Like a Milli, for shrdmdnssftw
Title: Like A Milli
Recipient: shrdmdnssftw
Pairing: J-Hope/V (always-a-girl)
Rating: PG
Summary: Taehyung runs for student council against the love of her life, Jung Hoseok.
Notes: Korean-style school system, North American-style school elections. Please suspend your disbelief for a few thousand words.
The first order of business, Taehyung decides, is candy.
Jimin runs her hand down bags of lollipops and soft milk candies, admiring the sparkle of her glitter nail polish against the pastel-coloured packaging. “Shouldn’t you be making posters first? Like, so that people actually know that you’re running for student council?”
Taehyung picks a bright pink piece of bubble gum out of one of the bulk bins and pops it into her mouth. It’s strawberry flavoured. This is a good omen, she decides. “Nobody’s going to start the candy campaign this early. I’ll get the word out first while everyone’s busy, and then get the posters up. Everyone will think they just didn’t notice them before, and all the other candidates will look like they’re trying to catch up to me.” She turns to look down the aisle. “Jeon Jungkook! You’re still making my posters, right?” From where she’s staring at a shelf of large chocolate animals wrapped in cellophane, Jungkook gives Taehyung a thumbs-up. Taehyung turns back to Jimin. “It’ll be fine.”
“I don’t know,” says Jimin, but she takes a bag down from the rack. “What’s your budget again?”
“Thirty thousand won.” Taehyung starts grabbing bags off the racks and drops them in the basket at Jimin’s feet. “I’m going to need all of it if I’m going to beat Jung Hoseok.”
“I don’t know why you decided to run against her,” says Jimin, examining a bag of jellies. “Isn’t she the love of your life or whatever?”
“You don’t stand much of a chance against her,” Jungkook adds, appearing out of nowhere. Taehyung hits her arm.
Taehyung herself knows she’s not the most likely pick for student council. She’s only in her first year of high school, and she’s far from a top student - not one of the worst, either, but one of those that’s stuck somewhere in the middle for the entirety of their school career. She’s not popular with boys, except for the three other members of Anime Club, her only extracurricular activity, which is hardly a glowing recommendation. But treasurer suggests someone dependable and smart and just careful enough, and Taehyung is all of those, which might be enough to carry her through if she can convince everyone else of it too.
On the other hand, Taehyung has had no doubts about Jung Hoseok since the first day of high school when she walked into Taehyung’s classroom to promote her after-school dance club. With her long hair and neat bangs and giant, toothy smile, she was the prettiest girl Taehyung had ever seen, and Taehyung couldn’t stop thinking about her for the rest of the day, craning her neck in order to try to find her in the hallways, even though she was having just as much trouble even finding the cafeteria.
The problem is that aside from attending the same school, she and Hoseok have almost nothing in common: they’re not in the same grade or the same clubs. She does go to the same dance studio as Taehyung’s friends from middle school, Jimin and Jungkook, but the two of them are useless as spies: Jimin’s too busy with her own thing to notice anyone else, and Jungkook, Taehyung suspects, takes a sadistic joy in withholding information. So when she heard that Hoseok was running for student council, her goal had seemed obvious: get elected and get closer to her.
She hadn’t counted on them running for the exact same position.
“You underestimate me,” she says, drawing herself up. “I am running for treasurer because I am the most qualified for the position. It just happens to be against Jung Hoseok-ssi.”
“The love of your life,” adds Jimin.
“Don’t squish those,” says Taehyung. Jimin drops the bag of jellies into the basket without a word. “Anyway, it’s gonna be fine.” She grins and chews her gum. “Who doesn’t like candy?”
---
“I hate candy,” says Jimin, slumping against the wall. She and Taehyung are on their third day in a row of spending their lunch period walking up and down the halls handing out the goods. The walls are lined with posters photocopied onto different brightly coloured papers, with almost every other candidate represented. “Who came up with the idea of a candy campaign, anyway? It’ll just make everybody fat, and then no one’s going to want to vote for you.”
“It’s a time-honoured tradition,” says Taehyung, leaning back next to her. “Nobody hands out ginseng for election campaigns.”
Jimin flicks at the peeling corner of a pink poster on the wall next to her. Shin Jiho for VP. “I still think the posters would have been a good idea first.” She looks down the hallway. “Oh, here comes someone, quick.”
Taehyung follows her gaze to see a third-year boy coming down the hall and swings into action. She grabs a cellophane-wrapped piece of hard candy out of the basket Jimin’s carrying and holds it out with both hands. “Kim Taehyung is running for treasurer, that’s me, please vote,” she babbles as he takes the candy.
“She always pays me back when I lend her money,” Jimin adds. The boy gives her a confused look and mumbles a thanks, then keeps walking.
“God,” Taehyung sighs, watching him continue down the hall. “How many students are there at this school?”
Jimin swings the basket in front of her, passing it from hand to hand. “It’s hard when it’s just the two of us. Why didn’t you ask your Anime Club oppas for help?” Taehyung grimaces at her. “Or maybe we should convince Jungkookie to skip. I bet you wouldn’t even need to convince her.”
Taehyung sticks her nose in the air. “I am not going to encourage juvenile delinquency as part of my election campaign.”
“It’d be volunteer work.” Jimin leans forward and looks down the hall. “Uh-oh, don’t look now, but...”
“Another one?” Taehyung reaches into the basket and pulls out a caramel. “Hey, school elections are in two weeks. Vote for Kim Taehyung, she’ll...” She trails off as Jung Hoseok pauses in front of her, with Kim Namjoon, this year’s student vice president, right beside her. Even just making eye contact with Hoseok is enough to make her feel like she’s been pushed into a hole.
“What position are you running for?” asks Namjoon with his vice president grin on. Taehyung glances sideways to Jimin, because her eyes are the only part of her body that can move right now.
“Treasurer,” Jimin tells him, and Taehyung winces. “She’s running, I mean, not me.”
“Oh, you’re Kim Taehyung!” says Hoseok. “I’m Jung Hoseok, I’m running against you.” She beams and tucks her hair behind one ear. “I saw you signed up and I was hoping to meet you. If I’d known you were friends with Jiminnie I would have asked her earlier.”
Taehyung stares, her mouth hanging open a little, until Jimin elbows her in the side, making her snap up straight. “Yes, I’m Kim Taehyung,” she says, with a smile that’s rigid with fear. She’s still holding the candy like an idiot, and she closes her fist around it and hides it behind her back.
Hoseok doesn’t seem to notice. “Ah, it’s really nice to meet you! Are you excited for the leadership training next week? I heard it’s usually supposed to be a trip, but some people decided to have it at the school instead. So boring.”
She makes a face at Namjoon and he shrugs lightly. “A true leader can learn skills anywhere.”
“Oh, right,” says Taehyung. Truthfully, she’d almost forgotten about the training session, or had been hoping it would be cancelled. “Yeah, I’ll be there.”
“Great! Good luck with the campaign. And I’ll see you after school, right?” Hoseok points to Jimin.
“I wish.” She pouts. “My mom said she was gonna call the hagwon to make sure I was there.”
Hoseok scrunches up her face. “Ah, give her my number. I’ll pretend to be your teacher.”
Jimin shakes her head, but she’s smiling. “It’s English study, unnie.”
“I can speak English to her. I’m serious!” Hoseok waves at them before she and Namjoon continue down the hall. Namjoon elbows her and says something, and she laughs at him in reply. Taehyung stares after them, not moving even as other students pass and make longing looks at the basket of candy.
Jimin snorts. “You’re so smooth, Kim Taetae-nim. Boys must love you.”
“That’s treasurer-nim to you,” says Taehyung, sticking her nose in the air. “And who cares about boys.” She turns back in the direction of Hoseok and Namjoon, all the way down the hall. “They’re not dating, right? Tell me they’re not dating.”
“They’re not,” says Jimin. “At least not that I know of. Wait!” She grabs Taehyung’s fist, which she’d been about to run through her hair, and unpeels it to reveal the melted caramel in the middle. “Ew! I thought so,” she says, letting go of Taehyung’s wrist. “I just saved your life, you know. You can’t cut your hair any shorter, you’d basically be shaving your head.”
Taehyung examines the squashed candy in her palm, with the white wax paper wrinkled and torn around it, then she puts her palm to her mouth and sucks the caramel off, wrapper and all. Some of it sticks to her bottom lip. She’d been trying to manage her candy budget as practice, but now she thinks she should have bought the more expensive ones - these are more chalky than sweet.
“Hey, you should come to the leadership training next week,” she says with her mouth full of caramel to Jimin, who’s busy making full-body gagging motions. “It’s not just for candidates, you know. They give you a meal!”
“I’d rather go to hagwon for the rest of my life,” Jimin replies. “Are we done for today? Lunch is almost over.”
“Yeah, I think so.” Taehyung pulls the wrapper out of her mouth and spits out a missed shred into her palm, then smiles at Jimin with caramel on her front teeth. “Let’s go make some posters before third period.”
Jimin gives her a disgusted look. “Wash your hands first.”
---
The leadership training session takes place in the evening the week before the election. For the usual kind of election candidate, Taehyung supposes, it’s a nice alternative to coming back to school at night to study, but for her it feels weird being on the grounds this late. It’s still February, but they meet outside on the field, gathering around Mr. Lee, the gym teacher, who’s running the training. Taehyung looks over the crowd as he takes attendance. It’s mostly members of the current student government and the other electoral candidates - no one that she knows. She hunches forward in her parka, trying to stay warm.
“Hey, Kim Taehyung!”
“Present,” she says automatically, springing up straight and almost saluting. A few of the others turn and look at her over their shoulders, but not Mr. Lee, who continues taking attendance silently on his clipboard.
“Hey, hey, Kim Taehyung.” She follows the voice to see Hoseok coming up to her, in a black knitted beanie and black parka over her uniform. Taehyung keeps her eyes cast down as she approaches, trying not to let them rest on her legs sticking out from under her coat. “Do you have a partner yet?”
“Partner?” The word makes Taehyung’s stomach drop. She curses Jimin’s absence. “Guess I should find one, huh?”
Hoseok grins and kicks the ground sheepishly. “Well, actually, I was asking because I need one too.”
“Oh? What about...” Taehyung cranes her neck to examine the crowd.
Hoseok turns her head too. “Namjoonie? Oh, he’s got a friend already. Do you know Jung Hunchul-ssi?” She scratches her head, and her hair falls forward over her chest with the movement. “Anyway, who needs him? Girls should stick together, right?”
Taehyung doesn’t think Hoseok wants to know her answer to the question, but she nods. “Yeah, do it. Uh, let’s be partners.”
The partner teams, as it turns out, form the basis for the rest of their activities. With the gym teacher there, Taehyung expects it to be some kind of competition, but it’s surprisingly laid-back. They gather into groups of six and come up with solutions to personal conflicts, or are given a box of materials and a stupid mission like making a certain kind of shape out of them. As a team, she and Hoseok balance each other out on paper: according to their answers for the conflict sheets, Hoseok prefers resolving conflict through compromise and Taehyung prefers making solid decisions, though her decisions are based more on intuition than anything else.
But Hoseok is also just as prone as Taehyung is to taking off in random directions with their given materials rather than working towards their goal. It’s not great news for their team - if this were a competition, they’d be nowhere near winning - but it makes Taehyung feel a little more comfortable, like Hoseok is a little more real, and like she might not be so wrong for the position after all.
Dinner is the usual school cafeteria food, soup and rice, but it’s different eating it at this hour. During dinner, Mr. Lee surprises them with another challenge.
“It’s not an ordinary staring contest,” he says. He holds up a stopwatch. “You’ll be staring at your partner. You can blink, but you can’t look away. The team that can go the longest without looking away wins. The bottom two teams have to do the dishes.” Taehyung glances sideways at Hoseok beside her, and when their gazes meet, her eyes dart away. She chews harder, her face contorting into a grimace around her food.
“Ah, what was that?” Hoseok picks up her left wrist and Taehyung turns and stops chewing, eyes wide, flicking from Hoseok’s hands on her hand to her face. “Do you like washing dishes that much?”
Taehyung swallows, the rice and kimchi a lump as they go down. “No,” she says.
Hoseok takes her hand properly and swivels so that she’s seated sideways on the cafeteria bench. Taehyung does the same, clumsily lifting one leg to copy her position. “Come on, we got this.” She tosses her head to get her bangs out of her eyes. “Do you blink a lot? Because if you do, I’m gonna blink a lot too.”
“I’ll only blink as much as you,” Taehyung replies. She wants to take her hand out of Hoseok’s warm, slightly sweaty grip, but she’d feel more awkward if she did.
“Okay, ready,” says Mr. Lee, and the shuffling around the cafeteria falls into unison. Taehyung closes her eyes and adjusts. She can do this. Hoseok’s hand is hot around hers. “Start!”
Taehyung opens her eyes and Hoseok opens hers wide. They stare at each other for a few moments, not saying anything. The air in the room is tense, as everyone concentrates at the same time. Then Hoseok snorts, once, and brings her free hand up to cover the bottom of her face. She doesn’t break the eye contact, but her eyes curve up in a smile. The corner of Taehyung’s mouth twitches, and then she smiles too, and her body starts to vibrate from holding in her laughter. Hoseok has long eyelashes, and her eyeliner is smudging down into the corners of her eyes. Taehyung wipes at her own eyes with one hand, wondering how her own makeup looks.
Hoseok purses her lips and raises her eyebrows. Taehyung contorts her mouth into a grimace, but their eyes stay locked. Then Hoseok winks and Taehyung’s head turns down on its own, her heart fluttering in her chest. “Ah, dammit,” she breathes. Hoseok laughs, and finally lets go of her hand. Taehyung’s fingers feel cold and clammy by themselves.
“You did a good job,” Hoseok says, as she swings her leg back over the bench. Taehyung grins and pokes at her soup. Out of eight, they place in fifth.
---
On election day, voting takes place in the morning, during first period. Taehyung tugs on Jimin’s sleeve as soon as she gets out of the voting booth. “Let’s just not go back to class,” she says.
“Are you crazy?” whispers Jimin. “You can’t skip! The results are coming out at the end of the day, right?”
Taehyung groans and rolls her head back. “I don’t wanna live through the day.”
Jimin puts her arm around her shoulders as they start walking out of the gym. “Don’t be like this. You made it this far, you know, that’s a lot. And hey, I voted for you, and if you voted for yourself then that makes at least two. That’s two people in the world who trust you with their money!”
Taehyung makes a face at her. “Thanks.”
Outside the gym, the second-years are lining up, getting ready for their turn to vote. Taehyung spots Hoseok right away, but she doesn’t look away fast enough, and Hoseok catches her eye and waves them over excitedly.
“I just wanted to say, good luck,” she says to Taehyung.
“Ah, thank you,” says Jimin, flipping one of her pigtails back over her shoulder. Hoseok laughs and Taehyung sticks her tongue out at her.
“Thank you, sunbaenim,” says Taehyung, “for real.”
“Hey, what’s this ‘sunbaenim’?” Hoseok grins. “If Jiminnie calls me unnie, you can too.”
Taehyung wonders if it’s possible to die of happiness. “Okay, Good luck to you too,” she says. She presses her lips together, then adds, “Unnie.”
As she and Jimin walk back to class, their arms still around each other, Jimin whistles. “You’re still alive and you’re not covered in sweat,” she says. “Impressive, Kim Taetae-nim.”
Taehyung laughs heartily, then stomps on her foot.
She can hardly concentrate all day. Normally when she’s not paying attention in class, it’s because she has something more important to focus on, a new volume of Attack on Titan or a Katalk sticker war with Jungkook. But today, she can’t even distract herself. She just stares out the window at the winter sky, clenching and releasing one hand around the other. When she remembers Hoseok winking at her, she jerks her head to one side in the same way as she had a week ago, as if it’s still too much for her body to handle.
Finally, halfway through their history lesson, the P.A. crackles to life. “Attention, students.” It’s Namjoon’s voice, smooth and smiley. “We’ve counted all the votes - yes, all of them - and I’m pleased to announce your next year’s student council.”
From the desk beside her, Jimin reaches out and over, and Taehyung takes her hand.
“Treasurer,” Namjoon says, “Jung Hoseok.”
Jimin groans, and Taehyung sighs dramatically and rolls her eyes back in her head, but she smiles. A few heads turn in her direction. Jimin gets up and hugs Taehyung. “Ugh, that sucks,” she says.
Taehyung shrugs. “It’s okay,” she says, patting Jimin’s forearm that’s slung across her chest. “I was ready for it.” And it’s true, but she still feels a bit sad anyway.
Jimin has dance club after school. ““Text me when you’re out,” Taehyung tells her at the gym doors, before she starts walking down the hall. They’d planned this a month ago: regardless of whether or not she won, they’d go for food together. She pulls out her phone to text Jungkook the plan.
“Kim Taehyung!” By now Taehyung knows whose voice sounds like that yelling her name, and her grip tightens on her phone. She turns around slowly to see Jung Hoseok jogging out of the gym and up to her.
“Congratulations, treasurer-nim,” she says blankly. Then she holds out her hand. “A well-deserved win,” she adds, sounding a bit more robust. She thinks about how presidential candidates congratulate each other, whether it’s with bows or handshakes. Of course, Hoseok is way prettier than Park Geun-hye.
Hoseok takes her hand. “Thank you.” Her tongue darts out over her lips. “That’s not why I wanted to see you, though.”
She isn’t looking up, and Taehyung frowns and tilts her head, remembering their eye contact exercise. Her hand feels the same way in Hoseok’s now, a little clammy but warm. “Then what is it?”
Hoseok sucks in her cheeks, then looks up, leans forward and plants a kiss on Taehyung’s cheek, quick and hot. Taehyung swears her entire body from her toes to the tips of her hair goes fire-red.
“Kim Taehyung. Um. Do you want to hang out sometime?” Hoseok asks. She seems to realize then that she’s still holding onto Taehyung’s hand, and she drops it suddenly.
It’s all Taehyung can do not to shriek yes, or something equally embarrassing. She rubs the back of her neck, trying to breathe normally. “Sure,” she mumbles. “Actually.” She inhales deeply, remembering her leadership exercises. “We were gonna go out to eat after your dance club, if you want to come. You can ask Jimin where it is...”
“Yeah, that sounds great.” Hoseok looks up with a smile, and Taehyung swears her cheeks are pink, but that could just be the glow radiating off of her. “I’ll see you tonight, then.”
“See you tonight.” They grin at each other for a moment, and then Hoseok turns around and walks back to the gym. Taehyung turns and walks down the hall, and then she jumps in the air and lands on her knees in a victorious pose.
On the bus home, Jimin texts her. Does this make you the first lady treasurer? Taehyung chuckles. In response, she sends Jimin the most obscene sticker she has.
Recipient: shrdmdnssftw
Pairing: J-Hope/V (always-a-girl)
Rating: PG
Summary: Taehyung runs for student council against the love of her life, Jung Hoseok.
Notes: Korean-style school system, North American-style school elections. Please suspend your disbelief for a few thousand words.
The first order of business, Taehyung decides, is candy.
Jimin runs her hand down bags of lollipops and soft milk candies, admiring the sparkle of her glitter nail polish against the pastel-coloured packaging. “Shouldn’t you be making posters first? Like, so that people actually know that you’re running for student council?”
Taehyung picks a bright pink piece of bubble gum out of one of the bulk bins and pops it into her mouth. It’s strawberry flavoured. This is a good omen, she decides. “Nobody’s going to start the candy campaign this early. I’ll get the word out first while everyone’s busy, and then get the posters up. Everyone will think they just didn’t notice them before, and all the other candidates will look like they’re trying to catch up to me.” She turns to look down the aisle. “Jeon Jungkook! You’re still making my posters, right?” From where she’s staring at a shelf of large chocolate animals wrapped in cellophane, Jungkook gives Taehyung a thumbs-up. Taehyung turns back to Jimin. “It’ll be fine.”
“I don’t know,” says Jimin, but she takes a bag down from the rack. “What’s your budget again?”
“Thirty thousand won.” Taehyung starts grabbing bags off the racks and drops them in the basket at Jimin’s feet. “I’m going to need all of it if I’m going to beat Jung Hoseok.”
“I don’t know why you decided to run against her,” says Jimin, examining a bag of jellies. “Isn’t she the love of your life or whatever?”
“You don’t stand much of a chance against her,” Jungkook adds, appearing out of nowhere. Taehyung hits her arm.
Taehyung herself knows she’s not the most likely pick for student council. She’s only in her first year of high school, and she’s far from a top student - not one of the worst, either, but one of those that’s stuck somewhere in the middle for the entirety of their school career. She’s not popular with boys, except for the three other members of Anime Club, her only extracurricular activity, which is hardly a glowing recommendation. But treasurer suggests someone dependable and smart and just careful enough, and Taehyung is all of those, which might be enough to carry her through if she can convince everyone else of it too.
On the other hand, Taehyung has had no doubts about Jung Hoseok since the first day of high school when she walked into Taehyung’s classroom to promote her after-school dance club. With her long hair and neat bangs and giant, toothy smile, she was the prettiest girl Taehyung had ever seen, and Taehyung couldn’t stop thinking about her for the rest of the day, craning her neck in order to try to find her in the hallways, even though she was having just as much trouble even finding the cafeteria.
The problem is that aside from attending the same school, she and Hoseok have almost nothing in common: they’re not in the same grade or the same clubs. She does go to the same dance studio as Taehyung’s friends from middle school, Jimin and Jungkook, but the two of them are useless as spies: Jimin’s too busy with her own thing to notice anyone else, and Jungkook, Taehyung suspects, takes a sadistic joy in withholding information. So when she heard that Hoseok was running for student council, her goal had seemed obvious: get elected and get closer to her.
She hadn’t counted on them running for the exact same position.
“You underestimate me,” she says, drawing herself up. “I am running for treasurer because I am the most qualified for the position. It just happens to be against Jung Hoseok-ssi.”
“The love of your life,” adds Jimin.
“Don’t squish those,” says Taehyung. Jimin drops the bag of jellies into the basket without a word. “Anyway, it’s gonna be fine.” She grins and chews her gum. “Who doesn’t like candy?”
---
“I hate candy,” says Jimin, slumping against the wall. She and Taehyung are on their third day in a row of spending their lunch period walking up and down the halls handing out the goods. The walls are lined with posters photocopied onto different brightly coloured papers, with almost every other candidate represented. “Who came up with the idea of a candy campaign, anyway? It’ll just make everybody fat, and then no one’s going to want to vote for you.”
“It’s a time-honoured tradition,” says Taehyung, leaning back next to her. “Nobody hands out ginseng for election campaigns.”
Jimin flicks at the peeling corner of a pink poster on the wall next to her. Shin Jiho for VP. “I still think the posters would have been a good idea first.” She looks down the hallway. “Oh, here comes someone, quick.”
Taehyung follows her gaze to see a third-year boy coming down the hall and swings into action. She grabs a cellophane-wrapped piece of hard candy out of the basket Jimin’s carrying and holds it out with both hands. “Kim Taehyung is running for treasurer, that’s me, please vote,” she babbles as he takes the candy.
“She always pays me back when I lend her money,” Jimin adds. The boy gives her a confused look and mumbles a thanks, then keeps walking.
“God,” Taehyung sighs, watching him continue down the hall. “How many students are there at this school?”
Jimin swings the basket in front of her, passing it from hand to hand. “It’s hard when it’s just the two of us. Why didn’t you ask your Anime Club oppas for help?” Taehyung grimaces at her. “Or maybe we should convince Jungkookie to skip. I bet you wouldn’t even need to convince her.”
Taehyung sticks her nose in the air. “I am not going to encourage juvenile delinquency as part of my election campaign.”
“It’d be volunteer work.” Jimin leans forward and looks down the hall. “Uh-oh, don’t look now, but...”
“Another one?” Taehyung reaches into the basket and pulls out a caramel. “Hey, school elections are in two weeks. Vote for Kim Taehyung, she’ll...” She trails off as Jung Hoseok pauses in front of her, with Kim Namjoon, this year’s student vice president, right beside her. Even just making eye contact with Hoseok is enough to make her feel like she’s been pushed into a hole.
“What position are you running for?” asks Namjoon with his vice president grin on. Taehyung glances sideways to Jimin, because her eyes are the only part of her body that can move right now.
“Treasurer,” Jimin tells him, and Taehyung winces. “She’s running, I mean, not me.”
“Oh, you’re Kim Taehyung!” says Hoseok. “I’m Jung Hoseok, I’m running against you.” She beams and tucks her hair behind one ear. “I saw you signed up and I was hoping to meet you. If I’d known you were friends with Jiminnie I would have asked her earlier.”
Taehyung stares, her mouth hanging open a little, until Jimin elbows her in the side, making her snap up straight. “Yes, I’m Kim Taehyung,” she says, with a smile that’s rigid with fear. She’s still holding the candy like an idiot, and she closes her fist around it and hides it behind her back.
Hoseok doesn’t seem to notice. “Ah, it’s really nice to meet you! Are you excited for the leadership training next week? I heard it’s usually supposed to be a trip, but some people decided to have it at the school instead. So boring.”
She makes a face at Namjoon and he shrugs lightly. “A true leader can learn skills anywhere.”
“Oh, right,” says Taehyung. Truthfully, she’d almost forgotten about the training session, or had been hoping it would be cancelled. “Yeah, I’ll be there.”
“Great! Good luck with the campaign. And I’ll see you after school, right?” Hoseok points to Jimin.
“I wish.” She pouts. “My mom said she was gonna call the hagwon to make sure I was there.”
Hoseok scrunches up her face. “Ah, give her my number. I’ll pretend to be your teacher.”
Jimin shakes her head, but she’s smiling. “It’s English study, unnie.”
“I can speak English to her. I’m serious!” Hoseok waves at them before she and Namjoon continue down the hall. Namjoon elbows her and says something, and she laughs at him in reply. Taehyung stares after them, not moving even as other students pass and make longing looks at the basket of candy.
Jimin snorts. “You’re so smooth, Kim Taetae-nim. Boys must love you.”
“That’s treasurer-nim to you,” says Taehyung, sticking her nose in the air. “And who cares about boys.” She turns back in the direction of Hoseok and Namjoon, all the way down the hall. “They’re not dating, right? Tell me they’re not dating.”
“They’re not,” says Jimin. “At least not that I know of. Wait!” She grabs Taehyung’s fist, which she’d been about to run through her hair, and unpeels it to reveal the melted caramel in the middle. “Ew! I thought so,” she says, letting go of Taehyung’s wrist. “I just saved your life, you know. You can’t cut your hair any shorter, you’d basically be shaving your head.”
Taehyung examines the squashed candy in her palm, with the white wax paper wrinkled and torn around it, then she puts her palm to her mouth and sucks the caramel off, wrapper and all. Some of it sticks to her bottom lip. She’d been trying to manage her candy budget as practice, but now she thinks she should have bought the more expensive ones - these are more chalky than sweet.
“Hey, you should come to the leadership training next week,” she says with her mouth full of caramel to Jimin, who’s busy making full-body gagging motions. “It’s not just for candidates, you know. They give you a meal!”
“I’d rather go to hagwon for the rest of my life,” Jimin replies. “Are we done for today? Lunch is almost over.”
“Yeah, I think so.” Taehyung pulls the wrapper out of her mouth and spits out a missed shred into her palm, then smiles at Jimin with caramel on her front teeth. “Let’s go make some posters before third period.”
Jimin gives her a disgusted look. “Wash your hands first.”
---
The leadership training session takes place in the evening the week before the election. For the usual kind of election candidate, Taehyung supposes, it’s a nice alternative to coming back to school at night to study, but for her it feels weird being on the grounds this late. It’s still February, but they meet outside on the field, gathering around Mr. Lee, the gym teacher, who’s running the training. Taehyung looks over the crowd as he takes attendance. It’s mostly members of the current student government and the other electoral candidates - no one that she knows. She hunches forward in her parka, trying to stay warm.
“Hey, Kim Taehyung!”
“Present,” she says automatically, springing up straight and almost saluting. A few of the others turn and look at her over their shoulders, but not Mr. Lee, who continues taking attendance silently on his clipboard.
“Hey, hey, Kim Taehyung.” She follows the voice to see Hoseok coming up to her, in a black knitted beanie and black parka over her uniform. Taehyung keeps her eyes cast down as she approaches, trying not to let them rest on her legs sticking out from under her coat. “Do you have a partner yet?”
“Partner?” The word makes Taehyung’s stomach drop. She curses Jimin’s absence. “Guess I should find one, huh?”
Hoseok grins and kicks the ground sheepishly. “Well, actually, I was asking because I need one too.”
“Oh? What about...” Taehyung cranes her neck to examine the crowd.
Hoseok turns her head too. “Namjoonie? Oh, he’s got a friend already. Do you know Jung Hunchul-ssi?” She scratches her head, and her hair falls forward over her chest with the movement. “Anyway, who needs him? Girls should stick together, right?”
Taehyung doesn’t think Hoseok wants to know her answer to the question, but she nods. “Yeah, do it. Uh, let’s be partners.”
The partner teams, as it turns out, form the basis for the rest of their activities. With the gym teacher there, Taehyung expects it to be some kind of competition, but it’s surprisingly laid-back. They gather into groups of six and come up with solutions to personal conflicts, or are given a box of materials and a stupid mission like making a certain kind of shape out of them. As a team, she and Hoseok balance each other out on paper: according to their answers for the conflict sheets, Hoseok prefers resolving conflict through compromise and Taehyung prefers making solid decisions, though her decisions are based more on intuition than anything else.
But Hoseok is also just as prone as Taehyung is to taking off in random directions with their given materials rather than working towards their goal. It’s not great news for their team - if this were a competition, they’d be nowhere near winning - but it makes Taehyung feel a little more comfortable, like Hoseok is a little more real, and like she might not be so wrong for the position after all.
Dinner is the usual school cafeteria food, soup and rice, but it’s different eating it at this hour. During dinner, Mr. Lee surprises them with another challenge.
“It’s not an ordinary staring contest,” he says. He holds up a stopwatch. “You’ll be staring at your partner. You can blink, but you can’t look away. The team that can go the longest without looking away wins. The bottom two teams have to do the dishes.” Taehyung glances sideways at Hoseok beside her, and when their gazes meet, her eyes dart away. She chews harder, her face contorting into a grimace around her food.
“Ah, what was that?” Hoseok picks up her left wrist and Taehyung turns and stops chewing, eyes wide, flicking from Hoseok’s hands on her hand to her face. “Do you like washing dishes that much?”
Taehyung swallows, the rice and kimchi a lump as they go down. “No,” she says.
Hoseok takes her hand properly and swivels so that she’s seated sideways on the cafeteria bench. Taehyung does the same, clumsily lifting one leg to copy her position. “Come on, we got this.” She tosses her head to get her bangs out of her eyes. “Do you blink a lot? Because if you do, I’m gonna blink a lot too.”
“I’ll only blink as much as you,” Taehyung replies. She wants to take her hand out of Hoseok’s warm, slightly sweaty grip, but she’d feel more awkward if she did.
“Okay, ready,” says Mr. Lee, and the shuffling around the cafeteria falls into unison. Taehyung closes her eyes and adjusts. She can do this. Hoseok’s hand is hot around hers. “Start!”
Taehyung opens her eyes and Hoseok opens hers wide. They stare at each other for a few moments, not saying anything. The air in the room is tense, as everyone concentrates at the same time. Then Hoseok snorts, once, and brings her free hand up to cover the bottom of her face. She doesn’t break the eye contact, but her eyes curve up in a smile. The corner of Taehyung’s mouth twitches, and then she smiles too, and her body starts to vibrate from holding in her laughter. Hoseok has long eyelashes, and her eyeliner is smudging down into the corners of her eyes. Taehyung wipes at her own eyes with one hand, wondering how her own makeup looks.
Hoseok purses her lips and raises her eyebrows. Taehyung contorts her mouth into a grimace, but their eyes stay locked. Then Hoseok winks and Taehyung’s head turns down on its own, her heart fluttering in her chest. “Ah, dammit,” she breathes. Hoseok laughs, and finally lets go of her hand. Taehyung’s fingers feel cold and clammy by themselves.
“You did a good job,” Hoseok says, as she swings her leg back over the bench. Taehyung grins and pokes at her soup. Out of eight, they place in fifth.
---
On election day, voting takes place in the morning, during first period. Taehyung tugs on Jimin’s sleeve as soon as she gets out of the voting booth. “Let’s just not go back to class,” she says.
“Are you crazy?” whispers Jimin. “You can’t skip! The results are coming out at the end of the day, right?”
Taehyung groans and rolls her head back. “I don’t wanna live through the day.”
Jimin puts her arm around her shoulders as they start walking out of the gym. “Don’t be like this. You made it this far, you know, that’s a lot. And hey, I voted for you, and if you voted for yourself then that makes at least two. That’s two people in the world who trust you with their money!”
Taehyung makes a face at her. “Thanks.”
Outside the gym, the second-years are lining up, getting ready for their turn to vote. Taehyung spots Hoseok right away, but she doesn’t look away fast enough, and Hoseok catches her eye and waves them over excitedly.
“I just wanted to say, good luck,” she says to Taehyung.
“Ah, thank you,” says Jimin, flipping one of her pigtails back over her shoulder. Hoseok laughs and Taehyung sticks her tongue out at her.
“Thank you, sunbaenim,” says Taehyung, “for real.”
“Hey, what’s this ‘sunbaenim’?” Hoseok grins. “If Jiminnie calls me unnie, you can too.”
Taehyung wonders if it’s possible to die of happiness. “Okay, Good luck to you too,” she says. She presses her lips together, then adds, “Unnie.”
As she and Jimin walk back to class, their arms still around each other, Jimin whistles. “You’re still alive and you’re not covered in sweat,” she says. “Impressive, Kim Taetae-nim.”
Taehyung laughs heartily, then stomps on her foot.
She can hardly concentrate all day. Normally when she’s not paying attention in class, it’s because she has something more important to focus on, a new volume of Attack on Titan or a Katalk sticker war with Jungkook. But today, she can’t even distract herself. She just stares out the window at the winter sky, clenching and releasing one hand around the other. When she remembers Hoseok winking at her, she jerks her head to one side in the same way as she had a week ago, as if it’s still too much for her body to handle.
Finally, halfway through their history lesson, the P.A. crackles to life. “Attention, students.” It’s Namjoon’s voice, smooth and smiley. “We’ve counted all the votes - yes, all of them - and I’m pleased to announce your next year’s student council.”
From the desk beside her, Jimin reaches out and over, and Taehyung takes her hand.
“Treasurer,” Namjoon says, “Jung Hoseok.”
Jimin groans, and Taehyung sighs dramatically and rolls her eyes back in her head, but she smiles. A few heads turn in her direction. Jimin gets up and hugs Taehyung. “Ugh, that sucks,” she says.
Taehyung shrugs. “It’s okay,” she says, patting Jimin’s forearm that’s slung across her chest. “I was ready for it.” And it’s true, but she still feels a bit sad anyway.
Jimin has dance club after school. ““Text me when you’re out,” Taehyung tells her at the gym doors, before she starts walking down the hall. They’d planned this a month ago: regardless of whether or not she won, they’d go for food together. She pulls out her phone to text Jungkook the plan.
“Kim Taehyung!” By now Taehyung knows whose voice sounds like that yelling her name, and her grip tightens on her phone. She turns around slowly to see Jung Hoseok jogging out of the gym and up to her.
“Congratulations, treasurer-nim,” she says blankly. Then she holds out her hand. “A well-deserved win,” she adds, sounding a bit more robust. She thinks about how presidential candidates congratulate each other, whether it’s with bows or handshakes. Of course, Hoseok is way prettier than Park Geun-hye.
Hoseok takes her hand. “Thank you.” Her tongue darts out over her lips. “That’s not why I wanted to see you, though.”
She isn’t looking up, and Taehyung frowns and tilts her head, remembering their eye contact exercise. Her hand feels the same way in Hoseok’s now, a little clammy but warm. “Then what is it?”
Hoseok sucks in her cheeks, then looks up, leans forward and plants a kiss on Taehyung’s cheek, quick and hot. Taehyung swears her entire body from her toes to the tips of her hair goes fire-red.
“Kim Taehyung. Um. Do you want to hang out sometime?” Hoseok asks. She seems to realize then that she’s still holding onto Taehyung’s hand, and she drops it suddenly.
It’s all Taehyung can do not to shriek yes, or something equally embarrassing. She rubs the back of her neck, trying to breathe normally. “Sure,” she mumbles. “Actually.” She inhales deeply, remembering her leadership exercises. “We were gonna go out to eat after your dance club, if you want to come. You can ask Jimin where it is...”
“Yeah, that sounds great.” Hoseok looks up with a smile, and Taehyung swears her cheeks are pink, but that could just be the glow radiating off of her. “I’ll see you tonight, then.”
“See you tonight.” They grin at each other for a moment, and then Hoseok turns around and walks back to the gym. Taehyung turns and walks down the hall, and then she jumps in the air and lands on her knees in a victorious pose.
On the bus home, Jimin texts her. Does this make you the first lady treasurer? Taehyung chuckles. In response, she sends Jimin the most obscene sticker she has.