Chapter Text
Jungkook already knew that he was screwed. He decided to take on another year of his teaching assistant job – in which he taught the class History of Supernatural Folklore, a class that he knew was more or less perceived as a joke but one that he cared for deeply.
Even if most of the professors and students—and his paycheque as well—didn’t pay it much mind.
“Your classes start in a week. You all should have received your first teaching lessons in your individual course meetings. A reminder to stay on top of your studies as well as your grading,” professor Lee, the professor in charge of the teaching assistant’s explained during their final university-wide meeting. “If you have any questions or concerns, or if you start to feel overwhelmed, don’t hesitate to contact me or our Head TA. Our contact information is addressed in the email you all received this morning. Thank you for your time.”
Grabbing his bag and tossing it over his shoulder, Jungkook let out a shaky, nervous breath. The meeting, although mandatory and important, ran overtime.
He clutched the strap of his bag tightly as he made his way out of the lecture hall, hurrying down the steps to get to his second job in time.
Even if he enjoyed being a TA, it was time-consuming and burdensome.
Being a TA didn’t make him nervous,, he’d done it several times before, especially for this particular class, Introduction to the History of Supernatural Folklore, and has taken a few upper-year courses explaining the contents of the class in further detail. He was comfortable with the content enough to teach a group of excited first years and any budding questions that they may have. (Not to mention that he was under the tutelage of the Head TA that was famous among his fellow TAs for his inspiring work across campus.)
What he wasn’t comfortable with is just how much work and stress was coming his way. Not that he could escape it—not if he wanted to pass his classes and afford a roof over his head with a bit of food.
Not to mention that he still had to pay off the rest of his school fees. Even if his scholarship covered some of his tuition, and that didn’t include other fees such as his dorm (albeit the cheapest one he could find), and the textbooks worth their hefty weight in gold.
His TA job and any extra shifts he could pick up at the library may be enough to just scrape by, if he was smart and planned out a couple of sodium-packed bowls of instant ramen.
Work and stress and lack of healthy food—the joys that he was looking forward to in the upcoming few years as he continued on with his studies.
When the semester officially started, Jungkook was already screwed. Not only did he miss his first lecture, but he was also running late for the first class he was to TA.
Perhaps luckily enough, the class only had a few students enrolled so he was saved from embarrassing himself further.
That didn’t stop the fact, however, that he stumbled into the classroom, hair a ruffled mess and backpack a mess of already crumbled notes.
All of his students whipped their heads around to see who barged in nearly ten minutes late into their sixty-minute study session looking like a barely-put-together mess.
Jungkook scanned over the students, trying to judge quickly if he still had time to go over the required material that he needed to cover in order to receive his pay. Luckily for him, there seemed to be a few students absent as his already limited number of students dwindled down to a much more manageable number.
Two students, however, seemed to stand apart from the rest. The overwhelming fatigue of impending doom of schoolwork didn’t seem to hit the duo who was sitting apart from their fellow students, but who were also close enough to one another to almost be sitting in each other’s laps. Instead, they looked over at him with sparkle-eyed wonder, joy and awe in every fibre of their being.
Assuming that their joy was simply from the excitement to take a class that they were passionate about (why else would they be so excited for their first class with a mess of a TA?), Jungkook smiled at them. An eager bunch of students were easier to teach than those who couldn’t care less, after all.
“I’m so sorry for being late, my name is Jungkook and I’ll be your TA for Introduction to the History of Supernatural Folklore. I’ll take attendance real quick, since you’re being marked for your participation and attendance, and then we’ll get into the actual content. Is that alright with everyone?” he shuffled over to his desk, desperately rooting through his bag to find the list of students that the professor had supplied to him.
The small class all nodded along with his instruction, waiting diligently as he pulled out the crumpled piece of paper.
Humming happily at being able to find it, he went around to the first table of students, asking for their names before confirming that they were in the right place. The students all gave out their drawn-out answers, evidently wanting to be anywhere but his class.
That was, besides the two starry-eyed students who continued to look at him like two lovesick puppies.
“Could I get your names, please?” Jungkook asked the two, taking in their features so as to help him put a name to the faces of his students. Only to memorize who his students were. No other reason. Not because the two men in front of him were some of the most ethereal beings that he had ever been so blessed to lay his eyes upon.
“I’m Kim Taehyung,” the man with the dark, fluffy hair spoke in a deep and soothing voice. The man looked as if he was sculpted by the gods themselves in all of his divine beauty.
If Taehyung was crafted by gods, the man next to him was created with the beauty and grace of angels. “Park Jimin,” Taehyung spoke up for the light and beautiful as the man, who continued to gaze at him with sparkly eyes filled with wonder.
Jungkook had to swallow to soothe his dry throat as he looked down at his list, finding it surprisingly hard to look away from them, before finding and shakily checking off their names.
“Okay, you’re both set, thank y-”, he started before his stomach growled in protest of being denied any sort of sustenance that morning. If he could—both financially and time-wise—he would have had a meal to save himself the embarrassment of such a moment.
Both Taehyung and Jimin’s looks of bright joy quickly turned to ones of concern.
“Are you alright, Jungkook-ssi?” Taehyung asked worriedly.
He chuckled in response, “Oh I’m alright, thanks for your concern, just didn’t have time to eat anything this morning.”
Instead of getting the typical nod or hum of agreement and understanding–like most students who had to sacrifice their health and wellbeing in the name of academics–the two looked on with looks akin to horror on their faces.
Jungkook wished that the two pretty boys never had to know such a pain – even if he felt that it was inevitable in the upper years of university life. (At least, he didn’t know how to avoid it, even if he worked a few too many jobs and still couldn’t afford multiple meals a day.)
“Hopefully you can have a snack after class,” Taehyung smiled at him with a charming boxy smile.
Jungkook chuckled, appreciating his students concern, even if they’re bound to be in the same place in a few months time.
“I’ll try my best,” he replied, offering a shy smile towards the duo as he turned back to begin teaching his class.
As soon as his gaze fell off of the starry-eyed students, Jimin reached out in lightning-fast speed, gripping onto Taehyung’s bicep with fierce strength. He held on strongly, taking in a fast and sharp breath as he dared to take his gaze off of the human and looking up at Taehyung with eyes full of emotion–incredible confusion, disbelief, shock, amazement and concern.
The human – Jungkook , Jimin repeated in his mind–didn’t appear sickly or anything that needed the sudden and full tending to of an enamoured vampire and concerned mate. But he knew all too well the effect that schooling had on its students, especially those that worked a job on top of their advanced studies.
Jimin himself had never felt the affects of both human and student fatigue and sickness, but he’d been told the horrors and terrors and seen it before him throughout his many years. Enough to know that maybe, just maybe, if this boy truly was his fated, he could nudge him in the direction towards proper care.
Nothing too obvious, of course.
He didn’t want to scare his potential mate away.
Maybe Jungkook should have been a little freaked out by the way that two pairs of dazzling eyes were kept on him while he began to lecture. All he saw was two enthusiastic students. Others were already dozing off, knowing that the class was easy and didn’t need to really pay attention.
He appreciated their attentiveness, if anything.
“Since this our first class, we can just go over a little introduction to the course, does that sound okay to everyone?” he asked, looking around for some sort of a reaction from the students. He didn’t want to just speak and be blatantly ignored, bits of anxiety curling up his spine.
Some haphazard nods and hums, as well as an enthusiastic nod from Taehyung. Although, Jimin didn’t react. He had one hand holding his chin, one gripping onto the other man’s shoulder, mouth slightly agape as he watched with emotion swirling in his eyes.
“This class with focus on fantastical creatures in folklore and their stories rather than the historical aspects and context of the creatures, and some debates about their function. For example, how vampires would function in modern society rather than just what Stoker and Polidori wrote and their cultural impact during the time,” he explained, excitedly rambling and losing track that he was supposed to be sticking to some sort of script to educate his students.
He turned to the chalkboard, drawing a rather poor – and somewhat offensive to art and the legends of vampires – doodle of a vampire with exaggerated, saber-tooth-like fangs.
“One project you have later on is about a debate of a creatures function,” Jungkook beamed as he drew an arrow towards the doodled vampire’s fangs. “With the vampire example, do you think that vampires use their fangs simply to puncture, and they would then drink blood like a yogurt tube? Or do you think they’re more like straws, and can just suck up the blood?” He asked the class, hoping for a reply after his heartfelt and genuine questions.
He could almost hear the snores of the students with their heads down.
But the gods were present and graced Jungkook with a star student in the form of Kim Taehyung raising his hand.
Overjoyed to simply have someone participate, he quickly welcomed him to share his opinion.
“What about blood types? Do you think that vampires would have a preference on the blood type that they would consume?” He asked, excitement lacing every word.
“Well, that would depend on what you think vampires drink blood for. Would the different antigens of different blood types be the sole reason for blood drinking? Or would there be other reasons like the different nutrients in blood? Does the taste of blood come for a vampire from the blood type’s antigens? Would it taste different than what we taste in human blood?” Jungkook beamed, equally if not more excited than his student to talk about a vampire’s proper function.
The two continued on their heated and passionate discussion, Jungkook only realizing that he didn’t stick to his lesson plans when the time–two minutes to the end of class–was brought to his attention by the previously-slumbering student.
Quickly panicking, Jungkook whipped around and erased the doodled vampire off the chalkboard. “I’m so sorry, I lost track of the time—we’ll dive into class content next week. Thank you for your time, everyone! If you’d like to continue our conversation and debates outside of content, my office hours will start up in a few weeks,” he dismissed everyone.
Everyone else quickly left, save for Jimin and Taehyung, who stayed behind to give their thanks and mention how excited they were to attend and participate in future classes.
Jungkook smiled, packing up his things before the next TA came in to kick him out as he shared their sentiments and mentioned how he was looking forward to the rest of their semester together.
~~
A door threw open, as Jimin and Taehyung rushed into their home, stumbling over each other. They tripped over each other’s feet, letting out shrill cries for their hyungs.
“Hyungs! Come here, we have to tell you something, it's important!” Jimin yelled, running into the kitchen to find his two eldest hyungs sitting around their kitchen table.
Both of which looked panicked at their frantic cries, clearly having just sat up given the chairs behind them.
“What happened?” Yoongi demanded, voice hard and clearly ready to strike out in revenge for whoever dared to harm his babies.
Taehyung’s eyes lit up, his boxy grin on full display, “we found him.”