𝗛𝗼𝗿𝗿𝗼𝗿 𝗢𝗻𝗲𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘁𝘀》BTS

Pen Pals [Yoonmin]

Excerpt: About a lonely young boy who goes looking for a friend online.

There was an 15-year old boy named Jimin who lived with his parents in a remote country area. Every morning, the journey to his school took almost one hour. He had a lot of friends in school, but because he lived so far away from them, he spent most of his evenings alone. Jimin began to grow very lonely.

For his birthday, the young boy’s parents decided to buy him a smart phone. They told him he could use it to keep in touch with his friends after school. However, Jimin found that his friends were often too busy to chat to him on the phone in the evening. His feelings of isolation only grew worse.

Then, Jimin’s mother had an idea. She suggested that it might be good for her son to have a pen pal. Jimin searched the internet and found a website where people could advertise for pen pals. He left a message, asking if anyone would be interested in conversing with him.

A few hours later, Jimin’s mobile phone buzzed and he found that he had received an e-mail from someone named Yoongi.

The subject line read: “Friend Wanted” and it contained a short message: “Hi, I read your post online. I’m lonely too. Would you like to be pen pals?

Jimin was delighted and immediately accepted the offer. From that moment on, he had a new pen pal. They exchanged e-mails on a daily basis and soon they were the best of friends, despite the fact that they had never actually met in person.

As they chatted, Jimin began to realise that he had feelings for Yoongi. He wondered if he would be his first boyfriend. He was so easy to talk to, often had witty things to say and always made him feel good.

However, Jimin began to feel that the conversation was very one-sided. Yoongi was always asking questions and seemed reluctant to write about himself. He knew all about Jimin, but Jimin didn’t even know which school he attended or where he lived.

One day, the Yoongi sent Jimin an e-mail asking if he could call him. “That way we can talk directly,” he wrote, “and besides, I’d love to hear the sound of your voice.”

Jimin wrote back to him, saying, “Yes, I’d really like that. Here’s my number. Call around 8:00PM tonight.”

Jimin was very happy and couldn’t wait to talk to him. Jimin had a recording feature on his phone, so he decided that when Yoongi called, he would record their conversation. He wanted to be able to listen to the sound of his voice whenever he felt lonely.

A little after 8:00PM, Jimin's phone rang and his heart began racing as he picked it up and pressed the record button.

They spoke for hours and it was almost 11:00PM by the time they said goodnight to each other.

When Yoongi hung up, Jimin lay back on his bed and tried to imagine what the boy looked like. He sounded like he was very handsome. He tried to remember what they had talked about, but it was all a blur. For some reason, he couldn’t recall anything about the conversation. The only thing he could remember was that it had been a lot of fun.

After a while, he began feeling very sleepy and decided to go to bed.

Suddenly, he heard a voice screaming, “Jimin! What are you doing?”

Jimin woke from a deep sleep and looked around groggily. The hands of the clock were pointing to 2:00AM. He saw his mother standing at his bedroom door. There was a look of horror and astonishment on his mother’s face.

The boy looked around and realized that he was halfway out his bedroom window and on the verge of falling out. His mother rushed over, grabbed him by the arm and dragged him forcefully back into the bedroom.

“What were you thinking, Jimin?” she cried, tears forming in her eyes. “You could have been killed!”

He couldn’t explain what he had been doing and it took him a while to come to his senses. Gradually, he realized that if his mother had not heard strange noises and come into his bedroom, he would have jumped out the window while sleepwalking.

Jimin’s mother kept asking him, over and over, what he had been doing, but the young boy had no idea.

Then, his mother grabbed his phone and saw that there was a recording on it. She pressed the play button.

The mother and son sat together on the bed, listening as the male voice on the recording repeated over and over, “Jump out the window and kill yourself at 2:00AM tonight… Jump out the window and kill yourself at 2:00AM tonight… Jump out the window and kill yourself at 2:00AM tonight… Jump out the window and kill yourself at 2:00AM tonight… Jump out the window and kill yourself at 2:00AM tonight… Jump out the window and kill yourself at 2:00AM tonight…That way, we both can finally be together and you won't have to be lonely ever again”