"Jimin, are you talking about Taehyung or about yourself ?" Seokjin asked gently. 

"What?"

Suddenly, Jimin realized that he had spoken with too much passion to only be defending Taehyung's honor. 

Besides, it also made him realize one thing: if he was going out of his way to stop Seokjin from helping Taehyung, it wasn't that he thought Seokjin couldn't. It was because he wished he too had someone like Seokjin by his side to remind him that behind what he was showing others, there was something else. 

It was unfair that Taehyung, who was the worst of them, was the only one with a Seokjin. Was that why he had always clung to him no matter what?

"Jimin?" Seokjin's distant voice called, pulling him out of his thoughts.

"I..." Jimin began hesitantly not knowing if it was a good idea to lay himself bare like this in front of Seokjin but at the same time, wanting to do it. What was happening to him?

Seokjin was surprised because he had never seen Jimin hesitating like that. He always seemed to have full confidence and it wasn't like him to look exposed like he seemed to be right now. But Jimin recovered quickly and smiled before getting up to grab a box of dressings from the medicine cabinet in the infirmary.

"I think I'd rather you were an idiot, I don't like smart people," Jimin finally said lightly, refraining from answering Seokjin's question. 

Even if he often had fun with his gullibility, at that moment, he didn't want to lie to him. He wanted Seokjin's gaze to see through him like he saw through Taehyung what no one else saw. He wanted his whole being to silently scream at him "I too am worth saving!" 

He wanted to see what it was like to have an angel on his shoulder who whispered positive words and good things to him instead of this eternal devil who had always been whispering in his ear and pushing him to be someone he didn't want to be. 

"Jimin..."

Jimin looked up from the box of dressings he was opening and looked at Seokjin. 

"What?"

Seokjin was smiling weakly at him, as the reality behind Jimin's laughing and bullying shell suddenly made sense to him. He remained silent a long time, pensive. Old Choi had told him one day something that his maturity could now allow him to really understand.

"You have a dream and you will fight to achieve it. They can only follow the path their parents have traced for them, without ever giving way to their personal dreams. They make you feel like they're happier than you right now because they have everything they want - objects and also people they dominate - but in reality, you'll be the happier in the near future..."

It was clear now to Seokjin : Jimin was like Namjoon and Taehyung. He seemed to follow a path he didn't want, to be a person he didn't want to be. For the first time, Seokjin realized that Jimin was in pain and that the beatings he gave to others had to be an outlet for that pain, like Taehyung's anger and how Yoona's disdain for him was.

"I'm sorry," he declared.

"About what?" Jimin asked, puzzled.

"About thinking that you were just mean and nothing else. I'm sorry to know only now that you're in pain too, like Taehyung."

"In pain? Are you kidding me? It was you who suffered, not me or Taehyung, so I don't want to hear you apologize. When I think that we have to snatch the deserved apologies from Yoona and that you distribute them to the less deserving, it's the world upside down. We should apologize to you, not the other way around!" he exclaimed, stunned by Seokjin's behavior. 

"Are you trying to apologize?" Seokjin asked, his face lit up.

"I am not,  I'm just stating facts," Jimin contradicted him by tearing up the packaging of a band aid. "I want you to understand that neither Yoona nor Taehyung nor I deserve to receive your pity. You are the weakest among us so stop taking pity on us and think of yourself. Take advantage of what you can take here and as soon as possible, run away as far as possible from us."

Seokjin remained dumbfounded as he let Jimin apply the dressings to his wounds. He suddenly didn't recognize the boy in front of him. Since when did he care about him? 

He had wanted to flee this cruel universe and these heirs so many times without being able to do so, while waiting for his consecration but now, when he was encouraged to do it and finally had the opportunity, he was no longer so sure he wanted to flee them. Because he realized that those he had seen as monsters until now, were just children who had taken away the right to dream, the right to make real friends, the right to be other things than what was expected of them.

"Jimin, why do you stay with Taehyung and follow him all the time?" he asked.

"Because I have to," Jimin replied, without hesitation, considering he didn't need to lie about that in front of Seokjin. "That's what I was asked to do: be friends with him, no matter how I feel about him. So I did."

"That's so wrong..." Seokjin lamented, "and that's one of the reasons why I don't know if I would be able to give up on Taehyung and run away without looking back. No one is sincerely friends with him, not even you who is always with him, not even Yoona who was his girlfriend. I worry about him, and I'm afraid of what he will become."

"Why does he get this special treatment?" Jimin asked harshly. "Why is he the one who has the right to have everything, including you?!"

"Eh?" Seokjin reacted, puzzled.

"He always said you were his, but you kept saying it wasn't true and I believed you because I thought you had character, I liked that about you, but you really belong to him of your own free will, aren't you?" Jimin seemed unhappy.

"You're wrong, I am a free person. I don't belong to him, I just decide who I want to give my friendship to."

"And I guess that doesn't include me," Jimin said. "Even if it was Taehyung who gave the orders and I was just obeying, he is the one you will take as your friend."

Perplexed, Seokjin suddenly got the feeling that Jimin was jealous of his friendship with Taehyung. But oddly, he wasn't jealous of him, he was jealous of Taehyung. Did he want to be his friend after all he had done to him? It sounded absurd but come to think of it, nothing about this conversation made sense. However, he didn't have time to ask because Jimin asked him:

"Have you forgiven him?" Jimin's face moved closer to Seokjin.

"What?"

"Taehyung, have you forgiven him already? Anyway, that's the feeling I get."

"I...I don't know," Seokjin stammered, embarrassed to see Jimin so close to his face but not afraid as he usually would have been. Jimin had broken a barrier between them. "I guess I'm trying very hard to forgive him but he still has to earn it."

"Is there a chance that I too will deserve your forgiveness someday?" Jimin asked with a smile dutifully applying a final band-aid on Seokjin's nose.

"No," Seokjin replied and Jimin stopped smiling but Seokjin added: "Not until you decide to become a real friend to Taehyung."

"What do you mean? I am already a good friend to him, probably his best friend! No offense, the seat was vacant after your argument in first year," he added with a wink.

"I'm not offended, the place was free as you say, and Taehyung needed a friend by his side. But you're wrong, you think you behave like a friend by doing whatever he wants but you contributed to his transformation into someone bad. And along the way you too have become a bad person."

Jimin's eyebrows furrowed and he looked upset.

"Why am I the bad guy? I told you it was Taehyung giving me orders!"

"I know, but as friends, your duty was not to obey him and tell him it was wrong."

"It's easy for you to say that, you have nothing to lose by alienating Taehyung telling him what you think."

"Nothing to lose?" Seokjin snarled. "How can you say that?! I lost everything when he decided to take revenge on me!"

Jimin realized what he had just said and regretted it.

"You're right, I made a mistake, don't get mad. It's just that I worked hard to stay in Taehyung's good graces, I can't risk losing everything by stopping him to do what he wants. I need Taehyung to secure my future!"

Seokjin sighed, his anger had just died down. He was sad for Taehyung who didn't have a real friends, but the reality was exactly the same for Jimin.

"After talking with you today, I think I understand you a little better. You did what your parents expected of you. You were forced to be friends with Taehyung and you've been a terrible friend to him, the same way he's been a terrible friend to you by asking you to do all his bad things."

"Exactly!" Jimin exclaimed triumphantly.

"BUT, I refuse to let you two go on like this. Taehyung and I became friends again because he agreed to make the effort to become a better person."

"Always Taehyung..." Jimin grumbled.

Seokjin shook his head.

"No, not only Taehyung, you too: this condition also applies to you if you want. But I don't think you're willing to do this just for me."

"You do not know me."

"You are right, I don't know you," Seokjin admitted. "I always thought you were irretrievable. Yet now, as I think for Taehyung, I think there is a chance for you to change for the better. For your information, I don't believe you were a bad person when we first met." he added. "And I would love to find that Jimin again. He's the one I was hoping to be friends with as he seemed to be a nice guy."

This drew a smile from Jimin.

"You really are an surprising boy, Seokjin. I like you."

Seokjin smiled back. 

"Thank you. Please call me Jin, it will help me start from scratch with you."

"Okay, Jin."

Jimin was about to put away the box of band-aids but Seokjin grabbed his arm. 

"Wait. Yoona scratched you too," he said, looking at his wrist covered in scratches.

"Yeah but Taehyung sent me to treat you, not me," Jimin taunted.

"Yes, but I do what I want, I'm a free person. Please sit down," Seokjin asked, grabbing the box of bandages. Then, he grabbed Jimin's wrist and applied some bandages on it without being as careful as Jimin had been with him because he judged that they were only scratches. 

Jimin, surprised, let himself be treated by Seokjin and looked at him during that time, amused by his lack of delicacy which contrasts with his kindness.

"To think that I took my precautions with you and that you treated me roughly," Jimin lamented, still smiling. "You're pretty, but you don't have the delicacy of a girl."

"I never wanted to be like a girl, I'm a footballer," Seokjin replied. "On the other hand, I notice that you hit hard but that you know how to be full of delicacy. It's like you're both a boxer and a ballet dancer, how is that possible? It's weird." 

Jimin laughed at the comparison, wondering how Seokjin could not realize that he was the weirdest of them. He  watched him put away the bandages and then asked :

"I have a request, Jin."

"Which?" Seokjin asked, turning to face him.

"I agree to try to be a real friend for Taehyung because you ask me to but in exchange, I want you to become my real friend too, and care about me like you care about him."

"Sure, but you also have to care about me like he cares about me in this case because that's what made me his friend again. This is how we can consider ourselves friends : care about each other. "

"What makes you think it's not already the case?" Jimin replied.

"Do you really want me to remind you all the bad things you've done to me? I might not have enough fingers to count them and maybe that could dissuade me from wanting to be friends with you, you know? There's no way you cared about me!" Seokjin exclaimed. 

"And yet, it's weird, you have no trouble believing that Taehyung cares about you. I've always wondered, do you two live in a parallel world that no one can see and in which Taehyung lives a different life from the one he lives in front of others?"

"He's different at home, when we're just the two of us and he's not trying to impress others or afraid of feeling humiliated," Seokjin said, hoping that would convince Jimin that if even Taehyung was capable of it, so was he. "And about a parallel world that we both share according to you, it's funny, I think you're right because we share the same bed, so we can indeed see it as a parallel world," he added dreamily, all smiles.

Jimin's eyes widened along with Seokjin's eyes and mouth.

"Ha ha, it's a joke, of course!" Seokjin exclaimed hurriedly, with red ears.

"Jin, you and I know very well that you are incapable of lying," Jimin replied, patting the tip of Seokjin's right ear. "Thanks for being you, I'm glad you told me, it means we get close if you ever start telling me all your little secrets. The same bed? Well, blow me down! It explains so much!" he exclaimed, smiling mockingly.

"No, Jimin, I didn't mean to say it! Can you pretend i didn't say anything?" 

"Sorry, can't do that," Jimin replied giving him a wink.

"Please Jimin, I beg you, don't tell anyone!" Seokjin exclaimed, afraid.

"I won't tell anyone, just Taehyung. Wow, what incredible information, I wonder what I will be able to do with it " he added with a broad smile as if he was planning a bad move.

"No! you can not do that ! Do not tell anyone, especially Taehyung!"

"I thought he was a good person, what are you afraid of?"

"Please, Jimin! I just made up with him, you can't do this to me, please! And... and you told me you would be a good friend to Taehyung if I was your friend! P-please, don't... do... this... please..." 

Seokjin was in all of his states and when he was like this, he no longer controlled his breathing and seemed out of breath. He also thought about what Mr. and Mrs. Kim would do to him if they found out that he had revealed this humiliating secret to Taehyung and his family.

"Wow relax, you're too tense, are you going to have an asthma attack again?"

"No, I'm not, but please-" Seokjin pleaded in desperation.

 "Fine! Calm down, I won't say anything." 

"R-really?" Seokjin said trying to see the sincerity in his eyes.

"Yeah. It's not for lack of wanting to use it against Taehyung to make him my dog ​​like he made me his dog for three years. I hope you're aware that I'm going against all my instincts right now by giving up this asset against him."

"I'm aware and I'm grateful, thank you very very much, Jimin!" Seokjin said, relieved. "It means there's good in you, I was right. Deep down, you care about Taehyung!"

Jimin looked at him in disbelief. 

"What are you talking about? I'm not going to keep my mouth shut for him. If I agree to do it, it's for you. Because we agreed to become friends who cared for each other, have you already forgotten?"

"No, I haven't forgotten. I didn't think you were sincere, that's all. I've lived with Taehyung since I was little so maybe I can understand him agreeing to my conditions to be friends even though I had a hard time believing it at first but for you, it's different. We were never close and I don't see what can make you care about me to the point of stopping you from doing harm if you feel like it. I'm a little hesitant to believe you, I'm sorry, but what I know about you does not lead me to be reassured."

 "I told you you didn't know me : I was sincere. I won't say anything and it's only to protect you from Taehyung's wrath." 

Seokjin's face was so genuinely surprised and doubtful that Jimin said to him:

"You don't believe me?"

"It's not that I don't want to, I swear, it's just too sudden in the same way as earlier, you found Taehyung's attitude suddenly changed." 

"You have to believe that you have the power to make people change."

"I'm not sure about that, it's just that Taehyung was like that with me before, he just became that again. But you, Jimin, you never seemed like you wanted to protect me from anything, and especially not Taehyung's decisions."

"Being his executioner doesn't make me heartless," Jimin replied, bitter to realize that Seokjin seemed to be closing in on him again. 

"I didn't say you didn't have a heart. It's just that I'd rather not rely on you to protect me from Taehyung, I hope you understand," Seokjin declared.

"And you, I hope you understand that there are a lot of things you don't know. It doesn't help you make the right choices, believe me."

"Why do you say that?" Seokjin asked, lost.

"Do you remember what I said to you at halftime in the championship final?" 

"Not really, too much has happened," Seokjin replied, honestly.

"Understandable. Well, let me refresh your memory. I advised you to stop stubbornly wanting to continue the game in your state because you might regret it."

"Ah yes, I remember now."

His eyes widened when he thought back to his discussion with Jimin in the light of the conversation he had just had with him. Could it be that Jimin really cared about protecting his health?

(flash back)

"Maybe you better stop now, before you get any worse, don't you think? " Jimin said, looking at Seokjin's flushed face, his hair plastered with sweat on his forehead and his still rapid breathing through his half-open mouth.

"No, no need to worry, I'm fine," Seokjin said, who was convinced that Jimin wasn't worried at all.

"Pfff!" Jimin chuckled, touching his sweating and burning forehead, "you can say that to others, not to me! I know you so well that I know you're lying again. Are you really willing to risk your health to win this game?"

"Exactly," Seokjin said defiantly removing his hand from his forehead.

"And for what Seokjin? Why do you fight like that? Just because you like to play football? Looks like a childish thought to me. Or maybe it's for your reputation? You know, I'm sure people from our school won't be surprised to see you abandon your team during the last match of the league, after all, you are the least loved of Gugbo's students and the only thing that retained some semblance of respect for you was that you made your team win. If you make it lose, you'll only get people's hatred, but maybe that's better than getting sick for almost nothing."

"It's not for nothing! I already told you that it was above all for me that I fought, not for the others, but you will never be able to understand why I give myself so much," Seokjin replied bitterly, "you can call me a kid because I put my heart into it and you can hit me because you find me insolent, I don't care, but stop pretending to try to understand me when you just want to see me break down and give up to make you feel better than me."

This time, Jimin didn't feel like smiling and just stared blankly at Seokjin so as not to let the other boy know what he was thinking. Running out of time as the clock kept ticking, Seokjin decided to change his tone and resumed a pleading tone:

"Jimin, half time will resume soon, would you mind giving me just these three last minutes to think about the rest of the match? Please?"

The other seemed to hesitate for a moment, as if he wanted to say something.

"Yeah, sure!" Jimin ended up exclaiming, as if coming back to himself after being immersed in thought. His face cracking into a new smile and he delivered an encouraging pat on Seokjin's shoulder, "after all, you're the man of the match, the king of the football field! No doubt you will win the title of top scorer now, because of your passion in this kingdom of yours! Fighting!"

Seokjin nodded halfheartedly in the face of Jimin's insincerity and waited for him to walk away but this one, before walking away, added, more somberly:

"But don't forget that a king can also lose his crown when he is faced with a people who want to cut off his head."

"I know what you're trying to do but the only ones who want to cut my head off are the ones off the field, so you won't scare me with that and for the last time, I will continue to play this game!"

"Really?" Jimin simply said with a sorry smile, "okay, then, but don't say afterwards that I wouldn't have tried to warn you and protect you, okay, Seokjin?"

(end of the flash back)

"You were there on Taehyung's orders, right?"

"You have it all wrong. It wasn't Taehyung who sent me to see you. I came on my own initiative, I can do that kind of thing, you know? But I didn't come here to see you break down contrary to what you might have thought," Jimin said before confessing. "I was truly worried about you, no matter what you believed."

"You were?"

"Surprising, huh?" 

"I thought you were making fun of me," Seokjin confessed but then remembering how Jimin, surprisingly serious, had seemed about to tell him something important. At that point, he was so worried about how the match was going that he didn't really pay attention.

"I wasn't. I really wish you had stopped. But I also knew that you wouldn't listen to me. I don't really know what took me to come, maybe I just wanted to clear myself of any responsibility of what was going to happen to you."

"What happened to me is that I listened to myself instead of listening to you. It's nobody's responsibility but me. Why does everyone keep saying it's someone else's fault? Namjoon says it's Taehyung's fault, Taehyung says it's Jungkook's fault, and now you think it's your fault?"

"I didn't say it was my fault, I said I was clearing myself of that responsibility. But that doesn't mean it's nobody's fault. Again, there are things you still don't know, that's what I'm saying. There was definitely someone who wanted to cut off the king's head."

"What do you mean? Who are you talking about?"

"It doesn't matter, you don't need to know now anymore, what is done is done and no one can do anything anymore. What I know is that next time, I won't hesitate to stop you from doing stupid things."

"I am not stupid."

"I didn't say you were."

"And I make my decisions alone, I'm not a baby."

"I still have my doubts about that, you will have to convince me, baby."

Seokjin glared at him.

"Oh please, don't be sulky, it's even cuter. It makes me want to protect you even more."

Deeply embarrassed, Seokjin blushed but shot back:

"If it's Taehyung asking you to hurt me, I'm sure you will because your parents asked you to obey him, so don't lie to me."

"I'm not lying, I won't do that again even if he ask me. Because I realized something today." 

"And what is it?"

"I know now that you are more important to me than Taehyung and what my parents want won't change my mind. Taehyung is the friend that was imposed on me. You are the friend I want."

He jumped when Seokjin placed a hand on his forehead.

"What are you doing?"

"It's strange, you don't seem to have a fever."

Jimin grabbed his hand.

"I opened my heart to you and you are laughing at me? Wow, how naughty you are!  But I guess it was me who taught you to make fun of others."

Realizing that Jimin's personality was actually infecting him, Seokjin laugh without meaning to. He suddenly had the impression that Jimin was an old friend and that it might be nice to appreciate his humor if it was no longer imbued with cruelty.

Surprised but delighted to see Seokjin laughing, Jimin smirked. 

"Do you want to play with me? All right but don't forget that I share your and Taehyung's secret."

Stopping laughing, Seokjin exclaimed:

"Are you going to threaten me with this?!"

"Look at you, taking everything seriously!" Jimin chuckled.

"Was that a joke?!" 

"I told you I had more experience than you! I have a joker diploma."

"It's impossible, it doesn't exist!" 

"No, but I'm a joker guy and I awarded myself this diploma. If you want, I will also teach you to develop your sense of humor."

"I already have a sense of humor," Seokjin pouted. 

"You don't know how to take things other than literally, admit it and recognize that it doesn't make you happy to be fooled every time!"

"Fine!" Seokjin resigned himself, "teach me."

"Really?" 

"Yes," Seokjin agreed. "But I'm a competitor. I'll soon be the real Joker guy and you'll regret teaching me when I'm the one laughing at you and trapping you."

"I can't wait to see that," Jimin said, amused. "But let's get back to the secret between you and Taehyung."

"What about that? I don't want to talk about it, and you said you wouldn't say anything!"

"And I won't. I just wanted to point out that keeping secrets together is what will keep us close to each other."

"So you're not going to use it against me?" Seokjin asked, tired at the idea of ​​being threatened when he thought his life was finally getting better.

"Of course not, it's not something you do to your real friends, right ?"

"R-right." 

"What did I say ? Keeping our secrets will keep us close! So stop being afraid that I'll threaten you with it. I want us to be friends, I need your trust."

His words sounded a lot like Taehyung's and Taehyung had proven that he was sincere. Seokjin decided to trust Jimin too.

"Alright, I agree to believe you."

"Wonderful! But about that secret, so that I know exactly what I must keep as a secret, you must tell me a little more about it, for example what you two are doing in this bed that you share-" 

"Jimin!" Seokjin exclaimed, exasperated.

"What? That's interesting, I want to know."

"Stop it, if it's a secret then we shouldn't talk about it!" 

"I'm kidding. I didn't mean to embarrass you."

"I'm not embarrassed, it's not a shame, and we're not doing anything wrong!"

"Your ears tell me that you think differently from what your mouth says."

Again, Seokjin glared at him, not knowing how to stop him and just clapped his hands over his ears. Jimin sighed. 

"It's okay, I'll stop, I won't try to find out more since it's compromising for you, I'll just dream about it at night."

Seokjin was fed up and since the other always found a joke to restart the dialogue, decided to go back to ignoring Jimin like before. He remembered that he had to go to class and remembering his imperatives for success, he suddenly said:

"Jimin, are you really my friend now, right?" 

"Yes I am. That means I'm allowed to dream about you, right?" 

"Can you stop joking? I want to ask you something serious!"

"Alright, I stop. What do you want to ask me?"

"If you are my friend, then..." Seokjin started.

"Then?"

"Can you lend me your math book? I need it to pass my exams, I would be very grateful to you."

Jimin giggled faced with this unexpected request at a time and a place like this.

"You really are quite a character, Jin! Okay, I'll lend you my math book. I also suggest something else. Since we're friends, it's not fair that you're the only one who shared a secret with me, right?"

Seokjin looked at him surprised.

"You trust me ? Do you really want to share a secret with me?" 

"Of course I trust you. It's a secret that has weighed on my conscience for so long that I want to get rid of it and I have finally found a friend to confide it to."

Happy that Jimin wants to confide in him, Seokjin told him:

"I promise I won't say anything, you can tell me your secret." 

"You won't threaten me with it?" 

"Of course not! Please, tell me, I'm curious."

"Remember earlier when you said I seemed to be both a boxer and a ballet dancer?"

"Yes." 

"I'm a ballet dancer."

"Eh?!" Seokjin exclaimed, his eyes wide. 

"You heard right. Are you going to judge me now?"

"O-of course not! Well, uh, it's... unexpected of you and I have a hard time imagining you in a pink tutu but it's not a shame and I support you. You are brave for sharing this secret with me, thank you. I promise I won't tell anyone."

Faced with the bewildered look of Seokjin who still wanted to show him friendly support despite his astonishment, Jimin burst into laughter.

"Ah, sorry, you are too funny."

"You lied?!!"

"I'm the joker guy." 

_________________

A/N : Please be silent readers if you are too shy to comment, but be silent reader who vote. It's safe, I swear, I won't tell anyone : it will be our secret.