TW: strong and vulgar language

One step forward.

And two steps backward.

Caught between a rock and a hard place, Jimin was deeply confused on what she would do next. It seemed like her heart was leading her to go inside that old public library but her mind was controlling her feet to drag herself back, reminding her that her witch aunt would scream at her again if she opened the convenience store late for few minutes in the early morning – and she didn’t want that – Jimin didn’t want to eat her aunt’s nagging for breakfast.

Jimin heaved a deep sigh. “Okay,” she whispered to herself. “Let’s go inside. Maybe just a quick look won’t hurt.”

Marching three steps forward, Jimin was determined to go inside but it was interrupted when her phone rang inside the side pocket of her shabby trench coat. She quickly reached for it and she saw her aunt’s name on the screen. Jimin released a quick sigh as she answered it. “Hello?”

“Jimin! Where are you? I need you to come to convenience store right now! I’m telling you, if you don’t come right now, I will throw your stuff outside the house! You little punk! You think you can–“

Jimin shook her head in annoyance when her aunt began nagging at her when the raven girl clearly didn’t do anything wrong yet; she felt like even her breathing was a crime to her witch aunt as she didn’t pay attention to what her aunt was saying anymore, as she answered back. “Yeah. I’m on my way now,” she ended the call without letting her aunt finished.

Staring blankly at the structure in front of her, her eyes shifted to its window where she saw a young boy peeking at her but when they locked eyes, the young boy quickly disappear as he closed the curtains. With knitted eyebrows, Jimin got confused and curious as she shrugged her shoulders. “Maybe I’ll visit next time,” she said as she made her way to her destination.

Jimin reached the convenience store and settled things up. She took off her scarf and trench coat as she hung them on the coat rack inside the stock room and wore the blue and green visor cap and apron vest with the convenience store name embroidered on it. She ate the ham and egg sandwich that was near expiration date for breakfast and slacked for a bit before flipping the sign board hanging on the glass door from close to open.

Everything seemed nothing but ordinary as the hours passed by – all Jimin did was checking the inventories, tending the cash register machine, mopping the floor, wiping the glass windows, and spacing out most of the time for she couldn’t smoke in times like this even if her hands itched to do so. She worked for a couple of hours to the point it was past four in the afternoon as she didn’t expect her aunt came by to check up on her and also to collect some of the money in the cash register machine.

“Hey Jimin, you better go to the restaurant now to do the food preparation. I will close the convenience store tonight because Taeyeon is still having a sleep over with her friends so I need your help there. Do you hear me? Are we clear?” Sooyoung informed as she flipped the cash by her thumb in her hands, counting it in her head.

“Yeah,” Jimin headed to the stock room as she took off the visor cap and apron vest and placed it aside above the small drawer. She picked up her black trench coat and knitted scarf from the coat rack as went straight to the front door for she didn’t much pay attention to whatever her aunt was doing for she was the least person she wanted to see every day but she didn’t have a choice. She wore the coat and wrapped the scarf around her neck on her way out – feeling nothing as if she was just existing just to obey her aunt’s orders for her to survive every day.

Jimin walked for a couple of minutes on, sighing heavily as she was getting sick and tired of her daily usual routine that was taking her to nowhere. She didn’t have anything in life that could make it worth to live for except for the nights she got to spend with her friends in the pub in which she couldn’t go nowadays due to her cousin in which, speaking of the devil, she didn’t expect to bump into at the restaurant’s front door.

Taeyeon was taken aback to see Jimin on her way out as she told her older cousin who seemed like a deer caught in the headlights. “Hey Jimin, I’m just passing by,” she said in a slightly trembled voice, avoiding eye contact.

“Uhh. Okay?” Jimin responded plainly for she didn’t know what to do with the sudden information her cousin told her in which she felt a little odd about it but the raven girl shrugged it off for her cousin was the second person she least wanted to see every day – and yet again, she didn’t have a choice.

“I got to keep going now,” Taeyeon rushed forward, trying to hide something inside her coat, as she walked away without waiting for a reply from Jimin in which the raven girl couldn’t care less what was her cousin was trying to conceal for it was none of her business anyway.

Shaking her head, Jimin heaved a sigh as she went inside and took off her trench coat and knitted scarf, hanging it on the coat rack beside the cash register machine. She picked up the folded bib apron lying on the countertop as she wore it on her way straight to the kitchen. She tied her hair up as she began the food prepping that lasted for almost two hours wherein, she had an about ten minutes left before opening up the restaurant for customers.

As for her usual habit, she took her lighter and a stick of cigarette in her trench coat as she went outside by the backdoor of the restaurant. Jimin took notice of the dark sky wherein the cloud was spread-out thick that she couldn’t spot the moon which made her mood dwelled in dismal – which meant no quick sketches for tonight. She sat on the stack of newspaper as she mildly massaged her weary hands for chopping various batches of vegetables.

She was about to light up the cigarette pressed between when she heard her aunt shouting inside the restaurant, evidently angry. “JIMIN! COME HERE NOW!”

At times like this, Jimin usually exercised her delaying tactics when it comes to her aunt but this time it felt different as she sensed some urgency so she went inside, forgetting about her cigarette for a while. As soon as she swung open the backdoor, Sooyoung never hesitated for putting Jimin through the wringer as she questioned her niece straight off. “Why do you steal money from me!”

“Huh?” Jimin caught off guard from the sudden accusation for she didn’t have any idea where it was coming from.

“Don’t play dumb on me, Jimin! I’m not that stupid! Give me back my damn money! You thief!” Sooyoung infuriated where the veins on her neck began popping out from the tension.

“What are you talking about? I don’t know what you are saying!” Jimin befuddled as she defended herself.

“You stole the money I hid here in this envelope in this drawer!” Sooyoung lifted up the empty brown letter envelope for Jimin to recognize but the raven girl was completely clueless and innocent.

“What? I don’t even know you have money in there in the first place!” Jimin began to raise her voice woven with disorientation and fury as well.

“Stop lying you punk! Just give me back my ing money!”

“What the ? You don’t even have a proof that I ing stole it!”

“So, you’re cursing me now, huh? You are one ungrateful ! You’re the only person here before I came! Do you really think I’m that ing stupid?” Sooyoung crumpled the empty envelope in her own hand and throw it at her niece, hitting her right on the face.

Jimin clenched her fist into a ball when she realized that Taeyeon was the one who did it before she came here. “I knew it! That ing brat did it!” she cursed under her breath. “You know what? I bumped into your brat daughter a while ago and she’s rushing to leave just in time I arrived here! She must be the one who ing stole your precious money!”

Dropping her jaw in shock, Sooyoung got riled up even more from Jimin’s allegation for she couldn’t believe that her daughter would do such thing to her. “So, do you think I’m going to believe you? You don’t even have a proof either!”

Jimin scanned the ceiling as she let out a quick defeated sigh. It would have been easier if there were CCTVs installed that was very handy for circumstances like this but to no avail – and if ever Sooyoung asked Taeyeon about it, her cousin wouldn’t admit her own wrongdoings. But Jimin got fed up with everything in her life for she wouldn’t accept that she would be the one to take the fall for something she didn’t clearly do.

“You know what? this !” Jimin took off the bib apron as she threw it to the floor. She quickly grabbed her trench coat and her scarf from the coat rack, outfacing her aunt as she announced. “I ing quit!”

Shocked, Sooyoung realized she couldn’t handle the operation of the restaurant tonight alone without her niece. “Hey Jimin! Get back here!” her aunt demanded but it was too late for Jimin stormed out into the dreary night.

Jimin was now on her second stick of cigarette where she was sitting on a swing all by herself at the children’s playground. She stared at the ground for a long time as she pondered why tears wouldn’t form in her eyes this time because she once believed that crying was one of the best outlets of releasing emotions; she must have been reached the peak of her boiling point to feel like her emotions were plain nothing anymore and it didn’t take a toll in her at all. She wondered if it was a good thing to feel nothing but as the days passed by, she began to die inside for feeling empty.

The thought of running away from this town and from her only living family whom she never treated as one was not new to her at all; she thought about it a thousand times in her head for all these years but she didn’t have enough courage to do so – she didn’t have enough reason to hold on. And right now, all Jimin could think of was to run away from this town… tonight, but she didn’t know where to go and she didn’t want to leave her only three friends behind without saying anything.

She lifted her head up high with anticipation to be greeted by the moon as she stared at the night sky full of clouds – like she always did every time she felt like she was nesting on a downcast but it’s difficult to find it in her position so she stood up and moved around as she scanned above her. Eventually she spotted it when the wind carried the parcel of cloudy air along which exposing the celestial body she’s been deeply connected with.

Jim