The moment Jimin came out of the door, his eyes began to frantically dart from left to right in search for you. His hands clenched into fists, completely pissed at his first encounter with one of your old ‘friends’ Jae In.

As Jimin looked for you, you were running away, not knowing where you were headed. The past memories of Jae In’s bullying flooded your thoughts, just by looking at her face that’s caked with makeup, you felt like crying. That face smiled evilly whenever you were down on the ground and hurt, she was a compete nightmare.

Freshman Year

You were hastily trying your best to get to class without being seen by your bully and her clique of girls who wore too much make up. Biting your lip, lowered your head a bit so that you’d be facing your books and your long hair covering most of your face.

“There she is!” you heard someone yell and your heart practically fell to the ground. They found you.

You pretended that you didn’t hear them and kept heading towards your class without running to make it obvious that you are the person that they were looking for. Thankfully, there’s one girl in the school who happened to look a lot like you, she was often mistaken to be you by Jae In and her crew and you couldn’t thank your doppelganger enough.

It was your bad luck that you didn’t pay much attention to what was in front of you and ended up bumping into one of them. , you thought desperately.

The student crossed her arms over her chest and gave you a wide grin, “Where do you think you’re going? Don’t you know what time it is?” she said.

You didn’t respond.

Suddenly someone pushed you from behind, causing you to drop all of your books. You bent down to pick them up from the floor. Biggest mistake you ever made. As you were kneeling on the ground, Jae In took the chance to kick you right on the ribs.

“Do you really thought that you wouldn’t get a beating on the last day of school?” she smirked.

More of her friends crowded you and made a small little circle with you in the center of it. “She thinks she can run away from us,” they all laughed.

Unexpectedly, one of them yanked your hair up and you winced in pain as you stood. They used your hair like a leash and pulled you to where they wanted to go, a place much quieter and closed so that no one would be able to hear your painful screams and cries.

“Take her to the change room downstairs,” she commanded.

They dragged you down the stairs, there was no mistake that the one who was dragging you has pulled out most of your hair. Arriving to the destination, the girl practically threw you onto the wall as you fell to the floor, wincing in pain but not letting any tears escape. They laughed.

“Did that hurt?” they mocked. “Your mom can’t save you this time,” Jae In said then kicked you on the stomach.

Her heart sank when they heard them mention her mother. It had only been three days since she passed away and it was like the school turned into a living hell, much more than before. In the past, they did a lot of things to you but now that you’re mother’s gone, there’s no one who can stand up for you anymore.

Your mother used to be the principal of the school. You’d think that since your mother is the principal people would be scared to mess with you, well they aren’t. As long as your mother doesn’t see what was going on, they can do whatever they want. Telling your mother about the bullying would have been a great idea but doing that will just give her more things to stress about.

One of the girls suddenly slapped your face, it was hard enough to leave a bright red hand print on your face. “Aww, were you thinking about your mommy?” she said as she grabbed your hair to make you look at her at eye level. “That’s cute,” she said sarcastically then threw your head towards the floor.

Jae In bent down and looked at you without any mercy. She smiled devilishly as she held your chin up with her right hand, “We are going to make your whole high school years a living hell.”

Now

Heart pounding, tears threatening to fall from your eyes because of those horrible memories, you tried to run as far as you could. You didn’t want to go home and you didn’t have any friends to go to. There had to be somewhere where you could hide.

Then it hit you.

It was the perfect hiding place. The tree. You would always go there when you needed to have a breath of fresh air, away from the horrible smell of alcohol that your father brings into the house.

The tree wasn’t far, it was just a few steps behind the school. No one would allow their kids to go there, it seemed too creepy and dangerous since the trees were practically scattered all over the place and the bushes were high. Everyone thinks that it’s a bad place to go but in reality, after you crossed those hurtful bushes, it was like paradise.

You exhaled as you passed through the bushes, knowing that there wasn’t anyone to hurt you anymore. You were safe. It’s been so long since the last time you came here, it was about three months ago. There it was, the tree that was in center of your whole sanctuary. Climbing onto it, you sat on the second highest branch then relaxed. The summer breeze was warm and it made you feel calm. It was easy to forget all of the bad things that was happening to you while you were up there.

“Why…” you mumbled to yourself, “out of all the people in this world… why did she have to come?”

You buried your face into your hands. Just one day. One day without anything bad happening to your life, is it that so hard to ask for? Right now, all you just wanted in your life was peace.

The tree suddenly shook but you didn’t bother to look, thinking it was just the wind making the tree dance. This tree has always given you a nostalgic feeling every time you came here. It’s been five years since you’ve found this place.

“This is a nice area…” it was no doubt that it was Jimin’s voice. “So, is this like your-“

“Hiding place,” you said without taking your hands off of your face, cutting him off from finishing his sentence.

He took a deep breath of the fresh air then turned his head to look at you. Jimin stayed that way for a few minutes but you didn’t mind. You hated when people stared at you but it was mostly because they stared at you with disgust. This was different.

Jumping down from the tree, you sat down and leaned your back on it. You pulled your feet closer to your chest. Burying your face in between your knees, you could hear Jimin jumping down. He sat beside you quietly, not wanting to bother your peace.

“Jimin…” you croaked quietly, “is it okay if I cry?” you asked without lifting your head.

He looked at you, “Are you okay?” he asked.

You shook your head as the memories of the past week played like a slideshow in your mind. It was weird but being like this to Jimin didn’t bother you anymore. The tears were already falling from your eyes and you could feel it creating a pool between your hands and your cheeks.

Crying and crying, you practically let yourself go at that moment. Your body felt cold in the hot weather like you were getting a fever. You heard shuffling beside you, it was Jimin. He wrapped his arms around your small body and hugged you like a lonely child. His embrace was warm, though it was odd that he was hugging you like that, you didn’t mind.

Jimin caressed your hair as you continued to cry, “It’s okay…” he whispered, “just cry… I won’t judge…”