Namjoon stared at Jin, his mouth hanging slightly opened, as all of Jin's younger siblings, Jimin being the exception, turned to stare at him. "I'm sorry, say that again?" Namjoon asked, tilting his ear slightly closer to Jin with a concerned expression.

Jin pouted slightly, looking hurt. "You all don't have to act so surprised, you know," he mumbled, looking down, and Jimin looked up, just noticing the tension in the air, and turned his head back and forth between Jin and the others.

"Why can't Jin have a friend come over to play?" Jimin asked, tilting his head so his hair shifted, and Yoongi turned to look at Jimin.

"Because Jin doesn't have any friends," Yoongi said bluntly. "Never has, never-"

"Yoongi," Namjoon cut in sharply, giving him a look, and Yoongi rolled his eyes, turning away.

"His name is Jooheon," Jin said suddenly, looking up. "He's real."

"Of course he's real, sweetie," Namjoon said, perplexed not only by Jin's last sentence but by the entire situation. "And of course he can come over."

Jin exhaled heavily, looking somewhat relieved although still out of sorts.

To be honest, Namjoon also felt thrown out of whack. Jin had never mentioned a Jooheon before. Had Jin just been quiet about him, or was it a fairly new friendship? Was Jooheon a good kid, or was he messing with Jin somehow? Not that Namjoon didn't think Jin deserved to have friends, just that it was odd that Jin had never once asked to have a friend over, and out of nowhere, Jooheon pops up at the breakfast table.

Was Jooheon being serious in his friendship?

Namjoon hoped so. It was about time that Jin made a friend, a good one. He deserved it.

They all did.

***

Jin waited tensely at lunch for Jooheon to come like he always did. As soon as all the other children left the room, Jin pulled out his lunch but didn't make any move to open the bag, instead sitting with all of his muscles contracted, staring at the door.

When Jooheon entered, he seemed surprised to see Jin expecting him. "Hey. What's up with you today?"

"Can you come over?" Jin asked immediately before realizing that he didn't know how kids typically did this. "To my house, I mean. With me. Today. After school."

Jooheon blinked. "Today?"

Jin nodded, playing with his fingers before splaying them on the desk, trying not to fidget. "My dad said you could come over."

Jooheon shrugged. "I don't know," he said as he sat down lazily in the chair in front of Jin. "It's kind of short notice. I have to ask my dad too."

"They don't believe me," Jin blurted out before quickly covering his mouth, then slowly lowering the hand back down, deciding to just spill everything out. Jooheon had that effect on him. He made Jin just want to tell him everything, all his secrets, all his worries. Because he felt like Jooheon would listen. "About you. They don't think that you're my friend. They don't think you exist."

Jooheon blinked once, twice before pulling out his cell phone and dialing a number. "Hi. Yes I'm in school- Relax, okay? You're at work, aren't you? Shouldn't you be working?" A brief moment as Jooheon smirked at his dad's reply. "I'm going home with a friend today. You can pick me up around..." He looked over at Jin, who hesitated before smiling and throwing up a hand with all the fingers spread. "...five o'clock." Another paused. "Sorry, can you please pick me up around five o'clock?" A sigh from Jooheon as he rolled his eyes. "Yes, I know you're my dad. Yes, I respect you," he said, all the while pulling a Look what I have to put up with for you face at Jin. "Okay. Thanks." He hung up before sticking a thumb up. "Green for go."

Jin smiled brightly. "Thank you, Jooheon."

Jooheon shrugged. "No problem. Thanks for inviting me."

***

Had the car been filled with all of Namjoon's children, Jooheon wouldn't have fit, but since Jimin was home alone, Jooheon got his own seat. Because Jin wanted to sit next to Jooheon, Yoongi got to sit in the passenger seat next to Namjoon and Hobi was relegated to the cramped backseat, where Tae and Jungkook had quickly snatched the outsides, leaving Hobi to take the middle.

The car ride was silent as they all just stared at Jooheon, proof that Jin had a friend, or at least some kid that he could convince to pretend to be his friend for a day. Even Namjoon kept sneaking glances at the boy using the rear view mirror. One time, Jooheon caught his glance, and Namjoon quickly looked back at the road.

To say that Jooheon was the opposite of his expectations would be an understatement.

He'd thought that if Jin had actually managed to produce a friend, it would be some quiet boy with a mousy appearances and glasses, or a sweet boy that was a bit on the clumsy side.

So why did the boy sitting directly behind Namjoon give off a vaguely dangerous, threatening aura? How the heck had he become friends with Jin?

Everybody was dying to know, but nobody was brave enough to ask.

***

When they got home, Jin hesitated, realizing that he probably should have taken care of introductions earlier, but the atmosphere in the car had been so uncomfortable that he'd forgotten.

"Um, this is Yoongi," Jin said, pointing to Yoongi, who squinted at Jooheon. "And that's Hobi." Hobi tilted his head before giving a slight wave. "And those two are Taehyung and Jungkook. They're triplets," Jin said as they all proceeded inside.

Jimin straightened up from where he'd been slouching in a chair at the kitchen table, possibly dozing off. "Jin-hyung! Is that the friend you were talking about?"

"And that's Jimin," Jooheon guessed, and Jin hesitated before nodding, hoping Jooheon wouldn't say anything unnecessary about how he knew who Jimin was.

"Right," Jin said nervously. "He's one of the triplets."

There was a long moment of silence in which Jin was sure that Jooheon was going to spill his secret, but then Jooheon went over and crouched in front of Jimin, giving him an adorable smile, part of his spontaneous aegyo that he sometimes did to confuse Jin. "I'm your hyung's friend, Jooheon. It's nice to meet you, Jimin."

Jimin grinned as Jooheon gave him a high five.

Jin turned to look at his other siblings and dad, who were all staring at Jooheon as though still not believing that he were entirely real, and as Jin shot them a glare, they all scurried off to their rooms, Namjoon going to fit in a short nap before dinner, and Yoongi sending a final speculative look toward Jooheon.

Then Jimin, Jooheon, and Jin were alone.

"I'm going to go to the bathroom," Jin said as he set his backpack down. "Jimin, if Jooheon needs anything, like a snack or something, help him find something, okay? I'll be right back."

"Okay, hyung," Jimin said, looking over at Jin with a soft smile as Jin left the room.

"He talks about you," Jooheon said, settling into a chair adjacent to Jimin and glancing over the worksheet Jimin was working on. "Well, to you, really."

Jimin tilted his head. "What do you mean?"

Jooheon shrugged. "It's like he's talking to himself, only he says he's talking to you. It's probably because of..." Jooheon cut off, hesitant to break into the tough subject. It wasn't that he usually cared about how the words he said affected others, but the boy next to him looked too soft and cute for Jooheon to shatter.

But the boy surpised Jooheon. "Because I was gone, right?" he asked, turning back to his worksheet and looking at the question he had left off on. "Because I wasn't here and he needed me to be here, so he made a new me, only in his mind." Jimin picked up his pencil and rolled his lips inward.

"Yeah," Jooheon said after a minute, watching as Jimin wrote something and circled the answer. "Something like that. How'd you know?"

Jimin shrugged, glancing over at Jooheon. "I heard him talking to himself once when nobody else was around. But then I heard him say my name."

"Does it bother you?" Jooheon asked out of curiosity.

Jimin hesitated, setting the pencil back down and staring at the worksheet like he was expecting the answer to be on there somewhere. "I wish that me being here now would be enough Jimin for Jin-hyung, but I can't hold it against him if that's how he rationalized everything."

"Rationalized is a pretty big word for a little kid," Jooheon said, laughing to lighten up the air, and Jimin's lips quirked upward humorlessly.

"Apparently, I have a high reading level," Jimin said, but he didn't look very happy when he said it, which confused Jooheon, not that he said anything. "Which is fantastic when I'm stuck at home learning by myself and reading lessons from my tutor while everyone else gets to go to school."

"Oh." Jooheon sensed that the boy was struggling to keep himself together, obviously frustrated with himself, but as Jin walked back into the room, Jooheon watched as Jimin sat a little straighter, smoothing out his furrowed brows into a smile at his hyung.

"Have fun with your friend, hyung," Jimin said, sounding so happy that Jooheon almost forgot how bitter Jimin had looked a mere few seconds ago. "I don't want to annoy you guys so I'm going to go play with Tae and Kookie."

"All right, Jiminie," Jin said, ruffling Jimin's hair. "But you're not a bother."

Jimin just smiled sweetly at Jin before hurrying away, taking Jin's secret with him and leaving his own behind with Jooheon.

Jooheon, who now knew both of their secrets.

Jin sat down beside Jooheon, smiling. "So, now you're met everyone. And Jimin," Jin added, as though Jimin deserved a separate category, which Jooheon supposed that he did.

And instead of telling Jin how defeated Jimin had been a minute ago, he just nodded. "Seems like a sweet kid."

He didn't keep Jimin's secret out of some honor code or anything like that. Rather, Jooheon was afraid that if he broke Jin's ideal image of Jimin, the one that he had seen Jimin physically change himself to become once Jin had entered the room, he was afraid that Jin would place even greater belief in the Jimin of his own creation, and Jooheon didn't want that to happen.

Jooheon had a secret, too, only nobody else knew his.

Jooheon wanted to fix Jin.

But if he helped fix Jimin, he would break Jin even more.

Maybe he didn't deserve to choose which one to save.

But maybe he didn't have a choice.