Taehyung didn’t mind eating in the gym if that was where he could be left alone.

He wanted to act normal and eat at the canteen too, but people kept linking him to Kim Seokjin—kept saying he was Jin’s property now. And as Taehyung heard, anyone associated with Kim Seokjin would never be in peace.

He could feel the stare when he walked into the hallway this morning. Yesterday was the same, and tomorrow would probably be too. It wasn’t a bad stare, though, and that was what made it worse. People were actually praising Taehyung for how he had such influence on the school’s princess. It was appalling because Taehyung never expected one person to be so… so—important.

See, that was the thing about growing up not feeling loved. Kim Taehyung lived with a mother who prioritized her work more than her son. Since he was 12, she made him help around the salon. Taehyung didn’t protest because he thought she might need all the help she could get, but later he felt that his own mother might just see him as one of the worker and nothing else. Except with him it was free of charge.

Taehyung sighed and laid his head back against the wall. He didn’t know why he would remind himself of such thought when he already had enough to worry about right here right now.

     “Hey!”

Taehyung jumped in surprised. Someone poked his head through the door and giggled when he saw the startled expression.

It was just Jungkook, Taehyung’s friend.

     “I knew you’d be here,” Jungkook chimed and sat down besides the other boy.

     “The fact that you found me is scaring me.” Taehyung murmured. “How?”

     “I stalk you,” The other boy shrugged as if it wasn’t such a big deal to do so. “No, it’s not creepy.” He quickly added. “It’s friendship.”

Taehyung sighed and munched the last bit of bread he’d been holding off. Then, he gently shook his strawberry milk before he drank it. It was one of the many other foods he treasured and he never wasted a drop of it.

     “Kim Seokjin is having a manhunt for you.”

Taehyung choke and spat all his milk out. His eyes shot open widely.

     “Why??” Asked Taehyung in panic, one about the manhunt and the other about his spilled milk. He still stared at the wet floor with heavy heart.

     “Something about that last incident.”Jungkook peeled open the plastic wrapper of his own lunch. “I think he wants you to be responsible because he was called to the principal office for bully.”

     “I never told him to kick anyone!”

     “Don’t shout at me, I don’t know anything.”

     “That’s it. I live in this gym now. I’m never going out of here.”

     “Suit yourself, Rapunzel.”

---

     “You have to get him, Mrs. Principal.” Jin insisted the principal once again. “He’s tall and a little tan, has broad shoulders and nice hair. He was also handsome but not too handsome otherwise he would be me.”

The principal nodded just to be polite, because it seemed she was too familiar with this situation. Jin didn’t notice because he was busy giving the school nurse a signature dirty look, thinking that this nurse must be the one who insisted having him here. But the nurse was innocent. She didn’t even spread the rumor of how Jin faint the other day, poor nurse.

     “I know you’re old enough to know what’s right or wrong, but I’m going to say this again.” The principal cleared . “Do not cause trouble in this school. You’re lucky this time because no one has stepped up as witness of your assault yet. I hope I won’t see you in my office ever again, Kim Seokjin.”

Jin bowed before he left. Outside, Namjoon was patiently waiting for him. NamJin af!

     “Help me I’m unpopular now!” Jin threw his arms around his best friend’s neck and made a sobbing-like noise. “No one adores me anymore. Even the principal doesn’t listen to me.” He whined and pretended to bang his head against his friend’s chest.

     “I think principal is supposed to always be in the middle.” Namjoon commented.

     “No, you should’ve heard her. She made it sound as if I was a troublemaker!”

     “Aren’t you?”

     “I am, but still!”

Joon pressed his lips together, thinking. If he had nothing to talk about the subject to make his friend feel better, then his solution was to diverse it to something else. For example,

     “Have you talked to Taehyung? Maybe he could take your side and clear your name.”

Jin finally let go of him. Namjoon took a breath of relief while Jin was tapping his finger on his lips, considering.

     “You right. If I threatened him enough, he might.”

     “Dude-”

     “No, but really where is he? I don’t see him around anymore. Is he, like, dead?”

Namjoon shook his head.

     “Seriously, he can’t just die after causing me this much trouble!” Seokjin puffed hot air to his bang and he made his way to Taehyung’s class. “If he’s dead, I’m gonna kill him.”

     Joon followed after him shortly. “You can’t do that if he’s already dead, dude.”

     “Well then, I’ll die too so I could kill him in heaven.”

     “O Romeo, what make you think people like you will go to heaven?”

---

Taehyung escaped school by skipping the last period and stayed in the gym for the whole time. He even left the school later than most students so he wouldn’t run into that one person.

He got home safe, yet when he pushed the door of the salon to go inside he almost fell on his face. Because Kim Seokjin was sitting there, in one of the customer’s chairs, with his mother fixing his finger nails.

     “Make ’em sharp, Ms. Kim.” He was saying. “I wanna be able to claw my enemies’ throat out with it.”

Taehyung’s mother laughed, taking the request as a joke. Maybe it was, maybe it wasn’t. No one knew for sure. When Taehyung’s mother looked up and spotted her son, she waved him over enthusiastically.

     “Come on in, Taehyungie, and help me bring a glass of cold water for this young, handsome customer.”

     “Aw, thank you. You’re young and beautiful yourself, Ms. Kim.” Jin smiled wickedly.

Taehyung gritted his teeth, but quietly he went to the kitchen and poured a glass of cold water as requested. Normally he would have the time to put his bag down first—he lived just above the salon—but right now he just wanted to do everything so Jin would leave faster.

And how did he even find this place?

     “How do you find it??” Taehyung whispered as he placed the glass down for Jin.

     “Find what?”

     “My mom’s salon. How do you know??”

     “Oh.” Jin shrugged. “Your duplicate told me.”

     “My what? You mean Baekhyun? He told you? He’s not supposed to tell anyone!”

     “And I’m not supposed to hold a knife against his throat but it also happened. Can we move on now?”

     “You kids know each other?” Taehyung’s mother asked.

     Jin, as his specialty, flashed her another friendly smile and nodded. “Yes, pretty umma. We go to the same school. Taehyung actually recommended me to come here.”

     “That’s great. More discount for you~”

     “What do you want, Kim Seokjin?” Taehyung asked despite his mother was there.

     “Well, I can’t find you anywhere at school so I was worried you died or something. Which doesn’t seem to be the case here…”

     “You were worried about me?”

     “Yeah, I do that from time to time. Don’t feel too special about yourself.”

     “You kids have conflict or something? It doesn’t sound healthy to me.”

     “Yes, mom. Can you stop pretending to clip his nails and leave us two alone now? Please?”

     “I can’t refuse since you said please,” Ms. Kim stood up. She looked at her son but not with any ill feeling or disappointment in his tone of voice. She was actually glad that her son decided to speak up to her, because ever since the divorce and his twin brother’s departure, Taehyung never really recovered emotionally. Right now he seemed to be close to himself again.

Maybe thanks to this new friend here, she thought.

When she was gone, Taehyung pulled Jin by his sleeve to go talk outside so they wouldn’t cause a ruckus in the shop for other costumers.

     “What do you want from me, Kim Seokjin?” Taehyung asked once again once they were outside. “First you randomly called me over and confessed your dying love. The next thing I know it wasn’t even me you meant those words to. And then you told me to never show up in front of you again but now you’re in my house? What is this?”

Jin was a little astonished to see this side of Taehyung since he always believed Baekhyun was the livelier and more expressive among the pair.

     “I see myself in you,” Jin replied, which taken Taehyung by surprise. He continued before Taehyung could say something. “You’re like a tiny, little helpless bird. You have this permanent sad face on whenever I see you. It’s as though you’re broken on the inside. And perhaps you are. I’ve been there too, so when I see you I couldn’t help leaving you to yourself. Back then I had my friend Namjoon to listen to my unspoken words. But you seem to have none. So now, I offer to be your version of Namjoon.”

Taehyung was lost for words. Jin could sympathize with other people? He could speak without sarcasm or selfishness? This was really shocking, even to Taehyung.

     “This is weird as heck, man.” Taehyung muttered under his breath.

     “Except I’m Jin. Don’t start calling me Namjoon or my buddy will freak out.” Jin chuckled dryly to himself.

     “You’re unpredictable, Kim Seokjin. No wonder everybody likes you.”

     “So what do you say, Jaejoong?”

     “ -_- ” And then Taehyung was reminded once again that not everyone liked Jin. Because he didn’t. “My name’s Taehyung. And I’ll consider hanging around you if you get my name right.”

     “I know. I’m just testing you.”

Jin smiled, but on the back of his mind he madly panicked because it took him 14 months to finally get Namjoon’s name right.

---

Being friend with Jin meant you have to spend at least one day a week watching Mean Girls with him. Because it is his favorite movie and no matter how you tell him that he had already watched it at least a hundred thousand times before, he couldn’t hear you.

This week was Taehyung’s turn, as Namjoon’s was last week. 

Jin liked to quote Mean Girls, and after a few times watching it together Taehyung realized that Jin was the literal embodiment of Regina George.

     “On Wednesday we wear pink,” Jin said in unison with the girl in the movie and happily clapped for himself. “I just love Regina so much. I call her ReRe~ She's such a relatable character. Hashtag spirit animal <3”

Taehyung made an hmm in his throat in response. He didn’t have to watch with Jin since he had already watched it four times in the past weeks.

     “Why are you looking at me like that? Am I that pretty?” He asked when he felt Jin’s gaze on him. He looked up from his book and was proven right. Jin was staring at him.

     “No.” The older boy denied quickly. “I wasn’t. I was watching the movie.”

     “Whatever.” Taehyung went back to his reading. However, Jin nudged him this time and he had to look up again. “What?”

     “Say, who is that boy you’re always with?”

     “Who? Jungkook?”

     “The rather charming one.”

     “Yeah, Jungkook.”

     “Who is he to you???”

     Taehyung saw the chance and he took it. “He’s nobody in specific to me. Just bae.”

     “YAH!!!!”

Although he wasn't so please hearing so, Jin still felt reassured because to everyone else, Taehyung was his boyfriend.

The End

Thank you all so so much for staying from the beginning till the end :D

I have so much fun writing this

See you in my other works, hopefully. xD

Happy Halloween!

p.s. vote for BTS in MAMA!!! 

❤

Gotcha! xD

Bonus Epilogue:

      “Hi, V!” Jin waved from his table but Taehyung held on to his lunch tray and turned his heel to the other direction. “What the?” Jin rushed from his seat to catch up with Taehyung. He grabbed Taehyung’s arm so he would stop walking away. “Hey, what’s wrong, you?”

     “That’s not my name.” Taehyung said and was about to turn away for a second time. Jin pulled him back.

     “That’s your nickname now. I do that to all my friends. For example, Namjoon is Joon.”

     “Stop copying Mean Girls. It’s too childish.” Taehyung hissed.

     Jin gasped, horrified. “How dare you! It’s a classic!”

     “And my name’s Taehyung.”

     “You’re V now.”

Jin pulled him along until they were back at the lunch table. Namjoon still hadn’t showed up so Taehyung had no one to complain to. He just sat in silence. When seeing Taehyung wasn’t paying attention, Jin pulled out his phone and texted his best friend.

Joon! Remind me that the kid is V now. I accidentally nicknamed him that. And where the hell are you? Come here fast! Also don’t forget the strawberry milk for my cutie!

❤

This is for real this time T-T

bye ~