Sticks and Stones • Park Jimin

v.

Jimin wasn't quite sure when he'd crossed the line. At one point in his life, Jimin had been confused and upset as to why he'd been the target of verbal assault and humiliation.

But then he'd just accepted it.

He had grow used to being quiet, although in truth, he'd never really been altogether that loud. He had grown used to eating his lunch quickly, to finding quiet places where he could be alone, to counting the hours and minutes and seconds until he could leave.

His mom didn't know. He'd never told her, and he didn't plan on it.

***

He decided to leave the classroom for lunch and went down to the cafeteria, finding a seat at an empty table and sitting so his back faced the wall, just so he'd have an early warning if somebody tried to mess with him.

Sometimes, he thought about fighting back, about throwing a punch at Kyung-soo. But Jimin just wasn't much of a fighter.

"Hi! Can I sit here?"

Jimin looked up, momentarily surprised, to see a boy his age from a different class. "Um...sure, I guess."

"Thanks!" The boy sat down and pulled out a lunch box. He opened it before Jimin could see the design. "So, what class are you in?" the kid asked, biting into a sandwich.

"I'm in class 3," Jimin answered warily. Is this one of Kyung-soo's pranks? Is this kid in on some joke at my suspense? Jimin knew that, just to be safe, he should ignore the boy or leave, but there was something about him that made Jimin stay.

It was the possibility that maybe he wasn't in on a joke. That maybe he didn't even know who Kyung-soo was. How maybe he just wanted to eat lunch with Jimin.

But even after thinking that, Jimin sighed, sitting down in his seat a little more. He knew it couldn't possibly be true. He was ugly and overweight. Why would any kid in the cafeteria pick him to sit next to when there were so many better options?

"Look, if this is a joke, you can skip it and I'll laugh anyway. Ha ha. Okay? So you can leave now," Jimin mumbled, picking at his own sandwich but not eating it.

"What was that? A joke? You want to hear a joke?" The boy scrunched up his face. "Okay okay okay, I got one. How did the chicken cross the road?"

Jimin was shocked into temporary silence. Then, "I don't know, why?"

There was a long period of time where the boy sat there, thinking hard. "I don't know, I forgot the punchline."

"What?"

"There are too many punchlines for that joke! I couldn't pick just one!" he defended, and Jimin was shocked into laughing.

Maybe he's just a strange guy. "I'm Jimin," Jimin introduced, smiling shyly.

The boy grinned. "I'm Taehyung. You can call me Tae, TaeTae, Alien, Cypherless...or Taehyung, of course."

"All right..."

Jimin found himself with a new friend. He was scared to let himself make any relationships in case it was all just a plot to humiliate him somehow, but there was something about this boy that seemed like it couldn't be faked. Probably because he was so weird.