Taehyung and Jungkook pull Ani away from the punching bag and gently push her to sit down on the ground. Rubbing circles on her back, Taehyung calms the girl down before sitting next to her. Jungkook follows in suit but on the other side of Ani yet slightly further away.
"Ani-ah, you wanna hear a story?"
"Uhm...sure. Why, Taehyung-oppa?" Ani sits, dazed at the random question. Her mind attempts to figure out why he would ask such a question. What's his ulterior motive? What's his goal?
Tae glances over at Jungkook and smiles discreetly. They share a wave of agreeance without saying a word. Using his arms to lean back, Tae sighs and looks at Ani. "This story is about a boy."
"Is it you?"
"Ani-a, please save all questions until the end."
Clamping her mouth shut, Ani pays attention to the taller boy next to her.
"So this boy used to be a very awkward potato. Arguably, he still is to a certain extent." He glares at a giggling Jungkook before continuing. "Almost as afraid of girls as this fool over here." Tae cocks his head to the side, indicating to a pouting Jungkook. "He was also very insecure."
"Like you, hyung." Jungkook pokes Tae's cheek.
He rolls his eyes and scoffs. "Yeah, no way. I know I'm attractive, even on my casual days. Anyways, this boy thought that no one liked him because he was fat. In all honesty, if you saw what he looked like back then, you'd disagree with him. There was nothing fat about him. The only thing was that his cheeks were chubby—baby fat. Everyone outgrows it at some point but he translated those chubby cheeks to his entire body.
"Uhh where is this going, oppa?" Ani couldn't help but interrupt the story.
Taehyung sighs. "Ani-a, please just wait. So anyways, he would work out and diet a lot. It got to the point where he would get dizzy during practices and almost pass out. Thank God Seokjin hyung did something about it. We all did. As he grew older, he gained more confidence in himself, but we all know he's still very insecure."
"I can vouch for that," Jungkook pops in. "I'm his roommate and I know he's still very upset about his appearance which makes no sense because when you see him, he is a very handsome guy."
"Yeah yeah. That's cause you guys are lovers." Taehyung teases.
"Stop. That's not true."
Tae sticks his tongue out and turns back to Ani. "So he's very insecure even though he may come off as confident, maybe even arrogant sometimes, but the bottom line is: it's Jiminie."
"Jimin oppa? Insecure? No way." Ani rests her chin on her knees as she pulls her legs closer to her body. Him? Of all the people...Jimin oppa?
"Believe it or not," Tae shrugs, "he really is just a cute, shy boy, but there's also a flip side of him who's very..."
"Bold? Cocky? Daring?" She begins to list off adjectives.
"Call it whatever you want, but our Jiminie isn't usually like this, especially around girls."
"I don't know... I want to believe you but at the same time I can't. Also, I just don't want this happening again because it freaks me out. You guys freak me out. This whole situation freaks me out—not gonna lie." Ani rubs the back of her neck and grabs Bok Choy. "I don't know what to do in these situations and to be honest, I'm scared."
"Scared of what? Jimin hyung?" Jungkook teases. "He's not the scariest guy out there. What? With his short height, he could barely hurt anyone."
