varsity | vmin

27

It was Friday, the day of the championship football game, and Jimin was at home, staring at the wall blankly.

He should've been at school, but decided it was best to stay home after all of the commotion that occurred yesterday. Besides, Taehyung wasn't going to be at school either. Actually, Taehyung wasn't allowed to be at school.

After the fights were broken up, the school faculty reviewed the cameras and witnessed all of the violence that played out between the three boys. Granted, not everyone left school that day with a clean record. Both Taehyung and Junhyeon were put on a two week suspension and consequently both kicked off of the football team. Unfortunately, the school board had a policy in which if a student is suspended they must be kicked off any athletic team provided by the school. Therefore, Taehyung and Junhyeon would not be allowed to participate in the championship game that night.

Jimin's heart hurt for his crush. He knew how much that game meant to him. He knew how much playing football in general meant to him, and now that was all taken away just because he defended him.

Forcefully, Jimin made his way over to his bedroom mirror and admired his black eye and bruised lip. He wished he could somehow have taken the punishment instead of Taehyung, but it was no use. On the contrary, he couldn't have cared less about what happened to Junhyeon. For all Jimin cared, he wished Junhyeon was expelled and never allowed to step foot into the school again. This was all Junhyeon's fault and even Jimin knew that.

His mind kept thinking about how devastated Taehyung must have been. Jimin just wanted to see him and hug him and let him know that everything was going to be okay. In fact, that's just what he decided to do.

Jimin quickly grabbed his glasses from his bedside table that was covered in pain medication for obvious reasons and dashed down the hallway to find his mother.

"Mom, I'm going over to Tae's house to check on him. Is that okay?"

     Jimin's mother turned around to meet her son's damaged face with hurting eyes. As much as she wanted to tell him to stay home and rest and let her take care of him, she knew ultimately that her son couldn't have cared less about his own condition and was rather worried about Taehyung.

"Of course, honey. Drive safe." His mother gave him permission along with a hug and a kiss, watching him flee out the door.

     "Love you, mom!"

Jimin was in such a hurry to see his crush that he hadn't even bothered to call or text him to warn him that he was on his way. Regardless, he knew Taehyung needed company to cheer him up, and he was more than happy to be there for him.

❦

Jimin pulled up in front of Taehyung's house. He had only been there once before to pick the jock up and drive him to the hospital. Even then, he had never actually been inside.

He stood before the massive, wooden door and went in to knock, only to be met with silence. Another swift knock at the door resulted in the exact same thing, making Jimin wonder if anybody was home. However, the concerned boy tried his luck when he twisted the door knob on his own to find it to be unlocked. Jimin furrowed his eyebrows but, nonetheless, pushed the door further open to walk inside.

The house was dark and seemingly empty.
It opened up to the living room which was quite unkept with heaps of dirty laundry strewn across the sofa and several snack wrappers decorating the coffee table. Jimin shuddered at the cold atmosphere, closing the door behind him. With wandering, puzzled eyes he settled on walking down a long hallway where he examined the old-fashioned wall paper that was peeling at the rims and lack of pictures on the walls. It really threw him off. The entire house gave him weird vibes. It lacked the family feel to it or the aura of love Jimin felt in his own home. The house was almost dead. Ironically, Jimin was so distracted by the strangeness of the energy of the building that he had completely forgotten that he was technically breaking and entering into another person's home.