Chapter Text
Namjoon turns as he slowly wakes up. He feels the weight of someone else on top of him and remembers where he is. He opens his eyes to a dark room, the curtains covering the window. He can see the sun setting through the sliver between the curtains. He wants to open them to wake himself up a bit more, he doesn’t want to hurt the vampire in the same room. He looks down to the man at his chest and sees that the horns are gone, his strawberry blond hair has returned, and his veins aren’t as visible against his pale, pink-tinted skin.
He tries his best to get out of bed without waking Yoongi up. He starts taking in more stimuli from the room and hears the faint sound of a pan sizzling on a stovetop. He turns to the corner he remembers seeing a kitchen and finds the vampire turning off the stove before pouring whatever food he’s making onto a plate.
He tries to sneak his way to the door.
“Leaving without saying goodbye?” Seokjin says, just loud enough to get his attention, but not too loud to wake his sleeping roommate.
“I have to find my room before everyone else wakes up. I’m afraid I’ll spend the entire school year being trampled.” he whispers back. He turns to Yoongi, still sound asleep in his bed, “When he wakes up, tell him he passed out while we were getting chased, and I brought him to his room safely.”
“What is he?” Seokjin asks, and he seems completely unaware of how personal of a question that is.
“We don’t know.” Namjoon answers honestly, “Yoongi doesn’t know anything about Agust D, and we want to keep it that way.”
Seokjin hums as he takes a bite of his food, “You dating this one too?”
“Yeah.” Namjoon answers, “I met Agust D before I met him. After I met Yoongi, Agust D made it very clear to me that I cannot speak about him when Yoongi is around.” he says, “I don’t know why he can’t know about the other, but…”
“I’ll try my best.” Seokjin says, “Can’t guarantee I won’t slip up though.”
Namjoon glances back at the sleeping man before reaching for the doorknob, leaving into the purple-bricked hallway. He takes the time to actually notice the school, not being able to properly take it in before. He hears the click of his shoes against the hardwood floors of the halls, and the plantlife lining the walls, vines going along the bricks and certain plants hanging from pots on the ceiling. He starts to wonder what his room will look like, if Yoongi’s room being influenced by his and Agust D’s interest is any indicator of how the rooms work. He hopes he has a bookcase like Agust D has. Though, it seems like the room didn’t have any idea of what his partners exactly are, since Seokjin’s vampire traits showed in how the room looked, but nothing stood out as an obvious indicator for Yoongi’s side.
He’s grateful that the hallways are cleared due to everyone else still sleeping, but rushes to find his door because he knows that others will be waking up soon as well. He’ll have to get used to school at night, considering how much he thrived in sunlight, maybe it was just his cold-bloodedness that needed the heat, but he’s sure he can find some supplement in the meantime, he’ll get his time in the sunlight during breaks.
He tries door after door, waiting for one to budge open. He finally puts his hand on a door, fortunately near the hallway of Agust D’s room, that seems to let him turn, but won’t open. It’s probably piecing itself together, though maybe his room will take less time than them waiting outside of Yoongi’s, due to that room having to decide for two people.
He is right as it doesn’t take long before he gets the door to his room open. He steps inside and sees a dark room on one side, but the other side lit bright with a large, floor-to-ceiling window with light curtains shining onto a large, king-sized bed with a simple covering. The bed is simple, but the rest of the room isn’t. He sees a dark red couch on the wall opposite of the window, on the wall next to it, a desk with a computer and a keyboard, stuff for him to make music with. Paintings line the walls, all of which he recognizes as paintings he rather liked at the different museums he’s visited. The room recreated paintings? If he ever got the chance to see the Mona Lisa enough to like it, would it have appeared in this room? He steps onto the beige tile with an almost intricate design carved into it. His closet seems to be in the wall, with white sliding doors. On the bedside table, there is a small bonsai tree. Outside of the beige and whites of the floor and closet doors, the rest of the room is a combination of blues, greens, reds and yellows. The walls form created wall-paper on itself with a cloud-like design. But, the most important part, he notices a large bookshelf.
As he makes his way over to the bed, he looks at the opposite side of the room, a little brighter due to the faint sunlight coming in through his window. The wall-paper on the other half of the room is green with vertical, white lines. Their closet is also in the wall, but their doors were regular doors with handles, with it being a two-door system. There is a violin hanging on the wall. The floor on the other side is a dark brown, and it seems to be designed to look like dirt. They have one painting on the wall, right above the bed, which is round, with a fabric border, the actual bed part being sunken in, with an opening on one side of the bed, it looks like a dog bed that is meant for a humanoid. There’s a rug in front of the bed, and the bed is a dark red color, much like his couch. There are a few trees in the room as well, which fascinates Namjoon even more than the kitchen and TV in Seokjin’s room.
It seems that the faint sunlight coming into the room is waking up his roommate, tossing and turning in the bed before they slowly sit up. They rub their eyes with their furry hands, with long, dark nails curling into their palms. They yawn and stretch, showing their sharp teeth.
“What time is it?” his deep voice says with a big of a growl, clearly still tired.
“Almost 6 PM.” Namjoon answers.
The other monster groans as he sits up, stretching a bit more. Namjoon sees two fluffy ears pop up from his curly, dark brown hair. He opens his eyes wider and Namjoon sees a striking yellow glow come from them, with his room still mostly in shadow. Now that side of the room makes more sense, and causes more confusion as he looks back to Yoongi’s room for any signs of what he could be.
It’s when they look at each other for a while that his roommate’s jaw drops and he lunges forward, a strained gasp coming from him. “You’re Rap Monster?” he practically screams.
He sighs, he’s gonna get tired of repeating this, “It’s just Namjoon. Kim Namjoon. I’m retiring that name, I’m not here as a celebrity, I’m here as a student.”
His roommate still stares at him, “Oh, Jungkook is going to freak out!” he starts pacing the room, “They’re gonna lose their mind when they see you!”
“Jungkook?” Jungkook knows who I am? “They’ll be shocked to see me ?” Now it’s his turn to sound starstruck.
“They’re your biggest fan!” his roommate says, “They talk about you all the time!” he reaches his furry hand out, “The name’s Kim Taehyung, or Taehyung Kim, I don’t know, I’m still getting used to having to use my name in Western order.” he says.
Namjoon shakes his hand and makes a mental note of how soft the fur is, but he doesn’t say anything, it would be highly inappropriate.
The conversation is interrupted by a scream. Taehyung covers his ears, clearly being more affected by it with his hypersensitive hearing, and the two look up to see the sound coming from a skull-shaped alarm in their room. The speaker sounds as well.
“Welcome students to the official first day of Monster High!” Headmistress Bloodgood’s voice comes through the speaker, “We have opened the creepateria for breakfast, and we will go through the rest of orientation after everyone has been fed.”
Namjoon looks down at the clothes he slept in, cursing at himself for not changing into his pajamas, though it makes sense, he wasn’t in the clearest mind when he went to sleep. He rushes to his closet, putting away the rest of his clothes from his bag, and quickly changes into new clothes to start the day.
Taehyung does the same, changing into a red sweater over a white flannel. He puts an earring on one of his ears. Meanwhile, Namjoon changes into a green sweater with white accents over a white collared shirt and a tie.
The two leave the room, Namjoon bracing to be chased just like he was yesterday. To his relief, it seems as though everyone is too hungry and tired to notice him. He makes his way through the hallway and stops right in front of Yoongi’s door, telling Taehyung to go on ahead of him.
The door opens and out walks the short man he was hoping to see. He’s wearing a brown blazer over a white button-up shirt with a black tie. He’s wearing a dark blue cap and hoop earrings. He’s wearing the dark green pants that Hoseok hates because they’re a horrible texture, according to him.
“Hobi’s not gonna like your pants.” Namjoon says as the two make their way down the hall together.
“Well, I wanted to wear something nicer for orientation.” Yoongi answers, “Especially since I’ll have to try extra hard to impress everyone around here, I clearly do not belong.”
“Don’t say that. Everyone belongs everywhere.” Namjoon says, though he knows that Yoongi does belong, or at least Agust D does. He looks back to the door, “Is Seokjin not joining us?”
“He’s already eating breakfast.” Yoongi replies, “He says he might as well use that kitchen. If breakfast is too… overstimulating, I might just ask him to make me breakfast every day for the year, eat it in our room instead.”
The students leave the dorm towers and enter the main school area, making their way downstairs and to the main foyer again. They enter the large, two-story room that holds the cafeteria, or the creepateria, as the headmistress called it.
They make their way through the lunchline, or breakfastline together. Once through, they look around to find a place to sit. Luckily, a hand comes up to wave them down, Hoseok sits at a table near one of the windows, with Jimin sitting there as well. The two join them at the table.
“It’s really loud in here,” Yoongi says after eating a few bites, “I don’t think any room is meant to have this many beings in it.”
But Namjoon is distracted by how Jimin is looking at Yoongi, like he’s trying to find something in particular.
“Yoongi,” Jimin says, “do you have any idea why we’re here?” Yoongi hums in response, “don’t you find it weird that we seem to be the only humans here?”
There’s silence across the table.
“You’re human?” Namjoon asks. Yoongi didn’t tell him and Hoseok about that.
Jimin nods, “That’s why I’m so confused.”
“I don’t know either.” Yoongi answers. It pains Namjoon to know and not be able to say anything, but there’s the possibility that informing him could cause more anxiety than him thinking he’s human at a monster school.
“Maybe you both have some monster connection and don’t know it?” Hoseok suggests. Namjoon wonders if it’s obvious to the other two that he’s hiding something, or if it only seems obvious because Namjoon knows as much as he does. At least about Yoongi. Maybe Jimin is completely human, he doesn’t look out of the ordinary in any way.
“My only monster connection is you two.” Yoongi says.
“My mom said she’s friends with Headmistress Bloodgood, but I don’t know if I want to have the answer be some form of nepotism.”
Namjoon stays quiet the entire time. He’s always been quiet in these conversations, he doesn’t know if he truly has the heart or confidence to lie.
Breakfast doesn’t take long, being thirty minutes. The alarm screams again and the announcement calls for everyone to meet in the Clawditorium. They go out to the hallways again and through a door into an area in the center of the school building, an auditorium. Namjoon can’t help but laugh to himself, he wasn’t aware that the school would come up with a bunch of strange names to call their regular school establishments, but it does add to the uniqueness of this experience.
He, Yoongi, Hoseok and Jimin sit next to each other in one of the fewer-back rows. After everyone is seated, Headmistress Bloodgood walks onto the stage.
“Welcome,” she begins, “to the grand opening of Monster High!” There's applause coming from the audience, so Namjoon politely joins in, “This is a great accomplishment. We are glad to be known as the first ever all-monster school.” He can’t help but notice how Yoongi brings his hand up to his mouth, and begins to knaw on his fingernails. Namjoon gently takes hold of his hand and brings it back down. “Now, I will hand the mic off to our student body president, let me introduce Jungkook Jeon.” She bows and extends her arm to the side as she leaves the stage.
Taking her place, is a young monster made of a mix-match of different bodies. They have bolts on the side of their neck that shine with the lights of the stage, their eyes seem to shine as well, in a way that is atypical of an undead type of monster. Their black hair is short, and there seems to be more accessories shining in the light on their face. They appear to be as dressed-up for the first day of school as everyone else, with their red and gold tie and blue button-up shirt, but they’re also wearing a fuzzy hoodie.
“Hello!” they say into the microphone, “I’m Jungkook Jeon, student body president and one of the founders of Monster High!” There’s another round of applause for the monster. “To start off, we will have regular breaks to return home, such as Fall break, Winter break and Spring break. We will also have a dance during this semester, and a big dance at the end of the year.”
Most of the orientation presentation is going through certain events that will happen throughout the school year. Most of it aligns with what high school would be like in the human world, and how the day would be about getting to know the teachers and signing up for extracurriculars.
Leaving the auditorium, each student is given a piece of paper with their locker number on them. Jimin reads their paper to head to locker 13 . They find themselves separating from Yoongi and Hoseok immediately, as Hoseok sighs and reads his locker number as 115 , having to go up to the second floor to get to his locker, and Yoongi moving to the other end of campus to get to locker 93 . Namjoon reaches his locker first, with locker 7 .
As Jimin opens their locker and starts putting in the essentials, and thinking of ways to decorate it as the school year goes on, two other figures approach similar lockers that catch their eye. One has broad shoulders and is wearing a dark red cardigan, and they notice pointed ears poking out of his fluffy, black hair. The other is Jungkook. The mix-match of materials takes a stop one locker away, at locker 15 . Jimin’s breath gets caught in their throat at the simple thought of being just one locker away from the monster they’ve heard so much about the past year.
The vampire, on the other hand, does not look pleased as he opens his locker on the other wall of the hall.
“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me.” he says.
Jungkook turns around the moment they hear him speak, turning at the speed of light to stare at the vampire with wide eyes. They’re a lot more… soft than Jimin thought they’d be, in their features that is.
Jungkook seems just as annoyed as the other monster on the other side of the hall, “Just my luck.” they say.
“Perhaps Headmistress Bloodgood did this on purpose, force us to be around each other more than we already have to be.” The vampire says, arms crossed across his chest.
Jimin tries their best to ignore the bickering happening between the two monsters as they finish setting up their locker, taking their bag and sneaking their way between the two and down the hall, on their way to the grand foyer again to see the clubs and extracurricular activities available, and to get to know their schedule and meet their future teachers.
They pass through the different booths providing information about the after school activities. They don’t find any of the sports teams interesting, they’ve never been much of a sports person anyway. The most they did was taekwondo, but they don’t see any booths for any sort of martial arts clubs. They are a little tempted by the cheerleading team, or the fearleading team, as the banner of their table reads.
There also aren't any extracurriculars that catch their eye too. That is, until they walk past a table with a werewolf standing behind it, one that Jimin can’t decipher the human-school equivalent for, which does interest them. They pause in front of a table reading the Ghoul-Wraith Alliance and look at the pamphlets on the table.
“Hello!” the werewolf greets them, “I’m Taehyung, he/they/vim!” vi reaches out vir furry hand for Jimin to shake, which they do, “Jungkook should be here any moment to answer any of your questions, but they’re the one who came up with this club.”
“What is it, exactly?” Jimin asks, trying to sound as genuinely curious as possible instead of possibly passive aggressive, as they pick up a pamphlet and open it up. Though, the pamphlet seems to answer their question anyway.
“The Ghoul-Wraith Alliance, a safe space for queer peers and monsters of all kinds to chat and interact.”
“Oh!” it hits them, “Like the gay-straight alliance ! Alright, now I get it.” they chuckle lightly to themselves, “Well, it’s nice to know we have something like this here. When and where exactly do you all meet?”
“Those are questions for Kookie!” Taehyung laughs, “Where the hell are they?” they whisper, a slight growl in their voice.
“My locker is right next to theirs.” Jimin replies, “They were fighting with a tall vampire when I made my way over here.”
Taehyung sighs, “My father most definitely put their lockers close to each other just to see what would happen.” he says as he bites on his chipped claws, “Well, Jungkook likes Fridays, so I’m gonna take a guess that we’re meeting on Fridays.”
“I’d like to join.” Jimin says with a smile, “I’m Jimin, I’m genderfluid. At this moment, I use they/them.”
Taehyung smiles, showing his sharp canines, “I’m agender.”
The crowd gets quieter, so Jimin turns their head to see Jungkook making their way to the table. They make eye-contact and the monster smiles at them, picking up the pace and taking a stop right behind the table, next to Taehyung.
“Hello!” They say, “Sorry I’m late, thanks for helping me out, Tae.” they say to the werewolf, then turn their attention back to Jimin.
“They were just wondering when we’re meeting up.” Taehyung says, gesturing to Jimin.
“Fridays, at 5 AM.” Jungkook responds, “Glad to know that we’re gonna be getting some monsters in this club.”
Jimin tries not to let their uneasiness show in their behavior, keeping a smile on their face as they nod, “Yeah, yeah… we had a GSA at my old school, but I didn’t really feel safe enough to join it.”
Jungkook keeps a smile on their face as well, “I was excited when I learned this was a thing! I knew I needed to start one here.”
“My old, human school didn’t have one.” Taehyung says.
Another pair of footsteps approach, and Jimin sees Jungkook’s smile falter as they glare at the being approaching. Jimin turns to see the same vampire they saw before making his way to the table as well.
“Are you following me?”
“Don’t be so full of yourself, but I know that a world outside of yourself is hard to fathom when you’ve only been alive for a year.” The vampire responds, “I’m just here for the gay club.”
“You’re not invited.”
“Oh, so a gay man isn’t allowed in your gay club just because you don’t like him? How inclusive.”
Jungkook grumbles in response, “Fine.” they shove a pamphlet into his hands, “We meet on Fridays at 5 AM. Now, go.”
The vampire rolls his eyes, “You’re such a pouty baby.”
“I could say the same about you.”
“Alright, enough.” Taehyung stands up from vir chair, “I don’t wanna deal with this for the next three years, so either work it out or stop talking.”
“I’ll be happy to.” the vampire says, “When they apologize.”
“Why should I apologize? I didn’t do anything to you!” Jungkook argues.
As the conversation gets more and more heated, Jimin finds themselves subconsciously backing away. It isn’t until they bump into someone that they notice that they’ve been doing so. They profusely apologize to the monster they just bumped into as they make their way through the crowd and away from the increasingly explosive confrontation.
They simply make their way to the staircase and up to Headmistress Bloodgood’s office to receive their schedule for the school year. They see the line reading to the office and wait, taking in their surroundings of the pinkish bricks making up the walls, with the more purple bricks on the lower third of the wall, the pillars with green scales on them, and lean forward a little bit to see the lower floor over the purple barricades of the second-floor hallway into the foyer. They didn’t expect the school to look exactly like this, an almost normal school building with small altercations. They take a second to look up as well, looking into the night sky through the windows on the ceiling of the foyer. They pull at the sleeves of the dark green cardigan they wrapped around their shoulders, their nerves on how to face Headmistress Bloodgood and debating whether or not to tell her that she has made a mistake, that they don’t belong there.
When they finally reach the door, they’re called inside, entering the room while a skeleton leaves. They try not to let themselves stare at the monster for too long, not wanting to make their human-ness obvious to those behind him.
They stand up straight the moment the door closes behind them, too scared to walk further into the office. Headmistress Bloodgood’s body turns in her chair while her head sits on her desk, her arms calling for Jimin to walk further into the room.
“Come on in, Mr. Park, I don’t bite.” she says, then her eyes glance to the other side of the room, “She might though.”
Jimin turns their attention to a large, blue horse laying down on the floor near the windows. They take a deep breath and step further into the room, they feel as though they aren’t breathing.
Bloodgood slides a piece of paper across her desk and expects Jimin to pick it up, which they do. They look and see that they have been given their schedule throughout the rest of the school year.
First Period: Clawculus. Second period: Dance. Third period: Clawstronomy. Fourth period: Choir. Fifth period: Psychology. Sixth period: Phys-ick. Seventh period: Oceanography. Eighth period: Study Howl.
“I’m glad to know you’ll be joining us, your mother has said nothing but kind words about you.” Bloodgood says.
The words, “You made a mistake.” get caught in Jimin’s throat. They simply nod in response instead. “Thank you, ma’am.” they stutter out.
Bloodgood smiles, “I hope you have a good time here, looking at your past records, I’d say you could get a spot in our Student Council if you wish to. You show a lot of promise.”
The smile on Jimin’s face feels forced, but it must be misread as genuine when Bloodgood waves them off, and tells them to get to know the building and their future teachers.
Hoseok takes a step inside the classroom that will hold his first period, which is a music class. He feels at home seeing the instruments lining the walls, along with the computers connected to some speakers, and a few amps in another corner. He looks towards the white board at the front of the class and sees a taller man in a dark cape, a mask covering half of his face. There is a sense of relaxation throughout his body, seeing another monster that still feels the need to hide their features, even when they have been liberated and can be themselves in public.
He is about to leave and head out to feel out his next class, dread filling his stomach at the thought of it, but two figures walking into the room distract him long enough, and gives him another way to procrastinate figuring out his next class.
“Yoongi, Joonie!” he runs over to bring the two of them into a hug, “You’ll be in this class too? Thank goodness, I’d feel lonely.”
“Yeah, this is our second period.” Namjoon responds.
Hoseok frowns, “Oh, this is my first…” so he will feel lonely.
As he looks to Yoongi, who looks away from him the moment their eyes meet, though he looks sad about something as well, possibly the same thing. He notices the strange blinking that he tends to do from time to time, and then he wordlessly moves to one of the pianos in the room. He closes his eyes and begins to play.
It always fascinated him. How he can just drop everything, like he has a hypnotic draw to any piano that enters his line of sight, and play so effortlessly. It seems like everyone else in the room feels the same, as their other peers have stopped their conversations to turn their attention to the music being played. Both Hoseok and Namjoon move further into the room, getting closer to their boyfriend, who is so entranced by the piano that he doesn’t notice them getting closer.
Once he finishes his go-to melody he always plays on the piano when he has nothing else to play, applause comes from all sides of the room. It seems to snap him back to reality as he looks around at his peers. He politely nods his head in a slight bow. Hoseok does find it strange, as he looks to the teacher, that he is the only one to not clap.
“Beautiful, as always.” Namjoon smiles.
“And the song was nice too.” Hoseok chuckles to himself, proud to see the pink tint appear on Yoongi’s cheeks at the comment.
“Shut up.” he says as he scratches behind his ear.
He notices the teacher making his way to where they are, “Quite a beautiful melody there, young man.” he says.
“Thank you, sir, I wrote it myself a while ago.” Yoongi responds.
“Interesting,” he says, “I swear I’ve heard that melody somewhere before, deep in the woods of Scotland, years ago…”
Hoseok freezes.
“I’ve never been to Scotland.” Yoongi replies, “It doesn’t seem entirely impossible that other people have come up with similar arrangements…”
“Yeah,” Hoseok cuts in, “I knew a pianist back in Scotland, and he had a similar style.” He can’t have Yoongi finding out, at least not this way.
“I didn’t know you’ve been to Scotland before.” Yoongi says. Shit.
He decides to laugh the comment off, “Yeah, I was nine, I don’t remember most of it…”
“Nine years old…” the teacher whispers, “how horrid.” not loud enough for the others, but enough for Hoseok to know what he means, and he knows that the teacher knows exactly what he was in Scotland for.
“Yoongi is a very talented pianist, and quite skilled with the guitar and drums, as well.” Hoseok tries his best to change the subject away to what was on the teacher’s mind.
“May I get a last name, Yoongi?”
“Min, Yoongi Min.” he answers.
Finally, the teacher’s shoulders relax. Hoseok doesn’t quite get why he needed to know his last name, but his answer seems to have eased his nerves.
“I’m the Phantom of the Opera, teacher of this class.” His mask starts making sense to Hoseok, then his mind goes to the worst case scenario as he processes how he seems to know a certain area hidden in the forests of Scotland.
As the teacher walks away, welcoming the three of them as his new students, Namjoon turns to Hoseok, “What was that about?”
Hoseok hums in response, still trying his best to keep his composure, “There was a big riot in Scotland back in the day, one of the first signs of the revolution.” he decides to tell them.
“And you were there?”
He nods, “I lived with my aunt and uncle in Scotland for a while.” He keeps a smile on his face, “I don’t remember most of it, though.” He looks down at his schedule, “Well, I should probably see what my second period is all about, I’ll, uh… see you two at lunch?”
There’s an awkward tension in the air as he leaves the room. He’s never had to lie that intensively to either of them before, but it’s for their own good, and a bit for his own as well. Knowing that one of his teachers was a victim of that same mad man who took him will make it harder for him to continue pretending that it never happened…
It feels as though his body is moving on autopilot as he makes his way to the other side of campus, entering a large room with one floor-to-ceiling mirror and a bar on said mirror. The room still has the purple colors of the rest of the building, but the floors are made of wood instead of linoleum. He tries not to look at his reflection in the mirror.
“Hey, Hobi.” a voice breaks him out of his blank state as he turns to where he heard it. Jimin stands up from being kneeled over, tying a change of shoes as he notices the pair of sneakers that are no longer on his feet, “I guess I’ll get to see this Hope on the Streets in action after all.” he says with a smile.
“I told you, I don’t dance anymore.” Hoseok responds, “I tried to ask Headmistress Bloodgood to change my schedule, but I don’t think she listened…”
“Oh, come on,” Jimin rolls their eyes, “I’m sure these folks would be the last to judge you if you’re a little rusty.”
“That’s not what I’m worried about.”
Jimin turns to the mirror and walks onto the dance floor, “Maybe you just need some inspiration.” they say before their feet begin to move.
It’s a very different style than what Hoseok used to do, their body moves a lot more fluidly, not being popped into place like what he usually does. It looks like their feet barely touch the ground, like they’re moving in the air. This is the second time Hoseok notices everyone stop to admire one of their peers as they perform, and Jimin seems just as oblivious towards it as Yoongi did.
Once they stop moving, catching their breath, they finally notice how everyone has stopped to watch them. A more mellow and polite applause takes over the room and Jimin bows, a lot more dramatically than Yoongi did. Their shoulders seemingly touch their thighs as they bend the upper half of their body down, one arm outstretched. It’s clear that they are rather confident in their skill.
“Well, show me what you’ve got.” Jimin teasingly challenges Hoseok, still sounding a little out of breath.
Before Hoseok can think through taking Jimin up on their challenge, he finds his body moving towards the dance floor as his bag drops off his shoulders. His movements are a little more erratic, but mostly due to his own surprise at his body moving without him wanting it to. As his brain catches up to his body, he starts taking more control, making his body move more aligned to actual choreography. He hasn’t danced in so long, and the smile on Jimin’s face when he finally catches it in the mirror he’s been avoiding makes him forget why he stopped.
“‘I don’t dance anymore.’” Jimin mocks his voice. He doesn’t know how they convinced him to.
Seokjin leaves the gymnasium as soon as he enters. The moment he catches the ugly mix-match of body parts, he turns on his heels. He knows where the gym is. He’s seen inside of it. He doesn’t even know why he’s being forced to go through the same orientation as the rest of the student body, he was involved in the creation of the school, he already knows everything about it.
Though, his avoidance is in vain as the speakers screech, with an announcement from Headmistress Bloodgood about gathering back into the creepateria for lunch. He groans, knowing that the doors wouldn’t let him back into his room to eat, being forced to eat with everyone else.
He thinks he may have some peace, as long as he can sit alone, but once he gets his tray full, he notices that no table is left empty. There is, however, a hand waving him down. A hand that reflects the fluorescent lights on the ceiling. He knows he can’t pretend to not notice, he knows that walking away would be ruder than approaching them.
All hope of peace is gone completely when he sees that the monster sitting next to Namjoon is the same one from the previous day. It’s a shame, he actually found himself liking Yoongi a lot more, even if Agust D looks more obviously monstrous.
Either way, he sits down across the table from the two of them.
“How has today been for you?” Namjoon tries to strike up a conversation.
“I share a bunch of classes with my arch nemesis and my locker is right across from them.” Seokjin answers.
The conversation is interrupted by two more monsters sitting down at the table, one Seokjin recognizes being near his locker earlier, the other he simply recognizes because it’s impossible to not know where someone gets a head full of snakes.
“You know they make special Gorgon contacts now, right?” Seokjin says, pointing at the monster’s sunglasses.
“They do?” he says, sounding like he’s caught off-guard, “Where can I find them?”
“I’ll see what I can do, if you want ‘em. They’re a rare and expensive item.” Seokjin says, “My dad’s a powerful figure, I’m sure he can get some for me if I ask.”
“Is Jungkook’s father powerful as well?” the smaller, paler one asks, “I’m only asking because you two seem to really not like each other.”
Seokjin rolls his eyes, “Jungkook’s ‘father’ is a dumb human who accidentally cursed himself with immortality in a failed science experiment. If you ask me, Jungkook is just another experiment to add to his list of failures. But yes, unfortunately, Dr. Frankenstein is a powerful figure as well. I’m honestly shocked that the Monster Parent Association still lets him hang around with us, considering both of his monsters have caused some sort of trouble with the human world.” He points to himself, “Mine, on the other hand, deserves to be a part MPA. Dracula, maybe you’ve heard of him.”
“Yeah, I heard he killed innocent people for nutrients.” Agust D says, voice full of snark and a smartass smirk on their face.
“Oh, yeah, and what exactly did your father do to gain such a reputation?” He’s about to say, ‘That’s right, no one knows who your father is,’ but he stops himself when he notices the dark and intense frown appearing on the demon’s face.
He hears one of the snakes on the Gorgon’s head hiss at him, reaching out in an attempt to bite him, but unable to due to the distance between them.
“Hey, if you can’t take, then don’t dish, alright?” Seokjin says. He can tell that Agust D is biting back the urge to say something more, with their fist tight and bottom lip bruising between their sharper than average teeth. Even with finding new details in their appearance, Seokjin still can’t quite determine what the monster is.
The Gorgon glances down and sees the schedule for the monster next to him, “Why would they put Yoongi in Mad Science, Monster History and Monster Anatomy? He’s too squeamish.”
“What about Yoongi?” the human-passing one speaks up.
Agust D whips his head around, squinting at the guy until his eyes relax, “Jimin?” he eyes him up and down, “Wow, you’re prettier in person.”
“Thank you?” he responds, “Do I know you?”
“Agust D,” they reach their hand out, “I know we haven’t met formally, but I know a lot about you through your messages with Yoongi.”
Jimin’s mouth hangs open, but doesn’t shake his hand, “You’re the one who beat up a man with chopsticks…”
Agust D’s hand drops and they look to the Gorgon, “You told him about that?”
“I didn’t tell them every detail.” he tries to defend himself, “You sit in a room alone with them and then tell me you didn’t infodump, they’ve just got that aura.”
Jimin waves, “Yeah, uh, Hoseok told me about the three-- er, four of you… He, he didn’t mean to, it just slipped out that you’re all dating--”
“Except for Yoongi and Agust D.” Hoseok interrupted.
“Right, except for Yoongi and Agust D… ‘for obvious reasons’ that were never given to me.”
Seokjin is about to speak, but is cut off when the bell screams again and everyone clears out of the creepateria. Fortunately, Seokjin does get a break as he walks to where the skullinary arts class is.
Taehyung walks into a rather small room with a stair-like stage leading to an elevated part of the room. There is a piano in one of the corners of the room, and there’s purple panels on the walls to better soundproof it. They know that they are falling a bit behind on checking out their classrooms throughout this first day, just catching their fourth period after lunch has ended, but they were also part of the founding members, so they don't feel like they are missing anything that they don't already know.
The teacher catches vir eye, with her dark reddish-purple hair and soft skin. The feathers poking out from behind her ears, and the scales on her arms and legs make her identifiable as a modern-day siren. It makes sense that a siren would be hired as the choir teacher.
Although, their attention on her causes them to bump into another classmate as they enter the classroom. Taehyung recognizes their short, black hair and fair skin right away.
“Oh, hey, Jimin, right?” Taehyung greets.
“Oh, yeah, uh… Taehyung! That’s right.” Jimin greets him back with a smile. “Yeah, this is my fourth period… I’m falling a little behind on my orientation.” they let out an awkward laugh.
Taehyung laughs in response, “Mine too, and so am I.” they elbow Jimin and point to the teacher, “Nice of them to give us a siren as our teacher, huh?”
“That’s a siren?” Jimin whispers, but Taehyung isn’t sure if it was rhetorical or not, or if they were supposed to hear them, “I just… I thought they were mermaids.” they say when they notice Taehyung looking at them, seemingly knowing that they heard them with their sensitive hearing.
“Well, there’s two different types of sirens, though most of them have blended into some combination over the years. Multicultural relations and all.” They keep a smile on their face, even if they feel a tinge of generational envy towards the sirens for them mixing by choice rather than what happened to their ancestors.
Their teacher turns to greet more students as they come in through the classroom doors, but he notices her smile drop when she spots the two of them. She tries to build her smile back up as she approaches them.
“Taehyung, I presume?” she asks.
Vi fears that vi may be in trouble for some reason, but vi still nods and answers, “That’s me.”
“Ah, your father has told me a lot about you.” they are definitely in trouble, “Said I should keep my eye on you.” They are certain he said that to all of their teachers. She then turns her attention to Jimin, “And you are?”
“Jimin Park,” they answer, “I, uh… I’m glad to be here. I was part of my old school’s choir, but I don’t know if I can keep up with a siren like I did with my last coach.” they say with an awkwardly wide smile on their face.
“Oh, nonsense, I’m sure you’ll impress me.” she says, “It’s not healthy to hold yourself up to standards that high.”
“Of course, ma’am.” Jimin nods.
“It’s Miss Choi,” she introduces herself, “I hope you two enjoy your time here, though there’s probably going to be a learning curve for all of us.”
Taehyung chuckles, “And a learning curve for you to make it clear when you’re using your powers or not.”
“I suppose you’re right,” she keeps the smile on her face, “I wouldn’t want to forcibly push someone to do something they aren’t comfortable with. I’ll have to be careful with my wording.”
Taehyung says their goodbyes to Miss Choi and Jimin as they head to their next few classes, with their fifth period being another music-centered class. It’s a general music class, and they recognize the Phantom of the Opera as their teacher, someone also close to their father. They feel his eyes on him throughout the entire ten minutes they spend in the classroom, but the stare makes them rush through the class orientation as quickly as possible to get out of the room.
Jungkook stares wide-eyed at the diagram of a body hung up against the wall of the Monster Anatomy class. Outside of the art, music and physical deaducation classes, they are also looking forward to this class, and not just because their father is the teacher. Their father already promised them that they would not play favorites when judging the work of his students, but there’s a part of them that knows that’s a lie. Though, they have been built with a lie detector ability, so it wasn’t hard to deduce that he was lying to them.
They turn and accidentally bump into a smaller monster as they enter the room. Their hand drops onto the floor and they end up bonking heads with theirs when they lean down to try and pick their hand back up.
“Oh, my ghoul, I’m so sorry.” they laugh, bending down again and actually catching their hand this time, sticking it back onto their wrist.
“‘My ghoul?’” the demon responds, or at least Jungkook thinks they’re a demon, they do have long horns and black eyes.
“Yeah, I’m trying to get it to catch on.” Jungkook responds.
“Good luck with that.” they respond, then their one white pupil eyes them up and down, “You’re Jungkook, aren’t you?”
“Did you miss the meeting in the Clawditorium?” Jungkook responds.
“Yeah… I guess I did.” They continue walking into the room, stopping at the diagram, “Hm, that’s another one of your father’s creations, isn’t it?”
Jungkook nods, “Yup, he’s gonna be teaching this class so, he wanted to use one of his tests as an anatomy example.”
“Wait, what?” they say so quickly that Jungkook almost doesn’t catch it.
The sound of their father’s boots hitting the ground rushes over as he stands between him and the demon. Before they can speak though, their father quickly grabs the wrist of the other monster and starts dragging them away. Jungkook takes a step to follow them, but their father turns towards them and says, “Do not follow us.”
So Jungkook stops in their tracks and watches as he drags the demon-like monster into the supply closet, and they can hear him lock the door to it once it closes with them inside. They’re curious to know what they’re talking about on the other side, why their father was in such a rush. So they wait outside.
When the door opens again, the two step out, their father looking more relaxed than he was when he pulled the student in.
Jungkook is about to ask about what happened, but the demon walks to the other side of the room to inspect more of the diagrams hanging on the wall. When they turn back to ask their father, they see that he’s gone too.
So, instead, he approaches the demon again. “Do you know my father?”
He jumps a little bit, and Jungkook notices a bit of the veins on his neck becoming clearer before turning to pitch black again. “Oh, uh, yeah… my father used to work with him.” he answers, “Things didn’t really work out, they had widely different ethics…”
“Really? Who’s your father?” Jungkook asks, “Maybe I know him too.”
“There’s no way you could.” he responds, “My father died before you were created.”
“Oh, I’m sorry…”
“Don’t be, he deserved it.” he looks at Jungkook a few more times before saying, “The name’s Agust D.”
“That’s an interesting name.” Jungkook smiles, “Does the D stand for something?”
“No, at least I don’t think it does.” Agust D responds.
“Oh, okay.” Jungkook turns towards the door of the classroom, “I should go check out my last period. I’ll be seeing you around then, Agust D?”
“Is this your second-to-last period?”
“Yes.”
“Then, we’ll be in this class together.” Agust D smiles in return, but it appears smug and his tone doesn’t sound genuine. Jungkook guesses it’s just his general attitude, and tells themselves to not take it so personally. He’s probably a nice guy under the surface.
So they leave the room and head upstairs. They walk to the far end of the building, to a classroom they know lead to the main balcony of the school for the clawstronomy class. They walk into a room with floor-to-ceiling windows and a glass door making up one of the walls to the outside. They stare, eyes wide at the starry sky outside, mesmerized by the bright dots taking up the sky beyond the tips of the forest.
“It’s beautiful, huh?” a deep and oddly familiar voice comes up from behind them, “Living in the city for so long, I almost forgot what the sky could look like when out in nature.”
Jungkook smiles in agreement, “In my two years of being alive, I haven’t seen it so bright.” he turns to the voice and freezes immediately. Behind them stands a tall, humanoid dragon wearing a comfortable sweater and dimples showing on his face. They can’t breathe, they’ve never experienced an issue with their lungs before, they’ll have to talk to their father about repairing their lungs if they can’t intake enough air inside. But they don’t understand why they’ve froze.
The dragon must have noticed as well, “Jungkook, are you okay?” he asks.
“Ra… Ra…” they’re trying to say the name they know the dragon as.
“Oh, right, it’s Namjoon.” he introduces himself with his real name, “Taehyung did tell me that you would freak out when you see me…” he laughs and covers the bottom half of his face with his hand.
“Y-You, Taehyung, Tae, Tae spoke with you.” they manage to stutter out.
“We’re roommates.” Namjoon answers.
Jungkook tries to even their breathing, “You, you’re attending?”
“Yeah,” Namjoon answers, “I’m trying to live a normal teenage life…” he explains, “So, I’m just going by Namjoon Kim now.”
“Okay, okay, Namjoon.” Jungkook repeats the name in their attempt to memorize it and prioritize it over the name they knew before. “I’m, I’m a huge fan!” they blurt out, “I-I watched one of your shows and I was, I was… enamored, I, I just, I…” they try to steady their breaths, “Sorry, sorry, I’m not usually like this. There must be something wrong, I, I should talk to my father…”
“You’re nervous,” Namjoon grins, showing off his sharp canines, “but you’re nervous about me ? You’re a hero!”
“So are you!” Jungkook responds, “The first openly monstrous musician, how can I not be nervous around you?”
“I wasn’t alone…” Namjoon covers his mouth again, turning his head into his palm, but Jungkook can pick up on the dimple giving away his smile.
“Right, right, there were others like…” they pause, their brain processing the classmate from the previous class, “ That’s why he looked familiar!” they pace the room, “At least I’m not alone in having my arch rival at this school with me, you’ve got yours here too! We can team up, take them both down!”
“I’m not following.” Namjoon’s smile stays, but the crease in his eyebrow makes it clear to Jungkook that he is confused about something, “I don’t have any arch rivals.”
“Yeah, you do! Gloss, that demon who always antagonized you!” They smile, “At least I know his real name now.”
“You’ve met him?”
“We’re in Monster Anatomy together.” Jungkook answers.
Namjoon nods, “Well, please, don’t try to antagonize them on my behalf.” he steps closer, “Promise me, you will not try to fight them.”
“I can’t make that promise.” Jungkook says, “I will defend your honor if he tries anything, but only if he strikes first, is that a compromise?”
Namjoon’s face scrunches up before his body relaxes, the fur on the end of his tail hitting the ground. “Fine, I’ll just have to make sure he doesn’t start anything with you.” Jungkook finds it hard to believe that Namjoon could convince Agust D to not do anything any more than they could probably convince Seokjin to do anything. “But, one more thing.” Namjoon puts his pointer finger up, “He’s not a demon. He doesn’t like being called that.”
Taehyung finally gets to the classroom for his seventh, and final, period, Monster History. Vi knows vir father put vim in this class to keep vim educated, but vi isn’t much of a history buff. But, then again, vi isn’t great at science either, but it seems that vi will be sharing that class with Jimin as well, and vi’s already grown to like them, so maybe a good classmate will make this class enjoyable.
As they scan the bookshelf, looking for anything that could catch their interest, they quickly give up. There is a book written by Doctor Frankenstein about the Mass Experimentations called How a Man Split in Two , but despite being close to the human that wrote it, they feel even more nervous about attending this class, knowing they will have a unit on what left their wolf form with a strangely-colored scar.
Speaking of the Doctor, he walks into the classroom with another student behind him, one that looks very familiar from a distance, but their horns and skin don’t ring a bell for them. Though, it seems like the monster must recognize them from somewhere too, since the moment they look at them, they look away as quickly as possible.
So, vi decides to approach them.
But the Doctor leaves the room before he gets the chance to notice Taehyung walking over. As he gets closer, more of the other monster’s features look familiar, the shape of his face, the shape of his nose, the shape of his eyes, but his eyes don’t look familiar. He’s never seen a monster with his one pitch black eye and one eye with a white pupil.
“I’m sorry, have we met before?” Taehyung asks.
The monster quints before leaning back again with a sigh, “No, I don’t think we have. You just look like someone, I had to do a double take, considering that someone is human.”
“Oh! Okay, because you look vaguely familiar to me too, but maybe you just look like someone I used to know.”
“Yeah…” he does hold out his hand, “Agust D.”
“Taehyung, he/they/vim.” they respond by shaking his hand, “You?”
“Right, whatever is fine.” Agust D shrugs, “I’ve never really cared.”
“Alright!” Taehyung says, “You know Doctor Frankenstein?” they ask as the two walk further into the classroom together.
“Old family friend.” Agust D answers, “Do you know him?”
“I’m friends with Jungkook.” Taehyung answers.
“Ah…” Agust D hums in response, “Y’know, they were a lot more awkward than I thought they’d be.”
Taehyung chuckles, “Well, they don’t have that much pressure on them now as they did before, they can finally let their vulnerability show to others.”
“Must be a nice feeling.” Agust D whispers to himself, but his lack of eye contact and his low voice shows that Taehyung wasn’t supposed to hear him. Unfortunately, a werewolf’s ears are hypersensitive, even when not fully transformed.
The bell screams again, and the intercom calls for students to either return to their dorms, or get acquainted with any extra curricular they are interested in. Taehyung rushes out of the room, almost forgetting to politely say goodbye to Agust D before leaving, in order to reach the Monster Anatomy classroom, where Jungkook has designated the GWA clubroom.
When Yoongi opens his eyes, he’s in a shower stall in the locker room, already changed into gym clothes. The day has gone by in a blur, and he’s not quite sure where he’s supposed to go next. By instinct, he knows to take his phone out of his bag, and sees the time, coming to the conclusion that he must be nearing tryouts for the Casketball team, as the brochures in the main foyer called it.
He finds a door that leads out of the locker room, walking onto the outdoor Casketball field. There’s only one being in the bleachers that he recognizes, his dark scales reflecting the moonlight. He jogs his way over to where he’s seated.
“Hey, Hobi’s busy with the tryouts for the tennis team.” Namjoon says, “But he wishes you luck!”
“I wish him the same.” Yoongi responds.
“And after you’re both done, Jungkook told me about this school’s version of a GSA. I figured we could join it.” he holds his hand out, and Yoongi takes hold of it without thinking.
When he does realize what he did, he says, “Yeah, yeah, that sounds… fun.” he isn’t exactly sure it will be fun. He’s never been openly with Namjoon or Hoseok, the idea of everyone knowing is a little frightening.
The tryouts go well, and Yoongi does make the team, even if his mind was elsewhere during most of the match. He looks up to the bleachers as he collects his things, seeing Hoseok approach Namjoon, sweating a bit himself from his own adventure.
The two look at Yoongi and motion for him to follow them. Hesitantly, he does. As they walk down the hall together, he feels scaled hands reach for both of his, one on each side, but he puts his hand in his pant’s pockets and looks to the floor. He isn’t ready for this. Everyone will be staring at them, he’ll already have enough attention with him being human, this will only give his classmates more cannon fodder.
“Wait,” he stops in the hall, “I just… I forgot my phone in the locker room! Go ahead without me, I’ll catch up.” he lies. He almost goes back on his word when he sees Hoseok’s frown, but he turns around before he can change his mind.
When he turns the corner, out of sight of them, he stops walking. He clutches the fabric of his shirt, back leaning against the wall, and tries to steady his breathing. The burning sensation across his arms starts to dissipate as he focuses on counting the numbers on the lockers. He mimics the movement of putting in his own locker combination to ground himself more into the environment of the hallway.
He peeks his head around the corner, and sees that Hoseok and Namjoon did go on without him. The sharp pain in his heart returns, he should be in there with them. He’s letting them down.
Despite his body desperately not wanting to move, he uses the strength he has to force his legs to step forward, continuing down the hall. On their walk, he recalls Namjoon saying it’s in the Monster Anatomy classroom. Doesn’t he have Monster Anatomy on his schedule? Why can’t he remember where the classroom is? He doesn’t even remember checking out that class.
Though, it seems like his mind subconsciously remembered where to go, because he stands right outside a door with a plaque labeled “Boology/Mad Science/Monster Anatomy.” Through the barred window, he can see a group of students inside, and he catches Namjoon and Hoseok. Their arms are wrapped around each other and they’re laughing together.
That’s what stops him from reaching for the door handle. He isn’t ready for that kind of public display. Not yet. So he turns around and heads back to the dormitory.