Session #12

(cont'd)

Most of the boys look at anywhere but at the unexpected guest, except for Jimin who doesn't know what subtlety is and bluntly stares at her chest, smirking. J-Hope stumbles backward to his seat and curls up into a ball with his eggnog. Jungkook hides behind Taehyung shyly. And Yoongi's expression is guarded.

Hyerin crosses her arms in front of her to hide her chest from the s and assesses the boy in the giant-red-lips mask with interest. It's even harder to read him when his expression is blank. Then she sees the tall boy standing at the side, "Kim Namjoon," she says under her breath. She heard a lot about him at school. He's the guy whose every girl admires from afar and the guys despise, so he doesn't have any friends. Namjoon sidles up to her, wearing a relaxed but calculated charming smile. He dips to her height, "It's a pleasure to meet you, Hyerin," he takes her hand to kiss it. Hyerin withdraws quickly after, disgusted. She looks around the room, Where's-

"Where's Jin anyway?" Henry asks, "He was there a second ago!"

All of them swivel their heads around, but Jin has already gone without a trace, like he's been teleported.

"He must have been teleported!" Jimin exclaims excitedly, "Or it was an alien abduction! Why would alien-nim kidnap Jin hyung anyway? Ah! He doesn't talk - perfect for telepathic communication," he cracks up.

Hyerin gawks at Jimin, Who is this kid? Is he really Jin’s friend when he’s bad mouthing him?!

"Sorry," the Mask Boy apologizes, his fake lips moves, "Jimin is obsessed with the unexplained bulls in this world." He yelps when Jimin jabs his ribcage.

Hyerin nods, "I see..." Is there a trap door where I can escape to?

"I'm Taehyung, by the way."

A round of introductions follows, with Namjoon and Jimin being more enthusiastic than the others, while Jungkook, Yoongi, and J-Hope keep theirs short and simple. After the awkward intro is done, they all look to Henry for a copy of Talk to Girls for Dummies.

"So!" Henry claps his hands, clearly enjoying the New Situation that he's created, "Since Hyerin is Jin's friend, so I asked her to come help me out for the role play."

"Ah!" Jungkook understands everything now, "So she's Jin hyung's cru-" Taehyung covers the maknae mouth before the "C-word" would drop like a bomb.

Jimin's smile slips, "So you're Jin hyung's? Too bad."

Taehyung face-palms, They are hopeless.

Hyerin's jaw drops, "I'm not- We-" her face flares red. Who are these people?! she almost screams.

Namjoon moves away from Hyerin too, "Jin's friends are our friends," his previous flirtatious tone dissipates, "right, guys?" he turns to everyone else.

"Aye', Captain!" Taehyung happily obliges. The others nod their less enthusiastic consents.

"Great!" Henry plays another track on the stereo, Heungtan Soyeondan blasts through the speakers - it is their fav track at the moment.

Unlike before, the boys lost their enthusiasm. They barely wiggle to the beat. Hyerin too is standing awkwardly. "C'mon!" Henry swivels his , "Someone ask her to dance! That's your scenario. Go!"

Ask who to dance? Jin panics. He takes a peek through the window on the outside. His heart contracts tightly in his chest as a tall figure saunters towards Hyerin.

Namjoon is the first one to approach Hyerin. He's nodding to the beat and throws his hands around stiffly, making Hyerin laugh, Namjoon chortles with her too. (They laugh together! Jin sees it all.) "You think you can beat the Dance Monster?" he taunts. That challenge gets Hyerin moving and does a sashay. Just when the two are getting on their grooves, Jimin bugs in, "My turn!" (Jimin too?!) He heaves his chest up and down, being too close for her comfort. Hyerin jumps a few step back. (Jin closes his fist, Someone’s going to get it when I’m back!) "Dude, that's ual harassment," Yoongi deadpans, "Let me show you how it’s done." To everyone's surprise (including Jin’s), Yoongi actually shows an ounce of interest to Hyerin. "May I?" he asks sincerely. Hyerin takes his hand out of reflex when a slow song comes on.

Jin faints at the sound of a slow song.

"Oooh," everyone looks on in envy. Yoongi has his hands place lightly on her waist and she has hers on his shoulders. They sway to the music a little. Hyerin finds herself getting relax and lost to the sad ballad. Yoongi hums a little to the song. They both settle to the shared rhythm...Just as the melody is about to fade, Yoongi lets go of Hyerin. "Maknae," he turns to Jungkook all of a sudden. He almost laughs at how scared he seems, "Want to give it a shot?"

Jungkook is fascinated with his shuffling feet, unsure if he should take his hyung's offer. Are we okay now? Jungkook asks no one. He doubts anyone know what Yoongi is thinking. Then Hyerin comes before him, "You wanna dance too?" her smile radiates warmth. Jungkook takes her hand timidly. The boys whoop and cheer. "Our baby is all grown up!" Jimin sobs into Taehyung shirt.

Jin is awoke by the obnoxious cheering. He covers his ears in denial. He doesn't want to know what’s going on anymore.

When EXID's Ah Yeah comes on, everyone joins Jungkook and Hyerin on the dance floor. "Ah yeah!" Henry howls when the boys return to their liveliness. Even Hyerin is swept into the madness. She laughs out loud at Namjoon's and Jimin's funny dance. So these are Jin's friends? Hyerin chuckles at the thoughts, Who would have thought? Now she wishes badly that she can witness him around these dorky boys.

Taehyung drags the reluctant J-Hope across the floor when the older boy’s bum is sticking to the ground. "Hyung! Hyerin doesn't bite! She's nice! Look at how much fun we're all having!" Taehyung yells above the music.

Jimin bounces over and helps Taehyung pull J-Hope up. "You have us!” Jimin tugs on his hyung’s arm. They pull him to where Hyerin is dancing with Yoongi. J-Hope struggles against them and tears threaten to fall, "Nonononononoooo," J-Hope whines, which freaks Taehyung out a little. Jimin, however, is unfazed, "Is that your lucky charm bracelet?" "Where?" J-Hope looks at where Jimin is pointing and meets Hyerin's eyes. His breathing becomes more erratic. He grabs on Jimin randomly, before he collapses on the floor. "Aweee. J-Hope failed the mission," Jimin pouts.

The music stops. Henry rushes to J-Hope's side, "Party's over! Good job everyone! I will read your journals about your thoughts about the role play later!"

The disappointed boys are ushered out with Hyerin, leaving Henry tending to J-Hope. The boys are eager to explain all about the therapy and the journals to Hyerin, which is not helpful at all with everyone talking at once. Though she was not thinking much of Jin while she was having a fun time with them, now that the adrenaline is receding, she is dying to know where he's gone the whole time.

“Hey, it’s Jin hyung!” Jimin points his finger at a tall figure leaning against a wall, his arms are crossed, “Where have you been…” he gulps nervously upon noticing the fire burning in Jin’s enraged pupils. He’s appa again! Jimin cannot help but hides behind Hyerin, making Jin narrows his eyes. Hyerin too can’t help but shrinks away from him. Does her heart beat because she suddenly sees Jin like he’s God’s gift or is she scared for her life? “H-Hi,” she sounds more nervous than their first meeting.

The boys behind Hyerin only nudge and shoot each other “secretive” glances. J-Hope’s eyebrows raise high and Jungkook giggle. Namjoon looks at his friend with warning, Don’t run away, Jin!

“H-Hi,” once Jin stutters, his intense gaze melts away. He immediately slaps himself for how lame he is, Get it together, Jin!  Of course Kim Seokjin cannot pull off a jealous main lead in front of everyone!

Hyerin blinks, Did he just… slap himself...? Her hand flies to to stifle a giggle.

“Bwahahahaha, what was that, Jin hyung?!” Jimin laughs along with everyone else.

“...Mosquito,” Jin mumbles, but no one hears him above the laughter.

“Come on, hyungs, I’m hungry!” Jungkook touches his stomach and pouts.

“Awe, our maknae wants to be fed. Let’s eat pizza!” Taehyung throws his arms around Jungkook, “You are paying, right?” he beckons to Namjoon with puppy eyes.

Namjoon sighs, “I don’t see who else is generous enough to buy.”

“We are generous at heart, we just don’t have money,” Yoongi says matter-of-fact.

Hyerin laughs, This guy is funny.

Jin turns to stare at her while the rest of the rowdy group skips ahead for the food. Hyerin catches him staring, “You’re lucky to have a lot of bright friends.” Again, Jin melts under her crescent-shape eyesmile.

Only when she goes ahead to catch up with the group, then Jin feels hollow - he did not miss the melancholy and envy in Hyerin’s words.

“What did you say?” Hyerin turns on her heels, looking back at Jin.

“N-Nothing,” he catches up with her too. He tries to make a joke and she laughs at it awkwardly. Jin sighs, he still have a long way to go to be Seo Hyerin’s bright friend.

***

The furry kitty, puppy, panda, bear masks snuggle behind the glass case beckon Taehyung over. Their plastic eyes are without soul but they calling him over, Take me home!

"You're freaking me out," Namjoon breaks the silence.

"Sh! I'm thinking!" Taehyung stretches the skin around his eye sockets as wide as he can so he can absorb every Hangul in front of him.

Taehyung’s unwavering effort was amusing and endearing to Namjoon at first, but now Taehyung's determination to get his first favour is unnerving. As the clock ticks by, the distance between him and Taehyung's deliberate trap is shorter. What's this kid planning? Namjoon speculates within himself. Taehyung may have always appear to be friendly and supportive, but he's scary when he thinks that he's doing the "right thing". Namjoon is in no rush to find out what the "right thing" is.

"Ha!" Taehyung suddenly yells. He jumps up from his seat and bounces around, propelled by his bottled energy, "Give me that Goldie!" Namjoon slaps the ninth Gold Star on Taehyung's mask begrudgingly, the ninth now joins the eight other yellow stickers. "Now," Taehyung does a celebratory dance, "I will have a favour from Namjoonnie..." he sings.

Namjoon grunts, "Just get this over with."

Taehyung runs up to Namjoon excitedly. Namjoon flinches at how close he is. The younger’s eye smile is sufficient to kill him right now. Namjoon covers his chest with his arms protectively, preparing for the worst. "Your bedroom," Taehyung drops his sultry voice to a growl, "Now."

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Namjoon gulps. He fidgets now that they are in front of his bedroom door.

"I'm a-hundred-percent sure," Taehyung  presses against him. He holds his hand that has the key.

"But I'm not ready," Namjoon avoids Taehyung's disappointed gaze.

Taehyung tightens his grip around Namjoon’s hand, “You can’t hide everything forever.”

“No. I can’t,” Namjoon admits in low volume. There’s no reason to hide from Taehyung anymore. He already knew about his beauty blog and a lot of other things that no one knows… Namjoon inserts the key into the hole. A twist. A push. Namjoon feels .

Taehyung does not say anything at first when he crosses the threshold. His spacious room is painted in navy blue and the beige carpet warms their bare feet. The black king-size bed takes its space in the middle. It has a sleek design that Jimin would like if he sees it. The matching tall closet is on their right next to a row of mirrors. Unlike Jimin’s room, Namjoon’s room is spotless without clothes lying around. There’s also a flat-screen TV mounted on the wall right in front of the his bed… All of the furnitures and their placements are like an ordinary room for teenage boys… except for the stuffy toy. Rows and clusters of fluffy bears, kitties, puppies, ponies, giraffes, horses, walruses lying around and taking almost half of his room. Taehyung tries to take in all of the plushies that come in extra large, large, medium, small, and tiny. Their plastic eyes greet their guest, each one of them are smiling back at him… Goosebumps crawl Taehyung’s skin. Namjoon grows fidgety when Taehyung does not say anything for a long while. “Nice room,” that’s all Taehyung can manage to say.

Namjoon sinks down onto the floor and grabs the walrus that’s nearest him. He hugs it tightly to his chest like his life depends on it. “That’s why I locked my room,” Namjoon explains.

“So… you’re a toy collector?” Taehyung’s tone is light, or he hopes it sounds casual.

“You can say that.”

“No one knows about this?”

“No. Except for my parents,” Namjoon peers at him nervously, still searching for a judgmental look, “I’m weird, aren’t I?”

Taehyung touches his shoulder, “If this is weird, what makes the rest of our group? We would be dinosaurs playing golf at a country club.”

Namjoon reaches for the dino toy off his bed and touches Taehyung’s face all over with it, “Pabo, that’s not weird; that’s impossible.” And that makes Taehyung giggle. It would be nice to hear those laugh loud and clear… Namjoon gets up on his feet and pulls Taehyung towards him, “Come. I’ll show you something else too.” Maybe it is guilt. Maybe it is trust. Maybe it is something more. Now that the gate has opened a crack, why can’t they go all the way? He opens his closet.

Taehyung is still holding onto Namjoon’s hand as they walk into the normal-looking closet that leads them into the backroom. His shelves of lightly-worn branded clothes line neatly on both sides, organized. Brown drawers situates in the middle. Taehyung guesses those contain his socks, underwears and other accessories, but those are not the reason why he’s here. He has a hunch that the sewing machine at the very back is the actual treasure. He runs his fingers along a red wool fabric at the work table. Out of the corner of his eyes, he spots a jumbo bag of cottons in the corner. “You made those plushies?!” Taehyung is awed. “Some of them,” says Namjoon. “You’re so good at this! People would buy your toys!” That makes Namjoon blush, which is rare. “Nah, it’s just a hobby. I wouldn’t want to give my babies away.” They both chuckle. It does feel good knowing that Taehyung’s smile is full of admiration under the mask. “I want one of your ‘babies’ too. Make me one,” Taehyung requests, showing his puppy eyes.

Namjoon leans against the desk, posing like a boss, “You have to earn it,” he smiles slyly.

Taehyung moves closer, practically clinging onto him now, “Pretty please?”

“Nah uh! After nine more stars you can ask for one plushie,” he taps his nose that's poking out of his mask.

Taehyung throws himself at him and begs, “C’mon! I can’t focus for three more hours straight!”

Namjoon is dizzy from all the shaking and whining, “Rules are rules.”

Taehyung steps away from him, pouting, “Fine! I will buy myself one!” he walks away haughtily. He only stops when something heavy weighing on his back.

Namjoon hugs him closely to him, “Thank you,” he does not know if he can say meaning words to Taehyung, unlike the younger, he’s without mask, “It felt good letting you know. Thank you for not judging me.” He has no idea that being at the back of his closet means a world to Namjoon.

Taehyung pats his entwined hands on his stomach, “You’re welcome.” As if his heart is crushed by Namjoon’s heavy gratitude, it is no longer beating in his chest, “You don’t need to hide anymore.”

Namjoon does not respond, he only holds him. Thoughts are louder than spoken words.

Session #13

“Why is Henry-ssi always late?” J-Hope whines besides Jimin.

“He’s not! We always come here early,” Jungkook answers. He goes back pouring over his dictionary with Yoongi. They laugh at some dumb definition that Jungkook has written down.

“Awe. It’s ‘cause we love each other,” J-Hope throws his arms around Jimin, “What are you drawing?” he asks while peering at Jimin’s swift moving hand sketching curves on the sketchbook.

“An egg.”

“Hey! That’s H.O.P.E.!” his eyes light up upon the recognition of his old friend.

“No! It’s just a normal polka dot egg!”

J-Hope holds him tighter, “‘Course it is,” he winks.

“What about my ‘V’ shelf?” Taehyung asks Jimin.

Jimin shrugs, “It’s in progress.”

Taehyung does not believe Jimin one bit, but he does not press on. He does believe that Jimin will realize his full potential eventually. Besides, someone else is already capturing his attention as he walks into the door, “Hi!” he greets happily.

Namjoon smiles back at him winningly. As usual, his hair is constructed with the golden hair-to-gel ratio as the religious guideline. His scent exudes the nostril-attacking cologne that smells pleasant to other people (in Taehyung’s opinion). Then Namjoon’s frown creases his handsome features, “What happened to your mask?” he plops down next to Taehyung and holds his face in his palms. Jungkook, Yoongi, Jimin, and J-Hope look over at Namjoon who rubs his hands all over Taehyung’s fuzzy lion mask. “Cute!” J-Hope shouts. He comes over to latch his arms around Taehyung instead, “You look so cuddleable!” Namjoon drops his hand without making any further comments. Taehyung glances at him nervously.

Before Taehyung can say anything, Henry and Jin enter the classroom. “Hello, everybody!” Henry throws himself on a chair, “We’re going to start playing ‘the Dice Man’ today!”

“‘The Dice Man’?” J-Hope asks excitedly.

“‘The Dice Man: a 1971 cult-hit novel about a psychiatrist who makes his decisions based on rolled dice. 1) a ert in a middle-age crisis.’”

“Oh. You know everything!”

“I’m Google’s son,” Jungkook says before closing the search engine on his phone.

“Sweet!”

“Anyway,” Henry’s eyes sparkle, “following the concept of the book, you’re going to complete your mission! I’ve already assigned you guys to teams through lottery system.”

The boys sit with their partners after Henry announced the team - they are Jimin and Namjoon, Yoongi and Jin, and Jungkook, Taehyung and J-Hope. They look a bit awkward with each other except for the only ones who are in high spirit. Henry grins.

“You won jackpot!” Jimin laughs in Namjoon’s face.

“Yup. You’re the grandest prize of the century,” Yoongi replies for Namjoon.

“I am!”

“Okay!” Henry cuts their bantering short, “Now, assign each other with six possible missions, but you have to discuss with each other first. When you have the list, roll the dice! You’ll have to complete the mission that corresponds to the number. If you don’t, you will never graduate from this therapy group.”

“Graduate?” Taehyung asks, confused,  “What do you mean?”

Henry’s sympathetic look regards him, “This group won’t last forever. You guys will get better and leave eventually.”

The boys fall silent. They can only take in each other’s lost face. Obviously, they have not really thought of the days when they stop going to the community centre for their Thursday’s session. How will it feel like when you lose your travelling companions going and leaving there? Who are they going to complain about their teachers and classmates to? They will miss Namjoon treating them to snacks after each session for sure.

“C’mon, don’t look too sad!” Henry rallies, “We still have some times left. This mission is the first big project I’m giving you. You won’t let yourself down, right?

“That’s right - I said ‘yourself’. The dice may be randomly select your fate, but the options are still in your hands.”

Still, sometimes you need to let the dice roll and every other options go.

Author's notes: My head seriously exploded from all these last-minutes edting! >< Yay! Hyerin meets bts, Jin is still a loser. But we get to see a little bit of what's going on with Namjoonie! Yay for my precious leader bias.

While I'm gone free feel to subscribe, comment and upvotes! Okay i still have two more chapters to draft!

-suzyelf

Status: Still in Hong Kong. Probably roasting.

Secret Night - VIXX