"Tae Tae, you have another bruise. Where'd this one come from?" A small boy with dark hair and a bunny smile asked the tan boy swinging next to him.

"Don't worry Kookie. I was just messing with Soonyoung too much." Taehyung forced a giggle, ignoring the concerned face from the younger. "Anyways, you know what next week is?"

"Oh! That's right, it's your birthday!" Jungkook beamed. "But, it's no fair you'll be fourteen before me." A pout spread along his cheeks, burning red from the cold surrounding them.

Taehyung hugged the younger and giggled in his hair. "Your just 11." Taehyung mocked in a sing song voice, sticking his tongue out.

"No! I'm twelve now!" Jungkook defended, causing a confused pout to land on Taehyung's face.

"Since when?"

"September, stupid!" Jungkook pouted now, slightly pushing Taehyung so he could jumpstart his legs off the ground. His swing began at a steady pace, the cold air blowing in his ears.

"You know my head is just full of nothing sometimes. Are you mad at me?" Taehyung said, actual tears forming in his eyes. He'd hate to admit it, but Jungkook meant everything to him. He's the only person to ever actually care for Taehyung, besides the Min family.

Despite how clueless and oblivious Jungkook seemed, he knew there was something wrong. He just couldn't put his finger on it.

"Wipe your tears. Of course I'm not mad at you. You were at my party and you gave me your comics, even though they were the only ones you had." Jungkook spoke in a hushed tone, wrapping his arms around Taehyung.

They sat like that until a slurred voice called, mocking the sweet sound the boy wished to hear everyday. "Taehyung, come on sweety time to go home."

He told Jungkook bye and looked down at the ground the whole time, approaching the scum he had to call 'Mother'.

"So, you're a little then?" Her shaken voice said, her deep eyes looking at him, his tears being held back.

"Ma-ma'am?"

"You like that ing boy so that makes you a dirty, worthless ." She yelled, her breath smelling heavily of alcohol, scaring the boy.

The car swerved into the parking lot, and he jumped out, waiting for her to tell him. He waited for all hell to break loose. He knew it would, it always did.

He ran to his room ignoring the yelling, ignoring the smell of drug corruption, ignoring the sound of his younger sister bawling her eyes out. Nothing mattered until his door burst open and a husky man stomped his way over to him.

A loud smack broke out in the room. Then another, then came a kick, which turned to a punch. Taehyung's body lay, almost limp, sticking to the bed. He was barely conscious when the room emptied, and he was alone again.

He lay in bed, blood seeping through his sheets, multiple possible fractures. There would be no doctor, hell there wouldn't be any evidence because he would have to clean everything himself.

The people downstairs would be his loving family again, until they decided drugs and alcohol was the need of the day. Already, he could smell the aroma of a cheap take out meal he'd never be able feel on his tongue. No matter how achy and empty his stomach felt, he knew that if he ate his sister, who was only one year older than him, wouldn't eat.

He'd much rather starve than put himself first.