They continued to step through the pavement. Jimin was silent all the time during their walk. Memory from the past being rewind in his mind for the thousandth times.

“Ah!” Jimin suddenly shouted and halted. “I can’t take it anymore!”

                V and Yerin glanced at each other and then to Jimin in front of them. “What’s wrong, Jimin?” she asked. Jimin turned to them.

“Can you please lend me your ears?”

 

               

 

                Jimin swayed the swing of the playground slowly. He continued to stare on the ground. Yerin was on the swing beside him and V sat on the ground across both of them. The two had their eyes glued to Jimin from the past few minutes.

“You okay?” V asked. “Sure” Jimin nodded. “I just need someone to listen to me. Because I think I’ll feel better if someone listen to this thing in my mind”

“It’s alright, Jimin” Yerin spoke. “You know you have both of us to listen to you”

“Alright. Well, since you two mention about girl, I suddenly remembered my past. My girlfriend. She passed away around 4 years ago” Jimin began.

“Wait!” V stopped him. “Is it okay for you to tell this?”

Jimin nodded. “Since we’re friends, I think you need to know the real story”

“Real story?” “Uhuh. Umji is my girlfriend. She passed away last four years. Because of her, I was jailed for 4 years. It’s only this early year that I was released” Jimin lifted his head to Yerin. “And we met for the first time on the day that I was released at the cafe” “Jailed? You kidding?”

“No” V replied and looked at her. “It’s true. That’s another reason that we lost contact of each other”

Jimin smiled. “Umji was always beside me. She used to spend her time with me at my apartment. She was so sweet. And we love each other so much. But Umji was sick”

-Flashback-

                Umji was coughing hard as she ran towards the bathroom. She had to cover with her other hand holding her stomach.

“Umji-ah! You okay?!” Jimin was following behind. Umji couldn’t stop from coughing. She bent over the sink.

                Blood spit out as she coughed more, turning the water from faucet scarlet. Her cough stopped. Umji raised her gaze to the mirror in front of her to see Jimin’s reflection.

“Umji-ah” he was stunted. Jimin stared at her pale face in disbelief. “Oppa” she tuned and buried her face into his embrace. She started to sob.

“I don’t want to die!” “Umji-ah” Jimin pat her back. Both of them knew they don’t have much time to spend together.

-End of flashback-

*             *             *

                RapMon pulled a chair and sat beside the bed at the hospital where Jin was laying on it. The casts on his body were removed earlier. Jin was facing away from him.

“You haven’t eat yet right?” RapMon took a sealed bowl of rice he just brought from on top of a drawer beside the bed. He unwrapped it to let the mouth-watering fragrance of kimchi fried rice filled the room. He took a spoon and scooped the rice. “Come here, Jin. Let’s eat”

“I don’t want to” Jin replied, still not facing him. “Come on” RapMon pulled him to turn to face him. Jin rolled his eyes in annoyance. “Can you just leave me alone?”

“Not until I see you finish this rice” “Just leave it there. I’ll eat it later” Jin turned away from him. Again, RapMon pulled and made him to face him. “You think I’m stupid? I know you’ll not eat and continue to space out the entire time. What is it that bother your mind so much that you don’t want to eat?”

“Nothing” Jin looked away. RapMon sighed and straighten the bed that made Jin sat. “Open up” RapMon held out the scooped rice to Jin’s mouth. Jin shook his head. “Yah, you’re being childish! Eat up! Please Kim Seokjin”

Jin glanced at him from the corner of his eyes. He sighed before opened his mouth. RapMon fed him the spoonful of rice. “That’s it!” RapMon was smiling from ear to ear. “Good boy!”

“I can eat on my own you know” Jin pouted but still munching. “No. Let me just feed you. That’s WAY easier”

                They ate in silent for a few moments.

“You have any problem, Jin? You can share with me if you can’t tell the other kids” “You know it yourself. I have a huge problem but the problem just ended with me being stuck here” “What is it about?”

Jin cleared his throat before telling him the real story.

“I was kidnapped. For 2 days” “What the! What joke is this?!” “There is no joke, Namjoon. They got me” “Who?” “The loan sharkers. My parents were in debt with them. And they often break into my house to harm my parents. But I told them to take it all on me instead of my parents. We only a few dollars away from completing pay the debt but they were impatient. I was on my way home”     

-Flashback-

                Jin was walking along the quiet alley in the neighborhood. He heaved a heavy sigh.

“They said the dead line is in four days. I should hand in the money tomorrow. The sooner the better” he spoke to himself.

                Footsteps could be heard approached him fast from the back. Jin turned back only to see silhouettes before his mouth was covered with a sweet smell cloth and fainted.

-End of flashback-

*             *             *

“She was suffering a lot” Jimin continued. His hands formed tight grip. “I can’t stand watching her like that. Lost hope and gave up on her own life”

-Flashback-

                Umji and Jimin were at the rooftop of a building. The sky was already dark. Stars and moon shown themselves at the sky. Umji rested her head on Jimin’s shoulder as they watched the stars.

“I wish we could stay together forever” Umji whispered. “Of course we can” Jimin cherished her pale cheeks. His eyes went to her face. “See that?” he pointed to the Moon and stars.

“You are the Moon and I’m the star. I’ll always be there with you, protecting you. Nothing can keep the moon away from the star. Same goes for both of us”

                Umji smiled at his words. She pushed his hand aside and stood. She stared at the city below. 

“Can you do me a favor, oppa?” she asked and glanced at him. Jimin stood and wrapped his arms around her waist from behind. “If that can make you smile, I’ll do it” he rested his chin on her shoulder.

“But” Umji turned to face him. “If you help me…you’ll get hurt”

“I don’t care. As long as you’re happy” Jimin embraced her.

 

 

“Jimin oppa, can you kill me?”

                Jimin’s eyes widened, both disbelief and confused. His heart shattered. His thought whirled and he was too numb to even respond to her words.

“Please. Help me” Umji hugged him tighter. Her tears flowed down. “Both of us know my illness can’t be cure. I’d better be off soon than wasting money to cure me. I know I can’t be cure forever. And I should stop making you worry about me”

                Jimin slowly lifted his hand and patted her back. He never thought he could even blinked back tears, but his tears streamed down his face.

“Please, grant it. Since it’s my birthday today. That’s my last wish” she whispered. “Umji-ah” he chock out. “Tell me. How can I kill the most precious person to me? I can’t forgive myself if I really kill you. How will I love in this world without you?”

                They were silent. Jimin broke the hug and gazed into her eyes. He suddenly chuckled and wiped away his tears. “I’m sorry you have to see cry”

                Umji smiled and wiped her tears. He took her hands.

“I’d always love your smile. That’s why I fell for you. And I want you to smile forever” he took a deep breath and forced a small smile. “I’ll do it” His lips trembled to keep his smile but his smile didn’t last.

“Thank you, oppa” Umji leaned in and locked lips with him. Her tears flowed down.

-End of flashback-

*             *             *

-Flashback-

                Jin was seated on the chair in the dark room. Only a bulb that light up the room dimly located above his head. His hands and legs were tied to the chair. His breathing was heavy. A guy approached him with a pail of cold water. He splashed the water onto Jin. With that, like being slapped upside of the head, Jin whipped up from facing the ground. He gulped a large amount of air a few times. He looked around.

“Where am I?! Who are you?!” He shoots questions. His eyes were squinted as the light blinded him.

                A silhouette came out from the shadow and stepped into the light, revealing himself who had his lower part of face covered with the black mask and a black cap on his head. Jin’s eyes trailed to his face. “What the-”

Without any warning, punches landed on Jin’s face numerous times. He fell to his side, bringing his cheek slammed hard against the freezing concrete floor. He chocks out blood. “I told you” he used all his might to speak. “I’m going to pay it”

“Shut up!” the man came back with a plank in his grip.

-End of flashback-

*             *             *

   

-Flashback-

                Jimin and Umji were walking hand in hand to the edge of the building. They stared down to the city below them.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t do this alone” Umji voiced. “And I’m sorry for making you do this, oppa”

“It’s fine. I want you to be happy” he lied. “Thank you, oppa. For everything” she squeezed his hands.

                She stepped away from him. The back of her shoes was on the very edge of the building. Jimin held out his arms to push her off but paused. Tears already rolled down his cheeks.

“Umji, I love you” he voiced. “I love you too, Jimin oppa” she smiled.

                Her fragile body flew off the building as Jimin pushed her. His legs gave up and he fell onto his knees, sobbing as he heard a loud thump on the road below him with women screams. He was unable to think nor move. The door to the rooftop burst open with people rushed to him and held him. Jimin didn’t respond to harsh words threw to him. He didn’t talk as much. Even on his trial day. With the power of law, he was thrown into the prison for four years.

-End of flashback-

*             *             *

                RapMon took Jin’s hands. He held his cold as corpse hands into his warm hands. “You should inform us about your trouble” RapMon looked into his eyes. “We can help you”

“Tell me” Jin looked up to him. “What can kids like us do to stop them?”

-Flashback-

                Jin was bruised on every inch of his body. He opened his heavy eyes to stare at them far in front of him. His stomach was grumbling, begging to be filled since the last 2 days. His eyes trailed down to his ankle. They were purple. He sighed. *What am I going to do now?*

                A few men approached him who was laying helplessly on the floor at the corner of the room. Jin was dragged by two men away out of the room. He was thrown in front of someone who stood under the light. Jin looked up but failed to see the face, the bright light behind the person masked his face in shadow.

“Seokjin” his voice trailed shiver on his spine. Jin ran out of energy to even utter a word. The man bent over. He shoved a thick brown envelope to Jin’s face. “Thanks for the payment. Though it was a little bit late” the man spoke.

*Oh this man* Jin’s blinked his eyes before fell flat onto the floor, unconscious.

-End of flashback-

“Someone found me near the rubbish place” Jin told RapMon. “That’s all I remember”

                RapMon patted his back.
“You did a great job for hanging in there. Good job, Jin!”

*             *             *

“So yeah” Jimin looked at Yerin and V. “That’s what happen. Actually after that incident and before I’m jailed, Hoseok hyung once asked me to kill him too”

“Because he wants to follow his mother” she continued his sentence. “Yes” Jimin nodded. “Of course. He takes live and death issue lightly. Because all of us were too young back then”

*             *             *

                V and Yerin walked side by side as Jimin left them for home. She sighed.

“That’s quite a story”

V nodded. “But you don’t look at Jimin as a criminal right?”

“Of course not. He’s my friend. And it’s all in the past. The new Jimin has already left his past and determined to be a better person” “We should help him” She nodded in replied.

                Her phone beeped. A text message was received. Yerin slid her phone to unlock it and read the message sent by Suga. V glanced at the screen. “You always exchanges messages with all the other guys?”

“Uhuh. Mostly with Yoongi-ssi” “Oh” V looked ahead. He pressed his lips together.

“What do you two talk about?” “Nothing much. Just this and that” she had her full attention to her phone. V rolled his eyes in annoyance.

“Oh right! Namjoon hyung want to treat all of us for dinner this Friday” V spoke. “Really?!” at the mention of food, Yerin turned to him with eyes widened. “Of course, Monster Yerin” he grinned. “Yah!” she slapped his shoulder. V rubbed his slapped shoulder “Ouh! That hurts” he pouted.

                Yerin chuckled. “That ugly face again”