YOU BEFORE I KNEW | JIKOOK ✔

5. LONE RANGER

TW: creepy ass teacher

Monday. Alternatively known as the most unbearable day of the week.

School. Alternatively known as hell.

These past few days, Jimin hasn't been at his prime regarding homework. His focus has been so lackluster to the point that he wouldn't be so surprised if his marks were complete shit. With everything that's going on: Jin and his toxic coping mechanism, Taehyung and his homophobic mother, the pictures of him and Jeongguk. It's a lot but it's not like any of his teachers will understand. They're all so determined to see their children thrive academically that what's going on at home doesn't matter.

When Jimin steps into the front entrance of his school, eyes are drawn to him like bugs to a bright light turned on at midnight. Apparently news travels fast and even though Jeongguk isn't in high school anymore, everyone seems to know who he is. What exacerbates the situation is that Taehyung doesn't seem to be at school today - his only anchor during trying times like these.

After their heartfelt talk last night, they ended up splitting and Taehyung had went back home. Jimin watched him sneak back into the window of his bedroom and so he's just hoping that he hadn't been caught. There's no telling what his mother is capable of. As far as Jimin knew, she had a heart of gold with absolutely no malice in her soul. But everybody has a secret that nobody knows.

Shaking his head, Jimin wraps his fingers around his backpack straps as he wanders through the halls, toward his locker. He does what he can to ignore the staring and whispering. He doesn't understand why it has to be such a big fucking deal.

Hell, maybe Jin was right. Jimin has been so devoted to his school life that he's never dated anyone. He hasn't even had his first kiss and apparently everyone at the school knows. So of course it would come as a surprise to see the popular 'tatted heartthrob' entering his bedroom at a party. Regardless of the situation, it's going to cause uproar because that's all that people have seen. But that's exactly what it is, isn't it? People will curate any kind of gossip in order to get attention.

Regardless, Jeongguk doesn't seem to be too terribly worried about it so Jimin tries to insert himself into the same mindset. He reaches for his first block materials and without Taehyung by his side, trudges to mathematics.

Without his sidekick, to no surprise, something about the atmosphere feels heavy. He can't exactly pinpoint what it is, but he isn't necessarily the most popular kid at school. Taehyung is his only friend and the only time people actually speak with him is to mooch off of his intelligence. It used to sting but he's gotten used to the negative attention.

Jimin is scrolling through his phone, nibbling on his forefinger while reading through the posts about him and Jeongguk. He has no fucking idea how they're trending on Twitter or why some people think they would look cute together. Some people are even taking it entirely too far, wondering how Jeongguk would look over top of him.

Goosebumps rise on his skin, compelling him to back out of the app and turn his phone off. He has never thought about Jeongguk in that kind of light and his stomach shifts because of how foreign said thought is.

With a miserable attempt at distracting himself, Jimin shuffles through his binder, making sure he's on the same page they left off and making sure that he has all of his homework in one place. He places the end of his pen against his full bottom lip, scanning what he had done haphazardly over the weekend. A good portion of them are done incorrectly. Go figure.

The tip of his pen falls between his lips just faintly in his focused state. He doesn't hear his mathematics teacher walk into the classroom but the second he greets his students, Jimin looks up and their eyes meet.