songwriter // pjm

viii. bittersweet

Flashback // High School, Senior Year

You're on our way to meet up with your best friend during both your spares at the library. There, you two would hang out and write songs in the back room. Sometimes, you would read a book from the the nearby shelves while he would warm up his voice.

Although it might feel like a normal day, it's not to you. You feel excited and happy as you take lively strides to the library. Today is the day you were going to tell Jimin how you feel about him. You grabbed a small rose from a nearby vendor for this occasion. You even wrote a song and everything.

(Which he cluelessly helped you with in music last period.)

You enter the library with a smile on your face and it widens once you see Jimin's side profile, his smile visibly seen even from how far you were from him.

But as you walk towards him, your smile starts to fade. He's not alone.

From afar, you stare down your best friend with wide eyes as you hide a small rose behind your back.

Jimin sits with a group of popular kids. Kids you've only seen from afar with Jimin that would mock and shove others down. Kids like Kai that sits behind you in Math flicks erasers at your head and Felix, an exchange student from Australia that you've only seen in the halls being surrounded by the junior girls.

They all sit in the back room with the door wide open, the place that was only known to both of you, where you both could forget about anything and everything together and just drown everything out with music.

Now the magic of that small room seems to fade away in an instant because he's with them.

And you can't possibly confess to him now with them hanging around him. They'd make fun of you.

You had been planning to confess to him for weeks now but you didn't have the courage to do anything. Thankfully, one of your band friends, a senior who's also pretty popular herself but very kind and down to earth named Hwasa, gave you great advice.

"You should just tell him how you feel. You're a great girl and if he can't see that, it's his loss. Just go for it ______ and even if it doesn't work out, your friendship is too strong to break no matter what. But, I'm pretty sure he likes you back."

You sigh, remembering her advice. You couldn't back out this time. You had to just go for it. You take a deep breath and continue your walk towards him, only less lively and more timid.

As you walk, you hear Jimin's soft voice singing and you melt instantly at the sound. You've always adored his singing from the beginning and always pushed him to keep working hard to become a great singer. You've always believed that his enchanting voice could be the one played on the radio constantly.

But why was what he was singing so familiar to you?

The small room erupts into cheers and he jokingly bows, making you giggle softly at his dorkiness. It was something you always liked about him. But suddenly, Jimin turns his head to the window, possibly hearing you. His eyes are quick to search for you but you're quicker, hiding behind the Horror section shelves by the window to keep yourself from being seen.

You take a peek behind the shelves after a little while. The room and Jimin are so close. Maybe you could just wait for the group to leave or just go for it and confess right there. You groan and slump a bit against the shelves.

You start to mentally debate on what you should do but a high pitched voice stops your train of thought.

"Jimin, that sounds so nice!" You hear Yeri, one of the popular girls that always used to glare at you when you're with Jimin, tell him with her sickening sweet tone, gently patting his arm, "Did you write that yourself?"