Daffodils only Bloom in Spring

7

The group continued to meet before morning lectures in the ensuing days, Taehyung not showing up, as recommended by Mr Kim. The teacher decided that it was best not to answer any questions about the matter, thinking he wasn't in a position to do so. The best he could do was assure everyone that Taehyung was okay, which was by no means false; Mr Kim had managed to obtain the student's schedule without much trouble or suspicion and was keeping a very close eye on him.

Although it didn't come as much of a surprise, the blood tests also turned out successful, the whole group emerging with positive results. Everything seemed to be running smoothly.

Before long, it was Friday afternoon and Mr Kim found himself leaning against a wall by the door of a room that held Taehyung's last seminar for the day. He was just about to check his watch for the umpteenth time when a stream of languid students trickled out of the room, a head of silver hair among them.

Upon spotting him, Mr Kim gently grabbed Taehyung by the arm and pulled him to the side. "Have you told anyone anything?"

Realising the implied topic of conversation, the student quickly denied with a shake of his head.

"Here," the teacher said, handing over a post-it note. "You're doing great," he added with a gentle pat on the shoulder before quickly walking away.

Taehyung looked down to read the neat message written on the coloured square of paper: 2 pm, tomorrow at the library. Don't forget your bag.

◆◆

"When is the library closing?"

"It'll get dark at around 4 so they'll probably start closing up at around 3. That means we have an hour to prepare," replied Mr Kim.

The group was in the library and had found an empty table to hover over. Students were already starting to pack up and leave; it seemed that those who had needed to use the library had either opted to use the bigger ones in the other buildings on campus or had come earlier in the morning and were now heading to their accommodations to double check they were completely ready for lockdown.

"Okay, we'll start looking around now. Taehyung, you just sit here and wait for a while. Would you like anyone to stay with you?" asked the teacher.

"I'll stay," Jimin volunteered before Taehyung could answer, taking a seat next to him at the table.

"Great. Is everyone on the group chat I made?"

"Yeah, there hasn't been a reason for us to use it yet, but I've already had to resort to muting it. I'm 100% sure I woke up this morning to the group chat completely spammed by Jungkook's messages from last night, expressing his excitement and inability to sleep. I'm not hallucinating, right?" Jin asked playfully.

"Shut up, it's cute," both Jimin and Hoseok defended, oddly synchronised. This caused Hoseok to curiously eye Jimin, which in turn caused the blond to look down, a slight blush dusting his cheeks. Jungkook stood uncomfortably, beginning to fidget.

"Concerning," Hoseok added, his gaze still focused on Jimin, the intensity however, declining, "but cute."

"Okay, great. Use that if you find a spot to hide or if something goes wrong- we won't be meeting up again. Remember to have your phone on silent, though," Mr Kim spoke up, trying to diffuse the awkward atmosphere. "Oh, and a head's up. After we leave our hiding places, we don't use the group chat again, okay? No private text messages either. Don't forget that communication is still being monitored, probably more strictly now than ever. Location is very easy to track. Don't make us even bigger targets than we already are," he concluded, making eye contact with everyone in turn.