I shake the sleeping boy. He groans, and swats at me. “Sleepy…,” he mutters. I roll my eyes and go into the kitchen to grab a bottle of ice water. I walk back to his bed, and press the bottle to his forehead. He squeaks and sits up. He glares at me. He turns to look at the clock, and turns back to me.

“It’s 7 o’clock!” he whines. “It’s a Saturday, during winter break, and you woke me up at 7 in the morning?!” I grin.

“If you don’t want to see Jin, you can go back to bed,” I purr. The boy blinks at me, confused. Then his confused expression clears.

“Oh right!” he yelps. He jumps out of bed, and I laugh at him. I get ready and wait for him. “Come on! Come on, Yoongi!” he squeals, running past me. I smile at his excitement.

“Coming!”

I’m Yoongi. A freshman in college. That’s Taehyung, my roommate and best friend. He’s a freshman too. Seokjin is Taehyung’s older brother and my best friend after Taehyung, and he’s a year out of college. The three of us have known each other since my sophomore year of high school. Seokjin’s taking a gap year, and is really busy doing a lot of internships and hands-on stuff before going to medical school. We don’t get to see him often, but Seokjin came to visit us for the holidays.

We pull up to the little bakery Seokjin told us to meet him at. Taehyung drives. Seokjin is standing outside. His breath billows into the air like smoke. Taehyung squeals the moment he spots Seokjin, and he starts fidgeting. Once he parks the car, he runs and jumps into Seokjin’s arms. Seokjin laughs. His laugh is clear and carefree. Happy.

I get out and hug Seokjin, albeit less… enthusiastically. Taehyung has already glued himself to Seokjin’s side. We go in to get food. I get a red velvet cupcake, while Taehyung gets a chocolate cupcake with chocolate icing. Seokjin gets a vanilla cupcake.

Seokjin interrogates Taehyung on how he’s been. When Taehyung complains, he just says that Taehyung’s his favorite little brother. Taehyung points out that he’s his only little brother, and Seokjin just grins. I smile while watching them. They’re extremely close, and why wouldn’t they be?

I tune out. I scrape the icing off the cupcake, and carefully cut the cupcake into slices. Half. Quarters. Eighths. I move the pieces around my plate absentmindedly. Taehyung stops speaking for a moment, and I turn towards him. He’s looking at me with worry in his eyes. Seokjin looks at me for a moment before reaching for Taehyung.

Taehyung squeaks. Seokjin is tickling him. He squirms, and squeals at him to stop. I smile. Seokjin laughs, and Taehyung stares at me pleadingly. I smile and shrug. Taehyung gives me a hurt look. I just smile. I giggle at his expression. I stand up and tug on Seokjin’s sleeve. He turns to face me, and I smile at him wickedly.

I start tickling him. He yelps. I, thankfully, am wearing a thick coat, so he can’t tickle me. He laughs and laughs and laughs until he can’t breathe. I free him and sit down again. Taehyung is laughing. He’s struggling to breathe because he’s laughing so hard. Some other people are shooting us funny looks, but who cares?

This is a perfect moment.

But it’s still only a moment.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

I’m staring out my window, and there are two boys running in the snow. They’re bundled up, and have backpacks stuffed with who knows what. The smaller boy looks to be my age, maybe younger. The larger one is probably in college. They’re both bruised, the older one more so. From what I can see, they look alike. Probably siblings. They’re panting as they stop. The older boy leans over and speaks to the younger. The younger smiles. His eyes are red. Tears are frozen on his face, but the smile lights up his face. He stares at the older boy with adoration in his eyes.

I watch sadly. There was once a time when I stared at someone with that expression. There was once a time when someone stared at me like that.

The older boy looks around fearfully. The younger’s face is frightened but trusting. The younger looks around, and he meets my eyes for a moment. He tilts his head in innocent confusion. The older boy looks at him and takes his hand. He kisses the boy’s forehead before pulling the younger along with him into the shadows.

“My parents were abusive. My mother did most of it, but when my father joined in… we knew it would be bad. Jin kept telling me, ‘Wait just a few years until I can get you out. Just wait. I’ll get us out of here.’ He got to college, but he needed to be stable financially to get me out. We barely got out.

“He never came home, except on holidays to take me out. But that day, he came and he wanted to see our parents. He didn’t need to say a word. My parents knew what he wanted, and they weren’t going to give it to him. Their solution was to try and beat the idea out of us. Jin tried to protect me the best he could. He filed for legal custody of me the next day. Of course he got custody of us, and what became of our parents I don’t know, nor do I care to know.

“I owe him my life.”