"I feel like we're at another one of his stupid banquets," Yoongi snapped, tugging at the bow tie cutting off the circulation at his neck.

Hobi just laughed, his eyes scanning the room, left to right then right to left, never pausing for a moment. "At least it's not full of ugly old people with their wallets stapled to their pockets."

"Maybe they're not old," Yoongi agreed after a moment, eyeing a boy walk past with his hair gelled back and his face corrupted in violent outbreaks of untreated acne. "But I don't think you're wrong on the ugly part."

"At least they've got beats," Hobi said with a shrugged, still scanning the crowd, but his foot was tapping to the music. "Although I wish Joshua and them were here. They would have been fun to hang out with."

"Yeah, I bet," Yoongi said, scanning the crowd as well, but he knew who Hobi was looking for, and he wasn't looking for her. Instead, his eyes narrowed in on Taehyung, one leg bent at the knee used to prop himself up against the wall as he animatedly conversed with the one kid Yoongi could have sworn he'd seen Tae punch a few years ago. His hand gestures were quick and all over the place, and Yoongi couldn't tell if he was angry or excited. Knowing Tae, probably both.

Then Yoongi found Jin, just coming in from outside, and Yoongi glared at his figure suspiciously. Jin, the one with all the friends, who had seemed the least interested in finding a date. Instead, Jin just sort of walked around the perimeter, ignoring the occasional looks he received from other kids who were confused by his recent incomprehensible actions. Yoongi watched as Jin happened to pass by I.M, and the two exchanged a fist bump and smile before parting ways.

"Oh man, oh man oh man oh man," Hobi started chanting softly from beside him, and Yoongi sighed before following Hobi's gaze. "She's really coming over here, Yoongi. What do I do? What am I supposed to say? I asked her sort of as friends and mostly because she was the only person I was pretty sure wouldn't reject me but now that the moment is here I feel totally unprepared and-"

Yoongi shut Hobi up by giving him a push toward Jeongyeon, who had been making her way through the crowd toward Hobi. She gave Hobi a smile before making eye contact with Yoongi for a long second, and there was something in her eyes, some emotion that definitely should not have been there if she were his brother's date and not someone he was supposed to be interested in - but then she looked back at Hobi and smiled, a clean, innocent smile, and it was so convincing that Yoongi almost forgotten the look he'd read in her eyes.

Even after the two of them had lost themselves in the crowd, Yoongi was stuck arguing with himself in his head, questioning whether or whether not Jeongyeon had really just tried to undress him with her eyes and why or why not she would do that if she'd rejected him and gone with Hobi instead and-

"Hey," Jin said, having circumvented the entire crowd to make his way around to Yoongi's side with a crooked smile. "Enjoying yourself?"

Yoongi turned his nose up slightly, his lips tightening. He couldn't really help it; his first defense mechanism to protect himself from feeling hurt - emotionally or physically - was to be as bitchy as possible. "I'd enjoy myself more if everybody else left."

"Well, if it makes you feel better, most of them will leave a little early to get started on all the wild unprotected sex they'll be having tonight," Jin offered with a bashful grin, and Yoongi was so surprised to hear the words coming out of Jin's mouth that he snorted.

"I guess that makes my special night a little more promising," Yoongi added, trying to still sound unbothered and unaffected by the tornado of teenage hormones swirling around the room, but Jin just smiled and ruffled Yoongi's hair.

"Hey," Yoongi said with a frown, although like his sharp words, the frown was just a facade to cover something else, in this case, the warm flutter inside his rib cage. "Jimin spent a long time today straightening my hair, and you've ruined it in five seconds flat."

Jin laughed again, and Yoongi found himself wondering how long it had been since that sound - that annoying, familiar, nostalgic sound - had graced the air. "I'll give Jimin my apologies when I see him. Did he really skip, though?"

Yoongi nodded, frowning for real this time. If his antisocial younger brother was by his side, he could pick on him the whole time and ignore the crowd, but now he wasn't playing the big brother card, he was just a student hovering on the edge of the action. "He said he wanted to stay with Jungkook because he felt bad about Jungkook missing the dance."

"Ah." Jin looked out over the crowd before turning to face Yoongi. "I'm glad I'm here tonight with you guys."

"O-kay..."

"I mean, here without being a part of all the football stuff..." Their conversation trailed off awkwardly, and Jin knew it was because Yoongi had forgiven him but couldn't really communicate with him yet. So Jin did as Jin does... "Why does Korea have the best music?"

"I don't know, Jin, is that a serious question or like...?"

"Because it's got Seoul."

There were three seconds of silence while the song being blasted out of the speakers ended, and the next song began in just enough time to muffle the obnoxious laughter of two boys hovering on the outskirts of the crowd.

***

"So," Hobi began somewhat anxiously.

"So," Jeongyeon parroted back with a smirk on her lips.

"I'm here, you're here," Hobi said, and Jeongyeon nodded slowly, not following. "I just- I sort of felt like, you know."

"Like what?" she asked, one hand on her hip.

"Like maybe you'd stand me up or go with someone else," Hobi admitted, looking down before looking back up to meet Jeongyeon's eyes with pink cheeks. "But I'm glad you didn't."

"You thought I would stand you up?" Jeongyeon asked with genuine surprise on her face.

"Yeah, well, don't take it personally, I just don't have a lot of faith in people," Hobi said with a slight chuckle. "I'm glad you didn't, though. Stand me up, I mean. I'm glad you're here with me."

Jeongyeon smiled and extended her hand, grasping his wrist lightly, her index and middle finger on the inside of his wrist as though she were taking his pulse. "I'm glad, too. Now let's make the most of the music and dance a little, yeah?" she asked, tugging Hobi towards the music with a sly tilt to her lips.

Jeongyeon had a natural sense of rhythm, swaying a bit and keeping the beat, and Hobi just danced casually, smiling at Jeongyeon and laughing every now and then, although the sound was lost beneath the speakers.

Eventually, he was interrupted by a tap on his shoulder, and he turned around with a slight frown, but his lips parted in a wide grin. "Wonpil you sly bastard! What are you doing here?!"

Wonpil grinned back, fist-bumping Hobi. "I lied about having plans. I got one of my old friends to let me in."

"But-" Hobi was yelling over the music. "Why?"

"To see you, man!" Wonpil said, slapping Hobi on the back. "It sucks going to different high schools!"

Hobi laughed before realizing that he'd been neglecting his date. He turned to Jeongyeon and motioned her over, and the three made their way to the edge of the crowd where they could actually hear each other talk. "Wonpil, this is Jeongyeon; Jeongyeon, Wonpil."

"Hey, I didn't know you had a date!" Wonpil said, his eyes wide in wonder and, Hobi thought, pride that his friend had opened up a bit. "Hi, I'm Wonpil, Hobi's best friend in the whole wide world and beyond. Nice to meet you!" Wonpil pointed at Hobi with a grin before looking back at Jeongyeon. "This guy, he's the best. You couldn't have found a better date."

Jeongyeon smiled, the corners of her lips pulling upward. "Thanks for letting me know," she said with a small laugh. "We're just friends, though."

Hobi smiled, but he briefly wondered if it was possible to be more than friends and, if so, did he want to be? He hadn't really considered it before now but Jeongyeon looked really pretty in a dress and Hobi's thoughts were scattered all over the place.

"What a shame," Wonpil said, although he was still smiling (he rarely wasn't). "More Hobi for me then!" He draped his arms across Hobi's shoulders, and Hobi made a disgusted face before halfheartedly pushing Wonpil off his lanky frame.

"You're going to give my date the wrong idea!" Hobi complained, but his lips were curved upwards. "Friend date, that is."

"Wrong ideas are my kind of ideas," Wonpil said with a mischievous grin, smacking Hobi lightly.

"Did you just smack his butt?" Jeongyeon asked skeptically, and Wonpil opened his mouth but Hobi cut him off.

"LOWER BACK," Hobi insisted, but a spark in Wonpil's eyes suggested otherwise.

"I'll give you two some time to catch up," Jeongyeon said, snorting softly. "So get all your bromance out of your system and stop trying to steal my date," she warned Wonpil with a smile and a raised eyebrow.

"Oh, you don't have to-" Hobi began, but Jeongyeon waved her hands dismissively.

"It's fine, I'll see you in a little while, all right? You two have a lot to catch up on. I'm just going to dance a little more. Find me when you're done, yeah?" She waited a second before giving Hobi a kiss on the cheek, making admonitory eye contact with Wonpil before smirking and disappearing into the crowd, leaving a blushing Hobi behind.

"Well, she's a keeper," Wonpil said. "For a friend."

"Right, a friend," Hobi said, his face flushed.

Wonpil smacked him hard on the back. "I'm your friend too, right?"

Hobi glared at him. "Not that kind of friend."

***

"All I'm saying is," Tae continued, waving his hands frantically in the air. "It's awfully suspicious for Jungkook to not show up. I bet he was afraid of exposing himself as a robot somehow, and that's when he came up with the I slipped in the shower and broke my arm excuse."

Jongup just nodded along to everything Tae said before replying. "How do you think he would have outed himself as a robot at a school dance? And are you sure that it was just an excuse? Isn't he actually in the hospital right now?"

"To answer your question, hospitals support their own agendas, and Jungkook is undoubtedly a secret project of theirs. If asked, they'll deny his existence. If you walked up to the counter, I bet you a million dollars that they would tell you that there isn't a Kim Jungkook staying there."'

"Yeah, because that would be a breach of privacy and confidential information, considering I'm not related to him," Jongup said slowly. "But how would he expose himself again?"

"It's gotta be the dancing," Tae said, a hand on his chin. "You've seen how robots dance, right?"

"Well, I've got a vague idea."

"Right. Well, I'm positive that while everybody else here is moving their bodies like spineless creatures - jellyfish or something, I don't know - Jungkook would stick out like a sore thumb and would ruin his mission to pose as a human."

"Or maybe he really did break his arm in the shower," Jongup suggested. It wasn't that he was always trying to go against Tae; rather, he'd found that Tae grew more excited when faced with an opposition, as it gave him more room to declare his argument, so Jongup always came up with a simple disagreement to keep Tae going. Jongup didn't really care one way or another whether or not Jungkook was a robot or a human, but he knew Tae was fascinated with the idea, and a fascinated Tae is a good Tae, so...

"Please," Tae said, giving Jongup a look. "Nobody is that stupid."

***

"Yep, apparently he was so nervous about the dance tonight that he accidentally poured shampoo on the ground instead of in his hand and slipped on it, falling and breaking his arm," Yoongi recounted with a sigh. Jin had been in the house when it had happened, but he hadn't heard the full story.

"Poor Jungkook," Jin said, frowning, and Yoongi raised an eyebrow.

"Poor me. I had to walk in on a naked Jungkook to get him to stop screaming. Not to mention that he left the shower on. Do you know how much water he wasted?" Yoongi tsk'd. "That's what he gets for growing so tall. You know what they say - the taller you are, the harder you fall."

"Really? Is that what they-"

Yoongi locked eyes with a figure across the room, and he put a hand on Jin's shoulder without looking over at him. "I've got to go. Man the antisocial corner for me."

"Oh? Where are you-"

Yoongi strode over to the other end of the room. "Hey," he said when he got there, trying not to seem out of breath, although he'd taken as long of strides as possible to get there quickly, and his lungs hadn't taken kindly to it.

"Hey," she replied, looking up at him through her dark lashes.

"Where's Hobi?" he asked.

"Not with me," she replied, still staring into his eyes, and Yoongi resisted the urge to swallow.

"You should be with him. He asked you to the dance," Yoongi replied, saying the words although his lips fought against them.

"He's with a friend right now," Jeongyeon replied. "He won't miss me." She pursed her lips - why was Yoongi staring at her lips? Damn it. "Yoongi, I said no to you because he asked me first."

"So?" he asked, fighting to keep his eyes on her eyes. Eyes are safe, right?

But why do her eyes make me feel all these things that don't exactly feel safe?

"So, that was the only reason," she said, and Yoongi's eyes drifted down to her lips before he snapped them back up to her eyes, and her lips curved into a smirk.

"You're Hobi's date," Yoongi protested, backing up slightly, not that he was intimidated by a girl several inches shorter than him, no, of course not, why would he be-

She took a step closer. "And you're my date's brother. It's just be a friendly dance."

It'll be anything but friendly and you know that, Yoongi thought to himself as he swallowed. "A friendly dance," he parroted, and Jeongyeon smiled up at him.

Her heart-shaped lips came together in a small smile, and the small amount of guilt that Yoongi felt was quickly forgotten as their bodies drew closer and began moving in sync.

***

"...one second, I was fine, and the next-" Jungkook paused to demonstrate with his hands. "I was down. I didn't know what had happened. I didn't even know who I was." He paused. "Okay, I knew who I was, but I didn't know what had happened and why my arm hurt so much." He paused again. "Okay, I knew something was wrong with my arm because it wasn't supposed to look like it did, but I don't even know how it all happened." He paused once more. "Okay, well, I was so nervous about the dance that I totally spaced out and wasn't paying attention, but I definitely did absolutely not-" He stopped talking, letting his mouth hang open for a second before letting his lips fall into a shameful grin. "Okay, so I broke my arm and it wasn't that dramatic, I was just being an idiot."

Jimin giggled, a hang covering his mouth slightly, his small fingers hiding his lips. "There's always n-next year, Kookie."

Jungkook sighed, raising a hand to the ceiling and staring forlornly at the silhouette of his hand in front of the light. "But I had so many dates lined up for this year." He pretended to wipe a tear away.

"At least you didn't oversleep like H-Hyungwonnie did and miss the whole thing," Jimin said. He'd received several texts from Hyungwon during his stay at the hospital, mostly panicked messages before a final resigned "whatever, I'm going back to sleep, didn't want to go anyway."

"Do you think the girls will like me more if I let them sign my cast?" Jungkook asked hesitantly. "Should I bring a marker to school? And maybe we can work out an exchange of some sort. Like, they sign my cast, and I sign their arm."

"What good would that d-do?"

"Well, they'd learn my name," Jungkook said, and Jimin cracked up.

"G-Go for it," he said, and their laughter lasted a few moments before fading.

"I'm sorry," Jungkook said abruptly. "That you had to miss the dance. I know you were sort of excited."

Jimin shrugged. "I don't really m-mind. I didn't have a d-date anyway. Maybe one year." He made a face. "Unless T-Tae puts fake love letters in my l-locker again."

"You can't really stay mad at Tae," Jungkook said, smiling at Jimin, who crossed his arms.

"Taehyung is my archn-nem-nem-"

"Arch-nemesis?"

"Yes, that," Jimin replied, nodding firmly.

Jungkook stared at Jimin skeptically for a second before fluttering his eyelashes. "Program...shut down," he said in a mechanical voice before tilting his head in a sharp movement and closing his eyes.

"K-Kookie?"

Silence.

"Jungkook?" Jimin asked, staring at Jungkook, wide-eyed. "Jungkook?" Then, a few moments later, a soft "Maybe Tae was right-"

Jungkook opened his eyes and grinned at Jimin, whose expression of wonder quickly morphed into a glare.

"N-Not funny," Jimin said, and Jungkook laughed.

"I'm not a robot for crying out loud," Jungkook said, still laughing, but he smiled affectionately at Jimin as his laughter stopped. "But like I said, Tae is really important to you."

Jimin's carefree expression was gone, replaced by a serious look. "Tae is...Tae is my h-hero," Jimin said quietly, his eyes wide and vulnerable. "He was the first one of y-you guys that I saw when you guys brought m-me home, and he's always there f-for me, even when I've g-given up, and-"

"Yeah, I know," Jungkook said. "Tae is a really good brother."

"I want to be a hero f-for you too," Jimin said, and Jungkook's eyes widened.

"Me? You want to be my hero?"

Jimin nodded. "I'll s-save you whenever you need saving, K-Kookie, I promise."

"Hmmm," Jungkook murmured, hand on his chin, pretending to consider the offer. "Offer rejected."

Jimin knew well enough to not take Jungkook seriously that he wasn't hurt, but he felt embarrassed that he'd let himself be so vulnerable. "O-Oh, right-"

"I'm sorry, but the position is already filled by Captain Yoongi, who is tasked with saving me from rogue shampoo bottles," Jungkook announced dramatically before pausing to grin at Jimin. "But I'm sure he needs a sidekick."

Jimin smiled.

"And you're the only one who can be his sidekick cause you're the only one shorter than him."

"...I'm starting to appreciate the f-fact that you broke your arm."