“Woah, are you okay Hyunsoo?” asked Jimin. He had grabbed her arm with one hand, holding her back with the other, and steadied her upright before taking his hands away and smiling gently. “I thought it was you. I was coming over to say hi.”

“Jimin…” whispered Hyunsoo, mostly under her breath feeling surprised at the sudden encounter.

Hoseok was running back to Hyunsoo and stopped a few metres away watching Jimin move his hands away like a gentleman.

“Who’s this?” asked Hoseok, though he looked more aware of the girl watching them, a look of disgust twisted into her face, than the guy who he didn’t know yet.

At this question, Hyunsoo realised she had been holding her breath. She in a lungful of air and answered Hoseok, “This is Jimin.” And then to Jimin, “This is my best friend Hoseok.”

“Nice to meet you,” said Jimin, smiling at Hoseok. Then, his expression changing completely to one without any sort of kindness, he turned to the girl and asked, “I heard you talking loudly a minute ago. Firstly, who are you to talk to Hyunsoo like that? Secondly, whatever you want to do, do it for all I care, just leave Hyunsoo out of it.”

The girl came closer, her sidekick still standing beside her. Although, since Jimin had arrived the sidekick looked more like she wanted to hide behind the girl rather than stand beside and glower at everyone, like a guard dog.

“I’m Jungkook’s close friend, and will be his girlfriend soon. I know him well enough to know that you,” she glared at Hyunsoo, “Are not his type. I just wanted to make sure you don’t get any ideas and try to win him over from me.”

“As far as I know, Jungkook has many close friends, if you want to call it that, so why pick on Hyunsoo?” asked Jimin.

“Irene, I think we should just leave…” whispered the sidekick, though it was audible enough for everyone to hear.

“Irene, is it?” said Jimin, stepping closer towards her intimidatingly. “Don’t make me repeat myself again, so just leave right now and don’t think about coming back to talk to Hyunsoo about crap like that.”

Hoseok was eyeing Hyunsoo behind Jimin’s back. They both looked at each other. Hyunsoo could tell by the way her best friend’s face was lit up, that he was enjoying the show. Hyunsoo herself felt somewhat thankful, though there was something bothering her…

Irene looked like she was going to start shouting at them, but she seemed to be holding herself back. “Let’s go,” she said shortly, turning away and kissing her teeth loudly enough for everyone to hear. The sidekick looked relieved to finally be leaving and sped up to walk in front of Irene.

Jimin had turned around to face Hyunsoo and Hoseok again. There was a sort of glow on his face, not to mention the way his eyes bent into a smile at the same time as his lips curled up.

“Sorry about that,” said Hyunsoo quickly. She didn’t want him to think that she needed other people to fight her battles, even though she was secretly glad that he showed up when he did. “And thank you.”

“Don’t worry about it,” he replied, waving a hand. “I just want to ask, since I’m curious now, but how do you know Jungkook?”

Hyunsoo kind of expected that question. At the drug party, not that she really remembered much, but she didn’t think there was any mention of Jungkook or who invited her there. Jimin must have been wondering the exact same thing as Hyunsoo had been about him. How did they end up at the party?

“I don’t actually know him to be honest,” answered Hyunsoo, “He’s in my course, and my badminton team.” She noticed Jimin’s face light up at that, though didn’t know why. “Other than that, I keep running into him randomly. I want to make this clear though… I really dislike Jungkook.”

“I second that,” said Hoseok, “I’m also on the team, and he acted like such a douche the very first time we met him!”

Jimin chuckled at that. “As usual. Well, I have some good news for you both, or at least I hope it’s good news…”

Hoseok chimed. “What is it?”

Hyunsoo was stuck on how Jimin had said ‘as usual’. She watched his expression break into a grin as he opened his mouth to speak, but all Hyunsoo thought about was, Jungkook and Jimin used to be friends. However, this thought stopped ringing in her mind when Jimin said his next sentence.

“I’m also in the badminton team. I was actually heading there right now, and I guess all three of us are late now.”

This put a smile on Hyunsoo’s face. “Really?”

Hoseok looked happy too. “Awesome! We just need one more person and we can play as a team. Wait…” Hoseok paused, before continuing, “How come I didn’t see you at the trials? I would’ve recognised your face at least from the group of people who were picked for the team.”

“Oh that,” Jimin replied, “I couldn’t make it for the trials, but the coach had already put me in anyway because he’s seen me play before. In my high school, I was on the badminton team and, can’t believe I’m saying this with my own mouth but, I was one of the top players I guess.”

Both Hyunsoo and Hoseok made a cheering gesture and beamed at Jimin happily, as if he had just won a trophy. They had to cut their celebration short though, since they really did need to get to practice quickly. Their coach seemed strict on punctuality, or that’s what he said on Monday during trials.

“Let’s hope the coach doesn’t kill us. They’ve already started I think…” Hoseok’s voice trailed away as all three of them entered the sports building one by one and put up their student ID cards at the scanner to be let through.

They had to register and pay a fee on Monday after the trials to have the accessibility added onto their cards so they could get through the doors every time they needed to practice.

When they entered the hall, the first person they saw was the coach staring at the three people who had just walked in twenty minutes late. He looked very angry as his eyes widened.

“I think…” said Hoseok.

“He’s going to kill us.” Hyunsoo gulped.