Jeongguk drives himself and Taehyung to school every morning. It takes five minutes to drive to Taehyung's house, then another fifteen minutes to their favorite coffee shop, and finally another ten minutes to the school building. So roughly a half hour - except on the days when Jeongguk's dear friend takes a particularly long time getting out of bed. Which is most days. So actually it's closer to forty-five minutes total.

Regardless, Jeongguk gets up early enough in the morning to arrive at school comfortably on time. Today, he arrives with roughly twenty minutes to spare before the start of their first class.

It's enough time, he tells himself. Perfect timing, too. On his way to his own locker, Jeongguk spots the boy again.

Park Jimin, retrieving his textbooks from his locker, one earphone in as the other one dangles in front of him. He's bobbing his head slightly to the sound of guitar music which Jeongguk can faintly hear coming from the dangling earphone.

This Tuesday morning, Jimin's wearing an oversized sweatshirt as usual - this one's pink and blue in color. The hood is partially pulled over his head but hanging back enough that Jeongguk can see the boy's messy black hair. Cute.

"Hey, I like your hoodie, Jimin."

Nothing strange or alarming about a friendly compliment, Jeongguk thinks. Wrong. He's dead wrong. Or it seems so, anyway.

Eye contact is made for a split second. Following that split second, Jimin nearly throws all his books on the and floor and comes close to slamming his locker shut on his finger, all while attempting, rather, succeeding, in making a mad dash to get away from Jeongguk.

And so Jeongguk is left to stand in utter silence and extreme puzzlement in front of Jimin's locker where he swears the boy was just standing.

"Yo, he just road-runnered into the next dimension." Taehyung comes up from behind to place a hand on his friend's shoulder. "What did you do, threaten to kiss him?"

Jeongguk blinks. "I...complimented his hoodie."

"Oh, well that was a crazy reaction. He's super fast."

"Yeah, apparently..."

Taehyung hums and nods, raising his coffee from earlier that morning up to his lips, where he then proceeds to take the most obnoxious sip known to mankind.

"Wanna walk to class?"

"What else are we gonna do?" Jeongguk shoots him a look. "Skip?"

"Skip class? Or skip to class?" Taehyung asks. "Cus I'm down for both. Wait-"

Regardless of Jeongguk not having moved a centimeter from his standpoint, Taehyung extends his hand to press against his friend's chest, so as to stop him in his tracks. Tae's eyes follow a boy passing by them in the hallway.

"Jung Hoseok, who gave you the right to wear those killer pants."

He drags his thumb across his chin, puckering his lips. Jeongguk just stares at his friend till that predictable, oblivious 'what?' is uttered.

"Dude, I'm not gay," Tae shook his head resolutely. "I'm just saying it how it is, killer pants."

"First of all, I don't believe you, second of all-" The other boy pauses to sigh. "-no one uses 'killer' anymore."

"Don't lecture me on my vocabulary, man, c'mon, we gotta get to class."

Unable to argue any more, Jeongguk gives in, as usual, and follows his friend to class, "coincidentally" right after Hoseok started on his way to class, too.

"Just look at his legs, Guk. Look."

"Tae, I forgot to mention, I bought you a pride headband yesterday."

"Return it. Not gay, man."

"You're impossible."

So thanks to the little happenings in the hallway that Tuesday morning, Jeongguk and Taehyung stroll into class no more than two minutes before the bell rings - not enough time to talk to Jimin again. But Jeongguk's eyes do find the boy, sitting towards the back of the classroom, still with his earphones in, though he pulls them out of his ears once their history teacher walks in.

"Good morning, everyone," greets the teacher - Mrs. Choi, is her name, but Taehyung likes to refer to her as Steve because of the striped shirts she has of just about every shade imaginable in the green spectrum. "This morning, I'm not feeling the best, so you're all going to read the next chapter in your textbooks and take notes. I expect your best behavior-" Her beady eyes fix on Taehyung in the center of the class. "-or there will be repercussions."

A boy at the front raises his hand.

"Yes, Yoongi?"

"How bad are the repercussions?"

"You will not be permitted to sleep in the detention room, Yoongi."

Another boy raises his hand.

"No, Seokjin, you will not be permitted to clean the guinea pig cage. For whatever reason you enjoy doing so."

A third boy.

"Namjoon, please."

"...yes, ma'am."

With that, Mrs. Choi takes a seat at her desk with a sigh and a pitiful shake of her head. At this point she's used to it. But oh, how it wearies her.

Only about a third of the class has their textbooks out and are actually reading. Another handful of students have the book out and opened to the page, but are distracting themselves with other things, either phones or handheld video game consoles. Then there's Yoongi, who has by this point mastered the art of taking naps in class without getting caught.

And finally, there are the ballsy kids who talk amongst themselves anyway, and even the ones who sneakily eat during class.

Jeongguk is one of these kids. A snack-sized Hershey bar up his sleeve, he takes bites more discreetly than he needs to, as Mrs. Choi doesn't have but an eye raised to inspect the class. Instead, her eyes are pouring over papers needing to be marked, meaning she'll only look up if she hears a loud noise.

A short ways into the class, Jeongguk's gaze shifts towards the back of the room. There he sees Jimin, with his earphones in again, bobbing his head subtly as he mouths the lyrics to his music. A pen in hand, he appears to be actually doing his work. However the boy's attention is shifted every so often when Hoseok, who sits in front of him, turns around to talk.

Diagonally Jimin is three seats away. Jeongguk's wary gaze moves back to Mrs. Choi briefly before he faces forward and takes out his notebook.

And on a blank sheet of paper he writes the following:

Sorry if I startled you this morning. I just really like your hoodie. Super cute. Where'd you get it from?

—Jeongguk

Smiling to himself, Jeongguk neatly folds the paper and taps Taehyung's shoulder.

"Psst. Tae-"

"I'm not sharing my potato chips, Guk, there's like three per bag."

"What?" He looks down and spots the snack-sized chip back hiding in Tae's desk. "No, that's not what I was gonna—is that an entire pack of Oreos?"

"I don't eat breakfast. This is my breakfast."

"Healthy choices. Anyway-" Jeongguk slips the note onto his friend's desk and gestures at Jimin. "Pass this to the cute hoodie boy."

"Hoseok's wearing a cardigan today."

"Jimin, Tae. Pass it to Jimin."

"Ohhh, roadrunner." Winking, Taehyung picks the note up between his fingers. "Got it."

"Be discreet."

"Dude, do you know me?"

"Yes, that's why I said 'be discreet'."

"I got this. Relax."

With that proudly stated comment, Taehyung begins by rotating his position in his desk, then extending his foot to tap the desk next to him. The girl sitting there lifts her head in confusion. Once he has her attention, he tosses the note to her and points to Jimin, all the while as Jeongguk watches anxiously.

Things seem to go well from there. After a minute, the note successfully makes it to Jimin's desk. And Jeongguk begins to bite his fingernails as he anticipates Jimin's reaction.

The boy reads the note. All of a sudden, his eyes go wide, and he snatches the note off his desk only to shove it into his pocket and pull the hood of his sweatshirt completely over the top of his head.

Not what Jeongguk was expecting. Not at all.

"What?" Jeongguk leans over to Taehyung, furiously tapping his friend's shoulder. "Yo, Tae did you see that?"

"Steve scratching her armpit? Yeah, I saw."

"No, I mean Jimin. He just crumpled up the note and put it in his pocket."

"What did you write?"

"That I like his hoodie."

"Maybe try a new approach." Taehyung reaches into his desk. "Here. An Oreo for your troubles."

"Thanks." Accepting the cookie, Jeongguk faces forward again and opens up his notebook to a new empty sheet. "Okay, gonna try again."

So he writes:

You have your headphones in a lot. Whatcha listening to?

—Jeongguk

Everyone likes talking about music, right? He congratulates himself for the idea before once again assigning Taehyung the mission of getting the note to reach Jimin's desk. Another success. Skeptically, Jimin opens the note and reads it.

The same reaction. Crumpled up and shoved in his pocket. Jeongguk's eyebrows shoot up in shock and dismay.

"Tae, he did it again!"

"No talking."

He sits facing forward. "Sorry, Mrs. Choi."

—