tw transphobia and bullying! not proofread so apologies in advance for any mistakes. also slight mentions of mature content but nothing too explicit

————-

“It’s in four days, Ning, FOUR DAYS!” Minjeong parades around the room, his hands in his hair. 

 

She looks up from her phone and sighs.

 

“High school is a disease.” Yizhuo rolls her eyes. “Look, we’ll figure something out okay, there are thousands of characters out there, you’ll find something.”

 

Minjeong nods, though clearly unconvinced. 

 

“What about you? What are you going as?”

 

Yizhuo shrugs. She never understood the hype about halloween parties. She’s merely going as an excuse to not do work for one night. 

 

“I’ll pick up one of those costume sets from Target.”

 

Minjeong blinks. He purses his lips and flops onto Yizhuo’s bed.

 

“You’re right. This is silly.” He covers his face with his hands. “I hate halloween… It’s just that she’s gonna be there.”

 

Yizhuo locks her phone and quirks an eyebrow. So this is about HER.” Yizhuo rolls over, putting an emphasis on the last word as she props herself up on her elbows. “Tell me more.”

 

Minjeong rolls over, looking anywhere but into Yizhuo’s eyes. 

 

“I’m just scared,” Minjeong pauses. “That all the other guys in our cohort are gonna be there and they’re all going to look so cool in their costumes and I’m- I’m just… I’m afraid I won’t look masculine enough.”

 

Yizhuo gets up. She yanks Minjeong up and envelopes him in a hug. 

 

“You are single handedly one of the most handsome guys I’ve ever seen, and I’m not just saying this because you’re my friend.” Yizhuo feels Minjeong nod. “More than half of the men that will be there are absolute sea creatures. You have nothing to worry about. Look at you.” 

 

Yizhuo pulls away and taps his bicep. He shys away, rubbing that same arm. Standing at a grand height of 5’5, Minjeong knew he needed a redeeming quality. He goes to the gym. A lot. 

 

“Anyway, I’m going to meet Aeri soon, so you might wanna make your leave too.”

 

Minjeong shrugs. He grabs his worn out Jansport from the ground and throws it over his right shoulder, trudging out of the bedroom.

 

“Tell Mrs Kim I said hello!” Yizhuo yells from upstairs. Minjeong simply waves a hand and dismisses her.

 

————-

 

Minjeong curls his shoulders as he makes his way through the corridors. He holds his breath while he’s at it because goodness, this place reeked of a gym. 

 

He reaches his locker and frowns. The picture of his puppy now had a slick of chewed gum over it. Zero’s face could no longer be seen.

 

“Hey, who-”

 

“What’s up, Minjeong?” Jeno slams himself against the locker next to him. Immediately, Minjeong flinches and looks up at the boy towering over himself. Except he’s not alone. Mark and Jaemin are right behind him.

 

“You coming to the party this Saturday?” 

 

Minjeong shifts uncomfortably, but nods his head. Jeno and his cronies don’t even try to hide the fact that they’re transphobic. Poor little Minjeong just has to bear the brunt of it. 

 

“Cool, I’m coming as Cinderella. Which princess are you coming as?” And that is apparently the funniest thing they’ve ever heard because the three of them start to laugh, Jaemin even crutches his stomach. 

 

Minjeong starts to hear ringing in his ears, the sounds of their hollering seemingly drowning out everything else in the room. He wants to leave, but his feet won’t budge. 

 

Which princess are you coming as?

 

Princess

 

Princess

 

Princess

 

“Would you guys just leave Minjeong alone?” And he feels as though someone just splashed cold water over him. 

 

Jeno shrugs, like Jimin’s little pet, he gestures to Mark and Jaemin and the trio make their way out.

 

Minjeong wonders why she did that. Jimin and himself were two radically different individuals in this high school where hierarchies were established and reputation mattered more than anything else. Maybe she wasn’t that bad. But Minjeong knows better than to trust Jimin like that. It is their first interaction, afterall.

 

Who is he kidding, he has the fattest crush on her.

 

“Thank you.” He croaks out, sounding like a combination of a middle aged aunt and a prepubescent boy. Minjeong wanted to dig a hole in the ground and bury himself alive.

 

“So, Minjeong.” And he absolutely loves the way his name sounds coming out of . “See you at the party.” 

 

She tucks a strand of Minjeong’s messy and overgrown mullet behind his ear and waves. 

 

Minjeong is so ed.

 

————-

 

“She is so into you.”

 

“She’s just nice.”

 

“I’m nice but I don’t go saving random distressed nerds from big, buff guys like Jeno Lee.”

 

“Don’t need to remind me.” He mutters under his breath. He looks up at the standing mirror in front of him and notices the way he is half the size of Jeno. 

 

Yizhuo must’ve caught on, because she immediately crawls up beside him and sits down. “I’m sorry, that’s not what I meant.”

 

Minjeong purses his lip. It’s so unfair, he thinks, that some people are just born in the right bodies. It’s not playing by the rules — he believes if he were a cisgendered man (above the height of 180cm because he’d most certainly be that tall) his life would be much easier. He’s not any less of a man now, he tries to convince himself, but he is 5’5 and lacking a lot of testosterone.

 

Minjeong wants to slam his face into a wall.

 

“I wanted to let you know I found the perfect costume.” Yizhuo shoves her phone into his face and he comes face to face with an image of Elizabeth Olsen.

 

“Wanda Maximoff, nice!” Minjeong gleams, “Maybe I should come as your Vision.”

 

Yizhuo pretends to gag. “I love you dude, but no.”

 

The pair fall onto the bed and stare up at the ceiling. Minjeong ponders. A selection of Marvel heroes whirl through his head like that of a jackpot machine. Huh.

 

————-

 

The next time Minjeong encounters Jimin, he’s in Costumes ‘N’ Parties, the late October chill wearing deep into his bones as the rains pound against the window of the shop. It didn’t help that they were all stocked up for Halloween. If somebody told him they hid bodies here, he wouldn’t be surprised.

 

He runs his fingers through the selection of costumes, almost contemplating leaving and going back to square one when he starts to feel his insecurities pile up. 

 

“Oh, hey Minjeong!” He learns that despite this being his second time talking to Jimin, he recognises her voice. 

 

He knows the two girls beside her. Aeri Uchinaga and Hwang Yeji. Well he doesn’t know know them, but it’s high school. There’s bound to be the few people everyone has heard of. He’s always felt intimidated by all three of their presence, despite taking one look at Jimin’s hazelnut-toned eyes and falling straight in love.

 

“Oh,” and Minjeong picks the worst possible way to start this conversation, “it’s you again.” 

 

Jimin is taken aback, her smile falters. Minjeong clenches his fists at how unintentionally disgusted he sounded at the thought of seeing her.

 

“Wait, no, that’s not what I meant.” Minjeong recovers. He waves two hands in front of him and drops the costume he was holding in his hands. Darn it. He kneels down to pick it up and scratches his nape as he gets up, surprised to see the frown gone from Jimin’s face. She was smiling.

 

“I- I just didn't think like… we’d meet- see each other again… so soon…” This is why you get no es. “I’m glad you’re here…?”

 

Jimin raises an eyebrow at the very peculiar choice of words, she lets out a soft chuckle and covers and Minjeong swears something in his stomach just did 4 backflips.

 

“Well, yeah, I just got done shopping for my costume,” she raises a brown paper bag in her hands, “Now Yeji and I are just waiting for Aeri to pick out hers.”

 

Minjeong pulls his flannel tighter around himself.

 

“Hey Jimin, we’ll be here!” Aeri peeks out from the corner of another aisle. Jimin mouths an okay back to them before turning back to the boy.

 

“I’ll get going now. See you again. During the party, I mean.” Jimin says. 

 

“And by the way,” she her head towards the costume in Minjeong’s grip, “I think you’ll look great as Spider-man. Go for it.”

 

————-

 

Minjeong steps foot into the front entrance of the house and immediately regrets every decision he’s made in the past week that led up to this. He’s never experienced a high school party, and after what he’s seeing, he’s not sure he ever wants to again.

 

“Minjeong!” 

 

He whips his head to look at Yizhuo and Minjeong is sure red is her colour. He offers her a gentle curve of the lips, “You look amazing.” 

 

“You do too.” Yizhuo eyes him from head to toe and wiggles her eyebrows.

 

“Stop looking at me like that.”

 

“You know you love me.” 

 

He gently nudges her with his elbow as they make their way into the massive mansion. Minjeong has no idea what’s to come — nor does he want to know. He’s here just to look at some faces and experience his first (and possibly last) high school party.

 

(But if there’s anything he does know, it’s that this is going to be a mess of epic proportions).