"Tear down your towers and build bridges."

-Hotel Books

Jimin

Racing to my room, I grabbed the pile of clothes on my bed and chair and shoved them in my closet. The trash from my bedside table made its way into a garbage can and my plushies were quickly stuffed under the bed. The room finally appeared somewhat presentable. Thank you Mom for stalling him for a moment!

There was a small knock on my door frame, and I looked up to see Yoongi standing there with his hands in his pockets studying my room. The idea of him being here in my bedroom suddenly filled me with anxiety.

"Come on in. Are you okay sitting on the floor? There's not really anywhere else to sit…" Yoongi just shrugged and sat down looking out of place in my bright bedroom. It wasn't until I noticed that that I realized what he must think looking at my bedroom. There was really no way to hide the fact that I was very very gay. From the dance trophies, to the make-up vanity, to the very prominent Jackson Wang picture collage on the back of my door. I mean my wall was covered with fairy lights for goodness sake. I probably should have thought of that before I invited him over. Too late now.

I mean it's not like I try to hide it or anything. All of my friends know, but maybe the "school bad boy" would have a problem with it. My only hope now was that he wouldn't mercilessly tease me for the rest of my high school career. I already dealt with enough bullies as it was. Kunghe had made it his very special mission to treat me like trash. I really didn't want to add to the list.

But if Yoongi were thinking any of these things, he didn't say anything. He just sat down on the floor and pulled his science book and a notebook. He set the rubric on the floor and looked up at me expectantly.

"Wow. You are really serious about getting to work." I said surprised.

"I want a good grade," he mumbled.

"I didn't think you cared about that kind of thing. I mean you always sleep in class and you constantly miss school."

He shook his head making his silky black hair a little disheveled. It was honestly a bit distracting how attractive it made him look.

"You seem awfully concerned with what I'm up to." He smirked a bit. It was one of the few times I saw any expression on his face. I blushed.

"N-no. No, I didn't notice it," I scrambled trying to find a reason I knew that. "Taehyung just mentioned it, is all."

"Taehyung? Is that the blue-haired kid you are always hanging around?"

"Now who's concerned with what I'm doing?" I said with a bit of sass I didn't realize I had. Once again he just shrugged.

After a moment he broke the silence, "You're wrong. I'm not asleep. In class, I'm not sleeping. I'm usually listening. I just don't like to talk in class and the teachers don't call on me when my head is down. Honestly, grades are important to me. A scholarship is my only way out of this hellhole."

"Oh. Huh, I never would have guessed."

"Guess you don't know a lot about me." He said and made eye contact for the first time before going back to work. The expression in his eyes took me back a bit. For once they weren't flat and emotionless. There was a look there of...something. What, I wasn't sure, but it filled me with curiosity.

"I guess I don't." I mumbled. And suddenly I wanted to know more. Who was this mysterious "bad boy" who the whole world was scared of but was secretly nice, polite, and a good student? It really was very interesting to consider.

Two hours later, my mom broke into our brainstorming to let us know that dinner was ready. We had been trying to narrow down our list of diagram ideas we had brainstormed. We had everything from a 1000x scale model in a shoe box to a plant cell cake. Yoongi had great ideas but he would rarely say them out loud. He would think to himself for a while and then hand me the list he had written in his notebook. Honestly, I was beginning to think that all his bad boy attitude was simply shyness.

We decided to wrap up for the day and head down to eat before Yoongi needed to go home. The smell from downstairs was enticing and we couldn't think straight anymore anyways. Mom had brought us snacks at the beginning of studying but that had been hours ago and they were long gone.

I raced down the stairs and Yoongi followed me at a more reserved pace. Immediately mom put us to work setting the table. She was shouting orders and our house quickly became filled with the usual dinnertime chaos.

"Jimin! Be sure to bring an extra chair from the living room for Yoongi."

"Minji, go wash your hands!"

"Jikyeong stop hiding and playing video games and help your sister wash her hands and then do the same."

"Yoongi dear would you set this salad bowl on the table?"

"Jimin! Move faster. You're dad will be home any moment."

"Kyeong! I won't tell you again! Games off NOW!"

When I came back into the room carrying a chair that had previously been covered in miscellaneous items that were now in a pile on the living room floor, I found Yoongi in the midst of my family's pandemonium looking completely overwhelmed.

I set the chair down at the extra spot on the kitchen table and gestured him over. "Have a seat. It will calm down in a minute. I'll go get the rest of the stuff from the kitchen."

I had just finished setting everything on the table and snagged a roll to start eating on when the front door opened.

A whistle sounded from the front of the house and Minji gasped and shrieked. "Daddy's home!" Yoongi jumped a little at her outburst and I couldn't help but chuckle, but then I realized that even after Minji raced from the room, he didn't relax. He looked very tense staring at the doorway in the direction of the front door. His mouth was pressed in a thin line and his eyebrows furrowed. The hand that was resting on the table had clinched into a fist so tight his knuckles were starting to turn white.

Just then my dad walked into the room carrying a laughing Minji and kissed my mom on the cheek. I skipped my usual eye roll and fake gag at my parents' PDA, too intrigued by Yoongi's reaction. After a moment though, he seemed to relax a bit and pulled his hands into his lap.

"Who do we have here?" Dad asked, turning to Yoongi. All the tension returned to his face.

"This is Yoongi," I said smiling, "We are working together on a science project."

"Nice to meet you, sir." Yoongi managed to get out.

My dad smiled, oblivious to Yoongi's strange attitude. "Well, glad you can join us. Thanks for working with Jiminie. Let me know if he slacks off and I'll whip him into shape."

"No, Sir." Yoongi quickly spoke up, "Jimin is a great partner. He never slacks off in class."

Dad laughed again, "That's what I like to hear." he said before turning back to my mom and asking about her day.

"You don't have to worry, you know." Yoongi looked up as I sat down in the chair next to him. "My dad is the furthest thing from scary. He's a big nerd honestly."

"I never said I was scared." He responded but visibly relaxed even more at my words.

Dinner passed rather uneventfully until Dad started the Min Yoongi interrogation 2.0.

"So, Yoongi you're a bit older than Jimin right? Did you just turn 17?"

Yoongi paused his fork halfway to his mouth. "No sir. I turn 18 in the spring." That was surprising considering what he said about his grades earlier. I wonder why he was a year older than me but still a junior. I suddenly remembered rumors that I had heard about him being in Juvie for a while. That didn't seem likely to me anymore.

"Oh, okay. Do you have plans for when you graduate?"

"I'd like to go to college. Of course, I'm still a junior so I have a bit of time to figure it out." He tried to go back to eating but my Mom interrupted. I knew I probably should have intervened once dad started questioning, but I was so curious that I didn't say anything.

"Do you know what you want to study?" Mom asked seemingly as curious as I was.

He nodded and smiled slightly for the first time. "Music."

I don't know why I found that so shocking but I did not expect that to be his answer. I turned sharply to look at him. Because I was staring so close I saw two things when my mom asked the next question that made my heart sink.

"That's nice! Are your parents supportive?"

First, I saw the way his smile immediately dropped. Something about seeing the very first smile I had ever seen from him disappear so quickly and completely was absolutely heartbreaking. And secondly, he moved and his hoodie fell back a bit and I had a clear view of a large hickey on his neck.

In that moment, I realized that, somehow, over the course of the day, I had developed a huge crush on the boy sitting next to me. And, also there was a very real chance that he was not available. Honestly, I didn't even know if he was gay but now I knew that I very much cared to find out.