Jimin was exhausted from a long day of boring classes and draining tests—he had only been in school for a month but it felt like an eternity to him. He quietly made his way to his locker, not completely paying attention to anything around him. Jimin didn't notice the whispering following him until he was shoved roughly into the wall of lockers on his right, tripping to the floor.

“.” The group of members from the football team snickered as they walked past. Jimin recognized Jackson Wang, one of Jungkook’s friends, leading the group. Jungkook was also there, lingering at the back of the group, quietly watching Jimin draw his knees to his chest and bite his lip in an attempt to hold himself together. Jungkook stopped to stand in front of the smaller boy as the rest of the group continued down the hall, an unreadable expression on his face. He picked up the sketchbook that had practically flown out of Jimin’s hands from the impact and turned it over in his hands. Jimin made a small sound, suddenly very aware of Jungkook looking through the thick book.

“Nice doodles.” Jungkook didn’t look at him, but Jimin could see a smirk playing on his lips. Jungkook stood there for a few painfully silent minutes—painful for Jimin, at least. When he finally seemed to be done, he closed the book and looked down at Jimin expectantly, like he was waiting for him to say something. Jimin grabbed his bag and stood up with an annoyed huff. He slung it over his shoulder and glared at Jungkook, arms crossed over his chest. Jungkook seemed to be contemplating before he turned and began walking away, Jimin’s sketchbook still clutched in his hand.

“You punk, give me back my book!” Jimin called out, his voice echoing in the almost vacant hallway. Jungkook stopped, back still to Jimin. He held up the sketchbook and looked at it for a moment before tossing it into the trash can a few feet away from him. He let out a quiet ‘whoops,’ and continued walking away. “What the !” Jimin ran over to the trash can, praying to whoever that there was nothing disgusting inside. “What did I ever do to you s?”

Jungkook was halfway out of the exit but paused, thinking about what Jimin had said. He let out a soft chuckle, void of any humor or malice. He just seened tired.

“See you around, Pink.” He walked out and Jimin could almost hear the frown in his voice. He sounded… disappointed.

Needless to say, Jimin was confused.

“Hoseok-sunbaenim…” One of the younger cheerleaders tapped his shoulder shyly, interrupting his stretches. He turned to look at her with an encouraging smile. He may have been the lead cheerleader but he didn’t see any reason to make the new girls feel intimidated by him. She gestured to a dark figure lurking in the shadows on the opposite end of the field and Hoseok squinted against the blazing sunlight to try to discern who it was. It took him a moment, but Hoseok would recognize that stupid leather jacket anywhere. No sane person would wear that on those warm, early fall days.

“I’ll be right back.” Hoseok said through gritted teeth before practically marching to the shadowed figure, rolling his eyes as he approached and saw a grin on the boy’s face.

“What’s up Ho?” Yoongi greeted with a small nod. Hoseok smacked the boy’s arm, earning a pout from the smaller boy.

“I told you to stop calling me that!” He crossed his arm, a scowl plastered on his face.

“Alright, fine. Sorry J-Hope.” Yoongi made a small sound when Hoseok reached out to hit him again, this time with his face burning. Yoongi let out a soft laugh and received another smack. “Okay, okay, sorr-AH! Stop hitting me!”

“Ugh…” Hoseok pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling the heat leave his face. “What do you want?”

“What?” Yoongi began, batting his eyelashes at the taller boy. “Can’t I just stop by to see my-”

“Don’t.”

“Wh-”

“You haven’t come to watch practice since I first joined the squad freshman year. We’re seniors Yoongi.” Hoseok stated matter-of-factly, secretly enjoying the guilty look that the other boy gave him.

“I-” Yoongi sighed. “Jin-hyung wanted me to tell you that there’s a meeting tomorrow after final bell. Usual place.”

“A meeting? We haven’t had one of those since…” The two boys shared a worried look. “Why?”

“I don’t know, he refused to tell me anything else, just told me to make sure that you and Joon were going.” Yoongi shrugged, putting his hands in the pockets of his leather jacket.

“Is it just the four of us?” Hoseok studied Yoongi as he shrugged again, eyes never leaving the floor. Hoseok let out a soft sigh and pulled the smaller boy into a hug. After a moment, he held Yoongi an arms length away, taking in the boy’s stubbornly stoic demeanor. He squeezed Yoongi’s shoulder in an attempt to be reassuring. “I have to get back to practice, I’ll see you back at the apartment later, okay?”

“Yeah, sure. See you later.” Yoongi shook off Hoseok’s hand and turned, not looking at him. Hoseok watched him walk away and off of the field. Hoseok let out a shaky breath and rubbed his hand over his face. It had been too long since they’d had an “official” meeting, and the last time hadn’t ended very well. Hoseok scoffed, ‘not very well’ was an understatement.

Hoseok shook his head, urging himself to stop worrying so much, Yoongi did that enough for the both of them. He put on a bright smile and headed back towards the middle of the field.

“Sorry girls,” He clapped his hands together and waited for all of them to stand up and look at him. “Let’s start!”

Hoseok was sweaty and exhausted from practice—he just wanted to get home and take a shower.

He had been making his way past a few empty classrooms, headed to the exit, when something caught his eye. Hoseok had been to enough late night practices for cheer and dance to know that by the time they finished there was only a few staff members left in the building. Yet here he was, standing in the doorway of the dance room, watching a student he didn’t recognize. Hoseok had seen the kid around, but he didn’t know his name or who his friends were. What Hoseok did know, was that the kid was unaware of his presence, entirely entranced in the music playing, his body moving rhythmically with the familiar tune. Hoseok chuckled softly, the song was an old k-pop song he remembers hearing as a kid. He remembered the music video and how—even back then—he had thought that it was the most awful dance. Watching the boy in front of him though, he was surprised to recognize a few of the movements from the particular dance. They were executed in a way so different along with other parts that were nothing like the original, making it look like an actually good choreography ten times better than what he remembered.

Hoseok was impressed.

The song came to an end and the boy huffed as he grabbed a water bottle laying on the floor next to the speakers. He took a long gulp from it, still not noticing his audience. Hoseok stepped into the room and began clapping, the loud sounds startling the boy and echoing in the otherwise quiet room. The boy spluttered, choking on the water he had been drinking, and barely managing to keep it inside of his mouth.

“Oh! Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.” Hoseok gave the boy an apologetic smile. The boy was quite attractive in Hoseok’s opinion, a loosely fitting shirt draped over his small form, his face flushed a pink a few shades darker than his cotton-candy pink hair. The boy shook his head and waved his hand dismissively at the apology as he tried to catch his breath. “You’re a really good dancer.”

“I’m not really, but thank you.” The boy bowed, his voice raspy from coughing. He fidgeted nervously with the long sleeves of his shirt, pulling them even further over his already completely concealed hands.

“Have you considered joining the dance team? Or at least cheer?” Hoseok continued, completely oblivious to how uncomfortable the other boy looked. “We could definitely use someone with your talent in the squad.”

“I- uh, thanks, but I don’t know if I’d be a good addition to the team.”

“Are you kidding? You're amazing—Hey, you know what?” Hoseok’s face lit up as he came up with something he thought was genius. “After school tomorrow meet me outside of the drama room okay?” Hoseok had excitedly grabbed one of the boy’s hands and was holding it to his chest. The boy looked beyond awkward but nodded, not wanting to disappoint the strange boy standing in front of him. “Awesome!” Hoseok let go of his hand stepped back towards the door.

“, I don't even know your name! I'm Hoseok by the way, head cheerleader.” Hoseok winked at the boy and bowed dramatically.

“Oh, I'm Jimin.” Jimin smiled softly at Hoseok, the boy beaming in response.

“See you tomorrow, Jimin!” Hoseok left and felt an exciting warmth spread in his chest.

Jimin woke up the next day at his desk, sore and with heavy eyes, on a pile of partially finished homework. After Hoseok had disappeared as suddenly as he had appeared, Jimin had stayed as late as the school would let him to practice. He was keeping himself busy trying to work on a new choreography for an upcoming audition, but his mind had kept wandering to the events from earlier that day. Jimin couldn’t stop wondering about Jungkook’s weird tone when he left. He decided it was probably just better to forget about it and go on about his day.

Jimin got to school earlier than he needed to, and decided to finish up those assignments he had fallen asleep on. He sat down on the small stone wall in front of the school to work. Jimin had his headphones on and wasn’t aware of the group of jocks from the day before as they approached him. Jackson pushed Jimin off of the wall, making him fall forward onto the asphalt below. Jimin felt the sting of the rough ground having scratched his hands. He rolled over to glare at the group standing above him. They stayed silent as he stood up and brushed stray dirt off of his pants.

“Oooh, The fairy looks mad.” Park Jinyoung, Jackson’s right hand man, snickered and poked his forehead. Jimin was somewhat shy, yes. But he had a bit of a short temper, which had caused him a few problems in his old school. He was determined not to make the same mistakes again so he just clenched his fists and bit his tongue.

“Got a name kid?” Jackson crossed his arms, a cold smirk on his face. The smirk vanished after a few moments without a response. He shoved Jimin back into the stone. “Answer me when I talk to you, freak.”

“Sorry Jackson, I was taught not to talk to jerks like you.” Jimin said through gritted teeth and a painfully fake smile. Jackson growled at him, what he said and the rudely informal way he said it making Jackson’s blood boil. He punched Jimin in the face without hesitation. Nobody noticed the way Jungkook standing behind the others winced when Jackson punched him, guilt and a dark memory flickering in his eyes.

“Don’t be so ing rude, junior.” Jackson growled, enjoying how the smaller boy had seemed to deflate after the blow.

“S-sorry… sunbaenim…” Jimin looked down, feeling the tickle of tears threatening to come out. He had dealt with bullies before but he was used to verbal assaults, he had never been hit before.

“That's better, remember that next time.” Jackson left, his group following close behind. Once again, Jungkook lingered behind, standing in front of Jimin.

“...What do you want?” Jimin rubbed his cheek and narrowed his eyes up at the boy. Jungkook shoved his hands into the pockets of his letter jacket as he stared at Jimin for a few seconds longer.

“Maybe they'd leave you alone if you didn't look like… that.”

“What's that supposed to mean?” Jimin raised an eyebrow at him skeptically.

“I mean… look at you.”

“Elaborate.” Jimin crossed his arm and waited. Jungkook sighed and put a hand under his chin as if he was thinking hard about the response.

“You wear weird… mom jeans? And you seem to have an endless supply of those huge striped shirts you wear every day with the school blazer—who even owns one of those?” He thought about it some more and pointed at Jimin's head. “And you have soft pink hair.”

“And? What's so wrong with all of that?”

“It looks really…” Jungkook trailed off, suddenly looking uncomfortable.

“It looks really what?” Jimin took a step towards him, urging him to finish.

“...really gay.”

“You jerks and your delicate masculinity. Get over yourselves, people are allowed to dress how they want and their clothes don’t determine their uality.” Jimin could feel that his face had gotten warmer but he ignored it and tried to keep an annoyed look directed at Jungkook. Jungkook just shrugged in response before deciding he was done with their conversation. He turned away and waved.

“Another time, Pink.” He called out over his shoulder. As soon as he was out of view, Jimin sat down on the grass, taking a shaky breath and drawing his knees to his chest. He didn't notice the guy standing there until he kneeled down in front of Jimin. Jimin looked up and recognized the boy immediately, it was Jungkook’s friend, Taehyung.

“Hey, I’m really sorry about them… those guys don't know when to leave people alone.” Taehyung gave Jimin a sad smile and started gathering his scattered papers. Jimin gave him a wary look, he was one of their friends… right?

“Aren’t you… one of them?” Jimin tilted his head questioningly.

“What?” Taehyung frowned. “I’m not part of the football team if that’s what you’re asking.”

“You’re with them a lot, though.” Jimin had just assumed that all of them were jocks, and he hadn’t really looked into why there was so many of them when he knew that teams usually didn’t have that many members.

“I don’t really like most of them. They’re such ignorant jerks. But Jungkook-ah says that they’re his friends so I try not to say anything to them.” His face lit up as he continued. “I’m part of marching band, we spend a lot of time on the field with them and the cheerleaders!”

“Hoseok-hyung is part of cheer, right?”

“Oh!” Taehyung smiled and Jimin thought that he looked an awful lot like an excited puppy. “You know Hope-hyung?” Jimin raised an eyebrow quizzically.

“Hope-hyung?” Taehyung froze and shook his head slowly.

“D-” He was interrupted by the first bell going off. “. I've got a test first period so I gotta get going, you should go to the nurse and get some ice for that. I'll see you around Jimin! AND don’t tell hyung that I called him that, he’ll kill me!” Taehyung dashed towards the front doors, quickly disappearing in the crowd of students entering the school.

Jimin stayed sitting on the grass until he heard the late bell go off. He groaned and haphazardly stuffed his bag and slung it over his shoulder as he stood up. With his head down, Jimin made his way inside the building.

Jimin thanked whatever higher power when he got to the drama room before final bell, he hadn't even seen any of the jocks again the entire day. He smiled as he remembered how Seokjin had worried over him when he walked into first period late, holding an ice pack to his cheek and with a note from the nurse.

“Jimin!” Hoseok ran over to the smaller boy and slung an arm over his shoulders as if they'd known each other forever. “Wait. Whoa.” Hoseok held Jimin in front of him so that he could see the nasty bruise that had formed just above his jaw. “How'd that happen?” Jimin didn't answer immediately and was saved from it by the bell interrupting their conversation.  “Oh! We've got to go inside, but don't think you're off the hook. You've got to tell me who did that to you so I can beat some sense into them.” Hoseok winked before leading him inside of the room.

“Ho-Who's this?” Yoongi eyed Jimin warily, standing up from where he was sitting to walk over to Hoseok and put an arm around his waist. He was giving a very clear message: hands off. Jimin awkwardly shifted away from the boy, still as equally intimidated as he had been the first day.

“Jimin-ah!” Jimin looked up and was surprised to find a familiar face in the room.

“Hi Seokjin-hyung.” Jimin smiled. Seokjin gestured for him to sit in the empty seat next to him, the seat on his other side was taken by a guy Jimin didn't recognize.

“Jin, is this the kid you've practically adopted?” He asked, curiously studying Jimin.

“Joon!” Seokjin looked only slightly embarrassed, covering his face with his hands.

“I'm Namjoon-” the other guy chuckled as he looked at Seokjin. “-and Jin here likes to mother some juniors, including yourself, and the two seniors there.” He gestured at Yoongi and Hoseok, who had joined and were sitting across from them.

“I don’t mother them! I just… care… very much.” Seokjin scratched the back of his neck sheepishly. “And make sure that they’re okay. And make sure that they eat at least three times every day. A-”

“Hate to break up this bonding moment,” Yoongi began, rolling his eyes at them. “But why's he here?”

“I invited him.” Hoseok replied nonchalantly. “I texted Seokjin-hyung after you told me about the meeting and asked him what it was about. When he said it was about Battle of the Bands and not anything super serious, I realized that we didn't have you-know-who anymore so we'd end up being two members short and have to either reorganize everything from the past few years or we’d have to find someone new. Then when I was on my way out after practice, I saw Jimin practicing in the dance room and thought that we could definitely use someone like him for the competition.” He looked down at his hands.

“It's not a bad idea.” Namjoon offered, shrugging.

“It's really not, but we can't make any decisions with members absent. Our maknae and SB weren't able to come today so you can…” Seokjin thought for a moment before continuing. “...audition Monday. Same time, same place. Is that okay?”

“Cheer auditions are on Monday and I have to judge.” Hoseok interjected. He thought for a second before turning to Jimin. “You could audition for both at once?”

“Uh-” Jimin nodded, slightly overwhelmed but willing all the same. He got really nervous dancing in front of others so he didn't do it too often, but he also didn’t want to pass up the opportunity being presented to him. Everyone turned to look at Yoongi, as if to see what his response would be.

“Fine.” He let out a soft sigh. “...Now that that’s settled, Hoseok and I have somewhere to be so we'll be going now.” He grabbed Hoseok’s hand and practically dragged him out of the room. Namjoon and Seokjin just shook their heads.

“I, uh,” Jimin stood, fidgeting with the edge of his shirt. “I think I should get going too. Thanks.” He bowed to them.

“I’m really glad Hoseok asked you to come.” Seokjin said with a soft smile. Namjoon nodded in agreement.

“Thank you Seokjin-hyung, it was nice meeting you Namjoon-hyung. See you both Monday.” Jimin gave one last awkward bow before going, the two seniors smiling to each other as they watched him leave.

Jimin took his time leaving the building, humming to himself. He stepped outside and let out a breath he didn’t realize he had been holding. It was so… weird. Jimin thought about the group of boys he had just met, and the obvious close relationship they had with each other. He tried not to read too much into Yoongi and Hoseok’s own relationship, they must just be very close friends…

Jimin was pulled out of his thoughts by the quiet hum of instruments playing not too far from where he was. His curiosity got the best of him and he followed the sound, making his way around the school. He found marching band practicing in the field, more students than he could count in formation, all clad in sweatpants and t-shirts. Jimin was intrigued, his old school was small and didn’t really have any extracurricular activities or groups so he never got a chance to see a band in action. He climbed onto the bleachers, hoping that nobody would mind if he stayed and watched for a little while.

“A little while” turned into almost three hours and Jimin didn’t realize it had gotten so late until he noticed that the sun had almost set and the field lights had been . The band was in various states of exhaustion, thrown on the grass with their instruments messily placed in their cases. Jimin grabbed his bag and had begun to climb back down the bleachers when a familiar voice called him. His head shot up and spotted a tall boy running up to him. He squinted against the bright lights.

“Hey!” Taehyung huffed when he reached where Jimin was standing, a huge boxy smile on his face.

“Oh, hey. I completely forgot you told me you were in marching band.” Jimin rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly.

“It’s fine! Have you been watching the entire time?”

“I think so, I’ve been here for a while…” Jimin wondered if they practiced for so long every day.

“I could give you a ride home, we’re about to wrap up.” Taehyung offered with a smile.

“I…” Jimin returned the smile shyly. “Sure, thanks.”

“Ok give me un segundo I’m gonna get my stuff, say goodbye and we can go.” Taehyung jumped down a few steps and almost fell down the bleachers but swiftly rebalanced himself and shot Jimin a wide grin. He managed to gather his case and his bag in a few minutes, giving some of the other band members quick bows. He managed to get most of their attention before yelling “You’ve worked hard, see you Monday!” and dashing off the field to where Jimin was standing right outside of the parking lot. Taehyung led Jimin to a slightly beat up black car and winked as he unlocked the car and held open the passenger side door for Jimin. He went back around and climbed into the driver’s side. Jimin was a bit surprised when he saw how serious and focused Taehyung had gotten when he was pulling out of the parking lot, the tip of his tongue sticking out of his mouth as he pulled onto the street. He relaxed a bit after, eventually beginning to talk about band. Jimin learned that the boy had been playing saxophone for almost eight years and had applied to a really good music school in Seoul but was worried that he didn’t practice enough for the audition. He played western music softly from his phone the entire ride, humming along to some of the songs when the boys fell silent. Jimin wondered how Taehyung and Jungkook were friends—Taehyung seemed like such a kind-hearted, open-minded and innocent kid while Jungkook was seemed like such an most of the time.

“Just make a right turn up ahead and we’ll be on my street.” Jimin pointed at a little street that most people would completely miss if they weren’t looking for it. His house was two blocks in, one of the last houses on the street before a dead end. Taehyung slowed the car to a stop at the end of the road. He thought for a moment before pulling out his phone and doing something Jimin couldn’t see. After a moment of silence he handed it to Jimin, the screen open on a “new contact” page. Jimin smiled to himself as he typed in his number and handed the phone back.

“I’m going to put your contact as Chim-Chim ok?” Taehyung glanced at Jimin, beaming when Jimin nodded with a grin still on his face. “Smile!” Taehyung took a picture of Jimin, capturing the boy’s startled expression. “Perfect.” He set the picture for Jimin and sent him a text with a string of tiger emojis. Jimin chuckled as he saved Taehyung’s number, setting his name as ‘Tae-Bear’ with the same little tiger the boy had sent. Taehyung took a silly picture of himself on Jimin’s phone before shooing the boy out of the car and telling him to go to sleep early. It was a friday night so Jimin knew there was no way he was going to go to sleep before midnight, but he decided against saying that, instead waving at the boy as he drove away.

Jimin was smiling when he went into the house, the emptiness not bothering him as much as it usually did. He walked into his room and tossed his bag on his bed, turning to the mirror on the back of his door. He frowned at his reflection, thinking back to what seemed to have happened days before but had really only happened that morning. Jimin shrugged off his school blazer and threw it on the floor, a pout taking the place of his frown. He tried to push his hair back but it kept flopping back onto his forehead. He ruffled it, exasperated, and sighed before turning and laying on his bed with his legs hanging off of the side. He realized that he must’ve been more tired than he had originally thought because he woke up in the morning in the same place, his legs stiff from the weird position.

The house was quiet, his father had already left for work and he was alone. Again.

Jimin ate a granola bar he already had in his room before going to the bathroom to shower. He stood under the hot water for a few minutes until he felt that he would fall back asleep if he stood there any longer. He shut off the water and stepped out. Jimin wiped down the foggy mirror and glared at his hair, a mess of cotton candy colored strands sticking to his forehead.

Jimin made a decision in that moment and tried not to think about how much he was already beginning to regret it.

Jimin got dressed quickly, an old t-shirt and some semi-clean sweatpants thrown on in under a minute. He grabbed his house keys and fumbled with his phone for a second before pressing it against his ear, holding it with one hand as he tried to pull on his sneakers. The phone rang once, twice. Then Taehyung responded, audibly grinning but a questioning lilt to his voice.

“What’s up, Chim?” Jimin finished tugging on his shoes and stood up before answering.

“Are you busy?”

“No, why?” Jimin continued when he heard the other boy’s confused response.

“Do you think you can come with me to the hair salon?”

“Right now?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll be there in ten.”

hello and welcome to this mess of a story! there wasn't really any specific reason as to why i started writing this other than my own need to write up a highschool au... i hope you all enjoyed the prologue and this first chapter and stick around for the rest of this!

p.s. i swear i have nothing against jackson or any of the other got7 boys, i actually really love them, but jackson just really fits the jock image??