trying to behave (but you know we never learned how)

Chapter two

September 2002

The transition from kindergarten to a generally large primary school ten minutes away from their neighbourhood comes relatively easily.

Yoongi's English is near impeccable now, and despite having an option to just start the grade he's the age for, he decides to let things go as they are. Jimin's heart swells in his chest when Mother Yoongi informs him that they'll be starting 1st grade together, because 'I can't go anywhere without Park Jimin.'

The first day of school is a crisp, autumn Monday and Jimin is nervous.

'What if the new kids hate me?' he pouts from where he's sprawled across Yoongi's spider-man bed sheet. Jimin's in his tiny school uniform already, and his mom thought he looked adorable; he could only barely get her to let him leave for school with Yoongi on great insistence and big puppy dog eyes.

The older boy chuckles and turns around in his desk chair from where he was shoving his new school books into his bag.

'Relax, Jimminie,' he zips it up, weighs it in his hands and makes a face. 'And stop lying down, you'll wrinkle everything,'

'No,' Jimin pouts petulantly, before he thoughtfully adds 'I just don't want them to hate me,'

'If they do, I'll mess their faces up,' Yoongi shrugs lightly, like he's talking about the weather. The younger boy tilts his head.

'You will?'

'Yes. Now get off my bed, the bus will be here in like two minutes,'

'You're not even dressed,'

'I'm quick, it doesn't matter,'

Yoongi, in fact, is not quick and the bus has to wait for them for a seven whole minutes. It's embarrassing for everyone involved.

The primary school is all brick and boring, but there's way more kids moving around than there were in kindergarten. Jimin keeps one hand on the strap of his bag and the other clutched firmly in Yoongi's. He doesn't want to get lost.

'There's so many people,' he whines, as they try to navigate their way to the first grade classroom. A nice teacher had given them directions at the entrance but refused to walk them, because 'then I'll have to walk everyone, sweethearts, I'm sorry, I'm on gate duty!'

(Jimin hates adults.)

'It's okay,' Yoongi murmurs in response, rubbing a cold thumb over Jimin's knuckles with his tongue poking out in concentration as he stares at the classrooms lining the hallway around them. The younger sighs in some sort of relief. If he has Yoongi, he feels like he can take over the world probably.

The classroom isn't that hard to find once they actually locate the correct wing, and they sit together right at the back because Yoongi hates being in the front, and by extension, on the spot. They're still twenty minutes early so the older grunts that he's going to sleep and puts his head down into his arms.

Jimin likes Yoongi when he's asleep; he looks peaceful, all rebellious snark gone from his face. He wishes he could see his face right now, so he leans down and peeks through the cracks of Yoongi's arms, giggling slightly when he opens one eye to look at him.

'Hi there,' Yoongi murmurs and Jimin feels blood rush to his cheeks.

'Hi, Yoongi-ah,' he beams, and the older boy chuckles, ruffling his hair.

'You're so cute,' he muses and puts his head back down again, completely missing how Jimin's blush extends to his nose.

The younger's scared Yoongi would hear how his heart is going insane in his chest.