On-Way Passage || ᴠᴍɪɴ

Chapter 27

Seungmin stood before them in all-white, a half-smile on his lips. “Long time to see.”

Jimin had never met Seungmin; he didn’t even know whether he was acquainted with the guy or not, so he turned to look at Taehyung.

Taehyung had a neutral expression on his face as he gave Seungmin a nod. “When did you get back?”

“Last week,” said Seungmin. “I got in touch with Yoongi. He didn’t tell you?”

“No,” said Taehyung.

Hyunjin, who had been following Seungmin closely, also approached them at this time. He smiled at Taehyung and said, “President Kim,” before turning to face Jimin.

Jimin met Hyunjin in his first year of university. Hwang Hyunjin, who was two years his senior, was in his third year at the time. He’d been the student union’s president and an influential figure in their faculty. They had rarely crossed paths—after all, Hyunjin was an alpha, whereas Jimin was a newly enrolled first-year student. Even if Hyunjin paid attention to new students, his attention wouldn’t be on Jimin.

And yet at present, Hyunjin was looking at Jimin with a gentle gaze. “Jimin, I heard that you got into a car accident recently,” he said. “You didn’t suffer any serious injuries, did you?”

“No,” Jimin responded vaguely. “I’m all healed.”

Seungmin, who was also looking at Jimin, held out a hand and amicably introduced himself, “Hello, I’m Kim Seungmin.”

Jimin shook his hand. “Park Jimin.”

Seungmin smiled. “It’s an honour to meet you at last.”

Jimin smiled mutely.

At that moment, the lights in the banquet hall suddenly dimmed, and the melodic music that had been resounding throughout the room came to an abrupt halt. As the spotlight fell on the main stage, and the emcee began ushering the guests to take their seats.

Taehyung took Jimin to their assigned seats. The banquet hall was packed with round tables, with chairs arranged around them. They weren’t at the same table as Hyunjin and Seungmin, but shortly after Jimin sat down, he noticed someone waving at him from the next table over. When he turned to look, he discovered that it was Yoongi, and sitting next to him was his alpha boyfriend, Jung Hoseok.

The charity banquet’s auction was about to commence, the loud chatter in the hall quietened down until it was a soft murmur.

Jimin called Taehyung in a hushed tone, “Hey.”

Taehyung didn’t respond.

Jimin could only close the distance between them to whisper in Taehyung’s ear, “Taehyung!”

“Just spit it out,” Taehyung said.

“Who’s Kim Seungmin?” asked Jimin.

Taehyung slightly paused for a moment, facing the front the whole time, before answering, “He’s a childhood friend.”

“Were you childhood sweethearts?” Jimin asked.

Taehyung glanced at him from the corner of his eyes and didn’t answer.

“Do you know Hwang Hyunjin?” Jimin asked again.

“Don’t you?”

“He’s my senior. He was two years above me in uni,” said Jimin.

“Why is he here today?”

“He’s Mo Ze’s boss.”

“Mo Ze?” Jimin hesitated. “Huh?”