A/N: Credit for the title goes to the song Life in the Pain by Safetysuit.

Chapter One:

Jimin absolutely hated summer. Especially in Korea where the days were so bipolar that it switched from grey and rainy outside to bright and sunny. Either way, it was still hot and humid and Jimin found it hard to breath.

Not that he was doing much of that lately.

Jimin sat on the bus and stared out the window as it traveled down the long expanse of road that led from Busan, his hometown, to Seoul. To be honest, he was surprised he even got on the bus in the first place. He got such motion sickness and to pile on the fact that he was inside a moving vehicle with no way out did nothing to stop his train of claustrophobic thoughts.

He just wanted out. He didn’t want to be on this bus. He didn’t want to go to Seoul. He wanted to stay in Busan with his family. Why did he have to go to his aunt’s house when she lived on the other side of the damn country? Oh yeah...that’s right.

His entire family was dead, that’s why.

As the sky started to grow grey once again, and tiny droplets of water fell on the windshield, Jimin once again thought about how much he ing hated summer. It meant monsoon season and that meant driving in crazy weather conditions. The strong winds coupled with the heavy rain was dangerous but for natives of South East Asia, this was normal. They were used to it. They knew what to do in situations like these.

But that didn’t stop even the most experienced drivers from skidding off the overpass and crashing into a ditch below. It wasn’t his father’s fault. It was his. Jimin was aware of how hard it was raining but that didn’t stop him from arguing with his little brother who decided that poking him in the side was his new favorite game.

Jimin had told him to stop, but his brother ignored him, instead poking him in the side once again. When Jimin slapped his hand away, his brother started to cry big fake tears and complain to his mom. His mother had turned around in her seat, directing her scoldings at Jimin, telling him to stop messing with his brother.

This wasn’t fair! It wasn’t Jimin’s fault, it was Jihyo’s! He was constantly poking him in the side, and his mother was blaming him? No way in hell was Jimin going to let his little snot nosed brother get away with this. He may be four years younger but that was no excuse to be annoying as .

That was the biggest mistake of his life. He complained to his mother, trying to get her to see what Jihyo had done wrong and trying to get her to scold him. This got his father involved and he took his eyes off the road to turn around to tell them both to knock it off. Jimin was about to open his mouth to argue but his father had turned around already. When his brother poked him in the side yet again, Jimin had had enough.

“But, Dad--!” Jimin complained.

“Park Jimin, Park Jihyo, both of you stop it right---!” were the last words his father ever spoke to him as suddenly the car in front of him stopped suddenly. His father hadn’t seen the car stop and when he turned around, he was a second from hitting it. His father swerved to avoid hitting it, but all that did was send them right over the edge.

The only thing Jimin could remember was screaming. The sounds of his mother’s high pitched screams mixed in with the screams of his father. He remembered grasping his brother’s hand but everything went white.

When he woke up again, he was in a white room with a bright light shining directly in his face. For a moment, he thought he was in heaven. Now, he knew he was going to hell.

He had gotten his entire family killed and he was somehow the only one who survived. The nurses were extremely concerned when Jimin showed no reaction when they informed him of the deaths of his mother and father and his little brother, Jihyo. They thought Jimin was in shock.

They were partially right. But in reality, Jimin felt the loss of his family so deeply that he no longer felt like he was living inside his body. He felt like he had actually died with his family. He no longer felt alive. His body felt heavy but yet Jimin felt strangely detached from it. Jimin could see his fingers and move his hands and arms, but he didn’t feel it.

When the doctor shot him up with medicine a jolt of pain made Jimin realize that he was indeed alive. The one painful sensation made Jimin’s entire body come awake and he immediately felt like his world had stopped. The only thing he could register was pain. He felt it in his body, he felt it in his head and he felt it to the very core of his being.

Yet he didn’t cry. He showed no outward reactions at all. The doctor’s were very concerned but there was nothing they could do. Jimin declined every offer of therapy, stating he just wanted to go home.

Unfortunately, the doctors could not legally let him leave without a legal guardian. Jimin scoffed at them.

“Who the is going to come pick me up, huh?” Jimin seethed, “If you haven’t realized it yet, my entire ing family is dead.”

They called his aunt. She was his mother’s sister and she lived in Seoul, in a very prestigious area apparently. She agreed to take him in and signed the guardianship papers by fax. The social workers took him to his house where he packed all his things and some of his family’s things and then dropped him off at the bus station with a ticket to Gangnam.

This was just ing great. He was going to be attending a fancy rich kid school near where his aunt lived. She apparently worked in the music industry and because of that she made a lot of money and moved to Gangnam.

Jimin’s family was never wealthy. His father worked a normal job and his mother worked during the school days in order to be home for her children when they got back from school. They lived in a small apartment that had just enough room for a family of four and they lived relatively comfortably, but that was no where near what Gangnam would surely be like.

Jimin was dreading it with every mile the bus drove. They were getting closer and closer to Seoul and Jimin felt like he was going to pass out from exhaustion. He hadn’t been able to sleep in the hospital and there was no way he would be able to sleep in this giant enclosed metal death machine.

Soon enough, the bus pulled over, announcing that it was at its last stop, the subway station. Jimin had to get on the subway and go five stops till he got to Gangnam station. He was told to go out exit 2 and that his aunt would meet him there to take him to ‘his new home’. Goody.

Jimin had four huge suitcases, so as soon as he got on the subway, every single passenger gave him the stink eye. Jimin glared right back. It wasn’t like it was rush hour. It was 2 in the ing afternoon, not like anyone was really needing the space Jimin and his suitcases were taking up. Jimin took a seat and closed his eyes, trying not to think about the fact that he was trapped in yet another metal tube moving at the speed of light with no exit in sight.

Eventually, his stop arrived and he struggled to get his suitcases off the subway cart. He had managed to make it all the way to his exit when he looked up. .

There were an undetermined amount of flights of steep stairs going up and no escalator or elevator in sight. God damnit. He should have seen this coming, this was the mountainous Korea after all. It wasn’t like he could call his aunt and have her come help him. He was still in the terminal area and if his aunt were to come down here she would have to pay.

Jimin was on his own.

Suddenly someone tapped on his shoulder. Jimin whirled around.

“Whoa!” The guy took a step back, his hands up in the air like he was a criminal about to be caught, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you.”

“Um…”Jimin tried to say something, but no words were coming out. Truth be told, his heart was still calming down from the freight this guy had given him.

“Do you need some help with those bags?” the guy asks. Jimin looks back at him, narrowing his eyes. He takes a good look at this guy. He looked rather young, maybe a high schooler like him, maybe a college student, Jimin couldn’t tell. He was rather handsome, about a foot taller than Jimin, with straight black hair that swept to the side but partially fell into his eyes. He had round almond eyes and a welcoming smile, with large almost buck teeth. It was strange looking but the quirk made the guy look nicer in Jimin’s opinion. He stopped. Now was not the time to leer at cute strangers.

Jimin’s gut wrenched, he shouldn’t be wanting something for himself when he had taken the lives of his family. Stolen the years his parents could have had with each other. Robbed his younger brother of even starting his life.

Jimin didn’t deserve to meet nice strangers. He deserved to suffer.

“No, that’s okay, I can carry them up myself,” Jimin said shrugging the guy off.

“Are you sure? There are five flights of stairs here and the elevator that’s on the other side of the terminal is shut down for repairs,” the boy points out. Jimin sighs and brings his hand up to rub his eyes and run down his face.

“How about this,” the boy suggest when Jimin still doesn't answer him, “I can carry two and you can carry the other two.”

Jimin looks at the boy yet again. He looks innocent enough. He looks back at the stairs. Five flights? That sounded like absolute hell. The masochistic part of himself wanted to deny the boy yet again and carry the massive suitcases up the stairs all by his damn self, but the rational part of himself knew that he would probably collapse, if not from the weight then from his exhaustion that was already catching up to him yet again.

“Okay,” Jimin finally answers, “you take those two.”

Jimin points to the smallest suitcases and starts to move to grab the two largest ones when the boy snatches the handles first.

“I got these,” the boy says and he grabs ahold of the larger suitcases and starts to haul them up the stairs. Jimin stares after the boy. What in the hell was he doing?

Jimin didn’t have time to think, this boy was fast, he was already half way up the stairs and Jimin hadn’t even started yet. Jimin quickly grabs the smaller bags and starts after him. About half way up the stairs, Jimin starts to feel his muscles aching and the pounding in his head start to worsen. He felt like he was going to throw up but he kept going.

After what felt like an eternity, Jimin finally managed to make it all the way up the stairs. He sets the suitcases down and looks around for the other boy. He’s nowhere in sight and for a moment, Jimin starts to panic thinking that the boy had run off with his suitcases. But then there is another tap on his shoulder and when Jimin turns around the boy is there holding out an unopened small can of soda to him.

“Here,” the boy says, “you should drink this.”

Jimin accepts it with a shaking hand.

“Thanks.”

“No problem,” the boy says with a smile. He taps the suitcases that are off to his left, “I gotta go now but get home safely ok?”

Jimin nods his head and with yet another bright smile, the boy walks off in the other direction. Jimin stares after him. He realizes once the other is completely out of sight that he hadn’t even thanked him properly. He stops again, another thought finally floating through his mind.

Who even was that guy?

********

His aunt had picked him up and they had been driving in her car in silence for about ten minutes when she finally stops in front of a large house. As Jimin stares at it from the outside of his window, his mouth hangs open.

When he finally opens his door, his aunt already has the two small bags out of the car and is working on getting the third suitcase out. Jimin helps her get it out and then goes around to get the fourth out himself.

He continues to stare at the house the whole time.

“This is your house?” Jimin finds himself asking.

“Yes,” his aunt says with a small house, “but it’s your home too now.”

Jimin can’t help but grimace at this. This would never be his home. His home was back in Busan with his parents and his brother. This was not home.

The inside was even more magnificent than the outside. His aunt had expensive decorating taste. She showed him to his room and he stowed his suitcases in there before heading to the bathroom to take a shower. When he finished, he was going to head back to his room but his aunt called him downstairs for dinner.

Jimin sat in silence as he picked at what looked like expensive seafood on his plate. His aunt tried to talk to him a few times but Jimin didn’t really respond so she eventually stopped.

“So, school starts tomorrow,” his aunt starts. Jimin actually looks up at this. As much as he was dreading it, he did want to know about his school. His aunt seemed to be encouraged by his sudden attentiveness so she continues on.

“It’s Joon Hae High School and it’s about a 15 minute walk from here. I ordered a uniform for you yesterday so when you get to the school and go to the main office in the morning, they should have it waiting for you then.”

Jimin listened to this information with a heavy heart. He did not want to start a new school. He never had any luck in the friends department, even back in Busan and he didn’t want to try to fit in with a bunch of rich kids at this high school only to have it thrown back in his face yet again. He couldn’t even get kids of the same economic status to like him, how was he supposed to get rich kids to like him? Jimin wasn’t even going to try. He was gonna lay low for as long as possible. Preferably until he died...however long that might take.

Jimin didn’t say anything to acknowledge what his aunt said. Instead he just nodded his head and asked to be excused. His aunt looked a little hurt, but Jimin couldn’t bring himself to sit in silence with her any more. He was sure she would be grateful as soon as he left that she would wouldn’t have to deal with his awkward silence anymore.

Jimin went up to his room and stared at it. It was massive. About the same size as his apartment had been in Busan. This was unacceptable. Jimin didn’t want to live in luxury like this. Why was he being rewarded when he had killed his entire family? He didn’t deserve such a nice place to stay. He didn’t deserve to go to a nice school. He didn’t deserve to be standing here alive, while everyone he loved was lying dead in the ground.

Jimin didn’t even want to lie in the bed. Instead he sat on the ground with his back up against the door. He knows he won't be sleeping at all that night.