THE AFTERGLOW | | vk

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"cant you consider us for a few months more." the guy with black hair pleaded his landlord. "I wish I could, but we need a source of income as well, young man." the old man in his late 50's blurred out. " but notifying us so suddenly wud make it hard for us as well." the short guy retorted." that's not the way u talk to elders, Jimin." the taller guy whispered. "better learn talking to your elders, shorty. You guys either pay the rent that rose or vacate the apartment in 2 weeks." the old man snapped angrily, slightly glaring at Jimin, and made his way out.

"you could have talked a bit politely, it is not even like we can't pay it, Jimin," the latter said calmly following jimin back into their house. " yeah, I could have, I  know we earn more than enough but I was a bit skeptical because he just abruptly came to us and rose the rent, Tae" Jimin muttered. "yeah, true that!" Tae almost whispered but Jimin caught it. Jimin sighed loudly. "What made u sigh so loudly?" the latter questioned. " things are around me are so annoying these days," Jimin says out loud and makes his way to the kitchen lazily"  the latter looks around his surrounding to find the fault "I don't think so. everything looks fine around me." says confused. Jimin looks at him and internally rolls his eyes and chuckles under his breath while stirring to melt the sugar that he added to the coffee. " That not what I meant, Tae. I was referring to the work and the stacks of exam papers that have to be corrected by evening." Taehyung makes a "ohhhh" look on his face showing that he got it now and grins sheepishly.

"what's wrong with work?" tae questioned " well, it's too much of work these days. you know how bratty these teenage boys can be. you ask them to do something but they do something to rebel against teachers. Their exams were done last week and they have to be corrected and arrange remedial classes for the ones who fail or who scored on the borderline." the eldest of two explains. tae nods understandingly and sips his coffee. both of them sit in comfortable silence.

" Why don't u try detentions, cutting of their attendance, or extra classes" tae suggests. Do you think I didn't do all that? but nothing worked. It's not even like all students are rebellious but few. Few others have a hard time understanding the concepts. they get confused easily" Jimin explains. Tae frowns and nods feeling bad for the students who have a hard time understanding concepts. 

"How about you, Tae? we barely have been hanging out these tho we leave under the same roof " Jimin says sadly. " I want to spend time with you too but the company I work for has collaborated with Kim corporations. So, Namjoon Hyung and I got busy with settling the accounts. Any small difference in the account costs my job." tae croaked slurping the last sip of his coffee and placing the cup on the teapoy. " Aghh, that sounds not so good to hear," Jimin exclaims.  

" well, it's my day off today. I still gotta grade the students, and sort them out. If u r Hungry knock on my door and let me know, I'll cook something for you." Jimin informs his roommate, lifts himself from the couch, ruffles the latter's hair lovingly, and makes his way to his room. when Taehyung hears the door shut, slouches back on the couch,  stares into space. After few minutes he abruptly lifts himself from the couch" I gotta complete my pending work too" mutters to himself and trudges down to his room.

Once he enters his room, he gets his laptop from the desk,  walks to his bed, and makes himself comfortable, he places his laptop and his phone on the bed table and busies himself by working on the accounts he gotta manage for the company. An hour later minutes, he hears his phone go off with a loud sound, he curses under his breath for flinching and lifts the phone receiving it               "hello" he blathered " hey, Tae " a person speaks from the other side. " oh Hey, Yoongi Hyung, I didn't see that it was you." tae says slightly embarrassed. " Yeah, I made that out by your tone. It's ok. I guess you were busy when I called you." yoongi says. " no-no Hyung. nothing like that. anything important u called me for?" tae questions mentally thinking that yoongi doesn't call him usually unless it's very important. "It's not Important but Jimin wasn't lifting his phone. I tried calling for 4 times. He is home?" yoongi says and tae frowns " he is home, Hyung. In his room. He said he has a stack of papers to correct. " taehyung says moving the bed table aside carefully, getting himself outta the bed, making his way to Jimin's door and knocks on it.  " Yeah, but why isn't he lifting his phone?" yoongi asks curious as Jimin opened the door with a curious look " what is it, Tae? are you hungry already?" asks and almost made his way to the kitchen to cook. " No, Hyung. Yoongi hyung is on the line. he said that you didn't receive his calls when he called you." taehyung explains passing his phone to Jimin.  

Jimin takes the phone and puts it in his ear to talk to yoongi. "hello, Hyung" jimin starts. Taehyung made his way back to the room giving them some space to talk. He busied himself in his for the next 15 mins until Jimin entered his room with his phone in his hand. " my phone was on silent." Jimin said smiling sheepishly and passing the phone to taehyung. " What was the call about?" tae asks being curious. "nosy, aren't we?" Jimin teases "nothing like that, hyung.  Yoongi hyung barely calls me unless its really important?" tae defends and pouts. Jimin coos and sits on the edge of the bed " yoongi Hyung asked me to get the work done as soon as possible because we have meeting with the principal about students, their behavior, and grades and also to discuss further about the remedial classes. The principal wants a list of all the remedial students. He also said that he is going to severely punish the rebellious students this time. We are also having a student-teacher interaction session to know where the students are facing the problems." Jimin says and breathes out. "Tomorrow sounds like a tiring day for you, Hyung." the younger utters feeling bad for his hyung. " well, that's my work" Jimin shrugs "C'mom, I'm hungry, let's cook and eat. I gotta complete my work after the meal." 

Trudging towards the kitchen, Jimin made his way towards the fridge to collect the ingredients. tae followed him behind and sat on the island before biting in his apple. " I really wanna see ur students," tae says absent-mindedly. Jimin looks at him being amused "what made you think of that? I've been working there for 4 years and no student acknowledges me properly. They won't even bother to look at you if you present yourself there." the elder said. " well, it's not like I want their attention. I just want to see what made them so bratty." tae clarifies. Jimin sighs " not all students are bratty, Tae. Some are really quiet to the point where they don't bother to make themselves with others around them. Talking about this reminds me of a student in my class. he is the quietest of all. He looks so scared. Looks confusingly at the things that are new around him or when he reads books. Ig he has trouble with understanding concepts. Never have I ever seen him making a move to talk to someone or make any friends. He sits alone almost all the time. Once I caught few students bothering him in the hallway. He had tears trickling in his eyes. I reported those bullies and the principal took care of them. Yoongi hyung and I tried talking to him but he somehow makes his way out." Jimin ends. "call me crazy but the guy seems interesting," Tae grins. Jimin sighs leaning on the island beside tae, Cooking was long forgotten   " Hmm, indeed, when I correct his paper before I saw he didn't score really well in the exam. I added him to the remedial list. That guy is not at all a big fan of talking." Jimin adds. Tae nods understanding. "what's his name?"

JEON JEONGGUK