With the competition right around the corner, Jimin had little time to dwell on the purple strings. He also didn’t mention it to Taehyung, mostly because he had a feeling he knew what Taehyung would say, and he didn’t want to hear it. Jimin wanted to think he had the wrong meaning for the purple string, that it didn’t mean distaste… but he couldn’t think of any other meaning for the string. 

He recalled the day he figured out the meaning of the purple string vividly. One of his dad’s coworkers had come to visit and Jimin had been about ten at the time. Jimin had noticed the purple string right away since it had been attached to the person’s heart. It was around this age that Jimin had also begun to understand how to discern strings apart. He’d been practicing with Jihyun’s strings and he was able to pick up whichever string he was interested in despite them being the same color. He’d also developed the ability to tell when someone was talking about a particular relationship that was displayed with a string. The string symbolizing the relationship a person was talking about would usually glimmer in a certain way that made it look like it was water reflecting sunlight. It was very slight, but over time Jimin had been getting better at discerning when it was happening. 

As such he was able to tell right away when his dad’s coworker began talking about the person he had the purple string with. Jimin knew from the tone of voice the coworker used, that he was angry, and didn’t like the person he was talking about. But it was when he heard his dad ask, “why do you hate them so much?” that Jimin knew he’d just learned the meaning of the purple string. The coworker hadn’t given Jimin’s dad a reason but had said he had a very good reason to hate the person. It was because of that event, Jimin just couldn’t see any other meaning for the purple string now, no matter how much he was wishing he had the wrong meaning. And so to keep his mind off of it, he focused on his dancing and preparing for the competition.

“Ok everyone, it’s time to really double down on your practices, if you haven’t already. The competition is in two weeks and I’m sure you all want to win. And since exams are thankfully over, you can put in as much time as possible towards practicing. I want you all to live, eat, breath dance, understood?” Mrs. Lee instructed and all the students nodded.

“Good, today I want to see the duets perform. As usual, I’ll call you up one by one, but this time you’ll be performing on the stage. When you aren’t performing for me, just practice between your groups or on your solo pieces out here,” Mrs. Lee said and the class responded with affirmation. “First duet I want to see, Jungkook and Jimin,” Mrs. Lee called out and then made a movement with her hand indicating they were dismissed to practice. Jungkook and Jimin traded glances and nods before getting onto the stage and into position.

Mrs. Lee was situated in the auditorium seats and beside her were some of the other staff from school.

“Before you start, have you titled your piece?” Mrs. Lee asked.

“Yes, we decided to go with Black or White,” Jimin answered and Mrs. Lee nodded as she wrote it down.

“Alright, show me the final product,” Mrs. Lee demanded and the two males nodded. Mrs. Lee motioned for someone to start the music and once the song started flowing through the speakers, the two males began performing. They moved in sync and along with the rhythm, not missing a step or beat. They discreetly watched each other to make sure they were on track and smiled as they enjoyed themselves and flowed through the movements. When the song came to an end the two panted heavily but were smiling at one another as they stood in their final poses. They looked at one another again before focusing their attention on Mrs. Lee to see what her thoughts were.

“That was brilliant. I’m impressed. Perform like this at the competition and I have no doubt you’ll be one of the top performances,” Mrs. Lee praised.

“I kn