But why don’t they listen to me?

No matter how many times he tries to talk to them, they never fix those bad acts that seem to have become habits. No matter how calm he tried to be when he talked to them, he'd always end up yelling.

On the verge of tears, he continues to walk across town. He can't even remember how many times he's been walking across town. He knows the town better than he knows his own house. There have even been times where he had walked all through the night through the town, not caring that he almost got into trouble when he did.

Today was no different.

He was just walking until his legs started to wear down. He wanted to wanted to walk until his legs just dropped off. He walked past fences that he walked past every day. His legs were starting to wear down from the anger in every step, but it had taken such a long time. His legs had grown strong with the continuous walking, but they still had to give out eventually. He stopped and sat down on the floor, not caring that it was dirty. He was just so angry that they continually did this. That even though he's asked them to stop, that they never do.

He leaned his head back and thought of this morning's problems. He was woken early with his mother walking in drunk. She made so much noise and was singing a song ridiculously out of tune. He would've gone out to help her, but there really was no point. He'd just get dragged into the argument. He heard his father swearing and making a large fuss out of the situation. It was barely 3 am and he was starting again. He heard a slap and a thud, followed by some crying. The same words screamed over and over again, the same words for the past 7 years. He didn't want to hear the same words again so he grabbed some clothes and sat outside the door. He pulled his hood over and prepared to walk.

Now he was sitting on the floor in some dirty street halfway across town. It wasn't his mum's fault that she'd come home drunk most nights, it was his step-dad's fault. Ever since he came into the picture his life just went rapidly downhill. Fights every night, beer bottles everywhere, and painful cries that would keep him awake at night. It was so hard to just wake up in the morning knowing that no matter how well he thought his day would go, that it would always end up with him upset and broken inside.

He fell asleep on the street that night. Although he was harassed when he woke up by a local street gang and woke up with terrible pains running through his neck and back, he woke up having slept the best he had slept in ages. He decided to go home, to see if anything had changed. To see if there was a chance that things might be better. He walked home quickly, excited and optimistic that today would be different. But he stopped right in front of his house.

A gnawing feeling started to rip through his stomach, making him regret his decision to come back home. He could hear his mother crying and something happening in the kitchen. He took a breath and walked up to the door. There empty bottles of alcohol everywhere, the smell of them all burning his nose. He cracked open the door slightly, and peered inside.

He was right, today was different. But not in the way he imagined. His mother was cleaning the floor while she was crying and his step-dad was creating more of a mess. He wanted to do something, to stop this from happening to his mother any longer. But he couldn't, he didn't remember the times when she would smile for him, or embrace him when he cried. He couldn't remember her being a mother, the only thing he saw when he thought of her was a tired, abused woman with a torn up heart.

Before his step-dad would have time to notice, he crept away, trying to hold back his tears. He walked again, past all this familiar scenery. He had his head down, to ensure that anyone passing by wouldn't have any time to see if a tear or two trickled down his cheek. He was just so mad that he couldn't have a loving family and he didn't know what to do.

He saw some money fly by, and picked it up. It was enough to buy a small meal for himself at a corner cafe. He pocketed the money and headed to the corner cafe, glad to see a sale on the meal he was planning to buy. He bought it and started to eat it by himself, slowly savouring the taste. It had been too long since he last had eaten a quality meal, and he was finally able to fill the hunger that had always been bugging him throughout the day. Half way through his meal he received a text from his phone he had long forgotten about. He opened it up and smiled when he saw who it was from.

From: Seokjin

Tae! Is that you in the window?

He looked up and scanned the streets he could see from his table. His eye landed on me waving as I walked over. I walked into the cafe and sat with him.

"Jin, you don't know how relieved I am to see a friend right now."

"What's wrong?"

"Same old, where are you staying?"

"I've got a hotel only a 20 minutes' walk from here. Why?"

"Uh, can I stay with you for a while? It's really lonely at home and I want to spend time with you."

"Of course! Just let me eat and we can walk over. And there are a few of the others there too, they're sleeping now but they might be awake when we get back."

"That sounds great. Are you going to get in contact with everyone while you're here?"

"Hopefully, I missed you all."

He smiled as I went up to order my lunch, and although his smile was laced with sadness, I could tell he was relieved to have a friend once more.