Just as Yoongi wanted to see Jimin smiling, Taehyung wanted to see Jimin dancing. So, one evening, when Taehyung was going home from an extended basketball practice and he saw Jimin on the street in front of him, he went into stalker mode and followed him till he reached a place Taehyung assumed was the studio where Jimin practiced.

After 15 minutes of trying to figure out how to enter without being noticed, Taehyung dropped everything and went in without caring what would happen. He followed the music and ended up in the doorway of a large room with mirrors covering a wall from one side to the other and from top to bottom. There was only Jimin there and he had his back turned towards Taehyung.

Suddenly, Jimin started dancing, alternating sharp movements with wavy ones, each one flowing naturally from the one before it and no part of his body keeping still for even a second.

Taehyung had to plant both hands over his mouth to make sure he wouldn’t scream from getting too hyped up. He noticed Jimin was dancing with a blindfold on and without a mask, so Taehyung quietly moved to sit on the floor between Jimin and the wall-wide mirror so that he could see him from up close.

When Jimin finished, he leaned forward and rested with his hands on his knees, heavily breathing in and out as a few sweat drops fell to the floor from his chin. Taehyung couldn’t keep it in anymore and started clapping. Jimin jumped back from the surprise, then pulled his blindfold to cover the lower half of his face and allow himself to see again.

T: “Bravo! Whoooo, you go, Jimin! That was awesome! Spectacular. Absolutely, undeniably, super cool!”

J: “Tae… what are you doing here?”

T: “Oh, I actually live around this area. I saw you come in here and followed to watch the show. You were so cool, Jiminie! How can you dance blindfolded like that? Can you really not see through it?”

J: “Ah… there’s that.” Jimin said, pointing at the mirror behind Taehyung.

T: “Mirror? What’s with the mirror?”

J: “If I don’t dance with a blindfold on while I’m here, I end up seeing myself in the mirror. Seeing myself… with this ugly, monstrous face, I… I end up so disgusted with myself and even scaring myself, so… I can’t focus on the dance anymore. The mirror’s there for you to constantly check your form and stuff like that, but what I get is a reality check. I just see something hideous moving around and I lose my motivation to dance. At least… with the blindfold on, I feel like I’m escaping this cursed body and being free. But, since there’s such a high risk of bumping into others with the blindfold on, I can’t dance with the group I used to dance with anymore. It’s also really difficult to dance with a blindfold on, but it was the best solution I could find to keep on dancing. Luckily, my ex-teacher lets me practice here in this way after the classes are over and everyone else goes home.”

T: “But…”

Taehyung quickly realized that there was no use arguing with Jimin again over how he looked and perceived himself, since they had gotten nowhere whenever they tried and Jimin was still here, shouldering a lot of sadness and Taehyung wanted to do something about that, not make Jimin feel even less understood.

T: “But, you know, dancing with a blindfold on looks pretty cool and, you couldn’t see me here, but I was gawking the whole time.”

J: “Thanks, Tae.”

T: “I’m just speaking the truth. Like I always do. Anyway, you should really enter a competition and dance like that. I bet you’ll blow any jury’s minds.”

J: “I can’t.”

T: “Why not?”

J: “Since my face turned really monstrous like this, I’m afraid of even standing in front of many people. I automatically feel their looks as scrutinizing and I feel them like they’re actually scraping against my skin and hurting me. Even standing in front of the class is torture for me. I actually vomited before history class when I knew the teacher was gonna call me up front because I was dreading it so much. I can’t go up on a stage even if it’s to save my life. Even if I’m blindfolded and I can’t see the people around me, I know that they can see me. Which is what’s the most frightening.”

T: “I get it, but…”

Taehyung stopped again when he noticed a slight change in Jimin’s eyes. Jimin had given up hope so completely that he almost looked at Taehyung with pity for trying to find some hope to cling onto. Jimin noticed how sad his friend had gotten, even though Taehyung was sad over Jimin being sad, and Jimin didn’t want to leave him like that, so he said:

J: “Hey, Tae. Want me to teach you some basic dance steps? Maybe you can use them to impress Jungkook one day.”

T: “Pff! By the time I’ll get those basic steps down, Jungkook will have mastered a ballet and breakdance fusion. But, since I have such a cool teacher willing to teach me for free, I’ll give it a go.”

Taehyung made Jimin laugh several times throughout that evening. The first times unwillingly, since there was a huge leap from basketball to ballroom and Taehyung stumbled over his own feet in trying to take that leap. But, after making Jimin laugh a few times in that manner, Taehyung decided to drop investing his time in seriously learning dance steps and invest it instead in making his friend’s stomach and jaw hurt from the laughter rather than let his heart hurt over not being able to follow his passion.

But dancing was not the only thing perceiving himself as hideous made Jimin give up on.

One day, as Jimin was walking down the hallway and crouched down to tie his shoelaces, Yoongi approached him and greeted him. Jimin stood up to do the same, but he had stood up a bit too fast and weakness washed over him, making his vision go dark, his balance and awareness disappear. Yoongi noticed Jimin was fainting in front of him and quickly moved to catch him before he fell.

When Yoongi finally got to the nurse’s office carrying an unconscious Jimin, the nurse had to wonder for a second which one of the two boys needed emergency care faster, because Yoongi looked like he would require an oxygen tank after his small body struggled to carry another small but muscular body all the way to the nurse’s office.

The nurse decided to take care of Jimin first and, after she checked him and hooked an IV drip to his arm, left Yoongi to watch over him as she had to go to the gym and do check-ups and measurements for another class.

After the nurse left and Yoongi calmed down, his eyes fell upon Jimin’s uncovered face and he realized this was his first time seeing him without the mask. This was the first time anyone in that whole school saw Jimin’s completely uncovered face, but Yoongi didn’t know that.

All he could do was stare for several minutes, even though he had once told Jimin that he wouldn’t do that. Yoongi expected to see at least one scar, skin flaw or structural anomaly, but there was nothing like that at all. He suspected that the reasons behind Jimin viewing himself as unacceptably ugly were mostly in his head, but he expected there to be at least one palpable reason on his head, specifically under the mask, behind it as well. However, aside from Jimin’s face looking completely normal, he was actually attractive. At least, that’s how Yoongi saw him.

For quite some time, which felt like only a few minutes for Yoongi, he stood and stared at Jimin, trying to wrap his head around what could have made Jimin view himself in such a negative light, but Yoongi couldn’t actually read minds, so he couldn’t reach a conclusion.

At one point, Jimin stirred and started opening his eyes. The very next second, he sat up abruptly, the motion making his head spin, so he cradled his forehead in the palm of his hand, the one on the side where Yoongi sat and, luckily, not the one in which the needle was stuck in.

Y: “Morning, sunshine. Careful how you move, cause you’ve got on IV drip attached to your left arm.”

Jimin looked towards Yoongi, then to the IV drip as his vision cleared. Then his right hand started frantically searching for something on his face that wasn’t there before he panicked and pulled the sheet that covered his body over his head as well.

J: “Where… where’s my mask?”

Y: “You know…” Yoongi started, intending to change the subject. “If you wanna be a ghost that badly, it’s better if you just made a few holes in that sheet rather than starve yourself to death.”

J: “Wh-What?”

Y: “The nurse said you fainted cause you have insufficiency of vitamins and other such stuff, probably from not eating properly. Care to clarify that?”

J: “Ah… It’s just a diet I’m trying.”

Y: “What kind of diet exactly?”

J: “I try to eat only breakfast. I tell my parents I’m still full from having a big lunch so they’d let me skip dinner and I tell Tae I’ve had too much for breakfast or I’m saving room for dinner so he won’t bug me about eating lunch. Please don’t tell him any of this.”

Y: “Even if I don’t tell him anything, he’ll likely figure it out if you’re bullting him on a daily basis.”

J: “I’ll explain things to him then. This diet has a double advantage, so it’s worth it. I get to save up my lunch money for plastic surgery, since my parents won’t support me on that matter no matter how much I try to reason with them.”

Y: “I don’t usually take the side of adults, but your parents aren’t unreasonable to not let their high schooler son make plans for plastic surgery.”

J: “Both you and they don’t know how it is to live life being horrified of your own reflection.”

Y: “Do you see someone really fat in the reflection? Cause I really don’t think you should try such a drastic diet.”

J: “I’ve always been a bit chubby and a little extra weight would go straight to my face and make it rounder. So I thought that, if I lost weight, the swelling of my face might decrease as well. So far, I lost weight, but the swelling hasn’t decreased.”

Yoongi really didn’t know what swelling Jimin was talking about and he really didn’t understand why Jimin thought the way he did, but he understood how these types of thought patterns worked and he was getting slightly worried.

Y: “Are you sure this is meant to be a solution to an issue and not a form of self-punishment for being ugly?”

Contrary to his own expectation, Jimin felt relieved to hear Yoongi acknowledge his ugliness because there was finally someone he could talk to who wouldn’t deny it, like Taehyung and Jimin’s parents did, and who wouldn’t mock or be repulsed by it, like mostly everyone seemed to be doing in Jimin’s mind. But Jimin didn’t feel like talking about it at the moment, so he outstretched his hand from under the sheet towards Yoongi and asked:

J: “Can you give me my mask please?”

Y: “I’ll give it to you… if you come out from under the sheet and show me a smile.” Yoongi said playfully, dangling with the mask in his hands.

Jimin, however, did not see anything fun in the idea. He shook his head under the sheet to relate his refusal to Yoongi and also to try and shake off the anxiety building up inside him at the thought of deliberately revealing his completely uncovered hideous face.

Y: “Oh, come on. No matter how a face looks, a smile’s always gonna make it look better.”

J: “Not in my case.” Jimin replied, thinking about his decaying teeth in between brown and chapped lips.

Y: “Don’t you want your mask back?” Yoongi pressed it.

Jimin retracted his extended hand inside the sheet to pull out the needle before making a run for the door, still completely covered in the sheet. He couldn’t see where he was going, so he bumped into something and fell down on his knees. Yoongi came after him and sounded agitated while he said:

Y: “Don’t just run off covered in a sheet like that. You’re not actually a ghost. You’re gonna bump into objects instead of passing through them and you might really get hurt.”

Jimin didn’t answer and Yoongi got even more agitated when he saw his shoulders shaking under the sheet and he could hear Jimin’s weird breathing. So he crouched down and got under the sheet with Jimin, seeing his crying face get startled and back away at the sight of Yoongi so close.

Y: “Oh, ! Don’t cry.” Yoongi said as his hand went up to wipe the tears from under Jimin’s right eye.

J: “Don’t touch me!” Jimin yelled, slamming Yoongi’s hand away.

Y: “S-Sorry, I…”

J: “I still haven’t gotten around to confirming if this is a disease or not.” Jimin kept on yelling as he tried wiping the palm of the hand that had touched him with the hem of his hoodie. “It might be contagious. What’ll you do if you end up looking like me?”

Y: “I… wouldn’t mind looking like you at all.” Yoongi said seriously.

Jimin stopped the movements of his hands, and any movement at all, and his eyes stopped shedding tears. He couldn’t believe the absurdity of what he had just heard. He checked Yoongi’s expression and, when he saw Yoongi had been honest and serious about what he had just said, Jimin felt like his mind had just been blown and the only thing running through it was the question of whether Yoongi was actually insane.

Yoongi could tell Jimin was questioning Yoongi’s sanity in his mind and the whole thing suddenly seemed so amusing to Yoongi that he started laughing as he continued talking:

Y: “What? I really wouldn’t. But, if I had a face like yours…” he started, placing the mask in Jimin’s hand and squeezing it between his own hands. “I wouldn’t hide it behind a mask.”

Yoongi had that pure, no ill intentions and no fakery smile on, so Jimin didn’t question the truthfulness of Yoongi’s words but he still questioned the workings of Yoongi’s mind. Just then, the door to the nurse’s office suddenly opened and in came an agitated Taehyung yelling “Jiminieeee!” before he tripped over the two-people-on-their-knees-covered-with-a-sheet lump in the middle of the floor and fell over, crushing Yoongi underneath him. The motion pulled the sheet off of Jimin and he swiftly placed his face mask back on while Yoongi cursed Taehyung from underneath him.

T: “Jimin. I heard you fainted and were brought here. I couldn’t wait till recess to come check up on you, so I… Wait a minute… Have you been crying?”

J: “Uhm…”

T: “Yoongi, you bastard!”

The nurse came back to her office only to find two boys fighting while her patient struggled to keep those two apart and appease them. She quickly joined in and went to pull Yoongi back while Jimin pulled Taehyung in the opposite direction, but the two kept yelling at each other.

T: “WHY DID YOU HAVE TO BE SUCH AN AND MAKE JIMIN CRY, HUH?”

Y: “I DIDN’T MEAN TO, I DIDN’T EXPECT IT TO HAPPEN AND I’M SORRY ABOUT IT!”

T: “I’M NOT THE ONE YOU SHOULD BE APOLOGIZING TO, YOU KNOW!”

Y: “I KNOW! I’M SORRY, JIMIN!”

Yoongi suddenly yelled the last part towards Jimin, making him jump a little. The very next second, Yoongi realized he had startled and yelled at the person he was supposed to apologize to, so he fumbled with his words trying and failing to explain himself, before he gave up and let his head fall into the palm of his hand. The tension cleared up and Jimin started laughing while saying:

J: “It’s fine, Yoongi. I’m so relieved to know I’m not the only weird one here.”

There was no dissing in Jimin’s tone. In his mind, Jimin viewed himself as a freak, thought Yoongi might indeed have a few loose screws and he did actually feel relieved that a person like Yoongi was around.

Yoongi saw how Jimin’s eyes disappeared while he laughed and he realized he wanted to see Jimin’s smile and laugh now more than ever, but he would have to find better ways of achieving that.

It slightly bothered Yoongi that Taehyung seemed to be able to achieve that easily and naturally. Like one day, when Yoongi was talking to Jungkook in the hallway and, behind Jungkook, he noticed Taehyung with his arm flung over Jimin’s shoulders walking up towards them. Taehyung said something to Jimin and the latter laughed with his hand over his mouth, even though there was that ever present face mask there hiding his smile. Taehyung then noticed Jungkook’s back and quickly turned the both of them around to whisper something to Jimin. Yoongi said “Incoming.” to Jungkook and the latter turned around only to furrow his eyebrows.

T: “Jungkook’s right there. This is an unexpected chance. What should I say?” Taehyung whispered to Jimin.

J: “Uhm… Store! That store you mentioned.” Jimin whispered back.

T: “Jimine, you’re a genius!”

Taehyung turned them back around and continued approaching Jungkook, addressing him after they got near enough:

T: “Hey, Jungkook! Good timing. I just got word that the comic book store near the cinema received a lot of Avengers merch, including Iron Man socks.”

Ju: “Yeah, I know. I already shopped there.”

That attempt failed faster that Taehyung expected and he was in mid-deflating process when Jimin elbowed him and whispered “Movie.” to Taehyung, thinking that only he had heard him.

T: “Oh! Too bad. I wanted to go with you since there’s a horror movie playing at that cinema and I thought maybe we could catch it. I heard it’s pretty scary, so no one else wants to go, but I guess maybe you’d be scared too.”

Ju: “Who’d be scared again?” Jungkook asked while everyone else could practically see the aura around him turn into flames.

Jimin hid his face behind Taehyung to laugh. He knew from both Yoongi and Taehyung that Jungkook was indeed easy to provoke and many people often tried in various ways but only Taehyung had a 100% success rate, probably because he’d use the most childish of tactics.

To the disappointment of both Taehyung and Jungkook, neither of them got even remotely scared and it wasn’t because the movie did a bad job at having that effect on people. So they both agreed to watch another horror movie right after, which was supposedly scarier, but they both fell asleep in their seats.

The next day, Jungkook had been yawning continuously for a couple of hours, so Yoongi asked him:

Y: “What the hell happened last night?”

Ju: “We stayed for a second movie and got kicked out of the cinema at closing time after we fell asleep during it. We didn’t get scared one bit, so Taehyung suggested we go through the cemetery on our way home… well, my way home, since he insisted he’d walk me till there like I’m a kid or something. Anyway, that cemetery was pretty big and we got lost. It took forever to get out and my parents scolded me for about an hour after I got home and…”

Jungkook stopped because his phone vibrated after receiving a text message and he checked it.

Ju: “I found something way scarier to do tonight if you’re up for it.” Jungkook read Taehyung’s message out loud then replied both through text and voice: “Nope.”

Seconds later, his phone vibrated again and he read the text out loud this time too:

Ju: “Haha. You scared?” Jungkook read before his aura combusted again and he practically yelled in the reply he wrote as he did in reality: “Stop assuming I’m scared! Fine! I’m in for tonight. Let’s see what you got. If it’s not scary, then don’t waste my time with this kinda crap again. There. Send.” Jungkook said before slamming his phone on his textbook and continuing to stare at it with his arms crossed over his chest like he was waiting for something.

Something did happen, namely he got another text message from Taehyung that read “Don’t count on me not trying to waste your time again.” which Jungkook checked before he slammed his phone on the textbook again and let out a heavy sigh.

Ju: “God… He’s so persistent!”

Y: “Guess that’s just how he is with everyone he likes...”

Ju: “… Everyone?”

Yoongi understood what Jungkook wanted clarification on, so he told him how Taehyung and Jimin became such close friends. After he finished his story, both Jungkook and Yoongi agreed it was a good thing that Jimin and Taehyung had each other, but they both felt a tinge of bitterness they couldn’t shake off, even though Yoongi was slightly more aware of what the cause of that bitterness was and how unjust it was to feel it.

While Yoongi dealt with it by telling himself to be less immature, Jungkook went in the completely opposite direction. The next time he saw Taehyung and Jimin in the hallway, he went straight up to Taehyung and said:

Ju: “Hey, Taehyung. 50 laps around the school after classes are over. Whoever can’t do it has to give the winner his lunch money for the whole following week. You in?”

T: “Huh? What?”

Ju: “Can’t do it?”

T: “I’m in.”

Jimin knew Taehyung would do it even if it killed him so, after classes were over and Taehyung bolted out of the classroom, Jimin waited for everyone to leave, then went to get a bunch of water bottles and exited the school. He saw Jungkook resting with his back bent and his hands on his knees, gasping and sweating buckets, and approached him asking:

J: “Want some water?”

After asking, Jimin suddenly thought that Jungkook might not want water or anything from someone who looked like and was considered a freak, especially since they barely ever talked to each other, but Jungkook snatched the water bottle from Jimin’s hand, downed half of it and poured the rest over his head, wiping his face with his hand afterwards.

Ju: “Thanks.”

J: “You want another one?”

Ju: “Nah. I’m good.”

Even though Jungkook said that, to Jimin it looked like Jungkook was about to faint with the way he was breathing. Jimin figured that Jungkook might have run his laps at high speed to make sure his stamina would last until he completed them.

J: “Uhm, where’s Tae?”

Ju: “Just passed by. On his 38^th lap.”

J: “Oh… Why are you suddenly doing these laps though?”

Ju: “It’s got nothing to do with you.”

J: “Ah, sorry.”

Jungkook realized his remark came across more aggressive than he intended and he didn’t actually have anything against Jimin, so he tried clarifying:

Ju: “Actually, it does. But don’t tell Taehyung that.”

J: “I… wouldn’t know what to tell him even if I wanted to. I’m confused as hell.”

Ju: “Do you mind staying that way?”

J: “Do I have a choice?”

Ju: “Please?”

J: “Uhm… okay.”

Ju: “Thanks.”

It took little to no effort for Jimin to stay confused regarding Jungkook and what the laps had to do with him or even why Jungkook seemed to get restless as Taehyung had still not appeared from behind the school’s corner. When he finally did, he looked like he would spit his lungs out at any second, but he still kept on running.

J: “Go, Tae! You can do it!” Jimin cheered from the side, making Taehyung show him a thumbs up.

Ju: “At this speed you’ll never finish the laps, you know?” Jungkook also shouted from the side, before he crossed his arms over his chest and mumbled to himself: “Is your motivation really this weak, damn it…”

That day, Jimin finally understood why even Yoongi, who was sharp and Jungkook’s classmate, and even Taehyung, who had had numerous interactions with Jungkook, had a hard time figuring out what Jungkook was thinking.

During the remaining laps Taehyung ran slower and slower, Jungkook was too restless to sit down like Jimin did and wait for Taehyung to appear from around the corner. Whenever Taehyung appeared from around the corner, relief was evident on Jungkook’s face. Whenever Taehyung passed by, Jungkook shouted something slightly mean towards him that had the effect of keeping Taehyung going. Jimin really couldn’t tell if Jungkook wanted to win or not.

J: “How come you don’t, uhm, monitor his laps?”

Ju: “You mean like making sure he doesn’t stop or turn to walking along the way?”

J: “Yeah.”

Ju: “He’s a serial-cheater, but he won’t cheat this time.”

J: “How are you so sure?”

Ju: “Cause I challenged him this time around.”

After Taehyung finished his 50^th and final lap, he collapsed on the ground. Jimin ran towards him and, out of the corner of his eye, he saw that Jungkook wanted to do the same, but he stopped and just stood there for a while, till he turned around and left without saying a word.

As Jimin fanned Taehyung who was on his third bottle of water, he asked his friend:

J: “Tae, did you cheat at any point during these laps?”

T: “You mean by stopping or walking along the way?”

J: “Yeah.”

T: “I thought about it, but I didn’t. It’s the first time Jungkook challenged me and I didn’t wanna win by cheating.”

J: “Aha… Tae, I really don’t understand Jungkook.”

T: “Welcome to my world!”

Taehyung could be pretty persistent, as many people around him already knew, so just as he didn’t give up running during the laps around the school, he also didn’t give up on the idea of getting Jimin to enter a dance competition.

One day, when Yoongi and Jungkook were leaving school, Taehyung spotted them and marched towards them, looking like he meant business. Jungkook tensed up even before Taehyung reached near him and started speaking:

T: “Jungkook, come with me to the arcade. There’s a game that I bet… Wait, wrong objective for today. Yoongi.”

Y: “No.”

T: “I didn’t even say anything yet.”

Y: “Whatever it’s gonna be, no.”

T: “You always babble about being good at convincing people to do something, right?”

Y: “Uhm, yes…”

T: “Great! Come with me and convince Jimin to enter a dance competition.”

Y: “Wha-aaaaaah!”

Yoongi didn’t even get the chance to finish his question before he was dragged away by Taehyung with too much force to oppose it. Jungkook followed after them and Taehyung explained along the way how good Jimin was at dancing and why he couldn’t properly pursue his passion. The three of them reached the dance studio right when one of Jimin’s blindfolded routines was starting. Taehyung gestured towards the other two to stay silent and move towards a spot with a better view. Jimin danced in a breathtaking way because, at the end, Taehyung had to slam the back of his fist into Yoongi’s stomach to get him to start breathing again. The noise they made reached Jimin’s ear when the music was over and he pulled his blindfold over the lower part of his face while asking:

J: “Tae? Is that you?”

Jimin was startled to see Yoongi and Jungkook there as well, but he was still relieved it wasn’t someone he didn’t know and didn’t get along with.

T: “Jimin. I have returned to support my vision of you joining a dance competition.”

J: “Not this again, Tae…”

T: “No, not this again. You’ve already heard and refuted all of my arguments so, today, I brought in an expert at convincing people. Take it from here, Yoongi.” Taehyung said, shoving Yoongi in front of Jimin.

But Yoongi was still speechless after seeing Jimin dance. He couldn’t curse at Taehyung after getting hit in the stomach and he couldn’t utter a word now even though his mouth was hanging open. All he could do was show a thumbs up and say:

Y: “G-Great dancing.”

Taehyung’s face-palm echoed in the entire studio. Jimin brought a hand to the back of his head and, slightly embarrassed, said:

J: “T-Thanks.”

T: “Jimin. Look at this. You’ve incapacitated my expert. You’re dancing’s that good and you just performed in front of three people like that. If you just forget about the jury and the audience being there, you can perform on stage. The blindfold should help you with that.”

J: “It won’t work, Tae.”

T: “How do you know it won’t?”

J: “I tried going from the gate to our classroom with my eyes closed once. I felt when I was stared at and, each time I opened my eyes to check, there really were people around me staring and snickering.”

T: “Isn’t that because you had your eyes clo…”

Ju: “You actually did that with your eyes closed?” Jungkook asked in amazement, interrupting Taehyung. “So cool!”

Jungkook then tried going from one end of the studio to the other with his eyes closed but discovered half way through that his mind had begun playing tricks on him, making him feel like the ground had become uneven or that he was closer to walls than he actually was.

T: “Come to think of it, I haven’t tried doing something like this yet either, although I see you do it all the time.” Taehyung said before he attempted the same experiment Jungkook did and reaching the same conclusions about how tricky the mind can be.

They tried different things. Taehyung demonstrated some of the movements Jimin did with a blindfold on and they tried recreating them with their eyes closed. As expected, Jungkook at first, then improved at an alarming rate, which made Taehyung concentrate really hard on getting the movements, positions and timing down right as well.

J: “Competition sure does some people good. Tae never concentrated this much when I was teaching him.”

Y: “Speaking of competition, you should really enter one.”

J: “I don’t want to. I don’t wanna tell this to Tae and make him more upset, but if someone like me, with such a deformed face, entered a competition of any kind, the jury might give me first place out of pity or charity and, even if that’s not the case, my winning might still leave that impression. And I don’t want that.”

Y: “Then you just have to be so good that your winning will not give anyone that impression, not even you.”

J: “I’m not at that level.”

Y: “I beg to differ.”

J: “You don’t know dancing.”

Y: “But I know music.”

J: “So?”

Y: “Objectively speaking, I know music and I can judge it pretty well. Yet, somehow, right before I perform something I’ve composed, it suddenly seems pathetic to me. I’d get so nervous about presenting my pathetic work to people that I would throw up before it and I even ran away one time. But when I judged my work in other circumstances, it didn’t seem pathetic. So, now, before any performance, I tell myself – it! I worked hard on this. I’m gonna go show it to the world even if they literally throw rotten tomatoes at me afterwards. – and performing becomes easier after that. It also becomes better. I just have to remind myself that something I’ve worked on can’t be pathetic since I’m not an idiot and I’ve worked hard on it.”

J: “I’m happy for you, Yoongi.”

Y: “Wait. I haven’t gotten to my point yet. My point was that, when you go up on stage you don’t have to think of it as presenting yourself to an audience, but as presenting your dance to them. And, since I can tell you work hard for it, your dance won’t be anything short of impressive. Even if you can’t love yourself or you don’t want to show yourself to the world, you can still love the hard work you put into your craft and what results from it and want to show that off to the world.”

Yoongi then turned towards Jimin and found him looking at him, which wasn’t unexpected, but this time Jimin held Yoongi’s gaze and didn’t turn away, making Yoongi feel slightly nervous.

J: “You… would be great at writing self-help books.”

Y: “Screw you!”

Jimin burst out into laughter and Yoongi suddenly felt like a bunch of chimes went off near his ears. Jimin’s voice usually sounded sweet to him, but his laughter sounded heavenly. Yoongi shook his head fast to rid himself of the feeling that angels were coming to take his soul away.

J: “If I entered a competition, this would be the dance I’d show to people.” Jimin said to Yoongi, before he went to change the music, went to the center of the studio and pulled the blindfold up over his eyes.

The other three cleared the floor and stood close to the walls to give Jimin all the space he needed. The beat changed and Jimin suddenly started dancing. His friends were left to wonder if humans could actually move the way Jimin did, especially with one of his senses cut off.

When the dance was over, Yoongi was glad his whole body had stiffened up because he was sure that, if it had been able to move freely, he would have jumped Jimin and begged to let him kiss him. Taehyung and Jungkook were near the opposite wall, eagerly clapping as Jimin took a bow towards them, so this time Yoongi hit himself in the stomach to start breathing again.

T: “Awesome! Fantastic! That’s my best friend! That’s my awesome best friend! So damn cooooool!”

Taehyung was raving to the point that it annoyed Jungkook and he slammed the back of his fist into Taehyung’s stomach. It was a light hit, but it still made Taehyung choke and stop. Jungkook then turned around and left the studio without a word. Jimin suddenly understood what was up with Jungkook, but he had promised him to remain ignorant, so he only laughed when Taehyung asked what was wrong with Jungkook.

Yoongi also stood up to leave, but first stopped near Jimin, to place a hand on his shoulder and say:

Y: “You’re amazing.”

Yoongi then left and Jimin’s heart started beating even more rapidly than after finishing the strenuous dance. He didn’t know how, but he felt those words run like a shiver throughout his body and over his skin, possibly causing some changes along the way.

Things were going well for Jimin generally. He was still hyperaware of his hideous appearance, but he didn’t let it bother him quite so much as in the beginning. It really helped that he had nice people around him that not only accepted him as he was, but even saw the good parts in him. He was even handling the looks, the whispering and the term “freak” when it was thrown at him better than he did in the beginning and he didn’t need nearly as many breathing breaks as he did during the first few months of his first year in high school.

There was only one thing that had increasingly been bothering Jimin ever since the start. He could handle people silently or openly mocking him, but it had started being unbearable whenever Taehyung was mocked along with him. Jimin continuously thought about what he should do and, since Taehyung would only tell him to not worry about it, Jimin considered asking Yoongi for advice.

One day, however, as Jimin was coming back from the bathroom, he saw Taehyung being ganged up on by three other guys and he could hear Taehyung was being mocked in a very rude way for being so close with the “freak”. Taehyung talked back rather calmly, although his expression clearly showed he was angry. He didn’t lose his cool even when he was shoved into the wall after saying something that pissed one of the guys off, but Jimin panicked. And he panicked even more when he saw that guy raise his fist to punch Taehyung.

Before he could do so, his wrist had been caught by Jungkook who pulled it back in a way that caused considerable pain. Jungkook was widely known for being a genius in many things aside from social interactions, very skilled in martial arts and having a short temper, so no one wanted to mess with him seriously, even though he was younger than anyone in that high school. The three guys backed off and left Taehyung and Jungkook alone, at least for the moment.

T: “Thanks… But you really don’t need to step up for me in this kinda situation.”

J: “I know. You’re just lucky I hate people like that and I happen to pass by a lot whenever you’re in this kinda situation.” Jungkook said, showing a cheeky smile, patting Taehyung on the shoulder and turning to walk away.

Taehyung had a content smile on his face and his anger dissipated completely. Jimin, however, was suddenly flooded with many negative emotions following Jungkook’s last statement. It implied that this had not been the first time Taehyung had gotten into trouble because he was close to Jimin, even when he wasn’t around Jimin.

Jimin felt so much guilt he couldn’t breathe. He went into the music room and spent a whole hour there, skipping his last class, and still couldn’t find any relief. Taehyung had been nothing but an amazing friend to him and Jimin didn’t want him to go through any more mocking, and possibly even dangerous situations, because of it. So he took a deep breath and made a hard decision that he was going to stick to no matter what.

The next day, Taehyung asked Jimin where he had disappeared to during their last class and why didn’t he answer Taehyung’s calls and messages. Jimin told him they needed to talk so, during the next recess, they went outside and, with a heavy heart but a firm expression, Jimin said:

J: “Taehyung, let’s stop being friends.”

T: “St… What?”

J: “I was alone before you kept on coming to me and lately I’ve been missing that. Also, you’ve been really annoying. You keep bugging me with the dance competition, you won’t take no for an answer and you even got other people involved. You do a bunch of stuff like that and I’ve had it. It’s really annoying me, so let’s stop being friends before we really piss each other off.”

T: “But… but, wait a minute. You can’t be serious about this.”

J: “I am serious.”

T: “Look – I’ve known you for quite a few months now. This is not something you would say. What’s happening? What’s ACTUALLY happening?”

J: “How do you know you really know me and it wasn’t just fakery? Nothing’s “actually” happening. You’ve just been annoying me. You’re annoying now by continuously insisting in not believing what I’m saying. You have your own ideas and you persistently believe in them no matter what anyone else says. I told you a bunch of times I don’t wanna enter a dance competition, but you still insist. It’s suffocating, I want to breathe, so let’s put some distance between us.”

T: “Alright… Fine. Have it your way then. I hope you can breathe easy after I leave you alone.”

Jimin waited until Taehyung left before he broke down to his knees, shaking and fighting back the tears. Taehyung looked so hurt and Jimin felt horrible, but he repeatedly told himself that this was only one blow and Taehyung would get over it and it was better than him possibly getting into trouble numerous times in the future. Right now, however, breathing wasn’t easy for either of them.