"Come on.... Come on.... Almost there! Just one more-" The boy's thoughts gets disturbed by the animatic boom from the beam hitting an enemy ship. His five friends around him begin to jump and down around him, hollering through the building. One jumps up on his back as the boy joins his friends in their shouts of joy, spinning in a few circles. "HELL YEAH! NEW HIGH SCORE!!"

"Pizza guys! It's on me!" His last friend joins their happy raucous as he settles the cola bottles on the table nearest to them followed by two large pepperoni pizzas which the arcade worker brought over with him. After indulging the greasy goodness, they walk out on the streets, still giddy from their fun as they continue to laugh, smile and horse around with each other.

An hour or so later, one of them raises their hand up with his fingers forming a victory sign and his back facing them, "Hey; I'm heading out. My mom needs me to get her some groceries from the food mart. Don't get to the arena late alright? We should go over the dance one last time before getting on stage. Whoever is staying over at my place better come with me now."

One of them groans, "Ugh, why does Namjoon hyung always have to end the fun early?"

Another continues, "Well, you know, Taehyung, it is getting pretty late. We should go so we don't look like crap on stage tomorrow."

Hoseok continues to grumble, "I bet he's actually going back to look through some -"

The latter interrupts him by smacking him in the head, "Don't be an idiot. We all know we need that prize money, or we might as well say our school is as hopeless as fixing that new vase your mom bought, which I may remind that you idiots broke."

"Aish~ You didn't have to hit me so hard, Yoongi-hyung. It wouldn't kill us-" Yoongi hits him for attempting the snarky remark towards his older.

The oldest changes the subject, "Oddly, Jimin seems to be on the luckier side today. You didn't hack the system, did you, Taehyung?" Jimin could only snort back, stuffing his mouth with his shared slice, "You know, that would've made winning easier, Jin-hyung."

"Well I didn't think you'd admit it." Jin’s comment makes Taehyung playfully jump on his back as the slight rough housing continues on the sidewalk. They reached the bus stop that marks where they split, "Make sure not to hurt yourselves doing anything stupid. Don't forget about tomorrow."

"Just don't grow gray hairs, abeoji." Namjoon pokes the maknae’s forehead. “Then, I better see you healthy and ready to go hard at tomorrow’s performance, Jungkook.” The seven split to have only the maknae line remaining, the other four all staying over at Namjoon's place to make final preparations for their gig the next day. The three continue their way to the bakery which Jungkook’s aunt worked at, being that he lived there temporarily to pursue his shared dreams of debuting as an idol group with the rest of his friends. Luckily, the arena of their stage performance for tomorrow was less than a ten-minute drive away from his aunt’s apartment and bakery. “Hey, just wanted to say thanks to you and aunty Jenna for letting us stay for the next two nights.”

“She’s been wanting for one of you guys to stay the night for a long time, Jimin. I feel like she dotes on you and Tae too much. Try not to eat too much of the food I know she’s gonna cook tonight. I already know she’s gonna prepare like it’s Christmas again. I don’t wanna be sluggish for tomorrow.” The two laugh at his comment, knowing how accurate his statements were. “You especially, Jimin. I feel like she likes you more than me, sometimes.”

Jimin smiles, “Her cooking is so good. I’m just being grateful-” He is cut off when a young boy runs into him, falling on his side. “Hey, you okay-”

“Tasukete! Onegai!” They look down to see him trying to get up, tugging at the end of his jeans with one hand. He is on his knees, down on the ground. “Onegai! Noona!”

Tae and Jimin pulled him up from the ground. He continues to full on hold something against his chest, seeing his arms and shoulder scraped up from falling forward. It seems to be completely hidden under a worn-out blanket and jacket. After hearing crying come out of the wrapped blanket, the three go wide-eyed, seeing the young boy reveal the young infant. “Onegai! My noona and baby brother!”

They all frantically nod at him in hopes he will understand, “Okay. We can help you,” Tae pauses realizing how limited his Korean is, pointing at the baby and making gestures of what he’s saying, “But we need you to let us carry you and the baby.”

Thinking the little boy understood, Tae cautiously tried to take the baby to carry only for him to get rejected when he sees him turn away. As the seconds pass by, they can see him constantly looking around anxiously. They all sigh, trying to put their heads together on how to communicate with him. All of a sudden, he stops his head movements, getting their attentions as they see him tremble. When he tries to take off, he nearly, Jungkook catching him half way through his fall, noticing him hold his ankle.

The younger boy cries, “Onegai! Hashiru!” He kept tugging at his jeans, looking back in the direction that seemed to trigger his fear. All three of them glance over to see a sceptical man in black hoodie, running towards their direction.

“!” Jimin grabs the kid, making him nearly drop the baby, his luck saving him when he catches the baby before he reached the ground. Jungkook ends up kicking the trash cans in their direction, which seems to somewhat slow them down.

“Jungkook, take the kid and lead the way!” Going to the front, he grabs the little boy and continues to lead the way. Jungkook leads them to run towards a more busy street with more people hopefully slow down the men chasing them. Taehyung keeps them in front to cover their behinds, looking to see them slowly gaining ground on them until two more appear with him when they turn the corner. “What the hell?!”

Hearing the barking, the little boy tugs at Jungkook’s shirt, pointing to his right, “My dogs!!” The kid struggles out of his grips, kicking him out of his arms to fall on the ground. He scrambles to get back up and is limping quickly down the alleyway. “What are you doing?!”

“Ugh, you had ONE JOB!!” Jimin yells as he and Taehyung follow down the same alleyway with him. They catch up to Jungkook seeing him frozen behind the little boy, confused as to why he was just standing there. The three look down to see the little boy, standing in between him and two menacing Doberman dogs growling at him. The little boy slowly approaches them and pets their heads, giving them a hug. They still continue to growl at them, until the little boy goes back to hug Jungkook and grabs his hand. The little boy recognizes his hesitation, nodding at him to show it’ll be alright. He slowly puts Jungkook’s hand out for the slightly bigger dog to sniff, giving him against his palms. The smaller one goes over to Jimin and Taehyung, circling them. Taking it as a sign, they both put out their hands for them to scent, gaining approval on their palms as well.

“The kid turned down this way! Come on!” It startles the little boy, and he drags the three to hide behind the dumpster, with the two dogs following after. They see their shadows, as their steps grow louder as they approach closer to their hiding spot, only to immediately halt from hearing the dogs’ growls, luckily overpowering the baby’s wailing. It is then when the two dogs step out menacingly, and stalking out from behind the trash cans. They heard the men gasp and can tell from their shadows one of them fell to the ground. Jimin peaks from the small gap between the dumpster and wall, seeing them run back into the direction they came from with the dogs nearly biting one of their legs off. Seeing the two dogs come back to where they were hiding, they the little boy’s face, seeing the slight smiles on the canines’ faces having the boy give out a small smile. The two dogs as well all three of their faces, along with the baby, who seemed to let quiet giggles from the sudden pressure on its head. Jimin takes off his jacket, wrapping it around the baby for extra warmth.

Standing up from the ground, Jungkook sees the fallen face of the boy, letting his tears hit the ground with his head hung low, “Noona! Nee-chan!!” He lets out small whimpers as he covers his face, hugging his knees. Taehyung approaches him, rubbing his shoulders and pats his head. “We’ll help you find your noona.”

He sniffles, looking back up at Taehyung with puffy eyes, “Find… nee-chan?”

Jimin follows from behind after rocking the baby to sleep, holding him in one arm and rubbing circles on the little boy’s back with the other, “We’ll do what we can.” This time, Taehyung bends down for the little boy to get on his back, with the bigger dog in front to track her scent and Jungkook covering them from behind. After crossing a few streets and making some turns, they approach a different alley, one which the little boy recognizes. He swiftly jumped off Taehyung’s back, briskly turning down the dim-lit path. The three follow closely from behind to see him knelt down and hugging who they assumed to be his noona on the ground barely holding herself up, leaning the back of her shoulder against the wall with one arm barely able to hold around him. With the gray hood hanging over her head, they are unable to make out any of her features, other than the sported blood stains that tainted her sweater on her sleeves and one of her shoulders. He sobs into her chest, clenching the bottom of her hoodie at her waist as she struggles to lift her arms to put a hand behind his neck. “Noona! I’m sorry!”

When she aggressively coughs to the side, she covers with her arm, slightly pushing the boy away, startling him. Seeing her slowly getting back up, patting his head, he gets off of her.

After gradually pushing him behind his back, Jungkook saw the slight gleam of shattered glass in her hand, “Watch out!” He pulls Jimin away, and they both dodge the attack on time. With the help of the few taekwondo classes, Jungkook was able to block every one of her attacks until he sees the little boy pulling her back and getting in between them, causing Jungkook to hesitate. Seeing this, Taehyung pushes Jungkook out of the way, pulling the little boy back as Jimin pushes the little boy behind him to protect him, shutting his eyes while using a rusty tray to shield his head. After a few seconds of not feeling the anticipated blow, he turns around to see the piece of glass only a few centimeters away, realizing she stopped in time. She staggers back, chucking the piece of glass out of any of their reach, using her arm to cushion her colliding with the wall, causing the little boy and the dog to run over to her.

After the three stare from their own bewilderment, her slightly raspy tone breaks the silent atmosphere. “Don’t....” She falls back down to the ground, on her knees with her hands barely holding the rest of her body up and her head hanging low, with a desperate plea, “Don’t hurt them.”

The dog continues to at her wounds as she nearly collapses completely. Jimin cautiously approaches them, causing her to pick her head up slightly. He unwraps his jacket to display the baby’s sleeping face, showing slight agitation from the sudden cold. When the baby fully awakens, it surprises the three boys that instead of crying, the baby smiles and giggles taking out his tiny arms and clenching his hands up at her face. Jimin inches closer to cradle the baby in his arms better and holds him up higher to her face for the baby to touch, to which she gasps at. She uses the small ounces of strength left to kiss the baby’s head, using the wall to help hold herself up once more with the support of the little boy.

As Jimin pulls away, she coughs towards the wall, her supporting hand clenched in a fist and the other holding her side. The little boy starts to whimper, about to bawl in more tears once more till she places her hand on his lap after her episode ends, “Daijoubu, Ryou. Go.”

Ryou frantically shakes his head, “No! I’m not leaving you again!” She gags out blood, staining her sleeve as she wheezes and fights to keep conscious. Finally able to hold herself straight enough, she picks her head up to reveal her face with the hood falling down to her back. To all three of their surprise, her hazel eyes matched her equally beautiful long, darker locks that fell out of a disheveled braid. A fresh scratch can be seen on the outer corner of her rosy pink lips and on her forehead, the small drop of blood oozing from it coming down her face of honey gold skin. In contrast to their impression of her with the hood on, her radiant aura sent an unexpected warmth that made the night seem brighter compared to the events that actually happened. She first glances at Jungkook and Taehyung, taking in their appearances. Slowing down her breathing again, she begins to slowly nod off to unconsciousness, forcing her eyes to stay open and finally making eye contact with Jimin. Looking closer, only Jimin can see her pupils vibrating more excessively than her own body, plopping herself back down in front of him, still looking up into his eyes. She managed to place her hand with no blood on his knee, slightly squeezing at it, still keeping eyes locked on each other.

Her hushed tone rang through his ears, from her request, before the thud of her own body collapsing echoes through the alleyway, “Please…. help them.”

 

Author's Note

HEEEYYYY!!!! I finally have the first chapter up. The first person POV probably won't come till the later chapters being that I'm building up their start. I hope this wasn't too slow of a start. School is almost over for me so I'll be able to write more and hopefully start this up more. Hope you enjoyed this first chapter!