cliché | yoongi.

‣ iv

jaehee's gray t-shirt was a shade darker and damp from her sweat. her hair was messily piled onto her head into a bun, but tendrils were coming loose and sticking to her neck. the air she was breathing in was muggy and tasted like asshole. she was rehearsing with the cheerleaders for a dance number that they were supposed to do, but jaehee was having a hard time for obvious reasons.

"fuck! i can't do this anymore!" she declared, ripping off the head of her rocky the rabbit costume. the smell of the gym was only slightly better than the inside of her costume. she sprawled out on the cold gym floor, laying her sweaty cheek against it.

minah, the captain, gave her a sympathetic look. "alright, let's just call it a day. we only have ten minutes left until practice is over anyway."

"you okay, jaehee?" hana, the squad's best flyer, knelt down next to her in concern. "want some water?"

the cheerleaders had it way tougher than jaehee but were still super sweet to her, which only made her feel ten times worse.

"no, i'm okay. thanks though," jaehee said, slightly out of breath still.

"you seemed kind of out of it today," hana noted, "are you still upset about what happened with yoongi?"

ouch. salt in a freshly reopened wound.

"of course not," jaehee lied, "i'm over it. even if the entire student body hates me."

"they do not." hana rolled her eyes.

just as jaehee was about to argue back, the gym doors opened and the sound of tennis shoes squeaking against the floor filled the entire room. jaehee felt her blood turn to ice as the basketball team began to run laps, frantically grabbing hana.

"why are they here? they don't have anymore games to play," she asked. 

hana shrugged. "i don't know. endurance training or something?"

jaehee caught jimin's eye as he ran past them. he gave her a cheesy wink before facing forward again, clearly seeing the desperation in her eyes but choosing to ignore it. it was only when yoongi ran past and glanced at her for a brief second that jaehee realized how god-awful she must've looked. she was wearing the mascot costume, no makeup, and she probably smelled rank. 

"i'm gonna peace out," she said suddenly, awkwardly trying to stand up in her giant costume.

"don't you want to cool off some more?" hana asked, brows furrowed in confusion. she leaned in closer toward jaehee (without grimacing at her smell), whispering. "don't you want to see hot, sweaty basketball players?"

"hot, sweaty basketball players that hate me," jaehee said pointedly. 

"who cares? they'll get over it," hana said, waving at jimin and fluttering her eyelashes. jaehee rolled her eyes, rising to her feet.

"see you tomorrow, you thirsty bitch."

just as she took a step to leave the gym, jaehee felt the unmistakable pain of a basketball being lobbed at the back of her head. spewing loud curses, she whirled around to glare at the perpetrator. 

"oopsie daisy!" park jimin sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck, sticking out his tongue. "my bad, jaehee!"

"you're such a piece of shit, jimin! come here so i can shove this ball up your ass―"

however, jimin was no longer paying attention to jaehee. instead he leaned over to yoongi and gestured at her, promptly causing her to stop her tirade and pipe down.

"yoongi, would you be a dear and get the ball for me?" jimin asked loudly, spiking jaehee's blood pressure. "she's so scary!"

yoongi rolled his eyes, but nonetheless jogged over to retrieve the ball. jaehee could literally feel the glares of the other basketball players, mentally making a note to injure jimin considerably later.

"you okay?" yoongi asked as she handed him the ball. she couldn't seem to bring herself to look him in the eyes, instead opting for a small nod.

"i've got rocks for brains, as you probably know. nothing can hurt this old thing," she joked, still staring at her feet and making it seem like she was talking about them instead.

he chuckled, gently reaching over and ruffling her hair. "what happened at the game is in the past, so chin up. and don't drink so much."

jaehee's face felt like it had just erupted into flames. "i—"

but he was already halfway back onto the court. she sighed, trailing off.

that's not why though.