PERSONA ✓

18.

So far, Jungkook's plan was going horribly. Every time he got remotely close to Hoseok in the hallways, Hoseok was swallowed into the crowd of teens, and Jungkook was left to silently fume at how he couldn't complete a task as easy as this.

So as he sat with Taehyung and Jimin in the library, he tried desperately to keep the topic away from his plan.

"Where's Seokjin?" Jungkook asked, aware that two of their hyungs were missing. Namjoon was at home, unable to come to school because Hoseok knew of his identity and coming to school was too risky. The eldest of the 5 of them, though, was nowhere to be seen.

"He's helping set up a fundraising event," Taehyung answered.

"With his broken arm?"

Taehyung nodded slowly. "Yes. There's no heavy-lifting."

"Is his arm gonna be healed soon?" Jimin asked.

"Not sure," Taehyung said, eyes back on his book. "With any luck, he'll be fine by graduation."

"Jungkook, how's... you know, the thing going?" Jimin asked, changing the topic from Seokjin to the one thing Jungkook was trying to avoid.

Jungkook froze up. He fumbled for an answer, stuttering. "Uh, the, uhhh..."

"Why is he lagging?" Jimin said to Taehyung. Taehyung shrugged. Jimin turned back to Jungkook. "Kook? It's a pretty simple question."

"Uhh... I, um..."

"He hasn't succeeded," Taehyung summarized, flipping a page in his book.

Suddenly, Jungkook found the ability to speak again. "What makes you think that?"

Taehyung raised an eyebrow. Jungkook deflated.

"Yeah, I didn't," he admitted.

"Why not?" Jimin asked, frowning. "Is there a fault in the technology?"

"Of course not, I made the Buzzer, you think I'd show up to school without quadruple-checking it?" The 'Buzzer' was the name Jungkook gave to the device. His creative naming juices weren't flowing recently, if he was being honest.

"Then what's wrong?"

"I can't get close to him!" Jungkook threw his hands up, wincing when the librarian shushed him. Quieter, and blushing from embarrassment, he said, "I can't get close to him at all. It's like he just disappears as soon as I get within 10 feet!"

"Like trying to catch a shadow." Jimin nodded, a slight grin forming at his own wordplay.

Jungkook huffed. "He really lives up to his name."

"Keep trying," Taehyung advised. "He can't keep slipping away for long."

-

8th grader Min Yoongi walked slowly down the halls. Returning from the bathroom, he was stalling the time until he had to return to class.

Hearing loud chatter down the hall, Yoongi sighed. 7th graders. Loud, obnoxious, trouble-making. Their teachers often sent the 7th graders out into the hallways for projects, probably because too many in one room became too loud and too hard to control. Better to dump them out in the hallways than have to watch them.

As Yoongi passed by, he noticed majority of the groups were distracted from their projects, not doing what they were supposed to be. One group of 4 kids were sitting at a table. 3 of them were talking loudly and laughing, throwing miniature paper airplanes and trying to see how far they would go.

The other kid, a tiny, dark-haired boy, was isolated from the rest of his group. He was squinting at the project before scanning the textbook and adding more information.