Jimin raked his eyes over his dongsaeng, clearly sensing something wrong in the way he walked. He limped everywhere he went, not to mention the way he avoided any talk to anyone about the way he was limping.

Jimin watched intently as Taehyung put books away in his locker, noticing the way he struggled slightly, and how he tried to make it unnoticable. But Jimin caught it, he always catches it.

They walked out to the outdoor lunch area, where they ate when it was sunny, and nice weather, and Jimin told himself that he would ask Taehyung about the way he did, everything, now. It was affecting even their long time friendship, the way Taehyung was growing distant, and slowly but surely was difting away from Jimin.

They sat down at their normal seat by some Japanese Cherry Blossom trees, one of the reasons they really liked this outdoor courtyard, and Jimin decided he would do it now.

"Taehyung-ah, I've noticed something about you lately," Jimin looked to see Taehyung stop what he was doing and look at Jimin. Jimin saw curiosity, but also fear in the way he looked at the older.

"What is it, hyung? What have you noticed?" Taehyung seemed to calm down a little more, realizing that Jimin wasn't very sharp on noticing things.

"You, you're walking weirdly, you're limping, and you think I don't see it, but I do. Everyone does. When you come over, Jin hyung sees it, you're struggling, is everything okay?" Jimin saw the way Taehyung tensed up at the mention of his limping, he seriously thought he was hiding it.

"Of course, it must have been when I tripped and fell over something the other day, i- it's nothing Jimin hyung, I promise." Jimin looked down at the table and thought for a second. It was clear he was lying. He stuttered when he was nervous about something.

"Taehyung-ah, you'd tell me if something was wrong, right?" He carefully said to the younger male sitting across from him.

Taehyung looked at Jimin. "Of course I would, hyung. Of course I would."

Taehyung was still lying to him.

--------------

The next day at school Jimin didn't see Taehyung at his locker, the place they usually met in the morning. Jimin figured he had someone to meet, or was running a little late. That happens sometimes, but not to Taehyung. Taehyung was always on time. Jimin started to worry about his dongsaeng, but tried to tell him he would show up, he was probably somewhere else in the school.

He closed his locker and was about to walk to homeroom when someone tapped his shoulder. It was Jungkook, he was in the music program with Taehyung. That's only how Jimin knew him.

"Jimin hyung, I needed to meet Taehyung hyung but he didn't show up this morning, do you know where he might be? It's really important, have you seen him at all?"

This is when panic started to set in. Not a great deal of panic, but panic. If Taehyung wasn't with Jungkook, and wasn't at his locker, he could be anywhere. 'He is probably somewhere else in the school', Jimin tried to tell himself.

"I- I don't know, Jungkook-ssi, maybe he is with someone else." He assured the younger.

"Okay, but if you see him, please tell him I needed him!" Jungkook said as he ran off back to his destination of wherever that was. Jimin could care less. He was worried sick about Taehyung.

Jimin walked to his homeroom, this class wasn't with Taehyung, but he saw him in his next period class. He didn't pay attention to the morning announcements, or the teacher, or any classmate that tried to talk to him. He was thinking about Taehyung, and where he could be.

'Maybe he had to do something before school, so he is just a little late.'

'What? Taehyung is never late. And he would have texted me first.'

'Maybe he lost his phone, or it got taken away.'

'I obviously said something to him yesterday. Did you see the look in his eyes? Yeah, he doesn't want to talk to me anymore.'

Jimin inwardly groaned about the stupid argument in his head with himself. He decided he would skip first period and try to call Taehyung. If he didn't answer, he would have to check the scene out himself, and basically try to find him.

When the bell for first period rang he shot up from the desk and walked to the bathrooms, where he would try and contact him. He was stopped by a voice in the hallway.

"Hyung, where are you going?" Jimin turned at the all too familiar voice and nearly broke down.

"Taehyung! Where were you this morning? I nearly had a heart attack! What happened to you? I was worried sick!" I tried to control my voice, but it was clear that there was a mix of anger and worry in my tone.

"Hyung, I'm sorry, I just was running late this morning and I left my phone in my locker, like an idiot, and I'm sorry."

Jimin reached out to touch the younger's shoulder, catching the way he involuntarily flinched before he did so. Jimin didn't ask him about it. He didn't want to start more worry for himself.

----------------

The days were getting hotter and the boys resorted to wearing shorts and the girls ditched their knee high socks of their uniforms, so they wouldn't have a heat . But something was wrong.

It was a Friday schedule, and Taehyung had to come upstairs from a class in the basement, so Jimin waited for him at their usual lunch spot, under the Japanese Cherry Blossoms, that were now discarding of their petals that created an array of pink over the tables and ground. Jimin loved the sight of it. He always had.

Taehyung showed up a minute later and sat across from Jimin, like they had for as long as they could remember. They started talking about what was going on in their classes, then started gossiping about the girls, and boys, like they usually spent their lunch hour.

Jimin laughed at the sight of a few pink petals that have fallen on Taehyung's head, resting on his faded pinkish hair. He laughed and reached over to grab the petals from his dongsaengs head. He saw the way flinched. He wasn't going to bring it up.

"You know, we don't do many things after school anymore. We should go out tonight. I want to go to that new light display in downtown Seoul." Jimin suggested to Taehyung who was playing with some petals that fell on the seat next to him.

"I don't know, I mean, I would love to, but I don't know if my parents would let me." Taehyung looked down at the bench once more towards the end of his sentance. Jimin didn't want to argue. He noticed Taehyung still had his uniform jacket on.

"Taehyung-ah, take your jacket off, your gonna have a heat !" Jimin reached to take off his jacket, but Taehyung pulled away before he could do so.

"Jimin hyung, I'm fine. I don't need to. We are under the shade. I'm not that hot." Taehyung avoided eye contact. He only did that when he was lying. Jimin had picked that up over the years. The guilt of thinking he did something wrong was eating him from the inside out, he needed to know.

"Taehyung-ah, please tell me something, you're hiding something from me! If it's something I did wrong, please tell me!" Jimin tried to keep eye contact with Taehyung but he avoided it.

"It wasn't you, Jimin. I promise it wasn't you." That didn't make Jimin feel any better knowing that his dongsaeng was still having trouble.

"You can tell me, Taehyung-ah," Jimin reached to touch Taehyung's hand that was resting on the table. He was shaking ever so slightly.

"I- I would if I could, hyung." Taehyung still didn't look up. Jimin wanted to press the subject further, but by the state Taehyung was it, he didn't want to cause trauma for the younger.

Jimin gave up on the subject. Jimin got them out of the awkward silence but talking about what had happened to HyoMin, the most popular girl in school. Taehyung was laughing slightly at the story, and it made Jimin feel better knowing he could cheer up the younger.

They were silent for a second. Jimin looked around to see everyone gone. They could care less if it was the beginnning of next period. they could stay there forever.

It was then that Taehyung adjusted his collar, and Jimin saw it. There were purple bruises on his collarbone. He must have attempted to cover it in makeup, but his sweat made it run. Jimin grabbed his arm.

"Taehyung, what.. what is that?" He slowly ran his fingers over the bruises, and Taehyung involuntarily flinched and tried to pull Jimin's hand away.

"Hyung, i- it's nothing-"

"That is not nothing! Those are bruises! Why do you have those?" Jimin made the younger look at him.

He was going to speak but was stopped by the tears that overflowed from his eyes. He put his head in his hands and Jimin wrapped an arm around his shoulder and held him close.

"Taehyung-ah," Jimin started slowly.

"I- I didn't want you to know. I didn't want you to worry about me." Taehyung cried into the olders shoulder.

"Of course I'm going to worry about you. Taehyung, you're my best friend. I'm never going to not worry about you. Please, tell me what happened." Taehyung slowly sat up and started explaining the story.

Jimin knew he had a brother, he knew he was sick, but Taehyung never told him he had passed away. Taehyung's parents made it seem as if his brother, Hoseok, was the more loved of the two, and when he had died, Taehyung explained how his parents were dealing from a lot of stress, and somehow their world turned upside down. Taehyungs father walked out on them, because of money problems, after Hoseok's hospital bill that was painfully high, and that added on to the stress. Taehyung's mother turned to alcohol, not thinking it would replace the stress. In most of her drunken state, she told the truth, how she only wished Hoseok was her only child, and Taehyung, being the younger, was mistreated terribly, resulting in all of the ugly bruises and scars about his body. It made Taehyung feel useless, and he said that Jimin was the only positive thing he could look forward to everyday. He told him he had thoughts about suicide, but could never put the stress on him.

Jimin was silent for a minute. "Taehyung-ah, I promise you we will do something about this, ok? And even though life is bad, you should never turn to suicide." He sighed and looked at his friend who was still sobbing into his uniform shirt. "Look at me." Taehyung sat up, eyes red, but looking at him.

"You see this tree? See how the petals always fall off? This resembles someone's own life, how it is beautiful in every way possible, but is tragically short. Even though it goes through rough times of not having any petals, and not having beauty, it comes back. It always comes back. It's like you, Taehyung-ah, it's rough, but you will bounce back. I promise." Taehyung wrapped his arms around the older and started silently sobbing again.

"I'm sorry, hyung, I should have told you." Taehyung cried.

"It's ok, we will fix it, I'll help you,"

And they sat on the bench in each other's arms, watching as the petals coninued to drop from the tree, keeping in mind that even though they are leaving now, they will always come back.

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A/N: wow 2k words long, just about. So yes I hope you liked it.

I looked up the meaning of the Japanese Cherry Blossom.

It symbolizes life, and how life is beautiful but also tragically short. I wanted to associate that into this story. It was cute, and meaningful.

But yes, I hope you enjoyed, and please follow my twitter for updates on a fic or oneshot :) @/jowonjunn