Alternate Love(Vminkook)

12||🦋

Jimin didn't believe in gut feelings.

He believed in patterns.

Patterns were safer. Patterns could be explained. You could point to them, track them, type them. Gut feelings were just panic dressed as intuition.

And Taehyung had patterns.

Used to, anyways.

He used to fidget when he lied. Tap his finger, bounce his knee, something. Now he went still. Too still. Like he learned that movement gave things away.

This was new.

And new, in Taehyung , was never good.

He noticed it in pieces. It seemed like he was the only one sometimes.

The way he paused half a second too long before answering simple questions.

The way his eyes didn't quite focus sometimes-like he was listening to something just out of reach.

The way he smiled now. Smaller. Measured.

Practiced.

Jimin leaned back in his chair during class, pretending to take notes while watching him two rows away.

He looked... normal.

That was the problem.

A few months ago when it was getting bad, it has been obvious. Messy. Loud in all the wrong ways. Teachers whispering. Counselors calling him out of class.

Now?

"Good insight, Taehyung."

"Nice work, Taehyung."

Everyone thought he was better.

Jimin tightened his grip on his pen.

He wasn't so sure.

He knew Jungkook noticed but Jungkook gave too much grace to him.

After class, he caught up with him in the hallways.

"Walk with me," he said, already turning.

He followed. He always would, wherever they went-he'd follow. They'd never leave.

That was another pattern.

They moved through the crowd in silence for a bit, shoulders occasionally brushing as people pushed past.

"You ever feel like everyone decided something about you," he said, casual, "and you didn't get a vote?"

Taehyung glanced at him. "What do you mean?"

"Like-once people think you're 'better', that's it. You're better. No room for anything else."

He huffed a quiet laugh. "Sounds like you're projecting."

"Maybe."

He nudged his arm lightly. "Answer the question."

He hesitated.

Too long.

"Yeah," he said finally.

There it was

That delay again.

Jimin slowed his pace slightly, watching him from the corner of his eye.

"Do you think it's true?" he asked.

"What?"

"That you're better."

Taehyung's jaw tightened.

"I'm fine."

Jimin stopped walking.

Tashyung took two more steps before realizing, then turned back.