Imma give you one right now :D
The air was burning. Summer had arrived earlier than the weather forcasts predicted, yet Jimin found himself in the deserted alleyway behind the bleachers with Taehyung.
They knelt in front of the television set and Jimin watched the other boy flick some switches, a visible pout forming on his lips. A few frustrated tinkering moves on the bulky set later, Taehyung threw down the console.
“It’s completely busted,” he said, eyes furious. “They completely wrecked it the last time.”
Jimin pursed his lips, then sat down beside Taehyung on the hot pavement as he fiddled with the broken pieces of plastic. Then he noticed the metal rod the thugs used the time before lying in front of the screen and he kicked it away, leaving it to scatter across the ground in its high pitched screech.
“It’s not okay!” Taehyung said. He plunged his hands into the pockets of his tattered blazer and Jimin mulled on the comment.
“We can find another thing to do.”
Sitting there with the sun pouring down on them, sometimes Jimin had to take a step back and consider the absurdity of the situation. Two seventeen year old boys, not doing their homework because somebody had taken their pencil cases and at a loss over a broken gaming console.
“You wanna read comics? I’ve got a few Marvel ones today!” Jimin said ecstatically. Taehyung returned a doubtful look and answered, “I don’t know…”
“Come on. We’ve got nothing to do. Byunjae is hunting us right now.”
Jimin didn’t even have time to register what was happening. Taehyung pulled his hand and broke off into a run through the alleyway, causing Jimin to trip over his feet.
Startled, he opened his mouth to ask what on Earth was happening but soon enough, his answer came in the form of distorted shouts and thundering footsteps at their backs.
Jimin’s heart began pounding and he quickened his pace to match Taehyung. They flew past a blur of corridors and the few annoyed students who still were loitering in school in the late afternoon until Taehyung halted.
Taehyung hissed, “Here.” Then he pushed a still stunned Jimin to the right in a crossroad, and down into a dark place before shutting the door behind them.
With their shoulders touching each other in the crammed space, neither of them breathed and Jimin could hear the fear in their chests, beating away.
“Where are they?” A voice asked as the group of footsteps neared. Jimin felt his heart stop when they paused in front of their hideout, but they quickly moved off and Jimin collapsed backwards.
He turned to Taehyung after regaining his composure and furrowed his brows. “Hey… It’s alright. They’re gone.”
Taehyung’s face was white and his lips were sealed together as he took shaky breaths. He wrapped his arms around his knees and laid his head on them.
They stayed this way for a long time, with Jimin patting him on the back and him holding back terrified sobs.
They weren’t supposed to meet, Taehyung and him. Taehyung belonged to the academically poorer classes and Jimin, he belonged to the cream of the crop.
He was supposed to make his parents and school proud or something. But somehow belonging to a lower social class and having a better brain did not sit well with some people and rumours began to spread.
They were false by the way: the one about his parents prostituting his imaginary sister and another one about how he had to beg on his knees to enter the top class.
Jimin took a test. That was it. He scored 100/100. That was it. He went home. That was it.
Yet somehow it turned into a witch hunt for him and on hindsight, reading the whole volume of Iron Man in the middle of the cafeteria wasn’t a good idea for a supposed witch.
Now he was a nerd to the thugs of the poorer classes and a punching bag for his own class’ insecurities.
Taehyung literally crashed into Jimin on the second week of school, eyes with a wild light that scared him. It only took one look at the pursuers for both of them to stop at a temporary agreement and took off together.
Jimin stuck to Taehyung from then on. It was indeed a strange friendship. Initially, Taehyung was uncomfortable with having another person other than himself at the library as he did his homework in a state of constant panic.
But eventually, Jimin slipped him the answers and into to the seat next to him, and the boy warmed up. They had their differences- Taehyung adored video games, trash talking and coffee. Jimin adored comics, staying mum and cola.
But they made do. They had no other choice.
It was two weeks later after that close shave that they found spare time to discuss Jimin’s comics. This time, they sat underneath a staircase as people passed by above.
“Yeesh these are confusing as fuck,” Taehyung complained, waving a volume in front of Jimin’s face. Jimin snatched it back and made a face. “They’re amazing. Beautiful.”
“I mean if I had a multiverse I would just earn lots of money and run off to a mansion on the mountains. Why bother fighting bad people when you can just escape everything?”
Jimin sighed, looking at Taehyung, “Sometimes people don’t have a choice, you know? The fight just comes to us and well. Kaboom! Besides, the art styles are so pretty. You get to enjoy a good story and art!”
Though, it wasn’t optimal for comic book reading now. Jimin preferred lying on the bed at home surrounded by his pillows and older brothers- when they were in a better mood.
“Yikes this shit is so torn.”
“Yeah I think I’ve read it a thousand times.”
Silence ensued before Taehyung quipped, “Stop wearing those sweaters it’s so hot.”
“Shut up I like them. They’re cute.”
Jimin’s obession with comics began at a young age. Family issues were one thing, but he found the art as a form of escape.
He thought it amazing that there were such people who had powers and did good things. He never believed that these two things could go hand in hand before.
Reading them made him absorb into an entirely fictional world that he wanted to live in. He tried to emulate it in reality, he really did.
But today, the universe decided to test him. And he was tired.
The day ended as per normal, with him meeting Taehyung at the school gates.
“Miss Lee was so naggy today,” Taehyung said. He flipped a coin in his hand and continued, “She asked us to complete six pages of chemistry, like, who the hell has time to do that?”
Jimin rolled his eyes. “If you stop playing so many games maybe you’d complete something for once.”
“Hey hey look who’s here,” a drawling voice said from in front and both of them froze in their tracks. Taehyung grabbed Jimin to run but a uniformed girl closed in on them and they stumbled backwards.
The main thug, Jimin called him Idiot 1, said as he spread out his arms, “You’ve escaped us for three weeks now. Not bad.”
“Shut up you fucking trash,” Taehyung spat, although his fingernails dug into Jimin’s arm as he retreated behind. Jimin swallowed his fear and said, “We’re in public. Don’t do this.”
“Aw the mute one finally speaks.”
“The police can be called down.”
The taller boy strode forward and shoved Jimin to the ground, his knees grazing on the hot ground. The impact made him gasp in pain and his friend kicked him to the side.
Idiot 1 said, “Nerd. You were never supposed to be here. I’ve waited a long time to see Kim Taehyung.” All Jimin saw was pure fright on Taehyung’s face as his eyes widened and he crumpled into a ball onto the ground.
Then they started punching him.
And he heard those long lost voices in his head.
“Hyung help!” the boy cried as scarred hands pulled him away. Jimin remembered a pair of arms carrying him away while he screamed amidst the inferno.
The younger boy was irrecognisable from the blood that drenched his face and Jimin kept screaming his name. But the person behind him covered his mouth, and told him it was useless to fight.
It was a fight they couldn’t win.
That was the last Jimin saw of Jungkook. In a house burning to ashes. He could have saved him if only… If only…
Taehyung appeared in his blurred vision again and Jimin snapped. He swung his body around his assailant, twisting his arm in the process and brought his other hand down in his neck.
The boy fell away, writhing in pain and Jimin saw the stunned faces of the bystanders and the gang of six students.
A girl recovered from her shock and flew at him- Jimin blocked her blow and swiftly kicked her knees which made her buckle. He pushed another approaching boy in her direction and both of them collided into each other.
Everything was a blur as Jimin fought towards Taehyung, and sooner than he thought, he was punching Idiot 1 in the face. Idiot 1 rolled away after that, which surprised Jimin.
But Jimin’s reflexes were burned into him and he immediately jumped onto Idiot 1. Pulling him up by the collar, he hissed, “Stop bullying him. Okay?”
Idiot 1 still shut his mouth, glowering at the back of his throat. He attempted to hit Jimin in the stomach but Jimin bent it the other way round and Idiot 1 screamed.
Jimin shouted, “I said stop bullying him! Do I get a yes?”
The blood was roaring in his ears when he looked down at the red liquid pouring down Idiot 1’s nose. Silence rang all around, then Jimin felt the air brush against his sweat-beaded skin on his back.
Taehyung’s gaze flitted between the bloodied boy and Jimin’s back, face ashen. It was when Jimin realised everybody saw it out of his torn shirt.
His breathing was ragged as he glared at the weakly sputtering Idiot 1, and the day seemed to slow in that instance. The moment Jimin heard his voice.
Jimin could recognise that gravelly voice anywhere. Of course, it was the one that held him back three years ago. The one that told him there was no point being a hero.
Without hesitation, he stood up and walked towards the blonde haired man clad in black whom all the bystanders cleared a circle for. He didn’t care if his tattoo on his back could be seen by the whole world. He didn’t care, for once, about what Min Yoongi said.
Jimin stared up at the older man’s souless eyes. They had been that way for a long time. He whispered after a beat, “I saved him. If Jungkook were here he’d be proud. So proud.”
