03.

Jimin is a seven-year-old boy recently transferred from America to Korea as a result of his father's business. Barely knowing the basics of the language, he was dragged to the foreign country called his origin to study. Because of his lacking skills in understanding what others were saying, he was pushed all the way back to kindergarten instead of being in second grade like he should be. The only friend he managed to make was Taehyung, a six-year-old Korean kid from Canada who had equally horrendous skills when it came to speaking Korean.

Jimin sits awake in bed reading too long Sunday night and finds it extremely difficult to rise the following morning. But his mother's lovely voice drifts in through his door, and he swallows the sleepiness and gets up, disheveled hair and all.

"Jimin, honey, wake up!"

"Sweetie, breakfast's ready!"

"Jimin, Taehyung is already here!" At the sound of his best friend's arrival, Jimin stuffed the apple slice he had between his fingers into his mouth and snatched his backpack up from the ground while kissing his mother goodbye on the cheek. He ran out the door and nearly straight into Taehyung, but maneuvered his body so that he landed his feet beside the other's and began walking alongside his best friend to school.

As usual, Taehyung was being chattery and chirping about the kindergartener everyone avoids in their class. Jimin only half-listened, but he knew the talkative boy wouldn't mind. With their fingers interlaced as if to prove their friendship, they stepped simultaneously into the classroom and proceeded to sit next to each other at their assigned table. When the new kid walked in to the classroom, however, the noisy classroom silenced as if someone had pressed a mute button. The pale boy didn't seem to notice as he sat across from Jimin, and the latter found that he couldn't stop staring at the quiet, expressionless youngster.

"What's his name again?" Taehyung whispers into Jimin's ear.

"Don't remember," Jimin replies with his eyebrows furrowed.

Soon after, class started, and the room was once again filled with high-pitched voices conversing with one another while the teacher handed out coloring sheets to teach the children the alphabet. Taehyung was speaking to a light-haired boy with puppy eyes on his right — Seokjin, he remembered — which left Jimin to search for the right shade of green he was looking for in order to shade in C for Cucumber.

"Taetae, do you mind me going through your crayon box?"

"Not at all, Jiminnie."

He couldn't find the color he was searching for, and Jimin became fidgety. He felt frustration creeping up on him, mentally scolded himself for being such a perfectionist, and angrily blew at his bangs that were constantly threatening to cover his doe eyes.

That was when a milky white hand holding a crayon the perfect shade of green reached out towards Jimin. Jimin raised his eyes to find the pale boy's, and found that behind his blankness, there was a certain warmth.

"Use it," the boy said in a monotonous voice.

"Thanks, ..." Jimin replied gratefully but trailed on as he had forgotten the boy's name again.

"Jeon Jeongguk."

"Oh. Thanks, Jeongguk."

"... You're welcome."

Jimin found a stupid smile creeping up onto his lips and refusing to fade for the rest of the day.

-

Taehyung caught a cold a few days later, and due to a high fever couldn't attend school. That left Jimin all alone when it came to eating lunch or talking with fellow classmates. With his broken Korean, it was a new level of difficulty to try to convey the message of wanting to sit next to others during lunch. Jimin pointed at the empty space between Hoseok and Namjoon with expectant eyes.

"Um, the bench," Hoseok randomly guessed. The older boy shook his head and pointed at the bench again.

"Empty seat," Hoseok said. Jimin grunted and mimed eating his lunch before gesturing to the seat one more time.

"Eat. Seat. Hey, that rhymes!" Jimin stared, exasperated at Hoseok's short attention span. The feeling is doubled when Seokjin starts to laugh as well. He repeated the scene one more time, and Namjoon took his lunch and scooted over to where Jimin had pointed, looking at the standing child with confusion. Jimin threw his hands up in dismay and groaned before agreeing with himself to give up. He walks away from the table with Hoseok pouting cutely and journeys to the field, where he finds a thick, tall tree that could easily hide him from everyone's view.

'Taehyung, come back~~' Jimin sings in his mind.

"-no friends and... oh, hello." Jimin whips his head around to find Jeongguk standing awkwardly by the tree, both hands grasping the handle of his lunch bag tightly. The older boy beams at the younger and pats the space beside him, inviting the younger to sit. He hesitates before placing himself next to Jimin.

"Hi. I am Park Jimin," Jimin manages to say without stuttering and too much accenting.

"Um, Jeon Jeongguk. I'm five years old, what about you?" Jeongguk's eyes contain a spark of curiosity, and Jimin wants to reach out and ruffle the boy's hair like he does with his puppy.

"I am... Umm..." The older boy's mind becomes as blank as paper, as if someone had taken an eraser and erased all his knowledge, so instead he puts up seven pudgy fingers. Jeongguk nods encouragingly, and Jimin grins again. There is a comfortable silence between the two kindergarteners before the younger speaks up.

"This is where I eat every day." Jimin is thankful that Jeongguk has the sense to speak slower so that he can understand. His doe eyes widen and he wonders if he had disrupted a privacy thing, but it was as if the little boy had read his mind.

"But it's okay if you eat here. You're cool," Jeongguk remarks in a rather shy way, and Jimin is unable to resist the temptation to ruffle the little boy's bangs. He squeals and reminds Jimin that they're only two years apart, and the older responds in broken Korean that two years is a lot.

"How come Taehyung-hyung calls you Jiminnie?" Jeongguk questions while fidgeting with blades of grass between his fingers.

"Close friends call me that." Jimin summarizes, and Jeongguk's expression brightens.

"Does that mean I can call you Jiminnie too?" He can barely control his excitement, and the older boy is acutely aware of it. Jimin laughs like bells chiming in the wind and approves.

-

"Taehyung?"

"Yeah, Jiminnie?"

"Are you feeling okay?"

"No, everything still hurts a lot. But my fever is sort of kind of gone."

"That's cool. Would you mind me asking you for a favor?"

"Nope."

"Can you stay sick for another week or so?"

"What-"

"There's this boy, remember Jeongguk? He's kind of quiet, but he's also nice and funny. He eats lunch by himself and I can't sit with him anymore if you're back."

Taehyung hangs up almost immediately, fuming at his best friend. The next morning, despite his illness, he throws his things into his backpack slips his shoes on to go to school. "Taehyung, where do you think you're going?" His mother's stern voice stops him with his hand over the doorknob.

"Mama, I have to go to school."

"And why is that?"

"I think Jeongguk's going to replace me as Jiminnie's best friend."