Jimin thinks he's made a poor choice.

Or rather, a series of poor choices that span the entire day.

He'd hitched a ride with a friend that morning to dance practice. He hadn't thought to grab his subway pass, because Hoseok had a car and he was a cool hyung who could drive him around wherever he wanted. He didn't take into account that he would have to get home at some point. He spent the rest of the morning at classes, grabbed lunch with Jungkook on campus, had a couple more classes, and then spent his evening rather peacefully in the library studying for a biology test the next day. He would have had plenty of time to study earlier if he hadn't spent so much time goofing off with Jungkook in his afternoon break between classes or staying after morning dance practice to go over some moves with Hoseok, but there he was at the library until it closed at 11:00 in the evening. He'd refused Namjoon's offer to stay and help him study because he knew that the older would much rather go home and have an impromptu date with his girlfriend. When it came time to return to his apartment a couple miles off campus, Jimin decided it'd be better to walk since he didn't have his subway pass, the buses weren't running anymore, and he didn't want to spend his groceries money on a taxi. Tired and hungry, he took back roads to get home faster so he could have a late dinner, shower, and go to bed. Sure, back roads didn't have street lights, but it was hardly over 2 miles. He could handle that.

At this moment, Jimin was wishing he'd grabbed that subway pass, did his studying earlier in the day, accepted Namjoon's offer to stay, shelled out that extra cash for a taxi, or even just walked along the main road.

There were footsteps behind him. They were quick and purposeful. Running, probably. Heavy footsteps, likely a grown man. It was only 20 seconds that he had to contemplate from the moment he heard the footsteps in the distance to the time he finally turned around, but those 20 seconds felt like a lifetime. It was enough time for him to regret everything he'd done that day that led him to this moment, about to be kidnapped or murdered in some side alley where no one would find his body. It was enough time for his heartbeat to speed up to the point where he thinks it's either going to leap out of his chest or he's about to have a heart attack. It's enough time to say around 12 prayers to every different god he could think of. It was enough time for him to consider all possible scenarios of the horrible death he's about to experience- this guy wants to skin him and keep his decapitated head on a stick; he wants to stab him 23 times in the chest; he wanted to hang him from a telephone line by his feet and beat him like a pinata. 

He wasn't scared of the dark, per se, but this situation was certainly out of his comfort zone. Oh god, he wished his muscles weren't just for show. He wished he took Yoongi up on his suggestion of joining him in a self defense course he took last month. He wished he carried some sort of weapon on his person, but alas, all he had was a pair of used sweatpants, his biology textbook, and some assorted stationary.

Against his better judgement, he still turned around towards the quickly approaching footsteps, hands wringing together over his backpack strap. He bit his lip, backing up against the wall on shaking feet. He squinted his eyes in the darkness, barely able to make out the figure of a tall man running straight towards him in the thin alleyway with nowhere to hide. He raised his arms to cover his head defensively.

"Holy !" the guy screamed, his deep voice striking Jimin to his very core. He stopped running, skidding to a halt in front of Jimin. "D