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There are only two times in his life Park Jimin has given enough of a crap to dress up for anything in his life.
The first was when his great uncle Seokjin had thrown an old people’s party when he had turned 74 three years ago and Jimin’s mother had basically wrestled him into a bowtie because (and this is a direct quote) ‘I will personally set fire to everything you love if you behave like an arsonist for the four hours we will be there, Park Jimin, and I know where your friends live. And do not tell me about how everyone smells like cat piss and prunes, you will smile and wave through it all anyway. Got it?’
And Jimin had nodded violently because when his mother gave him that side eye suppressed glare (it was only suppressed because she was in public), he knew better than to argue. I mean he could try, but the bowtie kind of cut of air circulation and Jimin could barely breathe as it was, forget about debate.
The second was an hour before he made it to his library date with Min Yoongi.
Okay, so he wasn’t ‘dressed up’ in the full sense of it. He was wearing a black button up shirt (in his defense, Jimin didn’t know what the inside of a library looked like, forget about what people actually wore in there) and skinny black jeans for crying out loud, but he had spend almost a good hour deciding on the outfit with Taehyung (it is worthy to note that Taehyung has also never been inside an actual library himself) before that, and Jimin had literally never spent that long deciding what to put on himself in all his seventeen years of existence.
Being the school’s bad boy wasn’t as easy as it looked, you know.
“Okay,” Jimin had sighed, slinging his bag over his shoulder and glancing at his watch. Seven minutes to get to his library date. He better hurry.
“Okay, how do I look?”
Taehyung sat cross legged on the bed and looked Jimin up and down for a good thirty seconds before speaking.
“Fucking whipped,” he grinned, going back to Assassin’s Creed, or whatever it was that Taehyung was always playing on his phone. If Jimin didn’t know Taehyung was one of the nicest guys he hung out with (almost too nice for the guys he hung out with; like he said, being feared as the bad boy really wasn’t as easy as it looked), he would personally have branded the guy as the sassy asshole he really was.
“‘M not whipped,” Jimin mumbled, running his fingers through his hair one last time. Taehyung snorted.
“Exactly why you spent the last hour deciding what said ‘cute but not too cute’ or ‘interested but not too obsessed’ while holding up the same shirts in different goddamn colors.”
“I fucking hate you,” Jimin said, turning to the door to hide his blush.
(Rule Number 2 of the Bad Boy Rule Book™ : You. Never. Blush.)
“Whatever, at least I can hit on your sister when you’re gone.”
“Too bad she’s out with her boyfriend then. Oh, and by the way, you know that large pizza with extra pepperoni I promised you if you came over to help me today?”
Taehyung’s eyes snapped to Jimin’s, warning him not to say what he was anticipating next.
“Doesn’t exist.”
Jimin slips out laughing at the barrage of insults Taehyung hurls at the door. He can still hear Taehyung down the street a minute later as he heads towards his library date.
(Rule Number 3 of the Bad Boy Rule Book™ : A bad boy always gets even with an asshole. Always.)
+
Okay so Jimin had lied to himself; technically, they weren’t on a date.
Jimin imagined that asking out people on dates were like how it was on TV; you watched a movie, ate out somewhere nice, held hands across the table no matter how sweaty your hands were and walked him home. If you were lucky, you got kissed at his doorstep and went home smiling like a sappy loser from there.
Whereas Jimin had shoved Yoongi to the lockers when lunch came around and said ‘five o clock, library, math books and don’t be late’ in front of half the school population and walked off, before proceeding to walk himself to the bathroom and slide to the floor to calm his beating heart by the mere proximity of Yoongi's presence a minute ago.
He wished he could have been nicer about it, but like, everyone had been watching.
(Rule Number 4 of the Bad Boy Rule Book™ : Weakness is not an option.)
Jimin didn’t know about a date or anything, but his hands sure were sweating by the time he was a block away from the library. He glanced at his watch nervously again. It flashed 5:06. Good. He shouldn't seem eager anyway.
Jimin turned the corner to the library and stopped in his tracks when he noticed Yoongi, slipping back around the corner and cautiously peeking again.
God, Yoongi was so cute, with his stupid thick glasses that covered half his face, his stupid fluffy dark bangs that almost touched his lashes, that stupid way he always clutched the books he carried like they were the only thing keeping him from falling apart, the stupid way he swayed on his feet gently and looked to the ground as he waited, especially his stupid light pink sweater over his formal shirt he always wore and -
-and his shiny leather pants?
Jimin groaned, turning the corner and walking in sure steps to Yoongi.
“Why on earth are you wearing leather pants?”
Yoongi glanced up surprised and then blushed a deep red, looking at Jimin through his long lashes.
“Well I thought that this was more like the people you hung out with sooo,” Yoongi trailed off, tugging lightly at his bangs. He did that a lot when he was nervous.
Not, of course, that Jimin had noticed that. Of course not.
Damn, he was adorable. Damn, was it lucky Jimin didn’t know anyone who would attend the library, because he could so not be seen with anyone who wore leather pants in real life.
Jimin was in danger of breaking Rule Number 2 again, so he grunted and stalked towards to library, motioning for Yoongi to follow.
+
“Are you sure you understand PEDMAS now?” Yoongi asks between nervous stutters and Jimin may only be thirty six minutes into this math session but he is seriously considering other excuses next time he wanted to be alone with Yoongi.
“I, uhm.”
Yoongi sighs. Jimin kind of feels sorry for Yoongi. Understandably, he has explained the same thing about four times and Jimin still doesn’t quite get it.
If he used less of his brain space not stealing glances at Yoongi when he wasn’t looking, resisting the urge to kiss the guy every time he nervously dropped his pencil or stuttered or think about how their knees wear touching (correction : Yoongi’s shiny black pants were touching Jimin’s jeans) under the table, he’d have more of a fighting chance to wrap his mind around the concept.
“Do you want me to s-say to again?” Yoongi asks, glancing quickly up at Jimin before shifting his gaze down to the book and blushing furiously again, tugging at his bangs for the millionth time.
Literally the millionth time. Jimin didn’t get it.
“Are you,” Jimin clears his throat, “are you uh, nervous or something?”
Yoongi carefully places his hands on his knees and speaks in a tiny voice.
“Kind of, yeah.”
“Why? It’s just math, not quite the crisis situation you’re expecting.”
“You - you kind of make me nervous.”
Jimin isn’t sure if this is a compliment.
“Good nervous or bad nervous?” Yoongi looks at Jimin quizzically.
“Is there a good kind of nervous?”
“Sure there is. The bad nervous when you look at the first question of the math paper and you know you’re going to flunk it, though I doubt you know how that feels -” Yoongi smiles with his gums showing and Jimin almost has a seizure right then, “-and the good nervous, when you're on a date with your crush and you can’t believe you scored one in the first place and you don’t want to mess up.”
Yoongi laughs, and Jimin didn’t know he was being funny, but he’s ready to keep talking like that just to hear Yoongi laugh again.
“I don’t know how that feels either, so I’m lost on both fronts,” Yoongi says, twirling his pencil and flipping a page of the textbook trying to find more questions Jimin could stumble through and get wrong.
“Wait, you’re telling me you’ve never been on a date?”
Yoongi blinks in surprise at a wide eyed Jimin.
“I’m at the bottom of the social circle, Park Jimin. Surely you know that. I have a grand total of two friends. Who in the world would date me?”
“Me. I would date you,” Jimin blurts out and Yoongi drops the pencil he had been twirling to look at Jimin.
“Uh, you know, just so you know what a date is like. I mean, you’re a senior, dude. You should know what a date is like before you go to college.”
(Rule Number 5 of the Bad Boy Rule Book™ : If a bad boy says something that is non-badass in a moment of weakness, he must play it off like any asshole would.)
“But we can’t.”
Jimin’s heart drops as he struggles to maintain his deadpan expression. Yoongi tugs at his bangs again thoughtfully.
“Think of your reputation. You can’t possibly do that. You’re the most popular guy in school, Jimin. You can’t be seen dating a guy like me. Even if it’s just so I have a date once before college.”
Jimin flinches. Being the bad boy really, really was more trouble than it was worth.
“Don’t worry about it. I can basically do anything I want.” Yoongi looks doubtful.
“Are you sure?”
Jimin nods. “Like hell.”
“Okay then,” Yoongi says, tugging at his bangs, “okay, let-let’s go on a date.”
Jimin thinks he hears angels singing, orchestras playing, birds chirping in the background. He has to do everything in his power not to smile.
(Rule Number 6 of the Bad Boy Rule Book™ : A bad boy never registers excitement. Ever.)
“It’s only six. We have plenty of time.”
Yoongi grins, shutting his books.
“Good thing I wore leather pants then, huh?”
Jimin wonders if it’s possible to like a human more with every word they say.
+
“You don’t have to do that, you know,” Yoongi says shyly when Jimin carries Yoongi’s books for him the whole way to the movies.
“Uh huh, sure I do. It’s what guys do on dates,” Jimin says, squinting up at the board displaying the movies that were running.
“I wish you’d let me take this all down so I won’t forget,” Yoongi mumbles as Jimin tugs him into the small queue to pay for the tickets.
“Are you saying you might forget our first date, Min Yoongi?”
“Our first date?” Yoongi quips, raining an eyebrow.
“I, uh, your first date. I meant your first date.”
Smooth, Jimin. So smooth.
“Of course I wouldn’t,” Yoongi says, looking to the front and adjusting his too-large spectacles banked on his nose. “I remember almost everything about you.”
Jimin would have broken rule number 2 again if it wasn’t for the lady at the counter clearing her throat.
“Two tickets for Insidious 2, please,” Jimin says, whipping out his wallet.
“You can’t pay for both of us, Park Jimin, it’s not fair,” Yoongi says, startled.
“Uh huh, sure I can.”
“Another thing you do on dates, I suppose?” Yoongi asks, grinning and Jimin nods once, taking the tickets from the window.
“Oh my gosh, are you two on a date?” Jimin hears the lady say with a dreamy sigh and fluttery eyes.
“It’s just so I didn’t feel like a loser before college,” Yoongi says cheerfully and walks off, leaving Jimin with a twist in his gut and the lady at the counter more confused than ever.
+
“Was Insidious 2 supposed to be this scary?” Yoongi squeaks out as he peeks at the screen through the gaps between his pale fingers. Jimin pouts in the dark because this wasn’t working out quite as he had planned it. Well, not yet.
“That’s the idea, yeah,” Jimin says, though the only reason he’s not shitting himself is because he must have watched this movie about four times at Taehyung’s place already.
“Something to do with dates?”
“Nah, I just like watching you squirm.”
Jimin doesn’t really have to tell Yoongi that the only reason he chose something this scary is so Yoongi will cling to his arm when he’s scared or hide behind his shoulder when he feels like can’t watch anymore.
But it hasn’t happened. Not yet. They haven’t even managed to bump hands on the damn shared armrest. Nope, Jimin did not just blow half his year’s pocket money on tickets and popcorn for this lack of skinship.
He nudges Yoongi. Jimin can just make out the outline of Yoongi’s stricken face looking back at him.
“You can hold on, you know. If you’re scared or something,” Jimin mumbles, sticking out his arm to Yoongi, eyes glued to the screen so Yoongi can’t tell that Jimin can no longer keep up the deadpan expression over how nervous he really feels.
Yoongi spends the rest of the film clutching at a very smug Jimin’s arm and totally failing at not screaming.
+
It’s dark out by the time Yoongi wobbles out of the movie hall with Jimin. The digital clock at the exit says 8:13 PM.
“It escapes my comprehension as to why you were not terrified out of your mind.”
Jimin shrugs, trying not to look too complacent.
“Just not that scary, I guess.”
Yoongi stares at Jimin is awe when his phone buzzes. The ringtone is the Pokemon theme song. Jimin almost crouches on the floor to not die over how sweet that is.
“It’s my mom,” Yoongi sighs, staring at the phone. “I’ll take this for a minute.”
Jimin nods and whips out his own phone, putting Taehyung on speed dial the second Yoongi’s back is turned.
Taehyung picks up on the eighth ring, by which time Jimin’s leg is shaking in anticipation.
“Fucking asshole.”
Jimin huffs. “Get over it, Tae, you know I’ll get you one eventually.”
Taehyung considers this for a second.
“Make sure there’s extra pepperoni,” he grumbles at last and Jimin grins.
“Guess whose on a date?” Taehyung sighs on the other end of the phone.
“I told you a million times, Park Jimin, crunching numbers at the public library does not count as a date with Yoongi, no matter how much you like him.”
“First of all, let’s make this clear. I do not like him. Second of all, we went to the movies and I’m so buying him dinner and walking him home and if that doesn’t count as a date, I don’t know what does.”
Taehyung clicks his tongue over the receiver. “I don’t know, did you hold hands yet?”
Jimin freezes, turning around to steal a glance at Yoongi, who is still in the midst of a long drawn out explanation of ‘how this wasn’t a real date’ with his own mother.
He groaned.
“No.”
“Then what kind of a date is that?” Jimin hits the end call button and pouts until Yoongi’s call is done.
“Sorry it took so long, I-”
“How does Italian sound?”
Yoongi blinks his large brown eyes through his glasses, tugging at his messy hair.
“Good, but Jimin -”
“Sounds good to me, too.”
Jimin grabs Yoongi’s small, cold hand for good measure in his rough, warm ones and stalks down the street.
Fuck you, Kim Taehyung. Who was on a date now?
+
“Hey, are you sure you can pay? I feel kind of bad. I mean, it’s only a fake date, right?”
No. No, it’s not fake, you dense little -
“Uh huh, sure I can pay.”
Yoongi shuffles uncomfortably as he stares at the pasta he ordered twenty minutes ago and takes in the ambience of the place.
It’s not all that fancy, Jimin thinks. Sure, it’s one of the nicer street restaurants, and okay, the prices didn’t exactly yell affordability, but hey, you only got these many shots at this date thing, right?
Especially with a guy like Min Yoongi.
“Can I ask you something?” Jimin says, putting down his fork and sipping at his Coke carefully.
Yoongi nods, adjusting his glasses.
“What did you mean, when you said you remember everything about me?”
(Rule Number 7 of the Bad Boy Rule Book™ : Under no circumstance does a bad boy forfeit his vision of badassery, even if the situation desperately warrants it.)
A dark red stains Yoongi’s cheeks through half a mouthful of cheesy pasta. He swallows slowly.
“Just stupid, small things. it’s not important,” he mumbles, eyes fixed on his sweating glass of orange juice.
“Like?” Jimin pressed, leaning in. If he was going to break Rule Number 7, he might as well do it right.
Jimin takes in a minute of clinking glasses and soft laughter and music in the background crooning Italian words of love Jimin didn’t understand before he hears Yoongi speak.
“Like how you wear red converse everyday of the week to school except on Tuesdays, when you wear your bright green Nikes for sports.”
Jimin’s mouth drops open.
“You - I mean you notice things like that?”
Yoongi ducks, tugging his bangs.
“I told you I did,” he says. “Sorry if you feel creeped out of something.”
“No,” Jimin breathes softly, eyes flickering under candlelight, looking straight at Yoongi, “it’s amazing.”
Yoongi looks too shy to speak. Jimin knew he shouldn’t have asked. He really shouldn’t have. Now he feels like a jerk.
He rubs the back of his neck awkwardly. The only thing to do was sacrifice his own dignity at the alter of shame.
“You’ve had the same Shrek lunch box since the eighth grade,” Jimin whispers softly and Yoongi’s neck snaps up in shock.
“Oh.”
“What?” Jimin mumbles, shrugging like he didn’t just embarrass himself to even them out just so Yoongi would look at him.
“Nothing,” Yoongi smiles suddenly, the kind that reaches his eyes and bares all his gums stretching over his pale face, catching Jimin completely off guard and he has to pretend to drop his napkin just so he can blush furiously under the table for a minute before straightening up again.
“Your favorite thing from the cafeteria at lunch is curly fries with the hot sauce on Thursdays.”
“You really hate the Star Trek movies but you’ve probably watched Star Wars like, forty seven times.”
“Your favorite color is green, the kind that only comes from the sea.”
“You think the best thing about English class is that you get to sleep at the back of the class.”
Jimin should be embarrassed about how much he ends up knowing, but judging by how they manage to keep this up till Jimin pays the bill, he’s smiling way too much to care.
+
They had been halfway through spitting out things they had noticed about each other when Yoongi had said it over dessert.
“Man, I think I’m nervous.”
“Good nervous or bad nervous?” Yoongi grins.
“The good kind.”
“Why?”
“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say this felt almost like a real date.”
Jimin purses his lips and lets Yoongi tell him about Jimin’s Iron Man collection.
+
Yoongi is tugging at his bangs again.
“Damn, I’m scared.” Jimin frowns, threading his fingers through Yoongi’s and ignoring his blush.
“That movie gave me the creeps and I have to walk all the way home. Even if it's three blocks away.”
“That’s why I’m walking there with you, you idiot.” Yoongi gasps a little, stuttering.
“Y-you’ve really done a lot for me already. Look, you’re still carrying my books too -”
“Part of the date thing, remember?” Yoongi smirks slightly apologetically, tugging Jimin around the right turns as they walk.
“Sorry for being such a burden.”
“You’re not a burden,” Jimin says forcefully, tightening his grip on Yoongi’s hand and Yoongi points him to his own street.
“Yeah but,” Yoongi says, biting down on his lip slowly, swinging his arm with Jimin’s as they come up at his doorstep. “It’s only a fake date, though.”
Jimin stops walking suddenly, taking a deep breathe and closing his eyes.
“How about I take back what I said about me taking you on a date just because I wanted you to have one before college, huh?”
Yoongi splutters. “But then - all that - everything we did - and you just - you mean it was real?”
The street lights just about bring out Jimin’s blush. Every inch of him is a burning, crumbling, nervous wreck.
“Uh huh.” Yoongi sways gently on his feet and stares at the ground, still clutching at Jimin's hand.
“But then, that means you like m-fff.”
Jimin doesn’t wait to hear it before smashing his lips onto Yoongi’s because he’s three seconds from losing his mind with the adrenaline pumping through his veins and damn did Yoongi look irresistible under the 10 PM night lights and damn did Jimin want to know what Yoongi tasted like. It only takes a couple of seconds for Yoongi to clutch the front of Jimin’s dark shirt gently in tiny fistfuls and kiss him back with shy, chapped lips on Jimin’s eager ones and out of all the kisses Jimin has had in high school, this is easily his favorite. Maybe it’s because he’s a little Yoongi biased, but Jimin was too giddy headed to care.
Three, four, five seconds pass when they pull apart and Jimin leans his forehead against Yoongi’s.
“Wow,” Jimin whispers against Yoongi’s lips. “I’m sorry, but wow.”
Yoongi giggles a little, pushing Jimin away.
“See you on Monday, then,” Yoongi squeaks, taking his books from Jimin’s arms and disappearing into his house in his shiny leather pants, door closing with a soft click. Jimin sways on his feet a little, touching his lips with his fingers.
I just kissed Min Yoongi. I just kissed Min Yoongi. I literally just kissed Min friggin -
Jimin wears that stupid grin all the way home.
+
(Rule Number 1 of the Bad Boy Rule Book™ : A bad boy is prohibited to fall in love with anyone who doesn’t also follow all the rules of the Bad Boy Rule Book™ or does not equal your bad boy scale to at least 86%, ie. a rough estimate.)
Jimin is bad boy enough to break a couple of rules. After all, he’s broken more than one tonight.