Amalgamation

Chapter 5

Jimin walked to the end of the counter where someone had just sat down, looking at his notepad as he asked them for their order. "Just a coffee please~" He fumbled with his pencil, nearly dropping the utensil at the familiar voice.

He looked up to see Eunji right in front of him, an open notebook on the counter in front of her. "Eunji, what are you doing here?" Jimin asked, feeling his cheeks start to heat up.

"Well a partner for a school project told me to meet him here, so now I'm just trying to pass the time while I wait for him." Eunji answered, smiling at Jimin in a way that made his heart flutter. "I didn't realize you work here."

"My dad owns the place." Jimin explained. "How about I get you a slice of freshly baked pie to go along with the coffee?" Eunji opened her mouth to reject the offer, but Jimin quickly cut her off. "On the house~"

Eunji shrugged a bit. "Sure, why not. No sense in turning down free food."

Jimin giggled, turning around to head to the kitchen and nearly bumping into Yoongi who had just appeared. "Sorry to make you wait, Eunji. I didn't think you'd be here so soon."

"It's no problem." Eunji assured him.

"My shift still isn't over for 10 more minutes. Do you mind waiting some more?" Eunji shook her head and looked back down at her notebook as the two males returned to the kitchen, Jimin to get her the piece of pie and Yoongi to finish up one last order before his shift ended.

As Jimin plated the dessert for Eunji, Seokjin approached him. "Don't think I didn't see the way you were blushing around her." Jimin groaned. "Is she the girl you were talking about."

"Dad~" The teenager groaned again, cheeks heating up again.

"She's cute!" Seokjin exclaimed. "You should go for it." Unbeknownst to the father and son, Yoongi overheard their conversation, heart sinking slightly as he looked through the window at the girl sitting at the counter.

^^^

"Woah~" Eunji commented after seeing the large stack of college pamphlets and booklets on the corner of Yoongi's desk. "You're looking at a lot of colleges."

Yoongi glanced at the papers and sighed. "Yeah, since my dad's a teacher at the school, he gets a lot of these and he always gathers some up for me when he gets the chance."

Eunji watched Yoongi for a few seconds as he turned back to their work. "You don't sound very happy about that."

Yoongi looked up at her. "Oh no, I am! It's just..." Yoongi sighed again. "I really do want to go to college one day, but a lot has happened in the past year, so I don't really know if right now is the time for me to go." He looked back at the pamphlets. "But I can't really tell him that because he was so happy to help me apply to all these different schools and he is really excited for me to graduate and register for classes and everything."

"You'll have to talk to him eventually." Eunji commented, and Yoongi mumbled that he knew. "Maybe if you showed him that you have actually thought it out and have a set goal in mind. Like if you were to explain that you just wanted to take a gap year and then start the next school year, or come up with other options, then your conversation could go smoother."

Yoongi smiled at her. "You know, you're kind of mature for a 15-year-old."

"I'll be 16 in just a couple of weeks." Eunji pointed out with a giggle

^^^

Hoseok pushed open the door to the bathroom, stopping abruptly as Taehyung quickly pulled his shirt down in an attempt to hide the yellowing bruise on his side. "What happened?"

"Haven't you ever heard of knocking?" Taehyung moved to close the door again, but Hoseok held it open and repeated his question. "I have no idea what you are talking about." He once again tried to close the door, but Hoseok held on strong.

"Tae, you know I saw the bruise." Hoseok said calmly. "Now tell me what happened."

Taehyung thought back to earlier that week when Joshua, Jeonghan, and Seungcheol had cornered him in the locker room, but quickly shook the memory out of his head. "Nothing, I just bumped into the corner of a table. You know I got Dad's clumsiness." Hoseok gave him a look that said he didn't believe him. "Seriously, get out, I gotta poop."

"We're not done talking about this." Hoseok said, finally letting Taehyung close and lock the door.

^^^

Yugyeom had scooted his desk closer to Jungkook's after Namjoon gave them the last half of the period to work on their projects, and Jungkook was having trouble controlling his heart rate and breathing as he felt Yugyeom's thigh pressed against his. He was scared that only squeaks would come out of he tried to talk, so he simply nodded in agreement with everything Yugyeom said about the novel. "Are you okay?" Yugyeom suddenly asked him, eyebrows furrowed in concern.

"Yeah, totally fine~" Jungkook responded quickly. "Why?"

"Your face is really red."

Jungkook quickly touched his cheek, feeling the warm skin beneath his fingers. "Yeah, it's just kind of hot in here. But I'm okay, don't worry." Yugyeom seemed to believe that and turned back to their work, Jungkook quietly sighing in relief.

When the bell rang to dismiss them, Yugyeom was one of the first to leave class while Jungkook took his time packing his things up. "So, he's a fag now too?" He tensed as he overheard some of his classmates whispering, seeing out of the corner of his eye that they were looking at him. "Guess the apple really doesn't fall far from the tree."

The two giggled until Namjoon interrupted them. "Language like that is not tolerated in this classroom, and if I hear it again, it will be automatic detention." Once the two students were gone, Namjoon turned to Jungkook. "Don't listen to them, you're perfect no matter who you love." Jungkook quietly thanked him before running out of the classroom.