“Seriously?”

 

Yoongi did think to himself the previous evening that he wouldn’t be that surprised if Jimin mistook the summer program for being two weeks long instead of two months, but he didn’t think that was exactly what happened.

 

“Um, yeah. I packed the stuff on my own, and I packed only two weeks worth of clothes.”

 

He stared down at the boy who was filled with surprises, unbelievable surprises. He wasn’t sure whether Park Jimin was too good of an actor in pretending to be an idiot, or he really was an idiot. A part of him hoped it was the former, but the other part was telling him it was the latter, unfortunately. He also hadn’t figured out how and why his brain decided to agree to be Jimin’s science project partner.

 

Seriously?

 

“My, oh my.” Seokjin commented, as if it helped anything.

 

“You are an idiot.”

 

“Okay, Yoongi, that was not nice.”

 

Yoongi quickly learned that Seokjin, or Jin as he preferred to be called, was someone he secretly wished he was. Someone extroverted who could converse with just about anyone, someone who got along quickly with others, someone much more laidback who could naturally joke or flirt without making others uncomfortable. But his motherly demeanor at six in the morning that was more of just talk did not appease the growing irritation inside him.

 

He could snap back and tell Jin, and the other four boys who were now awake due to the blaring alarm, of Jimin’s handbook story. However, he knew he wasn’t really irritated because of Jimin, but rather because he was stirred awake so suddenly and uncomfortably that he was half-taking out his irritation on Jimin. Not to mention he didn’t even sleep well during the night with the stonelike bed and sonorous snores from six other people in the same room. Nevertheless, he didn’t apologize. It was a mix between his pride and reasoning of how he wasn’t completely in the wrong.

 

When the silence grew evident in the room, enough for them to hear the girls down the hall exiting their room, a tall nerd-like male whom Yoongi recalled to be Namjoon dragged himself out of bed and uttered groggily, “Uh, we have to meet behind the building at seven o’clock sharp. We should get dressed and eat.”

 

 

“Don’t mind what he said, I’m sure he didn’t mean it.”

 

The boy with heart-shaped lips who introduced himself to be Hoseok offered a smile as he trotted beside Jimin towards the back of the main building.

 

“He’s right though. I am an idiot,” Jimin sighed to himself as he kept his eyes low.

 

He realized his entire summer was ruined. Summer school didn’t make that much of a difference since he’d still be back in school after two weeks regardless, but this was his first time being away from home, being away from Busan, by himself. If summer school was only fourteen days, it wouldn’t be that bad as he could always find the comfort of his family and friends once he got back to Busan, but two months meant he’d feel a lot better if he actually made friends here.

 

“I have no idea what you did to him, but whatever he said, it didn’t come from his heart. It was six, we were all grumpy. Hell, I bet most of us are still grumpy.” The other male groaned and shielded his eyes from the direct sunlight.

 

“You really think so?” Jimin couldn’t help, but mope over what Yoongi told him. He really thought Yoongi might just be willing to befriend him after agreeing to be his science project partner, which was a surprise, but after the incident earlier in the morning—a result from Jin’s casual complaint of, “Can you believe we’ll have to wake up at six o’clock sharp every morning for two whole months?”—Jimin was starting to think otherwise.

 

Hoseok waved his hand behind him, as if brushing Jimin’s question away. “Trust me, it’s a symptom of sleep deprivation. My sister screams at me if I take away even five minutes of her beauty sleep. And pal, Yoongi’s comment was nothing compared to some of the stuff she said to me. God, I’m grateful our room is not right next door to the girls’.” He eyed the two girls trudging three meters to the right of them, which Jimin noticed and stifled a laugh.

 

Each jumping jack, sit-up, and push-up came with a grunt. By the time Jimin finished his sets of ten each, he already felt that half of his energy was drained. Normally, even with his intense dance routines and challenging choreographies, he’d still be able to last for about three hours. It was too early in the morning, and the glaring sunlight on his form didn’t help. He didn’t have to wait until the end of the day to know that morning drills would be the worst part from now on, especially in the summer heat. He just hoped that none of them would end up with a heat .

 

“I have a favor to ask from you guys,” Jin panted as he jogged up beside Jimin. “If I collapse, I need you guys to bear witness that I worked hard in the last minutes of my life.”

 

“That’s if we don’t collapse before you,” Hoseok responded with a grunt. “Finally making our parents proud now, huh?”

 

“I don’t understand how morning drills have anything to do with discipline,” Namjoon groaned behind them.

 

“A better question to ask is: how did a genius like you end up jogging around the field with a bunch of academically challenged kids like us?” Jin turned to glance at him.

 

“I told you, I broke a desk.”

 

“How did that happen?” Jimin glanced back.

 

“I don’t know.”

 

“Or, did you bring a chainsaw to class and decide to make the desk into an art project?” Hoseok chimed in.

 

“Funny. I did not. The legs just broke off when I was in the middle of finishing an exam.”

 

“You probably aced it anyway,” Jin sing-songed with a chuckle.

 

And just in that moment, Jimin forgot he was the one who got called an idiot not too long ago.

 

~

 

“It’s no big deal, really. You can call your parents to send a parcel wi