-the gay inner circle thing-

A friendversary to celebrate! Park and Jeon became friends on Facebook 4 years ago.

You seem to like each other a lot! 2, 815 times to be exact.

And while there are billions of friendships… there's only one like yours. That's amazing!

From all of us at Facebook.

The rest of the time in China fast-forwards with the arrival of his cousins, especially with his eldest cousin, Sungwoo, despite this being their (literal) first meeting and their ten-year .

The Chinese New Year of 2016 was the first time Jimin has experienced the festival mood since he last remembered, having always celebrated it with only his parents in Singapore. This time, however, with a huge family of 18, Jimin understands why this festival is so important to many.

He was a little reluctant to say goodbye to everyone when March comes around the corner, but at the same time he's eager to go back home to Singapore. China's great, because his family is there. But Singapore is where Jimin was rooted, and to be honest, interacting with relatives daily for 90 days has exhausted Jimin's socialness, and he wants nothing but to *nua in his own room for hours without being interrupted or sharing the same space with anything that breathed.

(*A/N: nua is slang/dialect/idk for 'lying around doing nothing' #it'sjustsinglish)

When Jimin's flight touched down in Changi airport on 1st March, midnight, still adjusting to the humid air and bright lights after a long flight, he makes a mental note to eat all the local food that he's been craving for months. He does know that the carefree days are limited, and results will be out on the 4th, but before that, he has a checklist to cross out for compensate 3 months of a different menu all together.

xxx

And at 2pm sharp that Friday, Jimin steps back into Bangtan High School. He's uncertain of what to expect from his report card later, but he puts that worry behind as Yoongi hyung and Jongin spots him and pulls him over to their table. Everyone is excited to see each other after so long and they end up talking over each other a lot, but it takes Jimin's mind off worrying about what's to come - not like getting all worked up over it is going to magically change his report card to one of straight As.

A quick scan around the canteen where most of the Year 7s are gathered, and Jimin can't help but be surprised at how different everyone seemed. Some girls have their hair dyed, most guys are in their army uniforms, and some are even in office attire, presumably coming straight from work. He smiled and gave a small wave whenever he meets eyes with someone he knew, until he sees Jungkook looking right at him from just two tables away, sitting with his own clique.

"Oh hey, didn't see you there just now," he greets, taking in how Jungkook is literally sitting there weighted down with all kinds of accessories. "Looks like you're too ready to exploit the missing dress code huh."

"Mhm," Jungkook hums in agreement. "Of course I'm happy with new-found liberty to come to school in something that isn't the same boring uniform."

Jimin rolled his eyes and was about to make a jab at how Jungkook's bling-blings are going to make him blind, but Yoongi hyung had heard their conversation and turned around to greet.

"Oh, Jungkook! Nice cap!"

"Thank you, thank you."

Yoongi hyung turned back after exchanging a few lines of pleasantries with Jungkook, and Jimin was about to follow suit when Jungkook said, "wait, l have something to pass you," as he rummaged through his bag.

"Oh my god, I forgot to put it in last night," Jungkook groaned after a while, looking distressed.

"What is it?" Jimin asked, confused.

"A letter," Jungkook explained, trying to sound nonchalant. "I was going to pass it to you on prom, but you didn't go."

"Oh, I did want to attend but my mom booked a pretty early flight, so…"

"I know, I know, I asked Bambam," Jungkook says, waving it off. "I was telling myself that I need to pack the letter last night, I can't believe I forgot about it ugh."

"That's fine, you'll be going for the universities' open house events right? Just pass me there or something."

"Yeah, I guess I'll have to do that."

Jimin turned back, still dazzled because he couldn't believe that Jungkook actually meant it when he said he'll write him a letter. He was still trying to make sense of that when Yoongi hyung drags him up, saying that it's time they go to the hall and "accept whatever that comes our way".

Their old teachers ushered them into the hall with a mysterious smile on their faces, and then their principal proceeds to give a long drawn out speech as the everyone starts to get increasingly weary and impatient. Finally, the principal seems to get the idea and starts to give them some actual numbers.

"25% of the cohort has at least 6 distinctions, 40% of the cohort has at least 3 H2 distinctions… Best results ever recorded so far… Here's the percentage of distinction for every subject…"

Everyone gets highly restless as they try to calculate their grades given the released probability, and after painfully waiting for the principal to wrap up his spech, they were finally dismissed to collect their individual report card from their old homeroom teachers.

"Good luck," Yoongi hyung says sincerely, clapping Jimin on the back as everyone stands up and starts to organise themselves into lines in front of their teachers.

"You too," Jimin replies, giving Yoongi hyung a small smile before they parted to join the queues of their respective class.

It would be a lie to say that Jimin wasn't nervous. After all, this piece of paper is going to decide what kind of university he'll end up attending, oh god maybe he should have studied more -

When it was Jimin's turn, his teacher slides a bright yellow certificate over (faced down) and smiled kindly when she sees him hesitate. "Don't worry, Jimin. You did well."

Ms Lim's words gave him the confidence, so Jimin cautiously flips the certificate over and scans it.

B, A, B, A, B, A.

Jimin blinks furiously, once, twice, afraid that he was just seeing things because holy sh*t-

He was fist pumping the air and hugging Bambam while squealing before he knew it.

"Dad, my dad, I gotta call my dad and let him know," he blabbers. "How much rank point is this, oh my god I was expecting all Bs and Cs, what is this-"

"You'll have to calculate it later, but it's definitely no lower than 80," Bambam says. "You did really well!"

"80? Holy sh*t," Jimin half-screams as he waits for his dad to pick up, pacing out of sheer disbelief. "80?"

"Dad, daddy, oh my god," he blabbers the moment the call was connected. "I got all As and Bs, and Bambam says my rank point will be at least 80 out of 90-"

He's still hyper when he hung up after sharing the good news with his dad (who was in a rush to end the call so he can inform Jimin's mom who has been anxiously waiting since morning), finally feeling a wave of relief set in.

Like wow, he wasn't expecting this at all.

He was about to say that to Bambam when he noticed his friend slipping out of the hall, so he quickly followed after.

"Bam? You okay?" Jimin asked carefully when Bambam stopped in a corner.

"No?" Bambam says shakily, looking away.

"What's wrong? Are your results alright?"

Bambam pressed his lips into a thin line and refused to look at Jimin, but hesitantly shook his head.

"Oh no…" Jimin murmurs sadly, walking closer to put an arm on his friend's shoulder.

"I calculated my rank point, it's only 57," Bambam says, voice breaking. "I'll never get into university with that, Jim. 57 out of 90 is not going to bring me anywhere, I don’t have much options to begin with either…"

"Bam…" Jimin could only hug his friend when he saw tears welling up in Bambam's eyes, not knowing what else to do.

Bambam pulled away after he's calmed down, and declines the tissue that Jimin offered.

"Sorry," he mutters. "I wasn't going to cry."

"It's fine… I know you rarely cry, but it's better if you do sometimes," Jimin says gently. "So do you have a plan? 57 out of 90 may not be that low on the national level*, you never know. I think you still have a chance if you apply to the right places."

(*A/N: Bangtan High is one of the better schools so it's possible; in this case, Bambam's rank points were still pretty low, but he did get into university in the end, but it's some of the youngest schools around)

"I don't know, I'll figure out something after going to the open house events," Bambam says, sniffing.

"Yeah, you do that. Don't be so down, I'm sure it will work out."

Bambam was about to reply when he seemed to notice someone coming their way. Jimin turned to see Kyungsoo walking out of the corridor. He parts his lips, ready to say hi, when Kyungsoo only brushed past without looking at him. Hurt, Jimin slowly chewed his lips.

"So you and Kyungsoo are not talking anymore," Bambam observed.

"Well, not since I sent him that long letter," Jimin mutters. "I thought he could have at least said hi, but okay…"

"Maybe he's still healing and isn't ready," Bambam suggests.

"Yeah, maybe. Anyway, back to you… Have you told your parents already?"

"No, I didn't dare to… I know exactly what my mom will say."

"But you kind of have to tell them soon right?"

"I do, but I don't know how to…" Bambam mutters, distressed as he claws at his bag strap.

Jimin was about to give his friend some suggestions when he noticed Jackson coming out of the hall and jogging towards them.

"Bamz!"

Jimin eyes the situation and decides that it's prime time for him to exit, leaving the best friends some private space.

After leaving Bambam with Jackson, Jimin returns to the hall and runs into a few friends and old teachers so he spends time to chat with each of them. He spots Yoongi hyung with the literature people and Mrs Hong on the other side of the hall, so he heads there.

"Jim! How did you do!"

"Pretty ok, half As and half Bs," Jimin reports, eye shining. "And I got an A for math, can you believe it!"
"I got all As except for an E for *GP," Yoongi hyung says. "But wow, I'm more proud of your math grade than my entire report card put together"

(*A/N: GP refers to General Paper, it's basically English and critical thinking; Yoongi is a transfer student from abroad, English is not his mother tongue and hence GP has always been his worse subject; he's a high performer in every other subject though, and even takes a H3 subject)

"You should be, you singlehandedly improved my math by 6 grades, I'll have to buy to lunch someday to thank you," Jimin says happily. "Anyway, how did the rest do?"

"I've only spoken to Jongin and Chanyeol so far, they've both done pretty good. I also saw Jaebum and Xiumin earlier, I think they did okay too."

"Yeah, I spoke to Jaebum when I was looking for Namjoon, he seems pleased with his results."

"Speaking of the photogs people," Yoongi hyung says suddenly. "Have you spoken to Jungkook? I saw him earlier, he looks like he's been crying."

"Jungkook?"

"Yeah, he's there," Yoongi hyung says, pointing to the back of the hall. "He was with friends, so I didn't go and ask."

"Oh…"

"Go talk to him? I want to ask Mrs Hong about some scholarship stuff, so maybe meet me at 3.10 at the entrance, then we can leave together," Yoongi hyung offers, and Jimin nods readily.

"Jungkook?" Jimin asks uncertainly as he approached, because the boy actually looks small next to Seokjin. Upon hearing his voice, Jungkook looks up, and this is ridiculous, but the moment their eyes met, it's as if someone pressed the mute button and the noisy chatter in the hall just fades away into a low murmur and there's no one but them here. Seokjin has backed off quietly too without them noticing either.

"Hey," Jungkook started after a while of silence, since they were just staring at each other for quite some time. "How did you do?"

"I did fine, half As half Bs. You?"

"I fcked up," Jungkook replied calmly, showing Jimin his report card.

"How the fck did you get a S for GP," he blurts out after glancing through. "Even Yoongi hyung passed with an E."

(A/N: grades is like A > B > C > D > E > Sub-Pass > Ungraded, and the higher your grade the higher your rank points)

"I have no idea," Jungkook replies, shrugging. "Probably wrote the essay off topic, I don't know."

"Geez…" Jimin muttered shaking his head. "Well at least you got an A for math."

"It's also my only A on the entire report card," Jungkook points out drily. "Everything else is Cs and Ds."

"Yeah sure, but you're not a humanities student to begin with, so failing GP at most means you'll need to take that lame test in university," Jimin says calmly. "As a science student, your A in math is enough to open many doors so you'll be fine."

Jungkook hums in agreement, then looking Jimin in the eye. "That's all?"

"What else am I supposed to say?" Jimin asks back. "It's okay, you didn't do that bad, don't cry?"

Jungkook nodded slowly, chewing his lips harshly.

"Please, Jungkook, I know you aren't that affected," Jimin says, chuckling softly. "It may have been a little different from what you expected, but you're not terribly disappointed. You cried not because you're sad, but because your eyes have a mind of their own and you can't do anything about it especially when people comfort you."

That shuts Jungkook up all right, but he still made an oh-well face while gesturing subtly at his group of friends at the side.

"They meant well," Jimin deadpans. "Be grateful, you brat."

"I know they do," Jungkook says, sighing wearily. "But I told them I'm fine and they don't need to."

"Yeah, as if anyone will trust you with those red eyes and looking like a rabbit rather than a fox for once," Jimin counters, unimpressed.

"No one except you?" Jungkook asks, a hint of challenge in his voice.

"If you put it that way…" Jimin stalls, blinking as he tries to formulate a response. "Well, I don't know. I learnt that in two years, Jungkook. Someone else must have learnt that these two years too."

Jungkook falls silent momentarily, but keeps eye contact with Jimin stubbornly.

"But you're a different case all together," he insisted.

Jimin only smiles.

It has been two years, Jungkook. I would be a fool to believe that.

"Alright, if you say so," Reaching over to give Jungkook a quick hug, Jimin steals a look at the time. "I have to go, I've kept Yoongi hyung waiting. I'll see you around."

xxx

The next day, Jimin was trying to understand how scholarships worked through Sir. Google when Chrome asked to install updates. Deciding that he needed a break, he allows Chrome to relaunch while staring at the screen blankly, too brain dead to do anything else at the moment. In that hazy state, he grants random requests for Youtube, Facebook, and whatever sites to show pop-up notifications. He was, however, not expecting a Facebook notification to come through immediately.

Jungkook: Since when did you like BTS???? Anyway….you going NUS open house????

(A/N: throwback to Jungkook's text style: 4 punctuations, skips the space if he used an ellipsis, puts everything into one text, and used to put an s behind lol; I largely retained the way he texted even though seeing the red underlines below it when I beta is making my blood boil lol)

Jimin was about to question how the fck do you know about my new stan, when he remembers the sparse BTS videos he's shared on his timeline lately.

"Stalker…" he mutters lowly as he scrolls down his feed.

Jimin: Idk, since year 6 maybe… And lmao do you anyone that isn't going*

(*A/N: NUS is like the no1 university in Singapore, so like everyone goes to the open house - as opposed to how they will think twice if its Open House for the smaller/younger universities, like I mean I think I only went for 3 universities' open house)

Jungkook is a slow texter, so Jimin hums lowly while amusing himself with his old feed. Clicking open a post, he noticed how it was set to "only viewable by: GAY INNER CIRCLE THING".

Wow, it has been a while.

GAY INNER CIRCLE THING - an exclusive group* of 3 (Jungkook, Taehyung and Yixing) established as post setting by Jimin back in Year 3, because he spammed a lot of emotions on Facebook back then (oh the days when he's so fcking vocal about his mood swings) and he didn’t want every stranger to know what he's going through, so one giggling afternoon, Jimin created this group in the library, accepting Taehyung's suggestion as the name instantly, and since then it was his default post setting. And when Jimin gradually stopped using Facebook as a platform, it's never crossed his mind to change the setting back.

(*A/N: I have no idea if facebook still has this function, but back then you can create groups with specific friends in it, as an option as to see who can view your post; and no the gay isn't 'homoual gay', between Jungkook & Taehyung & Jimin they define gay as 'happy' but always used the alternative meaning to make jabs at each other, but ok tbh I can't understand why we were like that either HAHA WE WERE LIKE 15 AND WEIRD OK I'M SORRY)

Jungkook: Wow….so about the same time then….

Jungkook: Lols….true….anyways....i see if i can pass you the letter then....

Jimin raised an eyebrow as he typed dubiously.

Jimin: What same time

Jimin: And lol ok if we crash into each other again XD

The reply came a lot faster than Jimin was expecting.

Jungkook: As in i like them since year 6 as well larh...

Jungkook: Lols….i will text you when I reach….then see if can meet….

They chatted for a while more, mostly about BTS (where Jimin found out that Jungkook's bias was JK, go figures that golden maknae does seem like his kind). It wasn't anything significant, but it just reminded Jimin of how similar they were, and how similar they still can be.

"And I don't know, it's just overwhelming that he brought back all sorts of thoughts so easily," Jimin writes on neko language later that night when he was unable to sleep, and although he doesn't want to admit it, he was so damn curious of what Jungkook's letter was all about, it's actually keeping him up.

"I don’t know why you still have this effect on me, when honestly it's like I don’t care anymore, I sort of still do. Maybe because you were really the only one up till this point in my life that was once made so important, important enough to throw myself aside."

"Maybe I was never fully over you, just that I've allowed myself to live awesomely without your permanence."

-TBC-

Naggy author's time! I'm actually just writing this because I couldn't focus on the Heckscher-Ohlin model, so yes hope you guys will enjoy this.

This chapter is alternatively titled "when Facebook remembers", because like I was an avid user of Facebook in Y3/4, and it recorded all online interaction between me & Jungkook (I interact with Taehyung on facebook a lot too, but we used a different platform in Y1/2 so yeah). The quotes below the title were the exact words taken from the friendversary video thing that Facebook sent to my feed, it was actually received this year but the statistics are all the same since none of us used facebook after graduation lol. I was on facebook to look at the page of a csp program but got surprised with this video instead, and it gave me war flashbacks to the time when our facebook status would have like 80 (minimum, I'm not even kidding) comments because we never shut up in the comments. We had all kinds of weird names too like we'd put our middle name as "cookie-lover", "I-hate-Physics" etc, it was the dumbest lol.

And yes haha the A level results takes like 3 months to be out, because labour shortage in Cambridge, I have no idea. But it was a good break because I think my right wrist was semi-permanently sprained from using up like 3 pens within a month (one was half-used, the other 2 were completely new pens ok wtf) - the pain of a humanities student lol. I added a lot of in text A/N to explain how the stuff works, but if you want to clarify anything feel free to ask ok haha. And yes, the grades are all real, I had to dig out the statistics on my old school website XD But like tbh I think the whole "best performance the school has ever recorded" is a complete joke because they said it for every batch but I'm quite positive the 2014 batch did better than my batch and my batch did better than the 2016 batch LOL

Also no, I wasn't exaggerating when I said it felt like everything was on mute. The hall was super noisy at that time, everyone were either distraught or overjoyed, no in between. Jungkook's clique of friends were 10m away, hell HER PARENTS WERE THERE, I DIDN'T EVEN REALISE UNTIL I WAS LEAVING.

As for the fb message thing… it was super weird because I really don't check facebook very frequently, but Chrome updated, Facebook asked for permission to send desktop notification and I clicked ok before I realised what it meant and was too lazy to correct it, then Jungkook's message came in! Like wow I would have totally missed the message if I didn't grant permission (which I definitely wouldn't if I actually read what it's about, I turned off the function afterwards too lol).

And also just something really fascinating… I planned this story somewhere in 2015 December. I revamped the entire plot (it was initially something 20% based on my experience, but now it's like 80% My Life Story^TM), but I had decided who will be who back then already (I'll explain the choice of character in my final A/N when I complete this story, which is in 2 chapters & 1 epilogue, hopefully it won't drag anymore like I added another chapter because it's too long to fit in one). I had no idea Jungkook-friend stanned BTS, and who her bias was. Taehyung-friend wasn't into BTS until later as well, and her bias turned out to be Taehyung. Like its just kind of cool everyone's character matched their bias HAHA ok don't mind me.

Anyway next chapter you'll get to know what Jungkook's letter was all about - that was actually a turning point for this fic's planning, because when I planned for this fic in Feb (after the dream, I revamped the initial plot and decided to make it more personal and honest because I felt like it was the right time), the ending was planned for already. Then this letter came along, and things happened afterwards, it actually twisted the ending around a lot. So yes, this definitely isn't your usual angst LOL. The old ending was supposed to be a highkey bittersweet, but still kind of lives up to the angst tag, but the new one is not quite like that. I may actually post the old ending as well, not sure. I think I wrote it out somewhere?

Ok sorry this got so long lmao. Until next time :D