always with Park Jimin. A small smile crept upon his face.

Today I met Park Jimin.

The conversation had somehow turned into a fading memory of a dream, too hazy to remember.

He thought about it once again, remembering the tiniest detail that he could come up with.

And somehow all that swarmed his mind was nothing more than the view of the night sky once again.

Today I (finally) met Park Jimin.

(That was the first time he wrote the name Park Jimin in his journal)