To say Jimin was having a bad week would have been a slight understatement.  His run in with the nameless third year aside, not much had been going his way.  After last night’s fiasco Jimin had been unable to sleep.  He had intended to study at school all night for his exam but ended up leaving early after Taehyung and Jungkook decided his situation was actually hilarious.  The three walked to the bus stop together while Jimin continued to complain about how little he understood derivatives and why is the English alphabet everywhere?

“It’s just memorization.”  Taehyung commented that next morning while they stopped at the convenience store near the north gates.  “Just keep a cool head and you’ll do fine.” 

“That’s easy for you to say.”  Was Jimin’s response as he pulled out his wallet and paid for his drink.  “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you open a book with the intent to study.”

 Taehyung was staring so intently at two different breads that Jimin realized he wasn’t listening and repeated himself.  Taehyung gave him a judging stare before settling with a red bean bun and walking around the aisle for a canned ice coffee. 

“I look at my textbooks, Jimin.  I just choose not to get so stressed.”

“Yeah but you’re the second highest student in our year so there wouldn’t be any point to you worrying.”  Jimin mumbled. 

“You’re in the top 15.” Taehyung gave him a pointed stare as they exited the store and filed in with all the other students heading to class.  The gym teacher was standing on guard and yelling at a couple of third years who had sloppy uniforms.  “Hey, do you think you’d remember the third year from last night if you saw him?”

Jimin bit his lip and followed his friend’s gaze towards the frustrated teacher.  The two boys were wearing the third year red insignia but Jimin had never seen either of them before.  Looking forward he shook his head.  “I honestly didn’t even get that great of a look at him.”

Taehyung made a small ‘o’ with his lips before nodding. 

“The only thing I really remember is he had this silver skull ring on.”  Jimin thought for a moment.  “And brown hair.”

“We’ll find him in no time with that flawless description.”  There was resounding smack that echoed through the hallway as Jimin punched Taehyung in the shoulder hard.  “Ouch, hyung.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Jimin knew something was up when he noticed Sohee grinning as they entered the class room.  Sohee never smiled unless it was at someone else’s misfortune. 

“Hi Jimin.”  She waved at him with one hand and ran her fingers through her hair with the other.  “Last night you seemed a little stressed out - I hope you’re feeling better today.”

“Thanks, Sohee.” Jimin thanked her warily, pausing at her desk in surprise.  There was a creeping suspicion that he shouldn’t be in the classroom but Taehyung was already pushing him down the aisle as he stuck his tongue out at the class president.  She scowled back at him before returning to flip through her textbook.  After they had settled into their seats, Jimin turned to face Taehyung.  “That was suspicious.  Sohee’s never nice.”

Taehyung nodded in agreement, balancing a pencil between his lips and nose.  There was a blank look in his eyes as he gazed at the ceiling. 

“It is weird.”  The pencil fell to his desk and a frown made its way to Taehyung’s face before he looked at Jimin.  “What do you think she did?”

“What do you mean?” Jimin started to ask but was interrupted by their homeroom teacher entering the room.  The students stared at their teacher in shock for a moment – he was half an hour early to the start of class – before they all scrambled to their feet to welcome him.

Lee Howan was an intimidating man.  He was young and attractive but had a harshness to his face that was typically reserved for young business tycoons.  Sometimes Jimin wanted to ask why he had become a teacher since he seemed to hate students so much, but he valued his life too much to do so.  The first survival tip he had learned after entering high school was to avoid Teacher Lee at all costs. No one wanted to be the subject of his anger.

“Park Jimin.” His voice seemed to echo, still ringing painfully in Jimin’s ears as students slowly turned to face him.

Jimin swore under his breath as his eyes widened in terror.  Behind him he heard Taehyung’s low “Well, that just happened.”

“Yes, Teacher Lee.” Jimin’s mind was racing even as he responded calmly.  He had finished his homework, he had scored high on his last exam, he had done his cleaning duties, he –

“It has come to my attention that not only were you disrespectful to the faculty on staff last night but also that you vandalized desks in multiple classrooms.” 

-was royally screwed.

“Sir?”  Jimin asked as calmly as he could, mind racing as he tried to figure out how he knew.  Minseok rarely ever reported anything he was so lazy.  His eyes were suddenly drawn to a smug figure sitting just behind Lee Howan.  Sohee gave him a condescending smile coupled with a small piece sign.  She silently mouthed “oops” at him from behind Howan, before pouting her lower lip out at him.  Jimin’s blood boiled as he realized she was the only one who would have told Lee Howan of all people about Jimin’s disruptive night. “That .”

A collective gasp broke out in the classroom, Taehyung muttered “bad move” behind him, and Sohee’s face quickly looked scandalized.  Too late, Jimin realized he had said his thoughts out loud.

Lee Howan’s eye twitched but other than that his face remained passive.  “I’m sorry, would you care to repeat that to the headmaster, Park Jimin?”

“No, sir.” Jimin hung his head in defeat.  His figurative jugular was vulnerable and Lee Howan was going in straight for the kill.

“Fantastic.”  There was more than a hint of sarcasm in his voice as he stalked forward and slammed a hand onto Jimin’s desk.  The entire class flinched, and Jimin stared down at the demerit slip in front of him.  “So let me tell you how this is going to work – you are going to be solely responsible for second year cleaning duties for the next two weeks.  Hopefully in that time your subpar brain will learn some discipline and begin to respect both your environment and your superiors.”

“Yes, sir.” Jimin wanted to scream in frustration – cleaning duties were the worst but having to do them on his own was that much worse.  He almost let out a groan of defeat but Howan was still staring daggers into his soul. 

“Also, the next time I hear the word - or any form of profanity - come out of your mouth I will have you in detention until you graduate.  Am I clear?”

“Crystal.” Jimin muttered in defeat.  Howan straightened in front of him before turning to the class that they had better be prepared for the exam by the time he got back.  As he left the room the students all began talking at once, staring at Jimin who for once wished he wasn’t directly in the middle of the class.  He felt uncomfortable on display, and kept his head facing his desk as his eyes burned with embarrassment. 

The slight click of heels pausing next to his desk drew his attention and he groaned as he looked up to meet Sohee’s victorious eyes.  She could have been pretty once if her personality wasn’t so foul.

“Sorry, Jimin.”  An apologetic look on her face.  Behind him Taehyung snorted at her fakeness, she pointedly ignored him.  “It to , I suppose, but I wouldn’t know.  Anyways, good luck on the exam.  I know how much you struggle with math.”

As she walked away Taehyung leaned forward to whisper in his ear.  “Before the end of this year, I am going to place higher than her and record her as she cries from shame.”

Jimin couldn’t help but hope that became a reality as he continued to stare at the form in front of him.  Groaning, something he’d been doing too much of recently, his head fell to the desk with a painful thud.

“Can someone just put me out of my misery?”

“Jimin!”

Jimin looked up in disbelief to Jungkook’s far too perky face peering in through the classroom door.

“Taehyung kill me now.” 

“But that would vandalize even more of the classroom, hyung.”  Taehyung chided.  “You think Lee Howan would let you off in death?”

Jungkook bounced up the aisles before taking the empty seat in front of him.  Noticing the lack of fire from Jimin for not using honorifics, Jimin stared worriedly at him.  “Jimin-hyung, what’s wrong?”

“I have cleaning duties for the next two weeks because of last night.” Jungkook’s eyebrows raised in surprise.

“Whoa, Minseok actually grew some balls and reported someone?”

Jimin ran a hand over his face in exhaustion and glared over Jungkook’s shoulder towards a certain class president. “No a five year old tattled on me.”

He saw Sohee’s shoulders tense slightly before relaxing.  He felt a strange satisfaction in knowing that she heard him. 

Jungkook followed his gaze and nodded.  “Sorry, hyung.”

“Its fine,” Jimin quickly told him, noticing the younger boy appearing slightly down from the news.

Taehyung snorted behind him.  “Is it though?  Now you have both a senior and Lee Howan on your case.  That sounds anything but fine to me.”

“Really, Tae?”  Jimin turned to glare at the boy who just shrugged in response. 

“Just being a realist.”

“Or an .”

“Tsk tsk –what if Howan heard you?” 

“Oh!” Jungkook suddenly perked up.  “Speaking of seniors – I met a really nice one earlier.”

Jimin and Taehyung both looked at him in confusion before he rolled his eyes.  “I figured that if we became friends with a senior we could figure out who you ran into last night.  His name’s Hoseok, he actually goes to the same dance academy as I do after school.  He’s really nice.”

“How did you only meet him today if he's in the same program?” Jimin asked.

“I noticed him wandering around the first year classrooms – it looked like he was looking for someone.  I introduced myself and we just started talking and realized that we were both dancers.”

“Why was he looking for a first year?”  Taehyung raised his eyebrow.

“He didn’t say.” Jungkook shrugged.  “But I invited him to have lunch with us.”

“How are you just suddenly best friends with this guy?” Jimin asked incredulously.  Jungkook just smiled and pinched his cheeks painfully.

“Aigooo, don’t be so jealous, Jimin-ah.”  Before Jimin could snap at him for dropping the honorifics yet again Jungkook patted his cheek.  “You will always be my favorite, hyung.”

“Hey!” Their attention was drawn to the front of the room where Sohee was glaring at them.  “Class is about to begin, I suggest you tell your friend here to return to his homeroom.”

“There’s a lot of things I’d like to suggest to you, Sohee,” Taehyung called back tauntingly.  “Would you care to hear them?”

Before she could respond Teacher Lee entered the room and Jungkook was ouut the door before Jimin could blink.  He heard a retreating see you later hyung before standing up to great his teacher.

It suddenly dawned on him that he hadn’t studied one bit for his exam.

"I'm screwed."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

A/N: Hey guys!  

Sorry this chapter took so long - I was actually preparing for a state speech contest for Chinese over the last week.  I placed third!  Yay!

Anyways, I know this chapter is probably somewhat boring and it didn't include any other characters really.  Actually, there was so much more planned for this chapter but this is how it turned out.  Next chapter we'll meet Hoseok for sure and I will also introduce Namjoona and Yoongi will (finally) make a short appearance!

Please be patient, I want to develop the characters before getting to the good parts ;)

Thanks for all the support!  The comments and subscribers are so amazing and I really appreciate it!

See you soon (hopefully sooner this time!)