Oh wow remember this? It was my first day back and I was bored so this happened more Yoonmin yaayy. This stuffs kinda laid back to write and I have a list of potential chapters so it should be easier now.

35 – V focus

It was the morning of Taehyung's fourth day of high school and he was already tired as hell. His first day had been chaotic. No one followed him up from middle school that he knew so he was all alone. He had been picked on by the older years for irrelevant things like his hair and his uniform. They all wore the same uniform; there were some serious double standards in this school.

He checked his timetable and trudged to his next class: English. He was bad at it and he hated it. It was so convoluted and pointless and impossible but, for some reason, compulsory. It made no sense to Taehyung. He somehow found his classroom in the mess of a school he had found himself in and sat down on the second row from the back.

This wasn't his class because they mixed up the first years so they could 'make friends more easily'. Taehyung didn't see how that worked since he could solidify friendships with people in his form already. Granted, he didn't have any, but it was only the second day. A few more people filtered into the classroom until most of the seats were full. The seat next to Taehyung was free but he didn't mind that; one less person to talk to.

Until someone did sit there. A short boy with black hair and a cute face walked into the classroom, staring at the floor and sat next to Taehyung without acknowledging anyone. He just got out his things and stared at the desk. Taehyung looked at him. The boy had been crying. Taehyung didn't know why, but the boy's eyes were red and the sleeves of his blazer were stained with tears. Taehyung said nothing. Whatever he was crying about, it probably wasn't any of his business.

The teacher entered the classroom and started writing on the board in English. Taehyung vaguely recognised the words but couldn't quite decipher them.

"So," the teacher began, "who can tell me what this means?" No one raised their hand. "Kim Taehyung?" Taehyung's throat went dry. He hated being put on the spot.

"I'm sorry, sir, I don't know," he admitted and the teacher tutted.

"What about you, Park Jimin?" The boy next to Taehyung looked up and studied the board before answering,

"I don't know either, sir." A girl in the front row raised her hand and translated the sentence perfectly. Taehyung scoffed quietly and, under his breath, muttered,

"Show off." At the same time, he heard the boy next to him, Park Jimin, utter the same phrase. They looked at each other and smiled. Taehyung thanked God that there was someone who shared his views in this school. The teacher rambled on, switching between Korean and English. In all honesty, Taehyung phased out until he heard the teacher say something about working in pairs. The class started talking and Taehyung turned to Jimin. Before he could say anything, Jimin said,

"Sorry, I wasn't listening. What are we supposed to be doing?" Taehyung laughed.

"I was literally about to ask the same thing. I wasn't listening either. Besides, how are we supposed to concentrate when half of the time, he's talking in a language I don't even understand?" Jimin laughed and Taehyung thought that he looked nicer when he was smiling, rather than crying. From listening to other people's conversations, they managed to figure out that they were supposed to introduce themselves in English. They did it lazily and quickly and then spoke in a language they were actually comfortable with for the rest of the exercise.

Jimin was cool. He didn't give a shit about English, he got no sleep ever, he had a younger brother and he was very excitable. By that description, Taehyung would have thought it was talking about himself. The lesson ended and they both left for recess, still talking and having not learned any English. They found a place to sit and just talked some more. It turned out they both knew no one here and weren't really friends with anyone in their forms. After a while, Taehyung asked,

"Hey, is it ok to ask why you were crying when you came into class?" Jimin frowned,

"You noticed?" He looked vaguely embarrassed and Taehyung wanted to make him feel better.

"Yeah, you looked kinda sad and your eyes were red, so I just assumed. It wasn't that obvious, though, I only noticed because you were next to me and I'm good at reading people."

"Oh. Well, before school, I always get made fun of on the bus by a bunch of second graders who say I should go back to middle school because I'm so short. It's annoying and stupid and I know I shouldn't cry because they make fun of me for that as well." Taehyung tilted his head.

"That's not fair. That's a valid thing to cry at. Besides, why are they making fun of you for being short? There's a bunch of pricks like that on my bus as well who take the piss out of first graders and I swear one of them isn't much taller than you." Taehyung was kind of annoyed at these bullies for making fun of his new friend.

"Really? Which bus do you get?"

"51," Taehyung replied.

"Oh my God, me too! I'm probably the one you see getting picked on!"

"Oh my God, no way! They'll pick on anyone younger than them. They keep making fun of me for my hair and I kind of want to dye it, if I'm honest," Taehyung conceded and Jimin looked personally offended.

"What? I love your hair! It beats brown or black," he smiled. Taehyung's hair was currently a dirty blond but fading slowly to his natural hazel colour. "Dye your hair because you want to, not because some random second graders tell you to." Taehyung grinned.

"I like you, Jimin. You're cool."

"You're cool, too. Wanna sit next to me on the bus?"

"To protect you from the scary basketball players?" Taehyung joked.

"Or to, like, be friends, or something, but yeah, that too," Jimin smiled.

"Sure."

After school, Taehyung found Jimin sitting by himself with an empty seat next to him. He sat down next to him and said hi. They sat and talked until Taehyung went home and told his mom and his dog all about his new friend. In the morning, he got up and sat next to Jimin on the bus. After school, he sat next to Jimin on the bus. Then there was a weekend where Taehyung found out that he would be attending study classes after school, meaning he would have to take the later bus that Jimin didn't go on.

On Monday, this slipped his mind and Taehyung forgot completely until the last lesson, after which he ran to the library so he wouldn't be late. He hoped Jimin wouldn't be too angry. The next morning, Jimin seemed a bit down, but Taehyung dismissed it as just Tuesday blues. He shouldn't have done.

At lunchtime, trying to find Jimin, he heard a commotion in the locker room. It was the alpha second graders bullying some poor first year. Except it wasn't some poor first year. It was Jimin. Taehyung watched with horror, too afraid to stop it. Eventually, one of the bystanders, seemingly friends with the bullies, signalled them away and left Jimin on the floor. Taehyung immediately ran to help the crying boy up and apologised profusely. All Jimin said was,

"I just want to leave here." Taehyung felt so guilty but he couldn't even do anything. He apologised for still having to leave Jimin on the bus by himself and Jimin forgave him, thankfully.

The next day, Taehyung prepared to deal with a sad Jimin again. This was not the case. He seemed light-hearted and rejuvenated. Taehyung wondered why until Jimin trailed off in the middle of a sentence, completely losing his train of thought. Confused, Taehyung followed his line of sight to a second grader that he recognised as the one that called off the fight the day before. Looking back at Jimin, Taehyung expected him to be afraid or angry.

Instead, he looked completely smitten. Taehyung couldn't help but laugh,

"I think his name's Min Yoongi."